No Stamping challenge + Washi wonderful

Shopping Our Stash has a "No Stamping" challenge this fortnight.  I do love to stamp, especially now that I am the proud owner of a MISTI.  My craft room is also full of stash…some from the late 1990s and some brand new.  This year I have been in the "use it up" mode.  When I sit down to create, I do not consciously decide to stamp or not to stamp; in this particular case I was just trying to use my new MFT birthday die and use up this new Pinkfresh Studio washi tape:

Any guesses as to how many cards one roll of washi tape can make?  (Take your time, I will reveal the answer at the end of the post.)

I did *almost* use the entire roll.  There is just enough left that I have kept the roll on my craft desk.  It has come in handy when my daughter was using my Cricut to cut some dies for a school poster project she was working on.  She used bits to tape down the card stock on the cutting mat (I need to wash my cutting mats and re-apply adhesive again.)  The three butterflies are a Stampin' Up! sizzlet die and the star brads were in my really old stash (circa 2000.)

So did you guess correctly?  The answer is (insert drumroll):
14!

Happy Sunday!

Non-traditional Christmas card challenge + Sketch Challenge

I was doubly Lesley/Leslie inspired to play with my December Simon Says Stamp kit and play along with Lesley Croghan's The Challenge "Make a non-traditional Christmas card (no red and green)" and Leslie Hanna's The Crooked Stamper sketch challenge.

Such a pretty inspiration photo.

A wonderful sketch to follow.

Most of my supplies came from the December 2015 Simon Says Stamp card kit.  I made two of these cards, since the kit contains two sheets of each Pinkfresh Studio designer paper.  The only piece from my stash was the aqua card stock; it is Core-dinations color core that I embossed in a herringbone pattern.  I thought this particular pattern would mimic the doodles in the largest tree and the darkest tree too.  It also reminds me of pine needles…but maybe that's just me :)

Happy Sunday!

A fresh look for an old scrap...

Every card has a story…in my mini craft room clean up from a few weeks ago, I came across an ivory card with stamped pears.  The ivory had some ink smudges, so I cut the panel down.  I also stamped "thank you" in a dark green ink that actually matches quite well in real life (it looks almost black in my photo.)  See resized panel below:

I wanted to bring out the green in the pears as well as the frosted shadow pears, and I decided to use my Tim Holtz kraft core card stock.  I thought the kraft core would compliment the orange and copper base card stock.  I embossed the kraft core piece and sanded it with my sanding block…look, so pretty!  Almost a shame to cover it up:

However I needed a quick thank you card for a belated birthday gift I received last weekend, so I added a little banner from my orange color scraps drawer and glued it all together:

Not a bad up cycle if I do say so myself :)

Happy Friday!

No Stamping challenge at SOS

 There is a "No Stamping" challenge at Shopping Our Stash challenge blog, so I chose some pretty patterned papers, a few dies, and hand drawn doodles to create this birthday card.

All of my supplies came from the August Simon Says Stamp kit.  I loved the colors and papers in this kit, but I had difficulty making anything come together.  Once I made this first card, I used the same basic design to do a little mass production…sort of…each card is unique, but the patterns and colors change.  The cards below each have stamped sentiments, so they do not meet the "No Stamping" challenge; just the card above has no stamping.

 The middle card in this trio is a CASE of Shari Carroll…isn't she amazing?

The last four cards seemed a little plain, so I added a few wood veneer stars.

I hope you join me in the fun at S.O.S. (Shopping Our Stash)…remember, no stamping on this particular challenge.

Happy Thursday!

Holiday Food and Drinks challenge at Jingle Belles

be jolly   *   be merry   *   spread cheer

I have a sheet of SRM Stickers that has 12 Gingerbread men, 12 "Holiday Cheer!" sentiments, and 12 "be jolly * be merry * spread cheer" sentiments.  When I saw this challenge theme at Jingle Belles, I knew I had to try to make a set of 12 cards using the entire sheet of SRM stickers.  (I am just now starting to make Christmas cards…yikes.  New Year's resolution:  keep up with Jingle Belles challenges in 2016!)

I perused my papers and found that these Doodlebug papers went nicely with the gingerbread man's scarf.

Happy Monday!

Thanksgiving gift, 6x6/12x12 Organizational Tips, Teacher Treats, and a Crooked Stamper Sketch challenge

My Big Shot broke again, and my wonderful dhDH (dear husband Doug Houck) fixed it for the fourth time.  He gave me permission to buy a new one if it happens again.  Meanwhile, I decided it was time to re-organize some of my 12x12 and 6x6 collections.  After all, there is no way one can live without a Big Shot, right?  I had to find something creative to do...

Organizational tip:  (6x6 papers sorted by color)

I took my really thin 12x12 collections (some actually had no 12x12, some had maybe two sheets) and cut them down to 6x6.  I also took some of my really thin 6x6 pads and threw away the front and back covers of the pads and re-organized all of these papers by color with the cut down 12x12.  I also sorted 6x6 papers from retired card kits in there too.  Many of my 6x6 were double-sided; I had to decide which side I liked best and filed it that way.  In a couple of cases where I loved both sides, I filed each piece under two different colors.  Make sense?

I created dividers with colored card stock cut to 6x7; red, pink, green, yellow, blue, orange, black, grey, kraft, and beige.  I made a decision to put all aqua papers in the blue section.

I also chose to make a few other categories:  text, gingham, multi-colored stripes/dots/chevrons, music, scenic (e.g. hot air balloons, clouds, bikes, maps), colorful florals, and school/office (e.g. grid/graph papers, typewriters, numbers).

This was a lot of work, but I wasn't really using those paper scraps and old collections anyway.  I am anxious to see if it was worth the hours I spent organizing.

I have thought of doing this for about 5 years now, and I fought it because I enjoy working within a collection since the patterns are already color-coordinated.

I wanted to play along with Leslie's sketch, and I gotta say I threw this pie card together in less than 30 minutes.  My pie and cutting board die cuts and sentiment came from the November Simon Says Stamp card kit.  I knew I wanted red gingham paper, so I went right to my newly organized 6x6 to the gingham section.  Score!  The new system is working already…of course I had a great sketch as motivation.  I added some MME burlap ribbon and frayed both ends a bit.  Done.

Every year right before Thanksgiving our realtor gives us a gift certificate for a pie at a local pie shop.  This card is for her.  Perfect, right?

I came across some ancient 12x12 in autumnal colors, so I decided to make some "Happy Thanksgiving" teacher treats with peppermint patties.

 Here is the front and the back:

I am probably the only parent that does little treats throughout the school year, but I am sure other parents help in other ways.  This is what I choose to do.  I like to let them know they are appreciated and I love using my stash.

Happy Sunday!

A Christmas Colour challenge

The Challenge is having a Christmas color challenge this week.  Last year I made ornaments for my sister for Christmas using some of these MME chipboard houses (Winter Wonderland collection.)  I had three left over, so I wanted to use them up.  I created a trio of 3x3 cards to pair with neighbor gifts.

I thought that burlap paper with the white polka dots looked like snow.  I fringed the edges a bit for additional texture.  The metal charms are Making Memories.

 The houses also have green, aqua, or a bit of yellow, so if this disqualifies me, I totally understand!

Thanks to The Challenge for the inspiration to use my stash.

Happy Saturday!