My friends and I are typical crafters – our heads are easily turned with all the pretty, glittery, innovative things on offer and we often find that we shop faster than we create! There are certainly a lot of laughs and ‘ooh what did you get’, and showing off happy mail messages in our group chat!
Shipping goodies to New Zealand does take a little while, and often by the time we receive our parcels, a new bunch of things have been released, another Youtube video has gotten our creative minds excited and we ‘forget’ to make time to create that other thing we had in mind. So, we have decided to set ourselves a “use your stash challenge” and try and create three cards a month – using things we have purchased and not used before.
I am so relieved to find I am not the only one with unused, still un-cut dies hidden away in my stash boxes!
Here are my offerings for the #craftystashchallenge for February 2020. I made a list of stamp/die sets I wanted to bust out so when I sat at my craft table during the month, I could refer it and just get started with one of the sets listed. So many fun ideas on Pinterest, I remember now why I wanted them in my stash so much in the first place!
You Crushed It
There are so many beautifully inked cards on Pinterest using the MFT Soda Bottles die set – they really convey a sense of summer, I can almost taste the fizz!
I used my Taylored Expressions Blending Brushes to blend Distress inks (Festive Berries, Carved Pumpkin and Squeezed Lemonade) on my card front, starting dark at the bottom and fading away towards the top. Blending brushes definitely made this a lot easier, especially as I was blending three different colours at the same time. I sprayed a mist of water and also Tsukineko Shimmer spray for some subtle texture and glitter.
I added ink to each of the bottle die cuts, inking dark to fade just like the background, and put a little colour on the straws too.
Distress Ink doesn’t stamp crisply, that’s not what they are designed to do, so I used Catherine Pooler inks (Rockin Red, Orange Twist and Limoncello) to stamp the fruit onto the die cut labels for each bottle.
I white heat embossed the sentiment on a wide black strip and adhered it to the bottom portion of the card with foam tape. The bottles sit nicely on top of it, also using foam tape to stick them on in a row. I added a little Nuvo Crystal Glaze to the labels for shine.
Manly Gift Tag
The MFT tool charms is something I’ve had for AAAAAAAges in my stash – one of those things I keep meaning to use, but there were always other things on my craft table taking priority. So, I chose to have these on my list for our first #craftystashchallenge.
My husband works in a government department by day, but is a very handy DIY guy when he’s not at work. He is often given gift cards to his favourite stores – Bunnings and Mitre 10 to go replenish his building supplies, and I thought a gift card holder was a fun idea for the teeny and oh so cute tool charms.
I cut the little tools from some silver mirror cardstock, and then again in red to trim where necessary, and add the red handles onto the silver tools.
I experimented with a couple of tag layouts, and settled on the Mama Elephant gift tag, cut from Bazzill Brushed Metal cardstock, which conveniently cuts little corners to perfectly hold a gift card. I used the Technique Tuesday Tools stamp set for the sentiment, added a strip to write the recipient and gifters names and decorated the tag with the tools.
Merry Kiss-Mas!
This is another of those things I purchased with the full intention to include a gift tag in last year’s collection. It just didn’t happen! Somehow, when October rolls around, so does a lot of other frenzied activity – none of which involves relaxing crafting time!
So I decided to get this little die set out and the pouches, and have a play. It helps that I have a friend who makes beautiful lip balms and other goodies from things like beeswax and kawakawa, all natural ingredients. I feel a collaboration coming on!
I fashioned a tag – turns out in my vast collection of tag dies, I do not have a tall skinny type suitable to fit a lip balm pouch! Stampin’ Up! punches to the rescue (and a quick bit of side browsing online haha).
I played with my Taylored Expressions blending brushes to get a bit of an ombre effect with my inking. I had it quite pretty at one point, but made a mistake in not leaving it alone 🙁 Do you do that too? Spraying it with a bit of shimmer helped! Shimmer always helps hahaha.
I did find a new lip balm in the house, and I peeled off the original label and created my own with the Hero Arts Candy Stripe stamp. I used 160gsm paper, but think I will go and find something a little lighter in future to get a nice curve around the barrel of the lip balm.
I used the My Favorite Things rip strip on the back, and put the tag together with the lip balm secured inside the pouch. The die set includes a die for the frame which I cut from gold glitter cardstock.
I die cut a My Favorite Things Teeny Tag and stamped Merry Kiss-Mas in red ink. This is tied to the top with gold ribbon and some thin gold cord to complete the little gift tag.
That completes my first #craftystashchallenge. I am hoping my friends will continue to do this with me and do it all again next month!
If you have any questions regarding the putting together of these projects, please feel free to message me – I’m only too happy to help!
This is a brilliant idea and has inspired me to sort my own craft room out and start using some of the stuff I already have. I have a bag full of stamps and inks that I’ve collected over the years, all with good intentions but never got around to it. I’ve given you a FB share as well as I have friends who are crafters who would love to read your blog.