My Stash Busting Challenge

Hi Crafty Friends

6x6 paper pads!! Can’t resist them, never use them J

Well, I’ve been watching   Kristie Marcotte (You can see her here https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcj-jYI7SFdJ477sTGlSu3w)

She proves it’s humanly possible to use up a whole pad in a marathon crafting stint. She uses just the paper pad and coordinating cardstock and makes 30+ small cards. I don’t need so many and I like bigger cards, but I thought I’d challenge myself to USE UP A WHOLE PAD!

I’m not doing it all at once, and I am allowing myself to mix in random scraps and papers from other 6x6 pads (getting a sneaky head start on future challenges?). I picked my latest 6x6 purchase, a £1 pad from The Range. As usual, I fell for the soft colours but when I got it home, I thought the paper’s thin, I won’t really use it much. Still, there are 10 designs (3 of each) so it’s theoretically do-able. I’m also hoping to learn how to make the best out of this thin paper. (A handy skill, given the amount I have of it!)

This is the pad I’m using, and the others waiting to be challenged.

Here’s the first card I made – I’ve posted it before, but I’ve included so the challenge will be complete (if I ever finish it!)

I made the flower 6x6 paper; it’s a good weight for shaping the petals.

(I have no idea why the computer has decided to put this pic to one side - nor why it randomly deleted a whole load of wittering, I'd just typed, but hey ho)

And here are three more using the same layout as a recent class card. There is a fourth, but I won't blog it till its reached its recipient.

I've found really distressing the edges gives it more dimension and makes up for not being able to layer it up on pads.

I thought I'd keep this last one for a thinking of you card, so I've just popped an oval text mat roughly where the sentiment will go, so I can finish it later. Another good thing about this light weight paper is I've use 6 layers + a band, a sentiment and gems, and it will still only need a standard stamp.

 At this rate I'll only have to live to be about 3000 to use up my 6" papers - and then I'll have to start on the 8", the 12" .....

wish me luck

happy crafting

Beating the Blues

Hi Crafty Friends

This is the card we made a fortnight ago. I fancied lots of texture and dimension, so we've got lace, raffia, dried seed heads and a lot of distressing. I just hand cut the banners, which makes a change for a dyed-in-the-wool die crafter like me. I don't know why I don't split up the sentiment more often; it's a lot easier to fit into the design that way.

 It was quite an easy card to do, especially as no one had to make any flowers. I've done a similar layout before, just rotated (oops maybe I shouldn't have admitted that!) but no matter everyone liked it, and it was so lovely and heart-warming to see the cards people brought in last week, based on this one - I do love our 'show and tell'. I've made a few more myself which will be appearing in an up-coming blog, but in the mean time

happy crafting
Jx

A Rose by the name of Poppy

Hi Crafty Friends

Here is a card I made ages ago, but decided not to use for the club because the lining up the stamping took too long. But that was before we had the MISTI.
Layered stamps were just coming in, and I was please to get some bargain poppies at a show. They were a bargain because they were proto-types and when I got them home I found the layer that made the lines was rather thick, and hard to align, so I drew my own lines in. I liked the look, so I stamped the poppy shapes twice in different colours to get a blend, then drew in the lines. Then I stamped the poppies again with Versamark and embossed them in clear ink.
Then I brushed on the background colour and stamped on random patterns.

And here's another version, not made into a card yet

Hurray for the MISTI. It made accurate repeated stamping a doddle. The only thing was, I only had two poppies and I needed three. Luckily I had an Altenew layering stamp set, free with a magazine. It was a rose, but as I was drawing on my own petals, it was pretty easy to turn it into a poppy. So you might have spotted the big poppy in the foreground of the club version, is the Altenew rose in disguise.

For my original card, I was lucky to find a scrap of paper which matched my colour scheme. The only paper I had for the club was a bit plainer, so folks stamped over it to add more interest to the background (unlike the one you can see here).

It was fun and good to see all the variations. The only thing was towards the end we ran out of embossing powder so I started a new pot - which didn't work properly at all!! Does anyone know if embossing powder goes off? Does it have shelf life, or should it be stored in a particular way?
I need to know - I have a lot of embossing powder which may be rotting away as I type.

Happy Crafting
Jan x