Category Archives: UIU

Use them or lose them #14: Happy Hour

Happy Hour, Use It Up Saturday

So this year I have decided to challenge myself to make a set of cards, scrapbook page or journal layout using each of my stamp sets as I know I have some I rarely use!

This week I plumped for Happy Hour… the cocktail based set which retired a while ago.

I also decided to make a bit of a one sheet wonder with a piece of double sided scrapbook paper although didn’t end up using all of it as there were some damaged parts of the paper. I also used scraps for all the mounts too.

Strawberry daiquiri anyone?

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Love how these all look but if I am honest it is more because of the paper than the stamps… undecided about keeping this set now even though I thought I would love it… wonder how I will feel after set number 2.

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UIUS round up

Use It Up Saturday

So this year I’ve been attempting to use up christmas paper by doing my UIUS challenge.  It hasn’t been successful in terms of using up paper… There is still a massive stack of it! But I have made a whole heap of cards in such an easy go to way.  It’s so easy to grab a few of the little packs I had made up, some stamps and embellishments and off I go.  The record was 15 in one crop session!

I didn’t finish off the stack I made up at the start of the year.  I also had a lot left of the Papermania sets and I have to admit I have got a little bored of this paper now… so I switched a few things round.  I took a whole load of the Papermania kit cards out and switched it with the other precut pieces I had in the box already…. and here is my UIUS box all ready for the new year!

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Think I am going to have a little switch round of the embellishments too… and pop some in the box ready for crops!

So not used up any additional paper or cardstock… still going on last years little lot but still a useful way to get those cards made in bulk.  I actually ended up giving away a couple of sets to both my aunties as christmas presents and because I’d made them in little batches they all went together nicely.

I guess if I do manage to get through this little lot this year … There is always the massive pile of paper yet to be cut into! 🙂
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Happy crafting!

Catherine

UIUS take four… the last of this batch

Papermania, Use It Up Saturday

Yes I have got to the last batch of the cards I made at Helen’s crop a few weeks ago.  These ones I actually finished off after the crop.  First these elf ones were done at the time…

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I borrowed Helen’s christmas cuties stamp set and added the gorgeous little elves and sentiments.

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Here they are with the envelope to which I added the same image!

The other set have the little angel from the same stamp set… but I finished these cards after the crop!
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How angelic? I finished the angels off with a touch of gold of her halo…. needs to be a shining one after all!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

UIUS take three

Use It Up Saturday

Yes I am still blogging the cards I made at Helen’s crop three weeks ago…

More Papermania paper, and this time stamps from a magazine kit… plus a random other card I made!

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All three pretty much the same… the snow globe stamp was the magazine one, along with the little images on the envelopes and the sentiment.  I cut the snow globes out and created the little banners for the sentiment.  Then I also die cut a flourish which is a Crafters companion one to add a bit of fancy behind the images.

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Not 100% happy with the stamping of the globe (cheap acrylic stamps!) But still like how the card itself came out.

Next I made a card on its own as only had one of the cute reindeer toppers left.

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I used the framelits from a new set Helen had to create the background to the topper.
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I also used the star punch to finish the card off… I backed it with a strip of cherry cobbler to show it off! .

Cute!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

UIUS take two

Christmas Greetings, Modern Ornament Punch, Papermania, Tree punch, Use It Up Saturday

Yes i know its halloween but my post is all about Christmas… might post pics of the pumpkins tomorrow.

As promised another UIUS post all about the cards I made last week at the crop Helen organised.

These four were all using the bits and pieces I had to hand…

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Some punched baubles and trees, all of which I ran through an embossing folder with a snowflake design to make them a bit different.  The tree cards I added the die cut Christmas greeting words to them that I had inked in Cherry Cobbler. I then added some glossy accents to finish them off.  This gives a lovely finish to the words.

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For the bauble cards I stamped and inked a sentiment from a magazine gift which I picked up a couple of weeks ago.

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Doing  UIUS set for a crop was such an easy project to work on without too much thought … meant I could chat away with friends but still be productive.
Happy crafting!

Catherine

UIUS … keeping it simple

Claritystamps, Designer Series Paper, Use It Up Saturday

I am away again this weekend… so another scheduled post… I had some scraps on my desk leftover from the prep for class so decided it was time to make use of them and some cute felt card toppers I had bought.

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I kept it all very simple with the fabulous word chain Clarity stamp sentiment 

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Cute and simple … and all with the scraps off my desk.

Will let you know all the gossip about my weekend away tomorrow! #scd

Happy crafting!

Catherine

UIUS … craft work cards set

Use It Up Saturday

Once again I have UIUS project to share. Although this week it is not a Christmas project or using the cards I had prepped as the starting point.  Instead this is a paper pack I got with a magazine of Craft work cards papers that have been hanging round forever to be used. And so this is when I got around to using them.

In total I made 9 cards that were fairly simple to put together.  I added ink to everything (Pumice stone distress ink) & some stickles at the end …. the rest was pretty much cutting and sticking.  Simple! 

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Love how these came out. I used a bit of fussy cutting to add the embellishments of little butterflies and flowers and as everything got inked they all coordinated perfectly.

Happy project… another nine cards for the box at work.  And another wad of paper used up.

Happy crafting!

Catherine

UIUS two weeks running

Papermania, Papermania stamps, Ticket punch, Use It Up Saturday

I am actually heading away for a couple of days so this is a scheduled blog post as I head to Moffat to see the lovely Lynn.  It is another Use it up Saturday post!

Last week I unearthed the box of cards I had started prepping at the end of December last year with the aim of making a few Xmas cards regularly and using up the Xmas paper I had hoarded.  Them of course I forgot about it.  Back to it with a real spring in my step now though and another six to share today!

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All using the Papermania paper I have a lot of and mounted on Real red cardstock.  This time my little toppers were done with two cards at a time.  There are the Papermania baubles I stamped and cut out.  The elves carrying gifts which I coloured using he su markers and blender pen (pleased with this work as never really used it before).  The elf and the stocking were both from some unmounted stamps I was given a long time ago by my friend Karen that I’ve only just got round to mounting.  I stamped a few different greetings and then layered up the cards with some pin flair and foam tape to give them some dimension.  Then added little dots of stickles to give a small amount of bling!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

UIUS … what happened to that?

Christmas Collectibles, Modern Ornament Punch, Papermania, Use It Up Saturday

Just over a week ago I tidied the craft room.  In doing so I unearthed the box of cards I had prepped late last year for this year’s UIUS challenge that has been completely forgotten about.  Look at this stash that needs something doing with!

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So I sorted them out into sets again as they had got rather messed up…

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Then grabbed a set of six…

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And started to finish these ones off. It turned out I had already got as far as sticking these ones down…

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So I grabbed Christmas Collectibles stamp set and coordinating punch and stamped some baubles in Cherry Cobbler and punched them out. 

Next I stamped some Holly from the Darcy Paperartsy set in Gumball Green and fussy cut it out.

This provided the topper for the cards. Then I stamped a sentiment from good Greetings and die cut out the little banner. Added some scraps of cherry cobbler seam binding to some and made sure there was some nice dimension going on with the toppers using pin flair glue gel.

Love how these turned out… good to get another UIUS under my belt after such a long time!
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A nice little collection of cards. Now I challenge my readers to Use it Up today!

Happy crafting!

Catherine

UIUS! Embossing festival!

Festival of Trees, Snow Flurry Bigz, Use It Up Saturday

You may recall last weeks UIUS was all about embossing Dasher … Well this week more embossing… But this time it’s Festival of Trees turn! 

  
I kept to the same set of papers already sorted and mounted, and to the same embossing powder and sentiments… Just changed the image from the reindeer to the tree… Of and instead of ribbon as embellishment, die cut some silver snowflakes instead. 
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Simple but effective!

Happy crafting!

Catherine