After a few months of holiday from the challenge Happy Little Stampers is back and so here I am with a design team contribution. This is for the Anything Goes Birthday challenge.
I’m trying my hardest this year to not get new stash and to use more of what I already own… so this time I raided the pouch that has already printed and in some cases like this, already coloured digital images.
I also grabbed patterned paper from the stash and decided to make an admittedly autumnal looking card using the beautiful All Dressed Up image and the leaves paper.
Then to make it special I added the rose gold die cut leaves, the pretty peach die cut flowers and the pearls for the centre.
I then embossed the sentiment onto the black which coordinates with the black mats for the image and paper.
So quite quick to put together as the image was already coloured. Pleased I thought to dig into the printed digital stamps folder for this.
Thought I would pop on today and give you a flavour of what my crafty plans are for 2023 although clearly the title gives you an idea of what my plan is.
I have a lot of stash in my craft room and over 2022 I did start rationalising and getting rid of unlikely to use stash. I think I need to do that again and be really clear about what I NEED to keep, what I LOVE and can’t part with and what realistically is never really going to get used.
I also need to be a bit frugal this year as we have a lot of things as a family we want to save for … so apart from basic supplies like cardstock, adhesive and envelopes/card blanks … I have decided to say NO BUYING.
I think I could well end up caving but I really don’t want to at the moment as I have so much stash going unused it is silly to buy more.
Small confession in that I did spend a little Christmas money on Boxing Day so I do have a few new bits and bobs to use but my plan is no spend in 2023… so going to ignore that little splurge even though I’m still waiting for it to turn up!
So with this in mind prepare to see some old products and stash appearing rather than lots of new stamps and dies … hope this is not a disappointment to you dear blog reader!
Sure I will find some stash hidden away that I loved using and will find a new way to use it though so hopefully the projects I make will still be fun and not old fashioned! Lol!
So with that in mind I have a project to share today using old stash…. getting myself geared up for 2023’s challenge …
The stamped bird is a polkadoodles image I stamped and coloured probably about 5 years ago and never used till now… the dsp is old magazine kit paper again just sitting there in the stash…. the twine was gifted in a swap and has found its happy place on the card and the cardstock (with the exception of the black card base) were all scraps lying on the desk.
Finished off the inside with another of the birds and some scraps of the dsp on a white panel for writing on.
So here’s to 2023…. let’s be frugal and make good use of stash we already have!
I printed off the image on Smoky Slate and then coloured it with my Prismacolour pencils and cut it out… so actually the fact it was a coloured cardstock base ended up making no difference!
I made quite a small (4×3) card this time so it’s really cute. I added some dsp with a green colour and then a panel of white. Then to finish off I die cut the blue Merry using the Tim Holtz dies. Finished off with the gems.
Cute and although the colouring took some time (and a some fiddling as the image is quite small) an easy card to make. There is a little bit of dimension as I raised up the main image and I stacked the merry die cut a couple of times.
I also added just a touch of sparkle with wink of Stella on the tree decorations and the gift trimmings.
Tonight I have a house full of teenagers having a halloween themed night … so I decided to dig through the folder of images that were already stamped and coloured. This includes images that I no longer own the stamps for or were gifted from swaps. I think this particular monster image I have had for several years and coloured using my Prismacolour pencils. It is good to get some old stash used occasionally. This monster ended up being a Halloween themed card!
I fussy cut it out and then decided to add a stencilled background as I remembered I had some Tim Holtz Halloween stencils.
I decided to just stencil a small patch in the middle and then flicked both the orange ink and some purple ink splatters. Then I stencilled the word Boo as well using the Black Soot ink.
I then added a little foam under the little monster so there was just the smallest amount of dimension and adhered him in place. Then I added the glossy accents to his eyes too.
Two cards to share for today’s Stampin up Sunday both using the Oh So Ombre dsp (saleabration) and flowers from the True Love dsp. Both done as projects from leftovers from the craftalong I did with friends last week.
Firstly the Rococco Rose one. A really simple card… one piece of the ombre dsp and a strip of the cardstock. The card blank was made from the cardstock … I just love how SU colour coordinates perfectly.
Then a sentiment and the two floral elements cut from the true love dsp and coloured in using stampin write markers.
Embellished with the pastel pearls.
Next the Blackberry Bliss… again card blank made using the cardstock in the same colour. This time two pieces of the Oh So Ombre paper… the patterned one and the plain one, a sentiment strip and this time a flower cluster coloured with prismacolour pencils.
Last night I had fun crafting along with my friends using the True Love dsp.
The plan for this session was to enjoy colouring in some images and then assembling the cards around these images as the True Love dsp is perfect for fussy cutting and for colouring in with the black and white floral images. The plan was also for us to make six cards but we only managed 3 so will be having another session next Thursday to do the other three.
Here are the samples I made.
The first card is quite dramatic with the stripes and diamond patterned paper that is the reverse to the floral and is balanced by the large flower cluster. I chose the lovely Petal pink colour for colouring in and using as the accent colour with the twine and cardstock. I used Stampin Blends to colour this one. I chose to use Itty Bitty Greetings on all my cards as sentiments, either embossing in white on black or gold on white. I also embellished with black matt dots for this card.
Next card is a very busy daisy like background with little strips of the reverse patterns. This time I chose prismacolour pencils to colour in the image. I added the Blackberry Bliss ribbon and a nice bow to finish this one off. The colours on the pic have come out a little strange as the flower is less neon in real life but even so I love this card with the contrasts.
This one is more subtle than the previous that’s for certain… a small image from the same paper as the background fussy cut and coloured (Stampin Blends) makes a nice embellishment and I raised it on dimensional to sit above the ribbon that wraps the card. This time I chose the Pastel Pearl’s for embellishment.
Entering this in for the challenge at GET CREATIVE
I love this next card… possibly one of my favourites from the set. This time I chose to only colour the green elements and leave the rest white and black. I then chose a similar looking flower from one of the papers and fussy cut that, again only colouring in the leaves. I added the twine for embellishment under the flower and mounted the panel on soft sea foam and then the Rococo Rose. I added the sentiment as a banner and the pastel pearls for further embellishment.
OK I know I said the one above was my favourite… but this is the one that it competes with as most favourite! Terrible English I know, sorry about that! This time I fussy cut the floral element I wanted to colour and used a waterbrush and the Blackberry Bliss ink pad to add some colour to the flowers in the centres and the Old Olive for the leaves/ stem.
I then chose the same paper as a panel but gave it a hand drawn border with with Stampin Blends and panel of soft seam foam for underneath. I laid them wonky and added a twist of the ribbon under the floral focal feature. I added the sentiment right in the middle and embellished with the pearls.
Really can’t decide which I prefer out of those two.
Finally this one I went mad with colouring in. This paper was so busy but I thought a small piece of it fully coloured in would be fun… I used stampin blends in cherry cobbler, blackberry bliss, petal pink and just jade to colour it in and it looks so rich… just love it.
The bottom piece of dsp I also added the petal pink colour … a reminder that all dsp can be coloured in not just the image based ones!
This time some simple white twine and a single pastel pearl did the job to finish off. This is a very different card… but fabulous in its own right!
Love this set of floral cards with the dramatic black and white and the beautiful colours of Petal Pink, Rococo Rose, Blackberry Bliss and Soft Sea Foam… a lovely combo.
Also really enjoyed the colouring in time… so relaxing!
The kit I put together had lots of leftovers after these projects… so look out for more projects using them up… not just the little tag I shared yesterday! Plus of course these are the samples I made… I did slightly change them on the evening for these three versions…
Hello there blog readers… so today I actually had to produce some output at work, leading to lots of procrastination but eventually getting there. The procrastination period however has led to me finally reading/scanning all of the emails in the inbox from the 4 and half weeks off… so also productive albeit not on the work that I should have been doing. Got there in the end though so all is good.
Hubby got the Wii Fit out today too and did 30 mins on it before work … I’m considering having a go tonight but who knows whether that will actually happen or not!
I have however done a short walk after work to the supermarket and back so I’ve done an attempt at exercise. I might point out that the walk to the supermarket led to eating liqorice allsorts on the sofa under a blanket… my first slip on healthy eating and another reminder that my strength as a result of covid is rubbish!
Ah well… onto the crafting!
Like Monday, I have a stripes based swap to share. This time it’s the artist trading coins I made for the UK Stampers Forum swap.
I followed much the same process for these coins as I did for yesterday’s tag, using scrap strips of cardstock for the backgrounds.
This time I also added stamping and embossing on some strips and coloured stamping on others.
Also I added some dots using my posca pen to some strips. On the white strips I also added some green stripes using my promarker pen.
I then used a scrap of a the Pretty Peacock card to stamp and emboss the mini Jofy flower. Then played with the Prismacolour pencils to add some colour.
The sentiment was stamped on the shaded spruce scraps and then adhered across the flower and gems added to finish off.
I loved playing with the strips to create the stripes background. Made a really fun background to play with.
OK its now or never for the wii fit… decisions, decisions!
So today was the first day back at real work after a month away (covid and Christmas) and although it was a bit anxiety raising my lovely team made me feel fab within minutes of starting the day. Feel so grateful I work with such lovely people.
Anyways, I thought as I attempt to blog daily I might include a bit more of real life in my blogs, not just craft… what do you think?
Let me know if you want me to shut up about real world in the comments below.
As I type this I am waiting for the groceries delivery … well it is a Gusto meal delivery thing rather than the boring supermarket shop … and thinking I should really be doing something good for me like exercise … but hey I’ve eaten healthy all day exercise too would just make me a saint right? So instead I’m lying on the spare bed doing this and having a bit of a chill out.
The crafty sharing today is actually something I made between Christmas and New year knowing that once I get back into the swing of work that the likelihood of crafting time would significantly reduce!
And now… the crafting bit!
I’ve gone a bit stripes mad with my UK Stampers Forum swap this month…
… I had strips of cardstock leftover from other projects so it was a good way of using them to create a fun background.
After laying down the stripes I added some paint pen dots. I also stamped, embossed, coloured and fussy cut some Jofy circles to add to the background out of some of the scraps.
On separate piece of cardstock I then stamped and embossed the JOFY stamp. I decided to add some coloured pencil colouring to it before fussy cutting it out.
I added the flower and then chose some gems to add and the gingham ribbon from the stash.
This turned out great… and I made some coordinating coins too which I will share on another day and, unless I am sent loads of messages to stop, i will also share another peek into my life.
Today I have another swap project I made to share with you, this time using the Fancy Phrases stamp set to decorate some inchies.
The inchies are actually cut from the backing board from a foil sheet set … it’s quite thick and good for creating these little pieces of art.
I made these for the UK stampers forum swap.
I stamped them using soft suede ink and then edged each inchies with the same ink to frame them.
Then I used my Prismacolour pencils to add some colour to the flowers and leaves. I love the sketchy nature of these flower images, means no precise colouring is required.
I finished them off with some wink of stella which is difficult to photograph but think you can just about see in the pic above.
So a few weeks ago it was world card making day and I made a card to send to a random person in a card exchange.
I used some of the lovely Flowers for every season dsp and teamed it with Pretty Peacock cardstock. Then used the Jar of Flowers stamps and embossing to add the focal feature.
I added some strips of washi tape to add some glitter and different textures.
I decided to add colour to the flowers using Prismacolour pencils.
Inkyfingeredcat 