Out With The Old In With The New!!

 Hello and welcome to the first challenge of the New Year at Shopping Our Stash, the theme is to combine some old and some not so old or never been used items on your project. On my card I used a 3 layer floral die set I bought in 2019 and never even took it out of the packages. I will admit it was because it is not an A2 size and it isn't an A7 either it's somewhere in between so I "bit the bullet" and now I have to make an envelope to size.

The die set is from Nellie's Choice and I have had it since 2019, I used shades of purple cardstock and cut the base to fit. I chose a simple Happy Birthday stamp and die set. I am debating on putting some gems or pearls in the centers of the flowers, what do you think.

Thanks for stopping by today and have a fabulous new year.

The Spirit of Christmas Past ~~ A Jingle Belles Story

 Finally I managed to get a card done for the Jingle Belles Christmas Challenge, I just love their prompts every 2 weeks although sometimes I just don't "get 'er done".  Finally I had the opportunity to have a longer stay at the lake but with the longer time you need more "stuff" I only have so many duplicates, but I remembered my tonic cutter this week. I said to myself as I was packing don't forget the vanilla cardstock, and I did, so it was improvise time.

I used my PSX 94611 wood block stamp, there was no date on it but my other PSX stamp is dated 1999.  Stamped on white with memento tuxedo black and coloured with markers. Layered on red metallic posterboard and then on a top fold white base.

Finished the inside with a scrap of the metallic posterboard and as it never occurred to me to pack sentiments it is to be finished at home. 

Of course I'm adding this to:

Jingle Belles Christmas Challenge ~~ The Spirit of Christmas Past

Thanks for stopping by today and you still have until Wednesday at 6 p.m. EDT  to get a project done, (ps there is a prize)

Flowers, Flowers Everywhere

Flowers Flowers Everywhere is the new Challenge at Shopping Our Stash, it will be so nice seeing all the flowers in the gallery as right now I'm looking at piles of snow/ice with more to come. I had a plan as always and I usually try to have a plan "B" for those times that I have put plan "A" in that safe place, I was positive I knew where the Hero Arts Poppy stamp was, but it wasn't there so with no plan "B" I had to put my thinking cap on. I'm sure you have been where I was not able to get by the fact I WANTED to use the Poppy Stamp so I was having trouble thinking past it, finally I remembered a 3D folder I bought early last year and had never used it, in my defense I needed to google how to make a sandwich for it, so checked Mr. Google and you don't need any special plates so I'm now in love with the folder and want more.  Enough gabbing and let's get on with the challenge. 

As you see I'm back in my "pink" stage but that was only because when I saw that the folder was Sweet Peas I remembered I had an already coloured sweet pea image that was a stamped image from a friend. I used my original spellbinders ovals and the Happy Birthday die cut is layered three times. as well as the oval with the flower. 

Close up so you can see how beautiful the folder is.

Finished the inside with scraps of pink and a very ancient Hero Arts sentiment must be at least 20 years old. I used a Brilliance ink pad that must be a bit dry as it didn't stamp dark enough, there is no "re-do" with a wood mound stamp. 

I'm going to add this to:

Seize the Birthday ~~ Anything Goes

Thanks for stopping by today and I hope you will dig out your Floral stamps and send us a bouquet.

Spring has Sprung and time for May Flowers....

 Challenge # 8 at A Tiny Craft (ATC) Challenge is Flowers, it doesn't need to be spring flowers as long as it is a flower it's acceptable. I think the problem will be picking the flowers you want to use, die cuts, artsy flowers, real looking flowers, even poinsettias (was my second choice)  I have a set of 4 "dotty flowers" from Sunshine Designs (now closed) but if you want to have them they are at The Frogs Whiskers   which is a Canadian company located in Ontario. They are the perfect size for ATCs.

One day I was playing around with photo paper, copic markers and a large zip lock bag and made a few backgrounds just for practice and the colours were perfect for how I coloured my "dotty" flowers. The red background has gold leaf on it, I used glue and some gold leaf from the dollar store and it worked well. The flowers were fussy cut (as I was cutting I really wondered why I wanted to stress myself with such fine work, it might be tedious and time consuming but looks great. I added some tiny script words and some of my "homemade" enamel drops. They were made with Perler beads and a toaster oven one Sunday at the cottage (outside)

Here are some individual pictures of the cards.

Card #1

Card #2

A better look at the gold leaf design.

Card #3

I have to admit this one is my favourite (don't tell the other 3)

Last but not least Card #4

Glad you lasted until the end of the picture show and hope you enjoyed seeing my Dotty (funky) Flowers. 

I'm adding this to:

ATCs with Heart ~~ #116 Everything Goes

Snippets Playground Challenge ~~ Challenge 428, everything used was from my file folder bin of scraps.

Thanks for stopping by today and head over to the Main Blog and see the gorgeous floral ATCs the rest of the team made to inspire you to join us. ATCs are the perfect craft to use up your stash of "snippits" AKA scraps. 

  

The Power of Pastels

 Hello and welcome to a new challenge at Shopping Our Stash ~~ The Power of Pastels, self explanatory use a pastel colour pallet but don't forget to tell us what you used from your stash!!!

I rarely make totally pastel cards unless it is a baby card and even them sometimes I get heavy handed with the markers. Talk about stash.....I was playing around with the floral edge die and had this one left over in my bin, the cardstock was a scrap the patterned paper could be newer or I could be from a pack I bought 5 years ago (I had both on the table) Now the oldest items on the card are the purple pearls which were left over from a DT spot on the Eyelet Outlet. Happy Birthday was cut from a piece of white cardstock that I blended with two shades of distress oxide ink. 

I layered the inked die cut on top of three die cuts from 100 pound cardstock from Michaels, the die cut is easy to glue together because it is nice and chunky. This shows how the sentiment is popped up.

After a 45 minute search for a shoebox full of Birthday sentiments  I finally located them, so many shoeboxes with stamps in them and other stuff too. making labels is going on the To-Do list. The sentiment is from Fran's collection at Stampendous.

Joining in the fun at:

Happy Little Stampers ~~ Anything Goes with Dies

Seize the Birthday ~~ Anything goes Birthday

Thanks for stopping by and please stop by the Main Blog and check out the beautiful pastel projects the rest of the design team have made. 

Spring is in the Air.

 Spring is in the Air at Shopping Our Stash, but it certainly is not in the air here in South Western Ontario we just had three days of snow-showers, not much accumulation but it was like the storm was circling the city, clear for a bit then white-outs. At least it gave me some crafting time and this is what I made for the  challenge. For the challenge we want to see something with Wings on your project, birds, butterflies, bees, dragonflies lots of choices. My choice was a Hummingbird. 

I used a House Mouse Designs wood mount stamp called Helping Hand and decided to use a favourite spring colour, purple. I did partial cutting so the hummingbird was partly outside the oval, The patterned paper I've had for a while it was  purchase from Dollarama mainly because of the purple designs and it's almost a cardstock weight. The layer and the oval were cut from........Stampin'up called Lavender lace now that is really digging into my stash. 

Not sure why my close-up pictures are fuzzy and out of 3 programs not one has a spot to fix it. The image was popped up with two heavy cardstock ovals and a dimensional is under the wings. 

Finished the inside with some scraps of paper and a Hero Arts vertical sentiment, one of the first ones I bought when I started stamping. 

I'm adding this to:

House Mouse and Friends Monday Challenge ~~ Anything Goes

Thanks for stopping by and head over to the MAIN BLOG and check out what winged creatures the rest of the design team have made. 

Coral Rose

 On Friday afternoon a group of retired ladies get together for bowling, most are friends that worked together at Woolco/Walmart, no prizes, no pressure the only thing we strive for is reaching a 100 count in pins for the game, we do have over-achievers that double that goal, a lot of laughs and a great afternoon with friends. The one of the staff has had surgery and I made this card for all of us to sign and have it delivered to her. I love my ancient Stippled Rose stamp from Stampin'up, it makes for a quick card in a hurry. 

I really had trouble picking a colour for the rose, I'm sure I went though the rainbow trying to decide as my favourite colour is purple but not everyone is a fan so teal/turquoise came to mind but when I sat down with my markers picking out colours  I spotted the coral and it was decided.  

All layers were cut with Elizabeth Craft Designs Stitched and scalloped rectangle dies. The Thinking of You is a sticker sentiment from Starform, in my stash for eons, the small sentiment is perfect as not to overshadow the focal point.

The sentiment I found on a verse page and thought it was perfect. 

Thanks for looking today, stay safe and stay well.

“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.”― Albert Einstein

 

I Made This For You Mom!!

 It will soon be May and Mother's day is May 9th this year in Canada and the U.S. so it's time to get busy and make a Mother's day card for your Mom, Mom-in-law, a close friend or your Daughter just because she's a great Mom. I have made cards for all of the above, everyone appreciates a handmade card.  Since this is