Pennant Birthday

Well if you are anything like me you are always in need of birthday cards and I am also faced with the dilemma of what to do with all the little scraps of DSP that get cut off other projects - well here's one solution for them.......the layout was CASEd from the Paper Crafters Library.

Lovely and bright isn't it? Using a portion of the sentiment stamps is easy when you use the Stampin' Write marker pens too. It's suitable for any age/gender birthday really.........what is your best way of using up scraps?

Stamps: Rough Type alphabet (retired), Curly Cute
Ink: Basic Black
Card Stock: Brights Patterns DSP, Daffodil Delight, Old Olive, Tempting Turquoise & Real Red.
Accessories: Petite Pennants Builder punch, 1/2" circle punch, Dimensionals

Merry Christmas - Secret Santa

We had our demonstrator Christmas dinner this week and as part of it we did a secret Santa swap. I made my gift using no ink or stamps (bit scandalous I know!), but I did use the new petal cone die and created a Santa and Christmas tree and filled them full of Lindt chocolates. I loved how the tree gave me the opportunity to use up lots of little scrap pieces of green card stock and also silver glimmer paper (not that the recipient wasn't worthy of me cutting up new sheets of card stock, far from it, just that after lots of Christmas classes I end up with lots of strips of green and red card stock left over!).

The two petal cone creations were than popped into a gift bag decorated to resemble a Santa suit and adorned with a little owl Santa tag - sorry the photo was a bit blurry!

Hope you all have a very safe and happy Christmas with your loved ones.

Card Stock: Real Red, Garden Green, Old Olive, Always Artichoke, Basic Black, Whisper White, Silver Glimmer

Accessories: Decorative Label tag, Owl builder punch, Big Shot, Petal Cone die, scallop boarder punch, sticky strip, SNAIL, Tombow multi adhesive, bird builder punch, ornament punch, elegant lines embossing folder, 1" square punch, 1" circle punch, wide oval punch, Boho Blossoms punch, 1/16" handheld punch, white Bakers twine, word window punch, petals a plenty embossing folder, white gel pen.

Upcycled Ribbon Roll Centres

So what do you do when you have emptied your ribbon spool? You could of course add the plastic ribbon spool to the recycling bin, or you upcycle it into a treat tube!

Isn't that new chocolate chip scallop dots ribbon divine? I made the clear plastic tube from a clear window sheet. The lid comes off to access the treats - which of course don't have to be edible, hair clips or small pencils or other things would also fit in it.

I added flowers with the Boho Blossom punch centred with a metallic gold brad and a tag from Tiny Tags. 

 

This is a terrific way to recycle your ribbon spools as well as using up scraps of ribbon and DSP. If you want to try lots of different coloured ribbons without the massive outlay check out my ribbon share here.

Stamps: Tiny Tags
Card Stock: Eat Cake DSP, Poppy Parade, Chocolate Chip
Ink: Chocolate Chip
Accessories: Window Sheets, Gold brad, 1 1/4" circle punch, 1" circle punch, Scallop Trim punch, Jewelry Tag punch, Itty Bitty Shapes Punch (flower), Boho Blossoms Punch, Stocky Strip, SNAIL, Chocolate Chip Scallop Dots ribbon.

Upcycled Aluminium Can Fridge Magnet

This was the fridge magnet we made to match the tea-light upcycled aluminium can, it uses the same Big Shot die and materials, but we added a bottle cap to the centre of it! A very good item for releasing stress and tension - get a bottle cap, place it bottom up and bash it with a rubber mallet. It flattens it into a perfect shape for holding 1" circle punched items.

Stamps: You're A Gem
Ink: Basic Black
Card Stock: Real Red
Accessories: Big Shot, Flower Folds Die, Polka Dot Textured Impressions Embossing Folder, 1" circle punch, Sticky Strip
Non SU!: aluminium can, Stanley knife, magnet, bottle top, rubber mallet

Upcycled Tea Light Candle Holder

These tea light candle holders have been on my "to do" list for about a year........yes I know! Anyway I had the perfect excuse this month to make lots of them as a friend hosted an up-cycling Stampin' Up! Workshop. We made three items including the paper bags from this post and a fridge magnet that I will show you in a different post. Apart from being a wonderful afternoon, the hostess got LOTS of fantastic hostess rewards including the bonus $70 that is a super special being offered this month for workshops reaching $450 in sales, contact me if you'd like to host a party and not only have a lot of fun with friends, learn some new things, do a nice make and take and earn some wonderful rewards along the way.

The metal is from an aluminum can, that has had the top and bottom cut off with a large Stanley Trimmer knife and then slit down the middle to form a flat sheet (wear gloves for this). Wouldn't these be fabulous for a candle light dinner, wedding setting, Halloween party (maybe not embossed with flowers for the later though!) or other event?

Accessories: Big Shot, Textured Impressions Embossing Folder Petals A Plenty, Flower Folds die

Non SU!: Aluminum can, Stanley Trimmer, hot glue gun & Tea light candle

Upcycled DIY Paper Bags

Okay so recycling, repurposing and upcycling things is a bit of a hobby for me - it reflects my conservation efforts in other aspects of my life. As a Stampin' Up! demonstrator whenever we get an order, it comes packaged with lots of brown paper to help protect the contents of the boxes........always important! I do use the paper as scrap paper to protect work surfaces, make paper flowers and my son makes massive collage pictures on reams of it.............but to be honest there is a limit to how much I can use so some ends up in our recycling bin. However this week I did a fun tutorial over on Crafters Anonymous and we made two different types of paper bags and the brown paper packaging is absolutely perfect for this purpose. Of course if you didn't have the brown paper packaging that I have access to - you could easily substitute it with old posters or large stiff sheets of newsprint. I used some old paper raffia for the bag handles, but you could just punch out handles using an oval die or use ribbon (I was just recycling again!).

I used a variety of items to dress up the bags including texture embossing with the Big Shot (it does take two passes to emboss the entire bag), stamping directly onto the paper before assembling them and embellishing with die cuts similar to how I have done other bags in the past.

The flower is also made using the brown packaging paper with the two different sized scallop circle punches. The bags were assembled using Sticky Strip as I find SNAIL not as good for making 3D items which will hold weight or be opened a lot, the SNAIL adhesive I used for decorating the bag once it was made though.

This background stamping with the flourish was done free hand so doesn't line up perfectly, but for the purpose I was happy enough with the result. The bird I stamped onto crumb cake and cut out and popped up on Dimensionals. To add longevity or bling to the handle part you could eyelet the holes after punching them with a Crop-a-dile.

This bag was decorated similar to I would plain store bought ones like I did here and here. I used sponged the edges of the die cuts & punchies and the textured crumb cake card stock to add more dimension to the bag. We also made some flat gusseted bags with the packaging paper.

Again I have texture embossed one and stamped the other. They would be perfect for packaging things like treats, popcorn, small fabric items like a scarf or similar. I would seal these bags using a stapler and cover the staple with the punched card stock closure tab and here's a side view.

Contact me if you want to learn how do make these bags as a friend is hosting an "upcycling" Stampin' Up! workshop and this will be one of the items that you will get to make and take for FREE!!

Stamps: You're A Gem, Friends 24-7, Tiny Tags

Ink: Chocolate Chip

Card stock: Crumb Cake & Early Expresso

Accessories: Big Shot, Square Lattice textured impressions folder, Vintage Wallpaper textured impressions folder, 1" circle punch, Birds & Blooms Sizzlits dies, Lots of Tags Sizzlis dies, Scallop circle punch & 2 3/8" scallop circle punch, Dimensionals, paper snips, SNAIL, Sticky Strip, Crop-o-dile, Jewelry Tag punch, Beautiful Wings embosslit die, Tombow glue, stamping sponge. 

Non SU: brown packaging paper & paper raffia string.

IB&C CASE Scrap DSP birthday

I love the Ideas Book & Catalogue when I get in a blah head space and can't think of what to make, I flick through and get inspired by the samples on every page! The below card was part of my using up scraps workshop challenge from earlier in the year. I changed the colours and made the border punched strip a different colour as I prefer having more contrast, but essentially it's the same card as on page 93 of the Australian Ideas Book & Catalogue for 2010-11!

Stamps: Perfect Punches

Ink: Basic Black

Card Stock: Love Letter DSP, Basic Black, Cherry Cobbler, Very Vanilla

Accessories: Boho Blossom punch, Itty Bitty Shapes Punches, Scallop Trim Border, Paper piercer, white gel pen, Wide Oval punch, Paper snips, SNAIL, Tombow glue.

Long Fellows

A while ago I did a workshop on using up scraps - these cards were inspired to use up scraps of card stock that accumulate when I just trim down a piece to layer it up & I have lots! 

I keep them in colour families or in this case, they were all the new in colours with Daffodil Delight so I knew they would match perfectly. The hostess level 2 set Long Fellows worked really well for this design and I stamped them in basic black onto vellum, coloured the image with markers, tore the vellum and sponged the edges and layered it on top of the card strips, holding the vellum in place with brads. They were just built up on a Whisper White Card base, but you could always layer the white up onto a different colour card base e.g. one of the In Colours to make it "pop" more, I preferred the simplicity of this though.

Stamps: Long Fellows (hostess level 2)
Ink: Basic Black, Pear Pizzazz & Peach Parfait; markers in Old Olive, Pear Pizzazz & Peach Parfait
Card Stock: Vellum, Whisper White, Concord Crush, Peach Parfait, Daffodil Yellow, Pear Pizzazz & Poppy Parade.
Accessories: Paper piercer, Mat Pack, Sponges, paper snips, SNAIL, Tombow 2-way glue, gold brads.

Lets Use Up Scraps Of Rubber!

So what do you do with all of the scraps of rubber that come with your Stampin' Up! stamp sets? 

Do you:

1. bin them

2. hoard them away as ONE day they might be useful

3. use them as Dimensionals (take the paper & rubber off and the gray foam makes a great Dimensional)

4. make them into new rubber stamps.........

Well this is what we did at a party workshop recently - used up scraps of rubber & card stock (but that's a different blog post!). My wonderful husband used up some scrap wood in his workshop and made me some wooden blocks for mounting the rubber onto and I cut up my scrap rubber and made these:

Pretty cool hey! Ohh and if the rubber won't stick on one side due to it either coming from a clear mount stamp set or just being stored for way too long - adhere it down with the awesomely versatile and strong Crystal Effects - it's definitely more than just a paper lacquer! IPersonal experience does lead me to comment that I don't use normal scissors for this or it will be a labour of love - the Stampin Up! craft & rubber scissors really do make life easier as they cut rubber like butter.

You will never get the crisp precision details of a commercial stamp, but you can make some terrific background stamps (also a wonderful school holiday activity for children - just be careful of the scissors!). Now these are NOT for hoarding either - the fun is to do something with them. Here's one quick idea I did:

How cute is that giraffe - this one is from the new hostess set It's The Thought from the Summer Mini, but it would also look fantastic with the giraffe from Animal Stories.

Stamps: It's The Thought & handmade background stamp
Ink: More Mustard, Early Expresso
Card Stock: More Mustard, Early Expresso & Whisper White
Accessories: Early Expresso 1/4" grosgrain ribbon, sponges, Aqua painter, SNAIL, corner rounder punch.

I'd love to see what you make with scrap rubber - or better still what other uses you have for it, leave me a comment and let me know. Of course if you would like to learn a technique or get ideas around a theme, why not get together with a couple of friends and book your own workshop and I'd be happy to come and show you some different ideas!