More Stash Diving

I took some time to do a bit more stash diving this weekend.

I got this ribbon in Mike's $1 bin a while back, thinking it would make a great accent on a birthday card, but then my brain froze when I got the ribbon home and the ribbon languished with its relatives in a bin in my closet. How sad, indeed. I struggled today on a layout to use it, and ended up with this. I also made another version without the gold dots in the corners, and on that one I also wrapped the ribbon around the Moss layer instead of the Burgundy layer. Turns out I liked that version better than this one, but I had taken the photo of this one, so that's what got posted.

Both emblems were inked in Craft ink and clear-embossed. I thought it gave it more interest, since the rest of the card is pretty plain.

Recipe (all Stampin' Up! except the ribbon): Stamps - Baroque Motifs, Linen; Card stock - Very Vanilla, Bravo Burgundy, Mellow Moss; Ink - Classic Mellow Moss, Bravo Burgundy and Mellow Moss Craft; Accessories - clear EP, Vintage brads, Ticket punch, Mike's ribbon, Ziggy pen.

For this card, yes, once again I bring you relatively new stamps on a card which is partly the result of a stash-diving rampage. The paisley card (A Muse - I think I have them in every pattern and color) and the brown ribbon are from The Stash, and I am most excited that the Celery and Close to Cocoa card stock found their way together in my scrap pile, and the card was born.

I love these little cacti from Rosie's Roadshow, and I like that they are versitile enough to be used multiple ways. Last week they became a Get Well card, and this weekend they are a Stick Together card. Actually, I think Rosie (do you think there is a Rosie at Rosie's Roadshow?) plans it that way so we buy all the sentiments. She is also quite dastardly with her Gallery posts...all it takes is a few page turns and about $100 of stamps make their way to your Must Have list. I admit, I am weak, and yes, I had the Kool-Aid, and it was sweet.

I think the real reason I like the cacti is that I can stamp them 'pretty straight' and it still works! ;-) Crooked is sometimes acceptable!

To really step outside my sand box, I added a piece of blue for sky and tore the white to give it a little character. I was not sure I'd like it at first, but it grew on me, even with the green. And I like the torn edge, because it breaks up all those straight lines that are so 'me'.

Recipe: All stamp images from Rosies's Roadshow; Card stock - Whisper White, Certainly Celery, Close to Cocoa and Soft Sky DS paper (SU), Paisley card from A Muse; Ink - Basic Black, Certainly Celery, Sahara Sand; Accessories - brown gingham ribbon, blender pen, Cameo Coral marker.

For this guy, again most of the stamps are new, but I have had the card stock for a while, so it still counts as a Stash Dive entry. I love the ovals from A Muse, and I use them to add a little depth to the cards. It takes the edge off the image being 'out there' all by itself on the blue strip.

I have been working my my water-coloring skills, which are seriously lacking. I look at a lot of other people's work and try to learn by example. For the igloo, I colored the outline with Bashful Blue to make it less stark and and also spots within the image to make it look more like ice. It has potential.

Okay, now THIS one is a stretch, and so far I have only made one. Usually once I like a card, I make 2 or 3 more to sell at my Farmers Markets, but this one is still sitting on the work table being scrutinized. The thing with A Muse images is they are so small, they fit perfectly on the small, square A Muse cards. As much as I love the A Muse cards, for selling they are smaller than the 4 1/4 x 5 1/2, so they look out of place. I still make them for sale, but I thought I'd see if I could make this work on a 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 card base.

The brown strip is actually inspired by the A Muse card stock with the brown argyle strip ... instead I used a piece of Close To Cocoa DS paper from Stampin' Up!, and I really like how it came out.

I also like the idea of using punches and elongating the shapes. I wanted to use the SU Word Window punch for the sentiment, but the opening was too small. No Problem! I stamped the sentiment and cut it into a strip the same width as the punch opening. Then I stuck one end into the punch opening from the top and punched it, turned it around and did the other side. This technique gives you soooo many more options with a lot of punches! Gotta love that!

As for qualifying as a Stash Dive entry? I have had the Palm Tree image for a while now, and while I have coveted the Hut image I never actually got around to purchasing it until recently. I think this may be a Stash Dive qualifier only in my mind, since I saw the two images side-by-each last year and I am just now acquiring and using them. Maybe not a valid entry, huh?

Recipe: Stamps - Hut, Tree and sentimernt by A Muse; Sun by Rosie's Roadshow; Card Stock - Whisper White, Close to Cocoa, Close to Cocoa DS paper; Ink - Bashful Blue, Close to Cocoa, Sahara Sand, Summer Sun; Accessories - Garden Green and Close to Cocoa markers, blender pen, sponge, Word Window punch.

And now is the time for me to come clean. I read where other bloggers cave and buy stuff not in the budget.....c'mon, who ever stays in the budget?!?!?.... We just make concessions somewhere else. In my case, it's food. I eat at work and stamp at home. I do not see a problem with this arrangement.

On very few occasions do I yield to the craze and frenzy of the SCS enablement threads. But I did get the Cuttlebug, and I really like it. What I mostly like is all the work everyone else does to come up with sandwiches for the 'bug that let me use all those other companies' cool dies and embossing accessories so I do not have to buy other Big Ticket items.

To the left (or above, depending on how Blogger decides to place things tonight) we have a sampling of my latest point-and-click extravaganza. These are Nestabilities. At first I said, "Nope, not gonna do it. Got the Marvy punches, don't use 'em much, don't need more stuff." But then I read a thread about someone looking for the now-retired SU Raised Edge Note Cards (which I, of course, hoarded when they retired), and someone mentioned the possibility of using the rectangle set from Nestabilities to make your own raised edge. I searched, just for grins, and saw they could be pre-ordered from PaperTreyInk.

Thus far I have not fallen prey to the PaperTreyInk craze, but I did mosey over to check out these dies. You see, once my hoarded stash of note cards is gone, they will be gone, and I will also be looking for a suitable replacement. Once I got a gander at the sets, and then read that PaperTrey had a SPECIAL going on if you bought ALL of the sets in a group ... and THEN I saw that if you bought ALL THE GROUPS you could save even more, I had a moment did the Demo Math.

Demo Math is where you figure how much you save with your discount, which in turn justifies the fact that you can spend even more than you'd originally planned since you'd be SAVING SO MUCH! So with the Nestabilities, if I spent $xxx, I'd get $xxx+yyy worth of stuff, which worked out to be a 25% savings - nice! Do I NEED A-L-L the circles, both sizes, and A-L-L the squares and rectangles and ovals, both sizes, and all of the above with scallops .... what was the question? No, I do not NEED them, but I had to have them. All I could see was very cool cards with a combination of dry-embossing and die-cut nested shapes ....

But then reason came to the front of the brain, and I thought I might need to buy another TOOL to use these things, and for a brief moment I almost saved myself. Then there was another one of those darned enabling links, where they provided the sandwich for using the dies in the Cuttlebug. Rats! And a sale was made.


Presenting my first card made with the circle Nestabilities. Even though I do not celebrate Christmas, I do make cards to sell, and I fell in love with this set last year and had to own it. I checked out the City of David gallery at SCS and got so many great ideas, and this is my take on several of them together.

I black-embossed the city image on Kraft to make it easier to color. I liked the 'sand' tone the Kraft card stock gave to the city. I loved the SCS sample where the buildings were colored with Pearl Ex, which I do not have, so I used my glitter gel pens from a former ATRS buying binge. Hey, does that qualify this as a Stash Dive entry? Maaaaaaybe .....

For the Nestabilites, I first cut (ran the die through the 'bug) with the green card stock, then did the purple with one smaller circle from the other set, and it worked out exactly as I wanted it to, with just a little bit of purple showing through.

To make the card work, I layered the purple behind the green, then aligned the Kraft behind it, then I stuck the whole thing on a Naturals Ivory base card. It was easier using the 'bug with the smaller pieces of card stock.

I really like how this one came out! It may get duplicated for sale!

Recipe: Stamps - City of David (SU); Card Stock - Naturals Ivory, Mellow Moss, Elegant Eggplant, Kraft; Ink - Versamark, Basic Black; Sakura stardust gel pens.

Wow, I have certainly been running at the mouth tonight! This is what happens when I spend all week at the Day Job and cram all my crafting into the weekend. Ah, and I managed to slip in a little whining there, too. ;-) Off to bed to get rested for work in the morning...