Forgotten stash...

Hi Ruth here, hands up anyone who uses all their crafty stash? Thought so, I'm sure we all have items bought because they were a must have at the time, played and dabbled with and then put aside for a while...or a year..or even longer, you may even have items that you have never played with...Yes? Well this is the post to inspire you to get out those items and use them...or lose them. Some crafters are great at decluttering, me I get stuff out and then think ooh I might just need that. Well I have been trying to declutter and sort out some items to give to a local children's craft club or sell on and in the process  trying to think about this months inspiration post. I try when I can to link it to the current challenge which is all about 'Pastel' and I've made a start on my Christmas cards in the process  (unheard of before December).

So what have I got that is pastel, well out came my box of versamagic chalk inks, a pigment ink that dries fairly quickly and I used to use on vellum, like all crafters we develop and move forward on our journey and I moved onto chalk paints and rarely reach for anything else now when I'm creating backgrounds.

Lots of lovely colours in teardrop shapes which I thought I'd use to my advantage. Pastel colours look great on dark backgrounds, so not worried about using all the ink (I'm trying to use stash up!) I began to stamp and cover a piece of A4 card stock, not sure where I was going but I'd started my journey.

I decided to cut the card into 4 and decorate them all a little differently. Embossing paste through a new Christmas Kay Carley stencil, gold foiling, holographic embossing powder, gold paint splats and snowflake stamping.

A masterboard of sorts and something I quite often do at Christmas. When making batch cards I want clean, quick and simple and the shapes tend to be trees or snowflakes. The first quarter went on this card with a little extra stamping 

and the greeting embossed in black glint.

Next quarter I just added a few die cuts in gold mirri card...another stashed item I have had since I began crafting, used to be my staple for matting onto cards. 

The 25 is a much used sizzix die and teamed with some forgotten black puff paint. The kraft card seems to set these off nicely.

Next white card and triangles make such easy trees.

Another favourite technique, layered strips to make Christmas trees.

A piece die cut into a snowflake, and the chalk inks have been smooshed through a stencil. 

Snowflakes don't have to be white, a little crystal glitter adds that sparkle.

So I'm on my way with Christmas cards, I've even made another masterboard on pale cardstock, if I'm honest I prefer the dark background but these will make very pretty trees and snowflakes as well.

To finish, I so loved the shape of these inks that I thought they'd make great trees and have made a set of notelets, just right for early spring.

I really enjoyed using these and am determined to use them up now....after all that will leave a little space that I could fill.... maybe with those new inks I saw at the show..... yes I'm guilty as charged of having crafter's logic!

Hope I've inspired you to dust off some stash and use it in different ways or say bye bye to it and send it to a well deserving home and in the process join in this month with our Pastel challenge!