Scrap Bits

It's my day to share my Pick of The Week on The House That Stamps Built blog.  I'm a big fan of using up my "bits and pieces." These are little bits that are leftover from making other cards: bits of ribbon, die cuts that I didn't end up using or I used the negative instead of the positive, etc.  I keep them in a stack on my desk so they are always in front of me.  This is what my stash looks like right now:

Some of the pieces I know I will use without much difficulty, but there are always some that I don't think I will ever use.    Sometimes I know what I want to do with certain pieces and other times, like today, I find a sketch that reminds me of a piece or two I have in the stash.  I really liked this sketch from Try Stampin' on Tuesday:

And here are the pieces I pulled out of my stash to work with it:

And here is the card I created:

I used "Vase of Tulips" and "I'm so glad . . ." to create this beautiful Mother's Day card from my Mother-in-law.   The background was created by embossing a sheet of vellum.  I don't think I've done that before and it is sooooo gorgeous!!!  I finished everything off with some yellow rhinestones to pull in some more of the yellow from the patterned strip.

I had time to create another card, and I had just seen this sketch from MFT:

I forgot to take a photo of the two items I pulled out for this one: the white fishtail banner on the top right and the bit of black ribbon on the top left:

And here is what I came up with:

I used "Distant Glow" (it says, "I thought of you today as I gazed longingly at the distant glow on the horizon . . . I assume it was caused by the candles on your birthday cake.  Hope it was yummy!) to create this fun masculine birthday card.  I think I will probably send it to my brother or perhaps my cousin.  They are both younger than me, so I'm sure they will appreciate it, ha!  I used a sunburst stencil create the "distant glow", the black ribbon to show the horizon, and a number impression plate to emboss the background.

So, there you have it, 2 cards and 4 pieces gone from the bits and pieces stash!!  I hope this inspires you to look at your "bits and pieces stash" and see what you can use.

Card #1:

Supplies:

Stamps: Repeat Impressions "Vase of Tulips" and "I'm so glad . . ."

Dies: Spellbinders "Standard Ovals, large"

Cuttlebug "Damask" embossing folder

Challenges:

Crafting By Designs--anything goes
Crafting with An Attitude #51--anything goes
Divas That Cut--flowers
Creative Inspirations--may flowers & showers
Dies R Us #126--flowers
Sheepski Designs #26--flower power
Brown Sugar #296--flowers
Penny Black--anything goes with the optional twist: feminine
Creatalicious #162--anything goes with the optional twist: flowers
The Paper Funday #5--anything goes with the optional twist: something for mother
Dare 2B Artzy--flowers
Aud Sentiments #226--feminine
Your Next Stamp #113--how does your garden grow (right now mine is growing tulips!)
Shopping Our Stash #295--May flowers
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday--for a special lady

Card #2:

Supplies:

Stamps: Repeat Impressions "Distant Glow"

Dies: MFT "Blueprints 13" fishtail banner

PTI numbers impression plate

Taylored Exrpessions "Here Comes the Sun" stencil

Challenges:

Crafter's Cafe #218--make your own background and/or use punches and dies

Addicted To CAS #159--horizon
Creative Craft Cottage #118--use ink (I used ink with the stencil and ink for stamping the sentiment)
Stamplorations Mixed Media--anything goes with stencils

The Paper Girls #175--typography
MFT #436--sketch



C.R.A.F.T. #312--Annual Blog Hop Birthday
Creative Knockouts #297--funny card