Use Your Stuff - Stash Cards

 I spent a little time this week sorting through my tub of backgrounds, some of them are several years old, as well as some stamped and colored images that were with them. I decided it was time to knock out some cards and get some of the stash cleared out. I grabbed some of my favorite focal stamps and coordinating dies, sentiment stamps, and I got to work. A few hours later I had a nice stack of completed cards ready to be popped in the mail or donated to Cards for Kindness.  

I made a short walk through video showing these cards and the stamps I used for most of them. All the stamps and dies are linked below. Several I recommend having in your stamp arsenal for knocking out cards with ease. 

This first card used a background I made for this piece for the Sizzix Maker Blog several years ago. You can see a post on my blog here if you would like to see how to make the background. I made a few backgrounds that were 5.5x8.5 so I just scored them in half and voila I had a card base ready to decorate.

Just like the card in the previous post, I stamped the text stamps from French Garden onto the card base with Pumice Stone Distress Oxide.  Then I stamped the Leaves onto the card base with Forest Moss Distress Oxide.

I stamped this flower from French Garden with Forest Moss Oxide, Villainous Potion Oxide, and Dusty Concord Oxide onto Distress White Heavystock. Then I cut it out with the French Garden Coordinating dies from Simon Says Stamp and are linked below.

These card backgrounds were made after I learned the technique in a class I took from Paula Cheney. We sprayed Distress Spray Stains on a Distress Media Mat, then pressed the Vines and Roses stamp into the stan and then onto a Distress Mixed Media #8 Tag. After class I came home and practiced the technique multiple times to get it right and so I have several of these cards.

I made a kraft mini slimline card, 3x6, then I trimmed the #8 tag to 2.75x5.75

I chose the Flower Shop stamp set for these cards, and that includes not only floral stamps but a cool text stamp. So I stamped the text over the floral background in Walnut Stain Distress Ink.

The florals on both cards were stamped on Distress Mixed Media Heavystock.

Both sentiments are from the Simple Sayings stamps and are stamped in Ground Espresso on Distress Mixed Media Heavystock.

The colors for the background Distress Stains are Wild Honey, Weathered Wood and Aged Mahogany.

The rose was stamped in Aged Mahogany Distress Ink and then Aged Mahogany Distress Oxide. 

The leaves were stamped in Bundled Sage Oxide and Pine Needles Oxide. The rose was cut out with the coordinating Flower Shop dies from Simon Says Stamp and are linked below.

This set of three cards used the Botanical Collage stamps as the focal point and Tiny Text for the sentiments.

This background was made using Field Notes and stamping with Distress Watercolor Pencils. I made this background for the release of a set of Watercolor Pencil colors. You can see my post about it here.

I used a variety of pencil colors to stamp the various images from Field Notes onto Distress Mixed Media Heavystock that had been colored with Antique Linen Distress Spray Stain.

This poppy image from Botanical Collage is much longer, but I tore the bottom to allow more of the background to show through,

The sentiment was colored with Wild Honey and stamped with Ground Espresso Archival.

Everything was edged with Walnut Stain Distress Ink.

The background here was made just two weeks ago. I did some watercolor stamping with one of my favorite stamps, Mesh and Linen. It's another great one to have in your supplies. I used this background for the card tutorial I made here.

Simon Says Stamp has exclusive dies to match the Botanical Collage stamps I used them to cut out the butterfly on this card, then popped it up with foam squares for dimension.

The Botanical Collage is stamped on another one of those Distress Tags I talked about earlier. I trimmed it down to fit in the middle of the card and then stamped the Collage over it. It is also attached with foam square for dimension.

I finished it off with a Tiny Text sentiment stamped directly onto the background with Ground Espresso Archival Ink. 

This card base was inked at some point in the past. It was just a basic neutral inked background. I don't remember what I made it for, but I have multiple of these inked card bases. 

I didn't want to throw away the pieces of the stamped Distress tag that I had used on the mini slimlines above. so I set them aside and when I pulled this card base out, I thought they would be perfect for making a background. I love how it turned out just attaching them across the corners.

Again I used the Simon Says Stamp coordinating dies for Botanical Collage to cut out the butterfly. It is attached with foam squares as isn the collage background.

These cards were mostly finished before I even started. Both Botanical Collage images were already stamped and colored, and the card bases were already inked.

I don't know what this purple card base was made for, but it went perfectly with the colors in this focal piece.

To add a little interest, I got out my Field Notes stamps and did some collage stamping all over the purple background in Ground Espresso Archival Ink.

I know it is busy but I feel like it works with the focal point in a supporting role and doesn't take away from it. 

The sentiment is from Tiny Text again and I stamped it on a strip of inked Heavystock that I cut off the side of the focal point. It is attached with foam squares.

The green background went really well with the leaf colors on this focal point, so again I stamped the Field Notes in a collage stamped background. 

I wanted to be sure the background also pulled out some of the colors of the flower, so I splattered a few drops of Seedless Preserves onto it. 

I added another sentiment from Tiny Text. 

 I love how it turned out!

This one is a definite departure from the cards above. I had stenciled the background with Salvaged Patina and Salt Water Taffy in a traditional slimline size of 3.5x8.5

To add another layer, I stamped the really long sentiment from Stuff to Say CMS110 all over the background in three columns with Hickory Smoke Distress Archival Ink.

For this card I reached for the Embroidery stamp set and stamped the daisies onto Distress White Heavystock in Hickory Smoke Distress Archival Ink, then colored it with Distress Watercolor Pencils. Then I cut it out with the coordinating dies from Simon Says Stamp.

To make the focal point stand out a little more I added some Hickory Smoke Distress Ink with a blending tool over the center of the card to add some subtlety to the busyness of the background. The white outline makes the flower pop.

The sentiment is from Simple Sayings again. This stamp set not only has bold sayings for cards, but it also has this label stamp that all the sentiments fit within. Then you just do a quick fussy cut and you have a label sentiment. Both were stamped on White Heavystock in Hickory Smoke Archival Ink.

And that is it for my afternoon making session with my stash. I hope this inspires you to get out some of your backgrounds and stamped images and dies and start putting them together. There is nothing better than knocking out a bunch of cards in a few hours to get you back into maker mode!

 Thanks so much for stopping by and have a creative day,

Tami 

I am an affiliate with Simon Says Stamp and Scrapbook.com. If you wish to purchase something and use one of my links below, I get a small percentage of your order at no additional cost to you. I greatly appreciate it! Thank you!