As The Inspiration Flows, The Cards Pile Up

Another kit bites the dust!

Yahoo!

Still working through my stash of Simon Says Stamp card kits. But I promise, I’ll be doing some actual scrapbooking this week! My fingers are itching to start documenting our recent Disney cruise. Now that my stomach has returned to normal I may even be able to journal about our experiences without the shadow of motion ickness (yes, that’s not a typo) looming over me.

But that’s for a future post … back to today.

Did you catch my August kit reveal video and the cute baby girl card I whipped up? The video is on my YouTube channel but the card can only be seen on my Facebook page. Just click on the link above and it will take you to that post on my page wall. While you’re there, hit the Page Like button so all of my posts can show up in your feed. The card doesn’t use a ton of product from the kit (it uses the stamp set, the die cut and a piece of the white card stock) as it was purely made because I wanted to test out that star die right away! It’s gorgeous! You’ve got to get your hands on one of these!!

At the beginning of my video I shared a couple of cards that are the focus of this post: cards made from the September 2015 kit.

When I first got this kit I made a few cards but I struggled a bit. Check out this post from September which includes a video of all that went wrong that day! Even those of us that do this every day make mistakes and have to save projects from disastrous stamping sometimes! In the end I made five cards that day and then put the kit away.

It was time to pull it out and give it another go!

My husband had taken the younger two girls to Ultimate and my eldest was swimming with a friend so I knew I’d have a few hours to myself. Sweet!! Instead of hiding in my Scrap Cave, I pulled my kit into the kitchen, along with a few basic tools, and got busy.

The experience of letting the papers guide me that I’d learned from busting previous kits, helped me finally get through this one. In the end I made eleven cards that night.

That makes a total of 16 cards from one kit! I consider that a kit well and truly “used to the last drop”! I didn’t take a photo of what I have left but it amounts to a few scraps of card stock, and patterned paper, the gesso, stencil, and stamp set, and two or three of those 2×3 acetate cards. Not too shabby!

Since I’ve been doing a lot of “kit killing” over the past couple of weeks, I though I’d offer you some tips on how to go about it.

Top Ten Tips to Totally Annihilate a Kit

1. Make card fronts only

With all these cards, I made the fronts only. What I mean by that is, I didn’t worry about adhering them to card bases until I’d decimated the kit making card fronts. This helps the process go a lot faster.

For this particular card, I adhered the grey striped patterned paper to the dark pink card stock, then added everything but the glittery gold accents. The next day when I set about finishing all the cards, the first thing I did was adhere this front to a white base. Then I looked at what I could add to give it a “finished” look. In this case it was some punched circles of gold glitter paper and a flag notched little strip into the cluster of patterned paper strips already there.

2. Use the patterns to full advantage

One of my absolute new favourite ways to get the most out of my kits!

Most of this card was already done for me. I cut the patterned paper so that the ‘Dream Big’ image was featured then added some stamping. The ‘Birthday Wishes’ stamp plus some scattered hearts. That’s it. The card front I set into my pile that night? The stamped patterned paper that I’d adhered to a piece of pink card stock. The next day I added some dots of silver Stickles.

Boom! Done!

3. Don’t be afraid to cut it up

If one of your pieces of patterned paper is made up of images that are easily cut out, then go for it! Now you’ve got images that you can use for several cards.

One of the patterns was covered in these little squares. Each square had a different colour, image, and sentiment in it. I thought it would be really cute popped up and lined up so … I did just that. To highlight the grey, I added a strip of silver glitter paper and some silver Stickles to this one during my final assembly process. Oh, and you’ll also see some green mist that I splattered onto the card. A lot of them have either green or blue mist splattered onto the backgrounds for added visual texture.

Here’s another example of how I used those squares. Since the background paper was grey, I used ones with more colour and then accented the card with the same green. I probably could have left off the stamping but that area was feeling a bit bare to me so I went for it. The only thing I added later were the three pearls.

4. Fussy cut elements

Along the same lines as the tip above, but here I’m talking about small images from the patterns to create a scene. The squares I could cut with my trimmer, this next card took a bit more focus!

Part of the issue I had with these acetate cards is how to adhere them without the adhesive showing. Fussy cutting images and using them to keep the card in place was a good solution. For this card the only thing I added later was some sprinkles of my favourite Heidi Swapp Gold Lame Color Shine.

5. Use the stamps as die cuts

Here is yet another example of using fussy cut elements to hold one of those cards in place. This time though, I stamped the images myself rather than use already drawn images. When I brought my supplies into the kitchen I’d brought a black ink pad and a navy one. Not a blue one. These blue balloons were made by spraying a bit of blue mist onto wax paper and using that at my stamping ink. I love the textured effect the balloons have! I figured out my placement first, then stamped the little bows and popped up the balloons over top. Two more of those little squares break up the expanse of green acetate at the bottom.

The only thing I added later – which doesn’t show up on camera – is some Wink of Stella clear glitter onto the balloons.

6. Keep it simple

Sometimes there will be a pattern that you really like but can’t think of a way to decorate.

This was one of those for me. I really liked this pattern but I’d already used a strip of it so I didn’t have enough for a full card front. In the end, dressing it up with a narrow strip of the dark pink and one of the square images in a contrasting colour was the perfect solution. A few splashes of green mist and some green pearls finish it up.

7. Embrace the bold too

There were several patterns in this kit that were quite bold. That can be intimidating to some but I say, go for it!

This gorgeous geometric pattern shines with the simple addition of a bright card and stamped sentiment. Since the sentiment piece was going to be adhered over top of the acetate piece, I could put adhesive behind the acetate to keep it in place. But I did feel it would benefit from a bit of glitter so when adding those strips of gold, I made sure they did double duty and are helping to keep that card secure.

8. Don’t forget your punches

I hadn’t grabbed a punch when I assembled my supplies, but they weren’t far away either.

While I was making the bold card above, it was feeling very boxy. Everything had square edges. So I thought of my punches and punched a piece of patterned paper with my decorative label punch to layer behind the sentiment. This made me want to do it again! So I stamped the ‘Birthday wishes’ sentiment onto a scrap of paper, punched it out, then popped it up and used it to keep the heart card in place.

Sometime we tend to forget that our stash includes tools. Tools are generally more expensive than paper so if they languish unused, it is even more wasteful than having a stack of 6×6 paper pads gathering dust! At least, that’s what I’m telling myself!

9. Use up those strips and off-cuts

Before you throw them into the recycling bin, see if you can make something out of all the strips you’ve collected throughout this process.

I even managed to back the square piece and my stamped sentiment with other scrap pieces. Clever, right? Their placement holds the acetate card in place too. To bring out the gold in that card, I added gold sequins as a finishing touch.

10. Don’t be afraid to experiment and have fun!

If your kit includes something you are not totally familiar with, then play with it! the result may not be what you’d consider “up to par” but hey, it’s a learning process right?

I used the stencil and the gesso from the kit and got messy. It’s not perfect by any stretch of the imagination. I probably should have used some Post-It notes to keep my edges clean! But I decided to just roll with it. Adding the blue coloured card over top helps to minimize the smudges beneath. The black sequins also help you focus on the black pattern on that card, not the gesso underneath. Design can be so sneaky sometimes!!

There you have it. My top tips on getting through a kit – especially one that you find challenging! If you found them helpful be sure to leave me a comment to let me know.

Have a wonderful Saturday everyone! We’re off to watch some soccer in the sunshine!

Talk to you soon!