Saturday 6 April 2013

Using up some stash..

I made a commitment at the beginning of the year, to use up some of my multitude of flowers. I am finally taking a proper stab at doing just that! Sometimes I feel like I could make a flower card every day for the rest of my life! That might be nice if they were the latest Prima flowers or some other type of drop dead, gorgeous blooms....but they most definitely are not!

Some are cute, a very teensy few are gorgeous, and the rest were bought when I was still working, so are a little tired and dated looking   This year, whenever I am bored but don't want to start a card, or maybe don't have time to start a card, I am going to try to just work on flowers...give them an updated look by combining them with some other elements.

In the meantime, I have picked out some of the prettier ones to do a few cards to give away to a friend.
They were originally paper flowers from the wedding department at Michaels and were part of that 90% off the last marked price sale I blogged about.  I liked the colours together, so thought they were a good starting point. I am making up a set of 6. I am using different bling on the centers to make them all slightly different. Well, truth be told, I am using different bling on each card as I am trying to use up the last bits of certain bling!! When you get down to 6 or 8 diamonds or pearls left on an acetate sleeve, it feels good to finally use them up!
The flowers have a sort of shimmery sheen to them...It looks quite nice with the shimmer of the silvery aqua flower outlines on the patterned paper.


This silver card will be mailed to my daughter in Monaco...I have started writing the letter in it already!

The gift pack of 6 are made with  aqua cards. I managed to use a few more of my stash of pre-folded card and envelope packs, raided my snippets bins for the DP, used up a variety of bling packages and used the new, pre cut wedding flowers...All in all, these were really quick cards to make. This particular friend likes notecards so the inside of the cards will be left blank and these lighter weight pre-folded cards work out fine for notecards.
Here is an aqua one from the set. This one has fairly small brown pearls from the bling. On the others I have  used clear diamond bling, aqua bling, brown pearls, white pearls and aqua pearls. I think these brown pearls are my fave.

As you can see, I have left these ones without a sentiment. They are more versatile that way and she can use them for whatever need arises! What do you think? Are they too plain?

I was also pleased with the using this particular patterned paper. It was left over from a scrapbook project from several years ago.I started with 4 and a half 12x12 sheets. Now there is only 3 and 3/4. Great that it worked out as I find 12x12 paper so rarely works for cards as the overall pattern is usually too big.

Recipe:
Card and base - from my stash (so old I can't remember where I got them. Either Michaels or Zellers
Design Paper - unknown...the only marking I can find is SB 7207...it does not have a strip on the bottom to identify it...just a sticker on the back
Flowers - from my stash, originally from Michael's wedding department
Bling - from my stash, originally Dollarama

I am taking this card over to the Pixies Crafty Workshop as I polished off a few snippets making this card.
I don't think it is fir to go into any challenges as I took the idea from Pinterest.
Off to finish up a few more!
.*** Update*** Just replaced the photos with slightly clearer, truer to IRL colours.

20 comments:

Redanne said...

The patterned paper is beautiful and the flowers are so pretty on your lovely cards. Great idea to leave them sentiment free for your friend too, they will be very versatile. Love them! Hugs, Anne x

Sassy Raggedy said...

Oh wow, what beautiful cards. I love the design with the slant and those flowers just make the cards. Very creative. joann sassy raggedy

Shaz in Oz.CalligraphyCards said...

lovely work, Maureen! Shaz in oz.x

McCrafty's Cards said...

I do like this Mo, a clever design and good idea, I like the flowers, I might have to have a go at this.
Kevin xx

Di said...

What a fabulous idea Maureen! LOVE these, and such a clever way to use up snippets and flowers. Am sooo with you on the feeling of achievement when you use up those last pesky little gems or pearls on a sheet of acetate - 10 out of 10!

Hugs, Di xx

Cathy said...

Love this curvy line of flowers Mo, it looks great with the pretty patterned paper :)

Pia S said...

I think these simple cards look stunning! I like the soft lines, the flowers as well as the clean style. Less IS more!

Sue said...

Fabulous idea Maureen! I have so many bits and bobs left over and a stack of flowers in a huge box that I keep forgetting to use!! LOL hope your keeping well huggles hun Sue xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Kristi said...

Lovely cards! I like the flower borders. good luck with making a dent in your flower stash!

Vicky said...

Simply gorgeous as always hun...:o)

Hope you are having a lovely weekend so far...biggest of hugs Vicky xx

Elizabeth said...

Gorgeous cards and I love those flowers. Like you say 12x12 patterned paper doesn't always work well on cards but this one certainly does. Good luck with the mission to use up all those flowers :) Hope you are having a wonderful weekend. Elizabeth xx

Debs Willis said...

this is lovely - really like the colourway, and I like the simplicity - very pretty!
Think I finally figured out why you couldn't see anything when you clicked on my name - I left my comment using a different Google ID, and that one isn't attached to a blog! Thanks so much for letting me know, i will be more careful in future!
debs x

Carol said...

Beautiful notelets Maureen, love the design. Carol x

Mrs A. said...

I like your design with the wavy line across the front and using a different paper top and bottom. By making several you can use the patterned paper top and bottom ( just a reverse of one another, at least i think thats what you have done) Nifty idea and a good one for the snippets playground. Have you seen what the wabbits are doing with all that stash of glue and tape that Miss has hidden behind the bike shed? On second thoughts don't or you might get fired at with a glue gun.
hugs Mrs A.

Tracy said...

Your cards are beautiful.
No, I don't think they are to plain, I think they are perfect.
I agree about not adding a sentiment if you are giving them away as a set.

Anne-Elise said...

Gorgeous cards! Love both of them! The flowers are beautiful! Hugs

debby4000 said...

Absolutely beautiful cards.
luv
Debby

MaryH said...

These are 2 fab cards, Maureen. I love it when you can take 'found cards', and turn them into something so lovely. Loved the color combos you worked out on these 2. I had seen this on the Playground, but just hadn't gotten around to your blog. Your dtr is going to love getting a nice note inside such a beautiful card made by her very talented Ma-ma! TFS

Sarn said...

These 2 are just gorgeous Maureen. Great use of your flowers and I love the card design.

Hugs
Sarn xxx

Liz said...

Hehe I have the flowers too! I just loved them! Thankfully I got some sent over here before they were no more! Love the card! Hugs