Friday 30 December 2011

A date with your stamps ...

(adapted from ideas by Project Life and Michelle Wooderson)

How often have we heard the following from our crafting friends.  “I don't have time to craft”, “I don't have any motivation or good ideas”, and “I don't know what supplies to use together when I sit down to craft”.  With some pre-planning, a few simple sketches, and a good selection of supplies from your stash, you'll be well on your way to stamping up a nice pile of cards, or whizzing out layouts in no time. 

Firstly, you need to set aside time for crafting. Get your diary out and start making dates for yourself like an appointment. If you are too busy for this, start thinking about small sections of time that you can take for yourself. Skip a couple of hours of TV one night, or step away from the computer, or dare I say it, stay up a little later!  However you do it, you must find a way to make time for your hobbies.

Secondly, make an honest list of projects that YOU want to complete. You might need to make two birthday cards, 3 thank you cards, or you might want to make a couple of extra get well and sympathy cards so that you have them when needed. Update the list regularly. Make yourself a cute little notebook to keep it all organized.

When you have organised your date with yourself, go shopping in your own stash. Gather up products that coordinate and are easy to match.  Stampin Up! makes it so easy to pick out everything that co-ordinates.  I also choose the sentiments that I want to use before I start working, and doing it this way saves me hours of time, as those types of cards were on my list.

Next, you need inspiration to get started. Print off photos, make sketches or borrow ideas from sketch/map sites such as www.pagemaps.com who have sketches for both scrapbooking and cards. However, make sure that you give credit when you borrow someone else’s ideas.

I personally like to use ONE sketch only, and I adapt it by turning the sketch 45 or 90 degrees. I make a selection of different sentiment cards using the same supplies and the same sketch.  This way, I can really whizz out the projects.  PLUS, I use up my supplies.   If there’s any scraps of papers left at the end of the session, then I’ll quickly punch out some birds, hearts, flowers, leaves etc. etc. so that I DON’T WASTE ANYTHING !

Even the tiniest pieces of paper can be chopped up into confetti and used.  If you want a colourful border, then run a stick of really sticky red double sided tape onto the card.  Remove the backing and then press all the mixed coloured confetti onto it.  Shake off the remainder – and voila !  a lovely colourful border – for free !

So – make a date with yourself – and get crafting !!!



1 comment:

  1. Some really useful ideas there, Carole.

    Take care,

    Donna xx

    ReplyDelete

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