Scrap your stash - 2011 January report

I'm participating in a neat challenge this year sponsored by Lala's World blog where we are all pledging to scrap our stash in 2011.  You can sign up month-by-month, so take a look if you're interested in participating.  How did I do this month?  Well, I made a dent in one of my card kits, and some of my Valentine's paper.

Here are some close-ups of some of my favorites.  This card base has a square punched in it, so I cut a hole in the card front using a craft knife and a grid ruler.  I used some of my favorite stamps and punches from Stampin' Up! and a variety of other elements from my stash.  The border punch is by Fiskars.  I designed the first one especially for my friend's birthday.  I liked how it turned out so much that I created a couple of close imitations.  That's one tip I have for using more stash - make duplicates!

On this card, I used a new stamp set, and some new dimensional paint that I am in love with.  On this card, I got some inspiration from a card showing this spray of flowers stamped off the edge.  I used that dimensional paint again to add little dots to the border. I also cut the loops off at either end so the border was clean all the way across.

This Valentine's Day card was a bit of a challenge for me for some reason.  I really wanted to use this paper, but wanted to make it brighter and more festive (while still using the black).  The word "love" was beneath the pop-dotted heart, so I added a punch to make the saying a bit jazzier, and put lots more pop-dotted hearts on the circle.  Some of the hearts are hand cut, while some are punched with Stampin' Up! punches.

Some of my tips for scrapping your stash from this month:

• Pick a kit or project to work on.  I had some papers I wanted to use, and a card kit I really wanted to make, so limiting my materials helped me focus on using a smaller set of paper.
• Make multiples!  Once I had a design I liked, I tweaked it slightly to make a few extra cards in the same general pattern.
• Have fun playing!  I really wanted to use my new stamps (well, I got them in August, but they're still new since I never used them) and the dimensional paint.

Did I buy anything this month?  Well... yes....    I found the snowflake edge die from Tim Holtz in a local scrapbook store, so that had to come home with me.  There was also a sale on some basics that I use a lot, so I wasn't going to pass that up.  Finally, I am a Club Scrap member, so I couldn't exactly cancel my subscription... 

I'm looking forward to seeing what everyone else did, and also toward more scrapping from my stash in February.