Stash Busting 2018: Layout 1

The Stash Busting Challenge has proven to be a major motivator and it took me no time at all to make my first layout with the kit. It seems that a kit full of my favorite colors and glittery Thickers is all I need to get going!

Helping me get started in a design direction was a fun challenge over at the Paper Issues Friend Group on Facebook called "What's Going Down?"  The prompt for this challenge was to focus all our attention on the bottom of the page. Easy right?? Well, yes.....and no. LOL. I'm no stranger to designing on the bottom, but leaving the rest of the white space blank was too tough and I just had to have those sequin stars float up!

With this being the inaugural layout for the challenge, I wanted to include as much as I could from the kit. I used four patterned papers, two specialty papers, diecuts, stickers, a bow clip, and star confetti. I even fussy cut a flower out from a paper! What?!  

The best thing about putting this layout together though, was that I was playing with product that had been hibernating away in Iris boxes. I'm always excited about the latest and greatest, but working with this older product didn't feel any different than when I create with brand new supplies. Now that's something to think about...…

Michelle

Stash-Busting Challenge 2018

This past year has been pretty hard on my creativity. With the addition of several new volunteering roles/responsibilities, my free time/energy took a dive. Like a nose dive. Yikes. Now a year has past and hopefully I have learned a few lessons about volunteering and setting boundaries.

One of the things I missed this past year was participating in this wonderful crafting community. I still did my design team work and checked in on IG, but that just wasn't enough. I recognized a long time ago that this community is good for me and I need to get back to being an active part of it.

So today, my first day blogging since 2017, I want to share a super fun challenge that has me really excited! The challenge is Jill Sprott's "Stash-Busting Challenge 2018!"  The basic run down of the challenge is that you create a kit based off of a list of contents and create at least 3 projects with it. The challenge runs from June through July and we are encouraged to share our kits, projects, and enthusiasm wherever we can. Like Jill, I am going to be sharing my energy for this project here at the blog and on IG (my username is @michellewedertz.)

Now that I've got the basics out of the way, here's the kit that I pulled together:

This kit is full of my faves: the colors, manufactures, textures...I love it! It felt so nice to pull out my Iris boxes from under my bed and sift through all of the product. I am pretty regular about purging my stash, so what I still have I absolutely love for one reason or another and I felt like I was in crafty heaven looking through it all.

 Here's the list of contents:

1. Eight pieces of patterned paper scraps, four specialty paper/"other" paper scraps, and two complete/unused sheets of patterned paper.  I went with a mix of Crate Paper, Pink Fresh Studio, and Dear Lizzy for my papers. My specialty papers are from Echo Park, Crate Paper, and Studio Calico and include vellum and gold/silver foil.
2. No more than one yard of ribbon/trim. I pulled out a white pompom trim from a past Felicity Jane Kit. It is not pictured because I forgot to pull it back from the side when I was setting up my photo. 
3. One sticker sheet or set, with a catch: at least on sticker must be missing from the sheet. I went with a chipboard Thicker set from Dear Lizzy that I have been slowly using.
4. A pre-2016 alphabet set. This is where I had to fudge a bit, because I could not find a set any older than 2016. When I said I destash regularly, I meant it--the hoarding gene is not that strong in this one! I ended up picking out my favorite Thicker set for this one--a gold sparkly Thicker set-from 2016.
5. One opened package of scrappy product. I chose a package of ephemera from Pink Fresh Studio that I had hanging around. One of the reasons that I still have it is that it has quite a few labels that I like to use for journaling and thought it would be a good option to have.
6. One unopened package of scrappy product. I chose another package of ephemera for this one. I like to have lots of ephemera to choose from and felt like this Dear Lizzy set would be a good match for my papers.
7. One roll of tape or pad of sticky notes. I went with a washi with gold foiled hearts. In all honesty, most of my washi tape is used to tape down my stitching on the backside of my projects or used by my daughters to tape their artwork to their walls, so it will be interesting to see if I actually use it for scrapping.
8. One item or package from a company that no longer makes scrappy products. Again, I had no such thing, so I improvised with an opened package of bowtie clips/sequins from an older Crate Paper collection called "Cute Girl."
9. Up to ten journaling and/or PL cards/tags. Since I had them in my Iris boxes, I pulled out left over journaling cards that were also from Crate's "Cute Girl" collection. I adored this line from Crate and I will be really happy to put them to use. I also plan on pulling PL cards from my card box as I work through projects.
10. Three "wild card" items. Include anything you've been wanting to use. I chose a set of chipboard embellishments from Pink Fresh Studio, a sheet of stickers from one of Maggie Holmes' lines, and a new set of sparkly blue Thickers that are not in the picture because I forgot to grab them for the photo.
11. A nearby item. This was easy. I picked a small container of heart shaped paper clips that I love from a Felicity Jane Kit. They are gold and tiny and cute and I already had them sitting out waiting to be used.

And that's a wrap! My kit is ready to go! Woohoo! Thank you Jill--this was pretty darn fun! 

If you plan on or are already playing along with Jill's Stash-Busting Challenge, I would love to see what you have going! If you are on IG, use the tag #stashbustingchallenge2018 and I will find you! Lol! If you are more of a blogger, drop a link to your post(s) in the comments and I will stop by and see what you have. 

Happy scrapping!

Michelle