July 19, 2015

A DISCARD CHALLENGE

As you already know, I hold monthly workshops, which I call Stamp-Ins, in my home. At each of these Stamp-Ins, I have four projects, usually four cards, for my girls to create. I'd say 95% of the time, the projects are completely original. The other 5% comes from ideas I've seen somewhere, but have tweaked to make my very own.

I estimate that, in order to come up with an original card for my workshops, it takes an average of an hour and a half for just one card. During that 90 minutes, I am confronted by lots of trials and errors, more than I'd like. Of these trials and errors, I usually save those that are somewhat salvageable. I stack them in a plastic container. 

Recently, I'd noticed that my container seemed to be getting sort of full. Without looking through the contents, I decided that it was time I did something with all these salvageables. 

So, still without perusing the stack, I gave myself a personal challenge: Make something using mostly bits and pieces that were in my basket.

This is what my container looked like. It looks like it may be promising, right?


When I dumped out the contents, I wasn't as thrilled as I'd thought I would be. Pushing my way through it all, and feeling quite desperate, I grabbed a few white/orange/pinkish components, and decided that this would be the stash I would work with.


Below is the card I came up with. I can't say I'm in love with it, but it is, eh, OK. 

From the salvageable stash, I rescued the sponged and embossed poppies, the three circles in orange, pink and white, as well as the flagged banner in a matching pink. 

The pieces I added are the Calypso Coral card base and the Naturals White piece that matched the large white circle. I embossed this piece with the Modern Mosaic embossing folder. 

Once I had everything sort of lying in place, I decided it was waaaay too much stark white.. So I sponged the edges of the embossed piece as well as the white circle in Calypso Coral. I also tied an orange bow in place. 

While it bothered me to bring in a different color of embossing -- the poppies were embossed in gold -- I opted to emboss a simple sentiment in white, only because I didn't think the words would show up against that pink if I embossed them with a poppy-matching gold. I added a Basic Pearl also.



When I first finished the card, I liked it and thought I'd made good use of something that could potentially have been thrown away.

The longer I live with the card, however, the less I like it. 


Now, I'd like to challenge YOU! Grab some leftovers from a project or two or three that would possibly have been thrown out, plant some Paper Seedlings and create a whole new project from them. 

If you take me up on my challenge, include a link to your creation in my Comments section. Good luck!

I intend to do a personal challenge like this again sometime in the future. B U T, I am going to let my discard stash grow so I have more to pick from. Eh?

Discarded
Smiles.

9 comments:

  1. I love your card. I never thought of keeping parts to use. Now to find a bin!

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  2. Wow, I love this card! I have always been predisposed to these colors, but you have provided yet another reason to love them! Bravo.

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  3. This is such a great idea. I feel like too many crafters throw away the neat scraps!

    Thanks for joining Cooking and Crafting with J & J!

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  4. I like that you did not throw the items away but chose to reuse them. I love the flowers on the card and the colors you chose. As well as the words. So if I knew how I would make me one like it,

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  5. Such a great idea! Thank you for sharing and joining our Oh My Heartsie Girl Wordless Wednesday Link Party. Have a great day, co-host Evija @Fromevijawithlove

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  6. I like the card. I think that it's classy and has a "calm" feeling to it.

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  7. Love this idea and, the result! Beautiful card! Yes, calm but also really happy and warm. You rock, girl!!! Thank you so much for linking this up at SHARE IT sunday linky party. A new party will open again today and I sure hope you'll join us again. PINNED you, btw, as it is... well... THAT GOOD! ~ Rose, http://www.FineCraftGuild.com

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  8. What a beautiful card. I wish I had that much talent. Thanks for linking up on the #HomeMattersParty this week. Hope you will come back next week to link up again.

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  9. Very Pretty! Thanks for sharing on My 2 Favorite Things on Thursday!! I love having you! Hope to see you again on Thursday! Pinned!

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