Zero Waste Friends of the Forest project – and tips for reducing waste

Reducing waste and minimising our impact on the planet is a big passion of mine and my Stampin’ Up! UK customers – so I thought I’d make a theme of it for my social media posts this week with projects and tips all week long. Please visit my Facebook page or Instagram to get the full experience!

The starting point for this themed week is my very first Instagram Hop, on the theme of Zero Waste. Please visit my Instagram page to find the others in the hop. 

There’s a bit of a back story to my hop project. I went away last weekend and took the Light the Candles Kit with me for some relaxing crafting. I love these kits as you don’t have to think! And everything gets used, with very little waste. 

 

However, there was a small amount of paper waste left over once I’d completed the kit and just as I was about to put it into the recycling bag, I had an idea for this Zero Waste project. 

I searched through my stamp collection to find Friends of the Forest; the little creatures are just the right size to peep through the circles. 

 

I didn’t want to stamp them onto white as I knew the white wouldn’t match the paper from the kit but I thought Pool Party (one of my favourite colours) was a nice compromise here and goes well with Sunshine & Rainbows Designer Series Paper, a Sale-a-Bration product which is free with a £45 order until the end of February.

Originally I had planned to stamp the images directly onto the back panel but that was never going to work as they would overlap. To save making more waste by trying this several times, I stamped each animal onto a small piece of Pool Party card so it could be positioned accurately with no overlapping ink. However, these were all taken from my scraps box. 

 

I also used scraps of Sunshine & Rainbows Designer Series Paper for the background. I managed to find pieces which were almost the right size so hardly had to trim these at all. In another attempt to reduce waste, I mounted these onto the backing piece from the DSP pack, then cut it to size before adding to the card. 

Here are some great tips for reducing waste when you craft:

1. Save those scraps! Narrow strips are good for stamping greetings. Smaller scraps can be used to make tiny punched shapes for confetti or embellishments.

2. Measure mindfully. When creating multiples of a project, think how you can cut your cardstock up into equal pieces to avoid waste. With A4 cardstock, this could be 7cm x 9.9cm layers which mean you get nine equal shapes from one sheet.

3. It’s in our nature to die-cut and punch shapes up to the edge of a piece of cardstock to avoid waste... but you can actually avoid waste by cutting from the centre, as this means you can use the leftover piece as a layer.

4. Have Designer Series Paper you don’t love, or which doesn’t go with your project? Stamp on it, sponge it, colour it – you can MAKE it match.

5. Finally, remember: if you can’t see it, it’s not there. Cut out centres of cardstock layers and use on another project. Don’t wrap ribbon all the way around layers or cards; just tape it behind where you can’t see. 

 

If you love any of the products you see here and are in the UK, please consider shopping at my online store as every order helps to support my small business. As a thank you, if you use the February 2022 host code 2FYQAK7T, I’ll send you a thank you gift in the following month.

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Does your wish list come to more than £99? Please get in touch and I will help you get more for your money and unlock discounts all year round.  

 

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Friends of the Forest card ideas – night and day

I love animal images so was instantly drawn to the Friends of the Forest stamp set in the Stampin’ Up!® January-June 2022 Mini Catalogue. I love the stylised fox and rabbit and when I discovered the the deer image coordinates with the Deer Builder Punch which has carried over from the July-December Mini Catalogue it went straight onto my shopping list.

Today I have two versions of a similar card design to show you using this gorgeous Friends of the Forest stamp set. The cards feature a variety of techniques, including colouring with Stampin’ Blends, masking and colouring with Blending Brushes. 

 

 

I made the white card a few weeks ago, having fun colouring the images using Stampin’ Blends. I coloured the deer using the Ivory marker, creating a paler area on her back by missing that area out and blending it slightly using the Color Lifter.

The tree is coloured using Ivory for the trunk and branches and light and dark Granny Apple Green for the leaves. This was quite a laborious/therapeutic task, depending on your views on colouring! It is fussy cut and glued flat to the card front.

The rabbit is Smoky Slate on a Crumb Cake log, the flower is Daffodil Delight and the toadstools are Poppy Parade.

To finish off, I used a strip of Bloom Where You’re Planted Designer Series Paper as it has the perfect woodgrain effect to go with the tree and woodland creatures. 

 

I often find that Stampin’ Up!’s patterned paper goes with lots of different stamp sets, especially when you turn it over to find the more subtle designs on the reverse. This strip of paper is glued flat to the card front, while the white panel is popped up on Stampin’ Dimensionals to create a step and add interest. 

 

That was several weeks ago and the card has sat waiting for its moment in the limelight. Finally its time has come!

 

While browsing on Instagram I happened upon a gorgeous creation by Laura Mackie, a hugely talented UK Stampin’ Up!® Demonstrator, who had created a night-time card featuring these cute little Friends of the Forest. I decided to take her night-time idea and remake my first card using Blending Brushes and some masking to create an atmospheric scene.

I created a moon mask using Layering Circles Dies on a sticky note and added colour around it using Misty Moonlight, plus a little Night of Navy in the area behind the tree. I wish I’d made a smaller moon but didn’t have the time or inclination to start again.

The grassy area is Granny Apple Green, one of my favourite colours as it is so bright and cheery. I coloured the tree using Granny Apple Green Stampin’ Blends, too, with some extra ink added afterwards using a Blending Brush. 

 

I masked off the flower as I am too pedantic to have a flower in full bloom in a night-time scene and added extra toadstools. As they were stamped onto green, I used a dark Poppy Parade Stampin’ Blend to add the colour, then a Chalk Marker to pick out the white spots.

In fact, I went a little darker on every colour when colouring the images on this card, as I wanted them to reflect the moodier night-time theme. So I used Crumb Cake instead of Ivory on my deer and tree trunk, and chose Cajun Craze for the fox, instead of the Smoky Slate of the daytime rabbit. The bird is Light Night of Navy and Dark Balmy Blue on the night-time scene, instead of subtle Pool Party on the daytime card. 

I didn’t have any more woodgrain paper but found a wood-panelled design in the same Bloom Where You’re Planted pack and sponged it with some Crumb Cake to make it darker. And instead of stamping onto the card – which wouldn’t show up against the night sky – I used a little Stitched So Sweetly label with the word “hello”.

This tip will save you lots of time! Whenever I die-cut a label from Basic White cardstock, I cut a few spares from different dies, so I can do them all at the same time. The unused labels go into a box which I keep on my stamping trolley. This means I often have a suitable label to use for a greeting when I am making a card. 

 

 

 

Which card do you prefer? The clean white of the daytime card or the dark moody night-time project? 

If the Friends of the Forest stamp set is on your wish list and you live in the UK, I would love it if you considered shopping with me. If you are in the UK and would like to order, please visit my store and, if you use the current host code 2FYQAK7T, I’ll send you a thank you gift in the following month. Don’t forget if you spend more than £45 during February 2022, you will qualify for a FREE Sale-a-Bration gift, too!

To make it easy for you, please shop using this link

Does your wish list come to more than £99? Please get in touch and I will help you get more for your money and unlock discounts all year round.  

 

Please message me via my website