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.

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 

 

Four easy cards using Driving By Sale-a-Bration stamp set

 

Driving By is not just the most popular Sale-a-Bration stamp set among Stampin' Up!® UK customers but the most popular stamp set of all right now so I thought it was time I used it to create some fun and easy cardmaking projects.

The rubber stamp set features a sports car, a Volkswagen Beetle and a classic VW camper van, plus some fun sayings to go with them. It's perfect if you love colouring so I’ve used it here with Stampin’ Blends alcohol markers. 

My first card is a trendy slimline design to fit our new Slimline Envelopes. Other than that, the design is really simple and can be made with just white cardstock, black ink and the Sunshine & Rainbows Designer Series Paper from the Sale-a-Bration brochure. I picked three colours from this brightly coloured pack of fun patterned paper to colour my camper vans, choosing from the centre of the Venn diagram of “colours in the paper pack” and “Stampin’ Blends I own”. This gave me Granny Apple Green, Pool Party and Mango Melody.

I positioned the three vans using the Stamparatus and a variation of the hinge step technique. Instead of removing the Stamparatus plate across, I moved my cardstock. This is ideal if your image doesn’t fit the exact distances provided by the hinge slots. I might have to make a video to demonstrate that as I don’t think I’ve explained it very well.

I mounted this panel onto another piece of Basic White cardstock purely because I couldn’t decide which colour to use but I wanted to give it a little more depth. It just shows that you don’t need lots of supplies to make a striking card – you can do a lot with just white and a pack of patterned paper.

Behind this panel I used three patterns of Designer Series Paper from the Sunshine & Rainbows pack, choosing one in each of the three colours I’d used. I cut these into blocks of just under a third of the width of the card with the intention of positioning them straight... but they slipped before I could glue them and I liked the angled look better.

Finally, I stamped “You’ve got style’ onto a scrap of white and popped this up on Stampin’ Dimensionals.

For the next three cards I stamped one of each of the Driving By images and cut them out using Layering Circles Dies. Each card uses the reverse pattern of the designs I used on the slimline card.

This card uses a fun rainbow striped design with the addition of some white Baker's Twine. I love the clean Basic White card base and the contrast with that and the bright colours of the Sunshine & Rainbows Designer Series Paper.

The sports car card uses a very similar card design, just turned on its side. I chose this paper because its main colours are Granny Apple Green and Pool Party, which pick up the colours of the Stampin’ Blends alcohol markers I used to colour my image. There’s just a hint of Denim Ribbon there, picking up the Misty Moonlight used on the rainbows. 

The camper van card just had to have rainbows and sunshine images, to evoke the beach vibes of the van. I’ve used Bermuda Bay cardstock with two patterned papers, and a tiny strip of Magenta Madness cardstock for the greeting. The ribbon is Polished Pink, but it’s close enough to coordinate with Magenta Madness.

 

I hope you like my Driving By cards and will consider this stamp set if you place a qualifying Sale-a-Bration order which, in the UK, is £45. The stamp set is free with a £45 order, or you could choose the Sunshine & Rainbows Designer Series Paper instead if you wish, as that is also free with a £45 order.

Plus, if you place an order at my online store using the host code 2FYQAK7T, I will send you a thank you gift next month. This month I sent out rolls of Scalloped Lace Trim to those who use the host code, so be sure to remember... unless you are ordering over £150, as then you can choose your own free gifts at the checkout.

If you are in the UK and would like to order, please visit my store and, if you use the current host code DQPJEQF9, I’ll send you a thank you gift in the following month.

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