Besties Challenge - Week 1

Challenge yourself.  It's worth the work.  I created four cards from the pin inspiration of week one of the Besties Weekly Challenge.  

I took this pin and styled it my way, into these four stunning cards:

Are you ready to be inspired?  Play along with the Besties Challenge and follow our board on Pinterest.  Challenge yourself, build your skills, not your stash.  

Challenge Yourself

Do you ever feel like you're surrounded?  Surrounded by a creative space filled with the encouragement to continually purchase the latest product release.  It's hard not to feel that way.  There seems to be an ever-evolving new release every time we turn around.  With the latest release comes the burning desire to purchase.  When the purchase arrives in our mailbox we get that great endorphin rush of joy that goes with new products.  Do you also find that that endorphin rush disappears a little quicker, with the more we purchase?

These are the challenges I'm currently facing.  I want to purchase something from nearly every product release.  I get that rush when the package arrives and that rush doesn't last like it used to.  We won't even talk about the fact that my budget is screaming "No! Don't buy anything else!"

So how do we keep creating without giving into the pressure to purchase with every new product release?  One word - CHALLENGE!  Start challenging yourself and your creative buddies to use what you already have.

My Bestie and I have started a Besties Weekly Challenge Board on Pinterest.  We just started this board last Wednesday and new pins will be added weekly.  I will be posting my completed challenge on Instagram and the Inked Inspirations Facebook Page.

Right now there's only one pin, since we just started, but the board will build as the weeks go on.  Feel free to join us and challenge yourself to try these ideas.  You'll find the details of what the challenge is from the inspiration pin that posted.  Follow the board to follow along.

Inspire yourself to use the pins you've been saving!  Get out of your comfort zone and stretch your supplies.  Build on the idea, don't copy it.  Use your supplies to create your own version of the pin that inspired you.

Scraps to Tags 2

I keep all, or nearly all of my scraps.  Including the 1/4-inch and 1/2-inch pieces.  I sort them into solids and patterns, then the solids are sorted by color, and in the end, it's stashed for later projects.  I'll be honest, the 1/4-inch strips have always been the hardest to use up, but I still couldn't toss them, especially if it's a pattern paper I just love.

This weekend I set out to use up this stash.  I wanted a project that would use several of the strips all at once.  I cruised Pinterest and found a number of cute ways to use scraps, but most of the ideas were for larger scraps than I wanted to work with.  I looked at some of the methods that were used and adapted those ideas to my scrap stash.

I'm really into building tags right now and creating them from the huge stash of scraps I have makes my heart and hands happy.  These scrappy tags were so much fun to create.  I honestly found this to be very relaxing and almost meditative.

To create these tags, I started with larger scraps from my stash.  I print a lot of free printables and I save all the strips when cutting these out.  This habit leaves me with a lot of white strips of paper.  There are dozens of ways I used these white strips in my creations, but more on that later.  I digress.  I pulled some of the wider white strips from my stash and covered one side with my chosen adhesive, which in this case was Grafix Artist-Tac sheets.  Once I added the adhesive I went to town sticking little strips of paper down.  Mostly random order, a few in a color scheme.  Completed strips were die cut into tags using the My Favorite Things Die-namics Stitched Tags.

After my tags were cut, I began embellishing them and adding string and some beads.  They turned out so cute and were so fun to make.  There will be more of these in my crafting future.

I think these will be so cute as gift tags for Christmas in sets of red and green.  Yes.  I know not everyone is a scrap hoarder, but for those of us who think outside the box and use those tiny bits!  I hope this inspires you to create from your scrap stash.

Kite Card

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