She lives!!!

Hi everyone!  Yes, I'm back to update my SORELY neglected blog.  I've finally taken a break from scrapbooking to make some cards.  I bought the $5 grab bag from the Stampin Up! clearance rack (I think they are still available) and it came with lots of bits and pieces of carstock (pre-cut), cards and envelopes, ribbons, buttons, and designer patterned paper.  So I put on my creative hat and decided to see what I could come up with, trying to maximize the number of cards I produced. 

This first set was fun.  My son is 8 and has been invited to MANY, many birthday parties this year.  So I decided to make up some cards that are good for young boys.  Some of the Crumb Cake cards came with the grab bag and I just cut and scored some additional paper from my stash to make up the extra.  The More Mustard, Real Red, Old Olive, and Confetti cardstock pieces came as is in the grab bag.  I used a chevron stamp from Waltzing Mouse on the Old Olive paper, an Impression Obsession Cover a Card background stamp on the Real Red, and another grid background stamp from Waltzing Mouse Stamps on the More Mustard.  The guitar and video game stamps are from Papertrey Ink and are only $5 sets.  Love them!  With matching SU inks, I think they are adorable!  BTW, I stamped in Versamark first and had no trouble with SU ink on clear stamps.  ;)  I got 4 of the guitar cards and 3 of each of the video game cards.  10 cards and counting. 

This may have been my most frugal use of patterned paper, EVER!  The Stampin Up grab bag came with ONE 8.5x11 sheet of this paper with the stars, polka dots and blue grid.  I wish I had taken a picture before I cut it up, but alas, hindsight is 20/20 and I didn't.  I cut some matching cardstock in Old Olive, More Mustard and Bashful Blue to make the card bases.  Then I added the patterned paper with the dotted circles from my stash.  I pulled out the coordinating stamp set that I got free during Saleabration last year and some Old Olive ribbon from the SU clearance rack.  I used SU stars and circle punches for all but the largest star.  That is a Sizzix die that I used in my SU Big Shot.  I totally CASE'd these designs from the SU catalog.  LOL~  I got 4 of EACH of these cards so now I'm at 22 cards. 

These were interesting.  The Rose Red card bases, the Certainly Celery and  Very Vanilla pieces, and the Tempting Turquoise ribbon came with the grab bag.  This is not a color combination that I would normally pick, but I decided to step out of my box and try it.  I added the pink trim from this year's Saleabration Ice Cream Parlor kit and the SU sentiment stamps.  The background on the sentiment panel is from a Hero Arts background stamp.  The die cut flower is a Marth Stewart punch and the rhinestone is from SU colored with Copic markers.  I got 5 of each of these.  So 27 cards now. 



Again, the card bases, cardstock pieces and ribbon came with the grab bag.  The polka dot trim is from the same SAB Ice Cream Parlor kit as the last card.  Again, I used a SU set with matching SU inks (Certainly Celery and Tempting Turquoise).  The Pink Pirouette butterfly is a Martha Stewart punch, but would look just as nice with a butterfly from the SU butterfly Sizzlet.  I was just too lazy to get it out and use it that day.  I also made 5 of these cards.  32 cards now. 

The grab bag came with a sheet of cardstock stickers that I used on these cards and the next two as well.  When I ran out of those, I pulled out the coordinating stamp set (To You and Yours) and stamped some images on cardstock and punched them out with my 1.75" circle punch.  I added the strips of patterned paper from my stash.  The Crumb Cake cardbases came with the grab bag.  I think I cut the Mellow Moss ones from the cardstock that was in the grab bag.  Simple, but perfect for mass mailing cards like Christmas cards.  I got three of each, so I'm at 38 thus far. 

More of the same.  I got 3 of each of these cards as well.  So that brings my total to 44 cards from a $5 grab bag.  Not bad, if I do say so myself.  All the cardstock, ribbon and patterned paper that I used from didn't add more than $2 to the cost of my cards.  So for about $7 in Stampin Up product, I got 44 beautiful cards.  I've already used on of the star b-day cards (my son had a party about 30 minutes after I finished them, LOL) and one of the guitar cards for a guy at work.

Well, I hope this marathon post makes up just a bit for my long dry spell.  With spring here, I think I'll be creating more and hopefully posting more too.  If you want try your hand at a grab bag creation, contact your local Stampin UP demo for information on how to get a grab bag.  If you don't have a demo, there is a demo locator on stampinup.com  Have a great day!!!