Using your Old Stamps Up

I truly think stamps are addictive. Once you get the bug you cannot stop coveting or simply buying the next one. Several times a year there are new stamps released and there will always be those that you decide you just cant do without! It is easy to spend hours chasing down some stamp used in a project you have admired on someones blog or Pinterest. There are always new exciting products coming out. You could easily spend your days shopping rather than making. Often I find myself looking at a stamp and thinking of all the things I could make with it. Its so easy to persuade yourself that the new shiny stamp will make the best ever project and forget the multitude you already have.

Often your own stamps become invisible, you forget them amongst the thousands. Lets be honest, it probably goes beyond the hundreds. I think it is important to spend more time experimenting and creating than shopping and using what we have I will exercise our imagination. I will certainly be richer! I do not like to think of the amount I have spent on stamps since I started using them.

I am setting out to use more of my stamps. To be creative with what I have. It will be my own personal challenge. I am sure I am not alone in having many stamps which I have not used in years or even some which remain in their cellophane waiting for their first taste of ink.

Four months until the end of 2018 I will try and go cold turkey with the shopping and use as many of my virgin or neglected stamps as possible. For fun I will post the total in the New Year. Please feel free to join in!

To start off I am using a set lusted after for over a year and finally bought, in January! Bird Feather by Tim Holtz/Stampers Anonymous. This lovely set has 2 birds, eggs, a beautiful twiggy nest and a large feather. Ironically the stamp that pulled me in most was the smallest, the row of Fig 1-7. This is the only stamp I have used since I bought the set.

I haven't made a clean and simple card in ages so I am trying to keep this nice and easy. I did use watercolour cardstock as a base because I have run out of white cards.

The larger bird from the set is stamped on the edge of the card. I have stamped a bit of nest so he appears to be sitting on the edge of his nest. The figs 1-7 are stamped in the same sepia archival ink. The stamped image is heat dried so I can wet the card. The final element is a quick spritz with water then a little sprinkle of infusions in "Slime." I mounted the finished card front on green coloured cardstock.  I have added no sentiment to the front as I can stamp whatever is appropriate inside when I use the card.

I love the infusions splatter and I do love this stamp. Not sure what the fascination with figure numbers is. Perhaps it comes from hours poring over old botany and other books with beautiful engraved black and white illustrations.

Im linking this up to Crafty Creations challenge #372 which is Anything Goes