I’ve been trying hard to use every unused supply that I currently have. I keep them separated and have been steadily working my way through them. I’m in a good spot right now where I’ve used everything from recent releases (so I’m not adding to my efforts) and I’m down to a fairly short list of older things left to use (at least compared to how I started.) I know many people can relate to feeling bad about having unused supplies laying around and this is my way of making sure everything gets used.
This quest has had a few side effects. The first is that sometimes I’m not happy with the cards that I make when I’m trying to use specific supplies. The card above is one where I was trying to cross several things off my list at once and it didn’t turn out great. The Pawsitive Christmas set was a freebie that I didn’t really love to begin with – it’s too big and can’t mix and match with all the other sets. (This was the same problem I had with the Stamptember set Sledding By this past year – why so big??) The freebie also didn’t come with dies and I just hate fussy cutting. The sparkle in the background helps a little in person but it’s just very plain overall.
Another side effect is that I don’t end up using my other supplies as much once I’ve used them. And it’s a shame because sometimes I think I could’ve made a better card if I had just been open to using anything rather than trying so hard to use something in particular.
This project has made me think about selling some supplies, because if it’s taking me a very long time to use something and it feels more forced than creative, then I probably don’t need it at all. It also makes me wish sometimes that craft companies would just stop coming out with new products. It would be nice in some ways to feel like your collection was complete and that you could use everything equally once it was no longer changing.
Materials used:
- Sparkle Backdrop
- Chili Pepper cardstock
- Sparkle Holiday cardstock
- Speech Bubble Border
- Pawsitive Christmas
handmadebyrachelle.com 