Making the Most of your Stash

 Hi Crafters

Sometimes the ideas for crafting are not about making a card from scratch or reproducing a card you have seen on YouTube, Pinterest or one of the Craft Channels, they are about checking out what you have in your stash and finding a new way to use the materials. It gives me great satisfaction when i re-purpose something and increase it's use. 

Today I want to share what I have made using Christmas cards I had in my cupboard. They were bought cards that I thought were a great design, and that had potential.

This card is from a box of 10 cards sold in aid of NSPCC, a lovely red front with board card stamped with the greeting that you can see through the branches. 

I can use the card like this or I can send them as an easel card. To make this I have stuck down the opening of the card allowing the greeting to show through . I have then used a sheet of card stock to make the easel card base and added a greeting section at the base of the easel card.

And lastly I have use the card to make the lid of a box.

The box base can be made from any of your stash, and then cut the card 1cm down the back, and score the right side of the card by 1cm. With the back piece of the card trim the other side  by 1cm to make it even.

Attach the front of the card with double side tape, using the 1cm of the back as the hinge. You may be able to make out that I rounded the closing side, that was just my preference. Glue the greeting to the bottom of the box so you can see it through the lid, this way when the gift is lifted out the greeting will be seen by the recipient. 

Above the box is closed 

You can make out the rounds flap on the right side

To the right the box is open and the greeting can be seen in the base. This would work very well with a plain base in gold or black as well as the Christmas paper from a First Edition card stack, that I have used 

I have also used cards from kits to make gift boxes. This picture below show a large card from a Create and Craft card kit, I has used the kit to make many different things (see previous posts from last years), and with 10 or so cards left I decided to make them into gift boxes. You an do this by opening up the card flat and then scoring 2cm down the right side of the front of the card and 2 cm from the middle crease on the back side of the card and then 2cm top and bottom. 

This gift box fits a large bar of chocolate perfectly , and I have decorated it with some of the leftover embellishments from one of the other Create and Craft card kits. 

 I hope this has given you all some ideas to use up those odds and ends you have in the craft boxes

Happy Crafting

Dee