Take Three

Like many papercrafters, I have two passions with regard to this hobby, making projects with paper and collecting supplies to make those projects. Most papercrafters will tell you that part of the hobby is buying the supplies and as much as we may enjoy spending all that time and money making our selections and purchases, I've gotten to a point where I have so many supplies to choose from when I sit down to craft that it's often more time consuming to choose the supplies for any one project than it is to actually make the project itself!

If you've been in that same situation before, then I've got an idea that I hope may inspire you in a way that will allow you to save both time and money on your next papercraft projects. For me, the warm summer months find me spending a lot more time outside enjoying my family and engaging in summer activities, so when I do find time to craft I don't want to spend a lot of precious minutes sorting through my supplies, I just want to craft and staying focused is key!

I maintain that focus by first choosing a theme, like the End of Summer one I used for these projects, an inspiration photograph like the one above, and most importantly, select a limited set of supplies (that's what saves both time and money!).

The ONLY supplies I used to create my projects included: Patterned paper from GCD Studio's http://gcdstudios.com/index.php?option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=150">The Great Outdoors Collection by Heather Tozzi, specifically http://gcdstudios.com/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=1613&category_id=28&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=150">Picnic Table (that matches the red in the inspiration photo) and S'mores (that loosely matches the brown in the photograph), as well as cardstock in two shades of blue and the lighter brown from the color combination and white. Other supplies included the Vintage Picnic stamp set by Papertrey Ink, Vintage Picnic Basket die, one border punch, inks in coffee and black, watercolor pencils to color the images, one rectangle and one scalloped rectangle dies by Spellbinders, as well as red ribbon and red and white Baker's Twine. That was all the supplies I used to create all three of the cards I'm showing you today.

Once you've selected your supplies vow to yourself that you will not go back to your stash to choose anything new for your projects (that's the time saving part!). Believe it or not, it is still possible to create a variety of projects that can be both fun and fabulous, using only the supplies you have chosen and a bit of imagination too!

The next time you are in your craft room, try challenging yourself to use a set number of supplies along with your favorite selection of http://gcdstudios.com/index.php?option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=150">GCD Studios patterned papers to save time and money when creating your next papercraft projects... it's also a great way to use up your stash!