I love buying new craft supplies! Exciting, new products, new paper designs, new tools are introduced all the time and fill the shelves in the craft store. Who can resist it? So we buy...
But what about what we already have?
Those supplies suddenly look updated, old and that is if we even remember that we have them and can find them! Well...I think we have a TREASURE of supplies hidden in our stash and we can use it all! Even what looks old and we don't really want anymore.
Here are a few ideas I created over the years on how to use your supplies:
Use old letter stickers or chipboard letters
Use those leftover letters that we never use but don't have the heart to throw away as a background element. Look at the shape of the letter instead of its meaning. You'll find out that letters are beautiful and can be used as embellishments or texture elements. It doesn't matter what letters you have because you don't need to spell anything!
You can find a full tutorial on how to create this letters background here.
Create a Mini Album
If you're like me you probably have journaling tags, paper scraps, cut outs, tags that are just waiting in a box or a drawer. I decided to challenge myself to use them. The problem was that they didn't match. They had different design, color, shape and were all completely different. I couldn't use them on a layout because it would be too noisy and confusing for the eye. This was the perfect collection of supplies to create a mini album. Each tag or paper will stand alone as a page but as part of a larger project which is a mini album! It would be like a junk journal or a homemade smash book.
Check out the inner pages and the tutorial how to create this mini here.
Use supplies of the same theme
Another good way to use old supplies is to gather them according to a theme. This is what I did with this mini album. I used all the papers, stickers and supplies I had with a house/home theme and created an interactive mini album. You can do this with any theme you want: boy/girl, holidays, school, pets, love and the list can go on as long as your imagination can stretch it!
Photos of all the inner pages and ideas how to use scraps find here
Use supplies in a different way
Sometimes if you don't like supplies that you have try looking at them in a different way. I had some fabric that was too boring and not colorful enough. It was in my fabric drawer forever! Then I started thinking maybe I can use it in another way...like paper for example. So I cut it into squares and used the squares to create a 12x12 "paper" for a layout. Another supply I had a lot of and didn't use was white buttons. I had so many of them so i used them as "fruit/leafs on the tree I added to the layout!
I hope these ideas sparked you imagination to use your stash.
