Welcome to this month’s installment of the Squirrely Stash Bash! What’s that, you ask? Its the monthly get together of the Squirrel Squad (6 good crafty friends) who use a monthly prompt to bash our stash of supplies that we’ve hoarded squirreled away! If you are here from my sweet Squirrel Sister, Marie Bingaman, I thank you for following along and I hope you’ll subscribe while you’re here! And if you are already subscribed, well you are awesome!!! 😁
This month’s prompt is Botanical using this beautiful photo prompt created by our very own talented squirrel, Anna Mahtani… along with a peek at my projects:
This gorgeous photo prompt was so inspiring to work with! I loved the color combo so much!!! Hopefully you can see the photo prompt as the inspiration for all of my projects. Ok, before we take a closer look at the cards, here is the lineup of Squirrels so you don’t get lost along the way:
- Marie Bingaman
- Karen Page – YOU ARE HERE
- V Fairchild
- Bory Yankova
- Lounon Riviere
- Anna Mahtani
First up, my favorite card for the prompt:
This card was made with My Favorite Thing’s Large Desert Bouquet, a stamp set I’ve had for years and years but *never* used! 😞 I even have the coordinating dies, and for some reason the set was always too intimidating to use! Well I decided it was time to get over that! I used a combo of inks from Impression Obsession and Simon Says Stamp to give a gradient color to the petals and ferns. I was tempted to ink blend some of the bright blue in the photo reference but I chickened out! The sentiment is from another MFT set, this one called My Galentine. The flowers are popped up at different heights:
Next up is an idea I had that was a bit out of the box:
This card was created with a set from Kelly Creates aptly called Mandala, which I thought resembled a flower. This set was also virgin polymer and I am excited to revisit this set as I have more ideas on how to use it. I used a new to me set of square barreled colored pencils from Brutfuner, which I really like. It was nice to bust them out as I’ve only tried them a couple times since I got them. Just as soft and creamy as Prismacolor and yet so much cheaper! The image was a bit painstaking to color (#somanytinyspaces) but was totally worth it and I love the CAS design. The sentiment is from an Altenew set called Dearest Friends, which needs more ink itself.
Last up is a Pocket Slimline, invented by my dear Squirrel Sister, V Fairchild (read more HERE or watch her explain it in a corresponding YT video HERE):
This card was created with a mini set from Altenew called Lingonberry Branch, which was gifted me to by a sweet Sister Squirrel recently. I was eager to put it to use for this month’s prompt!!! I stamped it right on my Pocket Slimline card base and colored it with the same Brutfuner pencils. I have a gift to mail out soon to my bestie, and this will be the perfect note card to include with it! We have been missing each other a lot recently and I hope the gift is something will cause the recipient to think of me every time she uses it, and to smile. I can’t wait to hear about her reaction to a very unusual gift!!!
Well, that’s it for me but not for you! There is still so much more to see, so please hop along to the next of the Squirrel Squad, Virginia who will delight and entertain you! While you are there, check out her recent posts on her new 3×1 challenge for the year, inspired by yours truly!
Thanks for stopping by and playing along with our fun! I hope to be back soon with a post on how I played along with V’s 3×1 challenge!!! Until then, get out those supplies and bash your own stash!!!
Misplaced Mojo 
Oh wow! What a fantastic trio of cards!! Karen, you did again great job! All of them are so lovely but I think my favorite is the first one, I love these flowers 🙂 The berry card is so darling and I’m sure your bestie will love it! I need to check these colored pencils out, the colors look pretty and so does the second card ❤
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Thanks so much Bory! I got the pencils off Amazon for maybe $20 before Christmas after seeing several reviews of them on YT by much great artists and coloring gurus. They come in round barrel and square, but I like how the square doesn’t roll off my desk with every little nudge. They have another set of pastels that I am going to order too. There are light colors in the original set, but the pastel set is just so dreamy! Since they aren’t manufactured in the US, you may be able to pick them up cheap too!
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I LOVE all three of your takes on this! Boy I’ll bet that mandala WAS time consuming to color!!! I’m so stoked to see the pocket slimline! I’m sure your best friend will love it (along with this intriguing gift)! And you know I’ll be back to see your 3×1! After all, you started it! 😉 amazing as always my friend!
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Thank you my sweet V! I thought it was the perfect use of the set Anna set me, and I love that both she and I have run with both your pocket slimline and the 3×1 challenge 😊 I’ll message the group what the gift is when I can get a couple pics. It was so funny I had to get one for myself too!
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Fantastic trio of cards Karen! My fave is the Mandala one, I just love the blends of colors and how you made it work for this month’s theme! I’m so happy that you got to create with the little stamp set I gave you! Your bestie will love it, for sure!
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You usually take a very creative take on the prompts, so I tried to give it a shot! And I had fun playing with the stamp set. I have plans to use the stamp and die to make a bunch and use them on a Christmas scrapbook page… eventually. 😁
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They look beautiful Karen ! I think the first is my favorite too but they are all so pretty ! I like that you went out of your comfort zone for the second card and that you used V’s awesome format : the Pocket Slimline ! Great work !
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Thank you Lounon! I’m so creatively rusty (oy! I first typed reatively crusty 😆) that I was really surprised that I ended up with 3 cards I liked! Your hands were sore from all your fussy cutting, by mine were useless the day after all that coloring! When they say we give our projects are all… blood, sweat, tears… that’s sometimes not even a exaggeration!
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Well dang it! I love all of these cards! That mandala is STUNNING, my friend! Where’d you get those colored pencils you used used? 😉
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Thank you my friend!!! I got them cheap off Amazon (even though I hate to support them with my $$$) after seeing Lindsay The Frugal Crafter review them. These Brutfuner feel just like Prismas except that you can get a sharper point without it breaking the lead. It is a challenge to get the square barrel in a round sharpener though! But I’ll trade that to keep them from rolling off my dang desk!!! When I bought them, I was excited that I could use them as photo props with my cards and they wouldn’t roll around… then forgot to use them for this post 🤦♀️ You can order directly from Brutfuner but if you have Prime, just get’em from friggin Amazon.
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