Welcome back, my crafty friends! The Squirrel Squad is back at it again, bringing you another mini hop that will inspire you to bash your stash of supplies!!! For those who haven’t hopped with us before, we are a group of friends who frequently get distracted by squirrels and tend to let our crafty supplies get neglected. In an effort to change that, we decided to have a monthly hop, with a new theme each month. In addition, we’ve designated a supply type each month to encourage us to use supplies we’ve “squirreled away”. This month the theme is Animals and the suggested supply is glitter & texture pastes! Now, we’re a small group so it takes almost no time to hop through and see how each of the Squirrelz interpreted the theme with the supplies they have. If you arrived here after visiting our sweet and spunky Marie, then you are on the right track already! Here are the links for everyone, and there will be another link at the bottom of this post to send you along to the next stop.

• Marie Bingaman
• Karen Page – YOU ARE HERE
• V Fairchild
• Lounon Riviere
• Anna Mahtani
• Bory Yankova – skipping this month

Now, this was I challenge I *really* needed. I am embarrassed by how many jars of pastes I own. And what is worse, is that so many of them are not even usable anymore because they dried out. 😥 I had so many ideas for cards, and then I’d pull out the color paste I needed only to find it was hard as a rock or so dry and thick that you couldn’t spread it. That said, I was still able to pull together several cards with the pastes that are still good. And I’m inspired to find ways to use them up so I don’t waste them! With that in mind, I used a bunch of paste this month and made a bunch of cards. Grab a beverage and have a look:

Told you I made a bunch!!! First up, this sweet card using a dog image from Clearly Besotted’s Puppy Love set.

The background was made with a stencil from Gina Marie Designs called Paws and Bones. First I ink blended with Distress Oxides, then used a rose gold pearl paste from Vicki Boutin for the tiniest of the paw prints. It needed something more, so I went over the whole stenciled area with a clear gloss paste from Tessler. I spread more of the rose gold paste on a scrap of paper and let it dry, then die cut a heart from it using a nesting die set from Darice. I liked the texture I got… almost like fabric. The sweet little doggie was colored using Brutfuner pencils. The sentiment is from a set I don’t think I’ve ever used before, Papertrey Ink’s Through the Trees, and I added another paste paw print in the rose gold on the sentiment strip. I know eventually I am going to need this pet sympathy card, but for my Besties’ sake, I hope this card sits in my stash for a very, very long time!!! It’s one of those cards you would rather make in advance than when you’re sad. And yes, I colored the image to match her pup. Next up, a Christmas card:

This one was made with another Gina Marie Designs stencil aptly named Deer. I used a gold glitter paste from BoBunny, which must have been drying out because it was difficult to use. The stenciling has flaws, but I thought it was still pretty enough to use. I wanted red in the color combo, so I die cut a label shape from red glitter paper with a die from a magazine freebie and popped it up on foam tape. I found a stamp/die set from Recollections in my stash that had a reindeer with coordinating die. Like the last card, I spread the glitter paste on a scrap and tried to die cut it. Unlike the pearl paste, the die wouldn’t go through the glitter paste. It even warped my new Magic Mat trying😖. So, I used the stamp and heat embossed it in gold glitter embossing powder from Ranger, then die cut it. The sentiment is from another magazine freebie, which was stamped in red and then die cut. I added some red, glitter, epoxy dots from Gina Marie Designs to finish it off.

This CAS-ish card was made using a stencil from The Crafter’s Workshop called Aspen Trees. I first ink blended with Oxide ink, then used Silver Gem glimmer paste from Nuvo to make the trees look like Birch trees since I don’t know what aspens look like (cause I don’t think they grow where I live). Wait, do Aspen trees look like Birch??? Hold on…. OK, had to check with Mr. Googlepants and I’ll be! Aspen tree trunks look just like Birch. Who’da thunk?!? Doh… squirreled again! Where was I? Oh yeah… the sentiment is also from Papertrey Ink’s Through the Trees (seriously, I should use this set more often!) and then it was die cut with a banner from Creek Bank Creations. The birds are also in the same stamp set, and I just stamped them in red and heat embossed in red glitter embossing powder from Wow!. Next up:

Ok, this one might be my fav, even if its hard to photograph! I first ink blended with Oxide inks on a blue panel to make it darker at the bottom, then used MFT’s Ray of Light stencil with Moonstone glimmer paste from Nuvo. Just like on the first card, I spread various glitter pastes thinly over scrap paper. Once dry, I stamped images from MFT’s Fish You Were Here set, heat set the ink, then fussy cut the images. I decided to use a different set for the sentiment, so I grabbed Beary Best Friend, also from MFT. I just realized this is a full MFT card! Y’all, I don’t normally do time consuming cards, but this one was a labor of love. LOL 😆 But *so* worth it! I swear IRL this card is mesmerizing with all that sparkle and shimmer!!!

This next card is definitely a runner up for fav:

This card really used up my stash! The die cut background, from Impression Obsession, was in a baggie of previously cut die pieces. The ink blended piece for the butterfly was in another baggie, just waiting for its day to get used. I have a stencil and mask combo from Heidi Swap (a real moldy oldie!) called Butterfly set. I decided to use the open butterfly stencil with a 2nd stencil over top, so the stencil design would just be in the shape of the butterfly. I went through my stencils until I found one that worked well, and Hero Arts’ Glorious Petal was perfect! I used the Moonstone glimmer paste again, and once it was dry I carefully cut the butterfly shape out, using the dried paste as a guide. I love how Moonstone reflects the colors underneath! The butterfly already covers so much of the background that I didn’t want a big sentiment. I die cut a scalloped Spellbinders oval die and inked the edges with the colors from the butterfly and then got the idea to ink blend the sentiment to match. I used a Stampendous set called Brushed Wishes for the sentiment and I love how it turned out. This is one of those cards that looks even better IRL than it does in pics.

Phew! That was a lot so I thank you for sticking with me!!! This is one time when I honestly feel really good for using my stash because I had quite a few pastes that needed to be used up before they became pretty concrete. 😄 I had shown the Squirrel Squad a pic of my almost overflowing drawer of pastes, so I don’t think I could’ve gotten away with making only 1 card, so I hope you don’t mind the long post.

And, I am stoked to have used supplies from a *bunch* of different companies too. I had to go back and count. Wanna guess how many??? 22 different companies! Insane right?!? THIS, my friends, is why I no longer do DT work. I was free to use *anything* in my stash and look at how much I was able to use! Impressive… until you look at the condition of my craft room. You’ll have to use your imagination because I am *not* taking a picture of that mess! Ok, now its time for you to head over to my dear friend V’s blog, Passions and Distractions to see what she came up with. I’m headed there too, cause I always love both her projects *and* her writing!

Thank you for stopping by today, and say hi to V for me, will ya?!? Ha! If you haven’t been to her blog before, I can tell you that you’ll love her! You know this girl “squirrels” a lot when she even names her blog “distractions”! She’s my kind of gal!!! OK, off with ya! Oh and we’d love if you leave comments along the way so we know we’re not just talking to ourselves, and subscribe if you want to see more from us. 🤣 Have a great day… and go use those pastes before they become concrete!!!

PS: I know someone is going to point out that this was an animal theme and I neglected to make a squirrel card (especially considering I got several new sets for Christmas). All I can say is that my plans were thwarted when I found out my chocolate brown glitter paste was absolutely solid. By the time I came up with a backup idea, I had run out of time. It was a missed opportunity, for sure!