There are so many lovely crafting supplies out there, aren’t there? And we see the beautiful stashes and swatch charts of people who do craft for a living, and it can be easy to get dissatisfied with what we have and always be wanting more. And yet we are called to contentment, not envy by Jesus.

Sometimes though, we have more than we realise, if we just look at things creatively. So here are a few hacks to help you make the most of what you have.

This post features cards made with stamps from the Sonshine Stamp Co.

• Hack 1

Layer your inks

One of the ways we can get around not having the exact colour of ink we ‘need’ is to layer inks to create new colours. This card was made using just three colours of ink, a pink, a bright yellow and a blue to create the rainbow that you see.

Each of the coloured stripes is double stamped, using either two of those colours, or a double stamping of the same colour. If you look closely, (or not so closely at a couple of the stripes), you can see the two colours are slightly offset. I didn’t use any fancy stamping equipment for this card, just a regular stamping block, so the alignment isn’t perfect.

• Hack 2

Use inks to colour your paper.

I couldn’t find the colour of paper I needed to mount the panel on, so I used white, and ran the yellow inkpad that I used for the middle candle around the edges to colour the paper. Now it’s a perfect match with the centre of the card.

• Hack 3

Layer your stamps.

I’ve used the paint stripe from the the “Swirls and Stars” set, and stamped the candle from the “Emmanuel” set over the top.

• Hack 4

Use the backs of your stamps.

For the next card I’ve used the paint stripe from the “transform” stamp set. This stripe has a butterfly in it, which I love, but I didn’t want the butterfly for this particular card, so I used the back of the stamp. This card also uses hack 1. I’ve only used three different greens, but have stamped them in different combinations to get a multitude of shades.

(Hey, did you spot the ant? I photographed this outside so you could catch the shine)

• Hack 5

Don’t forget the small stamps.

Often we order sets based on the larger images we like, but the stars on this card above are two of the tiny images on the “Immanuel” stamp.

This card also used hack 2. I used silver embossing powder to colour my paper to match the card.

• Hack 6

Think outside the box.

This final card is one I’ve shared before, but it shows that stamps can be used for wildly different things to their original purpose. Here, I’ve used the ice creams from the “sweet treat” set to make the jellyfish. So really, when it comes to using your supplies, the sky’s the limit!

I hope this post inspires you to have a fresh and creative look at your supplies, and I’d love to see what you create.

Until next time, stay well, stay content.

Blessings,

Donna

Instagram: donnadoll74