Over on the Aussie Scrapbooking Blog, I recently read Mistra's post  Can A Girl  Have Too Many Supplies?

Then this week here at The Scrap Witch, Josie told us about her personal challenge of making 20 layouts from only old supplies from her stash before she will allow herself to buy anything new.

It's nothing new. All over the internet I've seen the same sort of thing. A lot of us struggling with monster stashes that are so big that we no longer know what to do with them. Myself included!

So I've set up some new weekly challenges at The Scrap Witch called "Use Your Stash" challenges.

Admittedly the very first challenge is definitely a bit ...whoooooahhhaaa!!!! So to lead the way...I've undertaken the challenge myself. Here's my piles of patterned paper...first my throw out pile...

And just to give you an idea of how much paper that actually is....

Yep that's actually about 3-4 inches of paper there. (A note here that challenge participants are only required to sort through one inch of their patterned paper and decide what to throw out from that. No need for them to be quite as drastic as me!)

For those who might be outraged by such a waste of good scrapbooking paper - in my defence the pile of paper went directly into my recycling bin...so hopefully it will be turned into something else...

In case you're wondering...NO...the beer bottles are not mine. They belong to dh (dear husband).

I thought I would feel sick at the sight of all this scrapbooking paper in the recycling bin...but actually I feel quite the opposite. Quite liberated!

For those who might be wondering why I didn't donate the paper to someone else, I've donated LOADS of paper and supplies from my stash (all brand new of course) as prizes here at The Scrap Witch over a number of years. Way more than I care to think about or attempt to place a dollar value on. So I have no guilt feelings on that front at all.

I did make up a small donation pile however...

This pile is for my daughter aged 6. She's quite a crafty little soul...and it's all in her favourite colour...PINK!!!!

Hmmm now my remaining task to USE UP what stash I have left.

I've chosen a very OLD patterned paper to use on my next layout. It's a blue "watery" design by Provocraft. I've had it in my stash for about 7 years I estimate. Time for it to be put to some good use methinks.

Now over to you...are you going to join me in culling your stash? :)

I came across the Jul 08 Prima Build-A-Page Sketch and thought...wow I have to try that idea!

So this is the result...

The photos are of my DD9 on her fourth birthday.

I cut the large circle out by hand using a plate to trace the circle and the my corner punch to scallop the edge.

The flowers are cut with the Craft Robo and embossed with the Cuttlebug using the Bloom Dots embossing folder. I inked them afterwards with a bit of Brilliance ink in gold, silver and some other colour...copper maybe?

The page title and the journalling block border were also cut with the Craft Robo. It's a pretty handy little machine to have around! :)

Today I decided to do one of the blog challenges over at Aussie Scrapbooking. The challenge was to scrapjack (ie copy) one of Penny Hackney's gorgeous layouts called "Beauty Exists". If you follow the link I've given you...you'll see Penny's layout.

For this challenge, I really had to have a good think about the photos to use. It came to me eventually though - I have this habit of taking photos of my daughters' birthday cakes...just the cake on its own. Why? I don't know - for prosperity I guess.

This challenge provided the perfect opportunity to scrap this strange collection of photos...

Not as good as the original obviously...but a reasonable re-creation I think. Thanks to Penny for the original idea. I think I might do another of my older daughter's collection of birthday cakes...

Oh my God! I've only used it once....but I can see this is going to become very addicting! I've run a small sheet of standard Bazzill linen cardstock through the Cuttlebug with one of my new embossing folders...and this is the result...first the front...

and also the back....

I guess you can choose to use either side really....but WOW....love it!!!!

The Cuttlebug has landed...at my place I mean! Yes I've taken the plunge and invested in this gadget I've been hearing lots about. I've also invested in several embossing folders, which is where my real interest lies with the Cuttlebug...

Many thanks to Susan Jackson of Paperbark Creations who very kindly hand delivered it. Now to sit down and have a play....

Last night I did Penny Hackney's Little Bit Of Love online class which I thoroughly enjoyed. Thanks so much Penny! I finished a gorgeous layout for the class which I am very proud of...but I can't show you the whole layout just yet. Sorry! But maybe Penny won't mind if I give you a just a couple of quick peeks...

If you didn't sign up for the class, you can still do so for access to the step-by-step class instructions. I highly recommend it...it was so much fun and my layout turned out very well! (Even if I do say so myself...lol.)

When I'm able to, I'll post the complete layout to the blog....

Last night I completed Challenge #1 during our July 08 Cybercrop here at The Scrap Witch. We had the choice of two quotes and I chose to use this one...

"Within each of us is a God-wired uniqueness, something that makes us feel more alive than breath itself. To embrace that uniqueness and pursue it is the first step to radiating light." ~ Louie Giglio

I had these pics of my DD9 (dearest daughter, aged 9) to scrap...and DD9  is certainly "wired" a bit differently to everyone else. This is part of her, and to some degree, part of her charm...but I just have to learn to think of her disability in this fashion. The quote is really a reminder to me of this.

Anyway, here it is...

I've used some papers from the Basic Grey Euphoria range, cut the heart shapes and scalloped circle with my Craft Robo cutter, and doodled quite extensively. The doodling is very imperfect...but actually...I love it! This is a huge step for someone who previously had to measure everything precisely and start a page all over again if the slightest mistake was made. I've made tons of mistakes on this page...but I'm probably the only one who knows what they are. I've also used a less than perfect photo (bottom left)...and despite it being a terrible photo, I felt it needed to be included anyway.

If you'd like to see a couple of close-ups of the doodling, you'll have to read on...

Buy 20 papers, get 10 free. I mean seriously how many scrappers could resist that? That is a very naughty offer. Shame on you Anna's Craft Cupboard!

LOL...just joking!

So yes I've been shopping again this morning and bought myself 30 patterned papers, 10 of them free. Mmmmm. A mixture of stuff...Fancy Pants, Prima, Crate Paper, Making Memories Noteworthy amongst others. All in all I've figured out that the special works out to roughly 78c (Australian) per sheet....well for me anyway. Quite a good price methinks!

For anyone interested, I believe offer is open until midnight on Sunday 13 July 2008. I got the details from here, if you'd like to check it out for yourself.

Yesterday I posted about a Surprise Challenge I was working on here at The Scrap Witch. Fifty nine buttons and fifty nine glue dots later...arggghhh...it's finished. Yay! (Let us never speak of buttons again!)

My apologies for the terrible picture...the lighting in here is very BAD tonight. I'll take a better picture tomorrow.

All fifty nine buttons and the page title cut with the Craft Robo.

I've decided to do a Surprise Challenge that the lovely Penny Hackney set for us at The Scrap Witch based on Elsie's 52 challenges. I'm loving it...but OMG the buttons are driving me batty! Why? Well I'm not really a lumpy scrapper...so I've gone and drawn the buttons in Adobe Illustrator...and I'm letting my trusty Craft Robo cut them all out.

Here's what I've done so far. Thought I'd show you the progress whilst I'm waiting for more buttons to come off the production line...come ON Robo...hurry up!!!