3 Easy Tips for Using Your Seasonal Stash All Year Long!

Hi crafty friends! This is Irene (@artemismade1), and I am so happy you are spending a little time with us today on the Trinity Stamps blog! I am sharing 3 tried and true tricks (I love alliteration!) that will help you maximize your stash by using your seasonal products outside of their season! I always get a little sad when it’s time to put away the holiday decorations, and the same goes for my seasonal crafty goodies. That’s why I use these 3 tricks to make sure I get as much use out of my seasonal stash as possible! Read on to see how the Holiday Gnome Stacks stamp set and the Ribbon Twirl layering stencil went from decidedly Holiday/Christmas to very Valentine’s!

Step 1 – Adjust the color palette

This may seem obvious, but there is a natural tendency to try and use colors that correspond to the season. For example, if you are using a St. Patrick’s Day set, you may be tempted to use a lot of greens. In my case I knew that reds and greens would still read Christmas, and it was a little tricky because Valentine’s Day also has red, but I changed it up by introducing a lot of pink and white that helped shift the color palette from Christmas to Valentine’s. I used the Ribbon Twirl 6×6 Layering Stencil in complementary pink tones, and since the tree takes up a large part of the card, the predominant colors in the card are pink and white, as opposed to red, which could still read Christmas.

Step 2 – Strategic fussy cutting

I know not everyone loves the words “fussy cutting,” but they will be your best friends when it comes to maximizing your stash! This is because you can edit an image in any way to fit your project! For this card I stamped out the gnomes from the Holiday Gnome Stacks and then fussy cut them, leaving off the Christmas tree. See where I’m going with this? My little gnomes are still climbing a ladder to decorate a tree, but now it’s a Valentine’s tree! (Pro Tip: Make sure you trace around the edges of your fussy cut image with a black marker to help clean up any stray cuts or white outlines. This will give your cutting a polished finish!)

Step 3 – Thematic embellishments

This simply means to use embellishments that lean heavily into the theme of your project. For example, I tend to use a lot of baubles as embellishments on my cards, but doing so would have made them look like Christmas ornaments. Instead, I die cut several hearts from the Web Designer die set and used those to decorate my tree! I think we would all agree that hearts are associated with Valentine’s Day, so when incorporated with the color palette and the twirly tree, it definitely translates to Valentine’s! To really solidify the theme, I made my own sentiment that highlights the reason for the holiday–love!

I hope these tips will help you extend the use of your seasonal stash! Please don’t hesitate to leave a comment if you have any questions or want to share additional tips. Thanks so much, and I hope you take time to grab some paper and craft something that really makes you smile!

—> WATCH THE VIDEO TUTORIAL for this card right HERE.

Products Used:

Ribbon Twirl 6×6 Layering Stencil: https://collabs.shop/wqcj5j

Holiday Gnome Stacks Stamp Set: https://collabs.shop/n7kyoh

Web Designer Die Set: https://collabs.shop/ay8ztu



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