Like most papercrafters, I have a lot of scraps of paper. After awhile, I seem to accumulate quite a lot of leftover embellishments, stamped items, etc. So today I pulled out my pile of leftovers, and challenged myself to make some cards. On the first card I found a piece of kraft paper, 2 yellow die cut flowers, a white piece of punched trim and a strip of brown paper. All very blah - so I decided to pull out the ink and stamps. First, I stamped the large kraft piece with an distress stamp with walnut distress ink. Then I pulled out a stamp that has elegant lettering and I stamped the flowers. I then used a decorate scroll to stamp the brown strip of card stock. Finally, I took the white trim and inked it up with frayed burlap and old paper distress inks. The center of the flowers were leftover from flowers I punched from coffee cup holders! They fit just perfect.
On the next card I began with the embossed dragonfly. I sometimes stamp something, and for whatever reason I decide not to use it. But I hate throwing any stamped piece out! I trimmed the dragonfly and then found the scrap piece of tiny flowered print paper. The purples matched nicely. Lastly, I had another piece of trim. I sometimes punch a large piece of trim and don't use it all. Nothing goes to waste. I added a purple ribbon and tiny purple rhinestones to give the card a little pizazz.
The last card I did was created when I found a stamped Buddha already cut and the Happy Birthday O' Ancient One also stamped and cut. I just added a piece of Asian themed paper for the background.
I even found a oriental coin embellishment in my scrap box. (Not shown in picture). I think the key to using up your scraps to create a great card is to find like components and colors. I can't wait to try this again.
So check out your scraps and leftovers and see what you can come up with. There really is great satisfaction in creating a new card from pieces of leftover scraps of paper and stamped images. I think I'll try to do this one a month, and keep my scrap pile from growing too large!
