Oh Scrap!

Oh Scrap! We are talking about scraps this week! You know you have them, they are overflowing and your sure that they are multiplying when you’re not looking. And if your like me, I just can’t seem to part with them whether they be barley small enough to get a punch out of or as big an almost full sheet of paper. But with a bit of organization and planning you can make great use of those scraps!

I organize my scraps in totes and 12x12 page protectors.

You can find these totes at most discount stores, they are cheap & they work great. I also have seen people organize their scraps in expandable folders or in hanging files which are also is a great ideas.

Because I have so many scraps, I organize them by color. I have 1- 12x12 page protector for each color in cardstock and in pattern paper and one extra protector for “multi” colors (for when I just can’t decide on what color it belongs to!)

One way to help keep your scraps tidy is to trim your scraps into squares/rectangles before filing them away. Because odd shaped and jagged edges have a tendency to catch onto other papers.

Also try to get in the habit of putting your scraps away at the end of a project. Or at least dedicate a spot to accumulate your scraps like a bin and when its full (OK overflowing) spend some time getting them put away-because when your scraps are organized you will get the most out of them and actually USE them!

And lastly I keep my scraps right next to my desk so they are at my fingertips when I need them. This way I opt to reach for my scrap bin before cutting into a new sheet of paper.

Scraps are great for making cards, photo mats, journaling blocks and so much more! I challenged myself to make a LO out of scraps only (minus the background paper). And what would Inspiration Tuesday be without a project to inspire? So lets get started!

Supplies:
Trimmer, scissors, adhesive, & pencil, 1 sheet of red cardstock, heart template (bazzil pre-cut cardstock heart used-or just try free handing a heart), sticker letters (American Crafts Thickers), chipboard brackets (Maya Road), White acrylic paint, & lots of scraps in a pink/red color theme.

First lightly trace your heart onto your background cardstock

After selecting several papers out of your scrap stash start tearing them into small squares. pay special attention to leave white core on all the sides.

When you think you have torn enough squares, tear a few more just for good measure :0)

Start gluing your torn squares to around the outline of your heart

Mat your photo using additional scraps. It is important to ground your photo with a busy background.

Do some journaling and trim to strips (unfortunately when using a printer its is difficult to use scraps)

Adhere your sticker letters, love title (more scraps from a Reminiscent paper) hand cut heart (out of scraps of course), painted chipboard brackets, journal strips and photo. And there you go, LO created out of scraps! Doesn’t it feel great to use up some of that great paper?

Here’s another LO using the same heart/scraps concept. In this LO I created 2 pages and added more journaling.

Now its up to you to take the scraps challenge! Go get those scraps organized and use them! And if you have a great tip on how to organize & use scraps. Post a comment and share it with us!