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Thursday, July 26, 2012

Raise Your Hand if You LOVE Paper!

I LOVE paper!  I know I am not alone in this.  As fast as Ivy can stock Scrappin' Happily Ever After with paper, we are sure to buy some of it.  There is never a shortage of beautiful and fun paper and embellishments to buy.  Here is a sampling of some new paper lines in stock at S.H.E.A!

Basic Grey Clippings - Love this line.  It is whimsical and versatile!

Graphic 45 Ladies Diary - Vintage and sweet.

Graphic 45 Happy Haunting - So we can do last year's Halloween pics before we get to this year!

With so many paper lines, it is hard not to be inspired. Sometimes we see a line of paper and have a particular idea for it.  Other times, we buy something because it catches our eye or is from one of our favorite lines.  I am guessing many of you are like me, and buy more paper than you likely will use on a given project.  Then we have LEFTOVERS.  Just like food leftovers in the fridge, these scraps and bits of paper can be put in the far back of our crop bag, never to be seen again.  

I have pieces, strips, bits, and whooziwhatsits galore.  I try to throw away small pieces, but then in the back of my mind I hear Ivy saying "You could use that somehow."  So how can we use our scraps?  I went on a quest to find some fun ways we could use all our scraps.  I scoured some crafty blogs and videos, and searched out ideas that could be done with all or mostly scraps.  Here is one great way to use your scraps.

SCRAP TIP #1 - MAKE SCRAPBOOK PAGES (OF COURSE!)
Even if you have only strips and scraps, you can create a great page.  Don't feel like you have to use paper from coordinating lines. Mix and match patterns, lines, and colors to come up with something truly original.  Make your own graphic shape on a plain background, color block scraps to fill a larger space, or line up strips to create a unique striped paper or a photo mat.  

Here is a sketch of a layout that could be made entirely with scraps on one piece of background paper.


...and here is a real life interpretation of the sketch made with leftover pieces  from a paper collection I had already used for several pages.  With the precision of the Silhouette, I was also able to cut out a few shapes from scraps!

 
How do you use your scrap pieces of paper....or do you?  More ideas coming soon!

- Joanna