Old Supplies, New Designs: Scrap Paper

Do you love paper? I mean really love it? I have to admit that I do. I collect it, hoard it, organize it, and purchase it in large quantities. I also have a lot of it left over from my various scrapbook and altered art projects. Lately I've looked around my scrapbook studio and realized that I have a precious resource going to waste--my scrap paper! I've come up with a few projects that use up bits and pieces of my beloved paper. I hope that they inspire you to look at your scraps and see treasure instead of trash.

"What I Love about You" Mini Album:

Creating a mini album is the perfect way to use up scrap papers. For my "What I Love about You" album I was inspired by scrap paper that had words of love written in French. I added other miscellaneous patterned papers in the same cream, brown, and red color scheme.

Supplies:

• 5 coordinating scraps of patterned paper
• 1 solid scrap paper (for the cover)
• 3 coordinating scraps of ribbon
• Dymo label maker
• Heart Punch by EK Success
• various tags
• brown ink pad
• Mini Alphabet Stamps by PSX
• various heart-shaped accents (brads, charms, stickers, acrylic pieces, buttons etc.)

To create the cover I trimmed red scrap paper to 4" x 11". The inside pages were trimmed slightly smaller at 4" x 10 ¾".

Create the spine by scoring your cover 5 ¼" from each end. Score each insert page 5 1/8" from each end. Gently fold.

Punch holes in the spine, and through all inside pages. Hole punch the spine in two places and use ribbon to bind your album once you have finished all of your interior pages.

Here's what mine looks like:

"Shae's Orange Boggles" Layout:

Another great use for scrap paper is to create smaller-sized accents using your punches. On this layout I created circles using various orange, pink, red, and white papers. This fun project works for creating entire background sheets as well.

Supplies:

• 5 pieces of polka dot scrap paper
• 3 coordinating solid paper scraps
• chipboard letters by Provo Craft
• circle cutter
• 3-4 various sizes of circle punches

This technique also looks great when it's used as a border treatment around all four sides of a layout. You can use any shape for this technique. Hearts or ovals look great. Hand-cut, wavy circles are very hip right now. Mix them with a doodled background for a very trendy look.

"Building a Snowman" Layout:

One of my favorite ways to use up long strips of scrap paper is to create long, wavy pieces that are either woven or sewn onto my background cardstock. In my "Building a Snowman" layout I used this technique to create borders in blue and silver.

Supplies:

• 4-5 long pieces of scrap paper
• sewing machine
• label stickers by EK Success
• tag
• snowflake stickers by EK Success

I started by cutting my strips into wavy lines and sewing them to my background paper. I alternated going horizontally and vertically to create a loose basket weave in the corner. This same technique works wonderfully with straight paper scraps to create a much tighter woven effect. You can easily cover an entire sheet of paper in this manner and then add tags, monograms, or other accent pieces.

Other ideas for using scrap papers:

• paper piecing
• serendipity squares
• mosaic accents
• punch art
• cards and gift tags
• flash cards
• Artist Trading Cards
• wooden blocks (cover all six sides for a cute home decor item)
• altered clocks
• die-cut shapes
• desk calendars
• die-cut or hand-cut titles
• faux rickrack (use decorative edge scissors to cut long strips of scrap paper)
• bag filler for gift bags/baskets (run long pieces through a paper shredder)
• paper quilling
• tile coasters (modge podge scrap papers to the top of tiles and seal with an acrylic sealer)

Next time you clean up your work space, consider what you could do with your scraps of paper. It will save you money and could lead to some of your best work!