November 15, 2023 by Born To Organize

ScrapHappy for Someone Else’s Scraps

My friend Mary Ann is a cardmaker, among other things. She sells her wares on Etsy and at several craft shows near the holidays. As such, people give her “stuff,” hoping she can use it.

Lucky me.

Someone gave her this stack of parchment-like paper with a rectangle of gold foil in the center. She, in turn, passed them on to me. There are over 70 lustrous sheets, and I could hardly wait to tuck into them! Today’s scraphappy post is brought to you by a friend’s, friend’s scraps.

I made three cards covering Halloween, Christmas, and Autumn.

I used one of the foiled sheets as a background, then used my die cutter to cut the leafy inset. The rest of the card is done with ink.

The Christmas tree incorporates the gold center and part of the parchment for the trunk. The green scrap below has been kicking around in my supply drawer for years. I’m glad the paper found its purpose.

The last card has a simple design and as such it’s my favorite. All of these cards were fun to create, though.

I also made a gift card holder using a small envelope template I’ve had for years.

Thank you, Mary Ann!

If you’re a scrappy maker (paper, fabric, metal, etc.), consider joining us for this enjoyable endeavor.

Thanks as always, Kate. Please follow the links below if you would like to see what the other makers are up to.
Kate, Gun, Eva, Sue, Lynda,

Birthe, Turid, Susan, Cathy, Tracy,

Jan, Moira,Sandra, Chris,

Claire, Jean, Jon, Dawn, Gwen,

Sunny, Kjerstin, Sue L, Vera, Edith

Ann, Dawn 2, Carol, Preeti,

Debbierose, Nóilin, Viv, Karrin,

Amo, Alis

March 15, 2023 by Born To Organize

ScrapHappy: The Under-achiever, the Over-achiever, and the Surprise

Thanks, as always, Kate, for hosting this monthly challenge.

Every few months, I get the urge to use my Gel Press, usually when I find something interesting on the garden floor.

Last month I picked up a decaying leaf that maintained its skeleton-like structure. (Sorry, no pics) I wanted to capture the leaf pattern using a Gel Press, brayer, watercolor paper, and ink. I imagined the delicate veins of the decaying leaf in minute detail. Instead, I created several blobs. I call the first blob “cranky man-in-the-moon.”

Sigh.

This brings me to ScrapHappy, the oops edition. I set the images and my discouragement aside for a time. I decided to use them this month to make some cards.

While I had a general idea of using the blobs as backgrounds for my cards, I lacked direction. In the end, I have:

The Under-achiever: Pretty but ho-hum

The first card incorporates one of the blobs cut into a rectangle and mounted on a scrap of purple paper. The watering can is fussy-cut from an old wall calendar. I’ve saved old calendars in years passed when I couldn’t part with the beautiful images. It’s fun to incorporate them into cards.

The Over-achiever: Not knowing when to quit

This second card got away from me. I inadvertently got mired in “everything-but-the-kitchen-sink” mode. While I love the punched background made with a gorgeous crafting die from PinkFresh Studio, I wish I had spent time experimenting before adding details. I stamped the floral image with versa mark ink, embossed it in black, then colored the flowers with markers. Placing yellow circles behind the image helped them stand out. When I stamped the word “hugs” on the image, it looked small and out of scale. I fixed that oops with another die cut of a leaf. Time to quit.

The Surprise: A happy accident with paper and ink

The final card looks yellow in this pic, yet all three backgrounds are the same shade of green. I tried transferring ink to the Spellbinders embossing folder, but the results were mixed. Thinking I had wiped off all the ink, I was surprised to see small amounts of purple ink transfer to the green. You can just make out the leaf image in blob number three.

Happy, scrappy!

Kate, Gun, Eva, Sue, Lynda,
Birthe, Turid, Susan, Cathy, Tracy, Jan, Moira, Sandra, Chris, Alys,
Claire, Jean, Jon, Dawn, Jule, Gwen,
Sunny, Kjerstin, Sue L, Vera, Edith
Nanette, Ann, Dawn 2, Carol, Preeti,
Debbierose, Nóilin, Viv, Karrin,
Amo and Alissa

February 15, 2023 by Born To Organize

ScrapHappy: Curbside Crafts and Paper Quilts

I’m dipping back into this blogging space with Kate’s monthly ScrapHappy prompt. Makers worldwide produce and blog about a project created with scraps. Many of my fellow bloggers work with fabric, while others create with metal and wood. I occasionally make something with fabric scraps; however, paper scraps are my frequent medium of choice.

I’m sharing a couple of projects this month. First, for the third year running, I’ve assembled Valentine’s Day-themed crafting kits that I place alongside our Little Free Library.

I had the pleasure of watching a four-year-old claim one, which delighted us both. This is probably the last year I’ll be assembling kits from scraps, as I’ve exhausted my entire stash of seasonal paper and embellishments. Next year’s kits won’t qualify as ScrapHappy, but they will still be fun to make.

My second project is a card. I used the cover of a 6 x 6 tablet of paper, which you might otherwise toss. I wanted to emulate a quilt and found the small square samples pictured on the front of the tablet were a perfect size.

I worked around the barcode and other printing and had just enough colored squares to make a small card. The grey scrap backing is smaller than the cover, but I made it work by piecing it together.

Part of the package title shows in the third row, so I covered it with a strategically placed greeting. After trimming the grey paper to a small border, I added texture using one of my embossing folders. Finally, a scrap of lavender paper forms the card.