I’m joining Kate, of Tall Tales from Chiconia, for her monthly scrap-happy blog post. The challenge is to use scraps from other projects to make something useful, beautiful, or both. Several bloggers post once a month showcasing a project made entirely from scraps.

This month I’m using green paper scraps and pages from an old wall calendar.

I started with this pile of paper scraps…

Green just happens to be my favorite color

Assorted pages from an old gardening calendar…

The Old Farmer’s Almanac Gardening Calendar

And a green Christmas tin.

Swiss Miss chocolate tin

I made three greeting cards…

Card made from scraps of green paper and a calendar cut-out

Calendar page card with vintage ribbon rests near deep purple hyacinth

Tri-fold card

…and about 30 bookmarks. Here’s one made from the center of a calendar page.

Calendar page bookmark with vintage seam binding

I also made a sign for our Little Free Library in honor of St. Patrick’s Day this coming Monday, and I covered a hot chocolate tin to hold the bookmarks.

A bit of four-leaf clover lore in our LFL

Books with green spines and a covered Christmas tin full of bookmarks

All three cards incorporated bits of the calendar and paper scraps. I like creating like this, with a small pile of bits and bobs and no real plan.

I used a small bird drawing from the calendar for the first card

Scraps of green paper

Lovely bird drawing on side of calendar

Bird drawing from calendar

Completed card

The trifold card incorporates the center panel from one of the calendar pages on the cover and on the inside of the card.

Finished trifold card

Inside panel uses calendar cut out of bird

I cut the third flap at an angle and secured at the bottom so you can insert a note or a gift card

Tied closed with a bow

The third card is simply a photograph from a Nature Conservancy calendar, tied with vintage seam binding. I used a die to cut a note of thanks from a green paper scrap.

Photograph from a Nature Conservancy calendar

Into the woods

Completed card

The bookmarks are an eclectic bunch. I used several scraps of green paper, bits of vintage seam binding, Washi tape, and again, parts of my Old Farmer’s Almanac calendar. Lexi, my artistic friend, designed her own Washi tape. You can see it here along with several of her other creations.

I cut the center of the upper left calendar page

…folding it into thirds…

…notched the top and added vintage seam binding.

Here’s another bookmark made from a calendar page

I layered rows of Washi tape across this scrap of green floral

I cut the strips, then rounded off the top

Red Riding Hood Washi tape from a friend, Lexi’s Washi tape on the left

When you’re really tired…just cut strips of pretty paper into 2 x 6 strips

My friend Lexi designed this Washi tape. She sells it on her Etsy site

Tin of green bookmarks with the LFL in the background

The green theme won’t last long in the Little Free Library as books come and go, but it has been fun playing with paper and ideas. Thanks for inspiring me to slow down, Kate, and to take some time to play.

Do you like crafting from scraps? Why not join us for the next round.

Little Free Library filled with green books, bookmarks and a note about four-leaf clover lore.

It *is* easy being green! (Sorry, Kermit).

From Kate’s blog:

“ScrapHappy is open to anyone using up scraps of anything – no new materials. It can be a quilt block, pincushion, bag or hat, socks or a sculpture. Anything made of scraps is eligible. If your scrap collection is out of control and you’d like to turn them into something beautiful instead of leaving them to collect dust in the cupboard, why not join us on the 15th of each month? You can email Kate at the address on her  Contact Me page. You can also contact Gun, via her blog, to join. We welcome new members. You don’t have to worry about making a long-term commitment or even join in every month, just let either of us know a day or so in advance if you’re new and you’ll have something to show, so we can add your link. Regular contributors will receive an email reminder three days before the event.”