3 Tips to Squeeze Out Projects With Dwindling Design Papers

Every time I finish a craft project, I have design papers left over. Doesn’t matter whether it was a large mini album, or just a card; always there are sheets of loveliness I have to decide on what to do with them. Will I have to throw them out, of can I come up with yet another idea?

Fortunately as crafters we can always create something else with these extra papers, sometimes ending up with more than one bonus project.

A few weeks ago I created quite an elaborate desconstructed envelope card from 3 sheets of design paper + a cutapart sheet. But even after such a large card, I managed to squeeze out three extra cards from the paper pieces I had leftover!

So, hopefully I can inspire you with these ideas, to do the same and make use of every inch of paper real estate you can manage 🙂

Enjoy the video, happy crafting!

Frugal Crafting: A Budget-friendly Card

This week I’m sharing a tip to make the most out of your precious (and often quite expensive!) design papers: use up as much of your leftover scraps as you can and turn them into a new project, in this case a card.

Here are the scraps and leftovers I worked with…

…doesn’t look like much does it? And yet, with some simple techniques and a little bit of creativity you can still make something lovely from them.

So here’s to never having to throw away your leftovers ever again! (unless you want to 😉 )

Enjoy the video for a detailed show & tell!

Low budget tip: Working your scraps into a fun project!

So, what to do with all of these leftovers from your papercraft projects? Design paper scraps, cardstock scraps and even chipboard scraps – do you throw them all out? That could work, clutterfree living is a ‘thing’ nowadays after all.

However, you can also choose the Frugal Crafter’s perspective: when I consider my scraps, I don’t see waste, I see paper real estate! That’s why this week’s post is about a practical way to work with several different kinds of leftovers and create a very fun project with them. And it will be very budget-friendly indeed 🙂

Also, it’s a new video tutorial on how to create my so-called scrap mats. I have done one before but that was many many moons ago, so I thought it time for a fresh one…

I’m working with the leftovers of my recent Double-Stacked Too album, with papers from the Serenade and Clippings collections by Basic Grey.

Scrap mats make brilliant background mats for your projects

Craft Until the Last Scrap!

I’ve heard some scrapbookers say that they immediately throw out their leftovers once a project is finished, no matter how much paper real estate they would still be able to get out of it. I’m not one of them! 🙂  On the contrary, I challenge myself to have as little leftovers as possible in the end, so I keep creating until there’s only some last feeble imitation of a heap of little scraps left.

This card is one of such projects, created with the last remnants of my Be-You-Tiful papers, of which I only had a few sheets to begin with.

Hoping to inspire you to craft until the last scrap, so have fun! 🙂

 


So, Leftover Scraps Are Beautiful Too You Know…

As you may have noticed I really like to use up every last bit of paper I’m using, both the design paper AND the cardstock. So here’s two cards I created with what little I had left from two previous projects. And I’m pretty convinced that if I hadn’t said anything you wouldn’t have noticed these two pieces of postal happiness are actually created from leftovers – for there’s nothing measly about them at all! 🙂

The first card is made from a single strip of cardstock, folded just so, and with a piece of decorative chipboard-turned-magnetized-closure.

The second card is a napkin-fold card with a gloriously embellished belly band. You can make one yourself quite easily – Yes you can! Just watch my free video tutorial and have at it!

So go ye’ all, beeth the Frugallest of Crafters and enjoyeth thee with thy Scraps! 🙂

 

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Colorful Summer Birthday Card

Today I’m sharing a short video with you of a card I decorated mainly with leftover scraps. I always find it amazing how much design paper real estate you can still pull from your scraps, and I always enjoy sharing my inspiration with you all to not throw away your scraps too easily 😉

This time I used the leftovers from my Springtime Dreams keepsake album, created with papers by Webster’s Pages, using their collection called Nest. The larger flowers are by Prima Marketing.

Enjoy and please subscribe if you like this project and would like to see more! 🙂

 

 

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Two Tiny but Practical Micro Pocket Books

If you want to use up your scraps but are not in the mood for the umpteenth card 😉 , why not try a micro booklet!

After having designed and created a new Removable Folio Album, plus a card 😉 , I was very happy to give my micro pocket book design a second iteration.

S.E.I.’s beautiful Mimosa papers gave this project a lovely and very sophisticated summer feel, and these cute little things make perfect alternatives for birthday cards!

Enjoy the video and check out the photo collage below (or follow me on Instagram to not miss any new project – plus sneak peeks and other goodness!).

Want to create it yourself? Check out the tutorial!

 

Still in stock!

 

Two Butterfly Cards with Kaisercraft’s Ma Cherie

The soft burgundy’s of Kaisercraft’s Ma Cherie collection have held me captivated for a while; after having created a dimensional layout and a mini layout, I still wasn’t ‘done’ with the fussy-cutting of butterflies and the layering of die-cuts from the collection. I even wanted to use the leftover scraps, for this paper was gorgeous!

So, even though I never owned the complete paper collection, all of the separate papers I did gather were enough to add two more cards before I had reached this paper’s End-of-Stash.

Both sport one or more dimensional fussy-cut butterflies of course. A tip to get their wings to stay up, is to use hot glue instead of normal wet glue or tape. The hot glue causes some tension in the paper which helps the wings to stay up (after you gently folded them up).

Try this yourself and share the results!

 

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4 Secret Admirer Cards

Having already created two projects with Kaisercraft’s lovely Secret Admirer paper collection – a Folio Album and a Romantic Drawer box – I had hardly any papers left over, except some scraps.

But since I had really fallen for these gloriously colorful papers, I couldn’t bring myself to throw away even what little I had left. And good thing I didn’t, for as it turns out they had four lovely cards still within in them! 🙂

 

(Above was created with a step card die by the Dutch brand Crealies. Click photo for link to free video tutorial)

 

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December Deluge 4: Caramel Christmas Tri-shutter Cards

This December month I’ll post many projects on my blog, to give you some inspiration and ideas for your Christmas projects – and also to help you spend your holiday time creatively. In my previous posts I showed you a quick Christmas Mini Album, a 1-sheet Micro Wallet and a set of Nutcracker Sweet Christmas Cards. Today: Part 4 of this December Deluge of creative ideas 🙂

You know how you often have reasonably large scraps of cardstock left over from a larger paper craft project? I always like to use them instead of throwing them out. For instance, I had some fairly broad strips of cardstock left over from my Caramel Christmas mini album, and I decided to turn them into some trishutter Christmas cards. Since their measurements weren’t the regular, like standard, size for this kind of card, they turned out somewhat smaller. Also, when folded closed, they weren’t square but a pretty small rectangle.

They turned out great nonetheless – and an extra bonus was that I could also use some leftover scraps of design paper of the aforementioned mini to decorate the cards!

Hence their name: Caramel Christmas Trishutter Cards 🙂

Oh and by the way, if you’d like to create some trishutter cards yourself, check out my free video tutorial!

Next up: December Deluge pt. 5 – Decoupaged Christmas Candle & Box

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Thanksgiving idea: Six Tiny Thank You Cardlets

SInce it’s almost Thanksgiving (which we don’t celebrate in the Netherlands, but still 😉 ) I’m sharing a Thank You project with you all today.

If you’re in need of a way of showing your gratitude to someone, why not create a personalized little card?
For instance, recently I changed departments so I said goodbye to some colleagues. I made them each a unique and personalized Thank You notelet. I worked with four different paper collections: Mariposa (DCWV), Craftsman (Prima), A Proper Gentleman (Graphic 45) and Spring (Precious Marieke).

Needless to say my colleagues really enjoyed them 🙂 Hope you find this idea inspiring and create lots of them yourselves! 🙂

Enjoy the video and stay crafty, see you next week!

 

Two masculine-themed cardlets for the guys in my team:

 

Enjoying the Little Things – A Miniature Display

Hi guys,

Today I’m sharing a blog only project with you all, so no video this time. Several pictures though, so check it out!

Recently I created a little display with a picture of one of my aunts. It’s made of chipboard and cardstock, but is very sturdy nonetheless and can stand all on its own. It sports design paper on all sides and some cute little embellishments on the inside.
For this particular one I used some Mariposa paper by DCWV.

These little frames are very cute and are a great way to use up all of your leftover pieces of chipboard and paper. On top of that, they make awesome little personal gifts! Because they won’t take as much time as, say, a mini album, and I find them perfect for rainy Sunday afternoons 🙂

Check out the pictures below, and if you’d like to create some yourself, check out the (affordable)  tutorial!

See you in a couple of days with a video post again – until then, stay crafty! 🙂

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