Wednesday 29 May 2013

Using up the scraps

My plan to reduce the Mountain of Stash has taken a bit of a blow the last few months as my craft-shopping habit has kicked in again, but this week I've been going through my scraps box to see what I could use up. There's a lot of stuff in there - bits left over from projects and kits, odd and ends that are just "too good to thrown away", interesting bits of packaging and advertising material that looked as if they might come in useful - I'd forgotten about half of it until I tipped it all out on to the table.


I selected a handful of co-ordinating pieces, using the colours in the patterned card as a guide


And put them together to create this


But really that hadn't started to make even a dent in the pile of scraps. Then I remembered the "Serendipity" designs that were popular about 15 years ago, and thought I'd see if I can remember how they were done. First I tore up a few toning papers into rough pieces


Then I stuck them down on to a piece of card - I chose a matching colour in case any showed through.  I used a wet adhesive and left it to dry before trimming the edges.



Next I stamped random swirls over with a silver pad and embossed with silver powder. The surface is very uneven at this stage, so you really need to use some kind of abstract design. Letters or a picture won't work as the patchy result would make it unclear. After embossing, I added further streaks and splodges with tow shades of glitter glue. When everything was dry, I left it to flatten overnight, under a pile of heavy books.



Finally I cut it into squares. I find the best way to do this is to mark the squares on the back and cut with heavy scissors or a guillotine. The layers of paper, card and glue make it too thick for a craft knife and a rotary trimmer could drag the torn, uneven paper edges.


I chose to make the squares about 1" (2.5cm) each, but other sizes or even shapes would produce interesting effects.  Once you have your shapes, let your imagination run free! Here are two cards made with mine


 
Having used up so many scraps, I just had to play along with The Craft Room Challenge,  because the current one is "Use Your Scraps"
And since everything I've used is old - even the technique - I'm also joining in with "Anything goes" at Use It Tuesday.
 


12 comments:

Alex said...

Loving this blast from the past! great idea!

Suzanne B aka brookfies said...

WOW...now that's a lot of scraps...fabulous makes! Thank you for sharing with us at the Craft Room challenge "use your scraps". Suzanne x

Zoechaos said...

Way to go! an excellent reason to keep all those scraps when you can make results like these fantastic. thank you for sharing with us at Craft-Room Challenge XOXO Zoe

Stephanie U said...

Wow! Amazing cards. Thanks for using your stash and playing along with us at Use It Tuesday!

Heather B said...

Wow. That is a crazy cool technique!! Thanks for playing with us at Use It Tuesday!!

Debi said...

cool cards, love that we saw your scrap pile too :) thanks for sharing with us at Craft Room Challenge, Debi x

PiHi said...

Many lovely cards! Love your mosaics! Very creative working.

Mervi said...

Wow gorgeous project, just perfect for our theme at Craft-Room Challenge, good luck and thanks,-))m

Scrappy Chick said...

Great use of all those scraps, I find myself in the same situation often!
Thanks for playing along at Use It Tuesday!
Tracy

Maria said...

Wow, these are fabulous! I love the last one in particular, the colours are gorgeous! Thanks for sharing with us at over the Craft-Room Challenge this fortnight.

Maria x

hazel said...

I love what you've done with your scraps, it's fabulous. Thank you for joining us at Craft Room Challenge.
xxx Hazel.

Grudniowe Handmade said...

Wow! super!