Card Crafting at It's Finest!

All 8 cards

I'm old fashion and would rather get a home made card via snail mail than an email, Facebook message, text message, etc. I just think it's more thoughtful and personal because it actually takes effort to write out a card or letter and put it in the mail. I've always loved creating my own cards and have come up with some really pretty (and not so pretty) cards. I saw on Pinterest (always) this great idea where you use your left over paper scraps from scrapbooking that are too small to do anything else with to make cards. I thought that idea was great because I hate wasting the little squares and rectangles of paper but never have anything to do with them. I put my own spin on the idea though because I wanted to be more original than that.

Card 1:Simple

 Basically youll want to adjust the size of your scraps to kind of fit together on the card somewhat like a puzzle piece with different shapes and colored papers and then use adhesive to secure them onto the card. For the easiest card with the scraps I simply just added a quote to one of the solid colored blocks.







 If you are like me you probably order wayyyy too many pictures and don't have use for all of them. I often order wallet sized photos for scrapbooking and only use one and have multiples left over, so I pulled some of my wallets and replaced one of the paper scrap squares with one of my pictures just to add somewhat of a personal touch. This time I used more nature oriented photos but this would be great if you wanted a themed card too. For example, I have a picture of my dog Spook. If I wanted to make a pet or dog themed card in this way I could add some paw print stickers around his photo, maybe a dog house at the bottom, etc. I also have some wallets of my wedding photos. If you know anyone that has an anniversary soon this is a great idea. Add some anniversary stickers or maybe a quote from "their song" along with a picture from their wedding to create a personalized one of a kind anniversary card. Maybe I'll do some themed cards later but for now here are the two I did:

Card 2: Fun

I love the bumble bee picture I took and decided to create more of a fun upbeat style with bright colors and bold patterns.

Card 3: Elegant

This is my sister's cat, S'more. This is probably my favorite picture of her because her eyes are so blue and she looks so content and elegant. I put mostly light colored paper scraps with blue tones and simpler patterns to bring out her coloring. I added the red scrap to add some pop to the card.

Card 4: Natural

I had cut this out of a magazine a couple weeks ago because I thought it was pretty. I again used more blue tones to make it more elegant and natural looking, then added my magazine clipping on top.

Card 5: Diagonals

I had a scrap with just the corner cut off. I fount a bright pink scrap and made a replacement corner with it and then added some fun Washi tape for color. I then put a sticker quote that reads "What a wonderful world" diagonally.

Card 6: Ribbon (Front)

One of my co-workers and I have been brainstorming some ribbon crafts but havent come up with any brilliant ideas yet. This is my attempt at a ribbon card. I cut small holes into the bottom and weaved the ribbon through. I then added the bow on top of the ribbon with some glue dots. It looked a little plain so I put the diagonal ribbon at the top and added the word "Love"

Card 6: (Back)

I always browse the dollar section at Michael's when I go. Always. It's a bad addiction. Last time I was there I found these cards:

"You're a whoot!" Punny, but how often are you going to send someone a card that says that?? What kind of occasion do you send a card that says "You're a whoot!" for? Thats right, none. It random and awkward and weird, but I love owls and birds and thought they were cute. So, I cute that card up and made 2 better ones:

Card 7: Owl-tastic!

 If you suck at cutting or arent patient with cutting, this probably isnt the card you should make. I cut the tree out and, after carefully planning the colored paper scraps so the bird and owl could easily been seen, put the tree on top of the scraps. The tree was too short to fit on the card all the way so I cut out and added some flowers to the bottom to make it look like it was growing out of a hill or field. This one is probably my favorite.

Card 8: Still punny

I didnt want to waste the back the card since, afterall, this project is meant to use your paper scraps and not waste them, so I added some simple paper to the corners and taped te back down. Then, since I was feeling somewhat bad about hating on the whole "Youre a whoot!" thing, I went with another, better owl pun, "Owl you need is love." (Get it?) Punny, I know.








I got bored with my scrap choices but since this craft was really to save paper that may be wasted and not waste large sheets of paper I didn't want to cut a large piece of paper. I went to look in my paper box and one the the top sheets had fallen off of the paper pad.

 It was perfect for me to use since otherwise I would have just thrown it away. I'm sure you can pick out which patterns I used from it. Plus its kind of shiny instead of regular paper so the different textures make the cards more fun, in my opinion.

So there you have it. Get creative, have fun, and remember, it doesn't have to be perfect!!