E - Extras

Welcome to the Everything ABC's Blog Hop! For this hop we will be featuring the letter E. This may be the name of a paper, a stamp set or an embellishment. Whatever the crafter has chosen as their E element will be featured in their post.If you have just hopped onto my blog, please start at the beginning at Amber's blog ~ Scrappers Therapy.  If you came from "Theodora's" blog you're on the right track!

E is for Extras ... in the world of papercreating we call them "scraps" BUT if I waited for S, you wouldn't see this until the Fall. If you prefer, you can call this Economic. I truly save EVERYTHING because "you never know". Everything does seem to multiply though because there's always some exciting new piece of paper or doo dad just begging to be tried.  SO ... for this project I ONLY used leftover things.

The whole thing starts with pile of EXTRA strips from the Stella paper pack ... I keep all the scraps from each different patterned paper pack together. That way I know up front that they'll all be matching when I go to use them. Next take a blank card and cover it with adhesive. Cover all along the edges and then criss cross through the middle. (no photo)

Once the folded card is nice and sticky you can literally just grab strips and started laying them down next to each other. Start with one long strip in the middle somewhere and then just follow it right along. When the whole card is covered it looked like this. (Yes you do see a couple on "non-strips" I pulled those in for a little color variety!)

Here's what the back looks like.

Use a scissors to cut along the edges of the card. In case you think it's time consuming, you're wrong. I set a stopwatch just to see. I can do this from start to finish in less than 5 minutes per card. It's all about NOT thinking too hard. You aren't trying to achieve perfection. This is just a great way to make some different card bases to use up your other extras.

The first pile you saw made 6 cards and the scraps that were left made a much smaller pile. I still haven't decided whether or not to throw all of these away. I know right? That's some economical scrap saving!!




Here are the final cards. Once I had the card bases I lined them all up and pulled out the extras from embellishment packs, stickers, ribbons AND Cricut cuts that went wrong the first time. (YES ... I save most every Cricut cut. Those are organized by general shape). I also limited myself to two stamp sets and two ink colors for the sentiments, which is another way to save time. Decision making takes FOREVER!!! You will notice that no two cards are alike ... that's just proof that there's really no way to do this wrong. I moved fast and didn't try to make each one a certain way. Of course it's a very busy look (not for everyone) but think of how many less EXTRAS you will have.

Those are 3 inch scraps of burlap ribbon ... REALLY not kidding when I say I save it all!!

Felt & orange buttons ... a blast from the past.

Your next stop on our Everything ABC'S blog Hop is Jen at Roxybonds Scrappin'.

Here is the complete lineup in case you get lost along the way:

1. Amber La Mons ~ Scrapper's Therapy

2. Lucy ~ Love 2 Create

3. Theodora ~ Celebrate Crafts
YOU ARE HERE --> 4.  Shelly ~ Just One Piece

5. Jen ~ Roxybonds Scrappin'

6. Alicia ~ Serene Scrapping

7. Linda ~ Scrappy Therapy

8. Kathy Johnson ~ Kathy's Creative Corner