Scrap-tastic Challenge

Happy New Year!!! (toot-toot) The party's still going. Let's start the new year off with a Papertrey Senior Team challenge, shall we? Nichole has perfect timing with this challenge: Incorporating leftover paper, ribbon or fabric scraps onto a project. At this time of year, we all get the need to purge. But before you tear through your craft space, let's use up some of those scraps. If you're like me, I know you have a lot of scrap sitting around. ;)

For my project, I've dug out scraps of ribbon and patterned paper. I don't save every single snippet but if my paper is at least 2" square and my ribbon is at least a couple inches long, I try to save a few pieces here and there.
Punches make great use of those leftover paper scraps. I know you have lots and lots like I do.
I'm also using scraps of some old sheet music I bought at a garage sale. It's great stuff!

I'm gonna show you guys how to make some of those great hand made embellishments...I call them doo dads......for your projects. Let's give it a whirl. I started out by punching circles from the old sheet music.

Then I decided nahhhhhhh, let's trash it. Just kidding, this was part of my plan. Wad up the punched circles. It feels goooood. We want crinklage here, peeps.

Then kinda flatten out the wadded up, punched circles. Not all the way or we'd be wasting all the good waddage we just did.

Next, use a slightly smaller scalloped circle punch to punch circles from leftover patterned paper. I'll be using Simple Valentine. It's so dang cute, I keep every single scraplet of it.

Next up, layer the punched circles and top off with a Vintage Button. Using a large needle and Rustic Cream Twine, thread the twine through the button holes, going through all the paper layers. Don't tie it yet. Slip in a scrap piece of ribbon. Then tie a know around the ribbon, using your fingers to flatten it out. Tip: If you leave the twine uncut from the needle, you can tie the knot a lot easier because you can work with a longer length. When you've tied the knot, then snip the ends.

Viola, in no time you've got a nice little pile of doo dads sitting on your table, nice and cute-like. These are just waiting to hop on a nice little Valentine project!But wait, we're not done. Don't throw away those scraps of paper yet. There's still some goodness left in them!

Reach for your smaller punches and punch even smaller accents like hearts and circles. Just turn your punch upside down to make sure you're getting the full punched image.

Reach for your favorite Vintage Buttons........

...and more scrap pieces of ribbon.....and you've got yourself some more cute doo dads. You can also just use ribbon and buttons and skip the paper altogether.

And here's a finished card using one of the sheet music doo-dads. I love how you can use other elements on your projects that tie in with the doo dads. And if you followed my blog yesterday, you might notice that this card follows my Hip To Be Square card sketch challenge.

For my card, I used Simple Valentine patterned paper, Vintage Buttons and Twine, Say It With Style, Background Basics: Hearts, Lavender Moon ribbon and patterned paper from the Raspberry Fizz Mix collection. The Vintage Duo Tea Dye inks helped to make my card look vintage.

Hope you enjoy it! Wanna see some more fun inspiration using scraps? Check out these blogs:
Becky Oehlers
Heather Nichols
Lisa Johnson
Betsy Veldman

Jessica Witty