Never A Lovely Scrap Wasted

I’m a bit of a frugal papercrafter. I’m one of those people who struggle to throw anything away just in case it could be useful. Thankfully I also don’t like having stuff everywhere so that curtails my hoarding somewhat. My Mum used to say “A place for everything, and everything in its place”. That means having a system for storing and/or using up the lovely little pieces I created but never actually used. Today’s project is a case in point, a leftover die-cut flower quickly became a pretty gift tag.

Create this pretty floral "for you" gift tag using the Hydrangea Haven Stamp Set and Pretty Pillow Box Dies from Stampin' Up! #papercraftwithme

LOVELY FLOWER START

So this project was one of those use it rather than store it ideas after exploring the Pretty Pillow Box Dies. I love the flower and created a batch of them from a strip of Basic White Card. First I used a Blending Brush to colour the card with Fresh Freesia, Highland Heather and Gorgeous Grape inks. Then I simply placed the four six-petal flowers dies onto the card and cut them out.

For the flower centres I coloured some more Basic White Card using the Blending Brush and Crushed Curry ink. Going back to the Pretty Pillow Box Dies I used the one with two circles to cut out this card. In fact I did this twice so I ended up with four centres, one for each of my four flowers.

Finally, to assemble the flowers I simply put a dot of Multipurpose Liquid Glue (Tombow) in the centre and placed the yellow circle on top.

With that done I continued on to use just three of the flowers to decorate a bookmark.

As I was tidying up I was about to put the remaining flower into a little bag for storage inside the die case. But then I thought it wouldn’t take more than another couple of minutes to make a second project with what already had out on my desk. So I set to work…

Using my Paper Trimmer I cut a 3″ x 6″ piece of Basic White Card and scored it at 3″. Then I folded it along the scored line and sharpened the crease with a Bone Folder.

After opening up the tag I placed it under the oval hole option on the Detailed Trio Punch, with the scored line just to the right of the centre mark on the punch. Then when I pressed down it gave me a hole on the back of the tag. Finally I threaded some white twine from the Baker’s Twine Essentials Pack through the hole and tied it in a simple knot. My quick folded tag base was ready.

TAG FRONT

Next I cut a 2″ x 2″ piece of Basic White Card. Then using Granny Apple Green ink I stamped the three leaf image from the Lovely You Stamp Set onto the card.

For the sentiment I wanted something small and suitable for all occasions. Eventually I found the perfect “for you” in the Hydrangea Haven Stamp Set. So using Gorgeous Grape ink I stamped that beside the leaf image.

Next came the mat layer, a 2-1/8″ x 2-1/8″ piece of Gorgeous Grape Card. This created a nice contrast as I glued the stamped piece onto it.

Finally I was ready to add the assembled flower on top of the leaf image using liquid glue. Then after adding the completed layer onto the tag front with Stampin’ Dimensionals my lovely bonus project was finished.

I love the clean and fresh look of this gift tag. I also love that I didn’t waste that last pretty flower left over from my original project. Do you try to use up all your scraps and left over pieces like me? Perhaps you simply throw them away? Or maybe you store and forget about them. Leave me a comment below and tell me your strategy.

For the original bookmark project see my blog post Pretty Pillow Box Dies for something else.