December 5th - Christmas Cards from Scraps

Today I want to show you some very easy ways to create Christmas cards from your scraps! Maybe you have been recreating some of the amazing projects you’ve seen here and have some leftovers, or maybe you just have scraps from Christmases past. Either way, I am going to show you how to use up large, medium, and small scraps with some easy card recipes. I purposely kept these cards simple as most of us have very little time during the holiday season, so here goes!

For your ingredients (i.e. supplies) use whatever you have on hand. Here is what I used:

Paper scraps-Echo Park’s Season’s Greetings (this is my favorite Christmas collection ever-just love it)
Stickers-Echo Park Season’s Greetings (Naughty and Nice), SRM (Merry Christmas)
Twine-For the Luv of Art
Gems-My Mind’s Eye (colored), Kaiser (clear)
Stickles-Ranger

Large Scrap Recipe

As with all my recipes, I just grabbed up a handful of leftovers paper scraps from other projects and put them on my desk. Here are the large scraps I had to work with:

I decided the circle would make a great ornament, and mixed the ingredients together to create my card.

Happy Christmas Card

Directions:
Step 1: Layer the patterned paper onto the cardstock, and attach to cream card base-leaving about a quarter inch of cream card base showing at the spine. Round top and bottom corner.
Step 2: Adhere circle. Just above the circle, pierce a hole through all layers.
Step 3: Using a piece of twine, wrap from the inside of the card up over the front of the card, and through the hole above the ornament. Tie ends together on the inside of the card. This will create your ornament string.
Step 4: Cut a small scrap of paper and adhere to the top of your ornament. This will hide the hole, and create a finished ornament. Add stickles if desired.
Step 5: Add sentiment. I used a scrap from a journaling card sheet and half of a Merry Christmas sticker.
Step 6: Loop more twine around the spine of the card and tie on the inside. Then create a bow out of twine and adhere it to the string of your ornament. I used glossy accents.

Medium Scrap Recipe: This one looks a little complicated, but it is pretty easy-trust me! :)

Naughty or Nice Card

Directions:
To create the present:
Step 1: Put two scraps (a square shape, and a rectangle shape that is a little longer than the square) together to create the present. Mount onto a scrap of black cardstock, and trim to create a small black mat behind the present.
Step 2: Punch a small scalloped border strip and adhere to the present. Add stickles.
Step 3: Create a bow out of twine and adhere to present. I used glossy accents.
Step 4: Mount a sticker using dimensional adhesive.

TIP: For my small border strip on this card, and for the top of my ornament on my previous card, I used the pattern from the strip that comes attached to the bottom of a piece of double-sided patterned paper-the part that shows you what the pattern is on the other side. These can make great extra scraps and borders, so don’t throw them away! :)

To create the background:

This LOOKS like a lot of paper piecing, but is another easy tip. I used the index sheet that comes with a paper pack-the piece that comes in the front, and shows you all of the designs that come in the pack. This is a GREAT way to get the look of piecing, without any of the work.

To finish the card, just mount onto scrap cardstock, and then the card base.

Small Scrap Recipe : For this card, I used a lot of little scraps (doesn’t look like much, does it?):

Merry Christmas Tree Card

Directions:
Step 1: Trim scraps to thin strips in varying thicknesses. Arrange one on top of the other to get a pattern you like. Then trim strips leaving the longest at the bottom, and each strip above it getting gradually shorter. This will leave you with a basic triangle, or tree shape of strips. I included part of a journaling card as one of my strips, but you can use whatever you want-get creative! :)
Step 2: Adhere strips to cardstock. Adhere to another piece of cardstock, then adhere to card base.
Step 3: Add gems and sticker. I used the Merry from the Merry Christmas sticker I used in the first card.

Finally, to give you a totally different look, I made another card using the Echo Park Season’s Greetings collection. For this card, I used part of a page of border strips. I cut the border strip into three sections. I adhered the pieces one on top of the other to a black card base-leaving a little space in between each piece so the black cardstock showed through. I added some gems, and that’s it. You could make several cute cards from just one sheet of border strips, so if you are looking for an idea for some quick Christmas cards, this might be the way to go!

So, there you have it-some easy ways to use up those Christmas paper scraps! Hope you enjoyed, and feel free to check out my blog for more Christmas card ideas!

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