UK Scrap Addicts Blog Hop

Hopefully you’ve arrived at my blog from the lovely Claire Murphy AKA Scrappy Nerd UK as part of the UK Scrap Addicts blog hop.  A few of us from the team felt the need for a hop as we hadn’t taken part in one for ages and some of us had never done one before!  Michelle at Ugly Bug Plans suggested we try and use up some of our scraps from the summer.  I’d been working with the gorgeous Heart collection from Simple Stories and I really wanted to get the most out of it, plus it was still out on my desk so it seemed perfect.

Designing the cut files for the shop is something I really enjoy but I’m struggling to find time to use the newer ones so this was an ideal opportunity.  I often design files with the intention of being able to use scraps – I’m really really not short of paper but I have a little bit of a problem with “wasting” gorgeous pieces, no matter how small!

This collection has some journal cards of varying sizes in but it was only when I started reading them and looking at the stickers that I realised it was a bereavement collection!  I took out the bits that I couldn’t use and sent them to a lady who had suffered a recent pet bereavement.  Then I set to work cutting into the cards and avoiding the phrases or images that wouldn’t work with the apertures size wise.  I am absolutely positive that I took a couple of photos of the back of the cut file so you can see how messy it is and how I have really used every scrap to fill up the little boxes.  But I can’t find them…

People laugh at me at the crops because I can’t bare throwing things away, even if they are really small, I’ve even used branding strips tucked under the photo for extra layers.  I love how I’ve been able to incorporate all the different patterns from the collection without cutting into a single whole sheet.  The spotty brown background was from my stash of staples – single sided, quite thin, but useful for ensuring you get the most stretch from your collections.

I used some of the stickers as mini titles / journalling as I’ve already done layouts about my great nephew being born and also how we miss them between visits.  To finish the layout off I’ve added enamel dots and resin flowers from the shop (yes I’m still trying to get everything loaded..)

So do you like using scraps or do you just throw them away or do you keep them never to see them again?  I’m usually in the latter category but I want to really do something about that!

We hope you’ve had fun and got some inspiration along the way.

Now go forth and make pretty pages!