Conquering Scrap Mountain - Step One - Taming the Beast!

Hi everyone,

We've been having some glorious weather here in Norfolk, so last weekend I decided to make the most of it and do a bit of artyfarty outside in the sunshine. On the table is my huge bag of paper scraps and a little bag of essentials ...


I have made a promise to myself that I will conquer Scrap Mountain this summer.

Step one - organise!

My plan was to sort all the papers into colour families - trim the useful pieces to neaten them up and punch the smaller bits into shapes ready to use on my projects.


This really was a massive bag of scraps - I could hardly lift it! Three hours, two coffees and one G&T later, I had tamed the beast ...



How satisfying is THAT?!?!! :o)


The papers were sorted into reds, oranges, pinks/purples, yellows, greens, blues, blacks/whites, neutrals, mixed florals, mixed others. Where a double-sided paper could fall into two camps, I grouped it according to my favourite side and if I really couldn't decide it went into "mixed others".
I didn't have much left to recycle - even the tiny bits were punched into hearts to sprinkle on my scrapbook pages ...


Job well done! These now live in this box next to my workdesk ...


... and when I'm pulling out papers for a project, I look through the scrap box before going to my new stash.

Most of my pages at the moment tend to involve small pieces of paper piled up on a plain cardstock background, so there's no reason why I need to use a brand new sheet of patterned paper every time, when I could use Layered Leftovers instead! I can also use them with mixed media in my art journals, on smaller projects like tags and ATCs, and of course there's my new toy - the Zutter Bind It All - which will help to turn these scraps into beautiful books .... but that's another story!

Thanks for popping in today, have fun creating wherever you are and see you again soon.

Annie :o)xxx

Comments

Lizzy Hill said…
Fabulous! Betcha felt a great sense of satisfaction at this:) I keep mine in 12x12 plastic envelopes - & chuck my little bits out. I've found once I sorted the papers initially, it's worked really well ever since... So good on you:):)
Val-Belle said…
I have to do that now and again too because the scraps just have a mind of their own... I am at that stage again. Love the idea of the shapes... now if I could just remember what I have where and I would be good. Go you Annie.
Maria Ontiveros said…
Great job conquering your scraps! I rarely craft outside, unless it's sketching and watercolor.
rinda
Jimjams said…
I love the idea of having a variety of mini-punched shapes colour sorted like that - I already have my scraps in colour coordinated bags - thanks for the tip!