FLOWERS TAGS EMBELLIES OH MY

 SCRAPS     SCRAPS     SCRAPS     SCRAPS!!!!   We all have them!!!  Most of us save the larger ones that can be used for matting sentiments or other layering.  There are a ton of YouTube videos showing you how to take your leftovers and only save pieces of a certain size and larger while throwing out the rest to avoid keeping tiny bits and pieces.  Then you have "ME"!  I save the tiniest pieces.  If it can make a homemade grommet I keep it!  I try, though don't always succeed, to punch out items from my scraps after each card is made.  I'll sit with all the scraps from my card and punch out as many hearts, flowers, circles and squares etc as I can and then I take those 1/4" and 1/8" wide strips and make little banners.  Then the tiniest of the tiny I see if I can still get a grommet out of it. Toss them all into a container for the day I sit and make embellies.     That is where I am today!  Ready to hit those containers and make some pretties!

First let me say my inspiration comes from YouTuber Septeria18.  Sandy is from Australia and has some fantastic ideas for scraps, Happy Mail, Mini Albums etc.  She also has an Etsy store where she sells kits if you would rather work that way.  I will place links to both her channel and her store at the end of my post.  Love love love her ideas and it has had me look at paper in a different way.  Especially scraps.  

One of my favorite embellishments is the half circle stack.  The possibilities are endless as to how they will look in the finish line.  It all starts with circles.  I prefer to use 2" or 1.75" circles.  Does not matter if you use plain or scallop circles.  I like using punch's instead of dies because it is alot quicker and since I'm using scraps if there is only enough scrap for a partial circle thats ok.  Now I will choose 3 circles I think I like together.  Don't rack your brain deciding this.  Most of it won't really be seen.  Then the first circle gets cut in half. Second circle cut a tad smaller and third a tad smaller than the second so that when you layer them they step down.  The leftovers can be used in the reverse order and will not be the same finished size as the first one but thats ok.  No big deal.  

You are then going to add pop dots (or dimentionals) to the backs of the middle 1/2 circle and the top 1/2 circle as shown below.  You are then ready to embellish.

Now what to do with these?  Well these could be added to tags or scrapbookers could add them to the corner of a page as an added embellishment.  In my case I'm adding them to pockets for Happy Mail.  This particular pocket is of course one that Sandy made about 6 months ago.  Hers are so darn cute.  Its a super simple pocket too.  You can get 2 pockets out of a 6x6 piece of paper.  I used double sided cardstock.  Cut a piece 3 x 3 1/4".  One the long side score at 1/4" and at 3" rotate and score at 1 1/8".  Fold and cut as shown below.

Glue flaps on pocket and then add your embellishment.  

I then filled the pocket with little bits for the receiver to make their own embellishment.

Another scrap and pocket idea takes even less work.  The pockets are 3x6 scored at 3 and glued on the side.  The embellishment is just pieces if paper strips glued randomly on top of each other and adding flowers, butterflies or hearts and bling.  Thats it.  Easy Peasy.

Here's a simple zfold pocket filled with various sized tags.  Also easy Happy Mail with scraps.

Quick layering of paper scraps can also be used to fancy up larger tags for gift giving.  I like to use my envelope punch board to make banners for part of the layers and to make tabs on some of the pieces so that everything does not look so square.

Last month and in March I re did some of my Shabby Chic flowers.  I had made some of my other easy flowers with punch's and scraps to have on hand to add to my embellishments.  Alot of the flowers just depend on how you curl the petals.  I use cheap card stock for these as the more expensive it a bit thick and they don't curl right for me.  I use what ever punch I have and if I don't have a flower punch around I use a circle punch and just cut slits all around and curl those.  Spritz lightly with water and curl with tweezers for a tighter curl or around a thin paintbrush for a looser curl.  Then stack at least 3 together add a bead, sequin, or glitter to the center and DONE! You have a flower!  Some look great flat too.  Or take 3 or 4 different size circles, wrinkle them, layer them and there you go a more retro flower.  Here are some examples below.

Septeria

Septeria ETSY

Oh my goodness having major issues with this post so before I lose it all I'll post it incomplete. Stay tune for part 2 Please note Z fold photos did not upload nor did the banners or other embellie items I talked about. Sorry but you will have to wait for the update post for those.