Confessions of a paper hoarder - Part 1

We, crafters, are like magpies, attracted to shiny, beautiful things. The problem is when we start accumulating more beautiful things that we are able to use.

For the last couple of years, I haven't bought much - I cancelled my scrapbooking kit subscription and have been very economic with my purchases. But still, my pile of stuff doesn't seem to get any smaller, because I have a hoarder. I keep papers I don't like much (either I gone off them or it came in a kit), tiny paper scraps, letters stickers sheets when there's probably not enough letters to make a word out if it :-) the list is endless.

Ridiculous, I know.  I am trying to get my craft supplies to a manageable level by using what is usable and hopefully throwing away what is not.

I am hoping to have a regular "column" in my blog keeping track of the progress I am making in using or recycling my junk.  Like any addiction, it is a lifetime battle to keep the stash levels under control.

This month I started with my papers scraps. Paper scraps are great to make cards, because they are the right size and also because I can make cards much faster than scrapbook pages. (I am a slow scrapper).

What works for me is to make a kit, that is, put together a set of papers which goes together well and making cards using these papers. This is the kit I put together:

Yellow, orange and blues.

It is embarassing to show the size of scraps I keep...

Anyway, can I show you how many cards I made from these papers?

Paper candles - great way to use scraps!

For the candle body I rolled up a piece of paper around a pencil. The flame is a leaf punch which I inked or coloured with red. I think the inking looks best. The little framed buttons are the inspiration for my kit. Something i made for PaperPlay Challenges a while ago.

Then I got star struck:

Using paper strips in this one:

Even the Mami Doodles image was one I had printed ages ago and had half coloured it. So I finished it and used it.

By then I thought I was done, but there was this cute butterfly in the kit which deserved to be used so I made yet another one:

You probably can't see but I used the sewing machine in 4 or the cards, the stitching finished the cards really well.

Thanks for looking!