Last month I was really inspired by Alys’ ScrapHappy greetings cards, so this month I decided to have a go myself. I have loads of card blanks and piles of scrap paper and fabric. I’d also got a 2018 calendar that I couldn’t bring myself to throw out, some old greetings cards and some bits and pieces left over from the days when I used to make a hundred or so Christmas cards to send every year.
I started simple with some glue, paper scraps and the old calendar. The first one I made was a bit messy and I applied my glue unevenly, so it came out a bit wrinkled. Never mind, it’s a learning process and I was very pleased with my final attempt on the yellow card.
I made several just with paper and then moved on to some including paper, fabric (some swatches from when I was choosing curtains some time ago) and some leaf skeletons that have been hanging around for ages:
Fabric and leaves on paper
And then I decided to add some stitching, using my sewing machine. I made three cards from scraps of fabric, including some leaf motifs from an old net curtain, having become rather taken with leaves by this point. These are fabric on fabric, plus one leaf skeleton, mounted on card. The one on the left incorporates lots of the tiny trimmings from all the other cards, thus using scraps from scraps.
Finally, I had a little play around with sewing a leaf skeleton onto paper. This was an experiment and I haven’t actually made this into a card, but here it is anyway:
leaf stitched onto paper
So, here’s the complete set of scrappy cards (except one, which has already been sent):
scrappy cards
So, thank you Alys for the inspiration, I’m sure I’ll be making many more.
-oOo-
I’ve been inspired to write this (and future) ScrapHappy posts by Kate, Tall Tales from Chiconia. On the fifteenth of every month lots of other folks often publish a ScrapHappy post, do check them out:
Kate, Gun, Titti, Heléne, Eva, Sue, Nanette, Lynn, Lynda,
Birthe, Turid, Susan, Cathy, Debbierose, Tracy, Jill, Claire, Jan (me), Karen,
Moira, Sandra, Linda, Chris, Nancy, Alys, Kerry, Claire, Jean, Johanna,
Joanne, Jon, Hayley, Dawn, Gwen, Connie and Bekki
If you fancy joining, contact Kate and she’ll add you to the list. It would be lovely to see more non-sewing posts, but any use of scraps is welcome.
The Snail of Happiness 
katechiconi
/ April 15, 2019Ooooh, great result! I always find myself scrabbling about for suitable cards when I want to send someone a message, so I can imagine you’ll find these pretty handy – assuming you can bring yourself to part with them! Great scrappy (mostly non-fabric!) post 🙂
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thecontentedcrafter
/ April 15, 2019Fabulous job! I really like the layering and all the different effects you have come up with.
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Laurie Graves
/ April 15, 2019Really, really nice!
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Born To Organize
/ April 15, 2019I’m absolutely tickled that you were inspired to make cards using your scraps. Isn’t it fun!? And now you have an assortment to send to friends and family and the joy of creating with bits and pieces of things you had in your stash. I particularly like the combination of paper and fabric. Thanks for linking back. Alys
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The Snail of Happiness
/ April 15, 2019I used to make all my own greetings cards and have simply got out of the habit in recent years. It’s lovely, though, to only use bits and bobs that I already have. I went into a big craft store recently and they seemed to have aisles and aisles of things for card-making – almost to the point where all individual creativity was gone and it was just a case of sticking one or two pre-made decorations onto a card blank This was so much more fun and every card is unique. Thank you again for inspiring me
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Born To Organize
/ April 17, 2019❤️
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Nice Piece of Work
/ April 15, 2019clever clever clever 🙂
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Jo
/ April 15, 2019Looking lush Jan, what a great job you have done. 😀. Do you make the envelopes too? Or are the cards you made a standard envelope size. (That is an issue I had in the past…. made cards that did not fit envelopes). 😊🐸
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The Snail of Happiness
/ April 15, 2019I try to make them to fit standard envelopes, but sometimes I fail and then I do make my own. I try to reuse envelopes where possible… perhaps the next scraphappy should be about decorating old envelopes.
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nanacathy2
/ April 15, 2019Oh wow they are lovely and I have been putting off sewing paper and fabric on my sewing machine and I think you have just inspired me.
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The Snail of Happiness
/ April 15, 2019Give it a go – it’s interesting and easier than I though. Ann Lawson has been doing some amazing things sewing over her watercolours: https://annelawson.wordpress.com/2018/05/09/sewing-on-paper/
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Wild Daffodil
/ April 15, 2019What a wonderful collection.
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The Snail of Happiness
/ April 15, 2019I’m looking forward to sending them out into the world!
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KerryCan
/ April 15, 2019My goodness, you don’t do anything halfway, do you?! These turned out so well–and lots of cool variety!
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The Snail of Happiness
/ April 15, 2019I enjoyed making them so much, I just carried on. It’s nice now to have a stash so that next time Mr Snail asks if “we” have any cards, I can give him a choice.
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tialys
/ April 15, 2019It’s lots of fun making hand made cards and so useful for using up those little bits and bobs that are lying around in all our craft spaces. Sometimes I find the simplest ones work best too.
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Dartmoor Yarns
/ April 16, 2019Wow! Well done, that’s a lot of cards. Scraps are so good for card making. Love the idea of making leaves from net curtains. Might go to the charity shop and see if I can track one down.
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The Snail of Happiness
/ April 16, 2019Our local charity shops often have net curtains
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Dartmoor Yarns
/ April 17, 2019They’re definitely a thing of the past so unlikely to be re-homed elsewhere. So think my odds are good.
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mlmcspadden
/ April 16, 2019love the cards! They give me insipiration for the quilted postcards that I make.
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The Snail of Happiness
/ April 16, 2019funny you should mention quilting, I’ve been having a little play around with a tiny quilt to use on a card.
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anne54
/ April 17, 2019Sewing on paper….and sewing leaves on paper…..rather addictive! I am still surprised by how easy it is, and how much sewing the paper can take. These cards look great!
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Kim
/ April 17, 2019What a great idea – and I’m pretty confident I have everything I need to try this. And what could be nicer than receiving a card made just for you?
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The Snail of Happiness
/ April 17, 2019I also rather liked the fact that there were no rules to follow… it was a bit like being back at primary school and doing ‘art and craft’!
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insearchofitall
/ April 17, 2019What a wonderful collection of unique cards. I love getting cards that are hand made and save each of them. Pauline and Alys are so good at them they caused me to start an album along with another occasional blogger. We seem to have lost the creativity in simple things but somewhere down the road, it will come back. Working with scraps of fabric and paper is the most fun. Time is all you need. I’m inspired to try my own soon.
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The Snail of Happiness
/ April 17, 2019I really enjoyed making these because it really didn’t matter what I came up with, so I could just play.
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wybrow1966
/ April 21, 2019How clever – feeling like I might need to get my scrap bag out!
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Ann Pole
/ April 24, 2019Those cards are lovely. 🙂
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The Snail of Happiness
/ April 24, 2019Thank you… they were fun to make. I really want to play around with making some more stitched ones.
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