The "Junk" Drawer

OK, I admit it. I am a bit of a hoarder. Not only do I have a drawer where I throw my cardstock scraps, I also have a drawer where I throw my...what to call them...unused stuff, I guess. Often times I will be working on a card, create an embellishment, focal point, border or sentiment for it, then decide it doesn't look quite right. At that point, I toss it in my "junk" drawer. It's not really junk, of course, but it's starting to look that way:

I have a set of seven different armchair images in there - all different colors and patterns - because I just couldn't get the look that I wanted for a certain card. But, of course, I couldn't throw them away! I'm sure I will use them for...something, right?

Well, this past weekend, I decided I would just take out that drawer and make stuff from the pieces. In doing so, I found that the ATC (artist trading card) format was best suited for using a lot of these items - quickly and easily. So I'd like to share with you what I created from my "junk":

For this ATC, I used a piece of random-stamped cardstock, a tag from a pair of jeans that happened to have this to/from on the back, and a die-cut/stamped star.

This one was cool - I used a scrap of blue paper and the negative space from a snowflake die-cut. I originally thought I could just sponge white ink through the die-cut, but you really couldn't see it. So I ended up sprinkling on some clear embossing powder and sponging around the image with some blue ink. I love how it came out.

Another piece of that blue paper with a pink scrap of torn cardstock (CS), and a pre-assembled "yo-yo" that I had done at a crop a ways back.

This embossed and sponged turtle image was already mounted on the brown CS and the green-striped paper. The only thing I did was adhere it to a piece of white CS so that it would be official ATC size (2.5" x 3.5")

I have no idea what that background piece was from - but I had it! I mounted that to a piece of brown CS, then used the corrugated shape and die-cut/stamped "Thanks" image on top.

This one used four different scraps - the denim border, the white border, a piece of a green flower border, and the "Made with Love" die-cut. I attached all to a piece of white CS and drew a stitched border along the edge. The next two are cards:

This was a funky one, because, for some reason, I had a card base that just had leaves stamped around an empty area on the front. Hmmm. So, I found a white yo-yo, which I sprayed with some brown ink, a cream die-cut frame, a pinkish "Congrats" die-cut, a giraffe border, and a piece of green patterned paper...and put it all together! More scraps gone!

This last one is my favorite in its stark simplicity. This uses one of those armchair images I mentioned earlier, and a strip of leftover patterned paper from a birthday card kit I made a long time ago. Cool.

Whew! I have certainly been having fun using up these scraps! I have a LONG ways to go to make a dent in this thing, but I'm going to keep plugging away. I hope I have inspired you to take a look in your "junk" drawer, and see what kinds of treasures you can find!