Category: crEAting

Welcome to the Scraphappy challenge post for March. This challenge uses the tiniest scraps of fabric – those little pieces that you sometimes end up with at the end of a sewing project too small for anything but the tiniest of patchwork – but I save them as they can prove useful as you will see in the pictures below.

For Christmas I made my sister in law and her husband a picnic hamper packed with a few edible goodies, a handy flask and a copy of The Picnic recipe book. 

To make it a bit more special and personalised I made them a napkin each with their names on. I used a couple of inexpensive white cotton napkins I bought from Sainsbury’s years ago and that I had stashed away in my craft drawer (for a project that I can’t even remember now!) and machine embroidered their names on……

…..and using an assortment of the tiny fabric scraps appliqued a simple flower design.

I say simple as it was the first time I had ever done any free hand machine embroidery and it took quite a bit of concentration ….but I was quite pleased with the result.

It might even be something that I make again or perhaps I will do a tea cosy or I am sure my two granddaughters would love a personalised pillowcase each – I still have plenty of tiny scraps to go at!

If you enjoyed this post do venture over to the other bloggers to see what they have been making. There are two new members to welcome to the group this month. Just click on each of the names below to link through to their blogs.

Kate, Gun, Eva, Sue, Lynda,
Birthe, Turid, Susan, Cathy,  Tracy, 
Jan, Moira, Sandra, Chris, Alys,
Claire, Jean, Jon, Dawn, Jule, Gwen,
Sunny, Kjerstin, Sue L, Vera, Edith
Nanette, Ann, Dawn 2, Carol, Preeti,
Debbierose, Nóilin, Viv, Karrin,
Amo and Alissa

This might seem a rather unusual Scraphappy challenge post as it is using up scraps of wood, but I thought you might be interested to see them even though it was not actually me, but DH that made them – I just made the endless cups of coffee.

When our grandchildren came along DH decided he wanted to make a set of Froebel Blocks for them (they are a kind of teach by playing type of thing – you can Google it if you want to know more). So with this idea in mind he disappeared into the garage one day and unearthed a load of off cuts from some lengths of beech that we had once used for the finishing rail along the waist height boarding in the shower room – and once cut into shape these were the basis of the different sized blocks. The boxes with little slide on lids he made from some off cuts of thin plywood. He never throws any bits of old wood away after a project but often finds a use for it.

I think he made a really good job of them and all the grandchildren love them. The only piece we had to buy was a short off cut length of a round piece of beech from a place that we pass in Penrith when we go up to Scotland. He emerged from the garage 3 weeks later with all these boxes of carefully cut, sanded and varnished building blocks complete with a storage box and identification picture pasted on the lid.

If you enjoyed this post do venture over to the other bloggers to see what they have been making.

Kate, Gun, Eva, Sue, Lynda, Birthe, Turid, Susan, Cathy, Tracy, Jill, Claire, Jan, Moira, Sandra, Chris, Alys, Claire, Jean, Jon, Dawn, Jule, Gwen, Sunny, Kjerstin, Sue L, Vera, Nanette, Ann, Dawn 2, Carol, Preeti, Edith, Debbierose, Noilin, Karin.

Until my recent affliction with the Covid I was on a mission to save old cards from ending up in the recycle bin and spent many a morning cutting and sticking for half an hour before breakfast to make new cards from old. They are so easy to do I would encourage anyone to have a go as they save on both money and waste. All you need is a roll of the white double sided tape that you can purchase from Hobbycraft, The Range, Rymans and I think even Sainsbury’s stock it. I use the one that is approximately 1cm wide.

You can buy large packs of white card blanks quite cheaply but I prefer these that are in many different colours and sizes. They are more expensive (about £1.25 for 4 or 6 in a pack depending on the size) but they do provide a strong border to really set off a card.

So below is a selection of a few of the ones I have done so far. I apologise for the terrible lighting – November must be the worst month for indoor photography and the lack of light.

Once the main part of the old card has been mounted onto a new card you can add your own embellishments and wording which you can buy from all good craft shops quite cheaply. These are some that I am waiting to do.

The two little cards below were made using bits of decorations peeled off some old cards.

And this one was actually the little printed part on the back of a birthday card remounted in an aperture card blank – so as you can see nothing here is wasted.

On the reverse of the card I stick a little homemade label that tells the recipient that this is a ‘recycled card’

I also found a few photocopy prints of my own sketches and mounted these onto some cardstock.

If you are feeling more creative you can use parts of cards to make your own designs – a cut out heart can make a great anniversary card when embellished a little. Earlier in the year I made a few of these special concertina anniversary cards using scraps of pink paper, my lovely heart shaped stamp and some embossing powder.

For my friends 80th I used a few scraps of fabric to stitch together this cute little 80 card.

So before you put that pile of old birthday cards in the recycle bin look to see if anything is salvageable or sparks an idea and might give an old card a new lease of life.

Happy Scrapping!

You will find more ScrapHappy ideas from these blogs:-

Kate, Gun, Eva, Sue, Lynda, Birthe, Turid, Susan, Cathy, Tracy, Jill, Claire, Jan, Moira, Sandra, Chris, Alys, Claire, Jean, Jon, Dawn, Jule, Gwen, Sunny, Kjerstin, Sue L, Vera, Nanette, Ann, Dawn 2, Carol, Preeti, Edith, Debbierose, Noilin.