Recycled Pieces into Beauty

Not every project works out.  Do you have that same experience too?  There are often lots of left over pieces.  I used to save it all, and I’m happy to say that I have outgrown that!  But, every now and then, I have a few pieces that I just can’t throw away just yet.

I’ve participated a few times in a new challenge put together by Virginia Lu.  It’s Virginia’s View and this month the challenge was about Tags and Scraplings.  The catch – you have to use a recycled item on your project.  Today’s project is completely made out of pieces that I chose not to use, or were literally in my waste basket (the black strips…lol).

I’ll be honest – Virginia put together an interesting challenge this month.  Actually, each month they are interesting!  This is one of those challenge blogs that on the 1st – one of the first things I do is go and check out what she’s throwing our way.  I read it and went, huh?  Okay, not my thing and I moved on.  But I decided to go back, and try something that made me uncomfortable.  I read through and thought, why not?  So over to my “left over and junk scraps/not used pieces” I went and here is what I found:

The only non-junk pieces on this tag are the rhinestones, ribbon and black butterfly!  Even the dimensionals are from the outside border that I don’t always use…lol!  The two pieces that I pulled out of the trash for this project were the flower (and the black strips – those were hanging out at the bottom of my little scrap garbage bag on my desk.  I keep scraps up to about 1” x 3”.  Other than the 1/2” x 11” pieces, all else gets tossed.  So here are the details for todays tag.

Creative Tips –

• Sometimes going with imperfection can be a good thing.  The main focal point on today’s tag is the Dahlia flower in Cherry Cobbler.  It was originally thrown out because the right and bottom side was stamped a little blurred.  But it’s not that bad – I’m just a perfectionist…that’s why it didn’t make the cut the first time!

• The Love word is cut out of watercolor paper that’s been watercolored with island indigo and smoky slate.  As has the light blue butterfly – can you believe that was done with island indigo?
• The Basic Grey background was that size, and was run through the big shot with the Lacy Brocade embossing folder by Stampin’ Up!  The texture is the perfect touch for the background.

• Since the tag is rather large, breaking the color up was the obvious choice for me.  Since I didn’t have any left over string, I pulled out little strips that were at the bottom of my garbage scrap bag.  Criss-cross them to make the appearance of wrapped ribbon,
• Cut a background that’s a little wider (1/16th on the left, right and bottom).  Run it through the big shot with the largest top edge of the Deco Labels Framelits to form the top of your tag.  Punch a hole with a 1/8” hole punch.

• Pop your flower and butterflies up with dimensionals.  The butterfly wings are popped up on the edges to simulate flight.

• Glue the love down using multi purpose glue.
• Add Rhinestones to the butterflies and a white ribbon to complete the color pop.

I have to admit, this tag turned out much better than I possibly expected.  And who would have thought something so cute could be made from scrapped pieces?  Well thanks Virginia, I learned to definitely save a few more pieces and go into that stash a little more often!

Hope you enjoyed this.  So what scrapped pieces do you have?  Leave me a comment and let me know!

Creatively Yours –

PS – stop by tomorrow for my new 1+ 2 = 3 series – one stamp + two colors = three looks!