Paper crafters are often faced with a dilemma with their leftover paper scraps. And the dilemma usually involves what they should actually do with all these pretty, albeit little, pieces of paper.

It’s a shame to purchase high quality patterned paper for scrapbooking or cardmaking and end up with little scrap pieces of the patterned paper that may eventually just go to waste. Although, with a little ingenuity, a paper crafter can find creative ways to use these little bits of paper so that they do not go to waste.

Here are two easy ways that you can use up your pretty little things:

Make Embellishments

Embellishments are an awesome and easy way to dress up any handmade greeting card. And thankfully, embellishments are typically small fun-sized pieces of paper that can be added as an accent to the main design of a handmade card.

Paper embellishments for cards may include heart shaped designs for Valentine’s Day or anniversary cards. Or maybe stars for a congratulations or birthday card. While you can find patterns to use when cutting out embellishments, one of the easiest ways to create little shaped embellishments is by using punch-outs.

Punch-outs can be found at any craft store and oftentimes, one can find punch-outs at the dollar store. Punch-outs are little mini die-cuts of very simple shapes, like stars, hearts, circles, or flowers. So many times just one punch-out offers a shape that can be used for a multitude of greeting card occasions.

So an inexpensive punch-out can, not only be used to make use of your paper scraps, but can be used over and over again.

Photo Corners

Photo corners are a great accent to any scrapbook. Many photo corners usually come colored in black or gold, but what about colorful photo corners? If you have fun colored scrap paper, then you can easily create little photo holders that will standout or match your special photos.

Photo holders can be made with a very thin rectangular strip of paper that is creased cleanly to create a 90-degree triangular pocket where the corner of a photo can be tucked inside. Create four identical little holders, then you have enough to hold a photo!

Your own photo holders can be created using the same color scheme as your scrapbooking pages, which would look really nice with your other colors. Or you can choose fun colored scrap pieces of paper to make photo holders that match the photos.

For instance, romantic photos may look even more sweet with silver or shimmery burgundy photo corners. Or summertime photos could be “framed” using bright yellows or aqua blues. Or graduation photos can be “framed” used the school colors. There are so many ways that you can add a pop of color to your scrapbooking pages and use your scrap paper at the same time!

Photo corners are also a nice touch to handmade cards. They can be used to “frame” the main image or sentiment of your card. Either way, photo corners are easy to make and are a simple way to use up some of your pretty scrap pieces.

Note: When making your own photo corners, make sure that you are using high quality, thick, acidic-free, archival paper because you don’t want your handmade photo corners to have any adverse affects on your photos over time.

Card making is fun and enjoyable hobby for adults and kids alike, but sometimes finding the perfect design for your handmade creations can be difficult. So if you are looking for creative ways to format your greeting cards, then consider card sketches, which are simply blueprints for designing a beautiful and balanced handmade card.

Card making is fun and enjoyable hobby for adults and kids alike, but sometimes finding the perfect design for your handmade creations can be difficult. So if you are looking for creative ways to format your greeting cards, then consider http://www.creative-card-sketches.com.

Author Bio: Card making is fun and enjoyable hobby for adults and kids alike, but sometimes finding the perfect design for your handmade creations can be difficult. So if you are looking for creative ways to format your greeting cards, then consider card sketches, which are simply blueprints for designing a beautiful and balanced handmade card.

Category: Arts and Crafts
Keywords: card making,card sketches