welcome back to the craft room and today’s Make a Beautiful Card from Paper Scraps post. Have you ever stared at a pile of paper scraps and wondered if any of them are actually good for something? Instead of letting those leftovers collect dust—or eventually end up in the trash—why not turn them into a beautiful handmade card?
That’s exactly what I did with a few leftover pieces from a previous project. What started as some scraps became a quick and easy card with a surprisingly elegant look. And because this design works with all kinds of papers, it’s a great way to put those pretty leftovers in your stash to work.
If you’d like to see this card come together, you can watch the video below.
Preparing the Scraps & Card Base
The scraps I’m using for today’s card are leftovers from my How to Make an Alcohol Ink Birthday Card project. They were way too beautiful to just toss into the scrap bag and forget about!
Because of the way I cut down my original focal panels, my scraps are all 1″ wide, but they’re different lengths. The shortest one is only 3 1/4″ long.
As you can see in the images below, they’re also different shades, with two of them being much darker than the others. While that could work against me, I’m going to let those differences work to my advantage.
After thinking about the design for a little while, I decided to cut all four strips to 3 1/4″ long. This gives me four pieces that are the same size, while still allowing those differences in color to add some interest to the finished card.
To mat the alcohol ink strips, I grabbed a scrap piece of black linen-textured cardstock. I love this dark black cardstock that I get from my local print shop. Not only is the color perfect, but that little bit of texture, even with the thin margins, adds something extra to the cards I use it on.
For today’s project, I’m trimming the mats down to 3 1/2″ x 1 1/4″.
Since I already have my Tim Holtz 8.5″ guillotine paper trimmer out, let’s cut down the card base too.
As always, I’m using 110lb Recollections cardstock in white for my card base. I’ll cut this down to 5 1/2″ tall and then score it down the middle at 4 1/4″ to create an A2-size card.
Building the Card Front
Now that all of the pieces are cut, it’s time to start putting the card front together.
I’m using Bearly Art Precision Craft Glue to adhere the alcohol ink strips to the black mats. I love how quickly this little bit of matting turns those leftover pieces into something that looks much more intentional.
Once the strips are matted, we need to decide how they’re going to be arranged on the card front.
With this size strip, we have two options. They can be lined up down the center of the card, or they can be staggered. And honestly, I think either option could work!
While lining them up down the center is pretty, I really prefer the staggered look. I also decided to stagger the colors so the arrangement goes dark, light, dark, light. I think that gives the card a nice visual balance.
Because each strip is 1 1/4″ tall, I need to work with some pretty small margins to fit everything onto the card front. To help keep everything lined up, I’m going to start with the top strip, being careful to have the same amount of space on the left side as I do along the top.
As an added little bit of insurance for getting those margins as even as possible, I’ll place the next strip at the very bottom of the card. Again, I’m doing my best to keep the margin on the right side and bottom the same as the margins on the first strip.
Now that the first two strips are in place, I can fill in the two middle strips. I’m not only watching the margin widths, but also making sure the strips are staggered.
And this is where I start to see the card really coming together. I love how those leftover alcohol ink pieces already have so much interest just from the variation in color.
Adding the Focal Point
For the focal point, I’m using the beautiful Brass & Bliss Open Greenery #2 die set. In my last project using this die, I cut it from 110lb white cardstock and loved how it looked.
This project, however, calls for a little more drama.
To accomplish that, I found a scrap piece of silver metallic cardstock and used it for the die cut.
Can we just take a moment to admire this die cut? Chef’s kiss!
To attach this beautiful die cut to the card front, I’m going to carefully apply Bearly Art glue to the back. I’ll focus the glue on the tips and down the center of the leaves, along with the larger sections of the stems.
And just like that, our card is finished!
One Layout, Three Different Looks
I decided not to add a sentiment to today’s card because I really like how the silver greenery stands out against those alcohol ink panels. Leaving the sentiment off also means I can customize it later for whatever occasion I need.
But I couldn’t stop with just one card! Before we wrap up, I wanted to show you a couple more examples using this same basic layout.
The first uses a scrap of patterned paper from the P13 Always and Forever 6×8 paper pad. The Open Greenery die is cut from 110lb Recollections cardstock.
The wood-grain paper paired with the brown cardstock mat gives this card a completely different look. It’s a great example of why I love designs like this—you can change the papers and colors and suddenly the same layout feels like an entirely different card.
The second card uses another patterned paper scrap, along with a die-cut flower and a birthday sentiment.
Unfortunately, I’m not sure which paper pad this pretty light green paper came from, but I do love how it pops against the dark green cardstock mat.
The flower is from the Tim Holtz and Sizzix Wildflower Stems #1 die set and is the perfect addition to this layout. I also added the Happy Birthday sentiment from the Technique Tuesday Cosmo stamp set. It’s stamped with Gina K Designs Amalgam Ink in Obsidian.
These examples really show how versatile a card from paper scraps can be. You don’t need a particular collection of coordinating papers—just a few pieces you love and a simple layout to bring them together.
Final Thoughts
Thank you for joining me for today’s Make a Beautiful Card from Paper Scraps project! Whether you’re using leftover alcohol ink backgrounds, patterned paper, or cardstock scraps, this is one of those quick and easy card designs that’s perfect when you need a handmade card in a hurry. Sometimes the simplest designs really do end up being the most elegant.
And I think that’s one of the best things about using scraps. You get to take something that might otherwise have been forgotten in your scrap bin and turn it into something completely new.
Now I’d love to hear from you! Which layout do you prefer? Would you line the panels up down the center, or would you stagger them like I did? Let me know in the comments below—I always enjoy seeing what you would choose.
Until then, have a wonderful rest of your week, and I will see you back in the craft room soon!
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