Before and After

 

What you see above is one of the "after" pictures.  Here is the "before":

A message board I frequent had a scrapbooking challenge ahead of National Scrapbooking Day.  It was to create a page using the theme "before and after".  I thought of several possibilities but didn't like any of them for various reasons.  Then my Mom suggest that I could showcase materials BEFORE I made something, and then the results.  That sparked this idea.  I had recently seen some YouTube videos about using up your white scraps.  I have TONS of those (from making card blanks & focals & mats & such), and really liked some of the ideas I had seen.  I decided to see what I could make with those scraps.  

First, I took my scraps and colored them in various ways.  On some I used embossing ink and colored embossing powders. Others were painted with Opal Polish.  One I even covered with double sided adhesive and added gilding flakes (that one took me FOREVER!!!).  After all were dry, I picked three of them and stenciled over the top (more details on that later).  Finally, I saved some pieces and die cut others, and soon found themes emerging.  Most of the pieces used on the following cards come from this process - additional elements added are mentioned in the descriptions of each individual card below.

First, here's a picture of all eleven cards that I made from these materials:

And here's my scrapbook page about it:

With a closeup of each page:

And now here's a closer look at each of the cards.

Card #1:

This card started with the die cut flower pieces.  After gathering the flower/leaf bits (die cut with Spellbinders Fall Flora set) and gluing them together, I decided they would go great with the 2 pieces of deep lavender that I had (the color is a little off in the picture - the flowers that look blueish are actually lavender - though they show as blue in certain lights due to the opal effects).  I basically had two squares of the darker lavender - but one had a large circle cut out of it!  So, I decided to emboss that front layer, and sandwich the bottoms of the flowers between the two layers.  I felt the card was too plain if I just added it to a plain white card base, so I took a white piece of card which was a little smaller than the card front, embossed it (Leafy Vines by HOTP), and colored it with 3 different colors of ink before I finally got something I felt went okay with the flowers.  I found one of Sassy's strip greetings that went well with it, matted it on black, and popped it up on foam tape.  When I added the focal, I discovered the edges weren't straight (because I didn't get the two squares lined up properly) so I hid the discrepancies with some Border Dazzles from HOTP.

Next up is this panel.  I had three different pieces that had goldish tones - the light opal polish, the gold glitter strip, and the gilding flakes panel.  As you can see, I took the panel and embossed it.  I used an Embossed Metal folder that I got in a card making magazine - Gears Wheels Cogs Kit - Love Cardmaking Issue 5. I then took the 1/2" strip that had been embossed with a gold glitter & sliced it down the center creating narrow strips for each side of the panel.  The gears were created using dies from the same set.  As you can see, after I cut them from gold (opal polish) and silver (gilding flakes) I layered them.  The stamped sentiment was also from the same magazine set.  I simply inked an additional white scrap with antique linen ink, stamped it in black, cut it with a circle punch, then matted it with a circle punched from a black scrap of card stock.  After adding the sentiment, I added the gears.  Some of them were partially adhered directly and partially on foam tape because of the way the layers worked.  

Card #3:

This next card made use of a gold opal panel and a stencil (Music Notes from HOTP).  After stenciling it with black ink and drying it, I matted it on a scrap of black paper.  I found the perfect sentiment in JustRite's Musical Notes Labels Twenty stamp set.  I had learned my lesson with the stenciling and immediately embossed the sentiment with clear embossing powder since the ink takes so long to dry on top of the Opal Polish.  I used a Stampin-Up Label punch to notch the ends, then matted it on a small rectangular piece of black card stock - adding it to my card front with foam tape.  Finally, I added some of the small musical notations & notes die cuts that I cut from scraps of black card stock using Paper Discovery's Lost in Music Musical Panels die set.

Card #4:

Here we have one of my stenciled panels (Rosebuds stencil from HOTP) along side a plain panel that I embossed (Cuttlebug's Swiss Dots embossing folder).  The umbrella, boots, and raindrops were all stamped and die cut from Rainy Days stamp and die sets from Gemini.  The top main part of the umbrella and the boots were made using white card stock scraps colored with a Raspberry Sorbet Luster Polish, and the umbrella handle was cut from the piece made with gilding flakes.  The raindrops were cut from one of the Opal Polish covered scraps (I ran a Sharpie around the edges so they would stand out better against the background - and YES, I realized I got them upside down, so I'm going to go fix that - but probably won't post the fix).  Finally, I stamped the sentiment (again from the Rainy Days stamp set) on a scrap of white.  I didn't have any cutting dies that were the right size for this, so used one on both ends and then fussy cut the middle to blend.  I again finished this piece by running my Sharpie around the edges.  Assembly was simple - glued everything directly in place - no foam tape.

Card #5:

Here I had two two-inch strips that I had colored with this peachy colored Opal Polish.  I embossed one with a Spellbinders embossing folder called Carved Tile Slimline.  Then I cut the other in half lengthwise.  I cut a large mat from black paper - just a bit smaller than the card front.  Then I cut two narrow strips from the same black paper.  I glued each half panel in place on the sides on top of the black mat.  Then I added fun foam to the back of the embossed panel and added it down the middle.  Finally, I add my black strips on either side - simply gluing them in place.  I thought these two sentiment pieces (Sassy's again) went perfectly, and as you can see, I matted the one on a large black circle and the other on a small piece of black card stock (after cutting the ends with my label punch).  I had to add a couple of foam pieces beneath the right side of the strip sentiment since it hung off the center panel a bit.  A pretty peach bow completes this card front.

Card #6:

If I had known how this card was going to come together, I might have used a different stencil for the upper part that was more music related.  But I didn't, and I still like how it turned out.  The background consists of two panels covered with Raspberry Sorbet Luster Polish.  You can't tell it here, but it has a sparkly finish to it.  Over top of one panel, I stenciled with some silver ink.  The border was created from a strip covered with dark sparkly embossing powder - with a thin scrap of black paper above it.  The sentiment was just sitting on my desk - cut from black card stock using a Spellbinders die from the set called Joyous Celebrations Collection Sentiments.  The music notes were all die cut from scraps of black using the Paper Discovery die set called Music Panels - which is part of their Lost in Music set.

Card #7:

This one was rather fun - took some time, but I was surprised by how realistic the lilac looked when finished.  The background was simply created by gluing a bunch of 1/2" strips diagonally.  The strips are all ones that had been covered with Opal Polish - four different colors.  The lilac, made from a Spellbinders set of dies simply called Lilac, is composed of a base and leaves from the two green colors, and the flowers themselves from the two lavender colors.  The little ladybugs were die cut from some of the scraps of the Raspberry Sorbet covered card stock - and the black added with a fine Sharpie pen.  The sentiment is another of Sassy's, but I'm probably going to switch it out for something else for my Mom's birthday (when she's not looking)!

Card #8:

Here I had cut a bunch of little flowers, leaves, and a ladybug from various Spellbinders sets - mostly their Lilac and Adoring Fleurette Card Builder sets.  I started by embossing the front of the card blank with a Spellbinders M-Bossabilities folder called Nobility A2.  I had a scrap of peach Opal Polish covered card stock that I used across the top of the card where I wanted to put the focal. I also had a piece covered with gold opal polish that had had a circle cut out of it - which I stood on point as you can see.  What you can't see is that the hole was wider than the peach strip behind it, so the white showed through at the bottom.  I found a scrap of green the same as the leaves and covered the white with it behind the hole.  Now it's not apparent even though the leaves and flowers don't fully cover the area.  I needed something to set off the focal, so pulled a 1/2" wide scrap that was covered with the Raspberry Sorbet and sliced it in half to create more narrow strips with which I framed my focal.  The strip sentiment (another of Sassy's) was put in place on top of another narrow piece of that Raspberry Sorbet.

Card #9:

For this one, I embossed a white panel and added a bit of ink to it before adding the scraps - including the die cut ones.  Finally, I added one of Sassy's greetings with some foam tape.

Card #10:

As you can see, I used a variety of the pastel Opal Polish strips to form a diagonally striped background.  I had cut the little "clip" from the gilding flakes piece, so cut a piece of one of the 2" Opal Polished strips into a "clip board" shape.  After stamping my greeting (from JustRite's Cast All Your Cares stamp set) I embossed it with clear embossing powder before adding die cut flowers/leaves from the scraps and some butterflies from my stash.

Card #11:

By the time I got to this one, my prepared scraps were mostly gone.  I used them to cut a scalloped circle to mat the round greeting, and then thin border strips to mat the remaining strip greetings - all greetings were Sassy's.  I prepared a background by covering a piece of card stock with double-sided adhesive and then using a stencil to create a background from white and aqua glitter - stencil used was called All Over Swirls by HOTP.

So, there you have it.  11 cards and one scrapbook page - all made from scraps!