I have a serious problem with it comes to paper scraps.

I can’t seem to throw any out. And while I do pull out my scrap boxes often, I never put a dent in the piles. So I challenged myself to create some layouts using only my scraps for embellishing.

The biggest reason I love my scraps is they are a library of the colors and patterns I like. At some point I used them all and decided the leftover bits were worth keeping. And I keep teeny tiny pieces, too. When my favorite papers are no longer on the market, I have been known to save dime-sized scraps.

There are many categories of scraps I found. The first is scraps that have been punched. For example, I recently created a leaf garland from paper to hang up during the fall season. So I went through my scrap box and punched lots of assorted colors and patterns for my leaves. So then I have negative shapes left in my scraps. I decided to turn these remnants into the something useful.

Cut out the negative punches in assorted sizes for a whimsical look. This layout is super simple. I just lined up all of my photos and text block at the center and filled in the leftover spaces with my scraps. When I had spaces too small for the leaves, I went searching for other scraps and found some hearts that would tie in perfectly with my page.

The next category of scraps I find a lot is paper strips. I keep a ridiculous amount of strips. For my next layout, I decided to jazz up simple cardstock strips to make them a feature. With chevron patterns still very trendy, I had an idea to create an embossed version using my paper crimper.

I trimmed my strips to the same width and decided in which order I wanted them to be. I then ran each strip through my crimper at an angle, being sure to switch the side I started with each time so the crimped stripes would alternate angles.

Another tip for using scraps is for when your pieces aren’t long enough. Some of the strips I wanted to use weren’t as long as the rest, so I snipped them in half and hid my solution under a photo.

I wanted to create some coordinating flowers, but my strips weren’t wide enough. I’ve run into this problem before and usually ended up punching out circles or ovals and adhering them around a circle for petals to build up a flower. As I was looking for my oval punches, I came across the brand new scissors squeeze punch and saw petals hidden in the handles. I get such a kick out of using shapes in unintended ways!

Punch out only the top half of the scissors, punching four pieces for each flower. I didn’t have enough strips left for solid flowers, so I mixed and matched for a fun look. Fold each petal in half to crease for dimension and layer a set of two together as shown. Adhere two together and top with a button at the center.

The last category of scraps I’m covering here are the tiny scraps. I’ll often punch a shape from these small leftovers to add here and there to a layout to add a little something extra. I figured if I gathered a bunch together I’d get a higher impact.

Lightly trace a shape or letter/number with a pencil onto your layout and adhere punched shapes along the line. Working in small sections, I traced my line with the edge of a glue stick and added my shapes instead of adding adhesive to the back of each little shape. I then went back and added foam adhesive dots to a few more shapes to layer for dimension.

By pairing your scraps with fun Fiskars tools, you can get high impact with little work. You can turn small or boring bits of paper into dramatic embellishments. I challenge you to embellish a layout using only scraps!