To kick off the weekend we have a set of Altered Journaling and Ephemera Cards to share with you. Along with with versitle ATCs Gloria Stengel also shares several tips and tricks from how to store your bits and pieces and some creative ways to use these cards up. These are a great example of a #SimplyG45 project, just grab your leftover Ephemera cards, a few embellishments and some fussy cutting scissors and let’s get started.

Altered Journaling and Ephemera Cards

By Gloria Stengel

“I don’t know about all of you, but I constantly have piles of “leftovers” from various projects. I hate throwing the leftover bits and pieces away, but saving them can be a nightmare! After I clean up, I am always finding one or two little things that got left behind! I keep a plastic tote on my desk and just chuck these little orphans into the tote! But then what?!

I also use a lot of the Graphic 45 Journaling and Ephemera cards in my mini album and card projects. I often have a few left over from a collection. Sometimes they are damaged on one side, but the opposite side is still good!

Once I have a nice collection of goodies in my tote, I use them to make altered journaling and ephemera cards! This is such a fun little project to make, especially if I am not feeling up to making a large mini book or getting out a lot of tools and papers.

Since I occasionally teach card classes, I often will have bits and pieces left over. It is a huge hassle to put them all away, especially if there are just a few things. I often don’t have enough to make a full kit either. (Precious Memories Collection)

These pieces were left from a baby card class I taught. I turned them into these adorable, dimensional journaling cards! I can add these little cards to a mini album, scrapbook page, pocket scrapbooking, loaded envelope, or to the front of a card!

Tip: I often have lengths of twine or ribbon to use up, which always adds interest and dimension to the little cards.

I also make large mini album projects, and I often have leftovers, especially hand made flowers, stickers that have lost their stick-um, and other odds and ends. I toss them all into the tote bin!

Later, I can turn my leftovers into dimensional journaling cards! (Love Notes Collection) For this set, I found a flower I had made from the Mon Amour 6×6 paper pad, plus some pearls that were no longer sticky, and a lost key!

I have a little basket where I toss “lost” ephemera cards, and later I can pick through and choose the ones I want to use. I then sort out my bits and pieces to see what I have that matches! For this set, using the Imagine Collection, I added chipboard pieces, twine, fussy cut images, and pearls.

Tip: Sometimes I fussy cut more images than I need for a project. I will toss these into my “leftovers” tote bin, too! It is fun to pick through them when I need to make a quick card or need something in a hurry!

This set of altered cards is from the Princess Collection. I had created a travel journal project, and these bits were left in the bin! After I selected the die cut and chipboard bits to use, I added a few flowers, some twine, and pearls.

I recently created several large Dreamland Collection projects. I used a lot of the ephemera cards to make waterfall elements in a mini album, but these few were leftover. Adding a bit of dimension out of my “scraps bin” made these cards extra special, and they are ready for a new project!

Here is a look at the cards I made from the Life’s a Journey Collection. There is still space to write on these cards if you wish. I used some stickers for these cards. If I find an orphan sticker, I either stick it to a piece of cardstock or use an anti-static pouch to remove the adhesive from the back. Then I chuck them into the leftovers bin for later!

Tip: A product like an embossing “buddy” (anti-static pouch) can remove the stickiness from the backs of stickers. I keep one of the little bags on my desk so that I can swipe it over a sticker if I want to turn the sticker into a “die cut” or if I only want to stick down a portion of the sticker.

I love putting on one of my favorite shows or playing some music, and just digging around in my leftover tote bins! I pull out my packs of journaling and ephemera cards, and just make some fun altered journaling cards! I don’t have to pull out lots of paper or fuss with my tools. Everything I used for these cards were just bits and pieces that I had tossed into a bin!

Thanks for looking!”

Gloria Stengel – Scraps of Life Blog