Turning Trash into TREASURE...

Hey everyone!

{{{PLEASE SCROLL DOWN for my LPS Monday post and an ANNOUNCEMENT...thank you so much!!!}}}

I'm SO excited that it's Monday again and it's time for me to hang Unity peeps again over on the UNITY BLOG!  as your happy Guest Designer and de-clutter-er extraordinaire :)  Ok, well, at least this weekend I was!  LOVE de-cluttering!

If you are like me, you probably try to measure out your cardstock, DP, etc. in the hopes that there isn't a lot of left-over.  Right?   Nevertheless, by December, the fury of holiday card making is well under way and I find myself BURIED in scraps!  Too big to just throw out..but definitely NOT something I want hanging around?    PLUS, there's that Christmas wish-list that I am not afraid to admit is ever-growing and well, I guess I FEEL better knowing I can make room for new stuff when the old stuff actually gets USED.  Again, am I right?

Well, I put together a few projects for you using this beautiful pile of sCRAP ;)

Yikes!  That's a lot of paper, cardstock, etc.   You'd never know it, but I made THIS card using the December KIT OF THE MONTH, {Delightful Moments}, all by using up some scraps.  What do you guys think?   Are you signed up for the KOTM?  You know, I was "bit" by the UNITY bug starting with the August Kit and I can honestly tell you it's one of the best decisions I made.   It's fun, it's something for me, and it's a HECK of a lot of RUBBAH for only $24!  A few friends of mine told me recently that they are really glad they joined and if you're thinking about it, just hop over to the UNITY Forum on SCS to chit chat with us!  Everyone was so welcoming and helpful to me when I first started my collection...eh hem..obsession..with Unity :)

Well, after this card, I was on a roll, and decided that there were a few other things worth assembling out of this pile of paper scraps.   It just so happened that yesterday, my 9 year old DD came up to me and showed me that she had been happily using the bookmark I made her not too long ago.  This prompted my twin 7 year old boys to say "HEY!  We want a bookmark, too, Mom!"

Well, let me tell ya there is NOTHING more satisfying than being able to make TONS of bookmarks...out of scraps!  So here's what I did:

I cut a bunch of strips of cardstock, 2 1/2" by 6 1/2 ".   Three are shown here, but I cut about 20 because I am in the process of making them for our 1st grade book exchange on Friday.   I figure what a great add-on, right?

First and foremost, though, for my kiddos: I used this AWESOME tree stamp, also from the DECEMBER KOTM and embellished them with some Basic Grey embroidered brads and added a Prima to make my DD's a bit more "girly".   I thought the sentiment was perfect...because THAT is how I want my kids to see the world, for sure!

Well, I hope this inspires you to go and do something w/ those scraps that have been buggin' ya...and really, it's the perfect time of year to do so!  Even though we're SO busy with the holidays upon us, you never know what kind of awesome project that might come out of our trying to make way for what Santa brings :)   GOOD LUCK!

Last but not least I was thinking as I did these projects that tea and books are a few of my favorite things...and while I had NO confidence that I'd be able to find a cool quote or two regarding the focus of BOTH my projects today, I was pleasantly surprised:

" You can never get a cup of TEA large enough or a BOOK long enough to suit me..."  ~C.S. Lewis

"Tea and books-TWO of life's exquisite pleasures that together, bring near-bliss..." ~ Christine Hanrahan