Use Scrap Strips to Make Ephemera Using Stamps and Washi

I have a hard time throwing away scraps, including strips. I even keep strips that I cut off the ends of patterned paper - you know, the white strip at the top, sometimes with a hole? Some come with a pattern that's found on the reverse side - I even keep those!

I'm working with cream and white scraps here but you could do this with light colored scraps too. If the color is too dark, the stamping or washi tape may not show up well. Use these strips to decorate cards, junk journals, scrapbooks, envelopes (I'd recommend using thinner cardstock or paper scraps for envelopes), decor, and more.

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Making the Strips

1. Gather up your cream or white cardstock scrap strips and/or cut some strips from larger scraps or full sheets. You may also use light colored cardstock strip scraps.

2. See photo for examples. Use thin washi tapes to line edges of thicker strips. Use thicker washi tapes either by themselves or with stamps depending on the thickness of the strip and the desired look. See Supplies, below, for some of the Tim Holtz Design Tapes I used.

3. Optional: use a blending tool with sanding disk on a small cutting mat to sand off some of the surface of the washi tape. Use a soft cloth, such as a microfiber cloth, to wipe off and pick up any dust before handling. Sanding makes the tape look less shiny, makes it adhere better, and gives it an aged look. Note: I use the back side of my cutting mat so I won't sand off the lines on the front. You may want to use a dedicated mat for sanding.

4. Stamp between washi tape or stamp above/below as desired. I used VersaFine Clair Inks for their crispness. Look for small stamps to fit the space. If a stamp has two lines and you want to stamp in one line, you may either ink one half at a time or mask off one line at a time (e.g. use a Post-it to cover half while inking then remove before stamping). If you get ink in an undesired area, I recommend using a Stamp Shammy to clean off ink; I fold and use a small edge or corner for accuracy. Stamp Shammies are also excellent for cleaning your stamps before putting them away.

5. Use blending tool with a domed foam applicator and brown Distress Oxide Ink or brown Distress Ink to ink edges of each strip. I used Vintage Photo Distress Oxide Ink. You may want to do this on a Craft Mat or Glass Media Mat.

Hints: See the photo above; each square is 1/2". If your stamping was crooked, try stamping over with a darker ink, maybe using a seal type stamp. You may also trim down the area and separate areas by stamp. For example, I stamped "Handle With Care" twice but they were crooked so I cut around them and inked the edges to use separately. I stamped the red stripes (above the blue and red arrows) but left too much of a gap between the stamps so I added a black Air Mail seal over that area to hide the gaps. If you have very small scraps, fit very small stamps or washi (the red "Air Mail" with stripes is one stamp).

For a more distressed look, bend strip in different directions, each time sanding and/or inking the bent edge before flattening back out - see top strip with "Special Delivery" stamped down the middle and black washi tape at top. The music strip is just washi alone - the strip was very thin, I even had to trim it down to fit the paper.

Supplies

• Cardstock - Cream or White
• Various Washi Tapes - Tim Holtz Design Tape (e.g. Postal, Vintage, Collector, Trims)
• Thin Washi Tapes
• Tim Holtz Ranger Sanding Disks (for Mini Ink Blending Tool)
• Small Cutting Mat
• Microfiber Cloth
• Stampers Anonymous Stamps:
• Tim Holtz Stampers Anonymous Field Notes CMS396
• Tim Holtz Stampers Anonymous Correspondence CMS225
• Tim Holtz Stampers Anonymous Holiday Postmarks CMS323
• Tim Holtz Stampers Anonymous Tidbits CMS488
• Optional: Post-it Notes
• Recommended: Lawn Fawn Stamp Shammy to clean stamps
• Tim Holtz Blending Tools, Domed Foam Applicator
• Brown Distress Oxide Ink (I used Vintage Photo) or Brown Distress Ink
• VersaFine Clair Inks (e.g. Nocturne, Tulip Red, Paradise)
• Craft Mat or Glass Media Mat

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