Monday 7 July 2014

Use Your Leftover Thickers



Hello!  My name is Carson and I'm currently a SAHM of two boys, 4 years and 9 months.  When I'm not chasing the rugrats around Washington State, I can usually be found in my craft room, creating cards, plugging away at Project Life, or wasting time on the internet.  I became primarily a card maker six years ago when I was simultaneously introduced to papercrafts by my sister in law, Jean and my good friend, Dianne.  That year, 2008, was the year I discovered that I could be a "creative type" and I've tried to feed my creative soul ever since.   You can find me and my creations over at my blog pineandplum.com or in the forums and gallery at Studio Calico.

Thickers All

I'm super excited to be guest designing for Scrap Your Scraps today. I'm new to this blog and have been hunting back through the archives and have found some great ideas and inspiration. Today I'll be sharing a little trick I have for using up those extra Thickers and maybe even finishing a sheet! As you can see from the picture above. I have a few too many thickers currently in my stash. I keep my collection in a 12x12 plastic envelope with a snap closure. I'm almost to the point of not being able to snap the envelope shut and yet I still have a strong, sometimes uncontrollable, urge to add to my collection. Because of this, I've been on the hunt to find ways of using up my thickers, and fast. I thought I would share one of my favorites with you today.

Thickers Org

I saw this technique online awhile back and I've been using it ever since. The basic concept is to surround and highlight your title/sentiment with a contrasting color or font of Thickers. It's a fantastic way to use up all those random Qs and Vs, as well as the punctuation marks that languish forever in their packaging. I made a few examples below, two pocket scrapbooking cards and a valentine.

Thickers Projects

On the title card you see below I wanted to show how you can make a general shape using the letters. I think the gray letters below look a bit like the continental US minus Florida. I was going for an organic look and it's US resemblance was a happy surprise, but you could lightly trace a heart, a star, any shape you want and suggest that shape with your letters.

Thickers Week

On the 3x4 card below, I wanted to show how you can go over the edge and trim the excess letter pieces away to make a very graphic and dimensional filler card. You could certainly have a word as the focal point, I decided to keep it minimal and use a heart to convey the message. Some Thickers obviously trim away better than others so keep this in mind when you are choosing your supplies.

Thickers heart

And finally I wanted to show you how you can translate this technique into card making by using it to cleverly illustrate your sentiment. I cut the heart from the wood grain paper using my silhouette, but if the shape is a simple one you can certainly free hand this technique. I then lightly traced the heart onto the base cardstock as a guide of where to place all my Thickers. Once I had the Thickers in place I used foam pop dots to adhere the wood grain paper over the card base. I then embellished the front as I would any card.

Thickers You

Now it's your turn. I would love to hear your tried and true methods for using up every last Thicker on the sheet. Many thanks to the Scrap Your Scraps team for having me today and thank you all for reading! Have fun scrapping!
 new signature 


  Carson
   Guest contributor for SCRAP YOUR SCRAPS




I was SO inspired by Carson’s ideas for leftover Thickers.  I just recently got hooked on them.  So I don’t have very many; but I thought this idea could work with regular letter stickers, too.  So I took out my pile of letters and here’s what I came up with.  I used some black Thickers to make the letter FUN in the middle.  Then I just surrounded that with some regular letters I’ve had around for years.  


I liked Carson's idea with the heart.  So I did something similar on a 3x4 card; but again, I used regular letters instead of Thickers.  I really like how this one turned out, too.  


This was so much FUN (pun intended) to do that I will definitely make some more.  It gave me great satisfaction to finally be able to finish a couple of pages of letter stickers!  Thanks for this great idea, Carson! 



  Sandi Chromey
   Creative Team Member of SCRAP YOUR SCRAPS 


 

 
Hey all!  I was so inspired by Carson that I decided to whip out an old OLD pack of K&Company ( I think!) chipboard alpha and use 'em all up on a layout.  I ended up finishing off the pack, which is great, because now I can make room for more Thickers and other fonts!



I love the dimensional look they provide, and they take the place of just using some patterned paper, which gives the layout more depth and interest.  I have even more sets of letters that I want to break out now, so don't be surprised to see another layout like this pop up sometime.  Thanks so much for the terrific idea Carson!


  Cathy Martin
  Creative Team Member of SCRAP YOUR SCRAPS


10 comments:

  1. Absolutely inspiring! Love this!

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  2. I've been looking for ideas for leftover letter stickers for over a year. These are the best ideas I've come across so far! Love them!

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  3. Great idea! I definitely will be doing. I have so many random thickets and letter stickers to use up. This is perfect!

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  4. These are some fabulous ideas - thanks!

    I used my leftovers, no matter what color or shape, as a background on a canvas by covering them with gesso and painting over them. Copy and paste the link (http://bit.ly/FCDMC062014) to see what I'm talking about...it will take you to Faber-Castell Design Memory Craft Gelato blog.

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  5. What a great idea - can't wait to try it :)

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  6. Brilliant idea! :)

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  7. Hey, Carson - Great idea! I love seeing your projects here. I haven't gotten hooked on thickers (yet) but I like how this looks enough that I'm inspired to purchase some. Thanks!

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  8. Very inspiring projects for scrapping the leftover Thickers and Stickers alphas and random numbers!

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  9. I love this idea. I'm going to go finish off some old packs of letters.

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  10. This is a fun layout and a great use of those extra thickers

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