SERENDIPITOUS THANKS

Have you ever made a sheet of Serendipity Paper? It's very time consuming, but oh, so very worth it when you finish. 

Every few years, I get the hankering to make a sheet of Serendipity Paper. I haven't done it for awhile, so I guess I'm due. 

I'm sure you're asking "What is Serendipity Paper?" If you look online, you can find a plethora of ways to create your own Serendipity Paper, and I've done it several of these ways. But, the sheet I used in my card is one of my favorite ways to create a sheet of this.

The four squares on the card are cut from my single piece of Serendipity Paper.

This card is basically quite flat. 

A closeup and personal view of the four Serendipity Paper squares, 

Each one has its own personality and is a unique work of art. 

They are mini collages.

I used all sorts of metallic embossing on my sheet, so I followed through on my "embellishment" by embossing in copper a small sheet of white cardstock and punching out little 1/4" circles with a paper punch. I love how that brought everything together. You can see my homemade embellishment in the center of the black circle,

The sheet of Serendipity Paper is done on a piece of 8 1/2" x 11" cardstock, then cut into 1" squares to use for whatever puspose you want. 

While the rest of the card is fairly self-explanatory, I will just give you a tutorial on how to make your own sheet of Serendipity Paper.

INSTRUCTIONS:

Grab an 8 1/2" x 11" piece of cardstock in pretty much any color. A neutral or black works well, but really depends on the other colors you're working with.

Go through any types of scraps you have, but nothing just too busy because you want to create your own busy-ness. Have something of a color palette in mind -- don't make it too haphazard,. For example, my Serendipity Paper was made up of autumn colors.

Tear the scraps or cut them into strips, or use a combination of whatever you want. Start out by haphazardly gluing random pieces to the large piece of cardstock. There is no rhyme or reason to how these are to be put in place. Just keep on gluing, overlapping the pieces. Just concentrate on not getting any single area too thick. You want to keep the density fairly even. Keep at this until the entire sheet of cardstock is filled. This is the time-consuming part. But have fun with it!

Once your scraps are all in place, grab some interesting stamps. Randomly stamp here and there all over the paper. Take a felt pen or two and scribble around. You can even scribble with metallic pens or gel pens. Do some more stamping, but with VersaMark ink, then emboss these images with metallic embossing powders. The sky is the limit with the fun and variety you can achieve with this. 

When your piece of Serendipity Paper is finished and dried, you can cut it up for use on a card or whatever else you might have in mind. This sheet is a true unique treasure trove. Often I will just use my paper cutter and slice off a 1" strip, then cut this strip into 1" squares. I will then leave the rest of the sheet untouched for future use. You coule even make your squares larger or smaller. Once again, the sky's the limit! 

The one thing, besides some consistency in looks, is that you be very careful with gluing the pieces down, especially if you get too thick in one area.. You don't want your masterpiece falling apart!

Now, get yourself to your Creation Station and use up some of those scraps you have lying around. They won't be scraps anymore once you make them part of a work of art!

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The artist is a receptacle for emotions 

that come from all over the place: 

from the sky, from the earth, from a scrap of paper, 

from a passing shape, from a spider's web.

- Pablo Picasso -

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Scrappy 

Smiles.