Do you know what this is? It's reproduction Victorian scrap. In the early days, original scrap was first printed in black and white, sometimes embossed with relief, then hand-tinted with color. Victorians saved these beautiful bits of paper and cards, often pasting favorite pieces into scrap albums.
In more recent years, Victorian scrap has mostly been used in decoupage craft projects, holiday decor, and card-making.
I have my own collection of reproduction Victorian scrap, that I've secreted away, to pull out for special projects or gift cards. If my daughters got their hands on my scrap, there's no telling what would be left!!
You can buy books or sheets of scrap, or nowadays, with home printers, you can print images directly off your computer. The book in these pictures is titled Old-Time Romantic Vignettes (Dover Books). If you google it, you would find it still available for purchase.
With a book of scrap, you first, roughly cut around the image you wish to use, then with fine point scissors, cut carefully up against the image. (The piece on the far right has only been roughly cut, and next I shall carefully trim away all of the white background.) It can be glued with glue stick to paper (for cards or stationery), or Mod Podged onto painted surfaces for crafting.
I searched and searched, but could not turn up some collage-style Valentines that I made many years ago. (You'll just have to take my word for it, but they were charming.) I cut small cards out of white heavy stock paper, used scissors which make a scalloped edge to trim out the edge of the cards, then collaged pieces of scrap to the front of the cards.
I've also used some of the scrap for craft projects. This is a jacket/sweater rack, which shall be repurposed to the kitchen, shortly, to hold my apron and a few other hanging bits and bobs. The rack was painted with acrylic paints, then the scrap Mod Podge-d onto the front, and finally the entire front was "varnished" with more Mod Podge.
I retrieved my collection of scrap this afternoon, to work on a Valentine decor piece for this year. I'll show you my finished project soon.
Until then, happy scrapping! I'm off to find my good scissors. . . . .
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