If you love paper but hate the clutter it has a tendency to generate consider some ways to use paper scraps around your house and office or for gift giving. 

Tabs aren’t just for file folders or pages. You can use them as bag toppers for small or large treat bags, just cut an appropriate length and width, fold in half and use a corner punch to make a decorative corner. You can use them for adornment instead of function, edge a tag, poke a hole and add a charm. Edge a card background with layered tabs. You can use them as a hanger for for a calendar or signs, just add a hole and an eyelet for extra strength. Oval tabs are perfect for making a topper on a round Christmas ornament, just add a hole.

Bookmark corners or decorative photo corners are another great way to add some color or pattern to a framed photo, especially black and white or sepia. This works especially well for a small photo centered on a much larger background, the corners help give the photo more prominence. Ornate corner designs add instant vintage.  There are so many ways to jazz up corners with punches or decorative scissors.

Pretty bookmark corners also come in handy for quickly finding your most used recipes in recipe books or any reference book. For the classroom mark your current lessons with some color coded bookmark corners. You can even edge a bookmark with a tab for extra decoration. 

A few basic punches make tab, bookmark and photo corner making easy. Invest in a few multi corner punches and you’ll use them over and over but if you don’t have them just try using scissors or decorative scissors. You’ll also get a lot of use out of one or two single decorative corner punches. 

Rather than keeping hoards of small paper scraps choose a few favorite paper scrap ideas you know you’ll use and make them from leftover scraps right away to avoid paper clutter from the start.

Think of more ways and more places you can use paper scrap items in your office, around the house or for gift giving and keep your craft room clutter free.

Happy paper crafting!