My Scrapbooking Blog

Supplies used are all CTMH unless otherwise noted: My Creations Milk Carton, My Peeps stamp set, Adhesive Springs, and Zig marker.

This month’s challenge at Scrap Our Stash is “Spring Fling” (interpreted any way you like).  I chose a Spring theme along with an actual spring.  Close to My Heart came out with these Adhesive Springs and this is my first try at using them.  I decorated this milk carton for my daughter for Easter.  The adhesive spring was a fun addition so the bunny is bouncy.  I plan to use more of them for butterflies, etc.

Sometimes we purchase a stack or pack of scrapbook paper where every sheet isn’t a favorite, or maybe we’ve had something in our stash forever and our tastes have changed.  I have found that I don’t like now what I liked years ago.  What do we do with scrapbook paper that we don’t like?  The current Use it or Lose it Challenge is to alter paper.  This is a great technique to use up some of that not-so-loved paper.

There are so many things you can do to alter paper.  Here are some ideas:

• if it is double-sided, flip it over and use the back.
• break it up into smaller pieces.  I don’t care for busy patterns but they are better in smaller doses.
• Stamp on it to add design or color
• use a sketch you love
• add embellishments that you love.
• emboss it (dry or wet)
• distress it by sanding or with ink
• add glitter or liquid glass

The thing that works best for me is to mix something I don’t like with something I really do like (sketch, color, embellishments, etc) to balance things out.

Here’s my before paper:

And here’s the layout that I came up with:

Supplies used: CTMH Paper Pack, CTMH Cotton Candy cardstock, CTMH Cotton Candy ink, CTMH So Blessed stamp set, CTMH Playful Flourishes stamp set, DCWV alphabet stickers, Versamark ink, CTMH brads, K & Company Grand Adhesions, and Heidi Grace Velvet Borders.

I did a few things to change the papers.  First, I randomly stamped the pink butterfly onto the patterned paper.  This added more color.  I always like pink and the original shades of color were too pale for my taste.  I also added a few pink brads to this paper.  The green striped paper I used the back side and stamped flourishes with Versamark ink which gave it the look of a watermark.  This is a great way to add a subtle pattern without overpowering your layout.  Another way to do this is to stamp tone-on-tone by using the same color ink as your paper.  You will get a similar effect.  The blue paper is not included in my before photo but it was polka dot in the same colors and again I used the back side.  I really don’t like using solids anymore so to add a bit to this paper I embossed it with my scoreboard.    Overall the layout still seems a bit plan to me but I think it’s the solid background that I chose so I’m just letting it be.

As promised, here is the second layout from the Victory Workshop on the Go Kit.  I do not have the Varsity Alphabet yet so I used Homestead (retired) that I had in my stash.  I changed up the layout a little (including some extra flourishes because I dropped it on my layout!)  With the upcoming Easter weekend, I won’t get the bonus project (cards) posted until next week.

E1021 Trinity Alphabet

Supplies used are all CTMH unless noted: Dotty for You Paper Packet (Available April 17-May 31, 2012), Trinity Alphabet stamp set, Sunset ink, Lagoon ink, Dimensional Elements Mixed Shapes, Dimensional Elements Banners, buttons from my stash, Stampin Up Baker’s Twine.  Sept. 2011 Page Map.

Trinity is a great alphabet because it offers three different size letters, punctuation, and numbers!  I’ve used all the sizes in my layout.  I had to use the Stampin Up baker’s twine because it was all I had in my stash but CTMH has some new Baker’s Twine and I think the colors are a bit brighter.  I’m going to have to get some now!

Here’s another layout I pulled out that just needed photos added.  Who knows why it has taken so long because I love the paper.  It’s from an old CTMH Workshop Kit.  Instead of a circle photo on the first page in the flower, I rounded the corner of all my photos and added the date in the space of the flower.