Using 6×6 Paper

I have quite the collection of 6×6 paper pads.  In theory, I purchased them for card making.  In reality, they sit on a shelf mocking me because I rarely make cards.  At this point, I’ve put a buying freeze on all 6×6 pads until the space I have dedicated can fit more.  Spoiler alert:  That will take a year at least.

Luckily there is an expert in creating layouts using 6×6 pads.  Allison Davis has made some magnificent sketches that are designed to be used with 6×6 papers.  Though the sketch I used was created for a 2 page layout, I adjusted by using only one side of the sketch.  That meant I needed to change up the placement of the title and embellishments as well.

My first step was choosing the papers I wanted to use.  As I examined the photos, I knew that I wanted to stick to blues and greens.  It really was a no brainer.  The photos have green backgrounds, while the people all have on blue.  (No, I didn’t plan our outfits.  I really don’t plan that well!)  When I reached for my 6×6 pads, I couldn’t find the papers I wanted in just one stack.  So I wound up using a couple of collections.

The design is a really simple one.  It’s a grid that’s just pushed to the side.  All of my other grid layouts are centered, so I liked this little twist on an old favorite.  Please note that even after buying a T-square ruler, I still didn’t get my blocks placed perfectly.  Sigh… someday I will get it right.

In the spirit of using supplies that are old and have been largely unloved, I started by sorting through my bits and bobs on my desk.  I keep a couple of containers of items that either never got put away or were the last few pieces from a pack.  Everything except for the enamel dots came from my containers of orphan items.  It felt so good to give these items a home.  And honestly, I love how they look!

One of my favorite parts of this layout, other than the photos, is the title work.  Originally, I was going to place the title on the white cardstock at the left side of the layout.  It seemed logical since there is more room over there.  I am so glad that I reconsidered and placed it around the corner.  For once my title looks like part of the design, rather than an afterthought!

Hopefully I can create a few more layouts that include 6×6 papers.  I will definitely be reaching for more Allison Davis sketches to help me reach my goals.

 

When a Plan Doesn’t Come Together

I had a plan for this page… I really did.  It all started with a challenge to create a star border for your photos.  Then I was going to combine it with another challenge that required some stitching.  In order for this plan to work, I needed to cut out a multitude of stars… which I did.  However, I didn’t really have a range of sizes that I needed to create the border I pictured in my mind.  Still, I persisted… and failed.  I just could not get a border to look right at all!  *Sigh*  So after an hour or so of just moving stars around, I gave up and started again

This time I went for a far more plain (and not at all what I had in mind) design.  I wound up choosing just a few stars and putting them across the layout diagonally.  I also fussy cut a few clouds to place on top.  In order to balance it out down below, I added a tag so that I could add a bit of journaling.  The title was done using a wonder Freckled Fawn alphabet.  It’s really my favorite part of this disaster of a layout!

Just a heads up if you ever decide to hand stitch on stars, make sure you choose smaller stitches than I did.  I was making longer stitches in order to save a little time.  That strategy also backfired.  You see, a star has indents.  When you run the stitch across the back, the floss wants to go across those indents and show.  It took quite a bit of manipulation on my part to keep those backside stitches from showing.  Never again!

In the end, I suppose the layout does a pretty good job of mirroring my mess of hair in the photo.  It too started with a plan (or brush), and quickly spiraled out of control.

Scrapping With Supplies I Didn’t Buy

No, no, I didn’t steal them!  I happen to have some wonderful friends and family that give me a few supplies.  If you are an avid scrapbooker, you know the kinds of papers that you tend to gravitate towards.  The problem (okay, it’s so not a problem) with supplies you are given, is that they may not be your style.  If they aren’t your style, then it is likely that you will have trouble using them.

Sometimes, those papers that you generally wouldn’t reach for turn out to be exactly what you need.  In this case, I had some photos from Animal Kingdom’s Jambo House to scrap.  All of the brown and tan in the photos just didn’t scream aqua and pink to me.  I have a LOT of aqua and pink papers.  However, I was gifted a safari themed paper pad a while back that was absolutely perfect!  If you look closely at the prints, not only is there the spotted giraffe paper, but the tan/yellow paper is covered in giraffes!  The striped paper was also in that collection.  All I needed to add were 2 colors of green cardstock… one for the background, and one to mat the photos.

Since there were 6 photos, I needed to make a two page layout.  These are definitely not in my wheelhouse.  I did what I always do when I have no clue where to start… I went to Pinterest.  I found a sketch online that used the same number of photos and were the correct orientation.  Obviously I spend too much time on Pinterest!  The one I chose only included 2 paper strips that ended in banners.  Though I liked the banners, I knew I wanted that cute giraffe chipboard piece right where they were supposed to be.

Once I got my papers and photos placed, it was time to figure out how to embellish the page.  The sketch called for 2 wide banners up in the upper right hand corner.  I adjusted that to use the 3 papers from below.  I placed some chipboard pieces to decorate them, then added in brads on either side.  (Whenever I get a chance to use brads, I do.  I purchased quite a few when I began scrapbooking, but they are difficult for me to use.  Let’s be real… anything that once placed, can’t easily be moved, is not a good product for me.)  I knew I wanted to use that giraffe on the lower left.  It doesn’t match the feel of the papers, but I don’t care!  It was just too cute to leave off of the page.

There were two more places that needed some work.  The upper left hand corner needed a title.  The lower right was supposed to be a journaling spot.  I wasn’t quite sure about what to do in either of these spaces.  After looking through some old chipboard, I found that “Noted” piece.  I liked that it was neutral in color and helped fill up the space.  I also decided to use two alpha sets to add a little more interest.  Finally, I added the cute vine.  The lower right was a problem because I didn’t really have anything to journal… at least not enough to fill up the space.  It turns out, the backside of the striped paper was a cut-apart sheet.  I thought that the “safari adventure” was not only the correct size, but a great compliment to the wildlife photos.  I added a coordinating chipboard piece that allowed for my brief journaling, along with a couple of other small embellishments.

Overall, it’s a pretty clean layout.  It won’t win any creativity awards.  However, it’s precisely what I wanted for a page about our tall spotted friends.  I love that I was able to finally use some of those wonderful papers that were given to me.  I think this layout does them justice.

Stylin’

I absolutely adore this photo of my niece.  She is in single digits, and yet, she has a far cooler look than I had as a teenager.  (Why were we in pastel Garanimals at this age?)  The filter on this photo also brings back memories of photos taken in the 70’s.  Mix that with that cute little face, and you get a picture that just has to be scrapped… in style.

For this layout I started with a page I found on Pinterest.  You can find it here, at the “A Cherry on Top” website.  I don’t have any affiliation with them, but they are one of the handful of online scrapbooking sites that I purchase from occasionally.  Debbi did a beautiful job on the original.  It is full of so many fantastic details.  It is amazing!

For this layout, I chose to simplify the original.  What can I say?  I am a simple scrapper.  Since I generally scrap 4 x 6 pictures, I replaced her 2 smaller photos with my single photo.  I also used fewer embellishments.  (Is anyone surprised?) Instead of going around each piece of paper drawing a black outline, I opted for inking the edges.  I omitted some small strips of paper at the bottom left of the layout because I didn’t think it needed anything there.  It isn’t as fancy as Debbi’s, but the design is still fantastic!

One thing that I really enjoyed about this layout is that I was able to use up some old products and scraps.  The star papers along with the berry colored paper are all scraps.  All of the embellishments on this page are several years old.  I completely forgot that I even had those sunglasses.  I just happened upon them as I was searching through my dimensional stickers.  The only thing new on this page is the berry and gold letter stickers.  It just goes to show that you don’t need new products to make amazing pages.

The Castle

Hey, remember how I said I was trying to use my Disney themed papers and embellishments?  Well, that flew out the window as soon as I went to scrap this photo.  Do you see those beautiful blue and purple tones?  They were screaming out for papers that could live up to their elegance.

I recently received the purple, blue, and teal geometric paper from the Bloom Street collection.  (I’m kicking myself for not ordering that collection.  It’s incredible.  And yes, I am aware that I keep posting that I am not a collection scrapbooker.  The paper… it calls to me!)  I thought the colors were a great match to the castle.  So I went through the remainder of my purple papers and pulled out that purple/pink background paper as well as the dark purple that I border punched.  I liked the contrast while staying within the same color family.

For the design, I took inspiration from a layout by Mandy Melville that I found on Pinterest.  She has a blog that you can find here.  I really like how it shows off both the photo, and the paper.  The design is super simple, without looking plain.  I did find that I had to mat the photo in order to give it more weight and have it stand out from the paper.

The embellishing went rather quickly for once!  I chose to go with some new die cut florals.  Most are from Shimelle’s Never Grow Up collection.  They were rather large, which worked well for this layout.  I did do a bit of layering, so there are multiple floral or leaf pieces in each cluster.  Some are popped up with foam squares to give a bit more dimension.  I also added in some silver foam hearts and leaves to go with the silver title.

This is one of my favorite layouts in my Disney album.  Sometimes you just need an exquisite photo and a simple design.

Using Disney Themed Collections

Before we left on our Disney trip, I purchased a ton (okay, 3 or 4) paper collections that were Disney themed.  I thought for sure that this would make scrapbooking our vacation so much easier!  The supplies would be ready, and the pages would flow since the color scheme would be consistent.

What could go wrong?  I forgot to take two things into account when making these plans.  First, I didn’t think about the colors in the photos not matching with the colors in the collections.  Let’s face it… light blue, yellow, red, and black just don’t go well with purple and pink photos.  The other element I forgot about was the scrapbooker… me!  If you have followed me for a while, you know I am not a collection scrapbooker.  How could I possibly think I could stick within multiple collections with the same basic designs?

Now that I am about halfway through scrapping our vacation photos, I realize that I have hardly touched the collections I purchased.  When you’ve done 30 layouts and only about 3 use papers from the Disney themed collections, well, it’s not good.  I’m only using the supplies I bought for this album about 10 percent of the time.  (I’m a math teacher.  The percentage is important to me!)

So what do I do?  I am making a concerted effort to pull those Disney collections.  Today’s layout was the perfect opportunity to use up some Disney papers.  The colors of the tile in the Morocco pavilion, along with my husband’s shirt (wasn’t it nice that he matched the background so well?), went along perfectly with the color scheme in the collections I had.  In this case I pulled the yellow chevron for the background as well as the red polka dot paper.  I wanted to use a darker blue than what was in the collection, so I used that lovely navy tone-on-tone scrap.  I also decided to use a pale cream piece of cardstock, so that the yellow paper created a frame and kept this layout from becoming too busy.

I love the overall design of this page.  I started with a sketch by Jennifer Shaw, simplifying it a bit.  She included some circle elements that I omitted because… um… I am a lazy scrapper.  Though I love the added interest circles provide, I didn’t want to deal with cutting and placing them.  She had a filmstrip piece as well, but only included a bit on the right side.  I decided to place it all of the way across.  (Let me tell you, I was doing a happy dance when I was able to use that film cut apart strip.  I have SUCH a hard time using cut aparts in collections.)

The embellishments for this page except for the “explore” are completely from the Disney themed collections.  I am super happy with how the embellishment cluster at the top right turned out.  I stacked a couple of 2×2 cut aparts to make it look like I had paper strips.  Then I added a couple of die cuts, a piece of chipboard, and some yellow enamel dots.  It’s nothing fancy.  It just looks balanced.  I think keeping the materials pretty narrow on this page helped me create something that I love.  Maybe I should limit my supplies more often!

I am not including any Disney tips for now, as the world is currently in a state of flux.  Advice that I have from our trip won’t reflect the current reality.  For now, I will just keep scrapping.

Simplicity

I am currently on a simple scrapbooking kick.  My layouts are almost never too complicated.  I just don’t have the time or patience to work on anything overly elaborate.  Let’s be real, I DO pin elaborate designs thinking that some day I will do one.  That day just never arrives!  Right now my focus is to get my large backlog of photos scrapped and into their appropriate books.

This layout is an extraordinarily simple grid design.  There are no fancy techniques or flashy new products on this page.  The embellishments are minimal, even for me.  In part, because of the design, I didn’t have a lot of room to add a lot of embellishments.  There could be more decoration down in the bottom left hand corner, but I also didn’t want to distract from the beautiful photos.

I will be honest, this layout didn’t turn out like I had originally pictured.  My original vision had a background paper that was much more beachy with waves.  I scrapped (pun intended… Yes, I am a geek.) that idea, when it made the whole page look washed out.  That bottom square was originally slated to hold a banner and the title.  However, nothing I tried looked right.  So, I had to go with plan B there as well.

Since that square is so large, I had to find a large embellishment to fill the space.  I discovered that wood heart in my stash, and it was a perfect fit.  It was much too plain by itself.  I didn’t want to cover up that beautiful wood with paper or paint, so I decided on just placing a flower in the upper left hand corner.  Then I chose the butterfly, and another small wood veneer heart.  Since I am terrible at using those tiny word stickers, I pulled the “beach” sticker as well.  I finished off the embellishment on the page by mirroring the butterfly, wood veneer hearts, and word sticker in the upper right hand corner.

I know this page isn’t anything super eye catching.  It’s still a scrapbooking win.  I got 3 beautiful photographs scrapped.  I also got to use some older products.  Both the light blue photo mats and the background paper are from paper stacks.  I don’t often use those stacks because the paper is so thin.  The butterflies are also about a decade old.  My goal is to use up the supplies I purchased years ago.  By mixing them in with newer supplies, I will be able to save money.

Another Hidden Surprise

I know that this layout is fairly simple.  Honestly, that’s what I like about it. It’s bright and cheery, without taking hours to produce.  I love the contrast between the lime green and turquoise.  To add in a bit of interest, I did break it up with that black and white floral.  It just makes me so happy.

You will see me use this basic design quite often.  Really it’s just a slight modification of placing large bands of paper all the way across the layout.  I like to cut them down a bit and have them flush to one side.  It’s a small thing, but it really does give a layout a different look.  Because there was so much room with only this one photo on the page, I paired it with the “Dream” journaling card.

That card along, with some of my other embellishments have been in my stash for quite a while  The apple tag, the green clip, the metallic lime dots, and that green tab had been hanging around for years.  Those metallic dots were actually handed down to me by another scrapper, so I can’t even imagine how old they must be.  I mixed them with a few newer die cuts to finish off the layout.

About that green tab… that’s a hidden journaling spot.  Originally, I was going to write on the “Dream” card.  I felt like the writing would just look wrong there.  If I wrote on the card and didn’t like it, I would have to trash it and find something else to put there.  So I found a large journaling card with a tab and made a pocket for it underneath the turquoise dot paper.  For those who don’t like their handwriting, but want to include journaling, hidden spots are the way to go!

No travel tips in this post!  In this case, I didn’t get beyond my own backyard.

 

Using Old Supplies

Admit it.  You have purchased a scrapbooking supply that you thought was a great idea at the time, only to find out that you never use it.  Washi tape, brads, and papers with corner prints have all been my kryptonite.  All of those pale in comparison to this pack of Crate Paper frames that I bought back in 2012.  They were all the rage back when I purchased them.  I was all on board, until they arrived and I tried to actually use them.  I finally gave up, and put them under a pile of supplies that I would “get to someday.”

A fellow scrapbooker put out a challenge to put together page kits.  One of my goals is to include those hard to use items in my kits.  That way, at least some of them will make it onto a page.  So for one of my page kits, I tossed in the entire pack of chipboard frames.  I was DETERMINED to use them.  For this kit, I also included some very old chipboard shapes and cork hearts.  (I honestly love those hearts.  I just don’t tend to reach for them very often.)

The papers came together quite quickly.  I pulled an old lime green tone-on-tone print for the background.  Then I added that lovely teal vine paper on top.  It’s so pretty!  I also added a bit of blue from a paper pad, then used a border punch on it.  The blue paper is also an attempt to use up some of those thin papers I purchased very early on in my scrapbooking adventure.  I much prefer the heavier cardstock weight papers for my projects.

Once the papers were placed, then the fiddling began.  I’m not talking about the good kind of fiddling that you can tap your toe to.  No, I’m talking about placing, moving, and placing items again.  At first, I was going for a diagonal design.  I simply could not get it to work.  Finally, I realized I could group them in more of a horizontal design.  It still took quite a bit of finessing before I was happy.

After I got the frames where I wanted them, I needed to choose the paper scraps to fill them.  This then began the game of “move the frame without bumping any of the others out of place.”  This is not a fun game.  I did make sure to take a photo of the frame placement before I began gluing papers.  Still, it’s difficult to keep everything exactly in place.  Admittedly, I did end up adjusting them a bit more before everything was attached to the background.

For once I actually enjoyed embellishing a layout!  I am as surprised as you are!  The frames took up so much space and added quite a bit of dimension.  Each little space invited its own little decorating space.  The best part?  Those old chipboard pieces finally came out of my stash after sitting for years.  I also included a couple of die-cuts and mixed in cork and wood hearts.  It was so freeing to not work by the rule of threes or use a diagonal design.  Nope, just place here and there until I was happy.

Going out of my comfort zone took a little extra time, but it was totally worth it.  This is one of my favorite layouts that I’ve done in a long time.

Disney tip:  If you want some nice photos without any people in the background, get to the park early.  This photo was taken before park opening.  Though not all parts of the park are accessible, there are definitely some nice photo opportunities available.

And So it Begins

I know this doesn’t look like a Disney layout.  It doesn’t use any traditional Disney colors.  You don’t see any Disney icon embellishments.  There is absolutely nothing about Disney in the photo!  So how can this be a Disney layout?  This was the selfie (I forced upon my husband) that we took while waiting for the friendship boat to take us to EPCOT.  We were about to go to our first Disney park, and I wanted to record that excitement!  That’s about as excited as we get, people!

With the photo being so dark, I wanted to work with a light background.  In this case, I just went with my favorite smooth American Crafts cardstock.  Then I began digging through my scrap bin.  I pulled out all of the blue and green scraps, then began mixing and matching them until I found a combination that I liked.  For the most part, I chose lighter shades.  I did want that navy star paper included to give it a little bit of weight towards the bottom.

I am a big fan of the stacked boxes design.  There’s no right or wrong way to do it.  I always try to make some sort of an “L” shape.  Really, I just stack and restack until it turns out the way I want it.  This is a great style for using up your scraps.  Whenever I get a number of large scraps that compliment each other, you can be sure I’m going to do a stacked box design.

Almost all of the embellishments are pretty old.  The only new piece is the “Let the Adventure begin!” die-cut.  The chipboard stars are some of my favorite embellishments ever.  I believe they are from Studio Calico.  I am nearly out of them.  They just seemed to be a perfect compliment to the star paper.  The chipboard “love” was sitting on my desk.  I believe I’ve had that for 10-15 years.  With the colors in the page, it just seemed to be a perfect fit.

I know it doesn’t look like a typical Disney layout.  That’s okay!  There are no rules about scrapbooking.  This was a special memory that I wanted to document.  The beginning of this particular adventure was magical.  The story was about us, and our happiness.  That’s what this photo captured.

Disney tip:

If you want a relaxing trip into either Epcot or Hollywood Studios, the friendship boats are amazing.  We enjoyed gliding along the water, taking in the scenery.  Crescent Lake is a great place to stay if you want easy access into 2 parks.  Both parks are within walking distance, but we loved the boats.