If you’re a paper scrapbooker like me, then you probably have a love hate relationship with manufacturers. It’s great that they don’t take away from the gorgeous 12×12″ patterned paper by adding a bar code and other identifying marks onto the paper, and it’s fun that they are now starting to add a patterned strip on the opposite side to said bar code and branding, but … then what? What do you do with all those cute 1/4″ strips of paper?
I keep mine safely in a drawer “for future projects”. You know the type of drawer I’m talking about, right? The type where good intentions go to die?
Not anymore!
I’m here to show you how to break out all those strips and use them on a layout! In fact, use them to create the background of a layout. Take a look.
And here’s my finished layout.
I really like the way it turned out. All that pattern and texture the strips provide is so fun, and means I don’t need to add too much on top to feel like it’s a layout in my normal layered style. I know at the beginning of the video I didn’t think that strip with the plus signs on it was going to make it because it was such a saturated colour compared to the rest of the palette. But in fact, the addition of all the other brighter pink strips helps to keep things balanced. It’s a good point to keep in mind. When a particular element feels like it’s fighting you, add more of it to make it seem purposeful and like it belongs.
Some people gravitate towards certain images and love to use them on all sorts of projects. Hot air balloons do not fit in that category for me! Call it a scrappers block, I guess. I have a hard time knowing how to make them work with a layout that’s not about hot air balloons! And how many of those do you think I’ve ever made? If you guessed zero you would be right!
But for whatever reason, when creating this layout, the balloon kind of spoke to me and I love how it looks. Those acetate stickers are so cute but I do find that you need to be careful where you place them. They tend to get lost on a patterned background. Adding it to white card stock first and then using my Big Shot to cut out a large circle made all the difference.
Remember what I was saying about adding more of a thing to balance things out? That was the principle at work here with the additional hot air balloon icon. This time it’s a chipboard sticker and that actually works in my favour too. It may be the same image, but it’s a different size and texture and this time has a bit of dimension so it doesn’t feel repetitive.
Okay, that’s all for today. In fact, that’s all for this week. My husband and I are driving to Vernon tomorrow for a funeral, returning on Saturday for our daughters’ year end dance show. It’s going to be a busy weekend so LOAD, this blog, and all other tasks (like replacing blinds and vacuuming up drywall bits the window installers left everywhere) will just have to wait. I wish you all a wonderful weekend. Up here in Canada it’s the Victoria Day long weekend – hope you get to enjoy some nice weather and time with your families.
Happy Scrapping!
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