New Use for Old Stuff - Pretty Little Studio

PRETTY LITTLE STUDIO carries so many awesome things in its shop, including adorable little journaling tags that have calendars on them.  The only problem is - it's 2014 so the dates no longer match up with the correct days of the week.  That's a big deal if you are weird  slightly OCD like me.  How do you fix that problem?  (Note: the answer is NOT to throw the tags away)  If you are like me, you simply find a different use for them.  In this case, I punched them and cut them and created a cute little mosaic pattern on my layout.  See?

It looks great when paired with papers from the WOODLAND CHRISTMAS COLLECTION and NATURE WALK COLLECTION.

Add a couple of brads and a tag or two, and I call it done!

  

To see what papers and products I used, please visit the Pretty Little Studio BLOG or the STORE.

Do you find new uses for scrapbook products that may be considered old or out-dated?  Or do you just get rid of them to make room for the new stuff?

Thankful Thanksgiving Album

We have a Thanksgiving tradition at my house that I love.  Every year, right before we start stuffing our faces, everyone around the table tells one thing he or she is thankful for.  But - then the carnage begins which leads to the mandatory coma-like napping.  By the time I wake up, I can't remember what anyone said!  I like to think I'm a problem solver so this year, I decided to make a Thankful Album using my PRETTY LITTLE STUDIO NATURE WALK COLLECTION.  This year, everyone can write down what they are most thankful for.

The base of my album is constructed from my Pretty Little Studio packaging.  I used an old clear plastic container-package-part as a sort of window for my little raccoon.  And the sequins?  They are there because my 4 year old Lula Bug likes sequins.  And she likes to look through my mini-albums with me.  And if they make her happy, then they are pretty much the perfect design element as far as I am concerned!

So, how does my Thankful album work?  Well, each page has a pocket.  And each pocket has a tag:

The photo visually identifies who the tag belongs to.  My son Will will write what he is thankful for on the tag tucked into this pocket.  (Note:  I had this photo sitting on my work desk and used it for Will's page.  I didn't realize until later that his was the only small picture used.  Oops...)

The rest of my album follows this format:

A photo of the family member is on one side and a page with a pocket containing a journaling tag is on the back.  Sometimes, as is the case with this page, I have a second central pocket created by sewing the sides and bottom of my picture to the packaging.  Why?  Well, you never know when you might need an extra tag to write on...

Here's my next page (front and back):

I am especially pleased with my little pocket on this page.  First, that deer is too cute!  Second, the frame for my wax paper pocket is the leftover edge from a design previously cut out with my Silhouette.  Yep, I am crafty and innovative like that. *smile*

I love the Hubster's page, too:

Each of my pockets are slightly different.  I wanted to use as many scraps as possible which meant changing the pocket style to fit the piece of scrap paper.

Child number one has a slightly smaller photo, but I still managed to fit two pockets and tags on it.  One tag is for her to write down what she is thankful for and one is for her guy.  Yes, I know my date is upside down on my journaling card.  You may choose to call that a mistake; I'll just call it whimsical!

Daughter number two also has two tags - again one for the daughter and one for her guy.

My album is bound by simple rings.  That way when I find out at the last minute that additional people will be showing up (it happens every year), I can quickly add more pages and tags!

The back has a few extra "bonus" tags.

I don't know what I'm going to write on these tags yet, but I am sure they will get used.  Maybe I will journal about my day; maybe I will simply record the menu.  Whatever I decide to include, I have plenty of room!

That's it for me this happy Monday.  Do you plan to incorporate crafting into any of your Thanksgiving traditions?  If so, leave a comment.  I would love to hear about it!

Family of Four - Pretty Little Studio

Happy Thursday - the weekend is almost here!  And because today is Thursday, it means it's time for a new OOTB challenge at Pretty Little Studio.  To see the challenge, head over to the PLS BLOG.

I have been stalking the postman  patiently waiting for my Woodland Christmas papers and goodies to arrive from Pretty Little Studio.  Until then, I have been very diligently using up my leftover scraps.  They are so pretty, I want to use every single last little piece.  So, I challenged myself to use up some of those scraps for this week's OOTB challenge.  Instead of using Christmas-themed papers, I chose to use (mostly) my scraps from the Nature Walk Collection to see what I could create based on the inspiration photo.  And you know what?  I LOVE the end result!  Here it is...

My daughter Lou, who has now been married for one whole year, has just landed herself a terrific new job in a city close to us.  She and her wonderful husband settled into a sweet little house of their own with their doggy (my grandpuppy) Ty, who has been an only puppy for over four years (although he has lots of doggy friends that he plays with).  They decided it was time for Ty to have a brother or sister so off they went to a Pet Smart Adoption Event sponsored by a local rescue society.  I just happened to be spending that weekend with them and got to share the experience of meeting adorable Ruby for the first time.  The picture I took of Lou and her dear (deer) family was perfect for my layout.

All of the papers I used, except for my white cardstock background, were scraps.  I triple-matted my photo so that it would stand out, and I added pop-dots under several of my embellishments to increase the depth and help draw the eye across the page.  There's a lot of layering going on in this layout, just the way I like it...

Here's the other side of my layout.  I mimicked the banner in the inspiration photo by adding bunting flags across the top of my layout.  And I was able to use this sweet scrap of paper from the Nature Walk COLLECTION featuring the cutest deer ever!

Did you know Pretty Little Studio is having a 30% off sale to make room for the new stuff?  To see what goodies you can get on sale, just click HERE.  Better hurry, though, it won't last long!

Have you played along with Pretty Little Studio's OOTB challenges lately?  If so, let me know.  I would love to see what you were inspired to create!

Cr@zy Happy - PLS Sketch Challenge

This week's sketch challenge at the PRETTY LITTLE STUDIO BLOG really was a challenge for me!  Why?  Because I don't really "do" circles.  Don't get me wrong.  I love circles.  Layouts with circles done by other people look fantastic.  But - 8 times out of 10, my circle layouts are...meh...at best.  So, for this week's challenge, I decided on a compromise.  I added every circle shown in the sketch; I just decided to add an additional, very rectangular, photo instead of trying to cut it into a circle shape, too.  And that worked for me!

I used papers and a couple of journaling cards from the PLS NATURE WALK COLLECTION, which is still one of my favorites.  I simply cut out the small circles using my circle punch and then cut out the larger circles using my Silhouette.

My background hexagons were created by taking one hexagon shaped piece of paper and using a fine tip maker to trace around it repeatedly across my paper (obviously, I did this before I added my circles).

I love my whacky photo of my crazy family mugging for the camera but needed to tone it down so that it would fit in with my papers:

So, I did a black and white conversion and, voila, a photo that doesn't clash with all the cute bits and pieces I wanted to add around it.

That's it for me today.  What have YOU done to challenge yourself lately?

Getting Inspired!

I think I have just had my "in a perfect world" scenario come to life - at least in scrapbooking.  How's that?  Well, I am up on the Practical Scrappers BLOG today using a layout created with all my  (Nature Walk Collection) goodies from PRETTY LITTLE STUDIO.  I played along with this week's OOTB inspiration challenge, and IT WASN'T EVEN MY WEEK TO POST.  Pretty sure that's true love.

I really believe this week's OOTB challenge gave me that little extra bit of inspiration that I needed.  I LOVE the way this layout came together.  Of course, it's mine, so you know I'm going to say I love it if I am taking the time to blog about it but...I really do like this layout - a lot a lot!  I like the clean lines, I like the bright pops of color, I like the adorable photo and my play on the word "fall."  Yep, I like it all.  Like I said - it's a good day.

A few close ups: