Something old, Something new...

If you're anything like me, when you get new scrappy goodies, you dive right in, often forgetting the many treasures you already own. I'm going to share with you just a few approaches on how to incorporate some older product onto your pages without making them look dated.  Don't worry, I know you've got new stuff you're dying to use,  we're just going to sneak a bit of aging stuff in, in order to clear a bit of room for the next trend.

Patterned paper- If you're used to using lots of solid or neutral backgrounds for your pages, dig through your older papers, and pick out some that can be used as solids, and keep them nearby when working on new pages. Often, you can slip them in with a new collection. On this page, I used the reverse of an older My Mind's Eye paper ( green dot) paired with a new sheet from The Amy Tangerine Ready Set Go Collection. You can always slide in scraps of those older papers too, as decorative border strips, as I did with a piece from Sassafras Lass.

Letters- Maybe it's because I love letter stickers so much, but I think even the craziest fonts or colours will work somewhere somehow. Don't forget about the basics you already own, and don't be afraid to use several fonts to make up a title if need be. I used an older sheet of Candy Shoppe letters from Doodlebug Design Inc, to make this simple title.

Embellishments- I added a few stickers from Crate Paper Story Teller collection and some flags from the October Afternoon Sassparilla Collection. These are still newer products, but were being neglected since I had newer things to play with. The really old bits include the metal framed tag and chipboard apple from American Crafts. The key to making everything work, is to keep a balance between the older items, and some newer trendier items or techniques. In this case the wooden shapes I coloured with Distress Stain, and the stenciled background help to keep the page feeling current. 

Trends are cyclical, and it seems everything old is new again. So don't discount your older embellishments and papers, you may be surprised at how well you can incorporate them with the newer treasures you've just brought home. 

Have fun mixing it up!

Erin

Some More Smash and Some Friday Faves

Hi everyone! It's Kate here again today. I would like to share more of my Smash book with you and show you some of my favourites in the store right now.

Here is one of my favourites from the shop. This is the 'Journal' Smash Folio. I like this one better than the pink one that I'm using. I find this one more versatile.

Here's another page out of my Smash book. This page documents how my horse, Cash, was really green (untrained) when I got him and that he was especially afraid of water. It took quite a lot of convincing to get him in the water. This is a must for an Eventing horse, so I was pretty determined to get him in! Once he was in, he thought it was fun to splash around.

You can see my background stamp a little better in this photo. I created the horse Silhouette file myself.

That brings me to another of my store favourites. I used this Pretty Party chipboard in my Smash book quite a bit. I can't get enough of Crate!

This is my favourite page from my Smash book so far. I love these pictures of my youngest on a horse for the first time. You can tell by the look on my face that I'm a lot more excited about it than she is! I want my kids to love the same things that I do so badly; scrapbooking, horses and skiing.The folded doily is a Silhouette America die cut. You can see that I used a lot of Crate's Pretty Party here and some of the new Studio Calico Hey Day combined with some Sassafras stuff that I have been hoarding.

Here's another close up.

If you miss Sassafras as much as I do, you don't want to miss out Studio Calico's Hey Day. It was designed in collaboration with Sassafras. Basic Grey's Soleil collection was also designed in collaboration with Sassafras, and it will be in the store soon as well!

Here's the last page that I would like to share with you. This one is a journal page about things that I want to change about myself or that I feel I need to work on.

Here's another of my recent favourites in the store. Aren't they the most amazing buttons ever? They are part of Basic Grey's Paper Cottage collection.

Last, but certainly, not least, there is so much new Maya Road stock in the Let's Capture Our Memories store right now that I don't know which one I'm most excited about. I think that my favourite item is probably this vintage trim. It would go very well with just about any of the paper collections currently out.

Thanks so much for making it down to the bottom of my very long post! Have a great weekend! Kate