Leftover alphas

Remember a couple of days ago when I said that I'd gotten bitten by a need to use up my alpha stash? Well, here's the second installment. 

I managed to finish off all but the numbers from three alpha sets. Woot Woot! 

You'll notice that I again used my current favorite, BasicGrey Mon Ami. Thankfully, with all those alphas on the background I really didn't use much so I was able to stretch the line just a teeny bit further. Sweet. If I'm remembering correctly, there's another four pages and a couple of cards that I made using the line. 

Anyway, as I said on Monday, using up alphas like this isn't something new to me but I was really inspired to use them up because of a post on Becki Adams' blog last week.  

Vance Summer School

In our community, students entering kindergarten in the fall may attend the summer school session preceding, so we decided to enroll Vance as a way to help him adjust to a more structured life. Not that we don't have routines, but let's just say that nothing happens at.the.same.time.every.day. Ya know?! Well, summer school starts today so I'm probably having to help Rylan figure out how to entertain himself for hours on end without a big brother to play with - guess Vance isn't the only one who needs an adjustment period. 

As part of my mental preparation for this important week I created a layout using my current favorite line, BasicGrey's Mon Ami and all I still have to do is print off a photo and slap it onto this layout about his first day.

Good planning, no? 

This page is actually the leftover bits and pieces from a variety of layouts I've been working on, including one that'll be a class at Soul Sentiments this summer. 

How about using part of the alphas sheet as a background element? Totally cool for a "school" themed page! Not gonna lie, while I have done it before it wasn't mentally on my radar until I read Becki Adams' post about using some of her mismatched alphas. Oh, the things with alphas that I'm gonna be trying in the next several weeks. 

Friends

Hello again, I'm stinkin' excited about this layout for Use It Tuesday. Today we're asking you to do something that captures "trends" of some kind, while using hoarded products.

I glued all these old, misfit chipboard letters (many from Target's $1 scrapbooking supplies) to a piece of album filler paper. ;)

Then I rubbed onto a new piece of paper over the letters with my finger daubers and distress inks. Some of the daubers had leftover color but the one I kept re-applying was Walnut Stain. 

The trend I wanted to focus on was frames, and I included a bunch of them as you'll see below. Also super fun and trendy are the shaped paper clips, the little envelope, and those wood veneers. 

Of the products I used here, the letters are definitely the oldest and probably 4 years old. The frames and decorative brads (from American Crafts Chap) come in next at over a year. 

I don't know why I didn't actually put a title on this layout, but I think not having one balances out all those other letters. There's journaling tucked into the envelope. 

Now, go make some old stuff look new again!

Oh! And for those of you who really want to stretch your stash, the chipboard letters were used in a second layout that I posted yesterday. 

Summer: memories and favorites

I don't pull out my Graphic 45 papers nearly enough, but when I saw their August challenge was a sketch I decided that I needed to work it into my crafty plan for the week. 

I used a mix of Bohemian Bazaar stickers, Communique die cuts, Fashionista papers, and Botanicabella die cuts and papers. Much fussy cutting and a lot of foam dots went into the making of this layout. ;)

Also inspiration came from Scrap Our Stash, the current challenge is to do a layout about something summer and to use 3 or more premade die cuts. 

P.S. when needing help with figuring out if your layout is done don't ask your scientist hubby. He simply complained that it was an ugly shade of green and said I needed to hide more of it. Grrrrrrr.