project life 2012 | week 47 {laina lamb designs}

A set of fun new tools landed in the scrap room while I was at CHA, and I was excited to finally have some time to play with them over the weekend! Laina Lamb designs the most fabulous stamps and dies for My Favorite Things (she's the mastermind behind so many of their Project Life compatible products, including the fabulous 3x4 die!), and she asked if I'd like to try some of her designs out for myself. Of course I said yes, and I had so much fun putting them to use on a Project Life page!

Supplies:

InLinkz.com

This layout uses bits and pieces of two of Laina's stamp sets (For the Record and Off the Chart) and two of her die sets (Labels and Tabs and Pie Chart). I love how each set has a great mix of elements- words and phrases in great sizes on the stamps and a big variety of shapes that can be used in oh-so-many ways in the die sets.

New tools are a great way to make diving into your stash of older papers and consumables a bit more fun, and I took advantage of that by flipping through my stack of 6x6 paper pads until I landed on one from My Mind's Eye's Lime Twist collection- I think this one is 2-3 years old! My photos were from Thanksgiving week, but I since fall colors are hard for me to work with I was very happy to go with a brighter option instead.

Both die sets come out of the package with the elements still connected, and I decided to leave the Labels and Tabs set that way, though you can certainly pop them apart to use individually, as well!

When I'm using dies like this, I find that I work best if I cut a bunch of pieces with them up front (basically creating my own version of the die cut packs that you can buy to match paper collections) and then pile them up on my desk next to my layout to pick from as I'm working.

The Labels and Tabs die set fit perfectly on a sheet of paper from the 6x6 pad, and then I broke apart the pieces from the Pie Chart set and arranged them all around the remaining paper. There was barely any paper left showing when I was finished, and this is a great way to get the most from your consumable supplies!

I cut three different sheets of 6x6 paper this way, and since each sheet was double-sided I ended up with six different patterns to choose from the in end!

I sprinkled the die cuts around the page after arranging my photos and background papers, then finished off with some of the phrases from the stamp sets. I'm such a lazy stamper- most of the time I just use black ink, but it seems to work for me!

I had fun tucking circles and pie wedges into the middle of photo blocks- it's a great way to add a little color without detracting from the images.

When I was finished with this page, I swept up the leftover cuts and sorted them into my color bins of die cuts, just waiting to be discovered next time I scrounge through them!