Yesterday's Back to the Future post introduced the Studio Calico Snippets collection (which I know is technically present and not future since it's available now, but I'm choosing to ignore how the analogy completely falls apart there...), and today I'm going back into the archives of my scrap room to choose a collection to use along with it. I probably won't always stick to a single collection when it comes to the "past" part of this series, but I just love Sweetly Smitten by Sassafras (so much, in fact, that I bought it all up when it came out and then never used it, out of fear of "messing it up!") that I wanted to play with it all on its own. Today you'll see a layout using just this vintage Sassafras collection, and then tomorrow we'll take a look at combining the old and new!

Supplies:

InLinkz.com

This layout is based on a sketch at Life Paper Scrapbook, but as you'll see in the video (which is slightly longer than my normal ones) that didn't make this page any faster to put together! I love how it got me out of my box, though, as the circles on the page are a bit of a departure for me.


Those circles also gave me a chance to play with Laina Lamb's fab Pie Chart dies again, and I used them to mix a bit of geeky with the soft florals- perfect for a layout about the day Darren brought home a discarded test tube rack and some old lab glass for me! I'd actually been looking for one to use as a flower vase for a while (after seeing it on someone else's blog, which is how all of these things seem to start), and I was thrilled when he walked through the door with it one afternoon!

Sweetly Smitten and Snippets might not be the most obvious collections to combine, but in tomorrow's layout I'm going to do just that- see you then!

back to the future : snippets by studio calico {video + layout}

Oh my goodness, where to start?!? There's so much new to introduce to you to today, and so much I'm excited about! So I guess I'd better just jump right in and start talking!

First of all, today I'm introducing a new, recurring blog feature for me- Back to the Future. At the end of last year I decided that my focus for 2013 was going to be on using old stash, and you've already seen bits of that during the first two months of the year. Lately, though, I've also been blessed by some of my favorite manufacturers who've sent samples of their new releases, and I'm totally inspired to use them, too! So, while I'm busy using up some of those older collections, I've decided to try to work in the newer ones, too, and that's where Back to the Future comes in. Every once in a while (once or twice a month) I'll take either a three day stretch or a single post (I can't decide between the two and will most likely just end up switching between them) and show three different layouts- one with a new collection, one with one or more older collections, and one with all of those supplies combined together. It'll be the best of both worlds, and like the movie it'll bring scrapbooking's past and present together! And, yes, I totally promise that (like yesterday), there will be many, many posts of just older lines, too! Now that my design team list has dwindled back to a reasonable level, I'll finally have more time for that.

I'm kicking off the series today with the Snippets collection from Studio Calico, which I picked because I fell madly in love with that rainbow triangle paper that you see across the top of the layout below. I've had a photo of a set of Muppet Troopers from Star Wars Celebration VI printed out and just waiting for the right paper, and the mix of colors in this sheet worked quite well with those colorful costumes! I also had fun with the new circle template in the Snippets collection and played around with a way to use it with loose glitter.

Supplies:

InLinkz.com

You can see how I assembled the page and combined the template with glitter in the video below. I can't promise to do this every time I run a Back to the Future segment, but for this inaugural batch of posts I've filmed a video for each layout! And I've also freshened things up a bit with some royalty-free music, now that I've found a source for purchasing it that doesn't cost a fortune (most places were selling tracks for $10-$30 each for a two and a half minute song!), so no more free iMovie music on loops. While a track will occasionally be repeated between videos, it'll no longer repeat over and over in the same clip. Because even I was getting tired of the same old thing!


A couple of notes about the layout- first, it's probably about time for me to retire this particular type of design (you can see variations on it here and here) even though it's been a successful one for me in the past. I'll admit that I struggled a bit on this page and it's not my best, but I learned from it, which is the important thing! More on what I learned from it next week. For this page I was more focused on playing with glitter than coming up with a brand new design, and it's good to be able to fall back on old designs so that not everything has to be new.

Second, I did make some changes to the page after I filmed the video. When I woke up the next morning and looked at it still sitting out on my desk, a couple of things just looked off. I changed out the embellishment in the top right corner since I felt that the label at the top was out of place, and I added a touch of red paper behind the top left corner of the photo block to help lead the eye in a sort of Z shape between all of the red points on the page.

Special thanks to Lilith for the idea to use a stapler to corral paper layers- it's so much easier than my previous method of adhering! You can see it in her video here.

I'm definitely loving Snippets and will be working with this collection again in the future. Tomorrow, though, will be a chance to look into the past and choose a favorite older collection to combine with this one. Any guesses as to what it might be?

project life 2013 | week 1

While I forged ahead and have already finished several weeks of my 2013 Project Life album (with another big batch of photos due to arrive back from the printer this week- yay!), I've been leaving the first week undone. I just didn't have many photos for the week- it was post-Christmas, plus we'd been out of the country just a couple of weeks prior, and I was ready for some time without the camera. The photos I did have were so random that I thought there was no way I'd pull them together, so I procrastinated.

Silly me- this is one of my favorite weeks so far, thanks to some great supplies that helped me pull it all together!

Supplies: 

InLinkz.com

I had absolutely no idea at first how I was going to pull these photos together, but once I got started I noticed the repetition of orange and/or pink in many of the images and decided to run with that. I dug through my stash and came up with the Hey Day 6x6 pad and ephemera pack from Studio Calico (the ephemera is 50% off at Two Peas right now!) along with a selection of older release journaling spots and embellishments from Chic Tags. I totally love that I was able to pick items from their autumn, summer, camping, and Everyday Life collections and have them work together so well.

This is the week covering the end of 2012 and the start of 2013, and rather than start a whole new album, I decided to just let 2012 and 2013 run together.

With fewer photos for this week, I used more filler cards than usual- four, actually, which may be some sort of record for me! One was the last of the calendar pages from my 2012 4x6 letterpress desktop calendar (I included these in the last week of each month in my 2012 albums), and the others were pieced together from patterned paper, bits of ephemera, a filler card from a Pebbles pad (I think?), and of course more Chic Tags!

I've also got a set of Project Life sketches to share with you before I go! These were based on a few pockets in the layout at the bottom of this post, and now that they've been shared over on the Citrus Twist blog, I'm free to post them here, too! Just like last month there are two 4x6 and two 3x4 sketches to help you design your inserts.

And now I'm going to get back to some video editing, because if all goes well and I get these processed and uploaded tonight, I'll have a new blog feature to share with you tomorrow!