Love, Elsie Blog Focus:Day 5 (Friday Wrap-Up)

Good morning! I can hardly believe that this week of stash busting and focusing on an older product has already come to a close! I got several pages finished this week, although not quite as many as I had originally planned...I am still pretty proud of the dent I am making in my stash! Today, I am sharing an example of something that I do with many of my older papers-Layering it in!

 

I had this lovely sheet of embossed pink cardstock from Love, Elsie (the Roxie collection, I believe). It was so fun and girly, I was reminded of this kit that I put together with my stash a few months ago, "Sassy Fashionista":

 

and a handful of pictures from the twins' first haircut! I had a lot of pictures (enough for a double page spread), and only one sheet of the embossed pink cardstock, so I knew that cutting it up and layering would be the best way to "stretch" the cardstock across two pages.

I ended up with this DPS:

A look at each page, individually;
Left side:

 Right side:

And...that's a wrap on this series for me! If you would like more inspiration for using up your Love, Elsie papers and embellishments, please check out:

• Glitter Girl Adventure#15: Old And New To The Rescue
• or, you can check out my Love, Elsie board on Pinterest-if I stumble across any new Love, Elsie inspiration, I will be sure to pin it!

You have a couple more days to follow my blog and leave comments on my posts for this week for a chance to win the kit filled with Love, Elsie goodies. Tomorrow, I will be at elementary school basketball tournament games all day-all 3 of my younger kids are in the semi-finals. If they win their first games, they will play in the finals (also tomorrow)...Cross your fingers for them!

Love, Elsie Blog Focus/Thursday Tips and Tricks Edition

One of my favorite ways to use up older papers? Alter it! I used this idea on Monday, and I am going to show you how I did it today, also. For today's post, I grabbed a couple of the simpler Love, Elsie papers, and some stamps:

Which leads me to Tip #1: If you are altering an older paper with stamps, look for stamps that fit with the style of the paper collection. I chose these sketchy, swirly style stamps because I felt that they fit the Love, Elsie style papers.

I will be honest, I almost didn't want to alter the notebook side of the yellow paper, because the other side is the most adorable camera print ever:

But, hoarding it is getting me nowhere, so, I went for it. I stamped, misted, and bejeweled it (Tip #2: adding mist and gems to a stamped background makes it flow much better and ties it all together):

I wasn't quite sure what type of page I wanted to make with it, but I saw an old polaroid lying out from my high school graduation, and felt that it fit the notebook paper background, so I started there. 

Tip #3: When you get stuck on a page, look to a challenge!  There are so many inspiring challenges out there that your mojo will be flowing in no time! I took a Stash Busters challenge on the 2Peas message board, and grabbed some papers, die cuts, handmade vellum feathers, and other bits from my scrap bin to finish this page up.

Here is my page, Sweet Sweet Moment:

See It On 2Peas

Thank you for visiting with me this week, don't forget to follow me and comment for a chance to win this prize:



I will be back tomorrow with a Love, Elsie wrap-up post, but you have until Sunday night to leave a comment on any of this week's posts, and I will draw a winner on Monday morning.





Love, Elsie Blog Focus: Day 3

Good morning, everyone! Today's Tip for using Love, Elsie papers? Look for a theme that relates to your photos. My example:

 See It On 2Peas

I had this awesome Love, Elsie ladybug paper, which I felt accented my photos pretty well, and carried out my theme. To keep the layout looking current and fresh, I pulled out a bold red chevron paper from Basic Grey's PB&J collection, and used washi in my layering of embellishments on the corners. I used lettering stickers in a very curly font, because I felt it contrasted nicely with the chevron paper, while mimicking the flight of a ladybug. I scattered a few glittery star stickers across the page as well.

The embellishments:

I was kind of proud of myself for using some ancient Stickopotamus stickers in my embellishment clusters, as well...

So try this technique out on some of your older papers, as well! Love, Elsie has many papers that will work like this; travel themed for exploring/traveling pages, music note paper that would work well for concerts and musicals, school/notebook/doodle-y type papers that would go well with back to school,  school project and award photos, and so on. If you try out any of my ideas with your old stash-post pictures and link up in the comments! I would love to see!

And, don't forget to leave a comment on each post this week for a chance to win my giveaway:

Love, Elsie Blog Focus: Day 2

My advice for using up those Love, Elsie, or other papers for today: Put them in a kit with newer supplies. This is one of my favorite ways to use up older papers (and one of the easiest techniques for my personal style of scrapping).

 

Here is a sample of a kit that I made up:

I put two sheets of green leaf print Love, Elsie paper in with a bunch of new goodies that I got from this past summer's CHA, Cosmo Cricket's Smore Love collection. I was so happy with how perfectly they went together! And, I have found that if you put them with new(ish) supplies, it is so much easier to actually use them!

A good way to use up your kits? Take a challenge! I took some of the CHA challenges at 2 Peas for the next few pages that I am going to share with you. I used all of the papers, with the exception of a few small scraps, to make these pages:

CHA Challenge #10, Use 10 Different Brands:

 See It On 2Peas

Brands used: Love Elsie, Basic Grey, American Crafts, Making Memories, Cosmo Cricket, Studio Calico, Momento, Up&Up washi tape, Heidi Grace, Tattered Angels

I made this page for CHA Challenge #4: Use a 4 Word Title:

See It On 2Peas 

As you can probably already see, I used the stamps and letter stickers from the kit for the title, and I added in an oooold Making Memories journal spot, and a couple of scraps from my stash.

This Page was made for CHA Challenge #9: Use 9 items from your desk to make a page (this was easy since I had the kit out):

See It On 2Peas 

And I still love how that Love, Elsie paper coordinates with the Cosmo Cricket!

And these last few pages were not really based on any challenges, but made with the desire to use this kit up rather than put it back in my stash!

See It On 2Peas

 

 See It On 2Peas

This one does not include any Love, Elsie (I used up both full sheets before I got to this page!), but, since I made it from the same kit, I thought I would include it today!

See It On 2Peas

I added in a scrap of colored vellum and a scrap from an older Cosmo Cricket line for the layering to feel "right".

 

For more inspiration for making kits from your own stash, check out these resources:

 

• The Counterfeit Kit Challenge Blog
• Scrappypedia's Scrap Your Stash Kit Club
• My CKCB Pinterest Board
• Shimelle's NSD Video:Maxing Out A Set Of Supplies
 

I hope I have inspired you today! Don't forget to leave me comment for a chance to win this week's giveaway:

 

 

"Love, Elsie" Blog Focus: Day 1

Elsie Flannigan (now Elsie Larson) took the scrapbooking world by storm with her doodled scrapbook papers, and for a few years, she had one of the most popular and talked about scrapbook collections around. As a result, many long-time scrapbookers filled their stash with papers and embellishments from Elsie's collections...and, unfortunately, a lot of these fun and beautiful papers just stayed there...in our stashes! Well, not anymore! I have made up my mind that I have paid for it, and I like it, so I am not going to purge it just because it is an older collection of papers! I am going to use it! And, hopefully, I will inspire many of you to use it as well, instead of allowing it to collect dust and guilt in our stash!  So, every day this week, I plan to share with you my own ideas and pages made with Elsie's fun papers, and give tips for using up any older stash that you may have!

The first way I would like to suggest for using Elsie's papers is; "Loud and Proud"!  Don't try to hide it or cover it, just use it! Here is my example:

 See It On 2 Peas

 

I started with this paper; Love, Elsie Math Class:

This paper was such a fun doodle print that was perfect for the photo of my kiddos coloring! And I had a bit of fun myself coloring in the doodles (my kids noticed and asked my for a sheet of it to color, too!)...and I loved using lots of bright, happy colors on it. I added in scraps of some of my most colorful off-cuts for the layers, and embellished it with twine, washi tape, and a Love, Elsie chipboard button, and did the title with foam Thickers in the doodle-y style Custard font.

Here's a closer look at the button embellishment:

 

My advice for today: If you love it, use it! As scrapbookers that have new and beautiful papers and embellishments made available to us at least twice a year at CHA (and some companies do mid-season releases, as well), it is so easy to get caught up in needing the newest and greatest things. And there isn't any thing wrong with falling in love with a new and beautiful piece of paper or embellishment. But you don't have to feel like you have to have it to have beautiful pages! You can use that older stash, and make pages that are just as lovely and meaningful! Try it out, you just might find a new favorite out of your old stash!

Last but definitely not least... I love these goodies, and I know you will love them too! But you really can't buy them anymore, so I am giving some away for one of my lucky blog followers to play with! All you have to do is leave a comment on any of my Love, Elsie blog posts this week, follow my blog, and you will be entered in the drawing for this prize:

There are a fun selection of Love, Elsie papers for you to play with, a few sheets of cardstock in neutral colors, some chipboard houses from Jenni Bowlin, ribbon and washi, a little chipboard mini album, some die cut tags, die cut letters, and some flair badges!

If you would like to know what is up with Elsie now, check out her fun and very popular blog, A Beautiful Mess ...all about everyday life, fashion, crafts, DIY, photography and recipes