Designer Showcase: Using Old Product

Hey Pam here! I think using old product is so important. While I absolutely LOVE to buy new products, I know the importance of using older product on my page as well. Let's face it, we have a lot of old product don't we?

I am going to start with my layout today. It incorporates OLD and NEW product. For instance I used only one brand new item. It is the red paper from Simple Stories. The rest of products are 1 year or older. The mustard cardstock paper, teal cardstock paper, and the flower over the queen are over 5 years old I believe and made by My Minds Eye.
BRIGHT IDEA #1: Pick out a color scheme and match old and new products to it. My color scheme was brown, mustard, burgundy, teal, grass green, and off white.

"The Joust" by Pam Callaghan

The next page by Sharon is another great example of using old product. Look at at how well designed this page it. This is how Sharon used old product, "I used very old ribbon that I had in my stash, and also used old tiny alpha stickers to label everyone! All of the stickers were Susan Branch stickers which were ancient!!!"
BRIGHT IDEA #2: Don't be afraid to use very very old product as Sharon did. They might be that extra touch that looks great on your page.

"Corn Roast" by Sharon Fritchman

Gael is sharing our next page. She incorporated beautiful old product into her page. This is what she had to say," For this layout I got the idea from an article I'd seen in a magazine by Steph Devlin where she had used doily and layered them on squares. I really liked the idea as you can layered the squares as little or as much as you like. This layout certainly had me going to my stash and rediscovering some of my old treasures. I found this style was a terrific way to use old products."

BRIGHT IDEA #3: Go through your stash to discovere old treasures old doiles and other vintage items! Layer them on to your page to create a beautiful treasure.

"Together" by Gael Spence

Cindy's page is next. She does such a great job of making old product look new!! I had no ideas that her supplies were that old. This is what she says about her page, "The background paper is approximately 10years old. I think it's from one of those ProvoCraft Slabs from back in the day! The arrows are about 3 years old and the number stickers are at least that old too." It fits absolutely wonderfully with her photos!

BRIGHT IDEA #4: If you wait long enough old product can feel like new. If you haven't used something in so long, it can look like it's brand new as well!

"119" by Cindy deRosier

Our last page is by Tanya. She says the oldest product is probably from 2002! That is when I started scrapping back in the day... wtg Tanya! Here is a listing of her products and such, "Doodlebug key lime dotted line paper - 2004; Doodlebug limeade paper frills - 2006; Doodlebug cardstock - pre2008 (they were already moving away from this when I bought them in 2008); Doodlebug sugar-coated and crushed velvet cardstock - 2007; Doodlebug just my type alpha stickers - purchased in 2004, made prior to that;Doodlebug dotlets - 2002; Doodlebug ribbon - 2008; Doodlebug stick with it - 2008; Doodlebug sew easy rub-ons - 2004; Doodlebug sugar coating glitter - 2007; Cuttlebug - purchased in 2010; Cuttlebug fancy pants alpha dies - purchased on clearance in 2010; Making Memories tag maker - purchased in 2008; Xyron - purchased in 2004; Provo Craft silent setter - purchased in 2005
BRIGHT IDEA #5: Make it a challenge to yourself to use mostly old stuff! You might have fun and save some money :)

"Meeting Henri-Jean" by Tanya Ham

Thanks for visiting today. Please send along any old product layout you would like to share on the blog to scrappingpam73@yahoo.com

VISIT THE CONTRIBUTOR'S BLOGS/GALLERIES
Cathy Dippolito
Dolores Schaeffer
Cindy deRosier
Marlene Murphy
Lesley Walker
Gael Spence
Sarah Routledge
Sharon Fritchman
Tanya Ham
Sheila Burns
Pam Callaghan
 

Trend Report 2013 - Part 2

Hey all. It's Pam again bringing you Part 2 of the Trend Report. You can see Part 1 right here!  I hope you enjoyed last week's post. Today I will be sharing some great trends, so make sure you check out the entire post.


CHALK BOARD PATTERNED PAPER
Our first trend today is chalk board patterned paper. This is a great trend. I love chalk board, they can be used for sport themes, school themes, and well pretty much any theme!

"You Brighten My Day" by Sharon Fritchman

"School Days" by Sharon Fritchman

DECORATIVE PINS
I love this next trend!! Decorative pins make such pretty accents on pages. I have seen this pop up more and more over the past year! Let's see some pretty examples of this :)

"Sugar and Spice" by Sheila Burns

"Garden Splendor" by Sharon Fritchman

"I do" by Sharon Fritchman

PAINTING USING GESSO

I have never heard of this until this year. In fact, when we talked about trends I didn't even know what Gesso was. The definition of Gesso is a white paint mixture consisting of a binder mixed with chalk, gypsum, or any combination of these. So, you can create lots of fun things with this. So, I am putting this as a new trend for 2013!

"We Are So Blessed" by Lesley Walker

"Knight in Shining Armour" by Gael Spence

"Sweet Escape" by Sharon Fritchman

 "A Hazy Shade of Winter" by Sharon Fritchman

WHITE SPACE
As you probably know, white space on layouts is not a new trend at all.. but I think we are seeing more white space pages now than a year or so ago. I just noticed that a few weeks ago. If you aren't familiar with "white space", it means leaving part of the layout empty. Dark space is filled in and the cardstock with nothing on it is white space. It doesn't have to be white btw. Here are some great examples!

"Mad Men" by Sheila Burns

"Droopy Do" by Tanya Ham

Crinkle My Nose" by Sharon Fritchman 

"You Make Me Smile" by Cindy deRosier

"Small Wonder" by Dolores Schaeffer

"A Cheery Boy" by Lesley Walker

TRANSPARENCIES

Transparencies have been around before too. They seemed to hit a high a few years ago and now have made a comeback in 2013! These are fun to use because they are versatile considering they are see-through. You can use them as overlays, alone, and cut them up as embellishments. Let's see some examples!

"True Love" by Sharon Fritchman

"My Daughter's Eyes" by Sharon Fritchman

"A Moment in Time" by Gael Spence

CIRCLES

The next trend has been around since the beginning of scrapping but is still going strong. This makes me happy because I love to use circles on my pages as you may have already seen! :) Let's see some more examples of projects with circles.

"Hunter Valley Gardens" by Lesley Walker

"Nature's Beauty" by Dolores Schaeffer

"Happy Girl" by Sheila Burns

NON-THEMES PAGES (just faces)

I think non-themed pages is a timeless trend. With things like Project Life, P-365 and scrapping everyday photos, we have seen non-themed pages really take off. You don't need an event to scrap, but rather you can scrap those photos of just faces of a snapshot in time. Let's see some examples..

"Sassy and Sweet" by Lesley Walker

"Friends" by Dolores Schaeffer

"Trevor and Grandma" by Cindy deRosier

"Summer Fun" by Sharon Fritchman

"Girl Friends" by Tanya Ham

"Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" by Sheila Burns

Thanks for joining me today!! I hope you have enjoyed Part 2. DON'T FORGET to stop back for Part 3 next week!!!!

VISIT THE CONTRIBUTOR'S BLOGS/GALLERIES
Cathy Dippolito
Dolores Schaeffer
Cindy deRosier
Marlene Murphy
Lesley Walker
Gael Spence
Sarah Routledge
Sharon Fritchman
Tanya Ham
Sheila Burns
Pam Callaghan

Trend Report 2013 - Part 1

Hey all it's Pam! I am doing my second annual trend report for scrapbooking. These trends may be new or old, as you will see.. some trends are timeless and so I will highlight those as well. We do have some fun new ones as well, so get ready to see some fabulous inspiration from our contributors! If you are interested, here is last years reports:  trend report Part 1 and  trend report Part 2. This year I am going to split this into three parts because we have some many trends.

WASHI TAPE
Our first trend Washi tape has been around for a few years, but it has really picked up in the past year. Washi tape is the cool translucent tape which you can tear off and use in a bunch of ways. You can use to hold things down on your page, as a decorative strips of paper, or to cover the top of something as Cindy did in her layout below. I actually do not have any Washi tape yet, but I have seen it in person and I am so tempted to buy it! Here are some great examples of Washi tape used!

Altered Tin by Cindy deRosier (used to cover outside)

"Just gorgeous" by Sheila Burns

"Happy Mother's Day" by Tanya Ham

"Cool" Lesley Walker

PIE CHARTS
This next trend is sort of a new one. I have seen so many pie charts pop up on patterned papers and people use those designs on their designs. I think it's such a neat idea for a page. You can use it a design element OR as a real pie chart with parts marked off as a percentage of something. Here two examples of this. The second example is like a pie chart flipped inside out. Cool huh?

"The 1st Flower of Spring" by Sharon Fritchman

"I smiled with the Risin' Sun" by Sharon Fritchman

PAPER CLIPS OR FUN WAYS TO FASTEN THINGS
I adore this next trend. I am loving that paper clips are used and sold more specifically for scrapbooking. There are some fun ones with ribbons on the end that I love to use. You will see it on my example below. In two of these examples you will see other ways to fasten things. For instance, on Sheila's page, she uses stitching to adhere everything. So cool! Gael uses eyelets and ribbon. Wait til you see these pages!

"Pucker Up" by Sheila Burns

"Biker Chicks" by Sharon Fritchman (sewing)

"Milford Sound" by Gael Spence (eyelets)

"Days Like This" by Pam Callaghan

ARROWS
Another big trend this year is arrows. I have seen a ton of hand cut and die cut arrows incorporated in layouts lately. This is a great trend because arrows really help draw attention to whatever you want on your project. Let's look as these examples to get a feel for this!

"A Boy's Story by Lesley Walker

"Creating" by Sharon Fritchman

"Managua" by Marlene Murphy

"8 Months" by Pam Callaghan

BURLAP
Another trend that saw a big comeback the past year is burlap. It was originally very popular when shabby chic was first around back around 2005. I started to see more and more of again, which is great. It adds so much texture and dimension to pages! As you will see below burlap is a great alternative to patterned paper!

"Lookin' Good" by Marlene Murphy

Altered project by Sheila Burns

"Love" by Sharon Fritchman

SCRABBLE TILES
Scrabble tiles is another trend that has made a comeback in the recent years. I think it adds such a cool lettering option to titles. I have always love the game Scrabble and how each tile had a number.. you will see how versatile this trends is on these next batch of layouts :) .

"My Guy" by Dolores Schaeffer

"Ship Wreck" by Gael Spence

LOTS OF PHOTOS
With the invention of instagram for cell phone and tablets, we have seen a huge increase in lots of little photos on layouts. People are printing their instagram photos and using them directly on their pages. Remember little photos doesn't have to be limited to instagram! People who always used large photos or just a few, now may be tempted to try lots of photos. Let's see some examples!

"Cutie" by Gael Spence

"Happy Little Boy" by Lesley Walker

"Epcot" by Sharon Fritchman

"UFC 143" by Tanya Ham

"Alameda County Fair" by Cindy deRosier

I hope you are inspired to create some new projects with this trend report today. CHECK BACK in the next two weeks to find out what are more trends in the scrapbook world :)


VISIT THE CONTRIBUTOR'S BLOGS/GALLERIES
Cathy Dippolito
Dolores Schaeffer
Cindy deRosier
Marlene Murphy
Lesley Walker
Gael Spence
Sarah Routledge
Sharon Fritchman
Tanya Ham
Sheila Burns
Pam Callaghan