Old & New: Darling

Hi! Today I am sharing the second installment of my "Old & New" Series.

I love watching new scrapbooking supplies role out--nothing gets me more excited than seeing the new releases and then finally getting some of them. The side effect though is that some of my not-so-new supplies get pushed to the back of my mind and they get buried as my brain processes the new "hot" stuff. 

Lately this has been bothering me quite a bit because a lot of my older stuff is still totally awesome and I want to use it. Last month I really wanted to do something about this and brainstormed a bit on how I could go about using my older stash more efficiently.

As I was thinking about possible solutions, I kept coming back to the fact to a few things. First, nothing motivates me more than receiving a box of new goodies--just being honest here. And second, I prefer mixing my products up-it is very rare that I make a layout with only one collection.

One solution I came up with-a solution that is in no way mind blowing-is to mix in my new products with my older ones. Wow. I'm a real genious, right?? Ha ha. Well, this is at least something I haven't done in a really long time, so I committed to the idea and hit my stash.

This month I pulled out my stack of 6x6 Paper Pads, which includes several older collections from Crate Paper, American Crafts, and Studio Calico. My goal here was to find some older papers that I could mix in with the new colors and motifs from the newest collection from Maggie Holmes.

I went through almost all of my paper pads when I was looking for possible candidates. The few that I automatically placed aside were collections that were more primary color based--I knew they wouldn't be a good match for the turquoises and pinks that I wanted to pull from the Shine collection.  For the remainder of the paper pads, I looked for a certain set of "criteria" which included the following:

• I wanted a variety of patterns. For example, I knew I was going to use the cool black and white tribal paper from Shine, so I ruled out anything that was too geometric; instead I looked for patterns that I hadn't already pulled--you can see I included a floral, a woodgrain, a script, and a polka dot paper. Also, when picking out paper it is always nice to find a piece that includes all or most of the colors you are wanting to work with, which is why I pulled the floral paper-this is an easy way to tie together a color scheme.

• I wanted to pull in more pink, so I looked for paper in a variety of pink tones.

• I pay attention to whether or not the papers are cream or white based. I generally have a hard time mixing the two, occasionally I can make it work, but that isn't too often. 

• I always welcome additonal neutrals and the dark woodgrain paper fit the bill.

Here is the layout that I made:

Obvisouly, I did not use all the papers I had pulled out. This is pretty much how I operate all of the time--always pulling out more than I will use (sort of like I buy more than I use!). I ended up really featuring the bright pink script paper from an older SC line and complimenting it with the wood grain paper and the new tribal paper from Shine. Including the tag created enough contrast color wise that I didn't need to really add in any more paper.

In the end, I used up only two pieces of 6x6 patterned paper--not a whole lot in the scheme of things, but it felt good to at least put those two to use. Upon reflecting on this project and my goal, I am thinking that maybe another solution to the stack of paperpads is in order. Maybe I can use them to cut diecuts--shapes and titles-for my projects--maybe channel my inner Paige Evans?  Or do I need to place them more prominently in my space so I can see them? Any other solutions that you can think of or do I just need to stop buying paper pads?? 

Wishing you a great day and as ALWAYS, thank you so much for stopping by!

Michelle