Injecting New Life into Old Supplies by Adding Green

Alison Day
Alison Day

How many of us crafty types have more supplies than we know what to do with?

Guilty!

Today marks the one year anniversary of the WHO declaring Covid-19 a pandemic. In that year I have barely touched my supplies. I haven’t added to them (mostly due to exhorbitant shipping and duty fees at the moment), but I also haven’t depleted them by all that much. I just simply haven’t had the heart to do much crafting!

Recently I turned a corner though and now I am happily creating scrapbook layouts again. Let me tell you how this came about and what it has to do with the colour green – our theme for this month.

To make a long story short(er) I started watching Shimelle Laine‘s Facebook Live videos again. 

Shimelle puts together kits of supplies she calls her Best of Both World’s Kits. They are posted as a wish list on Scrapbook.com and you can add it all into your cart or just the pieces you need (or fit your budget). Since nothing coming from the States fits my budget at the moment, I was simply looking. But looking led to more. MOAR! (Those that follow Shimelle will understand that, those that don’t, sorry – inside joke!)

I hopped over to her blog and scrolled through all of the January and February layouts she’d made using the kits she put together. And all that looking and watching got me thinking … could I put together a similar set of supplies with my stash? Turns out I could (it’s a fairly extensive stash LOL!) But I still wanted more (MOAR!)

This time I searched up Canadian scrapbook companies with online stores … now, before I go any further, let me say for the record, please, please, PLEASE support your local brick and mortar stores first! My local brick and mortar store is only open for curb side pick up but annoyingly has no online shop so I have no idea what’s in their store that I may want to pick up curbside. Seems a little backward to me. So I went shopping for a better solution. And found one – Treasured Memories in Edmonton Alberta. They had many of the items from Shimelle’s April kit so I hit buy. 

But getting back to the March Kit …

Shimelle loves to use multi-media techniques on her layouts and her kits typically have a stencil and an ink pad in them. I have a few Distress Oxide inks also but took the opportunity (since my shopping cart was open and all) to add a few more. The inks on this page are Cracked Pistachio (already in my stash) and Lucky Clover (new and gorgeous). 

I knew we were going to be using green this month and already had an idea for my more traditional St Patrick’s Day layout (keep reading), but I got the idea for this layout while I was out walking my dog and knew I could make it work with my new green ink. I am not a huge user of stencils but was willing to give it a shot in an attempt to imitate a master. I am super pleased with how it turned out!

Both of my stencils were from old Simon Says Stamp card kits. I created the diagonal line of butterflies with my Cracked Pistachio ink then layered the firework motif over top in the Lucky Clover. A lot of it got hidden under the paper and photos and that’s okay. Enough of it is on display to give you the idea.

In Shimelle’s March kit is a paper from her Never Grow Up line that has multi-coloured butterflies on one side and a blue leaf pattern on the reverse. In my stash was this butterfly paper from Paige Evan’s Horizon collection. It’s from the 12×12 paper pad so is single sided but I have plenty of blue papers with or without leaves that I can add to my “kit” should I need to. And quite frankly, what you have in front of you, what can be put to use and put in your albums, is better than some mythical paper in an online store! 

I paired the paper with two green cut aparts from the same collection. That way I could be sure the greens would match, and they were perfect for the story I wanted to tell. One became the accent layer that you see in the photo above, while the other holds my journaling.

While I love using a set kit of supplies, and for many years subscribed to a kit club for just that challenge, there is nothing better IMHO than digging into your stash to find hidden treasures. Shimelle has this amazing ability to layer up seemingly random and completely unmatched items and make it work. I am not that brave but did pair stickers from Simple Stories (their original I Am line) with some from Fancy Pants and some that have no branding on them anymore. And it all seems to work! The trick is to make sure each new item has something about it that relates to the other items on your page. Whether that be colour, or motif, or even illustration style, look for those similarities when shopping your stash. 

And then pair all that green with a picture of yourself after a snowy walk! LOL. Just kidding. Just choose one that makes you happy. 

I promised you a more traditional St. Patrick’s Day layout and here it is. Clovers and rainbows and golden touches!

Shimelle had included a planet paper in her kit which I am not in possession of. I have three daughters so rainbows and unicorns, yes, dinosaurs and planets … not so much! But I did have this starry night sky paper which I’d added to my kit as a substitute, so used that as my background. The themed papers were added as a temporary addition to the kit (as in, just for you!) and most of the embellishments and journaling cards are from Simple Stories free printable site. Some were downloaded and printed last year (or the year before … with stash, who knows!), and some were downloaded, printed and fussy cut just for this layout. 

As my journaling states, I am endeavouring to inject more fun and whimsy into my life this year, and one way to do this is to celebrate minor holidays. For Valentine’s Day I made pink rice crispie squares with a heart made out of red and pink candy coated chocolates, and I scattered the breakfast table with tons of Hershey’s Kisses and Hugs. Can’t wait to scrapbook those photos with all the pink and all the hearts!

For St. Patrick’s Day I have started celebrating already by drinking my coffee (kahlua flavoured coffee at that) in this themed travel mug. It is truly the little things in life that make all the difference! Especially right now.

I love me some enamel dots and have an extensive stash of them, but sadly, a lot of my stash consists of sheets with only a few enamel dots left. So to combat this, I embraced using multiple colours in my embellishment groups. And I chose to highlight the accent colours on the page – the pink and blues. And odd choice for a St. Patrick’s Day layout perhaps, but it was what I had to hand, and felt more right than adding more green. Sometimes green is just a supporting colour you know!

So there you go. Two layouts that use green to tell my stories in a different way. The Becoming layout is all about my figurative emergence from a chrysalis and I always equate new growth to green so … seemed a logical choice. And then the second, well, you just can’t talk about St. Patrick’s Day without using a bit of green. But remember, you don’t have to use ALL the greens! 

Can’t wait to see your green projects this month. And I can’t wait to keep scrapping with my homemade March Best of Both World’s kit!

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