Diggin' through the scraps

It seems like I have been working on a pile of Toby pictures lately. I have one little stack of pictures from the time period when I used to do 81/2 by 11 family albums. Unless I am doing a specialty album, now I usually use 12x12. So it has been fun...and a bit of a challenge as graphically I re-adjust to a smaller and rectangular format. I found these pictures from about four years ago that were just fun and quirky. One of my resolutions was to use up some of the older things of in my "stash". I found these Genuine Boy titles from Tree House Memories. I combined them with a journaling rub-on from EK Success. I cut the "Quirky" from the EK rub-on and added over top of the Genuine Boy title. The photo makes the title look like it has a lot of red in it, but I think that the flash from camera made it look that way.

Another resolution was to use up some the the dreaded "scraps" that seem to grow overnight. My goal was to only use two sheets of white for a background. The rest had to all be either from scraps or stash! Digging through the paper scraps added a little interest with color and simple shapes.

I dug out my Heidi Swapp date stamp and the Provo Craft alphabet stamp mymother-in-law gave me for Christmas. (see both below) to add Toby's name and the date. In this case the rub-on said everything that I wanted to about Toby's quirky personality. Remember, you don't have to use every part of the rub-on. I cut it apart, rearranged and GASP! even threw some of it out.

The whole thing was quick and I was please with the result. I love doing "art" pages in my memory books, but I would never get all of my pictures scrapped, if I did that for every layout, so I tend to mix it up. I do 7 or 8 layouts that are pleasing but simple and then go all out on the ones with activities that I am totally in love with or photos that inspire a special idea.

The alphabet stamp and date stamps are fun to use, you can spell things out, use part or all of it. **If you are obsessive about things being perfectly aligned this might not be the alphabet stamp for you. Since you rotate a dial to line up your title, it is very difficult to get it straight. But if you like a funky, eclectic look, they are a lot of fun.