Weekly Wrap-Up #8

Good morning. :) Happy Friday! I’m in a much better headspace this week, and am sharing some old base pages and Month-in-Review layout kits in this week’s wrap-up. What are you up to?

Scrappy Backgrounds

Last year, I decided I was on a mission to use up my scraps.  I have YET to realize this goal. :)  But I found a process I have really enjoyed, and wanted to share.  First, I was inspired by this article by Rockester.  (It’s an older article, and the pictures are missing, but you can get the idea by reading it.)  I liked the idea of monochromatic layouts–I typically struggle with these, but like the simple look of them.  Around the same time, some online scrappy friends were discussing The Perfect Collection concept by Shimelle Laine. Basically, it’s taking a collection pack and chopping it up into commonly used sizes, then creating backgrounds with the pieces.  Shimelle also used to do a series called Starting Points on her blog, where she would create a background, and challenge her readers to make a layout on top of that background design.

SO.  A big soup of ideas coalesced in my head, and this is what came out of it!  Scrappy Backgrounds. My goal was to only make backgrounds, a la Starting Points.  I was not going to be creating layouts from start to finish. I would keep these backgrounds for quick scrapping later on down the road.  This allowed me to use my scraps and be creative, without pressure to find the perfect photos RIGHT NOW.

First, I sorted my scraps by color family.

Then, I chopped up my scraps into commonly used pieces, a la The Perfect Collection. If I had specific ideas, I paired punches or other items with the trimmed scrap piles.

Then I put them together.  First as monochromatic, colorblocked layouts, a la Rockester.

And eventually, I began scraplifting looks I liked from Scrapbook Generation, or just ideas that popped into my head that I wanted to try out.  Again, all with scraps.

I have a whole range of colors, and while most of these ended up as one pagers, I made sure to do a couple of 2 page backgrounds, too.

In a later post, I’ll share how I go from one of these to a finished layout!  TFV!