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What I made with the March scrapbooking kit

scrapbook pages by shimelle laine @ shimelle.com
I’m ready to call my March kit done, with a total of nine scrapbook pages and two cards from those supplies – but this marks a little change from what I’ve done so far this year. I added more from my stash this time around than previously – three sheets of cardstock and two sheets of patterned paper for full 12×12 backgrounds, plus two partial patterned papers. I also used some enamel dots and adhesive pearls, mists, and baker’s twine. I think I still stayed quite to the ‘spirit’ of the kit, but does it feel like cheating to have added so much? Or is that just being resourceful? I’m curious as to what you find most useful, if you have an opinion. I have a feeling it will just be a month-to-month decision based on what I fancy scrapping and the balance of paper to embellishments.


Here’s a look at everything I made and what I had left over at the end, if you prefer things in video form! But you can see everything here on the blog too. I’ve posted five already: Dance All Summer Long, with two photos, All Over, with a single photo, Girls’ Weekend, with two photos, Definitely Disney, with five photos, and Talk Amongst Yourselves, with three photos.

scrapbook page by shimelle laine @ shimelle.com
This page required a sheet of kraft cardstock for the background, and a dark brown Mister Huey ink, but everything else is from the kit. I hadn’t been quite sure how to scrapbook this slightly odd photo of us on the beach in Thailand. It looks very distorted because it was taken by someone else with my camera, but I was using my wide angle lens at the time, which isn’t really meant for this kind of picture. In the end I decided to just tell that story as it is – that sometimes an odd photo of us together is better than no photo at all!

scrapbook page by shimelle laine @ shimelle.com
This page was created in an almost identical format as the fox page from the February kit – by taking all the scraps left on my desk, and cutting most of them into rectangles to layer onto a sheet of white cardstock. I really love this vellum over white, and there are many shades of pink and many shades of white, off-white, and cream, which is a different look for me but with so many shades together, I really like it. I added the Amy Tangerine cloud stamp to the diagonal line of ink droplets to emphasise the rainy day theme – just to try something a little different. This page is for my Olympic album, and tells the story of how we had not a single rehearsal in dry weather. Not one.

scrapbook page by shimelle laine @ shimelle.com
Sometimes my pages go so wrong by sheer stupidity. I had this page all designed in my head, with the cluster of envelopes to go along with the photo of the letter (a thank you note from the Prime Minister – sent to thousands of people, but still: I somehow doubt there will be many other times that letter head appears in my post!) and a bit more embellishment in a triangle around the page. When making it, the envelopes all went together politely and the skyline stamp even worked on the triangle wood veneer pieces even though they were quite small. Then I went away and left the finished page on my desk for a couple days, and in unpacking something else, I may have stacked something on top of it and well… there is a giant mess of spilled ink right below the photo. I had to go back and add more embellishment and try to balance it and cover it and make it work. So while the ‘you are awesome’ sticker is from the kit, as are a few small paper scraps, the hello die-cut, the label sticker, the twine and the enamel dots are all outside elements brought in to save the day. I’m not sure about this yet… but mostly I think that’s because it was finished in my mind and having to add more to it to cover a minor disaster has just changed the composition and it’s hard for me to figure out if it’s okay or not! But at this point, I’m living with it and getting it into a page protector before anything else happens! This page will be opposite an A4 page protector to hold the letter itself, which I want in my album but I don’t want to embellish.

scrapbook page by shimelle laine @ shimelle.com
Then I started working on a little something that looks like this, which might start rumours. But before anyone worries that I’m giving up my 12×12 pages for a daily documentation album such as Project Life, rest assured I still love my 12×12 very dearly.

scrapbook pages by shimelle laine @ shimelle.com
For one, if I did the traditional weekly double page about daily life, quite a lot of my daily life is… scrapbooking. At how many levels can one scrapbook about scrapbooking? That seems a little over the top for me, as well as a sure-fire way to create a never-ending spiral of stuff that ‘needs’ to be scrapbooked! That’s not the point of Project Life at all. Instead of keeping that sort of regular everyday album, I like to include divided page protectors just here and there amongst the rest of my 12×12 pages, as they are perfect for making a page from a few random items plus some pretty paper to tell a story of any particular day or activity. This past weekend marked nine years since The Boy and I went on our first date, and this Sunday we had a lovely if simple day that included lunch out along the river, an exhibit about how clocks were invented, and a planetarium show. I included a couple phone photos from the day and my ticket stubs, then plenty of pretty paper and some random notes about the day. The photo at the top right is of a new statue at the observatory, of Yuri Gagarin. I really, really wish someone clever would start a comedy Twitter account for ConcreteYuriGagarin, with local news and updates written through the voice of a cosmonaut, but sadly I don’t think anyone other than me would find it funny. And I don’t even think the statue is concrete – it must be granite or something, but that just doesn’t sound as comical as Concrete Yuri Gagarin. See, this is the sort of stuff I record on everyday type pages. I’m not sure I want to leave a complete record of that level of things only Shimelle could ever find funny.

handmade cards by shimelle laine @ shimelle.com
With the final pieces of the kit, I made two cards: one very pink (with a card base from an old Making Memories Valentine set) and one more vintage (with the Jenni Bowlin button stickers on a cream cardstock base).

And that’s that – nine pages and two cards! The March kit is still available, by the way – as I write this, many items that sold out earlier are back in stock and the only thing currently out of stock is the turquoise option for the letter stickers (the pink and black styles are in stock, and the letter stamps are half price). If you have posted your projects for the March kit somewhere and would like to share a link, do leave one in the comments so we can see what you’ve created!

Now I’ll start working with the April product picks, and I’ll have projects and videos to share with you very soon!

09 April 2013



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22 Comments for What I made with the March scrapbooking kit

  1. Kaatje Says:

    that’s a lot out of one kit. and love them all.

  2. Karla Says:

    I think it’s being resourceful. It’s ALWAYS good to use up stash ;)

  3. Anita Says:

    I love this series! I especially like seeing everything you made from the kit and what you had left over.

  4. Tasha Says:

    It’s not cheating. I’m always looking for ways to incorporate my stash with new things. Thank you for doing these videos. I love your work.

  5. Julie Says:

    Def NOT cheating. Love your layouts and use of all the goodies!
    Can wait to see what April brings. thanks again for sharing your talents.
    Julie

  6. J3SS1Ca Says:

    Wow, that’s lot of stuff from a kit! I love looking at these posts with all the layouts you get. I don’t think it’s cheating if you add extra stuff… That’s what I do if I know I have something perfect elsewhere for it!

  7. Dawn Cheshire Says:

    Tons of inspiration as always. Thanks for sharing everything you do with us!

  8. Lisa M. Zepponi Says:

    I LOVE that u included some of ur stash with ur BOBW kit!! Reminds me to use up those scraps I keep saving and to shop my stash! Thanks!

  9. Stephanie Armstrong Says:

    Well if it’s a Best of Both Worlds kit one of the worlds could be our own stash! Just got my April kit, can’t wait to play!

  10. Maria Says:

    Yep, anytime you can incorporate stash into a l/o, it’s resourceful. Thanks for showing us your projects. And no one would ever know that there was a mishap with your “letter l/o”. Maria

  11. Charity Says:

    I agree! It’s not cheating, we all have a big stash. I LOVE this series! It really shows how to use your lovely stuff! Thanks so much!

  12. Summer Says:

    Shimelle!! Great pages as always :) I always love to see the slightly different but always cohesive feel of your layouts. I was looking at my pages last night ( I just posted them collectively on my fb page ) and I’m happy to see a definite cohesive-ness to my layouts finally. I just posted a take on one of your April sketches on 2peas and my insta account and I think it’s pretty indicative of my emerging style. But I digress… I’ve been thinking about playing along with your kit and I think I might place an order to get the April one and try to catch up.
    Thank you for being willing to always put your work out there for us. Xo

  13. Victoria Says:

    Oh oh! Think I may be alone in thinking it is cheating to use stuff outside the kit! That’s not to say I won’t get over it, and of course I have loads of stash to use up, but I was finding it less stressful to buy the kit and just do what you had done, especially after a busy work day, or on a day of Scrapbooker’s Block. Because I usually do double layouts, I had actually bought two of each paper in your kit, and plan to extend your sketches into a DLO. Anyway, glad to have more videos to work from – thank you as always for your inspiration and hard work.

  14. Tara Says:

    I just discover your best of both worlds kits after being absent from checking blogs for quite some time! I am in love with this concept! I love that you can pick and choose which parts to participate in! Think I’m going to have to play along!

  15. Nancy Jo Says:

    Fabulous job with the March kit! I think adding onto it reflects what really happens at my scrap table at least and its always really helpful to hear you say why you stray from the kit, why something in the kit wont do or what you need on the page that is lacking in the kit. Love hearing the thought process for it all.

  16. Kathy R Says:

    I think it’s great that you show how just adding a couple sheets of paper, which we all have plenty of, to stretch the kit even further. Great use of a kit.

  17. Paula Says:

    For me, with shipping costs, I can’t afford the kit anyway. (the price doubles) So I start off cheating… oops sorry, being resourceful. I just put a kit together with what I already have here. So for me I don’t mind you having to be resourceful. It’s encouraging and I learn heaps from it. You really have taught me soooo much Shimelle.

  18. Julie H Says:

    I might not be your target audience as I make my own kits, inspired by the Counterfeit Kit challenge. but here’s my 5cents worth: I think a kit is a “good” kit if it “can” be used totally on it’s own, such as if you go to a crop with just your kit, some photos and some tools. Other than that, most of us have buckets of supplies at home, and whether we use kit supplies or stash supplies, or a mix of both, it’s all creating and it’s all good!

  19. Kathy W Says:

    Let me know when you get the Concrete Yuri Gagarin thing going. I don’t know if it’s a good thing or a bad thing that we have the same sense of humor.

  20. Hokiecoyote Says:

    Perhaps a compromise would be to make 1-2 layouts with kit only products.

  21. Online Betting Says:

    This is very cool. Thanks, I really enjoyed the nice tips.

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