We love to give you inspiration here on the blog to help you to use your kits to document your most precious memories, and today design team member Steph Grimes is sharing three amazing tips, along with a new pocket page spread, for how you can put your May Kit and extras to good use in your album before we move on to our June goodies!
Hi everyone! It’s Steph here with a new pocket page I created using what was leftover from my May Kit and extras. I put together this two-page 6” x 12” pocket spread about my recent morning ritual of yoga and walking. I didn’t have much of my kit left, so I had to get creative with what I was going to use and how I was going to use it. I’ve come up with three tips for using your kit leftovers that I’d like to share with you today.
Supplies | May 2019 Kit, Pink Puffy Alphabet Stickers, Hand Drawn Acrylic Hearts, Everyday Goodness Epoxy Stickers, Beautiful Day 6 x 6 Paper Stack, Everyday Phrases Vol. 2 Stamp
I’ve been *obsessed* with this beautiful pinky coral color that’s been showing up in the kits this year and the May Kit had a bunch of it, much to my delight. Now, I’ve been hoarding it all year, but decided that the way to show my true love for this color was to use it up, but I hadn’t done so yet. It matched perfectly with the photos I had to go along with this story so that’s what I started with. I love how the “Oh, What a Beautiful Morning…” journaling tag incorporates the coral color and made a really great title card for this spread, so I used this as the starting point for the whole spread. Here’s what I had leftover from the May Kit and extras:
1. Use die-cuts and scraps to make your own journaling tag
I didn’t have enough leftover 3” x 4” journaling tags that could accommodate a decent amount of journaling, so I used the 1, 2, 3 arrows from the May Kit die-cuts as a starting point for creating my own. I used each arrow as a jumping-off point to write about a reason I loved this morning routine. For a little added embellishment, I cut out some of the rectangles in matching colors from a scrap of the Beautiful Day 6 x 6 Paper Stack colored blocks patterned paper and used the Everyday Phrases Vol. 2 Stamp to find a suitable phrase to stamp on this journaling card.
2. Alter journaling tags to make your supplies go further
Don’t be afraid to alter your journaling tags! You can really stretch your supplies by using the journaling tags in creative ways on your layouts and pocket pages. On this spread, I cut apart the journaling tag with the “bullet point” hearts and used those as labels on each of my photos to add a little more context for each one.
3. Embellish journaling tags with add-ons and stamps
The add-ons to the main kit and the stamp sets are some of my favorite products because they far outlast the lifetime of the monthly kit supplies. The journaling tags and die-cuts are the first things from the kit to get used up for me, so the extras and the stamp sets help me enjoy the themes and styles of each kit for a long time and help me to create additional embellishments and custom elements for my layouts and spreads.
On the back of the spread (the right side in the full project photo above) I wanted to carry-over the same color scheme from the front side. I used the 3” x 4” library card May Kit journaling tag as a place to hold more information about the yoga / walking challenge I was taking part in. I made a title from the Pink Puffy Alphabet Stickers, and added in a touch of yellow with half of a die cut label I had leftover from the May Kit and one of the Everyday Goodness Epoxy Stickers.
Finally, I used the journaling tag with the repeated “this is the best part” phrase and added one of the Hand Drawn Acrylic Hearts to the open space on the bottom. I decided it needed a little something else, so I stamped out the phrase “making things happen” from the Everyday Phrases Vol. 2 Stamp in an aqua color and added that to the card as well. Having the stamp sets to use really helps to stretch your supplies as well because you can create some of your own elements to use in addition to the items in your kit or in place of items you may have already used.
So there you have it: a few ideas for how to use the leftovers and scraps from your monthly kits. Do you like to use all the bits and pieces, including your scraps, from each month’s kit? What have you made with them? Share your “scrappy” projects on Instagram using the hashtag #EllesStudio and let us know how you use your leftovers and scraps!
