Welcome to It's Hip to Be Square Day 4: Bits and Pieces

Welcome back to a new week of It's Hip to Be Square! I hope everyone had a great weekend. We went to the pumpkin patch yesterday and now have pumpkins lined up on our front walk way. The plan is to "carve" them using an idea I found on Pinterest. It involves using a drill to "carve" polka dot designs into the pumpkin. Well, enough about me. It's time to introduce you to Sarah Klemish, my guest for today.

Sarah "has been scrapbooking for the better part of 12 years." She "loves the process of scrapbooking and knowing that my kids and family will always have memories to look back on." Sarah was an ongoing guest designer for Bella Blvd. and is currently "guest designing when asked". I've long been a fan of Sarah's fresh, clean style. She is the queen of white space and an amazing photographer to boot! Let's see what Sarah has to share with us today...

Sarah's idea is to use bits and pieces of 6x6 papers to create different elements on a page. What do I mean by this? This is how Sarah describes it:

"I love that most scrapbooking manufacturers make 6x6 paper pads! With most companies a 6x6 pad of paper includes 2 double-sided pieces of paper of all the patterns in a particular collection! Talk about getting a good deal! Because I like to use smaller pieces of patterned paper on my layouts, the smaller sized pads work perfectly for most of my projects.

The layout I created is for a friend who recently got married. I used the My Minds Eye "The Sweetest Thing - Tangerine" 6x6 Designer Paper Pad. I love that My Minds Eye has so many embellishments and additional product that coordinates with their smaller pads so that completing a layout is fast and easy.

I started with a neutral background (Studio Calico Folio), adding some black paint splashes on the top right and bottom left. I added a 6x6 piece of wood grain paper. I cut down a second sheet of the wood grain paper, punched the edge with a scallop punch and added it to the top of the first piece of wood grain paper. I then cut down a 6x6 piece of rainbow chevron paper. I placed it on the right of my layout, slightly overlapping the wood grain paper.  I also cut down a piece of orange polka dot 6x6 paper and added that under the chevron pattern. I tucked the "You are so..." tag in the little pocket created with the two cut pieces of paper. I then added a scallop edge for additional color. 

I cut out a large photo corner from a gingham pattern included in the paper pad and placed it in the top right corner of my layout. I cut down a small piece of red dot and yellow stripe papers to add behind my photo (along with a doily for a "girly" effect).

Lastly I added a dimensional butterfly embellishment, brads and journaling strips. Super fast and easy but mostly inexpensive!"

So there you have it...Sarah's permission to cut into your 6x6 papers (LOL!) and use them in part, or as a whole. I love how she used the papers in so many different ways...layering them, creating a pocket with two small strips, as a photo mat, and as a photo corner. I'd say this layout is chock full of inspiration. Wouldn't you?

Be sure to pop in to Sarah's blog, My Life on Paper, to say hi and to see more of her work.