Tips & Tricks Tutorial by our Guest Designer Tara Orr

Tips & Tricks to use with your

September Scrap That! Kit

I am so honoured to have been asked to guest design for Scrap That! once again this month!! When I received the September kit I was over the moon when I saw the Graphic 45 papers.  Not only am I slightly partial to this manufacturer (LOL), I am deeply in love with the collection included in this month's kit - A Ladies' Diary!  The perfect mix of soft, vintage papers with a beautiful mix of feminine imagery - perfectly suited to my shabby chic style.

Stretch Your Embellishments:

I have always been thrifty by nature - especially when it comes to my scrappy supplies.  Kit clubs are no exception.  The first thing I did when I received my kit was to seperate the flowers.  Each of the three larger Petaloo flowers included in the kit had several layers so I split each apart and automatically doubled my flower supply!

Another way you can stretch your embellishments is to cut them in half.  If you know that you will be tucking your elements under papers and under photos, why waste the hidden parts?  

 Here I cut my dressform in half as well as the bling and doily so that I could use the other parts on another area of this layout or on another project completely.

Transform Your Kit

One thing that you must always remember when using papers, embellishments, anything scrappy related, is that everything can be altered to suit the needs of your project. I wanted more flowers on my layout so I transformed my flowers (split them apart, cut them in half) to give me more.  I wanted a soft, romantic, vintage look to my layout so I distressed the edges of my papers. I wanted a lush, dimensional feel to my project so I layered my papers and embellishments as much as possible.

Also, because I have worked with these papers quite a bit, I wanted to achieve a completely different look.  Once my layout was complete 

I started to add a few stamps here and there.  The stamps and inks are not included in the kit, but these are normally items of which most of us have already.  I added  a few eyelets to my tags as well as a safety pin - 

again, items which you can find around your house.  The layout was complete.  I liked the composition, it seemed to have just the right amount of white space.... but it wasn't unique enough.  Enter your mist!!

This is exactly the same layout. Look at the transformation when a little (okay, a lot) mist is added!  You can use any colour, any technique - just mist until your heart is content!!  For my layout I used shades of peach, gold, green and black....

I hope that these tips and tricks have helped boost your creative mojo just a little.

Thanks so much!!