Hi Everyone!  When I received my March Hip Kit and looked through the papers, I knew I wanted to use this black and white paper as a background.

It was an opportunity to use the embellishments in the kit that offer bright color and focus to the photos.  In these photos, my oldest is wearing a romper with bright green on it and lots of the embellishments had an emerald green color.  There was also a free silhouette cut of this word "Magic." 

This allowed me to incorporate some of the bright papers that came in the kit too. I used the Heidi Swapp color blocked Thickers to enhance the brightness of the title.  The rainbow die cut on this monochromatic background really pops.

I really love how this one came together.  I encourage you to try using a black and white background.  Happy Scrapping!

Sewing to add interest

Do you ever make a layout and feel the background just needs a little something?  Texture? Color? I run into to this sometimes and although my go to tends to be added paint or ink, this time I did a little something different.

On this layout, I took two colors of thread, a blush and a yellow and sewed a grid in the background.  I just love the way that this turned out.  I used a 6x6 paperpad to pick coordinating colors to back the silhouette flower cuts with.

All of the white leaves are from another project and I had some leftover.  I am glad I saved them because they matched the floral design of this layout perfectly.

I only adhered the edge of each leaf stem so that they would stay fluffy and dimensional on the page.  Then, I finished it off with some white paint splatter.  I love the way it turned out!  Happy Scrapping!

Paper Backing Cut Files

When I am in a crafty slump and just need to get working on something to pull myself out, my go to technique is backing a silhouette cut file with pretty paper.  On this particular day, I was not feeling very creative, but wanted to make something.  I found a few pictures in need of making it into my album from a previous family vacation.  I cut the outline of the word "beach" and got to work.

On the back of the layout I did some ink smooshing using two colors of distress ink.

 Just seeing this beautiful bright paper and doing the activity of meticulously cutting it to size, put me in the mood to further embellish and be creative.  This technique always makes for a bright and interesting layout and is the best way I have found to make it out of a crafty slump.  Would love to hear your go to technique when in a slump.  Happy Scrapping!