Mixing Collections

Thank you to everyone who has been in touch recently about my previous posts etc - it has really been heartwarming for me.  I've got a long way to go but I think I am starting to see light at the end of the tunnel, but more on that another time ;-)

It seems like months ago now that I was on a retreat with Artful Angels but it's only a few weeks really!  I had a lot of fun while I was there mixing up different Crate Paper collections with some surprising results.  Lots of manufacturers use similar colours across collections so picking out a colour to use from a variety of kits can really expand the life of your papers.  This is why I love it when Sarah brings the S J Crafts shop to our crop because I can see all the beautiful papers together and not think of their collections in isolation.  Plus I get to stroke and go starry eyed over all the lovely products.... ahem.

Busy Girl

Here I've used a watercolour floral from The Pier with the red triangle print from Bundled Up - who says you can't use a beach theme and a Christmas theme together?!  I also used the reverse of the triangle print because the aqua sort-of-snowflake print went so well with the floral print too.  It gives it all a very different look than when I've mixed that same floral with other papers from The Pier so its great if you are looking to change things up a bit. Incidentally, both of these collections are currently on offer in the S J Crafts sale!)



I used some of the cut apart sheet too because there really wasn't much to add in the way of journaling when you have several albums of your little people playing on the beach!  "And here she is, digging away again." "Here's Miss Bella looking cute in a swim suit!" "Now here's Louis having fun in the sand!" - You get the picture... ;-)

I finally got to use some of my precious rose trim by American Crafts too!  I can't tell you how old this is and I do love it but it isn't the easiest thing to incorporate because of its size and impact!  I cheekily sneaked in some alphas from another kit I was using at the time which you'll see in another post, Homespun from Simple Stories.

I liked using these collections together so much that I created several more layouts mixing and matching from different Crate ranges. 

Will It Still Be There?

While we were in Wales over Christmas, Management carved our names onto 4 stones and we hid them in a crevice in the rocks with the intention of looking for them again when we go back in April together.  I wanted to concentrate on the natural colours and feel of the photo so I mixed some of the kraft based papers from The Pier with some 12x12 from Maggie Holmes Flea Market and some of the same collection in the 6x6 pad format.

I distressed the edges here to give a more rustic feel and used the branding strip and stickers from The Pier too.  I used some of the alphas from Homespun again because they were there and they fitted the colours.  Sometimes having a set of alphas at hand prevents you having to go rifling through your whole collection for something even more perfect when it could be there in front of you all along.

Remember that picnic?

Sometimes you have a photo left over from the many you take but you've said all there is to say about the event that goes with it.  In this case I used one of the left over photos from a windy walk at Christmas to record a memory of the same beach many years ago.  We were staying in the Brecon Beacons on our way to the cottage in Newport when we heard about the attacks on the Twin Towers and everything changed.  We left for Pembrokeshire a day later and the next day we packed a picnic to take down to this beach at Moylgrove.  It was there that we finalised our plans to go travelling and ended up in New York a year and one week later.  I was going to take a career break from my job as an analyst with the police.

We sat there leaning back on a washed up tree trunk with our french bread and soft cheese pretending that the world was a peaceful and happy place and trying to escape from news about terrorists and dealing with armed robbers and peadophiles.

Here I've mixed The Pier again with some more Maggie Holmes AND some more Bundled Up!  Three collections that came together beautifully to create a soft but fresh layout.  I used some of the 6x6 Maggie Holmes to create some bunting and also to die cut the title.  The size reduction in the patterns work really well for embellishments and fussy-cutting etc because of the smaller scale making the patterns denser.

In the past I've used various My Minds Eye collections together and my Devon album is composed of a variety of collections by October Afternoon.  So, I'd really like to know what you think - do you like mixing brands or collections and which ones work well for you?

Bye for now
xx