Go Against the Theme

There is some paper that you can only use for certain layouts. You know what I mean... the paper that is only for Christmas or birthday or baby shower. However, there is a lot of themed paper that can be used outside it's orginal purpose. Perhaps the themed part isn't recognizable in small pieces and cropping it down is the answer. Perhaps the themed part is easily avoided by covering it up. Or perhaps the paper was part of a themed line, but the actual piece really isn't theme specific and could coordinate with other lines.

For example, our kit this month was full of spring and summer themed pieces... kites, beaches, sand, water... the works! One of the sheets of patterned paper was a sheet of 12-inch strip designs. I liked this curvy, orange strip the best and cut it out right away. I loved the color and the circles on it, and I knew I wanted to use it. The phrase on it was "Soak up the Sun".... but I wanted to use my early spring moss photo... so I just covered up the phrase with the matted photo. Since my photo isn't about summer or sunshine, but the colors and circles are just right for what I wanted, this was an easy fix. Yes, if you look really, really closely you can see a little bit of an "S" peeking out from the left and a little bit on an "N" peeking out on the right... but if you aren't looking for them, you'll never see them. The round design on the paper, the curve and the additional circles and buttons work perfectly with the water droplets in the photo.







The next time you see a piece of themed paper in the store or in your stash... look past the obvious and see if you can use it in a new and different way!



thanks for stopping by!

erin