40 Years

My 'Starting Point'

Last year, I lightened my scraps box by making some 'starting point' pages, pages that I start off from a co-ordinating pile of scraps, layered up in a pleasing way, ready for a photo to be added later.

Normally I keep these pages as they are and just add more when I finish them, but on this occasion I'd left a hole to be covered by a photo and the photo I wanted to scrap was an old one and too small for the space.

I managed to dismantle my page without damaging any of the papers; I did tear the surface of the cardstock background, but just flipped it over and started again. This time I ran the red scalloped paper vertically, cut the florals down and moved them closer together, stitched a large circle, and added lots of extra layers.

Some of the extra layers came from another moodboard challenge at For the Love of Pretty Paper. Although it was a 'Sea of Green', and we had to use some green, there was no need for a monochrome page. I initially took inspiration from the various plants (hence my return to the starting point page with the floral paper), and then went back to it to see what other elements I could include, such as the stripes from the straws and some polka dot paper.

I also combined this with a challenge from Hey Little Magpie to include stitching on a page. I've seen some lovely chain-stitching on pages recently and decided to try it for myself. It does look pretty, but I'm not sure whether it was worth the extra effort over back-stitching.

Supplies
Cardstock - American Crafts
Paper - Echo Park, Make & Create, Unknown Scraps
Acetate - Pink Paislee Atlas
Letters - Basic Grey, 
Tag - KaiserCraft
Label Stickers - October Afternoon
Heart Brads - Advent Calendar Swap
Puffy Hearts - Studio Calico
Rain Dots - Cloud 9 Design
Gems - Papermania
Ink - Memento

Tools
Fiskars Circle Template
X-Cut Scalloped Border Punch