Happy 7th Birthday, PAGEMAPS!

Hey, everyone!!

Guess what!? It's PAGEMAPS 7th Birthday and I am so excited to help them celebrate! You know how much I adore that site and all the FREE (yes, FREE!!) inspiration it provides so I'm all about sharing the love for them at every opportunity! 

My challenge over on the PM blog was: PaperMixology! I love mixing patterned paper and usually have anywhere from 4-6 on a given page. This layout below is just slightly different where I used a textured cardstock as one of my prints. Read below to find out a bit more!

Supplies: BasicGrey PP, buttons, brads, alpha stickers; Scenic Route PP; Bazzill CS; Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L adhesive; Uniball pen; twine; Fiskars star punches & circle punches.

First, I've had this photo to scrapbook since 2008. Seriously. 2008. It's one of my favorites of my two youngest but I never could figure out just what I wanted to do with it. And let's be honest, that royal blue is so vibrant so adding patterned paper with it could make it overwhelming if I wasn't careful. 

So I decided to minimize the patterns just a bit and go more for texture. I used textured cardstock in place of where I would normally use a pattern and it gave me the same result but with a bit less busy-ness. I added elements like buttons and brads and even chipboard under some of my punched stars for extra dimension and "oomph." And to really go crazy, I lifted up the photo with foam adhesive to make sure it stood out and was noticed.

Mixing patterned papers can sometimes be tricky, but if you break down your papers by scale, you'll discover it's much easier to bring them all together!

So try your hand at some paper mixology and you could win a BasicGrey collection pack of your choosing! Just create a layout, based on this sketch, and mix up some patterned paper. You can even convert the sketch to 12x12 if you'd like! This contest starts today and ends at midnight MST on Thursday, June 7, 2013. The contest is open to everyone, everywhere! Be sure to link your project up in the comments section on the PageMaps blog!

And speaking of winners....Hey ABBEY! You're lucky winner of the Hipster+Mint Julep prize package from BasicGrey! Email me at kellydotgoreeatgmaildotcom to claim your prize!

Have a wonderful weekend!

xo, 

k