Thickers Guilt

Hi Magpies, Niki here today. I have been suffering with a long term condition – it’s called Thickers Guilt.  My collection of Thickers is breeding, they are spilling out of of my storage box, and have filled up another whole bag, and there are also a few lurking in with various papers, stuffed in pockets of bags, and hiding amongst my embellishments. The situation is out of control and I’m seriously concerned that one day I won’t be able to get in my craft room door because of the inevitable avalanche of Thickers that will one day fall and block my entry to the room. Something has to be done.

The problem is that I NEVER use up an entire sheet of Thickers because even when all the vowels have gone as well as most of the useful letters, there is always something left on the sheet, and therefore it doesn’t get thrown away. I am incapable of throwing away those luscious alpha stickers, even if it is not possible to form a word out of the remaining consonants.  What happens is that I buy more and more Thickers when the new lovely ones come out, but the old ones never get used completely, therefore the collection just keeps growing and growing.

I now feel guilty whenever I purchase a new pack of Thickers because they will just add to my ever growing collection, and I feel that I ought to use up the old ones first before I buy more new ones. You see my problem.

This problem needs to be dealt with – it simply isn’t acceptable for me to refrain from buying Thickers – the item of stash that gives me the most pleasure and happiness, so I’ve been on an absolute mission this month to get some of those older Thickers used up.

There are a lot that I can’t form words out of, therefore they need to be used in a different way: as backgrounds or embellishments, or design features.

For my first layout ‘Be You’ I chose a background paper with diagonal stripes on it, dark in the middle and fading out towards the edges. I therefore used darker Thickers on the darker stripes and got lighter as I worked out towards the edges. The foam Thickers stick really well but the chipboard ones have a habit of pinging off, so I laboriously stuck them all down with glossy accents so that they won’t fall off later.  Because the background is so busy I kept the rest of my layout small and clustered in one area.

For ‘Dare to Dream’ I wanted to make a partial background out of Thickers, but all the same colour this time, against a background of similar coloured paper. I also wanted to incorporate a title in a different style/colour of Thickers. The difference in the fonts is enough to ensure the title can still be seen.

For ‘Delight’ I wanted to use my Thickers as additional layers under my papers/photos. I was inspired by the paper which is dark on the outside edges and light in the middle, so I kept my layers to the edges, leaving a gap in the middle. I chose a contrasting colour of Thickers this time.

For ‘Get Ready for Big School’ I opted to use my numbers – even if most of the letters are used, I can guarantee that the numbers will be left over. With my little girl starting school next week, I’m hoping I’ll be able to come up with a new more number layouts.

Back to a more traditional way of using Thickers this time – to form a title. I went for a very long title,with all the words made up of different Thickers, in different fonts and colours. This involves making up proper words and therefore you’ll need vowels to do this, but it is easier to get one word out of a sheet of leftovers, rather than several.

I had an idea of filling apertures with Thickers so I cut an arrow design using my Silhouette, and then filled another sheet with Thickers to stick behind it. As I was putting this layout together I wasn’t sure I was going to like the result but now it’s done I quite like it, and it’s definitely something a bit different to what I’d usually do.

For ‘Love’ I went back to my aperture idea but this time made large apertures to fill with Thickers This separates them all out a bit and I love the result.

And I have one final layout to share. I made this one for a challenge on UK Scrappers which goes live today so I’m ok to share it today! I went back to filling an entire sheet with Thickers but used a contrasting colour to write the title. I put the title in place first and then set about building my background.

Now that I’ve made a bit of a dent in my Thickers stash I’ve allowed mself to buy some of the gorgeous Thickers available in the shop at the moment. Here’s a few of my top picks:

Shimelle True Stories ‘Fitzgerald’ silver glitter Thickers

Dear Lizzy Fine & Dandy Sparkling Hearts Foiled Chipboard Thickers

Amy Tangerine Rise & Shine ‘Alyx’ Foil Printed Thickers Silver

 Jen Hadfield Cottage Living Imprint Chipboard Foil Thickers Cream and Gold

 
Products Used:
Crate Paper Poolside: Gold Glitter Vellum, Gold Sequin Shapes, Lawn Chair paper.
Elle’s Studio Lets Eat: This & That paper
Fancy Pants Summer Sun: Just Beachy paper, Sandcastles paper
Pink Paislee Citrus Bliss: Bloom paper, Citrus paper
Shimelle True Stories: Foil Accent Sticker Book
THICKERS!!!!
 
Happy scrapping xx