Looking back for inspiration.

Hello! This month I thought I’d take a look back at some favourite layouts of mine and use them for inspiration to make new ones. Sometimes when I’m stuck for new ideas I’m reminded of something Cathy Zielske once said in one of her scrapbooking books (or it might have been on her blog years ago) ‘Why re-invent the wheel?’, quite right. If you’ve made a layout in the past that you love, pull it out and take inspiration from it, treat it like a sketch and scraplift it. With my thoughts on going back in time I thought it would also be fun to pick some older products and collections which are still in stock in the Hey Little Magpie store and use them in my layouts.
So, let’s move on and take a look at the first layout which inspired me, a layout from 2009.

and the layout they came from that…

You can see the similarities in the strip of paper at the top with a semi-circle punched out, the larger portion of paper at the bottom and the photo spreading across the page. I just changed the dimensions of the photo space using two instead of the single photo and added hidden journaling in a pocket rather than on the photo.

For the new layout I used two papers from the My Mind’s Eye – My Story collection, ‘Typewriter‘ and ‘Grandma’s Quilt Foiled Paper‘, plus chipboard buttons from the same collection. I added Fancy Pants Designs – Happy Place collection ‘Hello‘ paper and ‘Diction Stickers’. The typewriter embellishments are simply cut from the MME paper and popped up on foam pads. The black thickers are the Shimelle – True Stories ‘Hipsters‘ from American Crafts and that grey ‘today’ flair is a Hey Little Magpie exclusive (there’s lots to choose from here).
My second layout was inspired by this one from 2007, a story about my youngest son’s love of blowing out birthday candles, even though it wasn’t his birthday cake!

It’s a simple grid design with three square photos and a fourth square housing the title and the journaling plus a strip of paper along the bottom.

Here I simply mirrored the grid design, putting the title and journaling on the left and replaced the patterned paper strip with a strip of patterned vellum. I used a strip of the lovely Shimelle – True Stories ‘Chamomile’ vellum, more Fancy Pants – Happy Place ‘Diction Stickers’, a gold chipboard heart button from the My Mind’s Eye chipboard button pack used previously and some red Freckled Fawn label stickers.

The title and journaling square is made from three Project Life cards trimmed and stuck together, the blue ones are from the Boys Rule Value Kit and the woodgrain (which matched the old weathered railway sleeper I was standing on in the photo) is from the Maggie Holmes Open Book core kit. The thickers are from the Shimelle – True Stories collection as before and all of the cardstock used is by American Crafts.
My third layout was inspired by this, made in 2008.

Lots of 1 1/2″ vertical strips of patterned paper on a 12×12″ layout with a strip across the centre containing the title, photo and journaling. Here’s the new take on this design…

I used mainly patterned papers from the Shimelle – True Stories collection for this, with just the addition of that lovely Fancy Pants – Happy Place ‘Hello’ paper (the yellow and the red strips). Papers left to right; English Breakfast, Croissant, FP Hello, Cinnamon Roll, Croissant, Macchiato, FP Hello (B-side) and English Breakfast. The camera patterned paper is Darjeeling from the True Stories collection, as is the title which is part of the cut apart side on the same paper.

I added some clusters of Freckled Fawn labels and Fancy Pants ‘Diction’ stickers with some black chipboard shapes from the Shimelle ‘Hipster’ thicker pack. The little blue star is from my stash, I just wanted to pull in some matching blue to the other side of the photo and the yellow chipboard button is from the My Mind’s Eye chipboard button pack. Finally I used a dark grey ink pad to ink around the edges of the layout.
My fourth layout was influenced by a simple layout about my oldest sons first football match back in 2011.

The inspiration here was the full width double photo and the colour choice, which was clearly taken from the players shirts.

I opted for that same kraft background and pulled the muted greens and clouds from the photo as my inspiration for product choice. The heart paper strip is actually the bottom strip of the ‘Croissant’ paper and the green spot paper is the ‘Cinnamon Roll’ paper from the True Stories collection. I decided to cut out some of the clouds from a sheet of ‘Earl Grey’ vellum and layer them to create a cloudy sky as seen in the photo, I love how it turned out! I used a journaling card from the Project Life ‘Boys Rule’ Value Kit and created some clusters with more Diction stickers, a cut out camera from the Darjeeling paper, a red label from Freckled Fawn, a brad from the new Simple Stories ‘Let’s Party’ collection, a ‘The Story’ flair by Hey Little Magpie and some enamel dots from my stash. The thickers are the ‘Hipsters’ ones again.

My final layout came about by a recent scrapbooking challenge weekend over on the Shimelle.com blog. The particular challenge I was working on was to scrap a large photo. From that idea I pulled out some layouts from 2013 where I had scrapped full size photos for a Scrapbook Magazine feature I was writing at the time and took the photo of them on my desk.

This layout tells the story behind the photo and the colour / product choice came about from the flowers on my desk in the photo. I had the remainder of a pack of photo overlays from the Shimelle – True Stories collection in my stash, one of those left was this bright floral overlay. I decided I wanted to use it against the white cardstock rather than over the photo to show off the vibrant colours better, so I cut around the details and adhered it to the background. The bright pop of colour matched beautifully with the striped side of the new Simple Stories – Let’s Party collection ‘Woo Hoo!‘ paper.

I used more of the lovely Darjeeling paper, both the cameras and the cut apart side (the journaling card), more Diction stickers and Hipster thickers. I added pops of colour with the co-ordinating Let’s Party enamel dots and a matching striped brad. The camera card is from the Project Life Maggie Holmes core kit, it’s one of my favourite cards and I couldn’t help but include it!
Well that’s it from me this month. Have fun looking back through your own scrapbook layouts and take inspiration from them. And remember that you don’t always need to use the newest collections, there’s still lots to choose from in the store and definitely in your own stash!

You can also find me on Instagram @jobo_creates and @jobo74 and on my blog Half a cup of coffee.