My First Challenge For 2020

It's finally time for me to enter a challenge, my first one for 2020.  This week's challenge at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge is Anything Goes.  Recently I sat down with leftovers from putting together the Vicky Boutin album with her Wildflower & Honey collection.  I loved  the cover sheet from the 6x8" paper pad.  The album used the entire paper pad so I didn't want the pretty printed piece to go to waste.  So I pulled out the leftovers from the album and sat down to create (and maybe I also had some more replacement Wildflower & Honey pieces I may have also bought because it is just such a lovely collection #dontjudgeme).

I then did a similar design on the back using just leftovers again.  I think this kind of crafting works because I had the whole collection so I knew it would work well together.  Usually I only buy limited items from a collection that I think I can use.  It is a luxury to craft with a whole collection.

I think I really enjoy the challenge of using leftovers and stretching my creative muscles by limiting my supplies.  It's amazing what you can do with just a little. That doesn't mean that I am emptying my craft room of the excess though! I love my stash.

I am entering these layouts at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge : Anything Goes

Materials:
American Crafts Wildflower & Honey Collection by Vicki Boutin

Apologies for the photos being the wrong way! I am using my iPad and it won’t let me rotate them even though they are the right way originally. Plus I held off posting this until today so the date would show Leap Day.

Vicki Boutin Wildflower & Honey Album

It’s no secret that I am a fan of Vicki Boutin! I enjoyed my mixed media classes with her at CAD last year but my true love is her mini albums.  At CAD I purchased a few (cough) of her then latest collection - wildflower & honey.  A short time later, Vicki released album kits for sale using wildflower & honey (as well as a Christmas one but that’s just not for me!). Coincidentally I pretty much had all of the items in the kit except for the album itself. I purchased the appropriate album and then purchased the instructions from Vicki.  They arrived recently and I could hardly wait to get started. Conveniently for me, we had a long weekend at the end of January so I got to sit down and put the album together. Boy is she pretty.

I printed the cutting instructions A3 to help me visually. The instructions were pretty clear and I only had one oops with trimming one piece (my fault). I’m happy to share helpful tips with anyone intending to make this up as I learned a few things along the way. My album didn’t come with two pocket page configurations that Vicki used but luckily I had 2 spare from an older simple stories album. It’s not a size I naturally use so it worked out well and meant I could use one of the 6x8 pocket pages for the extra pages I made below. Unfortunately I ran out of 1/4” red tape so I need to go buy some and reattach some of the flaps. The album is full of colour with different layers and sizes. All I need to do is add photos but she is pretty enough to just look at as she is right now.

After I finished the album I had a few pieces left over so I created two additional pages using just the leftovers. Feeling pretty proud of myself I have to say.