Adventures in Scrapbooking - Using My Stash

So I mentioned last week that I am taking a class online from Big Picture Scrapbooking. It's a Using Your Stash class. I told Jeff about it and he said...and I quote: "Amen Sister." Hello, my name is Michelle and I'm a hoarder of scrapbooking supplies. I love to buy stuff. When I buy it I can always see the perfect layout in my head...but I don't always have the perfect pictures. Sometimes I can convince Jeff to participate in "Staged Family Fun" so I can get pictures for the perfect layout and the perfect supplies, but not always. Plus, when I buy those pretty embellishments, I don't want to waste them...so they sit, and sit, and sit, and never get used.

Well, this class is supposed to break me of all that, or at least open my eyes to my habits. One of the first things we had to do was to go thru our supplies and put things we want to use in a box. That's supposed to me our go-to box, the stuff we try to use on every layout. So what did I put in there? My oodles and oodles of kits. I finally had to cancel my subscription to My Scrapbook Nook cuz I was getting so much stuff that I wasn't able to use it all. Add those kits onto the ones I put together every month and the ones I still have from ACBailey's kit club, and I could open a store on my own.

Well, here's my first layout from the class. I bought some Mama-Razzi stickers this past winter or spring and have used them on ONE layout. I'm not sure what I've been saving them for, so I decided to use them. They aren't so much from a kit, but I have them in a big Ziploc bag with all my other kits, so they got put in the box to be used. I had only a partial sheet of coord paper, so this layout was perfect for it. I lifted it directly from the instructor, May, but turned it into a 2-page layout. She used some dimensional glaze to frame the pictures, so I gave it a try, too...yes, I had these in my stash and have used them ONCE about a year ago. I hear they're awesome to make your own flourishes, so stay tuned, you may see that on another UYS layout.



These pictures are from the personalized tour the Brownies got in January during a Zoo Explorer's event. Erica got to join in since I had to attend as the leader. It was a dog mushing event, but this is the part from the tour...dog mushing stuff will come later. The best part about the back-stage tour is how all the predators looked at the girls like they were lunch. I captured some of that in the photos of the wolves and tigers, it just cracked me up! And I was excited to see both the polar bears out and about. We don't always get to see them when we're there, so that was a treat for me.