Encre, papier, ciseaux: New Dress Code

Inspiration: Lasting Memory Layout Challenge #487 (mix and match patterned papers)

This page was inspired by the Denim & Girls paper collection from Maja Design. It's gorgeous, girly and a little shabby. The collection includes a vast selection of patterns and I picked out quite a few, not sure what I'd use them for specifically, but I figured I'd find inspiration later. I got an idea this week from the patterned paper that includes various pictures of people wearing jeans. My office recently reviewed the dress code and relaxed it down to casual all week long. They call it "Dress for your day," which basically means that if you don't have to meet with clients, casual wear, including jeans, is now allowed all week long (whereas it used to be restricted to Fridays before). Casual attire is becoming more frequent in a lot of work environments, but it is not the norm at lawyers' firm, so I was happy to see my company opting to be a little bit of a trailblazer in that regard. The patterned paper with the jeans pictures was also a great way to get around the fact that I don't have any specific pictures relating to that story, but it was still a fun story to scrapbook about. You'll notice by the size of this page that this will be going into my planner binder, which is perfect for those little moments in time that are fun to put to paper, but don't necessarily warrant a full 12" x 12" page.

The front of the page was put together in record time, mostly by recycling bits and bobs that were lying on my desk: a leftover piece of white lace die-cut, a piece of gold rick-rack I had cast aside because if you look at the top, it's not die-cut perfectly and is missing some of the points, some leftover blue mirror card hole reinforcers. The "U ROCK" border is the bottom of the page with the jeans pictures (the cut-away part with the company info). I had ripped the bottom of the picture out to add texture and when I saw the remaining border with the words, I decided to reuse it. I also had a small scrap of blue glitter paper, from which I cut out three stars, using dies from the Planner Essentials collections I was using for the page itself.

I'm very happy with how the title turned out. Titles are always my biggest challenge on pages. First, because there's a lot of shortcuts offered in English like chipboard, sticker, word Thickers or dies that don't exist in French. French titles also tends to be longer, requiring more space on the page, which is specifically tricky when working on a small format like this one. Because the second word was only four letter long, I was able to pull out my Deco Alphabet die. I then went looking for stickers and found mini alpha stickers from Pink Fresh that were the perfect shade of dusty pink for my layout.

I worked on this page over two days. I had to leave it aside mid-way through my title and that turned out to be a great thing because in the meantime, I stopped at my local scrapbook store and found a new stamp and die set I had never heard of before. It's from The Stamp Market and it's called Mini Alpha Cuts and Mini Alpha Grid. You basically get a stamp set that has a full alphabet (with letters repeating many times, a very important detail) and a rectangle grid that cuts the letters out. I've been scrapbooking for close to two decades now and my most used alphabet stickers have always been small rectangle letters. Here's why: they fit everywhere, you can spell out longer words easily, and the fact that they're rectangle shaped helps for the letters to stand out against a colored or patterned background. Needless to say, I didn't think twice about buying this set and after just one use, I can already state that I absolutely love it!

Just look at this word. It's 13-letters long. That's a tough fit. Also, look at the colors I got to use here. I pulled out my Blue Obsidian Mirror Card from Tonic and embossed the letters in Blushing Bride embossing powder. The result is gorgeous and let's be honest: unless the paper company had made matching alphabet stickers, I could never have found such those specific stickers. The stamp also includes numerous numbers and because the numbers are repeated, I was able to get the 2020 date with a single stamping! If you go back to the word, it also includes three E's. It's the most-used letter in French and the one I always run out of when using alpha stickers. I was SO happy to find out that this stamp includes FOUR E's. I can't even begin to tell you how happy that makes me. It's the little things...

As for the rest of the page, I used a lot of the dies from the Planner Essentials sets to embellish. I used the back of the page to have space for the journaling and added a second jeans pictures as well. The one with the jacket tied nicely with the office dress code story. Because the ladies are wearing lace with their jeans in the pictures, I remembered I do have some lace trim in my stash, so I pulled it out and added it to the border of my pocket. I love how that instantly transformed the page. I also discovered that the baker's twine from the Come Sail Away suite (Stampin' Up!) matches the papers perfectly, with its shades of navy and Sahara Sand. All in all, I breezed through this page and kept easily finding inspiration and the right embellishments to add to my creation.

Supplies
Stamps: Mini Alpha Cuts (The Stamp Market)
Cardstock: Whisper White, Gold Foil, Champagne Glimmer Paper (Stampin' Up!);
Blue Obsidian Mirror Card, Cobalt Blue Glitter Card (Tonic)
Patterned Papers: Girls & Denim (Maja Design)
Dies: Stitched Oval Stackables (Lawn Fawn); Mini Alpha Grid (The Stamp Market);
Deco Alphabet Bigz XL (Tim Holtz for Sizzix);
Tasteful Trims Bigz XL, Stitched Lace (Stampin' Up!);
Planner Essentials (Elizabeth Craft Design)
Accessories: Vanilla Cream Sequin Mix (Little Things from Lucy's Cards);
Lace (from sewing store); Pink Mini Alpha Stickers (Pink Fresh);
Glitter Gloss Aqua Shimmer Brush (Nuvo); Deco Label Punch,
Night of Navy/Sahara Sand Baker's Twine, Blushing Bride Shimmery Ribbon,
Metal-Rimmed Pearls, Blushing Bride Stampin' Emboss Powder (Stampin' Up!)