6 by 6 paper pads... day 4.

During this week I have had a few people email and  ask how I buy my paper pads, how I decide which 12 by 12 papers to buy.

I have been buying these for a few months now and have worked out a system which I am happy to share with you.

When I find a line that I like...I buy the Paper pad...as I said the other day, I like to buy the whole line...so that way I can get the whole thing without spending a fortune. This works brilliantly with companies like American Crafts...they always have lots of single sheets , which i always want them all....so the pad is a fantastic option....and leaves me money to buy the gorgeous embellishments they sell to match.

Then I move onto the 12 by 12 sheets...and I select which ones I am going to get. The way I scrap this makes it very easy.

I tend to use neutrals for the base of my page, and for long sheets across the middle ( knowing how you scrapbook helps alot....go though your pages to get a feel for what you use)
...so i get cardstock and neutrals sheets for the back.To be honest I think I may have more than enough of these already...but no one knows that lol!!! and I am a sucker for a ledger sheet of paper!

Using the new Amy tangerine  as an example...after the pad I would buy these sheets for backgrounds...
this one I would choose for the cream ledger paper side...

and this one...as i love the plain pattern but also love the little embellishment on the top!

So I would buy a few of the sheets that I would use as a base page. So instead of spending alot of money on all the sheets...i get the whole line.....very sadly this is just a revelation that has occurred to me.

After using them for a while I also realised that i prefer the small patterns...it seems to suit my type of scrapbooking. The other thing that it has made me do is think about the design on my page....without the comfort of that large sheet to just cut up, I have had to think out the box...and this had made some definite changes to my scrapbooking and I have come up with some ideas that I would not have thought of originally.

If you are like me...you piece your pages together, you love punches and love your die cut machines...the pads are perfect for you.

 But for today I have one final project for you....( some very old photos of me as a little girl)

The one thing I found was.... that the really cute paper that has the little girls on it....much easier to use when it is smaller!!!!

Today we also have a page by our newest team member....Tracee......
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Hi everyone!!!!
I used another sketch from page drafts for this page.

My Mind's Eye's 6 x 6 pads are ideal for creating embellishments.

 One of the papers in the My Mind's Eye  6 x 6 pad has an elements page. I cut them out and because they are in a smaller print, you can add more of them to the page without it looking too overcrowded. The 6 x 6 pads are ideal for cutting shapes like banners. Because the print is smaller,  you can retain more of the pattern on your small shaped pieces.

It might seem that 6 x 6 sheets could be too small for working on a 12 x 12 background page. To solve this dilemma,  I cut one sheet of 6 x 6 into 4 pieces and left an even gap in between each one.

 I used a vertical paper arrangement to cover the space,

 giving the impression that the paper is bigger than 6 x 6.
The paper pad comes with two sheets of each paper. One of the patterns has a doily cluster that I wanted to use twice, but they had the banners at the bottom of the doily, pointing to the left. I wanted to use this doily cluster on the opposite side of my page, but I had the problem of the banners pointing to the left. To solve this problem, I cut the banners off, rotated the doily  so that the part I had cut off could be tucked behind the photo mat, and then I reattached the banners.

Before I glued all my papers and embellishments down I inked them all with a black ink pad to give them a little more definition.


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So there we have it....5 projects using  6 by 6 paper pads...I fell in love with the pads a few months ago...so thankyou for letting me share my love of them with you....If you have any ideas for using these pads share with us!!!!


So..lets move onto the giveaway.....We are planning a few more of these focus week long blog posts...so leave a comment below about what you would like to see more about and you can win this little lot..... some 6 by 6 papers, matching buttons and flowers and the latest issue of Scrap 365 magazine.

We cannot wait to hear what you think!!!!!!