Guest DT Tonya Gibbs: Self Challenges

I wonder how many of you have a room full of old products that never get used, and yet, you find yourself buying up everything as soon as it is released. My hand is raised, guilty as charged. Well a few years ago, I created a self-challenge to help with this problem. For every new thing I use in a layout, I MUST use something old. All of these products inspired me or I wouldn’t have bought them. So it is time to stop hording and start using. As Cari from Prima would say “We are only going to keep coming out with more great things…use up the old stuff.”

A few weeks ago I purchased the Wonderfall Collection by Webster’s Pages from Flamingo. I walked endlessly around my room trying to find something “OLD” to use as accents. I was very pleased to find out how easy it was to match things with this paper. This paper is sooo versatile. From one set of papers, I was able to complete 2 projects and still had paper left for another layout.

From Flamingo Scraps: Websters Pages Wonderfall Collection; Prima bling, flowers & recycled packaging

First up is this layout of my kids. The stickers in the title were from my stash and were copyrighted in 2004 by Stico, now EK Success. I thought they complimented the titles printed on the paper. I didn’t have enough “S” to spell out Days so I improvised and used a “Z”. I think it works because of the age of my kids (and they would have spelled Days with a Z anyway). The banners are made from recycled Prima packaging and fiber remnants. By making the title a banner, I was able to take dated product, and turn it into something trendy. The bling is Prima corner adornment that I cut apart, and it has been in my stash for a year. The roses are Prima and were random flowers I had from previous projects. The journal spot was punched from an EK Success punch.

My second project was this gorgeous Gratefulness mini album. This past year was a healing year for me, and a time to reflect on the things that matter. So I wanted to create an album that I could fill with the things that remind me of all the things I’m grateful for. This paper collection was intended for School and fall activities. I love the color pallet and decide it would be perfect and I could work around the “kid” art used on some of the papers. Self-Challenge number 2 use things for something other than their intended purpose. I have multiple things in this album that fulfill this challenge, from fishing spinner hooks, to paper doilies.

Sticking with my original self-challenge, the frame on the cover was one of the OLD laser cut frames from My Mind’s Eye dated 2004. I covered it in bead gel medium and painted it with a pearl paint. The sentiment on the inside of the frame was an old Daisy D velum title that I spritzed with Wheatfield Glimmer Mist. Again, by using trendy techniques, I was able to re-birth dated products. For a closer look at this mini, visit my YouTube channel explaining the products on each page.

I think these challenges inspire me to push past my ordinary mindset and step outside the box.

More of Tonya's work can be seen here on her website or here on her youtube channel!