Yes, It's Okay to Scraplift

A lot of times when I find myself down to scraps from a kit, I will look to the idea of scraplifting as a way to use up the remains of the kit and have a chance to play and try new things.  I truly believe that we can find ourselves falling under "peer pressure" so to speak with how much is out there in the scrappy world via the internet to create something from scratch that is mind blowing and inspiring.

So I want to share a secret with you today.  Ready?  It's OKAY to scraplift.  I believe that we all share our projects for others to view AND be inspired by.  Whether that means lifting the entire project down to the exact same paper and embellishments or just finding a small aspect or technique to try out.

I very rarely come up with what I would call my own design.  I subscribe to a kit club by Scrapbook Generation that supplies me with pre-designed pages each month.  I love them.  I also recieve a kit from 3 Scrappy Boys full of great supplies to make something from scratch.  For me, that usually means using a sketch or SCRAPLIFTING.  Using a sketch sort of allows me to have a starting point and then insert my own ways of using the supplies and where my "style" would show.  Scraplifting is way for me to sort of try on another person's style and see if I like it or what parts of the whole I enjoyed and can decide to incorporate into future projects.

So today I am going to share two layouts that I scraplifted from Jen Gallacher.  You can find her blog HERE.

For my first page, I originally had been on the hunt for inspiration on how to use the flowers that came in my kit this month from 3 Scrappy Boys.  When I saw THIS page from Jen Gallacher I was drawn to how she used the large floral embellishments, the grid design, and some of the small layers with the different embellishments.

Instead of die cutting the upper left area, I pulled out a Jilli Bean Soup placemat that came with a previous kit and I chose to do a tone on tone look with the kraft.  After attaching the flowers, I moved onto the upper right section and used what I had remaining in my July kit and adding some matching cardstock.

I didn't have a text paper similar to the layout I was lifting, so instead I chose to stamp my own and have the added benefit of being able to customize it to match MY page.  Then I sort of did my own thing with the title and enamel stickers.

The lower left portion of the page is the only area that I had to do my own thing, mostly because of my photo size and the supplies I was trying to use up on this page.  So I just added a doily and some stickers around the photo.

My second layout is older, but it was the same basic principal.  I browsed through Jen's gallery and found THIS page that I felt would work with the scraps I had, the photos I wanted to use and had techniques I wanted to try out on my own pages.

My only suggestion for scraplifting, is that when you share your completed projects online - be sure to provide the information/links for where you found your orginal inspiration piece and the original designer.

 

  Nicole Bingaman

  Creative Team Member of SCRAP YOUR SCRAPS

Hi everyone, it's Tiffany and I absolutely love Nicole's style! I've been a big fan for a while now, so though I usually really struggle with scraplifting and sketches, I decided to give it a shot. I did not look at the original layout, only Nicole's take on it, which I thought might be fun.

I did not try to copy Nicole exactly, as you can see. I kept the basic idea of a grid design, but I wanted a close up of the cake so I added an extra photo. I used a die cut as a major element,but I didn't leave it tone on tone. I used some flowers which I rarely do, but mine are smaller and placed differently.

I put the title on the bottom right, I used tabs near the main photo and I did use more than one photo as well.

I think I will continue to work on borrowing inspiration from Nicole because I love how she manages to be clean and detailed at the same time. I love that I can be inspired by an overall layout design, individual elements, a color palette or just someone's style. It's a great way to get your mojo going!

  Tiffany O'Grady
   Creative Team Member of SCRAP YOUR SCRAPS 

I was so happy to see Nicole talk about scraplifting!  I sometimes find that scraplifting is sometimes looked at as cheating, or stealing, something taboo, but for me it's just getting inspiration.  Everyone derives inspiration from somewhere, and when I'm stuck on what to do for a layout, a scraplift, or a sketch can be just the thing to help me along.  For this post I went back through my extensive Pinterest inspiration board until I came across this photo.  I didn't copy this layout completely, but I decided to draw inspiration from the way the two papers had been cut diagonally and placed together.  I already knew I had two papers I wanted to use for this, so it came together pretty quickly after that!  Here is my finished layout.

   Cathy Martin
    Creative Team Member of SCRAP YOUR SCRAPS