Hello, LoriJ here! I love to scrap, just as I am sure you all do as well. I love all the new kits each week and always want to play with them right away. But one thing I find sometimes is that the wonderful themed or specialty kits often come out before the holiday. For example, this weekend the Sweet Shoppe is full of beautiful and fun St. Patrick’s Day themed kits, but St. Patrick’s Day isn’t until next week and seriously, who can wait a full week without opening and scrapping with a brand new kit!

So what to do if you haven’t gotten those new pictures from this year yet or what if you don’t celebrate the holiday or celebration at all?

Well, I have come up with three ways that help me when I am opening up that new kit but don’t have the typical pictures to grab.

1. The easiest thing to do is a non-themed page. There are always so many wonderful elements and papers in every kit that I can pick to do a general page about something that I do have pictures for. It might not show the idea that the designer had when creating the kit but it does tell a valuable story of yours and can show the versatility of the kit. For example this kit A Picture Perfect Day – has a lot of elements and themes to make pages about the perfect day or taking pictures on an outing, etc. I used it here instead to talk about something my girls and I began doing every day. It tells the story of our evening walks in a bright and colorful way even though it might be off the intended topic.

2. Go photoless – This can be a great way to create a journaling only page about something that I have been thinking about or wishing for. There are always stories to tell that don’t have pictures and this can be a beautiful way to get a little scrap therapy in as well. With this page I get some of the emotions out that I have in my head when my anxiety is high. It makes me feel better when I make the page but it also helps when I go back and reread it later to see that I am still working on myself everyday.

3. Go back, go way back – One of my favourite things to do is to go back into my old pictures. Not the most recent years but a lot older. You may have already scrapped them but there is always a new take on an old favourite. Maybe you scrapped it chronologically, or maybe you told what was happening on that day you took the picture, but what about what you were feeling at that time and what you are feeling about it when you look at it now. This picture was one of my favourites from a fun trip my mom, my sister and I took way back in 2004. It was before kids, before husbands (and ex-husbands!), before we were as old as we are now! My mom is a big kid at heart and she showed up with these glasses on. Scrapping it now makes me remember how much we laughed and how much fun we had on that trip.

I hope that this gives you all some ideas or inspiration when you are looking at a kit in the Shoppe and thinking about how gorgeous it is but thinking that you don’t have a use for it. I know that I can always find a way to use an awesome kit and I am sure you can too!

Have fun scrapping!

Lori