I've been playing around with letter stamps and distress inks, and am so excited about the beautiful, simple, customized titles I have been able to create for my scrapbook pages.  I love using thickers for titles, but they can be expensive to purchase and limiting because they only have a finite number of each letter per sheet.  By purchasing a few stamp sets in different fonts and sizes, I have been able to create titles for two pages in a size, font, and colour that suited each layout.  I feel that this two toned, ombré lettering looks so beautiful, and I certainly believe this is a technique that will appear again and again in my scrapbook.

To create your own hand stamped titles, you only need a few simple supplies: An alphabet stamp set, ink, and some cardstock.  I used two shades of Tim Holt's Distress Ink to create my letters.  A medium pink colour called Tattered Rose and a more red shade called Festive Berries.  I mounted each stamp on my clear block, inked up the bottom edge with the darker colour, then inked the top with the lighter colour, overlapping the darker colour, then stamped the letter onto a sheet of white cardstock.  I repeated the process and stamped a second time, using the clear stamp to line up the image.  Then, I fussy cut each letter out with scissors.  I found this process really simple and quick to do, and the results definitely worth the effort.

If you've watched Glitter Girl's Adventure 065: Layouts Within Limitations, you'll be familiar with her method for breaking through creative block and creating a few layouts with a limited range of supplies.  In the video, Glitter Girls sets out to solve the issue of being hindered by the volume of supplies we own, and the worry that we have not chosen the absolute best supplies for each page we want to create.  I have been experiencing a little bit of this overwhelmed feeling myself lately.  I decided to pack up a few supplies that could fit into one iris container and moved up to my living room to do some scrapbooking by the TV.  The fresh new setting and the limited amount of supplies actually came together to create 3 really pretty layouts.  Here's a summary of the process.

Step 1: Gather 3 papers that you want to use as full page backgrounds
Step 2: Pull out other papers for layering.  I pulled out a pile of scrap papers from my scrap bin that coordinated and a bunch of cut-apart sheets.
Step 3: Choose 2 lettering options that will be versatile enough to work on all 3 pages.  I chose a small grey tile sticker and glittery turquoise Heidi Swapp letter stickers.
Step 4: Pick out a set of non-themed embellishments that will work with a wide variety of colours.
Step 5: Pick out 3 sets of photos, a group of three, a set of two, and a single photo.

Over on MercyTiara's 27 day Scrappy Challenge Facebook page, each month we are encouraged to take on a different challenge, and in March it was Hoard-Not your Pretties!  Too long I've been holding onto my favorite supplies waiting for the perfect time to use them (specifically Maggie Holmes die-cuts and stickers), so I decided it's time to get them out of my stash and onto some pages.  So, I pulled out some of my most pretty, most prized scrapbook supplies.  The results are oh-so lovely.

Page 1

Page 2

 Page 3

Leave me a comment letting me know which page you like best!

Supplies List:

• Heidi Swapp Teal Glitter Alphabet Stickers
• Shimelle Letter Tile and Phrase Stickers
• Heidi Swapp Gold Lame Colour Shine
• Maggie Holmes Confetti Ephemera Pack
• Maggie Holmes Confetti Collection Sticker Sheet
• Heidi Swapp Marquee Love Floral Washi Tape
• Ledger Paper called "Shindig" from Maggie Holmes Confetti
• Crate Paper Craft Market multi square print 
• Crate Paper Style Board Collection Cut-apart Sheet 
• Shimelle cream chevron called "Winlock" from the Shimelle Signature Collection