Making the Most of your Favorite Paper

My very favorite paper from this month's reveal at Studio Calico was the "Connect the Dots" paper in the Odyssey Scrapbook kit.  I'm a sucker for just about any polka dot, but baby polka dots on a white background rank right up there at number 1!

It took me a while to actually get up enough courage to use the paper (instead of hoarding it like I wanted to).  I knew I wanted to use it as a large part of my background, so I played around with it on my page trying to figure out how I wanted to include my photo.

I started with this large 8.5x11 photo of my daughter and layered the photo onto the dots paper.  I loved how the little dots were peeking out from around my photo, so I decided to keep this page rather simple and just add the photo and a few pretty embellishments.  I hated to waste all of the extra dot paper that was being hidden by my large photo, so I trimmed out most of that section and saved it for another layout (yep...I may not be a complete hoarder, but I sure do know how to stretch my favorite supplies)!  And how cool is it that my daughter's dress matches that Craft Market paper peeking out from the stencil "A"?

I created a simple embellishment cluster to fill in the blank space at the bottom left of my page.  I just love having clusters of pretty things on a page! And those vellum leaves...sigh...they are just divine! 

Embellishments: Penelope | Athena | Circe | Colored Vellum Leaves

I typed my journaling prior to adhering the photo onto my background layers.  Typed journaling in white space rocks, I think!!

When I was finished with the above layout, I was on a roll, so I decided to use the piece of trimmed dot paper for another page.  Again, I wanted the paper to take up a good bit of my white background, so I layered it vertically on the left side of my page.

I sewed a piece of patterned paper onto the back of my photo to create a hidden pocket and then added my photos and a vertical band of labels right along the edge of the dot paper. 

I stitched all of these pretty pieces in place just to make sure they didn't move around on my page! 

I also sprinkled in a few little wooden embellishments from the Calypso kit here and there on the page (I used hot glue to adhere these down).  I really love how the pink color pops from the black accents on the page!

To finish this page, I wrote my journaling on a small shipping tag and popped it right into the sewn pocket! 

And that, my friends, is how I stretch my supplies and favorite papers!!  What about you??  Do you have any tips and tricks for making your favorite supplies last??