Hello! Noreen Smith here from OrganizedandCreativeMom.com, and I’m so excited to be back on the Creative Scrapbooker Magazine blog! Today I’m sharing a heritage layout featuring some brand new Creative Memories products mixed in with a few old favorites! The beautiful new Archiver’s Collection is comprised of a Paper Pack, Laser Cut Embellishments, Laser Cut Borders, a Variety Mat Pack, a linen-like textured Album cover with a photo window and ABC/123 Stickers that look like typewriter keys! While designed as a heritage themed collection, the neutral colour palette makes it versatile enough for any theme, and works perfectly with sepia, black & white and colour photos. Like many of you, I am the keeper of all the family photos – not only for myself, my husband and kids, but also for my parents and all their family photos. I am in the early stages of curating and celebrating their memories and I think that the Archivers collection will work well for so many layouts.  I recently came across several photos from my Grandfather’s first visit to Canada back in 1976. It was the first time I had met him or any of my relatives that lived overseas, so I definitely wanted to create a special layout with these photos. I figured I would need to include a fair amount of journaling about what I remembered about the visit as well as documenting the people in the pictures. I knew this would be the perfect time to incorporate the new Peekaboo Pockets to add the much needed extra space for photos and journaling.

As much as I love using new products, I certainly have favorites I keep returning to and mixing in. When I first opened the Archivers Paper Pack, I was struck at how much the colors reminded me of the Forever Yours wedding themed paper released last spring. I dug it out, and sure enough, the blush pink trellis pattern worked perfectly with the blush colors in the Archivers floral pattern. And since I love woodgrain (who doesn’t these days, right?),  I pulled out a precious sheet of the deep, rich woodgrain paper from the Countryside Comforts paper pack, which was released last fall. It all worked perfectly together! I LOVE that I can do that – it makes mixing and matching patterns to achieve a designer look effortless! In this layout I mixed four different patterns and two different solids and it all blends beautifully. To make this layout I used two pieces of Beige Cardstock for my base. I cut the piece of woodgrain paper from the Countryside Comfort paper pack into four 3” x 12” strips going across the grain, and adhered them to the top and bottom edges of both base pages.
Then I cut the floral paper from the Archivers paper pack in half, giving me two 6” x 12” strips which I mounted in between the woodgrain strips.
I punched two border strips using the Teardrop Lattice Border Punch from Gray Cardstock, and then split each border into two by cutting carefully down the middle with my 12” Straight Trimmer. I adhered one half piece above the each of the seams where the woodgrain and floral papers met. I trimmed four ½” x 12” strips from the brown and beige striped paper from the Archivers paper pack and laid those over the cut edges of the border pieces. Base pages complete!
Next, I cut five 4” x 6” pieces from the blush trellis paper from the Forever Yours paper pack to use as mats for some of the photos. I planned on placing two of the seven photos under two Peekaboo Pockets, with matted photos and journal cards slipped inside them. I decided to use two pieces of 4” x 6” Beige Cardstock as journal cards. I rounded the corners of the phot mats and journal cards, and since the feel of the layout is decidedly vintage, I distressed the edges of the mats and cards with a little bit of Ranger Distress Ink (colour – Tea Dye) on a sponge dauber. This gave them an aged look that works well with the rest of the elements. Next, I added embellishments and a title. Like my mix-and-match paper selection, I couldn’t resist mixing and matching my embellies! I used some of the lovely Archivers Laser Cut Embellishments and a few of the white die-cut flowers and adhesive gems from the Forever Yours Embellishments. The white flowers were just begging for a little colour, so I gave them the same distressing treatment with the Ranger Distress Ink so they would blend in.
I cut the word “Grandad” for my title from a scrap of Gray Cardstock with my Cricut (font – Edwardian Script) and used Repositionable Adhesive to easily adhere it to my page. Then I used the typewriter style ABC/123 Stickers for the rest of the title, lining them up on the edge of a clear ruler to make sure the spacing was correct. Then I used a small Foam Square to pop each sticker off the page, giving the title a little bit more dimension. The final step was to attach the Peekaboo Pockets to work with the Large Pocket Pages that I place all my finished layouts into. The Peekaboo Pockets are self-adhesive…you simply remove the clear backing on the flap and press them down to adhere them to your layout. Some scrapbookers like to adhere them directly to the outside of their Pocket Page or Page Protector, but I like to place them on the actual layout. So, I simply cut a small slit in the Pocket Page/Page Protector and insert the Peekaboo Pocket through it, so it can be flipped back and forth once the entire layout is in the album.
To do this, I slid the layout into the Pocket Page with the Peekaboo Pockets in the closed position. Using a ruler and a dry-erase marker, I drew a line onto the Pocket Page where the flap of the Peekaboo Pocket would fold back and forth. Then, I removed the layout and slipped an old piece of chipboard inside. Using a ruler and an exacto knife, I carefully cut along the dry-erase pen mark to make the slit in the protector. I erased the pen marks with the dry-erase eraser and inserted the layout, making sure that the Peekaboo Pockets slid through the slits to the outside of the Pocket Page. Voila! Now everyone who looks at this page can easily flip the pockets back and forth to read the journaling on the other side of the photos. I love how this layout turned out! Here’s a look at it with the Peekaboo Pockets open, and some close ups of the embellishments clusters with their intricate die-cuts. If you have lots of old family heritage photos, then Archivers is the collection you’ve been waiting for. I ‘m sure you’ll love it – by itself AND for mixing and matching with your other favorite products!

All Creative Memories products featured in these projects are available in Canada on my CM website, and you can also find advisors in the US and other countries by using the Advisor Lookup feature.
Please drop by my blog,  Facebook group, YouTube Channel or my Instagram feed for more ideas and inspiration – I create layout sketches, cards and other projects which showcase Creative Memories products & tools on a regular basis.

Happy scrapping!

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