Hi readers! How is your day going? I hope you’re having a great weekend and wherever you are, the sun is shining!

When I approached Nichol (Magouirk) about being a guest on our blog, I just loved the idea of showing our readers some more options on how to STRETCH their Project Life supplies, or just use them in a completely different way. The result: two completely beautiful (and different) layouts!

Please enjoy a video tutorial on both!
 

I love finding new uses for products that may at first glance appear to be for one purpose but if you think a bit outside the box, can be used in any number of ways! One such product are the 3×4 and 4×6 Project Life or similar cards that are popular for pocket scrapping. Even though I’ve decided at the moment not to pursue pocket scrapping, it doesn’t mean I don’t still love (and still use!) those fun-sized journaling and filler cards for my traditional scrapbook layouts!

One of my favorite ways to use the 3×4 cards is to create a grid-style design on my pages. The 3×4 cards almost become individual “pages” or elements on the page, that when grouped together in a pleasing arrangement, give an impressive overall look and feel to a 12×12 page layout.

For the pink “You Are So Very Beautiful” layout, I grouped five of these 3×4 cards together, adding a frame cut from a 12×12 sheet of patterned paper to balance out the design. Then I layered on additional cut out frames, embellishments and even cut down a 4×6 printed overlay to place on top of one of the 3×4 cards. I love that many of the 3×4 journaling cards have a “patterned” reverse side that works perfectly as a pre-cut, no muss, no fuss, patterned paper that can easily be adhered to any layout or project!

Another idea for using those 3×4 and 4×6 PL cards is to simply look at them at patterned paper. If you’re anything like me, you like to chop up your patterned papers into pieces before using them on your layouts! Using these smaller cards eliminates a step for me, giving me a wide assortment of patterned designs to choose from!

They can easily run through a die cut machine (either manual or electronic) and being a smaller size to begin with, these don’t even have to be trimmed down to fit a manual die cutting machine like a 12×12 sheet would!For my circle layout, I ran a bunch of the 4×6 and 3×4 cards through the Big Shot using a nesting circle die set to create a bunch of patterned circle shapes and elements for my page. I even cut out my photos using these same dies! Add in some additional round embellishments and you have a unique and eye-catching page in no time!

Watch the Video for the “Circles” Layout:

Supplies for both Projects: