Hi there! Colleen here with an “Outside the Box” post. One of my favorite things to do for inspiration is to look through old magazines for layouts, projects and color schemes that I like. Sometimes though, I run into the problem of not having the same (or similar) images, papers and/or embellishments. That’s when it’s time to think “outside the box.”

I absolutely fell in love with this card by Korin Sutherland in the Sketchbook portion of the September 2011 issue of CardMaker magazine.

I loved the fun plaid paper that Korin used (Little Boy from Echo Park) but was unable to find any at a store locally. I also didn’t have the cute little airplane image from Sweet ‘n Sassy (Little Boy Toys).

What I did have was a studio full of papers and images that I could use as substitutes.

Here’s what I came up with.

I used the same layout and same idea of the plane pulling the banner, but I swapped out the patterned paper, the image and the sentiment. I used the bunny in a plane image from The Cat’s Pajamas Take Off set and created a flying banner with a sentiment from the same set. I hand-cut three layers of clouds and paired up stripes and houndstooth patterned papers from the Happy Go Lucky collection by My Mind’s Eye.

I loved Korin’s original card and I am absolutely thrilled with how my “outside the box” attempt turned out.

Don’t get bogged down by retired product or stuff not in your stash. Get creative, start substituting, and think “outside the box!”

~Colleen

Supplies used: Midge cardstock from Bazzill Basics Paper Inc.; X-Press It Blending Card and Copic® markers (C1/C3/C5/C7/W00/W1/RV91/Y21/E34/E25/B91/R81/R83/R85/R89/0) from Imagination International Inc.; Happy Go Lucky patterned paper from Lime Twist; Take Off stamp set from The Cat’s Pajamas; Gray Flannel Memento ink pad from Imagine Crafts/Tsukineko; Banner die from My Favorite Things.