Stash Busting: lots of bits

Ever get to the point where there's just a couple of stickers left on the sheet? Or three die cuts left in the pack? Or you're tired of coming across that same cute little item in your stash and wondering if you'll ever find the page to use it on? If so, then this is the stash busting layout for you... 

There are a few tips to making a page like this where you use up a large number of supplies come together cohesively...

• Have a relatively simple background. No overly patterned papers or bold designs that compete for attention.
• 1 or 2 photos at most.
• Keep a colour theme and try and stick quite closely to it plus neutrals. I have baby pink and blue. It's okay that I have veered a little into apricot- but that dark pink flower top left, and the more green/blue one centre-right probably should have been left off this page.
• Work in clusters. Almost everything bigger than a Nuvo dot on this page is touching or overlapped with one or more other items. That blue butterfly toward the bottom of the right side doesn't, and it stands out because of it- I should have slipped it partially under the blue flower.
• Leave some 'white space'. Remember white space isn't only white. It's a clear space with nothing going on that gives the eyes somewhere to rest.
• Draw attention to the feature- my patterned paper points straight down at my photo.
• Use a layout design- I've gone with a diagonal Layout from top left to bottom right. All of the action happens in a band from top left to bottom right. My clusters are intentionally lighter in visual weight where they start to move out of the design (bottom of the left-hand cluster and top of the right hand one).  
• Be willing to cover things up- we all have those little items we love and want a little spotlight on- sometimes you have to be willing to let that go and have them overlapped with something else... witness my lovely blue butterfly. :-)

Have fun using your stash!