From Pinterest to Page

Admit it: like me, you're all too familiar with the irresistible siren song of Pinterest, haven't you? Like me, you've fallen into the Pinterest vortex many a time, finding it nearly impossible to get out. You're nodding along with me, aren't you?  You've been there.  You were probably just there a moment ago (I was, too). 

Fear not! All those hours, however, will not be wasted hours, if they convert to inspiration. 

Take, for example, Lance Letschner's "Pink Curtain," one of my recent pins: 

I was immediately drawn to this composition, which includes a series of papers culled from various sources. including "old books and old letters, school books, recipes, [and] album covers" (Artsper.com). I love how all of the individual pieces also come together as a unified whole. 

Letschner's work did what all inspiring work does: it made me want to create something. It brought to mind my JBS Mercantile October kits, which I had reduced to paper scraps. Those very scraps were given new life on this layout: 

 

Inspired by Letschner, I pieced together rectangular paper strips. I altered many of them through the addition of ink, paint, doodles, and stitching.  Mixing the more modern papers from the Papercrafting and Artisan kits with the vintage ledger and label papers from the Antiquarian kit creates an eye-catching, colorful combination. 

The layout's real focus is on  a memory from exactly a year before I created the page. My daughter and I were flying into P0rtland, and she snapped a photo of Mount Hood just before we entered the city. The pinks and blues in the photo are echoed in the colors on the page, as are the woody and earthy hues that we saw after we landed. 

See? You might feel as if you are losing yourself each time you fall down the rabbit hole that is Pinterest, but you just might be surprised what you emerge with when you surface once again.