Hello, I'm Emily Pitts and I'm happy to be here as the guest designer for Fancy Pants today. I live in Denver, Colorado with my husband Kelly and our two teenagers, Annie and Ethan. I've been scrapbooking for almost 6 years and have had so many great opportunities to be a part of this industry AND capture my family's day to day with paper and glue.

I got to work with two of the new lines, Summer Soul, a feminine beachy themed line with lots of pinks, soft aquas, greens, and yellows, and Be You, a happy pink, blue, yellow, and black line that sports quirky birds and lots of empowering statements. At first glance, I thought the Be You line would be the one that worked best with my whimsical graphic style, but I fell in love with one particular piece of paper from Summer Soul and ended up really having fun with a line that I wouldn't normally gravitate towards, teaches me once again to not judge a book by it's cover! I cut up "Coconut Tree" into 1x1 inch squares and used them on two different projects. One is colorful, the other is subdued. I love that I could pull two completely different looks out of one piece of paper!

The first was a layout about my great grandmother, we called her "My," I'm not sure why exactly ... She traveled a lot and was born to a father that thought taking pictures was important. A couple of generations later, I'm so grateful she has so many pictures to tell her stories. The only problem is I have the photos, but the stories are gone. I can only guess. "Coconut Tree" had a vintage 1950s feel to me and I think it worked perfectly to support the photo of My in Hawaii. I used the filter papers and made a flower, put my title of a banner made from the B side of "Marbles" from Be You., finishing the design off with a hand cut word and some chipboard shapes.



The second project I wanted to see how the cream, brown, and aqua squares looked together, so I made a quick card. I used a similar design as my layout, only smaller and rotated on its side. I've been doing this a lot lately, reusing designs, it take the thinking out, which I sometimes need. I love how soft and breezy this card turned out.



Next I had another layout about my grandpa, he was diagnosed with Muscular Dystrophy in his middle age, so I never knew him without the disease. He walked with a cane or used his motorized cart a lot. He must have been in pain more than I knew. Looking through old pictures, I know he was a funny kid and young man, he was always dressing up in funny costumes. When I found this picture of him with my grandmother as a young couple, I knew it would work well with the Be You line, he's the one the arrow is pointing to, being goofy. The happy colors, the great chipboard banners from both lines, and fun rub on saying, "BE YOU." were just what I wanted to show how he loved life.
 


Finally, I made a card using the Be You line. I thought the "Be You Cards" paper had some great saying on them, perfect for the front of a card. I used one of my go-to designs and put this together really quickly.



I had a delightful time playing with these lines from Fancy Pants, I love that all of the pattern sides are balanced with a subtle B side, it makes it so easy to use the papers together. I also love that similar colors are used between lines, making both lines go even further. I was able to create some layouts featuring vintage family photos that I love and some cards that will be heading out to friends tomorrow. I hope I've shared a few ideas to inspire you. Thank you Fancy Pants!

-Emily Pitts