LOOKING OUTSIDE THE BOX!!

Hey everyone...Nicole here, my turn today!!
(As you read this I am somewhere up the coast of Queensland on a cruise ship enjoying myself)

Do you ever look at something and wonder if you could use it on a layout and then thought nah? Well my question is to you is why not use it? I am famous amongst my scrappy friends for adding anything and everything to my pages. It's not unusual to see my rifling through a second hand store for anything or looking at something that someone was going to throw out and snapping it up for myself.
Hubby was throwing out his old belt the other day and I stopped him before it got to the bin...I checked out the buckle and took it off to keep...then I looked at the belt and thought to myself...ahh why not, so I kept that too. I will use it somewhere one day.
I have been known to pull apart hair clips, earrings and necklaces to use. I even bought hideous old (and new) brooches that were on throw out tables in shops and they have looked amazing on a page in the right setting.
And if acidity levels is a worry for you, just make sure anything you use that is out of the ordinary doesn't come in direct contact with your photos.
Here is a little sample of some of the things I have waiting to be used. There's an old doily, an old bandage, some old clock parts, the belt buckle that I talked about earlier, some clothing tags, a phone dangle, a keyring and some earrings. Not all this will be used on pages, I do lots of OTP and canvases as well and will use different things then.

Now for some examples of some of the unusual things I've used.

Hermit Crabs: I used hessian across the bottom, the blue and red thing with the yellow button I found on a throwout table (it's meant for a kid's coat) and the red strips in the corner is actually electrical tape (it was just the right colour)

Woody's Stand In: the tag behind the photo is from a new shirt, I just inked it up and then cut it in half, and the strip across the bottom is some of the bandage that I mentioned earlier. Oh and the background is actually the top of a pizza box (nothing is safe in my house!!)

Christmas Joy: The bow I pulled of a box of chocolates, The leaves are from some fake flowers I bought a long time ago and the red holly balls I bought in a little bundle from a haberdashery store. There is a brooch sticking out from under the bottom of the bow. I found that at a second hand shop. It has a stone missing so I just tucked that part of it under the tail of the bow!!

This is a canvas that I did a little while ago. I used lots of lace on this (and someone thought of using lace once upon a time) and there are 2 brooches on this - one at the top, left corner on the cog and the bottom left corner near the dark red frame.
So see, you can use anything on a page. The only problem I usually come across is how do I attach things to my work!!!!