One of my favourite ways of using up older papers in my stash is to use them as backgrounds. Any style of paper will work, whether it be bright or bold or subtle. In this case, I took some SEI paper from their ‘Such a Boy’ line circa 2005 and used it for the background of this layout:
Everything else on the layout (other than the die cuts letters and date stamp) is new from 2012 purchases, and they bring everything up to date in terms of my current style whilst still using up some of that older paper that ‘must be useful for something’. The journalling was written in 2005, shortly after the Masters ceremony.
I’m particularly liking the sheet of ‘Word to Live By’ from Simple Stories which is part of their Documented collection. I’ve been cutting out individual words and phrases and adding them into my layouts. I love the effect.