I have always liked using “things,” any things, in ways that are different from their intended use.  For example, my nightstand is an antique children’s school desk.  When the word “repurposing” entered the main-stream vocabulary a few years ago, I thought… “Hey! I’ve been doing that for years!”

My interest in “repurposing” includes my scrapbooking efforts, and involves trying to discover different ways to use products I own.  Learning to stretch my digi-stash, has been a fun challenge for me!

Many designers include pre-made Borders in their Kits or Collections.  Today let’s take a look at how we might “repurpose” those!

1. Use a Border as intended…. as a page border!

Premade borders are designed to help scrappers create a layout quickly and easily.

Here is a Deck the Halls Kit paper, along with a Deck the Halls Border. By simply placing the Border on the Paper, I have a great start on a layout.

I can make the layout as simple or as intricate as I like, based on what I decide to add.

Using the paper and border as a base, I created a layout in about 8 minutes (and I’m not a fast scrapper!)  I added a frame from the kit, along with my photo and a date.  I could have left the page alone at that point, but I decided to add a few elements to the top of the frame.  Quick. Easy. Done.

2.  Resize a border and clip it to a journal card or tag.

In the image below I have resized a Follow Your Heart Border and clipped it to a journal card.  This is a great way to stretch your stash, using both items.

3. Resize a border and use it as a design element in word art (either word art that is pre-made or that you design).

Here is a Woodland Winter Border and Woodland Winter Word Art Graphic positioned on a 12X12 transparent background.

We could drop a background paper behind the border and graphic and have a nice beginning to a layout; however, let’s resize that border and see what we can do.

In the image below I brought into my document the strip of wood that was included in the kit. I duplicated and rotated that piece.  Next I resized the border to fit underneath the horizontal wood piece, and positioned the word art graphic above it. Quick and easy!

4. Resize a Border and tuck it underneath or on top of a photograph or frame.

Pictured below is frame from the Long Road Home Kit, and a Long Road Home Border.  I resized the border to match the size of the frame, placing the frame under the border.  That was it.

5. Blend Borders into papers to give a unique look, specific to your needs.

Here is a paper from Oven Lovin‘ along with an Oven Lovin’ Border. (Edit: May 2018: This product has been retired). I like the contrast of the brighter border against the shabby paper. However, in the creation  of a layout, we would be aware of the visual weight of the border and would need to take that into consideration as we designed our page.

By lowering the opacity of the border (in the image below I’ve reduced it to 40%), we retain the nice graphic image, but reduce the weight of the border. This could be helpful, depending on what other elements you wish to add to your page.

6.  Duplicate and flip Borders.

This technique might not work well with all Borders, but try it and see!  Here is a Deck the Halls Border, duplicated and flipped, then placed on a Deck the Halls Kit  paper. If you look closely, you can see that the edges don’t offer a perfect match (note especially the flower cluster at the bottom); however, with a little masking and creativity, we could get this to work just fine.  One suggestion would be to add additional kit elements to hide the adjoining seams.

7,  Duplicate and rotate Borders. As many times as you like!

Pictured below is a border from Follow Your Heart Cluster Set 1.

Here is a layout created by Renee, a member of my Creative Team, using this Border.  She duplicated it 3 times, then rotated each border to create this beautiful 4-sided page border.  That would have been enough by itself to create a lovely page, but Renee was having so much fun she decided to embellish her page further.  She added the pink hearts and bows,  the bicycle,  the falling green leaves, and the pink butterfly (all kit elements).  She used a mask that is in the Follow Your Heart kit for her photo and topped her page off with her sweet model’s name and the Follow Your Heart Word Art.  Gorgeous!

Do you have other creative ways to use Borders?  If so, please leave your suggestions and ideas in the Comment section. I would love to hear from you.