Hello and welcome to the forty-second edition of our fun series: Mix It Up Monday! We love to show you how easy it is to mix and match TRD collections to create something new and wonderful!

I thought maybe it was time for my own plot twist with this series so today we’re matching up two collections that probably couldn’t be more opposite, throwing the challenge at the team, and seeing what they do with it! Story Foundations: Plot Twists as moody and angsty and snarky and perfect for scrapbooking those hard days, whereas Keep Chasing Rainbows is bright and happy and hopeful and all about love and good days! So what happens when these two collections collide?

Scroll on for inspiration!

Theresa

I was so excited to see this week’s MIUM with Story Foundations Chapter Three Plot Twists and Keep Chasing Rainbows! These collections go great together and help turn your story telling into something with the hard stuff and the positive stuff. I’ve combined these two to create a fun layout about how my husband and I have been through so many hard things already, and will continue to hang together. I took the mixed media rainbow element from Keep Chasing Rainbows to create this idea of the rainbow coming out of the dumpster fire, from Plot Twists. I adore that dumpster fire so much! Here’s how I did it, in Photoshop:

Create your backdrop with a patterned paper and the mixed media rainbows. My patterned paper is in the Plots Twists patterned papers.
Add your dumpster fire and position your rainbow element on top so that it looks like the rainbow is spilling out of the dumpster.
Select the dumpster fire Layer, and then using your Polygonal Lasso tool, trace just the dumpster and copy that Layer. Position that Layer over top of the rainbow.
Make sure now that you are on the Rainbow Layer, and right click to select the Blending Option. Dial back the Underlying Layer until you see the rainbow.

In the end you will have three Layers, the bottom Layer is the dumpster fire, second Layer is the rainbow blended into the underlying Layer (the original dumpster), and the top Layer will be the dumpster fire that you traced from the original.
Once you have all that, you can embellish and add your photo as you wish. You can see in my layout I’ve used the gray frame from Plot Twists and the Stay Strong word art to frame my image. I’ve also added more mixed media elements from Keep Chasing Rainbows. The title itself is made up of those fabulous glitter alphabets from Keep Chasing Rainbows. I hope you are inspired to make a rainbow dumpster fire for your own layout!

Karidan

Well all know I am sucker for a good plaid and it is even better when it is a plaid RAINBOW!! And there are TWO good plaids between these kits! I wasn’t able to dig into the Plot Twist kit due to not feeling well but when I did… UMMM the basic GRIDS are just SOOOO good and what a staple! If you haven’t checked out Traci’s kits this year that are building on one another you NEED too so much goodness! Ok so we are mixing Plot Twist and Keep Chasing Rainbows! This one is a oldie but goodie I mean rainbows never go out of style right! I took the plaid rainbow paper and layered it using Clip it to me paper tearing! I LOVE those! This is an older story from 2020 where I think there were more plot twists then normal but they haven't stopped since!

Shayla

When I first sat down to create a page using both of these kits, I felt like they couldn’t be more opposite! Keep Chasing Rainbows feels so light and positive and Plot Twists has slightly deeper tones and plenty of sassy angst. I decided to scrap some pictures of spring crocuses so I started with the flower border. Then I kept layering ribbons and assorted trims from both collections. The deeper tones mixed well with all the brights to make a fun rainbow page. I especially enjoyed sneaking in the torn paper element and changing the phrase from one of frustration into a celebration of spring.