(I know! You didn't think I'd manage it two weeks in a row, did you? It's OK. I didn't either. I often doubt my own reliability.)

I believe that a bit part of being able to use your stuff (instead of getting weighed down by it) is being able to organize it in a way that works for you. I have most of my scrapbooking stuff organized by color; it's all in those 12x12 Sterlite drawers, with one drawer for embellishments and one for paper for the entire rainbow as well as neutrals, black, and white. I do have a few theme drawers: Christmas, Halloween, Birthday, and Baby, but everything else is by color. It took me awhile to figure out that that's what works best for me.

An added plus to having your supplies organized by color is it makes it so easy (and really fun!) to make monochrome layouts.

I confess that I don't like the word "monochrome" because it sounds so...well, colorless. But a monochrome layout is really an explosion of color; it just happens to be only one. Using a few embellishments, some alphas, and some patterned paper (and, ok...maybe some ribbon? Or some washi? Or, if I ever get brave enough, some misting?) of the same hue gives you a chance to think of your supplies in a different relationship. How does this yellow thing work (or not work!) with this yellow thing? Is there some other yellow thing that would go better?

I made a monochrome layout because I've been thinking about pink a lot, lately:

Pink was my mother-in-law Beth's favorite color. I found this photo of Haley with both of her grandmas and the journaling just sort of fell into my head and then out my fingers (love when that happens!) and I knew I had to make the layout pink. And I didn't just use my own stash: the flower stamp, the pink Prima flowers, and some of the brads came from the scrapbooking supplies I inherited from Beth.

Want to play along? Here's this week's use-your-stuff challenge:

Make a monochrome layout using:

• Something new! One of the best things to get over that "this new thing is too special to use" feeling is to use it as soon as you can. On this layout, the flower patterned paper and banner sticker are both brand new, as are the alphabet letters I used to stamp the title.
• A unifying neutral. In my layout, the neutral is grey: I used a grey pen to write the date and to outline around the photo and the embellishment and grey ink on the edges of the journaling and the background. It gives the layout a consistent feel as well as a subtle breaking-up of the colors.
• A pop of a different color. This is something I learned from quilting: toss in a little bit of a contrasting color. In my layout it's the sky-blue flower. The extra little pop adds excitement!

And a suggestion on monochrome layouts: try to use the same tone of color. There are warm pinks (the rosy kind) and cool pinks (with a blue tone), for example, and they each carry a different mood. Stick with one hue then play with the tints (light) and the shades (dark) to add contrast.

And! as an added bonus, here is my sneak of my layout for the WCS December gallery:

It's not really monochrome, but it uses something new (an alpha stamp from Close to my Heart) which might be one of my favorite new things. And...I really gave away zero clues to the December topic! (Which is sort of a clue in itself.) If you want to see more sneaks, check the WCS Facebook page throughout today.

Make sure to link me up if you decide to take my challenge to use some of your stuff.