Polly Picks: Scrap like Monica Challenge

It’s time for another Polly Picks! Each month we will chat with one of our Pollys about their scrapbooking style and fave things and give you the chance to win a $5 code for the store just by scrapping like them!

Before we jump into the March Challenge, let me announce the random winner from our Februrary challenge – big congrats to VinGirl (You’re prize will be sent shortly through conversations so watch out for that this week!)

This month we are chatting and scrapping with Monica, that you may know as umyesh. Monica has been a familiar friendly face in our community for several years and she currently heads up our Community Team. She is ever-present and hosts a lot of our chats and speed/slow scraps, and you can generally find her chatting up a storm or helping us out in the forum (and she is the most experienced person with GIMP that I know of!) or singing praises in the gallery.

If you have been living under a digi-rock and don’t already know Monica, you’re about to learn a bit about her via her scrapping. Her full gallery is here but I’ll link some specific pages below when we get to the challenge part. To me, her layouts are more traditional and minimal in style and showcase photos and selected elements and paper patterns so well, using different shapes and crops to feature them in creative ways!

Let’s get find out more about Monica’s scrapping from her with an interview. Here’s my Scrap Like A Polly Q&A with Monica.

Your digiscrapping history and style:
1. How long have you been digiscrapping and has your style changed since then?

I’ve been scrapping since 2011. I am a template scrapper through and through so if I don’t start with a template I don’t know what to do lol I’d say my style is still the same because I’ve always preferred simple and traditional.

Your page focus and process:
2.What do your layouts usually focus on and how do you usually start a page?

My layouts usually focus on photos. My favorite part of scrapping is scrolling through my photos and deciding which ones to scrap. If I’m inspired by a kit I’ll look for a photo to go with it. If I’m inspired by a photo then I’ll look for a kit to go with it. I am a one kit scrapper because I’m already slow enough; if I took more time to mix and match kits I would never finish a page!

Your must-have products:
3. Is there a specific type or category of element you must have on a layout?

My favorite fasteners are buttons or brads because I love adding circles; I rarely go for stitches or staples. My go-to flowers are dimensional, but I can’t ever get leaves to look right so I skip leaves. I also love word art and scatters of paint, sequins or confetti.

4. Are you most drawn to patterned papers or solids for backgrounds?

I probably use a solid background more often but I love both! I’m always sad when a paper pack doesn’t include both patterns and solids because I need both! If I want the theme of the page to really stand out I’ll make the full background or a big chunk of the background a themed patterned paper.

Examples of your gallery faves:
5. Can you share 3 fave pages with us and tell us a bit about why you love them?

I love this page because it showcases an old photo that was taken before I was born and that I never saw until I was in my 30s. It’s a photo of my dad’s mom, my dad, my mom and my aunt, and I love that the February 2026 BYOC colors coordinate so well with it. I also love this page because it has so many different shapes – rectangles, circles, hearts and even puzzle pieces!

2. I love this page because I love themed kits and how easy it is to use them! I love how the tag looks like a bookmark and the fonts look like writing in a book. I also used all my go-to’s – patterned paper, scatter and button! Simple and sweet.

3. I love this page because I was able fill the background with pretty patterned papers and still let my single photo shine. I also love how everything came together with the minimal elements.

Thanks for sharing Monica. I love how you can make both photos and papers shine and will admit I laughed at your ‘sad’ comment about paper pack contents but I feel the same about patterns and solids! I would never have known you felt ‘leaf or stitching challenged’, I guess there’s always something we don’t naturally gravitate towards but there’s never a shortage of flowers in the store, lucky for you!

Now it’s your turn to Scrap Like A Polly! On to the challenge:

Just scrap a new page using the ingredients listed below that channel the featured Polly’s style and upload your page to the TLP gallery, (remember to use the PollyPicks tag in the tag field) and come back here and post the link to your page in the comments please.

These pages helped me come up with the ingredient list below and my own Monica style layout.

Following on from that, these are the ingredients you need to use on your challenge page to scrap like Monica:

Include at least 1 patterned paper AND at least 1 photo
Run either a photo or paper piece the whole width or height of the layout so it touches the 2 opposite sides (or use both!)
Feature a large title (can be an alpha, font or wordart or combination)
Repeat a shape, element or particular word at least 3 times on your page
Include a flower or circular element (or both!)
Feel free to use a template as long as it follows the rest of the recipe

Let me show you some currently available goodies that suit scrapping in Monica’s style

This is the page I created for today using the Scrap Like Monica recipe. The Wabi-Sabi template by Lynn Grieveson & ninigoesdigi gave me long, top to bottom, spots for papers or photos. I used a warm ombre paper from Gina Miller’s Cider Doughnut paper pack & the string flower channelling the ramen noodles and repeated circles to go with the bowls. The flair I used as part of my title and repeating circles is from the Wabi-Sabi collab, along with elements from One Little Bird’s Still Life kit. I mixed wordart from the Still Life kit and Kim Jensen’s Chipboard Alphabet Soup Alpha for the large title. I feel like it all came together and channelled Monica’s scrap vibe.

Now it’s your turn! You have from now until the next Polly Picks post in the 2nd week of March to scrap like Monica using the ingredient list above. Feel free to use products from any designer currently selling in the TLP store and add anything extra to the ingredients to make your layout. Don’t forget to link me to your page in the comments or in the Feb Scrap Like a Polly forum thread for your chance to go in the random draw to win.

The deadline is April 5 . Can’t wait to see what you create. Blog comments should work now or add your page to the thread in the Challenge Pad in the Forum please.