Hi everyone! Andrea here with you today, welcome to Day 6 of the Simple Stories & Taylored Expressions Blog Hop Week!  We’re so excited to team up with Taylored Expressions to share some inspiring projects with you this week.

We’ll be giving away a great Taylored Expressions prize package at the end of the week, so be sure to play along and check back on Sunday the 30^th to see if you’re the lucky winner!

Here are the different ways you can play along –

1. Like Simple Stories on Facebook
2. Share this blog post on your Facebook wall and tell us you did on our Facebook wall
3. Follow Simple Stories on Pinterest
4. Follow Simple Stories on Instagram at simplestories_
5. Comment here on our blog or on Facebook

Taylored Expressions is also posting projects and giving away prizes, so be sure to check out their blog and Facebook page, too!

Today I'm excited to share with you a mini book I made using the DIY Collection along with Pockets and Pages stamps from Taylored Expressions.  It was fun to team up with Taylored Expressions and use their cool line of stamps in my scrapbooking - a first for me!

I worked with the “What A Day” stamp set, which consisted of day of the week stamps as well as banners to stamp on.  I struggled for a bit wondering how I could incorporate those into a mini book, but then I thought about how I spend my days.  It seems as if I live in my car, and I always end up at the same places over and over.  Viola!  That was it - seven days in a week and the seven places that I’m at most in those days; and the concept for the album fell into place.

At first I thought it might be silly to make an album of “places”, but these seven places take up a lot of my time and really do make up the bits and pieces of my life.

So here it is:

The album is based on cardstock and is held together by o-rings.

The front cover is paper from the DIY Boutique Collection and is matted on black cardstock.  I used a Simple Stories Silhouette cut file for the album title.  The banner stickers are from the collection as well, and I stamped those with the stamps from Taylored Expressions.  I embellished with enamel dots (think “candy buttons” from when we were kids!) and pop dotted a brad and a sticker to give the cover some depth.

I used ID Badge Holders from my local office supply store as the photo pockets for the book, and built the book around those.

They were great because the smaller Card Foundations from the collection fit in them perfectly.

The pages of the book are filled with photos of my seven places and a little write up about each place.

I incorporated the Taylored Expressions stamps throughout the book.

I used tags to title each of my places with sticker letters and a sticker number; those let you know where one place ends and the next one begins.

I’ve got to tell you…this was my first time working with the DIY collection, and there are SO many items to choose from as far as embellishments go!

This book was a lot of fun to make, and it documents how I spend the majority of my time in a week.  It was fun to team up with Taylored Expressions and do something that was new to me - adding stamping into my scrapbooking.  Thanks for joining me today!  As always, I hope this project inspires you to try something new and exciting in your scrapbooking projects.

I hope you enjoyed seeing how you can easily pair any of the Simple Stories collections with Taylored Expressions fabulous stamp sets! 

Head on over to the Taylored Expressions blog and check out what their Design Team has created using their stamps & dies and our Simple Stories products! They’re also hosting giveaways as well, so what are you waiting for – head on over! 

Thanks so much for joining us this week!

Hi everyone! Lisa here with you today, welcome to Day 5 of the Simple Stories & Taylored Expressions Blog Hop Week!  We’re so excited to team up with Taylored Expressions to share some inspiring projects with you this week.

We’ll be giving away a great Taylored Expressions prize package at the end of the week, so be sure to play along and check back on Sunday the 30^th to see if you’re the lucky winner!

Here are the different ways you can play along –

1. Like Simple Stories on Facebook
2. Share this blog post on your Facebook wall and tell us you did on our Facebook wall
3. Follow Simple Stories on Pinterest
4. Follow Simple Stories on Instagram at simplestories_
5. Comment here on our blog or on Facebook

Taylored Expressions is also posting projects and giving away prizes, so be sure to check out their blog and Facebook page, too!

Today I'm excited to share some fun layouts I made with Simple Stories new DIY Boutique and Fresh Air collections. I paired these collections with some fabulous stamp sets from Taylored Expressions: Pockets & Pages {Documented} and Pockets & Pages {InstaFun}.

This first page features the DIY Boutique collection (with embellishments from the DIY collection added in). This is such a fun collection, full of fabulous bright colors. I embellished the circles already printed on the paper with enamel dots, stickers, chipboard and some of the Taylored Expressions {InstaFun} stamps. This stamp set worked perfectly with this selfie of my daughter. I love the style of the font and all of the hash tags.

Here's a detail shot of the top right corner of the page:

Here's a look at the area to the left of the photo, showing some of the Taylored Expressions stamps in action:

The Fresh Air Simple Set worked so well for this page about my daughter's love of Starbucks. She likes trying things from what she calls the "secret" menu — items that are not listed in the store, but are drink combos people have tried and posted online. I think I'll stick with my favorite, a tall chai tea latte with skim milk :)  On this page, I used the Taylored Expressions {Documented} set to stamp a journaling card (inside of the text frame) and used some of the word stamps around the page.

Here's a look at the stamped journaling card inside of the frame:

This is a detail shot of the bottom right corner of the page where I included the product packaging from my daughter's drink:

This last shot shows the detail to the left of the photo, including a sentiment I stamped onto cardstock and used on top of the bitty bag that holds the journaling:

I hope you enjoyed seeing how you can easily pair any of the Simple Stories collections with Taylored Expressions fabulous stamp sets!

Head on over to the Taylored Expressions blog and check out what their Design Team has created using their stamps & dies and our Simple Stories products! They’re also hosting giveaways as well, so what are you waiting for – head on over! 

Check in again with us tomorrow for more inspiring projects from Simple Stories & Taylored Expressions!

Hello friends! Kim here, welcome to Day 4 of the Simple Stories & Taylored Expressions Blog Hop Week!  We’re so excited to team up with Taylored Expressions to share some inspiring projects with you this week.

We’ll be giving away a great Taylored Expressions prize package at the end of the week, so be sure to play along and check back on Sunday the 30^th to see if you’re the lucky winner!

Here are the different ways you can play along –

1. Like Simple Stories on Facebook
2. Share this blog post on your Facebook wall and tell us you did on our Facebook wall
3. Follow Simple Stories on Pinterest
4. Follow Simple Stories on Instagram at simplestories_
5. Comment here on our blog or on Facebook

Taylored Expressions is also posting projects and giving away prizes, so be sure to check out their blog and Facebook page, too!

I was super pumped to pick the Taylored Expressions Bars of the Week die set to use on my project. I had originally planned on using it for my pocket pages album (which I am sure I still will), but something else popped into my head.

My husband and I have agreed that planning the week’s menu ahead of time is such a stress reliever. I’ve been wanting to make our boring weekly list a little more inspiring. So, here’s what I came up with.

I used the top half of our magnet/message board as a weekly recipe card holder. (I use the bottom half for shopping and To Do lists).

First, I created tags with the adorable Taylored Expressions die. Of course, the set includes all seven days, but we mainly plan for Monday through Friday, then kind of “wing it” on the weekends with grilling, leftovers, etc. I was really impressed with how well the dies cut so cleanly, even with these dainty letters. I layered them up with bits and pieces of our Homespun Collection. 

Naturally, I couldn’t resist adding a cute little header to my board. I don’t know about you, but “I’m hungry” is like our family theme song! Ha, ha.

Here’s a closer view of the Friday banner. I used little clothespins to clip my recipe cards to the board. (I also just love the SN@P! Recipe Cards in the homespun collection).

Head on over to the Taylored Expressions blog and check out what their Design Team has created using their stamps & dies and our Simple Stories products! They’re also hosting giveaways as well, so what are you waiting for – head on over! 

Check in again with us tomorrow for more inspiring projects from Simple Stories & Taylored Expressions!

Hey there!  Melissa here, welcome to Day 3 of the Simple Stories & Taylored Expressions Blog Hop Week!  We’re so excited to team up with Taylored Expressions to share some inspiring projects with you this week.

We’ll be giving away a great Taylored Expressions prize package at the end of the week, so be sure to play along and check back on Sunday the 30^th to see if you’re the lucky winner!

Here are the different ways you can play along –

1. Like Simple Stories on Facebook
2. Share this blog post on your Facebook wall and tell us you did on our Facebook wall
3. Follow Simple Stories on Pinterest
4. Follow Simple Stories on Instagram at simplestories_
5. Comment here on our blog or on Facebook

Taylored Expressions is also posting projects and giving away prizes, so be sure to check out their blog and Facebook page, too!

I've been steadily working through a backlog of photos that I need to edit from the end of 2013, which makes now the perfect time to finish up the remaining half dozen or so weeks in my 2011 album. I love skipping around while scrapping my weeks since it gives me lots of freedom when matching products to photos, and for this particular week I went with the A Charmed Life collection- along with some fantastic Taylored Expressions dies, of course!

My birthday is on St. Patrick's Day, so of course my first inclination is to use A Charmed Life to scrapbook photos from that event (and, honestly, I probably will be using it for that, too!), but I'm also a big fan of using collections for something other than their theme suggests. During this particular week in 2011 I was participating in Ali Edwards' Week in the Life project, so I had lots of great photos that reminded me of everything I love about my life and our home. "A Charmed Life" seemed to be the perfect sentiment to go along with them!

The two sets of Taylored Expressions dies that I used on this page were the inspiration for my title card for this week. The 3x4 Photo Frame from their Pockets and Pages collection was the exact size that I needed to frame up a 3x3 Insta-Square card, and the Label It die cuts make adorable banner strips (and a perfect parking spot for my dates!).

I used the Label It dies in several places on my layout as a grounding element for stickers and embellishments, helping to bring a bit more color and remove the "floating" aspect that can sometimes happen on my mages.

I've also put together a short video showing how this layout came together from start to finish!

Simple Stories' 12x12 SN@P faux leather albums in aqua are the perfect place to hold my layouts when they're finished, and for 2011-2013 I've stuck to Design 3 Pocket Pages to make things easy. I've pretty much got making layouts in them down to a science now!

Head on over to the Taylored Expressions blog and check out what their Design Team has created using their stamps & dies and our Simple Stories products! They’re also hosting giveaways as well, so what are you waiting for – head on over! 

Check in again with us tomorrow for more inspiring projects from Simple Stories & Taylored Expressions!

Hey there!  Vicki here, welcome to Day 2 of the Simple Stories & Taylored Expressions Blog Hop Week!  We’re so excited to team up with Taylored Expressions to share some inspiring projects with you this week.

We’ll be giving away a great Taylored Expressions prize package at the end of the week, so be sure to play along and check back on Sunday the 30^th to see if you’re the lucky winner!

Here are the different ways you can play along –

1. Like Simple Stories on Facebook
2. Share this blog post on your Facebook wall and tell us you did on our Facebook wall
3. Follow Simple Stories on Pinterest
4. Follow Simple Stories on Instagram at simplestories_
5. Comment here on our blog or on Facebook

Taylored Expressions is also posting projects and giving away prizes, so be sure to check out their blog and Facebook page, too!

I am over the moon with the Taylored Expressions Dies I used for my layout today!!  I chose the Pockets & Pages Circle Words thin steel dies from Taylored Expressions for my project.  I paired these fun words with the Simple Stories DIY Boutique and DIY stickers.  Take a peek...

The Circle Word Dies are perfect for the DIY Boutique collection!!  Take a look at the layout I created...

I used the solid sides of the patterned paper from DIY Boutique to cut the die words out.  I found the words much easier to read with the solid patterns.  I have to say these dies work like magic!!  The cuts were super clean and detailed.  They released easily from the dies even though they are delicate.

I hope you can see how clean the cuts are in this image!!  To finish off the words, I simple punched 2" circles from solids again and layered them.  The DIY stickers were the perfect compliment to the dies.

Here's another look...

I have always been a fan of die cuts and I love that many of the Taylored Expressions dies also come with matching stamps!  I will be checking out more of their products...these circles have me hooked!!!

Head on over to the Taylored Expressions blog and check out what their Design Team has created using their stamps & dies and our Simple Stories products! They’re also hosting giveaways as well, so what are you waiting for – head on over! 

Check in again with us tomorrow for more inspiring projects from Simple Stories & Taylored Expressions!

Hi all! Teri here, welcome to Day 1of the Simple Stories & Taylored Expressions Blog Hop Week!  We’re so excited to team up with Taylored Expressions to share some inspiring projects with you this week.

We’ll be giving away a great Taylored Expressions prize package at the end of the week, so be sure to play along and check back on Sunday the 30^th to see if you’re the lucky winner!

Here are the different ways you can play along –

1. Like Simple Stories on Facebook
2. Share this blog post on your Facebook wall and tell us you did on our Facebook wall
3. Follow Simple Stories on Pinterest
4. Follow Simple Stories on Instagram at simplestories_
5. Comment here on our blog or on Facebook

Taylored Expressions is also posting projects and giving away prizes, so be sure to check out their blog and Facebook page, too!

Today I'm excited to share with you a couple pages I made with the A Charmed Life collection and some fabulous steel dies from Taylored Expressions.

My approach to my Life Documented pages is fairly liberal. While many of my friends follow a strict schedule and put together pages every week, I tend to focus on events and only document things when I feel like it. Sometimes I have lots to document and sometimes I don't.  So this spread really focuses on two fun things that happened this month. First, I took part in a St. Patrick's Day run/walk.  Second, a couple of my neighbors created some fantastic chalk drawings and just had to share them with me! 

The first page is all about the run/walk. 

Let's be honest: I am the slowest runner ever. The cellar position in the final standings whenever I take part in a race is usually occupied by me. That's OK. I still totally love taking part in these runs. And this one, especially, was fun because it had a St. Patrick's Day theme. Almost everyone wore green or something Irish-inspired for it! 

With lots of green, a few clovers and an abundance of words like "lucky" and "happy" showing up in the A Charmed Life collection, I felt it was perfect for this project.  Two of my favorite elements on this page are the Super Happy and It Was cards.

The Super Happy card started out as a regular old SN@P! Cut card. I added the decorative Chevron elements over the Happy word with a die from Taylored Expressions' Pockets & Pages Essentials - 2x2 dies. I love the look!  

I created the card next it by die-cutting a piece of vellum with Taylored Expressions' Pockets & Pages - 3x4 Bubble In die and then layering it over some A Charmed Life paper. I sure dig how they look together.

I got daring with the picture of my race medal and die-cut it with a square die from the 2x2 dies from Taylored Expressions. I mounted a SN@P! Card in the open space and then slapped some letters onto it, as well as some additional stickers onto the picture.

This page focuses on my young neighbors and their artwork!  They were so excited to show their chalk art to me that I couldn't resist snapping a few pictures. Believe it or not, they spent two whole days sketching planets, moons and stars onto our street. They were so proud of the results!

For the left side of this page, I sliced up a 6x12 A Charmed Life Element into three 4x6 panels. I love how orderly it looks when you do that and then slide the pieces into a Pocket Page.  I embellished the bottom panel by adding some additional patterned paper and some die-cut squares. I mounted the star (from A Charmed Life's Bits & Pieces) with foam tape and then added a few brads.

By the way, I'm using a 12x12 SN@P! faux leather album in red to document all of my adventures in 2014. I am a huge fan of the album's ring binding because it lets me scrapbook out of order.  I used the SN@P! 12x12 Pocket Pages Design 3 and Design 10 for these pages. I love the variety of different page styles of Pocket Pages Simple Stories offers. It's nice to have creative options. 

Taylored Expressions Products Used:

Pockets & Pages Essentials - 2x2 dies

Pocket & Pages - 3x4 Bubble In die

Head on over to the Taylored Expressions blog and check out what their Design Team has created using their stamps & dies and our Simple Stories products! They’re also hosting giveaways as well, so what are you waiting for – head on over! 

Check in again with us tomorrow for more inspiring projects from Simple Stories & Taylored Expressions!

Hey everyone!

Nichol here today showcasing the A Charmed Life Collection with a new layout and card featuring combining the Simple Stories Silhouette Cut Files for one-of-a-kind titles and greetings.

The Simple Stories Silhouette Cut Files are fabulous "as is" however they can make an even bolder statement when grouped together and manipulated a bit to create all new looks!

For my layout today, I combined the following nine cut files to create a big, bold title for this summer-themed page:

After manipulating and resizing the files in the Silhouette Software, I cut all the text from a single sheet of A Charmed Life 12x12 patterned paper. Then I trimmed and mounted that sheet on another piece of 12x12 paper and "filled in" all the open text by die cutting the words from 6x6 patterned papers from A Charmed Life and I Heart Summer.

The assortment of colors and patterns gives the title much more interest and adds lots of color to the page! I used a glue pen adhere the letters without a mess.

I layered some of the phrase stickers from A Charmed Life and I Heart Summer on top of the photo strips and "secured" the photo strips to my page with "washi tape" stickers from the Sn@p! Icons Stickers.

I printed my journaling directly on the DIY Office Journal Layers and popped it up with a bit of foam adhesive, tucking the cute cloud and sunshine die cut from the Summer Sn@p! Insta-Squares & Pieces. 

I created a coordinating card from the same 6x6 patterned papers using the following cut files:

I manipulated the 4 cut files to create my own title. (I used only the letter "I" from the "Can You Believe This?" arrow). 

I popped up the "Love You" greeting on top of the card and layered a contrasting color of paper underneath the die cut "Always Remember I". By layering papers this way it addds visual interest and dimension to a relatively simple design!

I completed the card by adding detail with a white opaque pen, gemstones and adding some sparkle with a clear glitter marker to some of the hearts and adding Glossy Accents to a couple of them as well.

Hi everyone, Marie here today to share a Life Documented project using the new DIY Boutique collection.  I've couldn't wait to work with this collection. By adding stickers, stamps, and embellishments to foundation cards you can custom make your own elements to put in Pocket Pages.  The possibilities are endless!

We have been pretty busy with home improvements projects and medical issues the last couple of months, so I didn't have a lot of photos to add to my album.  I decided to just use a single page for each month and add in some postcards and ephemera to round things out.  If you look at my pages you can see I used more reds and pinks for February and more greens and blues for March.  I thought it was a nice way to distinguish between the months, while still using the same collection and keeping the overall look cohesive.

In some cases I would add stickers and embellishments right over my photos, and in others I would add them on top of one of the foundation cards.  My favorite card to customize was this one full of colorful circles. I added brads, chipboard and circle-punched photos to it.

I also customized one of the new Insta-Frames.  I slipped a photo of some Valentine presents into the frame, and then stitched around the outside with red thread using my sewing machine.  I can see so many options for these frames, such as using them to make little pockets for sequins and other small items.

After using the DIY Boutique collection for these pages I can see I've barely scratched the surface of the different ways to use everything.  I'll be back next month with even more ways to use this kit.
 
I used 12x12 Pocket Pages in Design 3 | #4050.
 
I've been using a 12x12 Faux Leather Album in teal for all of my pages.  I've been using this album for quite awhile now and it still looks brand new.  The durability is fantastic!
 
DIY Boutique Products Used:
Insta-Frames | #5145
Chipboard | #5128
Brads | #5127
Card Foundations | #5126
Stickers - Boutique | #5141