September 2014 Blog Posts

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09.30.14

LifeDocumented

Happy fall everyone!  Marie here today to share some new Life Documented pages using the School SN@P! Set.


School_FullSize

Kids bring home a lot of papers and art projects from school.  I like to save everything throughout the school year and then go through it all at one time, saving out my favorite photos and projects.


School_Page1

This way I have a nice variety of photos and papers to represent that grade level.  These pages show my son's 5th grade year, and include everything from his science fair project to a ukulele concert.


School_Notes

I tend to find a large number of handwritten notes (usually from girls) in his backpack.  I saved a couple of those in one of the 3x4 pockets. I'm sure he'll appreciate that some day.


School_Insert

To store additional artwork I added in a 6x8" clear pocket page as an insert.  I simply added a small tab sticker along the side which is included with the SN@P! Set. These inserts are a perfect way to store school memorabilia, class photos, invitations, and so on.

School_Page2

And finally to wrap things up I had to include a photo from his favorite subject... recess! 


I'm using a 12x12 SN@P! Faux Leather Album in teal for all of my Pocket Pages.  I have to say no matter what season it is, the beautiful, rich color of this album really makes my photos pop.  And for this spread I used Pocket Pages in Design 3, and a 6x8 Pocket Page as an insert.


Thanks for stopping by!

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09.27.14

Hey everyone!  Andrea here with you today to share a fun mini album I made using the Frankie and Friends collection.  I love Halloween, and I love this collection!  This album was a blast to make, and the cool cardboard coffin box makes it double as a decoration.

Here it is:

I decorated the top of the coffin with papers and embellishments; I cut the paper to the shape of the box and layered, layered, layered!

The cute saying on the inside of the lid is from the Bits and Pieces from the collection.

The pages of the album are chipboard.  I cut those to shape, then covered and decorated them.  They are done on both sides.

I punched holes and tied the pages together with pieces of fabric.

The album stores perfectly in the box, so it can be packed away and pulled out each year with the Halloween decorations.

I tied a few pieces of fabric around the outside of the box to finish it off.

And that’s it!

Thanks for joining me today!  I hope you’re inspired to create a fun and unique mini album of your own.

Supplies
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09.26.14

Hi there, it's Emily.  Fall is here! Literally, the first day of fall and immediately the temperature dropped here in southern Ohio. I couldn't wait to use the new "Sweater Weather" collection on a project, but I am one of those crafters that has a lot of trouble crafting projects out of season. I can never bring myself to do the Christmas in July.... and fall projects before summer is a little much for me as well. Since it's "officially" fall, and it's now cold, I was able to play a little with this fun fall collection!

I created this mini album using tags. I thought this would be really cute to fill with some candid photos this fall. 

I used the collection kit along with the chipboard stickers and the bits & pieces from this collection. 

I didn't fill the pages yet, but the collection kit comes with so much that I have plenty to add into my album once I take those photos this fall and add them in. 

Thanks for stopping by! 

Supplies
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09.24.14

It's beginning to look a lot like a DIY Christmas!  Hello, friends...Shellye along today with a quick home decor project and even quicker card using the new "DIY Christmas" Collection from Simple Stories!

First up is a 3-D distressed star that I purchased from Hobby Lobby; they have some really beautiful wood pieces available that require no painting, just a little embellishing :)

There are a couple of different ways that you can go about getting the right size star for the inner-part of the shape.  Press a piece of wax paper down into the shape and then use a stylus or pencil to trace the pattern onto the wax paper.  For mine, I used a piece of vellum and stylus for tracing.  Cut the shape out and then transfer onto your favorite DIY Christmas paper.  And if you're inclined, add a trim of baker's twine around the edge of your shape after you've glued it in place...this will help to hide any imperfections.

 Next I made a trio of basic paper-pleated rosettes by cutting two strips of 1.5" paper for each.  Score the strips at every 1/2" mark and accordion fold.  Glue the two strips together, end-to-end.  Punch a 1.5" circle for both the front and back of the rosette and glue in place at the center.  Place a heavy bottle of glue or small punch on top of the rosette until it has dried. 
 

I embellished around the backside of the rosettes with a silver tinsel trim that I found in the Christmas aisle at Hobby Lobby.  The poinsettias were made using the "Layered Poinsettia" dies from Spellbinders.  To the centers I added one of the larger enamel dots from the DIY Christmas Collection.  There are so many ways that you could decorate such a star...just have fun experimenting with this crafty Christmas collection!

Lastly I have a quick, quick card!  This quick card was made even quicker with the new DIY Christmas A2 Kraft Card Bases!

Using the 6X6 Paper Pad from the collection, I cut the chevron paper to 4"X5.25" and then trimmed away a portion of the chevron pattern.  Next I cut a matching sized paper from the holly pattern and adhered it to the card front.

The chevron paper was then lined up with the holly paper (top and bottom) and attached with foam adhesive.  I used some of the baker's twine from the Tags & Twine and made a border along the edge of the cut chevron...I like to use a fine-point glue pen for this.

You will find really cute tags and die-cuts in the DIY Christmas Tags & Twine set, the A2 Card Layers and Chipboard Stickers.  Make an assembly line of prepared card bases and have the kids and grands help decorate the fronts!

I hope that you've enjoyed the spotlight on this ultimate papercrafting collection!

Supplies
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09.22.14

Hello fellow Simple Stories fans! Lisa here to share the new Sweater Weather collection with you. Today is the first day of fall here in the States (if you can believe it) so the timing of this post couldn't be more perfect!

I have two layouts to show you today. The first features a photo I actually took this spring, as the Japanese maple outside of my craft room was deepening toward a lovely shade of crimson. I put off scrapping this photo because it looked like a fall photo and didn't go with any product I had on hand. Turns out, I waited for good reason. The colors in Sweater Weather complement the photo so nicely and the embellishments work well with it too.

Let's take a closer look at various parts of this page. I backed the die cut Polaroid-style frame from the Bits & Pieces pack with a photo overlay and then a 3x4 journaling card. I added machine stitching to keep everything in place and embellished on top of the overlay with a chipboard sticker and enamel dots.

This next detail shot shows you the title area. This layout is called "All Heart". I used the chipboard letters that spell out the word "Fall" to create the first part of the title, leaving off the "F". A die cut arrow from the Bits & Pieces pack, layered over the chipboard letters, as well as some other hearts form the second part of the title, "Heart".

This last image shows the detail just above the frame.

This next page, "Let's Talk Turkey on the Shelf", is about a family tradition we started a few years ago. It's a variation on the ever-popular Elf on the Shelf, but geared toward the days leading up to Thanksgiving. Our turkey's name is Gallop, shortened from the species name for a wild turkey (gallopavo). He is a plastic Hallmark figurine passed on to me by my Mom. Gallop arrives on the first day of November and leaves Thanksgiving Eve so he doesn't end up on our dinner table. During this time, he gets into all sorts of trouble, like spilling the cat food while trying to feed the cat, but he does sweet things too like leaving chocolate truffles and inspiring messages. Although my daughter is now 13, she's already asked that Gallop visit us again this year.

Here are some detail shots of the page. This first one shows the title area. I used the fabulous cranberry script letters from Sweater Weather mixed with the green mini alpha stickers from Cozy Christmas.

This second image shows how you can layer up some of the Bits & Pieces with chipboard stickers, using foam adhesive to pop the acorn die cut off the page.

In this last picture, you can see more of the die cut Bits & Pieces, mixed with some of the stickers. Don't you just love the script words? I guess I do since I used three of them on this page! :)

I hope you enjoyed seeing Sweater Weather in action today, both on a fall-themed page and a layout with a spring photo. It's such a wonderful collection! It will have you wishing for changing leaves, pumpkins, apple picking and cozy sweaters in no time (or at least get you in the mood to scrap your seasonal photos).

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09.20.14

Howdy!  Layle here with you today.  Welcome to the last day of the Simple Stories & Therm O Web Product Swap! 

Both design teams have swapped products and will be sharing on our blogs all week long.  Join us for some great inspiration as well as a chance to win a prize package from Therm O Web! 

Last up this week is Teri Anderson with a Say Cheese Life Documented pocket page spread -

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Hello there, Simple Stories fans! Teri here today, and I'm here with another Life Documented project. I'm excited to share with you a couple pages made with SN@P! Say Cheese.

I just got back a couple weeks ago from a fun trip to Disneyland. My aunt and I took part in the Disneyland Half Marathon Weekend. Sure, we had a great time running! But we had just as much fun exploring the park when we weren't running! So, of course, I just had to document the experience.

SN@P! Say Cheese was the perfect set to use for these pages because most of my pictures from the experience are of my aunt, me and the park's characters. The feel of the SN@P! set and the memories of just being in Disneyland just go well together.

Like any good tourist, I picked up a few trinkets to bring home. I think it will be fun in the future to look back and see what I paid for them so I included my receipt on this page.

I folded the receipt up, put a strip of Supertape (from Therm-o-Web) on the back of it and adhered it to a SN@P! card.

Here's how the card looks when the receipt is all folded up.

And here's how it looks when it is unfolded. The paperclip holds the Say Cheese tag in place. 

Kinda fun, right?

I used another fun technique on my right page. I made a shaker with the "We're all ears!" SN@P! card/ 

I'm almost afraid to admit how easy it was to pull it off.

Here's what I did: I adhered a strip of Supertape at the top of the SN@P! card. I then slid the card (with the red tape liner still on it) into the pocket. Then I dumped a few sequins into the pocket. 

Only after that, I removed the liner. The end result? A super cool, super easy to make shaker pocket!

I think the cool thing about this technique is you can still slide a SN@P! card in the pocket when you go to use the backside of the Pocket Page.

See where my hand is? Yep. I'll totally be sliding a SN@P! card when I use the backside of this page to document another event in the future. 

So before I go, let's talk about albums for a minute (or two). I'm using a 12x12 SN@P! faux leather album in red to document all of my 2014 adventures in. I frequently scrapbook out of order so I like that the album's ring binding allows me to do that. I used the SN@P! Pocket Pages Design 3 and Design 5 for this spread. I love that Simple Stories offers so many different styles of pages. I think it helps keeps my pages interesting by being able to use the different page styles.

Therm-o-Web supplies:

Supertape

Sticky Dot Mini Roller

Mounting Adhesive Tape

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Now for the fun part!  Enter via the Rafflecopter widget below and we'll draw one lucky winner on Sunday to win this awesome prize from Therm O Web! 

 

After you enter, head on over to the Therm O Web blog to see what their team has created.  Make sure to enter there as well - they're giving away a prize featuring our new Sweater Weather Collection!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Want to follow Therm O Web?  Here you go!

Web:  www.thermoweb.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/thermowebmimi

Blog: http://blog.thermoweb.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ThermOWeb

Instagram: http://instagram.com/thermoweb

Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/thermoweb/

Thanks so much for joining us this week for the Simple Stories & Therm O Web product swap!  We hope you've found some great inspiration!  Check back tomorrow for the winner :)

 

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09.19.14

Howdy!  Layle here with you today.  Welcome to Day 5 of the Simple Stories & Therm O Web Product Swap! 

Both design teams have swapped products and will be sharing on our blogs all week long.  Join us for some great inspiration as well as a chance to win a prize package from Therm O Web! 

Today Donna Jannuzzi shares a few cards and a layout -

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Hello Everyone! Donna here with you today as your host for the 5th day of our Simple Stories & Therm O Web Product Swap.

First up, I have two cards to share with you using the new Legacy collection.

I have been a longtime fan of Therm O Web adhesives. My favorite tape runner happens to be their Memory Tape Runner XL. But for this product swap I was given the opportunity to try out the Sticky Dot Mini Runner, and I have to say, I really liked it! It is smaller than the standard tape runner which makes it perfect for projects such as cards.

On my second card I used Therm O Web’s Decorative Photo Corners. 

The photo corners add a nostalgic touch to the card while also highlighting the Sn@p! card I used in place of a sentiment.

Next is a layout I created using bits and pieces from a few different collections:  Sweater Weather, Legacy and Hello Baby.

One of our favorite annual trips is when we go apple picking. It is nowhere near sweater weather here in Southern California (the high for this past weekend was 104 degrees!) But if you wait too long into the season to go apple picking there is nothing left! So we headed out a couple of weekends ago to visit a new farm, and ended up having a wonderful time.

I don’t know if I‘ve ever shared this tip with you here on the blog, but I like to remove the prongs from my brads using wire cutters. Therm O Web’s Zots are perfect for adhering brads to your pages. You don’t have to worry about punching a hole in your page or having the prongs sticking out the back of your layout. It makes it a lot easier to slide layouts into page protectors too.

I loved the light brown wood grain paper from the Hello Baby collection and wanted to use it as the background for this layout. A few embellishments from Sweater Weather and Legacy completed my page.

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Now for the fun part!  Enter via the Rafflecopter widget below and we'll draw one lucky winner on Sunday to win this awesome prize from Therm O Web! 

 

After you enter, head on over to the Therm O Web blog to see what their team has created.  Make sure to enter there as well - they're giving away a prize featuring our new Sweater Weather Collection!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Want to follow Therm O Web?  Here you go!

Web:  www.thermoweb.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/thermowebmimi

Blog: http://blog.thermoweb.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ThermOWeb

Instagram: http://instagram.com/thermoweb

Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/thermoweb/

Join us again here tomorrow for the last day of our product swap! 

 

Comments
09.18.14

Howdy!  Layle here with you today.  Welcome to Day 4 of the Simple Stories & Therm O Web Product Swap! 

Both design teams have swapped products and will be sharing on our blogs all week long.  Join us for some great inspiration as well as a chance to win a prize package from Therm O Web! 

Today Heather Leopard shares a fabulous Christmas layout!

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Heather's here with a fun way to use up those itty bitty scraps you've been hoarding. You know what I'm talking about...the ones that are a bit too small to do much with but you just love Simple Stories sooo much that you can't bear to throw them away!?!? Anyway, I challenged myself to use them up and I thought I'd pass the challenge along to you.  Take a look at what I created using the new Cozy Christmas collection.

I love this photo of my daughter holding her gigantic stocking that's filled to the brim with little goodies. I knew I had to create a re-create a jumbo sized stocking for this page.

How to:

  • Using your favorite stocking cut file, enlarge it to fit the page. If it has circles already, move to step 2. If not, draw circle cut lines. Cut your stocking.
  • Cut another stocking the same size but this time without the circles.
  • Next, place your stocking with circles cut out over the offset stocking and draw the circles so you know what areas to cover with your scraps.
  • Remove the stocking with the circles and add shimmer using glitter spray from Thermoweb. If you forget this step, just do what I did and cover your pattern paper with the circle cut-outs.

  • Take your scraps of varying shapes and sizes and line them up in whatever way they fit. You may have to trim a bit here and there.

  • Once you've placed all your scraps, place the stocking with circles cut out over the background. Stitch around the stocking and around each circle. Adhere or stitch to the page.
  • Add the stocking trim at the top and embellish to your liking.
  • Add your photo in the upper right side of the page or you can layer it over part of the stocking.. I chose to place it where it is to ensure it remained a key focal point on the layout vs. getting lost by mixing in with the stocking.

  • Add your title in an open space on the stocking.

Many thanks to Therm o Web for the wonderful adhesive and glitter spray and to Simple Stories for the amazing Cozy Christmas collection.

__________

Now for the fun part!  Enter via the Rafflecopter widget below and we'll draw one lucky winner on Sunday to win this awesome prize from Therm O Web! 

 

After you enter, head on over to the Therm O Web blog to see what their team has created.  Make sure to enter there as well - they're giving away a prize featuring our new Sweater Weather Collection!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Want to follow Therm O Web?  Here you go!

Web:  www.thermoweb.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/thermowebmimi

Blog: http://blog.thermoweb.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ThermOWeb

Instagram: http://instagram.com/thermoweb

Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/thermoweb/

Join us again here tomorrow for more inspiring projects!

 

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