Hello Friends!  Nathalie here with my first post as member of the 2017 Creative Team.  I am so blessed to be able to share with you some of my work using the beautiful Simple Stories products. I simply adore their collections!

Today, I am sharing with you two scrapbook layouts inspired on my everyday life.  It is the simplest of pictures, the ones that are the most memorable; and the newer Simple Stories collections are just perfect to document and cherish those moments.

Homework

The first layout is all about that dreaded word, "Homework".   The new Domestic Bliss collection, with its vibrant colors, playful papers, and cute embellishments was ideal to bring some cheeriness to the not so happy image homework conveys.

The new 6x8in paper pads are perfect to back cut-outs, as they contain all the patterns included in the collection, and it saves from cutting a small piece from a sheet of paper.   Don't you just love all the colors and patterns in this collection?

The outline of the house was cut from the  wood grain pattern of the "Bless This Mess" paper.   A bit of foam adhesive was used to secure the cut out to the outline thus creating some dimension on the page.  The background was then glued to the B side of the "Hickory Grid" paper from the Sn@p Basics collection,
 

A picture of my husband and daughter working on a school project was glued on a slant  to the "roof of the house".   I used  some of the cut-apart cards from the 4x6 Double Sided paper, and 6x8 paper pad as layers behind the picture.   Some of the stickers, die cut pieces, and  a paper clip from the collection were used to create clusters that frame the picture.  I love the small camera piece!!

To balance the page, one small cluster of paper die cuts, and stickers from both the 12x12  card stock sticker combo, and the 4x6 sticker sheets was added to the bottom right corner of the house.   Just a few enamel dots, and some journal lines complete this page.   I love how the colors and fun embellishments bring happiness to "Homework"

Believe

The 6x8 paper pad was used to back the cuts in the heart, and then glued to the "Shine" paper.   Before adding the picture, I used the 3x4 cards from the Cut-apart paper to layer the  picture, and added some of the 12x12 combo card stickers in between layers to form clusters around the picture.

 I love the Carpe Diem Sticker tablet, and the Clear Stickers, they have  a lot of small stickers than can be added used in scrapbook projects.  Just look at the small butterfly!

The two new collection, Faith, and Domestic Bliss, are the perfect complement to your  memory keeping, especially for those especial every day moments.   So check them out!

Thanks for stopping by today!  See you all soon!

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Hello there all you super creative, fantastic people! It's Andrea here and today I want to share with you a cool new project using the Simple Stories Faith collection! I made this one for all you who love planning and all you who love scrapping too! I enjoy doing both...which is one of the reasons why I love Simple Stories so much! It has such wonderful papercrafting supplies for both the planner addict and the scrapbook lover in you!

Recently, I came up with this idea to combine my planning and scrapping in a fun new way! I realized that after I finished playing in a planner with a certain theme or for a certain period of time, instead of just storing what I had put in the planner, I could instead take what I had done in my planner (the set up and decorations...all the planning, notes and writing) and incorporate that into a mini album!

It is so easy – you just take what you put in your Carpe Diem planner, transfer it over to a SN@P! album, add in some pocket pages and some photos, and voila!...you've completed a mini album!

I had so much fun creating this project! I decided that I wanted to document my faith in a special way. I chose to do something specifically for this time of year (for March and April because of Lent and Easter). I think this is a perfect time to reflect on one's faith and document it!

So this is what I decided to do – I thought I would plan out my March and April much like normal, but then add in all the cool stuff from the Carpe Diem Faith Insert Set. With the set, I documented things like my prayer list for the month, faith quotes that were inspiring me, etc. I used the cute notebook paper that comes in the set and used those to do some Bible journaling and to reflect on the mass readings from different days during Lent.

I love reading my Bible and it was cool to take notes on the different Gospel readings and things and really study them and explore what they meant to me!

I had fun with all the “nerdy” Bible studying that I did with my planner, but I also really had fun with the creative stuff like the decorating! I especially enjoyed making my cross dashboard! I used the SN@P! Pack  2x2 cards and the SN@P! pocket pages to make my cool dashboard.

This dashboard, and all my other goodies that I used to document my faith in March and April (for the Lent/Easter season), I then moved into my SN@P! 6x8 binder to create my cool “faith book” mini album.

I simply transferred things first, and then started adding in pictures and SN@P! pocket pages. I used the 6x8 paper pad and the SN@P! Pack and chipboard stickers and brads and other embellishments from the Faith collection to fill out my mini.

I love the look of the Carpe Diem planner dividers and notebook papers and things intermixed with all the large photo pages and photo pocket pages!

And I love the look of the calendar pages with the photo pocket pages!

I had fun putting my pocket pages together. I love that Sn@p gives you a range of different sized pockets to play with! I have a hard time sticking to just one or two sizes of pics...I want to use them all...I like a variety!

I also enjoyed adjusting some of the pocket pages to better fit my needs. It is so easy to do this...you just need some scissors and to do a bit of sewing with a strip of patterned paper along the edge (for the hole punching).

I love sewing little touches here and there inside my mini albums. I think it makes for a cuter more personal look.

I love my faith and I'm finding this such a fabulous idea for Lent – because I am not giving something up, but instead using my time to read my Bible more, reflect on what it means and the importance it holds in my life.

Alright well, I hope you enjoyed my cool Planner to Scrapbook Mini Album idea! Hopefully you now have some fun ideas on how to use your Faith collection.

And don't be afraid to mix in those planner goodies with those scrappy ones!

You can use this ideas for your faithbooking like I have (for a special project for Lent, Easter, or anytime of year really) or you could use it for other themed projects as well!

Hope I have inspired you today to put a little planning in your mini album...or a little mini album in your planning...see what I did there?   Anyways, have a great, happy scrappy day, a wonderful Easter and remember to, as I like to say, “live your life as a fairytale”...writing your own happily ever after one Simple Story at a time... Hey, see what I did there too? :-)

Hey everybody! It’s Lori, marketing manager at Simple Stories, and I’m here to share even more of our behind-the-scenes from the CHA/Creativation show.  Today, I’m sharing an up-close look at our Fitness and Home Carpe Diem planner release! That’s right; it’s a two-for-one!

Whether you’re a fitness freak or you struggle daily just to get your steps in, our A5 Fitness Carpe Diem Planner Insert Set is the perfect tool to motivate and track your workouts. Inside, you can set goals, document exercise times, celebrate achievements, and even record your measurements. It’s a great tool to motivate and applaud you & all of your hard work!

Take a moment to walk through a virtual tour of the A5 Fitness Planner Insert Set by clicking the arrows & see all the beautiful and useful products that are included!  Inside you’ll find over 50 pieces of planning supplies; 24 monthly tracking inserts, 12 weekly fitness tracking inserts, 6 tabbed dividers, 1 dashboard page, 1 storage pocket and 3 A5 sticker sheets!

The second Carpe Diem planner product I’m thrilled to show you is our Home Planner Insert Set.

Just like Dorothy discovered in The Wizard of Oz, there’s no place like home!  Home is filled with food, laughter and fun, but running a household also brings chores, budgets and to-do lists. With so many different items to tackle in your home, why not keep all of your honey-dos and documentations in one beautiful planner?  Our A5 Home Planner Insert Set is just the tool you need (and it doesn’t need to live in your toolbox).

Take a moment to walk through a virtual tour of the A5 Home Planner Insert Set by clicking the arrows and take-in all of the tools and products that are included!  Inside you’ll find over 50 pieces of planning supplies; 18 home planning inserts, 19 menu & financial inserts, 6 tabbed dividers, 1 dashboard page, 6 die-cut dashboards,1 storage pocket and 3 A5 sticker sheets!

Head to a participating retailer to check out both of these fantastic insert sets! To locate a retailer near you, check out our store locator. There you’ll find retailers in your area as well online stores towards the bottom of the page for ordering quickly.

Be sure to follow our Live Love Plan board on Pinterest for lots of pics, links, and tons of planner inspiration!

Hi everyone, Its Meredy and welcome to my first ever blog post!  I have a lot to share with you today as I walk through how I set up a Faith/Spiritual Planner using the Faith collection.  I want to start by saying that although I am Christian these same ideas could work for any spiritual practice. Even if you don’t think the Faith line applies to you I hope you will consider reading on—feel free to insert your own belief whenever I mention God and maybe this system can work for you too.  We all have wonderful things happening in our lives (or hopes for wonderful things) and I found this Carpe Diem line to be so helpful in focusing in on what matters.

I was thrilled when this line came out as I am a planner girl and bible journaler and I have been seeking a way to combine my two creative loves.  I wanted a way to document the things I am learning while Bible journaling as well as a place to record what God is doing in my life.  I love having my bible full of journal entries, but I wanted a way to see these lessons and A-ha moments grouped together by month so I could easily have an overview of what I had learned.  I had been dreaming about this for a while, but felt overwhelmed on how to create a system I would follow.  When this planner set came out, I knew it would be just the right tool to help me finally put something together.

When I am setting up a new planner, I always start by making a dashboard and filling the front pockets.  While I work away on this, I usually start solidifying the way I will organize the planner-- I usually don’t have that planned out when I start. (gasp!)

My Dashboards are always simple and made from a paper that makes me happy with some other small elements.  I just want to feel happy every time I open my planner.  This feather paper shouts happiness to me!

I love adding decorative elements into the front pockets, again these are usually items I know will bring a smile to my face—usually pretty journal cards, ephemera and planner clips. 

One thing I did differently with this planner is I devoted an entire section to supplies.  I don’t usually ‘plan on the go’ but this planner is really about documenting my time with God and I know having a section full of supplies will make it easy for me to keep up the system set up in my faith planner.  I love the pocket included in the Faith A5 Planner Insert Set - I am using this one to hold all my 4 x 6 stickers sheets.  As you will see further down in the post I use these stickers a bunch—they are perfect for brightening up a page.

Another great part of the Faith Insert Set are the pages of sticker sheets that are pre-punched to fit your planner.  The three pages are full of functional stickers that make a planner girl happy!  Not to worry if you find you used them all up right away there is also a separate Faith Sticker Tablet that includes 12 sheets of similar stickers that are perfect for planning.  One of my favorite item on these sticker sheets are the divider labels.  The headings helped me figure out how to organize my planner and once I put these stickers on my dividers, my planner looked like it was starting to have real purpose.

The first section I made was for Prayer, because, let’s face it, it is not my strong suit.  I want to become more habitual with prayer like I’ve done with Bible Journaling so there is no better way than to involve some pretty paper and stickers to get this going.

When I saw the Menu Planning Inserts (yes, the MENU Planning Inserts!), I knew instantly these would be perfect for documenting what I wanted to pray for each day.  I love that it is just a few lines for each day—not too much space to fill—and the bottom note section is a perfect place to summarize the week.

The whole page is decorated using the 4 x 6 sticker pack that is stored in my first section.  It was fun to use them each day.  Some days I just feel overwhelmed about what I should pray for (I can’t be the only one!) and I found the word and phrases stickers inspired me.

The next section is all about my bible journaling!  I used the Posh Monthly Inserts (the colors work perfectly with the Faith line) and printed out photos of my bible journaling to see an overview of my entries when I created them.  I wanted to do this because I don’t always post my entries on social media and I wanted a place to document them.

It was an eye-opening exercise as well, there was a good portion of the middle of the month I did not do any journaling—something I can work on next month. 

After the monthly layout, I created a Journaling Log using the decorated lined paper that comes in the Faith Insert Set.  I used the alpha letters from the 4 x 6 sticker pack to create a heading at the top, and the rest of the stickers are from the Faith Sticker Tablet.  In the heart stickers, I put the date of the entry and then I noted the portion of (if not the whole) the verse and the focus of that entry from the devotional.

On the back of this page I added a Journaling Card from the 4 x 6 Horizontal Elements 12 x 12  Paper and I wrote of summary of what I learned through the month.  I am so pleased with this process as I can really reflect of what God did in my life the past few weeks.  It was a wonderful way to remind myself that good things are happening!

The next section is all about Praise where I document events that I know God is at work in my life.  You know, those things that seem to work out just perfectly, or the comment your friend said that was just what you needed to hear, or that helpful hand that arrives just at the right moment.  To me these events are not a coincidence they are God at work.  I am working to become more adept at noticing these gifts so I am writing them down.

I used the 5^th divider as a “Go and Do” section.  I wasn’t sure about how I would use the inspired inserts from the Faith Planner Pack at first, but I have to say they are a perfect way to wrap up a week!  So much of this planner for me is about documenting the little things at work in my life.  This one pager covers provides a great overall snapshot of what is happening in my week.   So much of what we do as planners is about what’s coming up in the future, but these are a great way to look BACK on the accomplishments of the week. 

My last section is for notes or study.  I put the unlined decorative sheets here that are perfect for scribbling quick notes or doodling when I am feeling creative.

Whew, we made it through the planner!  I am so happy with the way this planner came together.  The great thing about the Faith Planner Inserts is that you can really make it your own.  I have to be honest and say it took me a few days to get all my ideas clear enough to get this planner organized.  Sometimes a blank slate can be intimidating, but the Carpe Diem products really inspired me to create something I’ve been thinking about for over a year.  Give it a try and if you post your planner, please tag me on IG.

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Hi there planner friends, it's Emma here. I'd like to show you how I've set up my Robins Egg A5 Carpe Diem planner with the Easter Simple Set.

The first thing I always do when setting up a planner is make the pockets pretty.  It's really important to me that when I open my planner it makes me smile.  I enjoy fussy cutting flowers and pretty things out to add to my pockets but also backing stickers with cardstock and cutting those out too. 

I like my pockets to be full and to have plenty of depth.

I've used decorative brads and enamel dots from the Faith collection to add texture.

A simple way to tie in the theme is to slide a piece of cardstock in the large side pocket.  This then gives an additional area to decorate.

Using a 3x4 element from the Easter set and a few cut out shapes I've been able to add even more interest to my planner set up. 

Another important aspect of the initial look to my planner theme is the dashboard.  I've layered with papers from the Easter Simple Set and placed more enamel dots on the super cute bunny which I cut out from one of the 3x4 element pieces.

To finish the look I placed the Floral bookmark Tablet in the back pocket and tucked in a floral element from the Faith Bits & Pieces pack to use as a page marker. 

I hope you've enjoyed looking at my Easter planner and reading how I put it together.  See you next month! 

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