June 2017 Blog Posts

Hello everyone! It's Lisa Dickinson here today to share a few tips on using pattern on your pages! Patterned paper is the most abundant product in my scrap stash, and I love to incorporate lots of it into my pages. But sometimes pattern can be intimidating. Does plaid go with floral? Can you mix stripes and dots? The answer is YES when you use one of my favorite tricks to combine patterns...just follow the rainbow!

When you want to use lots of patterns in one design, using a ROYGIBIV order is a fail proof method. Mother Nature knows what she's doing, and the same color combo will look great on your page. On this layout, I'm using the Cabin Fever collection and have featured seven different patterns from the line.

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While there are no orange, green or purple papers in this line, it was easy to sub in some of the patterns (a tan dot for orange and a multi colored plaid for green) and still get the rainbow effect. Even though the patterns are completely different, they read as harmonious because of the order in which I adhered them.

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So what if you don't want the whole spectrum of color on your page? It's easy to select just a portion of the rainbow - say red, yellow and orange - to use in your design. On this page about my son's swim team, I used green, teal, aqua and navy to help reinforce the water-theme of the layout.

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I used a wave-like cut file with holes to fill a large portion of the page. I filled the holes with a variety of Simple Stories papers in the selected colors of green, aqua and navy. The patterns range from dots to gingham, and text to geometrics, but they all work together because of the arrangement of colors. 

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So the next time you want to punch up the pattern on your page, try this rainbow order technique. You're sure to end up with a colorful, happy page you'll love (and isn't that even better than a pot of gold??)

Happy Scrapping!

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Hi everyone!  It's Traci from Artsy Albums, back to share a mini album using the Old School Simple Set.

I wanted a small album that I could have for my son's school pictures K-8.  The Old School Simple Set worked perfectly since the album is small and I only needed a few sheets of paper and stickers.  The album is a 4x6 Sn@p binder in black.
The 3x4 pocket pages are perfect for wallet size school photos!
The collection comes with some great 3x4 and 4x6 cards too!
 
 
 A book like this will be fun to add to year after year. Thanks so much for letting me share it with all of you today!  Happy crafting!
 

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Hello Everyone! It's Jomelle here today and I want to share my August Carpe Diem planner spread. My birthday is in August and I just love the Cabin Fever collection, so I figure I'd use it for my birthday month. Our family loves to hike and visit National Parks, but it's been super hot lately that we can't really plan any outdoors activities especially since my baby girl is only 18 months old.

As soon as I saw the "Happy Camper" 12x12 cardstock, I wanted to make a dashboard out of it. I also love the map legends on the bottom. I just added some bits and pieces to add dimensions.
 

 
I just added the word "Camping" on the side as embellishment.
 

Close up of the dashboard. This is one of my favorite dashboards I've made. It's perfect for all hiking adventures our family plans to go to in the future.
 

Of course we can't forget the "pocket love" all planner girls must have.
 

Here I used the "Adventures Awaits" 12x12 cardstock and turned it into a pocket dashboard to hold some of my stickers and embellishments.
 

I also just love staging my pictures and adding elements that goes with my layout. Don't you think the mama bear and baby bear add finishing touch to my photos?! :)
 

 
I truly enjoyed creating my August monthly Layout. The Bits and Pieces have so many cute pieces that it was so hard for me to chose which ones I wanted to use in my layout.
I didn't think I had enough numbers but I was able to find these number sticker sets from the Posh Collection. The color goes well with this collection.
 

 
Here is my layout for the first week of August. Since the boys are off from school and I have days off during the weekend, we are planning on taking a road trip to San Francisco and visit my cousins. We plan to take my daughter to the Jelly Belly Factory. 
 

I just love this sticker of the truck pulling the cute trailer. Our plan is to have an Airstream travel trailer to use for our future road trips.
 

Some of the embellishments in the Cabin Fever Collection.
 

 
Thank you for stopping by! I hope you enjoy viewing my layouts as much as I had creating them. Hope to see you next month.
 
 
 

Nature Hike Washi tape 3033 Adventure Awaits 3039 Happy Camper 12x12 paper 3040 Journaling Cards Elements 12x12 paper 3041 Elements 12x12 paper 3046 Decorative Brads

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Hi everyone, Nicole here to share with you what I have been working with the newest Simple Stories collections.  I have a lot of masculine photos floating in my photo drawer and was drawn to the great colors and patterns in the Cabin Fever collection for my first page. I really love the camping theme, but thought I would just use those patterns to create a great masculine page.

I chose to punch out a lot of the fun circles on the Off the Grid paper as a starting point for my page. I lined the mixed patterned circles together in simple rows on one side of my page and secured in place with simple machine stitching. I added a fun Cabin Fever journaling card as well as a diecut title combined with some Simple Stories letter stickers.

I just love how easy it was to pull this page together with basics like patterned paper and a few stickers! I also love it when B-sides of paper are great for projects of all kinds!

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My next page is a little more summery, using the Summer Days collection! I couldn't help but cut the vibrant yellow patterned paper into a sun ray pattern on my digital die cut machine for one side of my page.

I used the Simple Stories fringed heart Silouette cut file with various patterned papers in the collection and layered them together to help create a big and fun title to go along with that bold sunray shape!

A few yellow sequins from my stash help add a little sparkle to the big sunray on the page, and a few brads and enamel dots help finish off my title too!

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Howdy friends!  Layle here - hooray for the weekend!  It's Saturday, the last day of our week long Simple Stories & Maya Road Product Swap! 

Both design teams have swapped products & teamed up for some great inspiration all week long!

Today creative team member Violet Ballew joins us with a patriotic Carpe Diem planner set up with the All American Simple Set - 

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Hello everyone, it's Violet and today I will be sharing how I used the All American Simple Set for my July monthly view planning and some journaling in my Doc-it-Journal.

I absolutely love everything about this collection. The stars and stripes, red, white and blue. The paisley print on the flag is so gorgeous. I squealed with delight as I was decorating my pockets and making my dashboard.

How fun is this metal clip & tassel from Maya Road?!  The perfect additions to my planner this month!

I decided to plan ahead for July, due to the fact that its like Christmas in July for our family. Most of my family’s birthday are in July. My son and my granddaughter have the same birthday. My nephew and my brother share the same birthday, as well. Once I get all the names on the calendar, I am pretty sure I can fill up most calendar boxes. Lol. We can’t forget 4th of July and all the other fun stuff that happens in the July.

I also wanted to do some journaling in my Doc-It Journal. I don’t like to waste any of my scraps and a good way to use them is in my junk journaling. It’s a fun creative way to use up those extras. I just rip up pieces of left over paper, or use the bits and pieces from my trimmings. I glue them to the pages. I then add some acrylic paint on a gift card and swipe a thin amount all over the page. I used a shimmering white.   I also used the Say cheese Roller Stamp, because it had stars and embossed them onto the journaling cards. The stickers were the perfect embellishment to my journaling.

Thank you everyone who took the time to stop by the blog today and for all those that are currently or have served in the military.  May you all have a wonderful 4th of July, and God Bless America!

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Now for even more fun!!  Enter via the Rafflecopter widget below and we'll draw one lucky winner next Monday to win both a Summer Days & Cabin Fever collection kit!   

a Rafflecopter giveaway

After you enter, head on over to the Maya Road blog to see what their team has created.  

Want to follow Maya Road and keep up with all of their great projects & products?  Here you go!

Thanks so much for joining us this week for the swap with Maya Road, we hope you've been inspired!!

 

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Howdy friends!  Layle here - happy Friday and happy day 5 of our week long Simple Stories & Maya Road Product Swap! 

Both design teams have swapped products & teamed up for some great inspiration all week long!

Today creative team member Traci Chaussee joins us with a super summery mini book with products from our Summer Days collection -

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What an exciting month to get not only adorable products from Simple Stories but to ALSO get amazing products from Maya Road which I adore!  Of course I received a sweet Maya Road mini chipboard album so I knew it was the perfect time to combine it with the Summer Days collection for an amazing mini scrapbook!

The Maya Road Recollection Chipboard Binder is a chunky little book with 4 tabbed chipboard pages. I decided to not add any additional pages to the album but made each of the chipboard pages interactive with the adorable 'Summer Days' paper, chipboard, stickers and Bits & Pieces! Wait until you see all the fun inside!

The cover of this fun and colorful Summer album is pretty much dedicated to the Maya Road products I received! I used a large Ken Oliver metal button to create a charming 'knob' for the front complete with some hanging charms! I also made the long charm on the spine of the album using the sweet metal embellishments along with another tassel and a paper rose. These were attached to some jewelry chain with jump rings and then secured to the album from the inside with a twine knot.

I used the adorable mason jar stamp and die from Maya Road to create a mini mason jar shaker that I filled with small stickers from the 'Summer Days' collections as shaker elements! For extra shine, I added small glittery hearts and stars! Too cute! The die cuts a whole mason jar but I used an exacto knife to cut the center out and then covered it with acetate.

Of course, no mini album of mine would be complete without a pocket! I created this large one on the inside front cover by using two of the 4x6 vertical elements cut to size and angled for easier use! Even though these elements are already super cute,  I added on more with a sticker, chipboard flowers and enamel dots!

When I saw this Summer Bucket List on one of the 4x6 cards, I just knew it would be on the first page of this album! Who doesn't make a bucket list for the season?! For a colorful and interesting background, I cut out mini frames from the fun patterned papers and added stickers from the 4x6 sticker pack to the inside of each. Super cute!

For the second page, I used some of the journaling card elements to create a small flip book. The journaling cards were mounted on solid color card stock and embellished with stickers, chipboard pieces and ephemera! Adorable both closed and open!

I cut a section of the 4x6 vertical elements and scored them before folding them back and forth to create this fun pull-out section that is all ready for Summer photos. I took two decorative brads, snipped off the prongs and adhered  them together for a small tab and embellished the pages with cute pieces from the collection!

A large fishtail flag from the horizontal elements for this page! There is room for small photos on the front and then it lifts up to reveal more photo spots and charming embellishments! You can see some of the 'Summer Days' washi tape on the side of this page. Such a colorful addition!

For this page I made a large pocket from a square of the 4x4 elements that was cut to fit. I used two more of the 4x4 elements to make a double sided slide out tab that can hold pictures or mementos!

Another pull-out on this page, made with the cute 4x4 element cards. I used the smaller stickers to create the tab for this one and also to decorate these smaller pages! There is a rectangular pocket at the top of the page that is perfect for holding smaller journaling cards or photos!

Since there are so many super cute 3x4 journaling cards, I couldn't resist making a double flip book! Each section has a fun front and then space on the back for photos! I added in lots of the adorable chipboard and stickers to embellish this page!

More cuteness on the last page with a large frame ready for that perfect Summer photo! I cut 1.25" x 1.5" chipboard rectangles for the frame and covered them with the patterned paper before adding stickers, metal embellishments and enamel dots! A great way to end this super cute Summer mini album!

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Now for even more fun!!  Enter via the Rafflecopter widget below and we'll draw one lucky winner next Monday to win both a Summer Days & Cabin Fever collection kit!   

a Rafflecopter giveaway

After you enter, head on over to the Maya Road blog to see what their team has created.  

Want to follow Maya Road and keep up with all of their great projects & products?  Here you go!

Join us again here tomorrow for more inspiring projects!

 

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Howdy friends!  Layle here - it's Thursday & that means day 4 of our week long Simple Stories & Maya Road Product Swap! 

Both design teams have swapped products & teamed up for some great inspiration all week long!

Today creative team member Andrea Bethke joins us with a beautiful 6x8 pocket page SN@P! album with our  Summer Days collection -

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Hey everyone! It's Andrea here today and I want to share with you all a really fun mini album that I made using the new Summer Days collection and also a few goodies from Maya Road!  I had a great time using the collection to document an older summer story that I had been meaning to put into an album for a while now. You see, every summertime, I try to go at least once to the beach at Coronado Island in San Diego... My husband and I love it there! However, we don't always get to go. With my health issues, its hard to go. But whenever we do go, we always have a really amazing time! The mini album I made using “Summer Days” and the red SN@P! album, is all about a day on Coronado Island, on the beach, swimming, eating ice-cream, reading, and relaxing in the sunshine on July 8th 2013.  It was a perfect summer day!

I started out my album with a large 6x8 photo page. I love intermixing large photo pages like this in my mini albums – with the pocket pages and the mini-layouts! I think it just makes the album more interesting to look at, with the variety of pages. And some pics I think just need to be showcased in such a way! I chose a pic of me on the beach that day that I thought was cool and I added the sticker word “summer” along the side (from the 12x12 sticker sheet that comes in the collection). This serves as a kind of title and title page for my album. I also added a few other little things to my title page – like a chipboard flower sticker, a few enamel dots, and a couple of decorative paperclips to the top of the page...which I made using regular paperclips, a glue gun, and some of the super cute brads that come in the collection.

Like I said, the album consists of a mix of pocket pages, large photo pages and mini-layouts. For my mini-layouts, I used the pretty 12x12 patterned paper that comes in “Summer Days” and cut it down to 6x8 to fit in my mini. These served as my backgrounds for my layouts. I simply used a small 3x4 photo, and added it to the page with some cute stickers (chipboard and cardstock), and some other embellishments like washi-tape and ephemera pieces, in order to create simple and cute little layouts for my mini album.

Many of the pages in the album are pocket pages. I love the SN@P! pocket pages, they are so great for so many things, but especially for mini albums like this!

It is easy to use the cool cut-apart Element sheets that come in the collection and just cut the pocket page cards out (in 3x4 and 4x6 and 4x4) and then simply slip them into the pockets of the pocket pages. You can just add writing and photos and you are done...or you can add a few other little embellishments and such like I did!

In one of my pocket pages, I made a little shaker pocket where I used sequins along with small ephemera pieces and even a chipboard sunglasses sticker (with the backing still on). All these together make for a fun, interactive pocket page! On other pocket pages, I used other embellishments to add pop to the page, embellies like ephemera pieces, the little word stickers, labels and the cardstock and chipboard icon stickers...which I clustered together to create interest on my pocket pages...specifically for the pockets with pics that I wanted to draw a little more attention to.

In my album, in addition to using the Simple Stories “Summer Days” collection, I also used a few things from Maya Road (as I had mentioned). I had fun using the Maya Road Mason Jar stamp set and dies to create a few little jars for my mini album. I used one of them for one of my pocket pages. I stamped the jar on some white cardstock and then cut it out using my Big-Shot die cutting machine and the little jar dies. I added a strip of patterned paper (cut out with another one of the dies) to make it look like the jar label, and then stapled on a round circle with “Authentic” stamped on it (also cut with one of the dies). This I put on a pocket page with some rainbow patterned paper behind it and a butterfly ephemera piece just floating on top of it (attached only in the middle, with wings sticking up to create an awesome, dimensional look to the page).

Another item I used from Maya Road, that you can see here and there throughout that album is the number paperclips. I used the “Summer Bucket List” 4x6 pocket card and I listed out 5 things that were on my bucket-list that summer – the 5 things that we did on that special summer day that I documented in my mini album.

Here is my list: 1) Go to the Beach, 2) Go Swimming , 3) Hang out with Ryan, 4)Relax, Rest, Chill out, 5) Ice-Cream!!!

And for each item on the list, I used the correlating number from the number paperclips and attached them to a photo that I thought perfectly represented that summer item on the list!

I really hope you enjoyed my Summer mini album and that I have inspired you to make a fun summer mini of your own!!! Summer is a great time to Scrapbook! And I also want to point out, that a lot of the fun techniques and things I showed in this album can be used for your project-life pocket page making, and for your planning as well! Happy Summer everyone!!!

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Now for even more fun!!  Enter via the Rafflecopter widget below and we'll draw one lucky winner next Monday to win both a Summer Days & Cabin Fever collection kit!   

a Rafflecopter giveaway

After you enter, head on over to the Maya Road blog to see what their team has created.  

Want to follow Maya Road and keep up with all of their great projects & products?  Here you go!

Join us again here tomorrow for more inspiring projects!

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Howdy friends!  Layle back again with you for day 3 of our week long Simple Stories & Maya Road Product Swap! 

Both design teams have swapped products & teamed up for some great inspiration all week long!

Today creative team member Nathalie DeSousa joins us amazing layouts from our Hello Lovely Simple Set and the Summer Days collection -

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Hello there!  Nathalie back with you today, and I am so happy to share what i have created for the Simple Stories & Maya Road product swap.

My first layout is all about summer,  my daughter's fascination with ice cream floats, some of the Maya Road goodies, and the super fun Summer Days collection.

The staring point for this layout was the "Lazy Days" paper in the collection.   The spin wheels in the paper was the inspiration for this layout.  So i set out to create a few spin wheel cut-outs using the Cut Shoppe's Spinwheels cut file.

The cut outs were backed using the Lazy Days, So Much Fun, Hello Sunshine, Gotta Wear Shades papers from the Summer Days collection.   The lovely  decorative brads were then used in the centers of each of the spinwheels.

To bring in the colors of the collection to the page, a few splatters of watercolor were used to create a mixed media background on the page.  Once this dried,  the page was trimmed on two of edges, as to continue the movement of the spinwheels, and then attached to the B side of the Lazy Days paper.  All the spinwheels were also glued to the page as if cascading from the top of the page.

And now to embellish the page.  First, I created clusters around the picture using some of the combo stickers, bits and pieces and 4x6 stickers from the collection.  The little mason jar sticker full of lemonade gave me the idea to create a mason jar of my own for this page.

Some white acrylic paint was used to add some color to one of the Maya Road Vintage Wood Mason Jar.  To pull more of the colors from the Summer Days collection, some water crayons were used to color the Medium Vintage Paper Flowers , and Ken Oliver's Small Vintage Paper flowers.  Once the wood jar was dried, a piece of Lime Green Jute Twine cording was wrapped around its neck, and all the flowers were then glued to the page.   I just love how the Maya Road products add that charming accent to the page!

To finish the page, the Alphas in the 4x6 stickers were used to create the title.  Oh! I really like the overall look of this page.  It is bright, happy and full of texture, in total a great fusion of both Simple Stories and Maya Road Products.

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The Hello Lovely Simple Set has quickly become one of my favorite Simple Stories collections (this far!).  This time, I set to use it to document a picture of my nephew and my daughter -yeah!, I used pink for a boy layout, and the results are lovely-.  

For this layout, I wanted to use as many of the patterns of the collection in one single page, so I pulled the Free Love cut file from Just Nick Studio to create the large title.   

Each letter in the cut out was then backed with the So Very Lovely, Fab-YOU-lous, and the journaling cards from the collection.   Once all the cut outs were backed,  i chose the So Much Happiness paper from the Life in Color collection to serve as the layout's mat.

This picture of my daughter and nephew is one of my favorites, and so fitting for the title and feeling of the page.  The 4x6 cards from the cut-apart paper were used as layers behind the picture.   The floral designs of the collection are so beautiful, so I used some fussy cut flowers and stickers from the 6x12 sheet to create a large cluster around the picture.  The little key charm from Ken Oliver Vintage Heart and Key charm from Maya Road fits perfect in this little cluster.

The beautiful Maya Road Pink and Red Vintage Paper flowers  were used to create clusters at the corners of the title.  The colors in the flowers matched perfectly those of this collection. 

In addition, the Ken Oliver Heart and Key charm from Maya Road add hints of gold, and complement the look of the title and the page.  

Finally, some pieces from the Faith collection Sticker combo were added around the page.  And as a final touch a few splatters of gold ink were added to the page, and to the Maya Road flowers.    

I love the simplicity of this page, and  how the Hello Lovely can easily be used to create a boy layout.  I am sure you all will also love this collection.

Thanks for stopping by!

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Now for even more fun!!  Enter via the Rafflecopter widget below and we'll draw one lucky winner next Monday to win both a Summer Days & Cabin Fever collection kit!   

a Rafflecopter giveaway

After you enter, head on over to the Maya Road blog to see what their team has created.  

Want to follow Maya Road and keep up with all of their great projects & products?  Here you go!

Join us again here tomorrow for more inspiring projects!

 

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