Hello everybody! So happy to be back! We are living in very special moments in our lives… there is nothing better than to have the chance to share a beautiful moment creating together. I´m Maria Celeste from GuiadeManualidades.com and I have a wonderful idea for all of you!

I've been in my home for more than a month. Everyday is a new challenge. But I´m always thinking that we are very lucky because we love scrapbooking. We have this wonderful hobby/job to help us. I started to imagine a new project with the Simple Stories I Am collection and I was sure about one thing: it was going to be something just for me. A very special mini book full of details and things I love.

The I Am Collection has become one of my favorites. I'm sure I will keep it in my personal collection. I fell in love with it the moment I saw it and I feel it´s just for me.

This mini album has plenty space for photographs and personal memories. And I made lovely and special details with my sewing machine. Let´s get started! As I always tell you, remember you can make this mini album in the size you want. For my project I cut 3 pieces of stable cardboard : #1- 7” w x 8 1/2” h (cut 2 of it), #2- 2” w x 8 1/2” h.

I used three of the collection kit papers to cover all the structure. But, before doing it, I sewed it along the edge. You will see I do that in all of my mini books. Sewing details are a must in this project!

For the inside of my structure I used the same design paper and did the same sewing detail. But, you have to wait until you prepare the spine.

I made a very special spine. To make it cut a piece of white cardsotck paper of 10 1/4” w x 6 1/2” h. Then you have to scored it in 1 ½”, 2”, 2 ½”, 2 3/4”, 3 1/4”, 3 3/4”, 4” , 4 1/2”, 5”, 5 1/4”, 5 ¾” 6 1/4”, 6 1/2”, 7”, 7 ½”, 7 ¾”,  8 ¼”, 8 ¾”.  As a result you are going to have a classic spine with 6 hinges. But, before gluing it in the interior of the mini album structure, we are going to add small strips of the the same paper that we used to cover the middle stable cardboard piece. To do it, just sew them… you will love this detail!

Once it´s ready, you can glue the spine and then add the interior papers. You will find that the spine is smaller than your structure. Don't panic! It's ok! Just leave 1” up and down.

As we have a 6 hinges spine, we are going to make pocket pages.

To get them ready cut 6 pieces of  white cardstock of  6” w x 16 ½”” h. Place the paper on your scoring board (heigth) and scored in 8”, 16”. The last ½” is what your are going to glue to close the pocket. Repeat the proccess with all the other papers.  Pockets pages are ready! And you can add an extra page inside of them using the same white cardstock. One beautiful detail that I added was sewing to them some special words from the “Journal Bits Kit".

Now we are ready! Let's start with the fun work… Put all your decorating elements on the table and start playing with them. As I always say… let's make magic! Every design paper that I used to decorate the album was sewed first. I even sewed the die cuts while I was decorating the album.

First thing to prepare is the cover. For my cover I found inspiration in one of the elements of the collection. I used chipboards, paper flowers, gold and white baker twine, a very special ribbon (with gold details) and some die cuts. With the ribbon I made a small rosette and I combined it with a piece of paper. The result is a lovely and very romantic cover with inspiring words and phrases.

Let´s go to the inside! Use everything you have to decorate the pages. Die cuts, stickers, chipboard, enamels dots and combine them with pieces of papers. Feel free to prepare small interior structures as cascades or small pockets. And remember to use 4x4, 4x6 and 3x4 elements to combine with them. Brads will be a beautiful detail for your interior structures and you can have some small magnets on your desk to add to them.

I hope you like this idea and now you feel inspired to created beautiful mini album just for you. You will see that I Am Collection is lovely!

See you next time!

Hi there Simple Stories Friends!

Hope you all are safe in  your little corner of the world. Though most of us are doing our part to beat this virus, it does not stop us from reliving ( and wishing to ) our travels.  The new Simple Stories GOING PLACES collection is perfect to bring the best of those memories.

I started with a Sn@p  basic ledger paper as the background for the page.  What better way to bring happy to a page than a rainbow.  I pulled some of the Sn@p  cards with the same background design in different colors, as well as some of the collection papers.  Then cut chevrons  and hand stitch them to the top right corner of the page.

With so many bright colors in the papers, i glued a few pieces as layers behind the picture an set it at the end of the rainbow chevron.    Here is where i had fun with all the stickers, bits and pieces and even fussy cut some tags from the paper to form a cluster at the top right corner of the picture.

Did i mention this collection has so many fun embellishments?  It was so easy to combine embellishments with some stamping to bring interest and sentiment to the page.

To balance the page, i cut strips of the Happy Travels, On Our Way, 3x4 Elements and set them at the bottom of the page.  Here, i added a large cluster of ephemera at the left side of the paper strips at the same level as the picture.

With all the color in the page, i pulled the Black foam alpha from the Color Vibes  collection to spell the title of the page under the chevron pieces.  I added a phrase sticker from the Combo Sticker sheet to complete the title, then used the coordinating stamp to add more sentiment to the title piece.

This collection is amazing, filled with color, fun designs, and just the perfect sentiments to document your past trips, or plan the ones you will go on once we are able to do so! I hope you check the GOING PLACES collection. You are going to love it!

'til next time, keep safe!!

Hi everyone!  It’s Dorymar and I'm excited to share with you this Spring project.  I love the colors in this collection, the cutest bunnies, the flowers, birds, butterflies, etc. The new HIP HOP HOORAY collection is the perfect collection to document the beautiful Spring season.

For this project, I decided to use the 6x8 Pink Stripe Binder because the color is just the perfect match with the collection. On the cover, I used the Hello Spring chipboard letters and combined them with the bunch of flowers included in the bits and pieces pack, closer to them I added a few stickers from the collection. The binder design is so beautiful, I just had to add a few elements. It looks super cute.

Because the Striped Binder doesn’t have dividers, I prepared my own dividers with pockets and space to use the beautiful pieces that the collection has. This gives me the opportunity to play with the spaces of the album and create a fun interactive look.

This is one of the dividers that I like the most, it has a lot of space for photos and it also includes a pocket for a 4x6 card, it is fantastic and you have a lot of fun as you open the flaps.  I embellished simply with stickers, die cuts, enamel dots and journal die cuts to tell my story.

Below I show you the close ups.

I love adding the journal bits and pieces, because when I add my photos, I have little spaces to add my journaling. They are perfect and super cute.

One of the things I love the most about using Striped Binders is that I can add the pocket pages that I want among the variety that is included in the Insta Pocket Pages Pack.  The package contain 2 of each configuration and each one is divided into different combinations in both vertical and horizontal orientations. They are perfect to add the lovely 6x4 and 3x4 cards included in the collection. I also had space to decorate it with the beautiful elements of the Hip Hop Hooray Collection.   See the pictures below.

I loved the bunnies so much that I wanted to incorporate all of them, they are the cutest bunnies I have ever seen.

This divider is such fun because it has two big pockets and when you open it, you have space for more pictures. I fussy cut the bunny from one of the pages included in the 6x8 paper pad and used it as a decoration at the top of my card. Also, I added some brads from the collection, that gave a perfect touch to my project.

For my first page I created an open up flap using some different patterned papers from the 6x8 paper pad as a base. I decorated it with all the amazing elements of the collection.

I think this project is perfect to show off this gorgeous collection, I made all the adorable dividers and included many sizes of pocket pages to add all my Spring memories and I hope this inspires you to use this wonderful spring collection.

Thank for stopping by today!

Hello Spring!

Good morning cardmaking friends! Anya here today and I'd like to share a few cards with you that I created using the Best Year Ever collection. This paper line is designed to cover so many themes and holidays! Actually, I challenged myself to create each card using only one sheet of paper. Must admit, it was so much fun, I could go on and on! But for today, here are my first five cards.

Isn't this amazing, that you can create a card for almost any occasion using just one paper line?

For these first two cards I used the January and February months papers and added some coordinating ephemera and stickers.

While I can never have too many Christmas cards, the card from the February paper doesn't have to be a Valentines Day themed specifically. This one can totally work for a girls Birthday card!

Same thing here, I used a patterned paper for the month of April, which has a Spring theme, but with a great choice of phrase stickers you can make a card that can be used for many more reasons.

For the last two cards I used the September and November patterned papers. I can always use a “thankful” card and with three students at home, a school themed card is a must to have on hand! I hope I have inspired you to try the same challenge of using just one piece of patterned paper for a card and maybe you could go all the way through and create at least twelve cards!

I got my hands on the "I Am" collection a couple of months ago and if you had told me then what I would be using it to document, I'm not sure I would have believed you.  But here we are, mid-way through April with most of the United States in our homes and practicing social distancing.  So, it seemed only appropriate, to document this crazy moment in time!  I was glad I had a good collection to do just that!  Here's my layout!

Hi everyone! I was SO excited when I first saw the Best Year Ever collection. It was just what I was looking for to work on my annual family album this year. Lots of great SN@P! cards and coordinating embellishments that go with all the months and seasons all ready to go.

I organized all the supplies from the kit by month so that when I print my photos at the end of the month I just need to pull out those things and it’s just so easy to pull together a few SN@P! pages and have another month documented. So far I’ve managed to stay current, fingers crossed it keeps up!

I paired Best Year Ever with my favourite album, the Robin’s Egg Stripe Binder. Its such a cheery colour that goes with everything!

I started my album with a big BEST YEAR EVER page from the Best Year Ever 6x8 paper pad. Next to it is the start of January. I love how many journal cards there are. I’ve been using these big oval ones to lay out what happened that month. Each month has it’s own colour scheme and icon set that works together great and highlights some important things that month. There is even a page of coordinating stickers in the sticker book for each Month with phrase stickers and icons and other cute things. It’s perfection!

I’ve been really into dividers lately and had a few saved up from some old SN@P! binders. I pulled them out and used some of the Best Year Ever cardstock and stickers to embellish them. Simple and cute! On the left side I got one of those big bold month cards from the SN@P! pack, the type is so cute! I also used the new Color Vibe Foam Stickers in blush on one of my photos, they are so fun!

There are also some great calendar SN@P! cards in the SN@P! pack. I included one for March for all the days we’ve been hanging out at home. I used one of the new Color Vibe alpha sticker books to add some matching alpha stickers. There are so many colours to choose from, it’s perfect! The Best Year Ever Foam Stickers had a perfect phrase to put over my not so lucky dolled up cat.

Playing with layers is my favourite thing after bold colour! I used one of the 2x2 filled SN@P! pages here with a mix of photos and embellishment. They are a great way to add in a lot more photos without taking up too much more space. I’m hoping to get the year into two albums so I can see more of these pages sneaking their way in. Aren’t those March colours gorgeous?!?

More layers and another one of those big bold month title SN@P! cards. All my favourite things. I really like these protectors with two 3x4 pockets in the middle with a row of 2x2 pockets on the top and bottom of them. It’s a great way to focus on a story or set of photos. February was a another favourite, all those hearts are perfect!

If you’re looking for a great collection to document the whole year check out Best Year Ever!

With Mother's Day and Graduation around the corner, let's think about creating those "useful" gifts!  Today I'm sharing a tutorial on crafting a beautiful "Note Card Gift Box" using the Simple Vintage Garden District Collection.  This project is built from the ground up, but if you have an empty box and lid just adjust the measurements to fit.

Let's get started by making the box:

I started with three strips of heavy chipboard (use a cereal box, etc if you don't have sheets on hand).  You will need two pieces that measure 6.5"X4.25" and one piece that measures 6.5"X2". A piece of patterned paper was cut to 10 5/8" squared. The chipboard pieces were adhered to the square of paper, leaving an 1/8" gap between (to allow for folding).  Two pieces of 6.5"X4.25" scrapbook paper were attached as shown above and then the sides were folded in to create the box:

For the lid I have used the non-stick portion of an 8.5X11 laminate sheet from Scrapbook Adhesives; simply peel away the sticky sheet.  I scored the sheet at 1" and 7.5"; turned the sheet and scored at 4.5" and 6.5". The acetate is quite thick, so you may want to use a stylus to create a better score.  Next, only four small cuts were made at the sides where the vertical marks meet the horizontal marks.  After folding I used an extreme double-sided tape to attach at the 1"X2" tab.  For decoration, I added a 1" strip of patterned paper around the sides and top of the lid; you could also use ribbon or trim!

The A2 envelopes were crafted from solid sheets of colored papers.  I've used an envelope making tool, but premade envelopes could also be used.  

Next, I stamped and colored the fronts with colored pencils and used a pen and ruler to create the lines:

I chose a set of premade kraft card bases and then layered on mats with the leftover papers from the envelopes.  One of the layers was attached with foam adhesive, with the final layer being one of the 3X4 journal cards.  A band of scrapbook paper holds all of the notecards together.

Envelope seals were created from a simple duo of adhesive paper, scrapbook paper and a 1.5" circle punch!

To finish off the notecard set, I made six unique embellishments for card toppers!  Again, I used the leftover solid papers to die-cut a small design (circle, heart, octagon) and then layered them with all sorts of die-cuts, stickers, chipboard and enamels:

The front of the box was decorated with stickers, trim and a hand-tied ribbon.  Finally, the acetate top slides right down into the box opening for a perfectly completed gift!

I'm also sharing a YouTube video that includes a bit of a tutorial, as well as a walk-through of the pieces! 

Thank you for joining!