Good morning friends! Brenda Smith here with you today to show you how versatile the Faith collection is. I wanted to document my daughter's seventh birthday party but really liked the colors and patterns in the Faith collection but knew the sentiments weren't exactly what I needed for these kind of layouts. So I set out to make this kit work for what I needed. 

 

 

One of the things I liked about this collection so much is the perfect balance of girly-ness with more colors than just the traditional pink and purple and red. The blues, yellow, pinks, and greens meshed amazingly with colors of my photos. 

 

 

The cloud and stars die cut had a non-applicable bible verse on the cloud so I covered it with some labels from the Emoji Love 4x6 stickers. The phrase stickers atop the labels are from the Emoji Love Sticker Tablet. I trimmed a 3x4 journal card so I could use it as journaling space on this 4x6 card. I hand-stitched a little to accent. I interviewed my daughter to fill out the "I Am..." card and love how I'll have this little time capsule of what she was doing when she turned seven. 

 

 

I added a strip of patterned paper to the bottom of the "Never Forget" journal card before hand-stitching the "love." Because the patterned papers in this collection worked so well with my photos, I printed out most of my photos just slightly smaller than the cards so I could get additional pops of color in the pockets with photos. The "His Love" heart worked so well with this photo of my kids and gave me a great opportunity to talk about how enamored my son is with my daughter. 

 

 

The varying sizes of the page protectors encouraged me to print up my photos at varying sizes and use some of the large pocket cards I don't usually use (like the 4x4 and the 4x6 cards). 

 

 

I trimmed two 3x4 cards on the diagonal and glued them together to form the background of this "believe" photo pocket. The chipboard balloons from Faith 6x12 chipboard gave me a little dimension on an otherwise flat spread. I hand-stitched some arrows to make sure the rare family photo was appropriately highlighted. 

 

 

The 4x6 pocket on the top is a little heavier visually with all of the patterned papers and embellishments I combined so I attempted to keep the pocket on the bottom a bit lighter with the white background and lightly patterned blue paper with the journaling. It was a little too plain for my liking at first so I added more hand-stitching and a little washi and a sticker at the bottom. 

 

 

I knew I wanted to use this cute globe card but I couldn't figure out what to add to it. It's great on its own but putting this "love" chipboard piece on the diagonal added the accent I desired. I used a paper punch to add the chevron detail to the picture of my son.

 

 

I had fun altering journal cards on this side. I trimmed the aqua diagonal 3x4 card and placed it atop a yellow journal card. For the picture of myself, I trimmed several cards to make the layered effect you see. I used dimensional foam adhesive to pop up "inspired." The "Be Still" sentiment I thought worked well for the picture of all the kids together because we all know that familiar struggle of getting this many kids to be still at the same time. 

 

I hope I've encouraged you to think outside of the box when it comes to your themed Simple Stories collections!