Simple Stories

Hey Everyone! This is Jennie with today’s pocket pages using the Gather Together Collection. I also used a few items from Hello Fall. These collections work great together because their colors are very similar.

I used the Bright Sn@p Letter Stickers to number some of the photos. That way I can journal about everything in one or two cards. This spread has a lot of nature photos with oranges and brown. The Gather Together Mini Kit’s Journaling Elements go perfect with them. It also has creams and tans so the layouts are not too darks. 

I used a Gather Together Journaling Card for my weekly title card. To write the title I used the Hello Fall Combo Cardstock Stickers. I love the font of these alphas. I also used Hello Fall Bits and Pieces.

I took a screenshot of this meme because Daylights Saving really does drive me crazy. I used this Piles of Smiles pattern because I needed something light to balance all the colors.

The Hello Fall 4x6 Stickers comes with a sheet that has lots fall related words and phrases. Since this right side is very photo heavy I added word stickers to all the photos in the middle row.

I needed an extra card to journal on. I liked this brown one but it was a bit dark so I used correction tape to draw a few lines. After I typed everything using my typewriter I distressed the corners.

I hope you enjoyed these pages! Don’t forget to document your Thanksgiving with the Gather Together Collection. It has turkeys! J

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Happy day after Thanksgiving!  We hope you had a wonderful day spent with family and friends and are ready to bring on the Christmas spirit!  

With the holidays upon us, we're happy to share free printables from our Classic Christmas collection!   

From dashboards, Christmas card lists, gift lists and more, these free Classic Christmas printables are just what’s needed to get you in the planning spirit & keep you organized this holiday season!  Designed for use in your Carpe Diem A5 planner, on your scrapbook pages, in your December Daily albums & more - simply download, print, and trim.

Click HERE to download

Happy holidays from all of us at Simple Stories to you and yours!

Hey there!  Missy back with you to share two new layouts using the Gather Together Simple Set.  This collection is full of beautiful Fall colors and is centered around Thanksgiving Dinner.  However, there are several things that are versatile and allow you to take a different route.  I really don’t document Thanksgiving Dinner, so I created a few pages centered around family and thankfulness.  I’m very pleased with how they turned out, and I hope they give you some inspiration.  My first layout is about my two grandmothers.  They were both at my house for a birthday party a few months ago and they were holding hands and chatting.  It was the sweetest thing!  I started with some light kraft cardstock from my stash and a beautiful leaf cut file from the Just Nick store.  I used some Shimmerz Paints on the background using the packaging & splattering technique.  I used papers from the collection to back the leaves and arranged my photo where I wanted it. 

Here you can see the detail of the cut file, the patterned papers and some of the background work.  I machine stitched through all the leaf centers with gold thread for added detail.  For a smaller secondary title, I cut a sentiment from one of the patterned papers and embellished the corner of it with cute leaves from the sticker sheet.

Aren’t these Fall colors so beautiful together?  They have such a homey and comfortable feeling.  For my main title, I used coordinating alpha stickers from the Snap Bold pack.  Again, I stitched with gold thread and then added a red heart sticker and a few phrase stickers from the Hello Fall collection.

I added some tissue paper and patterned paper pieces behind my photo as well as some adhesive foam.  That gives it a little bit of dimension so I could easily add some tangled thread under it.

Here’s one final detail shot of everything.  I added some gold spray to the little dots on the leaves and added more of the same color on the background.

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For my second layout, I used more photos of one of my grandmas and my daughter.  They were just hanging out on the couch, and I just had to document it.  For this page, I used another beautiful cut file from the Just Nick store.  I used white cardstock as my background and to cut the cut file.  I cut it again using the green patterned paper and then added it to just the leaves on the circle.  I used a very old small lined stencil and some Shimmerz Dazzlerz to create those sketchy lines.  I used a deep red color and a dark green to create some fun background texture.  Once that dried, I used some packaging again with Shimmerz sprays.  Once I got everything where I wanted it, I used some dark brown thread to stitch around the big circle.

Here you can see the awesome texture from the stencil and how pretty that cut file is.  I used the “thankful” sticker from the sticker sheet as my title and then added a few smaller stickers around the page, including some hearts.  I used some patterned paper pieces and tissue paper behind my photos.

I used a torn piece of the pretty plaid patterned paper (say that three times fast…haha) as a layer.  I love the color it brings!  Just like on my first page, I added some shiny gold stitching to added pops of shine.  I also added foam behind the photos.

I cut this group of hearts from one of the patterned papers, and this is where I added the gold stitching.  I wrote just a little bit of journaling and added my date stamp.

Here’s another look at the cut file detail.  I love how the leaves curled up because it gives it a little more of a realistic effect. 

I surely hope these gave you some inspiration on how to stretch a small collection and make it work for you.  I had a great time putting these together, and I hope you get some ideas from them!  Have a great day & Happy Thanksgiving!

Hey planner friends! It’s Meka here, interrupting your Thanksgiving prep to share with you my Carpe Diem setup for Thanksgiving week. I used the Gather Together Simple Set.  It includes a few 12x12 double sided papers, journaling cards to cut apart, and adorable themed cardstock stickers.

The journaling cards elements sheets has lot of bits you can use as pocket decoration. Use the cards as-is, or fussy cut around the elements to make them look like die cuts.

I used a scrap of paper as a cover for some coordinating page flags, and embellished with cardstock stickers.

I cut out a pie image from one of the journaling cards to use inside a mini shaker. The pie pic was fine on its own for the front.

The back of the image was just a solid color, so I decorated it with a phrase strip and another fussy cut slice of pie.  Add a little chunky glitter and voila! Okay, it’s not the smoothest execution if you look closely. But in this case, perfection is the thief of joy!

Thanksgiving evokes a warm and earthy image in my mind. The Gathered Together Simple Set has a more whimsical feel than I wanted this time around, so I mellowed things using watercolors. For my dashboard, I painted onto plain Planner Essentials A5 Basic Inserts grid paper as a foundation. I used paint and alphas to pull in the color teal—my favorite color contrast to the rich fall colors of orange, yellow, red, and brown. 

The gathered hearts in the top left corner and bottom right of the Thankful journaling block, as well as the layered leaves are all fussy cut from the journaling card elements.

My Thanksgiving week planner spread uses many of my favorite layout components—watercolor paint, stickers, doodles, and my own hand-lettering.

I wanted to stick with the motifs of the Gathered Together collection. So instead of diving into my beloved washi like I normally do, I cut strips of the Give Thanks and the Grateful Hearts 12x12 cardstock. I used it as faux washi to line the bottom of the page, the headers of the top row, and along the middle of the layout. I even snipped out page flag shapes to fool the eye.

I’m gonna run now and taste test the sweet potato pie before tomorrow’s dinner!  I hope you enjoyed my turkey week planner setup. Come say hi here on Instagram! And have a very happy, heartwarming Thanksgiving!

Hello friends!

I  have two layouts to share today,  which were created with the Gather Together Simple Set. Even though we Canadians have had our Thanksgiving under our belts (no pun intended) for some time now,  American Thanksgiving is just a few days away and so this is a perfect time for me to share pages that express Thankfulness and Gratitude.

Our family celebrated a very small and somewhat nontraditional Thanksgiving this year, as our older children could not make it home for the holiday.  We opted not to do a typical large meal, and spent the extra time doing fun activities and prepping more relaxed meals together.  We made the best of it and had fun, even though we missed our older boys, daughter in law and grandson terribly.

My first page documents how much we love to take fall nature walks and how my husband makes sure we all take this time to enjoy the fall colours, outdoors and time together each year.  I love that about him so much.
 

I was inspired to use a large, as in 12 inches tall, photo for my layout.  The only problem is I do not own a 12 x 12 printer, or 12 inch photo paper!  So I faked it, sort of.  Several years ago I shared a tutorial showing my readers the really cool effect of printing onto textured cardstock.  I thought I would revisit that technique so that I could create a photo that measures 4 x 12.  I printed it in both black & white and colour, and I love both, but for this page I opted for the black and white as you can see.  I did this because I wanted this story to be about gratitude and not the colours of Fall. The photo is not perfect, actually it is slightly grainy, but I really love that it has a sort of "aged" look.

I love this pretty heart paper and wanted it to feature heavily on my page, so I kept the other patterns to a minimum.  Then I created further impact with embellishments.
 

I used florals (mainly from the Hello Fall collection) and a few fussy cut feathers and other nature inspired stickers from the Gather Together Mini collection to create a beautiful cluster to the lower right side of my photo, it has such great impact!  My title is layered over the lower portion of my picture and I love the way it pops, and feeds into the embellishment cluster.
 

On the top right side of my page I added a spot to journal by cutting down a 3x4 cut apart card and adding embellishments around it.  It balances the first cluster really nicely.
 

For a last little bit of pop, I added a small cluster to the upper right of my photo, which completes my visual triangle.  I love that this page turned out pretty much exactly as I had imagined it!

For my next layout, I am focusing more on the food elements of the Gather Together mini collection.  As I was trying to decide what photo to scrapbook, I realized that I take many photos of food and not very many of us enjoying the food or the company at dinner - I think I need to change that! Anyway as I mentioned, we opted for a smaller non-traditional Thanksgiving meal this year, and if our youngest is choosing it is usually something to do with steak!
 

Once I decided on my background paper and the oh so pretty plaid as a secondary paper, my layout which features large and small focal areas, was also pretty much decided by the way I used the papers.
 

My main focal area includes my picture and title as well as a few embellishment clusters. Once again I pulled in a few flowery embellishments from the Hello Fall collection. I love the way these collections work so well together.
 

This smaller cluster at the bottom right of my page mimics my focal area, with the exception of the photo. I love the way this area turned out!  The pumpkin cluster was fussy cut from another sticker so it was missing some of the white border around it, I disguised this by doodling around the upper portion of it with a white pen.
 

I added one more small area to the right of my photo so that I could have a spot for my journalling, not to mention an excuse to use a few more sweet stickers!

I love the way this page turned out, although I do wish I had thought to add some machine stitching, but I think it is just fine without it.

Thanks so much for visiting today!

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Hello Friends! Alexandra here with a brand new spread using The Reset Girl collection. This double page features two weeks instead of one. 

I balanced the black found in the pictures with some papers from Simple Stories The Reset Girl 12x12 Simple Basic Kit

 I printed the date on the gold foiled tag which comes from the Reset Girl Bits & Pieces.

 I printed my journaling in the form of strips so that they would stand out on the dark printed paper. That cute typewriter also comes from the Reset Girl Bits & Pieces.

and here is what our WEEK 44 looked like in Chi-Town. My husband has been a Cubs' fan all of his life so you can easily imagine he was and still is over the moon about their incredible win!

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Hope you have your warm coats and boots out!  My projects today are going to transport you to a winter wonderland!  Just briefly so I guarantee you will survive!

Have you seen the new Mistletoe Kisses collection?  It is a perfect collection for documenting Christmas in a non-traditional color way or document fun in the snow, like I did with both of my layouts.  For my first project, the green polka dot paper was a little to bold for my snowy photos, so I white washed my trees with a little white paint.  This technique toned down the green and helped spotlight my photos.  Remember a while back when Simple Stories paired up with Just Nick?  Well, I ordered this Bare Tree  cut file.  I used it for a Halloween layout then, and now for a winter layout.   I did cut two different size trees.

The title of my layout is quite small.  I centered it on the two photos, helping to bring your eye directly there.  

Here is a closeup of the trees.  You can see the white paint.  After my layout was completely put together, I added a touch of white pearl pen where I thought the snow would fall on the trees.  

I used the pearl pen to add random snowflakes too.

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This photo was after our long walk in the snow on my previous layout.  We got back and my boy collapsed to the ground.  Totally intentional and lots of fun.  Since these will be in my photo album together, I wanted to use the same collection to have them blend.  When I saw the red cursive looking stickers on the Combo Sticker sheet, I new I wanted to create a great title.  Isn't funny how both of my projects are the same collection, look nothing alike, yet still blend?  This one is definitely brighter than the first!

These trees are completely adorable!  Although they have decorations and patterns on them, they still work.  Even with a touch of PINK!  

Here is another cut file I had ordered from Just Nick a month or so back.  It is cute for fall, cut from woodgrain or as a reindeer for winter.  I just love it and will use it over and over.  He is adorable cut from stripes.

Thank you for taking a look.

Hello friends! Brenda Smith here with you today with a pocket page made using Hello Fall. I love how versatile this collection is. This is my third pocket page spread I’ve made with it and I feel like all are different, varied looks. 

I made this page as a summary of sorts for our Fall. I didn’t go too in depth with my journaling because most of these stories will be told on other pages, but I always like to have summary pages to look back on in my albums, not to mention they're just fun to make!

When making pages that summarize an event or season, I start by picking out all of my favorite photos from that time period. Then I edit the pictures, keeping in mind that tonally, the pictures all have to work together on the same page. I place them into a folder and look them over for a few minutes and mull over the story ideas I have in my head. Ultimately, the photos that are chosen are usually the ones that best illustrate the stories. 

Whenever I’m feeling like I need to change things up in my pocket pages because I’m getting bored, I’ll try a different page protector with different photo sizes. It’s been a while since I’ve gone square and I love this protector that has slots for six 4x4 cards and/or photos while still allowing me to use my beloved 3x4”. 

I minimally embellished in an attempt to let the photos and stories speak for themselves. On my regular pages, I usually embellish quite a bit because I enjoy the process but I know that it occasionally detracts from the photos. Here, I printed my photos large and hardly covered any parts of them. 

To keep this spread bright and airy, I strayed away from too many dark cards or papers. I gravitated toward the white/cream patterned papers so that I could get a little visual interest in my spread without overwhelming it. This is a good trick to try if you’re having problems getting the colors in your photos to go with the colors of your supplies. 

Little details like stamped dates and sentiments take only a little time but can add a lot to your spreads. 

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Hello everyone! Today I have two fun Fall layouts to share using the gorgeous Hello Fall collection, which is one of my favorite Fall collections of all time! I love the colors and patterns so much, but I'm pretty sure I say that about every Simple Stories collection.
 

For my first layout, I used the Celebrate Fall patterned paper. I thought the big leaf was so fun and unique, and wanted to do something special with it. I used embroidery floss to stitch string art throughout the leaf. String art stitching is easy! I poked holes around my shape and stitched the outline. Then I went back and randomly crisscrossed the thread until the entire part of the leaf was covered. Once I had the leaf background, it was time to add a photo. We recently went to the pumpkin patch, and I had a picture just perfect for the page!
 

I didn't want to cover too much of the background because I loved the way the string-art stitching turned out. I added a few die-cuts and chipboard pieces, and a title from the ephemera pack. Super fun!
 

Hello November..Violet here, today I would like to share How I used the Posh Doc it journal and Hello Fall collection to make a list for my Thanksgiving Dinner.

I started by gathering all the embellishments that I wanted to use. I water colored the pages to add some color and make it more fall looking and It's relaxing too. 

I grabbed two cards from the Hello Fall Snap Pack and glued them down and then added washi tape. The Blue, Orange, yellow and whites florals are perfect for this layout. I added demension by adding bits and pieces, stickers, Enamel Dots and Bradz. Once all that was complete I couldn't wait to write down my List. 

I also wanted to make sure I didn't lose my place in the journal, when heading to the grocery store, therefore, I decided to make a corner planner bookmark for my Doc it journal. 

Now I can safely tuck it back into my Ivory Carpe Diem planner and take it out when needed. I appreciate and adore the conveniency of being able to do that. And can we all just take a minute, to just stare at the Gold writing...Love!

Thank you everyone who took the time to stop by the blog. It will be a very busy next couple of months, but I am Thankful for it and thankful to be able to stay organized in the best planners out there! I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving..Till next time, happy planning.

Hello Simple Stories friends!

Marcia here today with more Hello Fall layout inspiration. Fall is hands down my favorite season, when all the trees are in full color and my favorite pumpkin spice coffee returns. I don't think I am alone there though ... my niece looks like she definitely enjoys those colorful Autumn leaves too. This layout is titled 'I Love Fall'
 

 A 3x4 journal card helps express his love of Fall too. I used more masculine embellishments here in my clusters, like the chipboard woodpile and bits and pieces corn stalk.
 

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Hello again crafty  friends! Leah here to show you how I am using one of my Doc-It journals as a gratitude journal. Did you know that gratitude boosts levels of dopamine and serotonin in your brain? Just the act of thinking about what you appreciate can trigger these “happy” chemicals in your brain, making you feel happier.  November is the month of the Thanksgiving (in the USA) and often inspires many of us to spend more time reflecting on what we are thankful for. This month seemed like the perfect time to start a daily gratitude journal.

In the past, I have tried to incorporate documenting gratitude into my daily routine, but I have failed time and time again with establishing it as a habitual practice. I am just recently realizing why that keeps happening. I don't know if any of you feel this way, but when I think about what I am grateful for, my brain immediately goes to BIG, general ideas, such as family or my health, or the roof over my head. While I truly am SO grateful for all of those more obvious things, thinking on such a large scale really limits my list. When you are trying to establish a daily gratitude practice, you start running out of ideas pretty quickly if you are too generalized. My dear friend Tiffany spoke to me a little about how she has been documenting her gratitude and I have found her method to be quite helpful for me.  At the end of the day, she reflects back on that day and asks herself, “what is the best thing that happened today?”  Then she writes it down. This practice has really helped me get more specific with what I am feeling grateful for, which makes the process a little more exciting because I now have more variety in my answers. This method has also become a wonderful way to document memories! You will notice how my daily pages so far have a scrapbooking vibe, which is making this project feel even more special, by including mementos and photos with each gratitude message.

For this journal, I started with the Posh Doc-it journal and covered it with one of my favorite 12x12 papers from the Hello Fall collection. I added watercolor to the background and then layered some gold glitter washi tape, tissue paper, a small square SN@P! piece, and a couple of those beautiful leaf die cuts from the Hello Fall collection. I used foam adhesive under the square to make it pop off the background.

The bottom is just torn pieces of patterned paper that I layered and inked to add a little dimension. In the corner, I inked a doily and added some Hello Fall stickers and twine.

The inside cover and first page of the journal act as a cover page. On the left side is an element from a page in the Hello Fall 6x6 paper pad. I felt it was appropriate because I am grateful for all of the things listed (which is why I love autumn so much)! I used some leftover paper scraps to layer behind the words. I inked the edges of the yellow paper to give it a burned look and added some string from my stash that reminded me of sweater material, which I thought gave the layers a “cozy” feel. Last but not least, I punched a tag out of some orange patterned paper and added twine and a clear sticker from the Posh collection.

On the first page of the journal, I used more of that paper I covered the front of the journal with, but I painted the leaves with different colors of watercolor paint. I also painted some of them with a gold shimmery paint. I drew a border around the paper with a fine point sharpie. On top is a Hello Fall SN@P! card and the letter and number stickers are from the Posh collection. 

 I then added a cluster of embellishments: a gold doily, enamel dots, a tab, word strip stickers and washi tape. 

The bottom part of the page has a picture of my entire family and the gather together words are fussy cut from a 12x12 paper in the Gather Together collection kit.

I am only documenting a couple of days from the end of October because my husband and I celebrated our first wedding anniversary over Halloween weekend. I wanted a chance to scrap those memories and express my gratitude on those special days.

The first layout in my gratitude journal is highlighting the date night that kicked off our wedding anniversary weekend! I documented the memories from that night with some photos, movie tickets and journaling. On this day, I was thankful for date nights! All the décor used in this layout is from the Happy Haunting Collection kit, except the washi tapes. I LOVE adding watercolor to my layouts because it adds so much vibrancy and interest! The paper in the Doc-it journals is very thick; it takes the watercolor so well and doesn’t bleed at all!

The next layout is from a trip to a Halloween event that my husband and I took with my youngest sister. Even though the event itself was not all that we expected, the spooky atmosphere and the company made this night a blast. On this day, I documented the experience and expressed gratitude for my sister’s wild, super goofy and amazing personality. She is one of the funniest people I know and we took so many crazy photos that night- this is only some of them!

All of the décor is again from the Happy Haunting kit. I fussy cut the date and the crossword pieces from the 12x12 elements pages to create die cuts. I added lots of watercolor to the background to allow the die cuts to pop off the page.

I really love how the crossword looks with the watercolor peeking through!

Instead of gluing the card at the top of the layout down, I stapled it onto the page so that I could add journaling underneath.

The next layout is really special. This one went a little against the grain in that I didn’t journal about anything from that specific day. We had to work on our actual anniversary, which is why we spent the weekend celebrating. So for this day, I printed out some of our wedding photos and journaled about how thankful I am that my husband challenges me and truly makes me a better person.

This layout understandably has a more romantic feel than the last few pages. I used the beautiful Posh collection for this one. I mostly used SN@P! pieces and die cuts from the collection and used several of my paper punches to punch different shapes out of the 6x6 paper pad to layer behind the photos. I used my scalloped edge punch a lot in this layout, which was inspired by the white doily that spans both pages underneath all of the photos. It is a large square doily from my stash with a scalloped edge. 

I really like adding ink to the edges of most of the layers because it adds dimension by creating some separation between the layers. In this case, it makes them stand out against the white background as well. I also frequently add faux stitching to my layouts, like I did to the vellum circle, because I love how it looks and am often too lazy to do the real thing.

How lovely are the clear stickers over the photos?! 

I really hope I am able to continue diligently with this gratitude journal! Many of my upcoming layouts are only going to be one-page, the two-page layouts will be reserved for special occasions. I hope you will follow along with me on this journey and try creating your own gratitude journal, or just use a notebook or your planner to write down something you are grateful for every day. Remember to stimulate those happy brain chemicals! Follow me over on Instagram to see my upcoming journal layouts!

With love and gratitude.

Hi everyone!  Theresa here with a look into my Carpe Diem planner for November!  I'm using The Reset Girl line in my Marigold planner this month!

I covered my November divider with patterned paper I cut down to size.  I then attached a cut down SN@P card to create a pocket for my stickers and documents.

My family is traveling quite a bit this month, so I used washi tape to highlight our vacation days!

While researching for our trip, I wrote down places we wanted to go on sticky page flags.  I used different colors for activities, restaurants and stores.  I was able to move the page flags around and play with our itinerary.

When I wrote our final itinerary in my planner, I used the same color stickers as I did page flags to color code where we would be going.  

Using the page flags and color coding helped a lot in creating my itinerary!  With the holidays and vacations coming up, I hope you give this little tip a try!  Happy planning!