Nathalie DeSousa's Blog Posts

11.11.17

Hello everyone!

I hope you all are enjoying the Fall season, and all its splendor (at least here in the Northern Hemisphere!).   Nathalie with you today bringing you a new layout created with one of the new Simple Stories "HAPPY HARVEST" collection.

All the colors and designs in the Happy Harvest Simple Set are perfect to document our Thanksgiving memories.  For this I am using a Just Nick Studio to create the background of the  page.   All those leaves are the perfect background for the picture of my kids on Thanksgiving.

 

 

All the stickers in the set, as well as the designs in the  cut apart cuts are perfect to create small clusters around the layout.  To add the title of this page, i pulled the large chipboard sentiment from the Vintage Blessings collection.

 

I hope that you all are inspired by the colors and designs of the new Simple Stories "HAPPY HARVEST" collection.  The collection is perfect to document all those special Thanksgiving memories.  

See you all soon!

Supplies
09.20.17

Hello everyone!  Nathalie with you today.  I am still crushing on the new Simple Stories "BEAUTIFUL" collection... what can I say, "It is BEAUTIFUL".  So I want to share with you all a few more layouts created with this collection.   Let me show you:

 

 

You know that feeling when you see a patterned paper, and suddenly the entire layout comes to mind, picture and all!   This is what happened as soon as I saw the "Shine Bright" paper from the Beautiful collection. For starters the name of the paper, and all the gold foil gave me the idea to create a star filled page.

 

 

Next i wanted to incorporate one of my favorite and most used techniques, "a large stitched title".   For this i used one  of the Simple Stories' Silhouette Store designs to cut the large "SHINE"  word from one of the papers from the High Style paper pad.  It was then backed with the Shine Bright paper, and then stitched together with pink and gold embroidery thread.

 

 

Once the stitching was completed, then I trimmed the page, and stitched on a slant to another of the High Style papers from the pad (I love that all these papers combine seamlessly), and attached the picture to the bottom of the page.

 

 

Using the same cut file, a lots of stars were created from different papers from the collection (all the leftover pieces from previous projects), and these were scattered around the page, so that they look as exploding from the bottom corner of  the page.

 

 

Using pieces from all the embellishment add ons, small clusters were created along the page, so that they form a visual triangle, and bring attention to the picture, and title of the page.  Here is the final page:

 

 

I love the combination of colors, dimension, and texture in this page.   It came together in a heart beat (though the stitching took some time), and the end result is just worthy of the title.  

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For the second project, I wanted to focus on using the soft patterns of the collection to create a very feminine and simple page about this year's Mother's Day portrait  ( I am so glad i save this picture for the right collection!)

 

 

I wanted to keep the page clean and simple, so I reached for some white cardstock for the background of the page.  Then cut two triangles, and two strips from the "CHOOSE HAPPY" paper, and glued them onto the white cardstock making sure to show the b side of the paper  in the strips .  A bit of machine stitching secures is all together to the cardstock.

 

 

All the soft patterns in the paper are perfect for recreating flowers on a layout.  For these, I used a steel die to cut the  petals, and a JustNick cut file to create the leaves for the page, and cut them all from the 6x8 paper pad. Then just layer the petals together and glued a small enamel dot from the Faith collection to the center of each flower.

 

 

Once all the flowers were ready to glue, then assembly on the page started.   I glued the picture onto the bottom corner the page, and added two large  clusters of flowers, and stems to  the two corners that run along the paper triangle.   

 

 

Then added a few pieces of ephemera, and stickers around the  flower clusters.   The pop of black, white, and gold in the pieces make the flowers softer, and bring out the details in each of them.

 

Finally, I wanted to bring a bit of shine to this page, and what better place than to create a foiled title for this page.  Using the Deco Foil PeelnStick toner sheet, and one of the Simple Stories  Silhouette store cut files, i created the  title for the page.  The paper was so easy to use in the Cameo machine!  Then a bit of gold foil, and some heat from the laminator bring the title to life.

 

 

The simplicity of the page is not lost with the soft flowers and stems that decorate the page.   The dimension created on each of the flowers is perfect to bring the patterns on the papers to life, and keep the focus on the picture.   I really love the final look of the page!

 

I hope you are all inspire to use the patterns, colors and foiled details in the  Simple Stories BEAUTIFUL collection.  It is one of my favorite Simple Stories to date, and i am sure you will also fall in love with it!  Remember i am a comment away if you have any questions on how this came together.

 

See you all soon!

 

Supplies
08.30.17

Hi there!  Nathalie with you today  bringing you a few layouts created with the new and gorgeous "BEAUTIFUL" collection.  I am in love with this collection!  It is so easy to work with, and all the designs are perfect to document all those beautiful people in your lives.  I think the title says it all the collection is:  "Beautiful, indeed!"

Let me share with you a few layouts that I hope that inspire you, too:

BEYOUTIFUL

 

 

It seems like my kids are growing faster than I would like them to  ;( -sad emoji-,  and with each passing day, I see how rapidly they are letting go of my hand.  So I set out to create a page about my daughter, and her ever changing youth.

I was inspired by the small doodled flowers in the collection to create a  floral background for this layout.  Since I love cut files, I pulled the Behold Beauty file from Just Nick Studio to create the large cut out used behind the picture, as the flowers reminded me of the ones in this collection.  A little bit of mixed media using the blush color of the paper bring out the details of the flowers in this page.

To create the background of this page, i cut two strips of paper from the "BeAmazing" paper -i made sure to save the floral edge for a future project.  The b-sides of the papers in this collection are just as beautiful, so I glued the two strips so that both sides of the paper will show onto white cardstock.   Then trimmed the entire mat, and glued it to the b side of "Simply Wonderful Paper".  A bit of mixed media was then added to the page.

While the mixed media dried, I backed the cut file with pink and white vellum.   Using a punch, I created the butterflies for this layout.  I  used a combination of papers from the 6x8 paper pad to obtain the cut outs, and stitched them together.  

Then it came time to embellish the layout.   So I searched for all the doodle flowers available in the collection's coordinating embellishments, and used them to create 3 clusters on the page.   The clear gold stickers worked seamlessly in the background as they mixed nicely with the watercolor background.  

All the coordinating stickers, and sentiments in the sticker sheets are perfect to layer, and cluster around the pictures.   I had to restrain myself from adding more stickers to the clusters, instead, I found the black die cut "BeYouTiful" that serves as the title for this page.  Here is a look at the final page:

Aren't the colors and embellishments in this collection just Beautiful!  They are soft, and bold at the same time, but perfect for my teen daughter.

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HELLO AMAZING

This second project is all about my little cousin (she was named after me!), and she is also growing up so fast, and we only get to see her when we visit our family in Ecuador, so it is easy to see how much she has changed, and I wanted to document her as she enter into her tween years.

This page started with the large heart in  background.  I drew two parallel hearts in a piece of white cardstock, and cut the edges of both hearts so that they formed a hollowed out heart.  For the background of this layout, I used one of the papers in the High Style Paper pad -that matched the colors of the Beautiful collection-, so i searched on my stash for some thin crochet yarn that matched the paper's color, and used it to wrapped the entire heart cut out.

Once the heart was completely covered in yarn, I  cut a large heart out of the mint marbled paper from the 6x8 paper pad -using the wrapped cut out as a template-, and glued it to the back of the hear cut out.  I used hot glue to attached this piece to the mat ( as i wanted to completely secure it).  

There are so many floral motives in this collection, so I used a pair of fine scissors to fussy cut them from different papers, and also to trim the white edges from the stickers and die cut pieces -this allows for the flowers to mixed together without much space between them-.   I used a large number of them to layer behind the top of the heart and picture, along with some of the stickers and die cuts from this collection (there are so many to chose from)

The die cuts in this collection are just so beautiful, that i had to use them to create the title of this page.   I affixed the two die cuts at the bottom of the heart, and added a few of the floral motives behind the words.  The balloons sticker adds the little bit of whimsy to the page.

I love the end result of this page.  It has texture, softness, and lots of flowers...what is there not to love!!

I  hope these inspire you to create beautiful pages about all those special people in your life.  Trust me, once you receive the new Simple Stories BEAUTIFUL collection, you will also be looking at those special pictures to document.  AS always, let me know if you have any questions on how these came together.  

Have a BEAUTIFUL day!

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