Odessa Reichel's Blog Posts

01.08.20

I like to set some crafty goals for myself at the beginning of the year and the Hey Crafty Girl collection was perfect for visualizing those goals! With bright cheerful colours and lots of different crafts represented it was so easy to start putting these pages together.

I used a SN@P! binder with a yellow spine and covered it with the Crafty & Happy cardstock. Love those stripes! I used the scallop border sticker from the Combo Sticker sheet along the edge to smooth out the transition between cardstock and album spine. To make it a little more fun I cut out a larger camera from one of the 4x4 elements and added a chipboard word sticker.

Inside the album the first thing is a full page 6x8 layout and an interactive page. I liked the idea of making my list a little more interactive with a tab booklet.

For my full page layout I printed out a photo strip with two current crafty projects and me! I picked some cardstock for the background (DIY Queen), loosely adhered my photo and started building around it! I added SN@P! elements, Bits & Pieces, stickers from the Mini Sticker Tablet and Combo Sticker Sheet and chipboard stickers. I like to start by finding my favourite bits and positioning them around my photo and then work on filling in the spaces until I’m happy. I added the CRAFTY chipboard stickers at the bottom and the chipboard pom pom garland on top to finish it up.

I had too much fun working on the page with my tag booklet. To start, I made a 4x4 pocket on top of a 6x8 page protector out of the Made With Love cardstock. I had planned to do some stencilling to go inside the page protector, but when the Hey Crafty Girl stencil was under my page protector I liked the way it looked so much I just added a 2 inch paper strip to the bottom so it would fill the whole pocket. I love how it adds more layers and you can see the page underneath peek out. Inside my little pocket is the tag booklet - I used a few different 3x4 elements and some actual tags from the Hey Crafty Girl Bits & Pieces and punched a hole in the top. I used some yarn to hold it together and made some cardstock tassels to go on the end. I just cut strips of cardstock and added fringe along the bottom and rolled them up around the ends of the yarn. So easy with a high fun factor. Little elements like that really encourage touching and actual interaction with layouts - I just love that!

Inside my tag booklet I used the big number stickers from the Hey Crafty Girl Mini Sticker Tablet to number off my goals. I also added in a tag made from the Simple Basics paper that coordinates with the colours of this collection and added lots of embellishments to make it fun,

Since the backside of the pocket I made was visible through the stencil, I used one of the 4x4 elements to cover it up. I left the rest of that page plain because I wanted the layers going on to shine! On the other side I used one of the SN@P! pages with all the 2x2 pockets to bring together some visuals for my crafty goals. I combined 2x2 photos with 2x2 elements and some embellishments. I put the Happy Place cardstock underneath to play with the negative space around the embellishments.

Working with Hey Crafty Girl was great way to make my craft goals visible! Now I can look back and add to it as I craft my way through 2020.

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12.18.19

Hi, Odessa here with a couple of fun SN@P! layouts using Simple Stories Holly Jolly. It’s such a great Christmas collection - it’s pretty, full of bold colours and icons and just a little bit sassy. I’ve been using it a ton while catching up on my December 2018 album. Today Im going to share a couple pages.

Here I did a full page layout next to a page with some cute 2x2 square pockets. I had too many great pictures from when we went winter camping and here I am highlighting a few favourites. The Simple Basics coordinating plain and subtly patterned paper made a great background for my 6x8 layout and the colours all go so great together.

I love clusters and layers and a full page layout is the best way to play around with them because there is so much space! I layered various torn cardstock from Holly Jolly under my photo and went from there I picked out a sticker from the Combo Sticker sheet as my title and worked around the photo layering Bits & Pieces, stickers of all kinds and those perfectlyy coordinated enamel dots. I sandwiched a floral Bits & Pieces die cut between some of the cardstock layers to create some balance with the title in the opposite corner.

I filled up the 2x2 pockets on the opposite pages with some of the SN@P! cards and cut outs from the 2x2 Elements cardstock. I kept embellishing on the photo simple with a sticker and enamel dot.

This SN@P! spread is about one of my fav family traditions, putting up our stockings and putting letters to Santa in them. I used a lot of reds around the page and love how they pop!

The corner of this 4x6 photo was totally in need of a little cluster of fun. I mostly used the Holly Jolly Mini Sticker Tablet because the smaller size of the stickers work great in a small area. I added an enamel dot and a border sticker from the Combo Sticker sheet to finish it off.

I added the “believe” chipboard sticker here and it looks so great on this cut out from the 4x6 Elements cardstock. I did some journalling on a SN@P! card and stuck it in a photo flip with a tab from the Combo Sticker sheet. I love using those tabs on a Photo Flip to play up the interactivity.

When the Photo Flip is opened up, my kid’s Christmas lists are revealed! I like to get those in my album every year to capture what’s hot, their handwriting and what they are in to. Using a Photo Flip was a great way to get them into this page without having to add a separate page for them.

I hope you enjoyed and are inspired by this look into my December Album! Christmas scrapbooking is probably my favourite kind of scrapbooking. It’s my second year using just Simple Stories collections to put together my album and I really appreciate the range in the wintery and holiday collections so there is one for any mood of layout.

Supplies
11.27.19

Hi! Odessa here with some more Christmassy SN@P! inspiration. I used the oh so cute Say Cheese Christmas collection to work on a couple of pages in my December album. The colours are so much fun and it’s all so playful!

I really liked the 2x2 cards that spelled out Merry on the 2x2 Elements page so I made a fun page focused on them with some cute Say Cheese Christmas Bits and Pieces and Chipboard stickers in the additional pockets. On the other side I combined some fun pics (new Christmas mugs!!) with some of the whimsical elements from the collection.

The pinks and greens together in Say Cheese Christmas are so good. I like putting die cuts in the 2x2 pockets to add some layers by letting what’s underneath peek through.

Under all those 2x2 squares is a bright photo of macarons and some general holiday ephemera. Say Cheese Christmas is perfect for fun and magical holiday stories.

On the bottom of my colourful photo I used the festive banner sticker from the Combo Sticker sheet with a big word from the Bits & Pieces pack. It’s perfect!

On this page I have a recipe on one side and just some more holiday fun on the other. The left side of the page is more subtle in colour while the right side pops!

I used one of the 4x6 Elements cards to add in a recipe which has been so important to me in this album. Baking is such a big part of Christmas for us that there are pages dedicated to recipes we made so we can look back on them. This big journal card was the perfect size. The other embellishments and cards on the page are similar colours and designs to keep it harmonious.

On the other side I went bold and bright. This particular page protector has a long 2x8 pocket along the side and 2 4x4 pockets. I cut a strip of squares to fill the 2x8 pocket - it fits and looks great! Next to it is a 3x4 photo on top of a cut down 4x4 piece of cardstock with those festively fun banner stickers to anchor the corners.

I thought the combination of the 3x4 Element that said “Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse” contrasted with a photo of my cat in front of the tree would be really fun so I used the Photo Flips. I used a tab sticker so it’s a bit more obvious to flip it open with the photo of my cat adhered to the same cardstock as used in the photo on the bottom. I added some stickers like that little Santa hat on top of her head to be a little more playful. The Hello Santa 4x4 card really finishes it off.

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