Odessa Reichel's Blog Posts

09.19.19

Hi! Odessa here sharing some Christmas album inspiration. Christmas memory keeping is my favourite kind of projects to work on. They’re full of family traditions, magic and winter wonderland photos. I used the Country Christmas Collection to work on these pages and it’s so pretty. Lots of vintage-y images and traditional colours that go perfect with all kinds of Christmas photos. There are so many different SN@P! Cards, embellishments, stickers and more that it’s just so much fun to put together a page!

I started out my album with a simple cover page. I had printed some emoji versions of my family that I had made last december and attached them to some vellum. I layered some of the large Country Christmas numbers and a Christmas sticker from the Mini Sticker Tablet to finish it off

The Country Christmas SN@P! binder is so gorgeous and comes with some great ready to go pages including this lovely calendar. I used a bunch of the circle date and icon stickers that were all the same size from the Mini Sticker Tablet. It’s a great way to mark important dates and events that happened over the month, I really like how clean the stickers look on it.

Every year we go to my favourite garden centre to take photos with Santa. It’s so lovely all decked out for Christmas and the visit with Santa is always so special. We had three different Santa photos taken and I couldn’t decide on a favourite so I printed all three on one 6x8 page and used the Country Christmas Border stickers as a divider between them along with a big number. 

I had a favourite candid photo of my kids chatting with Santa that I wanted to feature so I used the Country Christmas 6x8 pad to make a tag to slide in my album. On it I used one of the Layered Frames to frame the photo and a few cute embellishments to finish it off. The Layered Frames are so sweet and a great way to make a quick easy layout to feature a special photo.

Next to that I have a SN@P! page full of fun photos. I had more photos than would fit on the page so I used a Photo Flip to get some more photos in. I used a cute simple paper from the 6x8 paper pad for the back of my giant tag with a great sentiment on it to keep the back simple.

Under my Photo Flip I snuck in some extra journalling and another cute photo. The Country Christmas Mini Sticker Tablet has some great little tabs I attached to the bottom of my Photo Flip to make it a bit more obvious.

St. Nicholas Day is a family tradition from my childhood I’ve continued with my kids. The vintage feel of the Santas in the Country Christmas collection double as St. Nicholas perfectly which I just love.

I used the Country Christmas Simple Basics paper to make a journal card, layering a fussy cut journal spot from one of the 4x4 cards and a big date from the Number Pocket Pieces. I layered some stamps from the stamp set over the big numbers to make it a bit more fun.

A new family tradition we made is going to spend a couple days together doing some cozy glamping at the closest National Park. It’s an amazing winter wonderland there so I pulled a lot of the blues and reds from Country Christmas to go with my photos.

I always save ephemeral bits over Christmas in a big box so that when I’m ready to work on my album I am all ready. I had a map that was not as cute as the rest of the page so I cut down the relevant parts and layered it with some ephemera and stickers to fill my 4x6 pocket. There was a really great calendar stamp in the Country Christmas stamp set that I added to the page to mark the dates we were away. It’s perfect!

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08.20.19

Hi! Odessa here with a cute SN@P! layout using Say Cheese Halloween. I paired my layout with the Yellow Designer binder because I love the polka dot pattern on the inside and the yellow goes great with the spooky colours in Say Cheese Halloween.

The colours and icons Say Cheese Halloween are so fun and playful, so I had so much fun putting this layout together! I’m really into adding interactive elements to my pages lately so there is a photo flip as well as a little protector strip that’s kind of like a bookmark. Around it are lots of cute photos and journal cards from Say Cheese Halloween.

On this page I used a couple of the journal cards from Say Cheese Halloween and a photo from the adventure I was documenting with my kids. I embellished simply with word stickers, stickers, embellishments and alpha stickers to tell my story in a bold graphic way that matches the collection.

In the middle of the layout is one of my current fav elements. I use the Page protector with a long 2x8 strip with two 4x4 pockets. I cut off the 4x4 pockets to make a long strip that’s kind of like a bookmark in the middle of the page and fill it with fun! I put a photo I really liked in it on the black and white stripe of the Frankly Frightful cardstock and added some stickers to finish it off along with a tab sticker on the top.

On the other side of the 2x8 sticker I layered some of the adorable kids from the Say Cheese Happy Halloween Kids Bits & Pieces that reminded me of my boys. Adorable!

I really really like the Photo Flips. They might be one of my favourite Simple Stories accessories and I use them a ton! They’re great for adding that one extra photo to a layout that you couldn’t fit in the pockets or adding more dimension to a story. Under our doughnut photo I squeezed in some journalling and a photo of my son in full donut bliss.

I filled the little 2x2 pockets on the page with some cute embellishments and journal cards. Say Cheese Halloween is such a fun collection! I didn’t have any great recent Halloween photos to use so I used the collection with some everyday photos and love how they worked together. Everyday can be Halloween!

Supplies
08.05.19

Hi everyone, Odessa here with a cute mini album I’ve been working on. I love to take photographs and have a bunch that I just love from our summer camping adventures so far this year so I decided to print some of my favourites and put them together in a 4x6 SN@P! album with the Simple Stories Happy Trails collection. We’re all about camping in my family so when I saw Happy Trails I knew it would be perfect for documenting so many of our summer adventures!

I started out by embellishing the cover of my album. I love how the chipboard covers of the 4x6 SN@P! albums can look good plain or are super easy to embellish. I picked the fun plaid print from Happy Trails and used one of the Bits & Pieces to make a simple yet perfect cover for family adventures.

I love circle photos! I used one of the Circle Photo Crops to cut a 4x4 photo into a 4x4 circle and stuck it in a 4x4 square protector to create a page with a bit of depth from the empty space around the photo. Layers are so much fun in a mini album and that empty space is a great way to add some in. I added some alpha stickers and a word sticker along with a little tab on the edge from the Combo Sticker sheet.

I like to mix in lots of different photo, page protector and journal card sizes in a mini album as well and this page has a bunch! There are some mini 2x2 photos along with a 4x4 journal card on the  left. I used some of the stickers from the Happy Trails Combo Sticker sheet on the outside of the protector so they went over the edges of the pocket for a bit of fun. 

On the right side I cut down 2 of the 2x2 pockets on the page protector so it was square and filled it with some fun 2x2 campfire photos and journal cards. I stuck a chipboard sticker right in the middle of the pocket and then used the scalloped border from the Combo Sticker sheet on the edge for some more layers! I like to add things to the edge of smaller protectors to make them a bit more obvious.

On the other side of the smaller protector I cut a 4x4 photo into smaller squares and put them in the protectors for a tiled look with some phrase stickers and a chipboard sticker. I also used a Photo Flip on this page. I really wanted to include the campground permit from the Bits & Pieces so I placed it floating in a 3x4 Photo Flip with a little Happy Trails tab sticker on the bottom to make it more interactive.

On the other side of the floating embellishment I cut down a piece of Happy Trails cardstock to the same shape. When it’s flipped up it reveals a cute photo of my boys.

Here’s another spread with a cut down protector to get 4- 2x2 squares. I used one of the beautiful 4x6 Happy Trails cards on the page because it was just so perfect and then filled my squares with photos and 2x2 cards. The lantern banner is put on top of the protector so it extends over the top and even over the hole of the page protector.

On the other side is an obligatory smore camping photo with some fun puns next to a full 4x6 photo. I had a ton of beautiful sunset photos from a perfect camping spot right next to a huge lake. I used two in this pocket by using a Circle Photo Crop to cut another 4x4 circle and then laid it over a regular 4x6 photo. I used some simple phrase stickers and Bits & Pieces to add some words to the page.

I really like the single 3x4 photo pockets for the 4x6 albums. I put a nice photo of my boys and I in front of our trusty tent. I really wanted to use the Tent Sweet Tent embellishment from the Bits & Pieces but it was a little large for the photo. I decided to use it as a tab and cut down some Happy Trails cardstock to the same side and attached them like I would tabs. I really like how that turned out! There are so many layers peeking out here, I just love it!

On the other side I used the Campground Permit journal card cut from the Happy Trails cardstock next to a ton of cute sunset photos! Like I said, I had a bunch, so I took some of my favourites and used the Circle Photo Crops to make a bunch of 2x2 circles to put in the pockets. I added in some various Happy Trails embellishments in the empty pockets with nothing around them to get a fair bit of the next page peeking through. I used the reverse side of the Happy Trails 3x4 Elements Cardstock for some night sky vibes as a good background for my photos.

I hope you enjoyed this peek in my mini album and that I’ve inspired you to have some fun with different photo sizes, shapes and layers!

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