Odessa Reichel's Blog Posts

05.17.19

Hi! Odessa here with a couple of pages using the super fun Oh Happy Day collection. Both of these pages incorporate non-traditional photos with the fun colours and graphics of this collection. I love all the little cameras, coffees, hearts and cute phrases, they worked perfect with the pages I was working on. I picked the bright Pink Stripe Designer Binder to go with this collection to keep the fun vibes going.

I knew I wanted to incorporate some of the Instax photos my son took on our trip but in a way that kept them all together as a look into his viewpoint. A little collection of photos like this seems what the Simple Stories Photo Booklets are made for! Knowing that I wanted to incorporate them into my album as a whole I used one of the pocket pages that features 2x2 squares along with a big 4x6 pocket in the middle which I could slide the Photo Booklet into. 

The left side of the layout is pretty simple with some photos and a big graphic journal card. I used a lot of the camera icons from Oh Happy Day throughout this page since photos and taking them was the focus. I added in a little photo I had printed with my portable printer and then attached to the gorgeous photo cardstock from Oh, Happy Day. I sprinkled some cute stickers, chipboard and enamel dots (can I just say I am loving the coordinating enamel dots) to embellish my photos. 

I had a lot of fun embellishing the Photo Booklet with Oh Happy Day. I covered it in a cute dot pattern cardstock from the collection and added some stickers and washi to the front. Along the back of the booklet I used the scallop boarder from the combo sticker sheet to add some fun dimension along with one of the adorable Oh Happy Day bow clips! I also embellished a plain paper clip by adding in some strips of folded over washi from the collection just for more fun. I slid some 2x2 cards and Bits & Pieces to fill up the pockets to keep it less busy around the Photo Booklet.

Inside the photo booklet I cut down some of the coordinating solid cardstock from the Oh Happy Day Simple Basics Kit as a simple background to the photos. The coordinating cardstock was a great way to keep the fun colours throughout the booklet without overpowering the tiny photos. I added some simple phrase stickers to the photos to keep the embellishing simple. The big instant camera is cut down from one of the 4x4 cardstock elements.

On this spread I have some standard SN@P! pockets with a cute insert in the middle to hold a photo strip. The photos on this page are from a fun trip to the mall which is a perfect thematic match for Oh Happy Day! The left side is some cute photos of my boys and 3x4 Element cards to go with them (and a ton of embellishments, of course!)

I cut down one of the Insta Photo Pockets for this page. There’s one with a long vertical pocket and two 4x4 pockets that is perfect for making these little inserts. I slid in a photo strip that I wanted to include with the layout as a stand out element and attached some tab stickers from the Combo Sticker sheet along with some phrase stickers.

On the back of the photo strip I added my journaling and some stickers to tie it into the rest of the layout. On the page facing that I finally got to use ALL THE COFFEE STICKERS on a photo of a coffee cup and a bit of sass with a “normal is boring sticker” on a funny photo of my guys. I hope you’re inspired with some new ways to add non-traditional photos into your pages!

Supplies
05.01.19

Odessa here today with some SN@P! layouts using the Sunshine and Blue Skies collection. The summery Simple Stories collections are often my favourite - they’re always so fresh, bright, fun and a little sassy. The colours in Sunshine and Blue skies are so good. The greens and corals missed with the blushes and blues and even black just feel so summery. 

When I first saw Sunshine and Blue Skies I knew it go perfectly with the new Blush SN@P! binder. It’s such a pretty yet sophisticated colour. I kept the front of my album simple with one of the Bits & Pieces and some word stickers that went well with the binder. That little van is adorable and perfect for documenting some summer fun.

This page has some 4x6 cards and a full page 6x8 photo on the right. The umbrellas on the journal card show off all the colours I am loving in Sunshine and Blue skies. I mounted the photo below on a piece of cardstock cut down to 4x6 with the same umbrellas to tie it together with a cute camera sticker and some word stickers. I kept it simple on my 6x8 photo as it had a strong graphic feel. I used the “summer” word stickers from the Combo Sticker sheet and added a cute lemon slice and a word sticker below to balance it on the page well.

I had a lot of fun with the next spread. I had some smaller photos on the left, a full page 6x8 layout on the left and a cute insert of some things I really liked from Sunshine and Blue Skies in the middle. I made it by cutting off one of the columns on the 6x8 page protectors full of 2x2 squares. I like to do these in my albums to add a visual break from photos and words and to just have fun!

The journal cards in Sunshine and Blue Skies are just so fun they don’t need a lot of extra embellishment. I love these floral words and added a cute camera icon in the middle. I embellished the photo with some chipboard and stickers to frame it - I kept them mostly on the left side so they’d be at the edge of the page and not in the middle which adds to that framed feel.

To fill the 2x2 pockets I started pulling out all my favourite bits from Sunshine and Blue Skies and started moving them around to figure out the feel I was going for. I knew I wanted a mix of 2x2 journal cards and more transparent pockets with floating elements. When I saw the FUN chipboard stickers I knew those had to be in there. I added a snow cone next to them to fill up the pocket. I added in other fun summery things like the rainbow and swimming tubes and really like how it turned out.

I wanted the 2x2 pockets to be reversible and had my work cut out for me. The pockets with the journal cards were easy because I slid some fun cards related to the layout next to them. With the swimming tube I glued down another swimming tube from the Bits & Pieces to the other side. I did the same with the snow cone. With the rainbow and the chipboard FUN stickers I attached some on theme paper on the other side so that it wasn’t plain for a truly reversible layout without using the transparency of those pockets.

For the full page 6x8 layout I kept it simple by mounting one of my fav photos on some coordinating cardstock from the Simple Basics Paper Kit (I love that the newer collections have these!) to give it some depth and then on the cuuuuuute ombre paper from the 6x8 paper pad. I embellished with the floral washi tape and some coordinating flowery bits to keep that summer feel going and to go with the florals on the page next to it. I added some word stickers (always a fav) and a nice journalling spot from the Bits & Pieces to finish it off. I can’t wait to make more pages with Sunshine and Blue Skies, it’s making me wish summer was here already!

Supplies
04.03.19

The Simple Vintage Traveler collection was just the inspiration to get some pictures of a family trip printed and in an album! As soon as I saw the colours I knew they’d go perfect with the majestic mountains and dreamy blue-green lakes we saw camping in Jasper National Park a bit over a year ago. I started with a Robins Egg Stripe Designer binder because it went with the collection so well and got to work adding in photos, paper and more.

This first spread have a couple of my favourite photos of our trip. I went with a large 6x8 photo on the left and a 4x6 and a journal card on the right. I really like the layered chipboard frames found in the Vintage Traveler collection. They don’t fit in the pockets because they’re more geared towards larger layouts but I found that attaching one to the outside of the page protector to be just what I needed to frame my photo. I kept the rest of the page simple with a cute journal card with a chipboard geotag.

Embellishment clusters make me happy and were just what my big 6x8 photo needed! I just started pulling stickers, chipboard pieces and die cut Bits & Pieces and stuck them down to give the story some words.

This spread has a combination of photos and journal cards in pockets as well as an accent pocket. I used a postcard style SN@P! card to add some journalling to my spread. The card is really cute and keeps the whole travel theme up great.  I added some faux tickets stickers and die cut pieces to give it a bit more dimension. Underneath is a photo of my husband and boys I just added some simple phrase stickers. The super cute vintage cluster style stickers in Vintage Traveler are a great layer under phrase stickers. On the right I have some smaller photos and cards. I collected a bunch of various bits and pieces throughout our trip like the soda label on this page. Along with the cute bingo-y card and (of course) a coffee shot I added in a bit of our between adventure life.

In one of the pockets I simply placed one of the large geotags from the Bits & Pieces. It gives the page a bit of a breather and adds in some fun layering between pages. I love the amount and variety of geotags in Vintage Traveler!

On the next page I documented life around the campsite in the evening on the left and a map to start off documenting the next days’ adventure. I used some simple stickers and die cuts with my photos on the left and a photo flip (seriously, one of my favourite Simple Stories things!) to add some journalling space. I left the back of the geotag from the other side plain because I liked the way it looked there. On the right I used one of the square pocketed page protectors that Simple Stories makes. I cut down a map to fit in the 2 larger 4x4 pockets and filled the smaller 2x2 pockets on the side with some of the 2x2 cards from the collection.

I love including maps in travel albums. I save pretty much every tiny piece of paper that I can so I have a few of them in my Alberta trip scrapbook. This map was perfect because we had spent the day following it and checking stuff out. I marked some of the main spots we stopped with chipboard geotags and then used some of the Simple Stories alphabet stickers to add a title. I embellished the title with some phrase stickers from the sticker pack and combo sticker sheet, added a cute car die cut from the Bits & Pieces and it was a done page.

Finally, I added some journalling and one more picture of the boys enjoying campsite fun in a Photo Flip on the other side. There are some really great journal cards in Simple Traveler that gave me space to get our story down in a way that looked like more travel ephemera. I had been putting off documenting this trip because it was hard finding a collection that did all the gorgeous landscape shots I took justice but I can’t wait to finish up my album with Vintage Traveler now.

Supplies

Pages