Simple Stories

Summer Time Fun!

Hi all, its Kellie here with another altered project.  This time I  was inspired to make a mini album/invitation to a BBQ.  But this is not any ordinary mini album.  It's a cheeseburger.  I made this mini with an older collection... 100 Days of Summer, one of my favorites.  But it could be made with virtually any collection, the new line Summer Fresh would be great for it.

 

I cut the buns and hamburger patty out with my Eclipse machine, all the inside pages are 4"x4".

The invitation is on the inside of the box. 

    The pages are very simple, there is enough room to journal and little photos cut at 2"x 2" would work perfect for this mini.  For the "Cheese" I used my small circle punches to make the holes in the cheese.  And for the "Lettuce" I used my paper crimper to give it a wavy look.  Too give the pages more dimension I like to ink the edges.

Well I hope you enjoyed my mini album, it's amazing the things that you can make with paper!

Products used:

100 Days of Summer Collection Kit #1401

 

 

Everyone loves a cute smile.

{Simply Adorable}

 

Guiseppa here and I want to share with you a layout about my son and his cute faces.  I can't help but to take pictures of my kids making their, fun, quirky and adorable faces. After all...it is important that we document the funny things they do.  Meet Braden, my oldest son.  He has a knack for making some funny yet adorable faces.

 

My kids are getting older and older, but one thing hasn't changed and that is how much I love to mug on them.  They still get kisses and hugs from me...they are never too old.

 

I love the fact that Simple Stories products give me so many options and ideas to create a page that represents my kids personalities.  

 

Oh and that eye thing he is doing...he gets that from his momma! Thanks Simple Stories for helping me create a layout showcases my sons funny and adorable faces.

Products used:

Awesome

Totally Cool #2208

6x12 Page Elements #2215

4x6 Journaling Card Elements #2210

Blue Mini Dot/Ledger #2217

Fundamentals Cardstock Stickers #2202

Expressions Cardstock Stickers #2203

 

Thanks for stopping by!

 

{simple card trio}

Happy Tuesday to you all. Hope you had a nice Memorial Day weekend. Mine was spent with family and it was so relaxing. Perhaps the best part of it was that I finally had some time to break into the new Summer Fresh line. 

This line is just pure fun and happiness. The bright colors are perfect!

With all of the coordinating pieces and paper in the line it is so easy to put projects to together. My first card started with one of the transparencies.

I simply adhered the transparency to my card base using the Tim Holts Tiny Attacher (any stapler would work). Don't you just love the burlap on the sunshine, it looks so realistic!

Next I used the adorable clothesline sticker from the 12x12 Fundamental Cardstock Sticker sheet. Added some twine bows to the end and some jewels to give it some dimension. Super easy!

For my last card I simply hand cut the medal from the Bits of Summer paper and added the flower stickers with some foam tape for dimension.

Such bright and cheerful cards right?!

Products Used:

Summer Fresh

   12x12 Fundamental Cardstock Stickers

   12x12 Expression Cardstock Stickers

   Transparencies

   Bits of Summer #2404

   Easy Breezy #2408

   Red Flower/Honeycomb Ledger#2417

   Sky Blue Daisy/Notebook #2419

   6x6 Paper Pad

 

Thanks for taking a peek!

 

Mix & Match Album: "Week In The Life" {Part 2 of 2}

 

Hi All!   Wendy here to share up my Part 2 of 2 post for this month to document my "Week-in-the-Life" {Apr 23 - 29}.  It was a pretty monumental & epic week of many emotions, discoveries, feelings...so to process-document-inhale it all, I broke up this blog post into 2 parts.  Wellllllll,  actually, there is a 6x8 Mix & Match design team blog hop happening June 4th and I'll actually bring in a Part 3/BONUS share in that hop because I simply can't share it all up in this post.  But in this share you will see actual completed pages from my album, titled "Eat Pray Love", along with some closeups and creative tidbits that inspired me.  As shared up in Part 2, I used a crazy mix of Simple Stories collections (and bare with me as I develop the supply list for ya...) -- Destinations, Life Documented, Generations, Awesome, Documented, Year.o.graphy...yes, those & moreeee -- but this just proves how amazingggggg how all the collection mix & match so well together!

You can check out Part 1 of 2 previously shared up here.

For now, let's continue & roll on to Part 2 of 2 (aka Part 2 of 3)....

Why did I choose the title, "Eat Pray Love"? Well, first, I absolutely LOVE the book (and the movie), but the movie lacks a bit of the humor & some of the beauty of the actual book. Second, on a personal note (which I usually don't do much in the blog world but I feel it's a big part of sharing this in understanding my journey for this album), I can so relate to Elizabeth's life along many parallels -- divorce from a marriage of 7 years (in my case, a husband who cheated), lost love, a 3 year period of healing, self-discovery, heartache, acceptance, recharging & rediscovering myself emotionally, staying optimistic, finding my strength in prayer, world travel (in my past job as an international auditor), always staying confident, independent, and opening my heart to love again in such a random way of love finding me.  

(and throwing in some good food, makes for a beautiful journey too).

Beautiful.  

So, with that bit of background put out there....I really drew on the quotes from the book that inspired my pages and paved my journey in the "week-in-the-life", so ironically, these quotes transpired into my book after I took the photos....sometimes things work artistically in this way.  Also, to add, I didn't build my album in actual sequence - Day 1, Day 2, etc... - but really dove into the actual journey and not so much focus on the actual days of the week, know what I mean?  

(and my vintage typewriter received quite the workout in this album...) 

The 4x6 journal cards are perfect for paragraph type journaling.  Great for sharing more than a sentence or two and to really document your story.

Here I cut a transparency to 4x6 and saved my baggage claim sticker and attached to the transparency.

Don't forget to document that part of the journey in getting there/the beginnings to your destination.  I took this photo on the escalator at the London Gatwick airport and while sitting on the plane for my connecting flight.

This map paper is from the Destinations collection.  I played further on details with stamps, badges, stickers from Destinations, and tapes.

Don't forget to save the flight stubs from your entire journey.  Here I saved the small stubs and stapled them to the top of my page -- those many connections & the long hours for the journey.

I also typed directly on my photos for some pages, plus some more stamping, rubons, and splash of colored pearls/bling.

I wanted this page to be clean & simple, along with the black & white photo, but with the focus on the journaling.  This paper in the Documented collection comes with the 6x8 albums and is just perfect for journaling.

I used fluid chalk to color the rather plain raw wood arrows.

Here I saved our bus schedules in Italy cut to 4x6 size for the 4x6 page protectors.  I clipped the Europcar from the business card.

We speak in Italian to one another, because his English is very minimal, but these are the moments to capture.  Words = beautiful memories.

I took the picture of a circus tent while we were strolling on the streets in Italy after breakfast one day.  Then, I remembered this passage from the book and this was just "fate" the parallel of how it all came together.

Undiscovered streets, and you never know what's around the corner, one of the many reasons I love Europe and even better with the one you love.

 

 

He & I are both comics (as we like to think) ha! (and serious, when needed)...but we both agree "it's ok" despite the distance, we draw strength better together as two, "it's ok".

 

Yeah, look out Nicholas Sparks. We are planning the sequel....Seriously, I pinch myself, "is this for real?" 
One day at a time...staying positive (despite the distance of 5,000 miles) + life is good.
Always make it good. 

Can you believe I still have more pages to share? Yep, and those will come in the Simple Stories design team 6x8 Mix & Match album blog hop happening June 4th!

Supply List -
(pending to be posted) 

Hope you enjoyed it (so far...)....

{simply summer fresh}

In each of the Simple Stories collection kits, you'll find beautiful transparencies for your scrapbooking or papercrafting projects.  For my project today, I have used a few of the transparencies from the Summer Fresh collection kit.  They are darling and just needed to be showcased!  

I created licorice pouches using these darling transparencies...so quick and easy and unique.  The process is simple:

1.  Cut a block of coordinating paper to fit behind the transparency.  I cut mine a bit larger than the transparency so that I could trim the edges and top with decorative scissors.  I used Summer Fresh Simple Basics including Honeycomb Ledger, Sky Blue Daisy, and Dictionary.

2.  Stitch the transparency to the coordinating paper along the sides and bottom, leaving the top open to form a pocket.

3.  Cut a coordinating Bingo card to fit across the center of each pocket using the Bingo Cards paper.  Adhere the Bingo card in place and embellish with Fundamental Cardstock Stickers, Expression Cardstock Stickers, trim, and buttons.

It's as simple as that!

 

Creating with Simple Stories is so much fun and such a breeze.  I love how effortlessly things can be combined to suit any style, theme, or project.

Thanks so much for visiting!

 

Simple Stories Supplies Used:

Summer Fresh Collection Kit #2400

Summer Fresh 12x12 Fundamental Cardstock Stickers  #2402

Summer Fresh 12x12 Expression Cardstock Stickers #2403

Red Flower/Honeycomb Ledger Paper #2417

Sky Blue Daisy/Notebook Paper #2419

Burlap/Dictionary Paper #2420

Bingo Cards/Stripes Paper #2421

She Is Awesome

Hello Simple Stories friends! Emily Pitts here today with a layout I made about my daughter. You might think, a layout about a girl, oh I'll pull out my Fabulous collection from Simple Stories! While I do pull that collection out a lot, I knew it wouldn't work for the topic of my layout.

But Awesome, with its guitars, car tracks, and wings, well that was what I was looking for! See, I'd had this conversation with my 17 year old daughter, all stemming for a typical thing teenage girls do in the car, sing along to the lyrics. Especially the lyrics by cute boy bands! But Annie hasn't really gotten into these bands, she has a few of their songs, but she's more into acapella and jazz. So this conversation happened, I loved her take on things so much, I tweeted it, and this layout is the result. I love that I could use Awesome on a girl page! 

I think the guitar and wings are perfect to represent the boy band theme. And the car track? My own cheeky humor showing up to represent the moving on in her statement. I love that the stripe of blue in the alphabet matches her shirt so well. Then there were the Scrabble type letters B-O-Y, perfect for my title. It's fun to break the "rules" sometimes!

Have a great weekend and rememeber, it's OK to switch things up, to not go with the flow all the time.

Products used: 

• Awesome 12x12 Fundamental Cardstock Stickers (#2202)
• Awesome 12x12 Expression Cardstock Stickers (#2203)
• Awesome: Extreme (2206)
• Awesome: Blue Dot/Mini Ledger (#2217)

 

Hello, State Fair!

Hello and happy summer! Jill here with a layout featuring one of my very favorite summer activities, the Iowa State Fair! Iowa's State Fair is one of the best in the country and I have gone every year since I was very little. It's a tradition that I definitely don't miss! I love the food, the activities, and of course, the people watching. Last year, I was able to see the fair through the eyes of my daughters and there were so many new activities that I had never seen before because I wasn't on the lookout for things for toddlers.

The "Summer Fresh" collection just screams fair to me (and so much more!). When we visited the fair last year, our photos were not stellar as we just took our point and shoot camera. Rather than be too picky about what we had for photos, I knew that it was more important to get the memories documented. It was their first trip (of many future trips) to the state fair, after all. I printed 8 of my favorite photos into wallet size and created a collage of them.

I cut apart the bingo cards and used the top 4 at the top of my collage of photos. I highlighted several of them with word stickers and used alphabet stickers on a couple as well.

That ticket sticker was just begging to be used on my state fair layout. I also cut out the burlap ribbon piece to hold my journaling.

Supply List:

Summer Fresh Colleciton Kit #2400

Summer Fresh 12 x 12 Fundamental Cardstock Stickers #2402

Summer Fresh 12 x 12 Expression Cardstock Stickers #2403

Burlap/Dictionary #2420

Bingo Cards/Stripes #2421

Looking Forward to Summer!

May 23, 2012

Hello!  Kim here...and I've been dreaming - dreaming of the long, hot, lazy days of summer .  June, July, August and even September are my favorite months of the year.  I love the warm sun, the long days, and the sound of the kids laughing and playing from sun up to sun down.  So, when the SUMMER FRESH Collection arrived on my doorstep, the dreaming started!  This has got to be my all-time favorite collection EVER! 

Do you know who else loves the summertime?  My puppy dog, Cooper!  He loves having his kids home all day to play with him and especially all the trips to the beach:

Those are some of my favorite photos from last summer and now the  Summer Fresh Collection has me dreaming of summertime and even more long, hot, lazy dog days of summer....


Supplies Used:

• #2402 - Fundamental Cardstock Stickers
• #2403 - Expression Cardstock Stickers
• #2410 - 4x6 Journaling Card Elements 1
• #2411 - 4x6 Journaling Card Elements 2
• #2414 - Border & Title Strip Elements
• #2417 - Red Flower/Honeycomb Ledger
• #2420 - Burlap/Dictionary

 *******

Congratulations to our 2 Summer Fresh winners; Ange who said “Those stamps are adorable!!! And I love this line!”  and also to Mandie Wade who said “WOW!!! Love the collection and the stamps!!! Can't wait to get my hands on that "Ribbon" stamp!”

Please email your address to sales@simplestories.com before May 25th to claim your prize!

 

 

Keeping things "Simple"

Hi everyone! It's Natasja here who almost forgot about todays blogpost..woops!! I must says life is a bit hectic with a 3 weeks old baby and I am trying hard to get some structure back in the daily routines. Next to almost forgetting about this I also have a birthday in the family for which I haven't bought a pressent jet. Sounds familaire that sometimes things like this are hard to keep track with?! Can you also believe I felt the stress rising when I realised all this?! But then it hit me!! I am on the SIMPLE Stories design team! So no stress, keep things simple!

So what did I do...I combined this blogpost with creating a giftcard for my niece!

I used the brand new "Summer Fresh" collection here. I cut the big yellow label on two sides about 1/2" smaller. Than I cut a piece of 12" x 8" from patterned paper and fold that in half, adding tape on 3 sides with washi tape and punched out half a square at the top side which I left open.

I punched 6 flowers out of patterned paper, wrickled them a little and than created 2 flowers with 3 layers. Put a staple in the middle and covered it with a button. Embellished the cover of the "envelop" with stickers and the flowers.

To finish things off I put some text on the yellow label and added a pocket. You can use the pocket to put in money, a voucher, maybe tickets to the movies or... In the upper left corner there is some space for a nice personal note.

And done!

No stress, keep thing simple :)

products used:

* #2416 Denim/Grid
* #2413 4x4 Quote & 6x8 Photo Mat Elements
* #2405 Countrey Garden
* #2408 Easy Breezy
* #2402 Fundamentals Cardstock Stickers
* # 2403 Expressions Cardstock Stickers
* # 2016 Odds & Ends Memorabillia Pockets 

A Simply Creative Project Life

Happy Monday Simple Stories fans! I hope you had as restful and productive of a weekend as I did. Although by the calendar, summer may be a month away, summer has arrived here in the Valley of the Sun with triple digit temperatures and constant blue skies. That also means that I'm on break and staying indoors with my air conditioner. So, what better time to play catch up on all the Project Life layouts I have yet to complete. Even though I've fallen WAY behind, I love the concept too much to give up. With Simple Stories divided page protectors and elements system though, I don't have to worry! 

I know I've said it before, but I love the ability to mix and match the various lines together. For Week 5, I combined the brand new Summer Fresh (loved the denims), Documented (love those neutral tones), and the Destinations (what better line for a week of traveling) lines together. 

This top section was created by first cutting the Summer Fresh pattern into a 5x12 size. Then, I used the Simple Stories/Unity map stamp to create the background. I layered a Destinations border sticker along the top. I then cut an Elements Border strip from Destinations and adhered to the top so that the end result was a 6x12" background. A few stickers, photos, and staples (my favorite embellishment, I think) and voila. 

For this section, I used a 4x6 vertical Element from the Summer Fresh line. I didn't really do much except exacto cut the little ribbon/banner piece so that it would overlap the photo rather than be underneath it.

This section was also created with the Summer Fresh 4x6 vertical Elements. Again, so simple, a few added stickers and staples and I was done. 

So, if you are falling behind on your own Project Life albums, don't stress about it! Just grab your Simple Stories lines and go to town. Don't be afraid to mix "seasons" and "themes" either! Look how well Summer Fresh fit with the winter photos of my Week 5. There are no rules. So, just scrap and enjoy.

Products Used:

• Summer Fresh Expression Cardstock Stickers #2403
• Summer Fresh Journaling Card Elements #2, #2411
• Summer Fresh Vertical Journaling Card Elements #2412
• Summer Fresh Sky Blue Daisy/Notebook #2419
• Documented Fundamentals Cardstock Stickers #2302
• Documented Vertical Journaling Card Elements #2312
• Destinations Fundamentals Cardstock Stickers #1302
• Destinations Title Strip Elements #1314