Simple Stories

Happy 7th Anniversary to PageMaps: In the City

Hi All! Wendy here and wishing a Happy 7th Anniversary to PageMaps!

The design team here at Simple Stories is so excited to join PageMaps in its month-long celebration, and all the party details can be found here.

Simple Stories participated in the "On The Border" challenge with Lynn Ghahary, where we had to use three border designs on our project, along with this PageMaps sketch below for inspiration.

What a fun challenge!

And here's my take on the sketch....

My layout was inspired by the sketch (ok, obviously, ha!) but also from a recent trip in March to NYC with my fiance.  His first time in the city and we had a blast! A few of my favs from the sketch are the ink splashes/sprinkles of confetti.  I wanted the sparkle and excitement of the city to shine through in my layout. Also, I love the super fun focus on the variety of border strips.  

The ledger paper from the Urban Traveler Simple Basics Kit is just that, simple + basic.  You can choose to jazz it up (as I made my layout) or keep it simple & toned down.  I love the neutral tone to this paper and just the freedom to work it with some color, if you like.  I used splashes of inks, mists, and those super cool new brads from Urban Traveler.

You can work the border strips in the sketch with many options.  I love variety & a bit "out of the box", so I went this route....

• Stamps: Used a cityscape stamp for a repetitive stamping of a city border to play on the NYC landscape of skyscrapers.
• Border Punch/Silhouette Cameo: I used my Cameo for the filmstrip movie border.  This is a fun touch on the Broadway theme and movie feel to the city.
• Ticket Stubs: I used a strip of ticket stubs from my stash of scraps as a fun accent as another border strip.
• Sticker Border Strips: The Simple Stories collections have an awesome variety of sticker border strips in every collection.  I used sticker border strips from the Urban Traveler collection.

I used the clock accent as a play on the "city that never sleeps".  Also, the pictures in my layout were taken in Times Square, NYC.  So, rightly I added in this dimensional clock accent.

I love the 24/7 banner sticker here from the 24/Seven collection. I combined it up with a torn cardstock cut accent from my Silhouette Cameo and wood veneer numbers.  

I hope you enjoyed my take on this sketch!

We'd love to see what you create with this same challenge and we've sweetened the pot with a prize package of our newest release, "I Heart Summer!"

You can join the challenge here.

Supply List | Simple Stories:

Urban Traveler  

•     12x12 Simple Basics Kit - Navy Dots/Ledger #2918
•     Fundamentals Cardstock Stickers #2902

24/Seven  

•     Expressions Cardstock Stickers #3103
•     Decorative Brads #3126

Be sure to check out the full supply list over on my blog here.

Simplifying Summer

Hello, Emily on deck today with a quick sketch and a card to help you simplify your summer. It's been a busy one for me so far, a week with my parents while my kids were at a youth conference in Utah, then a week home, and as you are reading this, I'm either preparing to or flying home from a 13 day vacation in Wales with my family and parents. Wales is where my mom's heritage originates and we decided it was time to get her over there to see all the places she's been researching as she does our family history. 

All this is to tell you, early in the month of June I had a lot of prepping to do. I needed a simple way to get it all done. On my list was get some cards made for the girls I teach at church. Best way for me to make a bunch of cards without stressing is to simplify the process. I made a sketch based on a layout I created that was based on a card my friend Alexandra created (to see the originals, check out my blog). I lifted a lift. Once I had the basic sketch done, it was very easy to make this card, and a few more. I played around the the different elements, every card is a designed slightly differently, but you can see most of the same elements on every one. 

Check.

One more thing off the list!

Check again!

I love how Simple Stories products make it so easy to simplify. I used stickers, alphabets, a bingo card, and one of the journaling cards from the new Summer Fresh line, and in no time, I had a really cute card that I could send off to one of my girls. Doesn't get any easier than that!

I'm sharing the sketch, in case you'd like to simplify as well. :) Sketches are great jumping off points, you can see none of my cards look exactly like the sketch, I played around with the elements and made them work for me. Don't get tied to the fact that there is a flower in a particular place, if a square works better there, go for it!

Here's to a simple summer filled with Simple Stories!

Supplies used:

• Summer Fresh 12x12 Fundamentals Cardstock Stickers (2402)
• Summer Fresh 12x12 Expression Cardstock Stickers (2403)
• Summer Fresh 4x6 Journaling Card Elements #1 (2410)
• Summer Fresh Simple Basics Bingo Cards/Strips (2421)
• other: flower, frame, ticket

Some "Fabulous" Project Ideas and a Sketch

How about a simple sketch that focuses on layering photos and patterned paper?  Simple Stories makes some of the best designer papers with just the right amount of pattern in the corners and plenty of space in the middle to layer elements. 

For this page, I focused on taking one of the brighter patterned papers in the Fabulous collection to use as the background frame for this design.  Then I layered a combination of photos and 6 x 6 patterned paper for the focal point of the design.  For a more defined title, I used the Documented collection's cardstock sticker alphabets.  There are tiny white polka dots on the letters, but the letters still stand out against the ledger style paper.

I love how pop dots work with the cardstock stickers.  This arrow was such a cute little sentiment included in the Fabulous collection.  I also added a tiny bit of journaling in my own handwriting directly on the paper.  This design is really simple as shown by the sketch, but all of the detailing that Simple Stories adds to their patterned paper makes the project look much more sophisticated than it is....

I had fun making this pocket card with the Simple Stories 4x6 Memorobilia Pockets.  They are so pretty on their own that I did not want to do much to alter them.  The novelty is in the fact that you can stuff just about anything in them - written sentiments, photos and/or money.

I added some of the 3 x 4 Fabulous Flash Cards to use as sentiments and for special hand-written notes.


Add more than one of the 3 x 4 Flash Cards to create a truly unique sentiment.

Pop dot the cardstock flowers to make them stand out, especially these super cool border sticker flowers.  They add a fun and simple design to the bottom of the card.

 

Thank you so much for stopping by today and hope you find some inspiration for a future project.

Simple Sketch and Awesome Page

How about a simple sketch today?  This one is all about the Simple Stories Flashcards and how you can layer them to make an interesting design in lieu of patterned paper.  Hope this will inspire you to use up more aspects of your Simple Stories collections.

This page was created with the Simple Stories Awesome Collection with just a bit of Year.o.graphy Basics.  You can see how I used the 3 x 4 flashcards to layer underneath my photos and then added the license plate border from the Awesome 12 x 12 Fundamental Cardstock stickers.  Pop dots make the stickers jump off the page a bit.

How fun are these striped sticker letters from the Awesome 12 x 12 Expressions Cardstock Stickers???  I like the effect from the lighter colored stripes, which is a fun twist to the brown letters.  Also added a few of the journal strips from the same sticker sheet with pop dots.

Just a bit of bling to polish the stars and provide a little dimension.  The ledger paper is from the Year.o.graphy collection, but everything else if from Awesome.

Tip of the Day: Lay out the Flashcards and rearrange them to make a fun design before adding to a page.  Try to vary the colors and designs.  Add journal strips from the 12 x 12 Expressions Cardstock stickers for an extra sentiment or two.

 

Awesome Materials included on this project.

• 12 x 12 Fundamental Cardstock Stickers #2202
• 12 x 12 Expressions Cardstock Stickers #2203
• Extreme #2206
• Awesome Flashcards #2209

Year.o.graphy - Pink/Ledger #1921

 

Thank you so much for stopping by -

Simple Sketches

I'm very excited to kick off my very first post as a new design team member at Simple Stories!  When I first got a peek at what this wonderful company was about at the last CHA Show, I was totally smitten and made sure to pick up the Elementary collection as soon as I got home.  Now I am totally hooked and enthralled to be part of this talented crew.

Today is a special treat, because not only does my post feature the radiant and fun 100 Days of Summer Collection, but it also features a couple of sketches to inspire...  

Doesn't my little boy make you want to jump in the pool?  Or better yet, doesn't this collection make you want to go to the pool just to shoot photos to scrapbook on this gorgeous paper??? Now we are talking!
First up is a traditional sketch that speaks to my style.  I like to keep my designs simple: tight and centered around the photo with lots of journaling elements and die cut patterned paper pieces.

I cut these fun little banners out of one of the 4 x 6 cards in the collection and pop-dotted them to add dimension and make them stand out more on the page.

The colors in the papers are the perfect blend of bright combined with a soft, worn base color that just makes the 100 Days of Summer collection pop.  

I added more of the "everyday" photos from this event using the page elements from the collection. I am really excited about how the elements beautifully coordinate with a variety of divided page protector sheets.  Below is a sketch that is specifically designed for the Simple Stories 4x6 cards and other collection pieces like the 6x12 page elements. I spent time on my traditional page and then "simply" mirrored some of the papers and elements on the second page.  You can see the same numbers and clotheslines on both of my pages.

But wait...look what happens when you put them together...

It's a match made in heaven and I really love how easy it is to create two pages with the Simple Stories system. 

And it all goes into my album - Simple as That

Products for this project:

• 100 Days of Summer 12 x 12 Fundamental Cardstock Stickers #1402
• 100 Days of Summer 12 x 12 Fundamental Cardstock Sticker #1403
• 100 Days of Summer 100% Summer Fun #1408
• 100 Days of Summer Hello Sunshine #1405
• 100 Days of Summer Flashcards #1409

100 Days of Summer Signature Elements

• 4x6 Journaling Card Elements #1 - #1410
• 4x6 Journaling Card Elements #2 - #1411
• 6x12 Page Elements #1415

There is an opportunity to win the 100 Days of Summer collection if you leave a comment here and on the Monday Design Team announcement post.  Good luck!

Have sunny and wonderful day -