Simple Stories

SNEAK PEEK - DAY 2: Happy Day

Welcome to day two of our Sneak Peek Week!  Thank you so much for all of your comments and excitement about our Generations collection...and especially our new 6x6 pads!  When we were developing our 6x6 pads we debated about shrinking our signature elements to the 6x6 size.....  I have to tell you after getting our product in we are over the top thrilled that we made the decision to include our element pieces in our 6x6 pads - and we think you'll agree.  They are ABSOLUTELY WONDERFUL!  No exageration...if you thought you loved 6x6 pads before...you will fall in LOVE with our Simple Stories 6x6 pads!  The little element pieces are just perfect for card making, altered art and paper craft...we can't wait for you to see them in person!! 

Okay...moving on to our next reveal...we're going from the heart-warming, rich vintage feel of Generations to our bright, whimsical, and totally FUN Happy Day collection.  Whether you're young....or just young at heart...our Happy Day collection is perfect for celebrating your special day!  We hope you love it as much as we do!! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Leave us a comment letting us know what you love about Happy Day...and we'll pick one lucky winner to win the entire collection!

SNEAK PEEK - DAY 1: Generations

Thank you for joining us for our CHA Summer 2011 Sneak Peek Week!  We're so excited to share our 4 BRAND NEW collections - more of what you love about Simple Stories!  Our new collections embrace all that's fabulous about Simple Stories, with four new basic, but beautiful, themes to help you capture, create, document and share your story in a whole new way! We'll be highlighting a NEW collection every day through Thursday - plus we'll be giving away a new collection pack each day - so be sure to join us throughout the week for new products, inspiration and giveaways!

Each new collection includes our wonderful designer cardstock paper, cardstock stickers, collection packs and our popular trend-setting, signature element pieces - plus all-new co-branded Unity Stamp Co. sets.  We're also excited to share our latest addition - 6x6 paper pads with a twist!   Our new paper pads include 36 mini 6x6 prints including 24 6x6 sheets of designer cardstock paper and 12 6x6 sheets of our signature elements - perfect for quick, easy and fun cardmaking, scrapbooking and papercarfting!

Our first reveal of the week is our beautiful, heart-warming Generations collection.  Generations is all about capturing those cherished family memories - whether highlighting rich heritage photos, everday home life or special family memories - Generations is the perfect way to share your families' stories!

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

Leave a comment and tell us what you LOVE about our new Generations collection - and you'll be entered to win the entire Generations collection!

 

 
 
 

The ULTIMATE Simple Stories & Unity Stamp Giveaway Winners, & Little Something Extra!!!

We are excited to announce our 4 winners from our Unity Stamp Giveaway!  We had so much fun reading all of your comments and were completely overwhelmed at the support of our co branding with Unity!  If your comment and name are below, please email me your address at, [email protected] before July 14, 2011 to claim your prize!

Posted by: Felecia | 06/27/2011 at 01:20 PM:  What an AMAZING giveaway!! I just got some of the 100 days of summer collection. I want it all! Its so perfect!!!

Posted by: Christina | 06/23/2011 at 07:10 AM: Fantastic collections! Congratulations on the partnership with Unity!

Posted by: Carol B | 06/23/2011 at 09:24 AM: So thrilled that you are co-branding with Unity, such a smart move for both companies! I love all the new sets, they are beyond perfect! Thanks!

Carol B

Posted by: Pat Pobst | 06/27/2011 at 05:52 PM: I had given up on scrapping all my school memories from teaching kindergarten. When I found the Simple Stories Elementary Kit I knew I could do it - working on it now and finding so much satisfaction in putting all these fun photos, student notes, and parent letters into a book to treasure. Thank you!

If you didn't win this time, remember you can still post on yesterdays blog post for a chance to win a Destinations kit. 

Now for that little something extra!  I have word (from a very reliable source) that you are not going to want to miss next weeks blog posts.  It could be more giveaways, it could be sneak peeks to our Summer CHA releases or it might be both!  Make sure to stop by tomorrow; you don't want to it!

 

Simple Inspiration - Guest Blogger, Lori Allred

We are so excited about our guest blogger today.  I have known Lori for over 12 years, so I was thrilled when she agreed to be our first guest blogger here at Simple Stories.  I hope you enjoy her post as much as we did!

Hi, I'm Lori Allred and I am so excited to be asked to Guest Design for Simple Stories. I happened upon their booth at the CHA Winter show, and it is the one company's catalog I put in my tote bag and carried with me everywhere (for a few months in fact). I was going to be the first to buy it all when I found it at my local scrapbook store. I was drawn to the beautiful designs of course, but even more then that their collections were designed FOR ME. You see, I recently started scrapbooking what I call "4x6 style" and find I can scrapbook a lot more, a lot quicker and still enjoy it. I love creating an intro 12x12 page with a coordinating collection and then simply putting all the remaining photos in the 4x6 photo sleeves, designing an occasional journaling card in place of a photo or two. And Simple Stories has created their lines for this purpose in mind.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

 

 

Destinations was the first collection I pulled out and started working with and it was the perfect fit for my trip to Seattle last fall. I had so many photos and I wanted to use them all. The collection fit my pictures perfectly and everything pulled together so quickly. I even had time to pull out my i-rock heat set gem tool from Imaginisce and add that extra bling details to the titles and journaling cards. I also loved how perfectly the die cuts from my Cricut worked with this collection.

And I couldn't stop with just creating with the Destinations collection. I was shopping my local scrapbook store and happened upon the new arrival, 100 Days of Summer collection and bought it ALL. What a fun collection for both those summer photos, but also making cards with a variety of sentiments. 

And the 100 Days of Summer collection was simply perfect for a few photos that still needed scrapbooking of my kids at the beach. What a great collection and it also worked perfectly with the i-rock rhinestones I applied to the layout. Again the designs and textures of the papers fit my style perfectly. I love that it has a "little" distressing to the design, but not too much and I of course LOVE the colors they used to create this and all their collections. 

Now you know what type of products I love to create with, let me tell you a little more about me. I am a social media guru by day, a wife and mom of two teenagers by night. I am old enough to know better, but still young enough to get in trouble. I always enjoys spending time with my family and most of all playing with and collecting scrapbook supplies. My experience within the scrapbook industry has spanned over fourteen years. Over the years I've gained valuable experience in working for Creating Keepsakes magazine, a large retail store chain and most recently a couple of popular manufacturers. In addition, my design work has been published in a majority of craft and scrapbook publications and websites. I continue to designed and teach paper crafting classes around the world at crafting events and I love meeting people who share my same love of paper and pretty things! In addition I recently returned from teaching in New Zealand, but I recently became involved with the hottest new craft project around, My Craft Channel. You can find me blogging at allreddesign.net all hours of the night or on Facebook (so come friend me)!

Thank you Lori for some great inspiration!  We are not only excited to have Lori be our guest blogger but we want to give a lucky reader some of Lori's favorite products too!  Leave us a comment here on our blog and we will randomly choose a winner for a Destinations kit, then visit Lori's blog and leave her a comment to win an Imaginisce i-rock tool from Lori!  Comments for the contest will close Friday at midnight MST. 

 

Simple Sketches with Tutorial

 

It's summer and people should be playing outside having fun and snapping lots of photos.  It's not a good time to be stuck inside, trying to think of a cute design to scrap those fun photos.  How about a simple sketch to make the time fly by???  I think this sketch will make a fun page, use a lot of the Simple Stories elements and get your photos scrapped in no time at all.

I thought it would be fun to focus on a one-page sketch and layout all about a favorite Summer activity like swimming.

 
100 Days of Summer is such a fun collection full on wonderful color.  I love the combination of the red picnic tablecloth pattern with the green polka dots.

This little sunshine from the 100 Days of Summer Sticker Sheet is such a fun element to add to a project.  I used some of the tiny alphabets to add a sentiment.

It's fun to layer the 4x6 element cards to create unique patterns and journal sentiments.  I also added some of the cardstock sticker elements to continue the message.

Use Those 4x6 Journal Cards Tutorial

I wanted to try something fun and unique with this beautiful 4x6 journal card element.  I liked the idea of using it for a photo matte, but then did not want the numbered journal spots to lose their punch, so I think I found a good compormise.  Just needed my x-acto, felt pen and some chalk ink.

First I added my journal sentiments to the card.  I tried to make them all serious and nature focused except for the last one, which sums up the photo on the page.

Next, I used my x-acto to around part of the journal spots so that they will overlap with the photo, so I can still use this card as a photo matte and have the sentiments stand out.

Then, I used the chalk ink to ink around all of the cut sides to smooth them out and add some dimension.

Finally, I slid the photo underneath all of the journal spots and attached the 4x6 card as the photo matte.  Super easy project with a unique twist to the cards.

 

100 Days of Summer Materials:

• 12 x 12 Fundamental Cardstock Stickers #1402
• 12 x 12 Expression Cardstock Stickers #1403
• Simple Pleasures #1407
• Flashcards #1409
• 4 x 6 Vertical Journaling Card Elements #1412

 

Thank you so much for stopping by -