Simple Stories

Scrapping the Everyday with The Daily Grind

Hola Simple Stories fans! Allison L here today with a couple layouts I've been working on using Simples Stories' brand new Daily Grind line! As a single adult with grown children I don't tend to have a ton of excitement in my life. So, when I first saw this line, I thought it had been tailor made for me! I tore into it right away as it seemed like the perfect line to document my life as a doctoral student, which simply means that I sit around a lot and read and read and read.

 

I started with the Journaling Cards Elements sheet and found the perfect 3x4 for my journaling. I love the simple embellishment of the card, but also the roominess for journaling all that I wanted to say. I also love the deep walnut brown woodgrain, which seemed the perfect background for my photo. 

 

Next I used my punch to punch out the icons from the Day In Day Out sheet. I knew I wanted a banner and these were the perfect touch. I used the Sn@p alphabet stickers for my title. After I had it all laid out, I wanted to add some layers. Sometimes a 12x12 pattern is just too bold, and I love the scaled down versions of the prints in our 6x6 pads. So, I took the chevron and calendar tabbed patterns and layered them with my photo and background. 

 

A few finishing touches with some stickers, chipboard pieces, die cuts, and brads and I was done. 

 

Next I decided that this line was just what I needed for my next week in my Life Documented album. A few of the Sn@p Cards from the line, the die cuts, and a little chipboard and voila! One more week accomplished. 

 

To see more projects using Daily Grind, check out our Daily Grind Pinterest board

 

 I hope you've enjoyed getting a glimpse of my everyday life. Remember, life is filled with those everyday moments, so get out there and scrap them. 

To see more projects using Daily Grind, check out our Daily Grind Pinterest board

 

 

Products used:

Daily Grind

• Fundamental Cardstock Stickers
• Expression Cardstock Stickers
• 6x6 Paper Pad
• Ephemera
• Chipboard
• Brads
• Hello, New Day Patterned Paper
• Day In, Day Out Patterned Paper
• 3x4 Journaling Cards Elements Paper
• Yellow Chunky Chevron/Dots Patterned Paper
• Daily Grind Sn@p Cards
• Bingo Cards/Months Patterned Paper

Other Products Used:

• Say Cheese Expression Cardstock Stickers
• Harvest Lane Expression Cardstock Stickers
• Sn@p Stickers - Letters

I {Heart} Summer Tags

Recently, I received a box full of I {Heart} Summer goodies and could not wait to dive in! I'm so excited to be posting this project today! Being Memorial Day weekend, it also marks the "unofficial" kickoff to Summer. That makes me incredibly happy! That means LOTS of fun colorful photos to come to pair up with this beautiful paper collection! 

I decided to make some tags for my project today. I love tags, but I never know what to do with them. Sure, you can attach them to a gift, but I think sometimes they are too fancy to attach to a gift and should be used as a stand out gift themselves. With the Sn@p! Pockets, I was able to make this happen! I turned my tags into little card/gift card holders! 

I added some fun trims & summer stickers to make these tags really stand out. 

Wouldn't you love to receive one of these this summer with a fun gift card attached? I think they are perfect little gift ideas to have on hand for sure! 

Products Used:
I {Heart} Summer
#3202 Fundamentals Cardstock Stickers
#3203 Expressions Cardstock Stickers
#3204 Sunshine & Laughter
#3209 Hello Summer
#3221 Bingo Cards/Summer Stripe 
#3223 Sn@p Pockets! 

Let's "Go!" with Urban Traveler

The end of May always marks the beginning of summer break for me. The school year is over, grading is done, and it's time to spend some quality time enjoying the outdoors of the great state of Arizona. Nobody loves this time of year better than my dogs, Sweetness and Boone. This past March, we almost lost  fourteen year old Sweetness to a huge tumor on her spleen, but thankfully the surgery went well, and she is doing amazing! But that event made me want to document some of the happy times with this dog while I was still enjoying them. And well, there is nothing this dog loves more than a good road trip. 

 

We have to be very careful around our house because Sweetness understands the words, "hike," "walk" and "go." She will look up, stare at us, and run over to the basket where we keep the leashes if we forget to spell these words out. It was time to get this on paper, and the Urban Traveler line was the perfect complement. I'm loving the extra dimension the new embellishments give the Simple Stories lines of products, and here I used them to accent my dog's happy grin. 

A simple design, and a few embellishments, and this layout was done. I'm especially loving the new brads with their bright colors and fun added designs. 

If you're headed out on the road for any reason at all this summer, now might be a good time to pick up this line for all the photos you are bound to take. Most of all, be safe out there! 

Products Used from the Urban Traveler line:

Expressions Cardstock Stickers #2903

Fundamentals Cardstock Stickers #2902

Chipboard Stickers #2927

Decorative Brads #2926

Layered Stickers #2928

Border and Title Strip Elements Paper #2914

Grey Concrete Chevron Paper #2917

 

Here Comes Summer!

The I {Heart} Summer line is so fabulous that I could not wait for the official start of summer to start using it! Fortunately for me, living in the southwest means summer weather comes early and my kids were in the pool over Easter weekend this year!

Do you ADORE all the new fun embellishments that the Simple Stories lines include? Like fun flair and brads...

If you don't have an electronic die cut machine, the die cut pages are fabulous to add the same type of look without the cost. The chipboard stickers add just enough dimension...Super cute stacked or Layered stickers offer even more dimension:

And all the fun usual suspects including alphas, element stickers, tape looking stickers and more. After including all those fun goodies, I ran out of room to journal so I did it along the edge of the scalloped sticker!

Isn't I {Heart} Summer such a fun line? Ican't wait to use this line for even more summer fun and activities!

Supplies Used:

I {Heart} Summer Collection--

12 x 12 Collection Kit #3200

Fundamentals Cardstock Stickers #3202

Expressions Cardstock Stickers #3203

Chipboard Stickers #3227

Decorative Brads #3226

Layered Stickers #3228

Flair Icons #3229

12 x 12 Simple Basics Kit #3224

SN@P Pages #3222

 

Simple Stories & Petaloo Blog Hop - Day 5

Welcome to Day 5 of the Simple Stories & Petaloo - Blog Hop!  We’re so excited to team up with Petaloo to share some inspiring projects with you this week.

We’ll be giving away a great Simple Stories prize package at the end of the week, so be sure to play along and check back on Sunday to see if you’re the lucky winner!

Here are the different ways you can play along –

1. Like Simple Stories on Facebook
2. Share this blog post on your Facebook wall and tell us you did on our Facebook wall
3. Follow Simple Stories on Pinterest
4. Comment here on our blog or on Facebook

Petaloo is also posting projects and giving away prizes, so be sure to check out their blog and Facebook  page, too!

The project I did for today was a cute little watering can and cupcakes for Mothers day.   I loved working with the flowers and ribbon from Petaloo.  The colors are awesome and the quality is great!  I used Vintage Bliss for the cupcake liners and embellishments on the watering can.  The watering can was made out of  The Take a Hike paper line.  I cut the cupcake liners and watering can out with my cutting machine.  I ran the cupcake liners through my paper crimper.  Then I took two new white socks and rolled them to get the swirled look and pinned them together.  I then pinned the flower on top.  I glued the cute little ribbon around the top of the cupcake liners. I decorated the watering can with a bouquet of flowers and the adorable embellishments from the Vintage Bliss collection.

 

Now go create something fun with Simple Stories and Petaloo!  Enjoy the rest of the Blog hop.

Head on over to the Petaloo blog and check out what their Design Team has created using their embellishments and our Simple Stories products! They’re also hosting giveaways as well, so what
are you waiting for – head on over! 

Check in again with us tomorrow for more inspiring projects from Simple Stories & Petaloo! 

Simple Stories Products used:

Vintage Bliss: Decorative Brads #3026

Layered Stickers #3028

Teal Chevron #3018

Yellow Grid #3019

Pink Floral #3020

Take a Hike: Brown Wood #2516

Petaloo Supplies:

Frosted Roses- Blue/Greens

Dahlias- Teal/Aqua

Fancy Trims Shades of Teal

Mini Daisies Red/Fuchsias

Do Something Amazing Everyday Mini Album

Whenever I received the new CHA collections, I fell in love instantly. I cannot pick one over the other because they are all fabulous. There is something about each collection that really draws me in. 24/7 is no exception, it's amazing! I love the vivid colors, all of the quotes & sayings, just everything about this collection is simply perfect! 

I decided to create a mini album out of paper lunch bags for my blog post. I often just show a few shots of the cover and a couple detail photos of my albums, but for this one, I wanted to show the whole thing. All of the pages feature a little quote, saying, or element from the sticker sheet. I'm thrilled with how this album turned out! 

It's crazy to see something so beautiful made with a couple of ordaniary lunch bags, with the new Simple Stories collections, you can turn anything into a fabulous piece of art! 

Products Used:

#3100 24/Seven 12x12 Collection Kit

Take a Hike: One with Nature

Hello All!  Wendy here to share up an altered project for you today!  

I always love the vintage and eclectic and this printer's tray from 7 Gypsies just spoke to me along with the Simple Stories Take a Hike collection. I love the tone of the distressed tray along with the color palette in this collection.  My soul screamed...a perfect pairing.  Truth.

Take a Hike is a previous release from Simple Stories and just about perfection for all things outdoor-sy, masculine, and "simply" capturing the beauty of nature.  

You can still grab it up at your fav online spots for scrapbook product and/or local scrapbook store.

My inspiration behind this project....

My boyfriend absolutely loves the outdoors...fishing, even spear fishing, yep. I promised to take him deep sea fishing next month since I live along the beautiful coast along the Gulf of Alabama in Orange Beach.  I feel more outdoor-sy pics to come....

So, in this project I wanted to capture his love for the outdoors, skiing, hiking, the beautiful mountains of Salzburg, Austria, bringing in the rustic, all along with the beautiful scenes of nature in his part of the world.  

I went with black & white photos for uniformity and to keep the photos as a key piece to the project.   I wanted to keep many of the cubby holes in the tray just the natural wood and only used about 2-3 colors of pattern paper and/or patterns not so 'busy' to keep the tray from being 'overwhelmed'.  Also, in using the 6x6 paper pad from the Take a Hike collection, the patterns are smaller in scale than the 12x12 size and I love this for working with mini projects and altered projects.  If you didn't know that...daily food for thought. Ha!

Without further ado..."One with Nature"

I played on the scenes you find in nature...the mini fawn was found in the children's toys section of a store. The fishing embellishments are actually dollhouse miniatures.  The trees are from train track landscape scenery. These simple touches added just the punch to my project that I was looking to capture.  

Randomly thinking "out-of-the-box" brought a lot of interest, texture, movement, and just the random to my project, "One with Nature".

The hanging latern is attached with a screw inside the cubby hole.  A little "elbow grease"/sweat is needed here. :)

I love to cover multiple sections with one photo cut to size of the tray pockets.  This adds a neat and unexpected interest to the project.

I love the mixing of different tones of wood and metal - i.e. wood veneer shapes, metal vintage finds, metal quote plaques, and mini wood letters.

Also, this would make an excellent birthday gift for hubby, boyfriend, male friend or a great Father's Day gift that can be displayed!

Hope you enjoyed my project!

Supply List:

Simple Stories

Take a Hike Collection:

6x6 Paper Pad

Fundamentals Cardstock Stickers #2602

Expressions Cardstock Stickers #2503

Other

Letterblock Printer's Tray - 7 Gypsies, Trees - Woodland Classics - Woodland Scenics Forever Green #TR3565 N, HO, O Scale, Fishing Accessories & Rabbit - Mayberry Street Miniatures, Wood Veneer Shapes - Studio Calico (birds, letters, bicycle), Fawn - Safari Ltd, Metal Phrase Plaque & Hanging Screw - Advantus - Tim Holtz, Metal Dome Studs - 7 Gypsies, zGlossy Accents - Ranger, Glue Dots - Glue Arts - Extreme Tac Adhesive Squares, Mod Podge - Matte, Metal Wheel - Local Vintage Store.

Simply Creative: No Strings Attached

It seems pretty obvious lately that Simple Stories lines can go beyond their use with divided page protectors. I'd been spending a lot of my scrappy time of late playing with the divided page protectors, it was time to return to some of my well-loved, traditional scrapping. A couple of years ago, my son and I took our four dogs out hiking in northern Arizona. I realized I had several photos I hadn't yet scrapped. Couple that with the Take a Hike line sitting on my table, and I considered it kismet!

I started with the main photo, the subtle yellow chevron paper, a solid slate background paper, and the alpha/word sticker sheet.

I also wanted the map imagery (a Simple Stories/Unity Stamp cobrand item) on my layout somewhere so I stamped it onto the journaling block before writing up my thoughts. I stamped the image in a circle shape by punching a circle shape into some printer paper (you want a really thin paper as a mask) and then stamped within the circle.

Then I played around with the two secondary photos...

I put the title on one side with those GORGEOUS woodgrain alphas. And the orange type alphas are the perfect size for augmenting a title or creating a subtitle. 

On the other side, I put the date and a sticker from the icon sheet... and ironically enough, my son featured in the photos is actually wilderness certified. 

I topped the layout off with a border of coordinating patterns, some map paper, and a few scraps. 

 

I'm thrilled with the masculine feel of the layout, and I'm excited to have another set of our outdoor adventure photos scrapped. I still have plenty more, so thank goodness the Take a Hike line offers me so many options for scrapping them. So, what are you waiting for? Get off the couch, enjoy an adventure, then grab some Simple Stories and scrap it. 

Supplies:

• Fundamentals Cardstock Stickers  #2502 
• Expressions Cardstock Stickers #2503 
• Flash Cards #2509  
• Brown Wood/Map #2516 
• Yellow Chevron/Grid #2519 
• Navy/Icons #2520 
• 6x6 Paper Pad #2501

 

 

For Added Dimension, Simply Handcut!

Hello! It's almost the weekend!

I have a layout to share with you today using the new Vintage Bliss line. When I created this, I didn't have access to all the new embellishments that were just released this Winter CHA, but I did have my trusty little scissors, so I did a lot of hand cutting to make this layout dimensional. I like dimension. So I took the lovely floral paper Smile Big and started cutting it up into small bit of flowers and leaves.

I arranged them until they felt right and then added some dimensional adhesive behind a few of them and wrapped some twine throughout the design.

With just a little extra time to hand cut, you can add so much dimension using just paper. And with all the awesome papers that Simple Stories has, there's plenty of fun embellishments just waiting to happen. 

This is a photo of my grandmother at at two. Her grandpa was from Rochester, NY and was a big fan of Kodak. This meant there were lots of photos of my Nana and her mom, my My (why we called her that, I'm not sure) as a child too. What a dream come true for a scrapbooker, yes?

Supplies:

Vintage Bliss 

• Smile Big (#3004)
• Wood Butterflies (#3017)
• Teal Chevron/Lined Notebook (#3018)
• Yellow Grid/Dictionary (#3019)
• Pink Floral/Notebook (#3020)
• Green Dots/Grid (#3121)
• Expressions Cardstock Stickers (#3003)
• Fundatmentals Cardstock Stickers (#3002)

SN@P! Core Collection

• Letter Stickers (#4020)

Vintage Bliss Mini Album

Whenever I tell people that I make things out of recycled toilet paper rolls, they don't believe me. Then I show them what I make and they STILL don't believe that it's made from toilet paper rolls! I love to recycle household goods and get creative with them. 

One of my favorite "recycle" projects to make are mini albums out of toilet paper rolls. They are so easy and inespensive to make! All it takes are a few empty tp rolls, some paint, and pretty paper & embellishments! 

One of the reasons that I love to make these types of albums is for the simple fact that I can make little tags for hidden photos and journaling. The tp roll "pockets" are perfect for this! 

Just to prove that this mini album is made from tprolls, here's a little peek at the side where the tags slide in. 

Thanks for stopping by today! I hope I've inspired you to create some recycled crafts of your own!

Products Used:
Vintage Bliss-
#3002 Fundamentals Cardstock Stickers
#3003 Expressions Cardstock Stickers 
#3005 12x12 paper Laugh Lots
#3007 12x12 paper Be Happy
#3008 12x12 paper Live Simply
#3009 Give Love