Simple Stories Baking Spirits Bright

As we are just one month away from Christmas Day it seems fitting that today I should be sharing my first layout using the Christmassy 'Baking Spirits Bright' collection from Simple Stories. This is a baking inspired Christmas collection with a bright colour palette and images of kitchen utensils, gingerbread men and other Christmas treats as well as classic Christmas icons such as reindeer, holly and Christmas trees. It is perfect for recording memories of Christmas baking but would be perfect too for general Christmas scrapbooking. 

I started my layout by trimming a quarter of an inch from each edge of a sheet of 12x12 white cardstock and layering this on top of a gutted sheet of 12x12 red cardstock leaving a narrow border. Gutting the red cardstock meant I had cardstock left to use elsewhere on the layout.

Using some olive green sewing thread I then machine stitched along the edges of the white cardstock.

With Tim Holtz Tattered Rose Distress Ink and a stencil from Paige Evans I stenciled pink stars onto the white cardstock background. My 6x4 photograph was matted onto  the red cardstock (saved from earlier) and placed in the top right corner of the layout with 3D foam underneath.

Using my Silhouette Cameo and smooth white cardstock , I cut a Christmas tree cut file from Paige Evans. This was backed with papers from the collection (Sweet Holiday Wishes, Merry and Bright, 3x4 Elements) and more of the red cardstock.

The stars on the Christmas trees were backed with white glitter card and topped with stars from the Foam Sticker sheet.

The cut file was then stuck to the layout with 3D foam underneath.

One of the title stickers from the sheet of Foam Stickers was added to the bottom of the photo and a holly sticker was added to a corner of the photo. A word of warning about these stickers! Once they stick to your layout, they CAN NOT be removed again so make sure you are certain of where you want to stick them before doing so. 

Finally I added journalling strips printed in red ink on my computer at the bottom of the layout and dotted some enamel dots here and there.

Carta Bella Welcome Fall - Remember, Remember the 5th of November

Today I have another layout to share using the Welcome Fall collection from Carta Bella.

Here in the UK, tomorrow (November 5th) is Guy Fawkes Night also known as Bonfire Night when we celebrate a failed gunpowder plot in the 1600s to blow of Parliament's House of Lords. We mark the occasion with bonfires, fireworks and sparklers. Every year I try unsuccessfully to photograph the fireworks but some years ago I did manage to capture in a rather blurred photo Lara's thrill of the sparklers and that is the photo on today's layout.

Onto a sheet of 12x12 white cardstock I layered several pieces of patterned paper and card - an 11.5" square of the 3x4 Journalling Cards  (B Side), a 10" square of white cardstock and an 8.5" square of Fall Flannel paper which was matted with a thin border of gold mirror card. Before sticking down the journalling card paper I choose a card form the centre of the paper and saved this to use on the layout later. The hole in the paper where the card was removed is thankfully hidden by the other paper layers.

I then used one of my favourite methods of adding texture, by machine stitching along the edges of all the papers with white thread.

Using my Silhouette Cameo I cut a star border cut file by Paige Evans. The border was cut twice - once in white cardstock and once in black cardstock. The two die cuts were then layered slightly offset on top of each other, to create a shadow effect, and when placed on the layout made the cut file stand out more against the multi-coloured background. Some of the stars were backed with gold mirror card and some were left open. The cut file was then place diagonally across the layout and one extra star was also tucked into the left side of the layout.

My 6x4 photo was matted on gold mirror card and placed on the layout with some 3D foam underneath for dimension.

I created a tag from the 3x4 journalling cards which I had saved earlier. I matted the card on gold mirror card and added a hole reinforcer and black and white Bakers Twine. The tag was tucked behind some of the stars on the right side of the layout.

The title was added to the bottom of the layout.

'5th' and 'November' were die cut from black and white cardstock and layered in the same was as the stars to create a shadow effect.

Additional words were created with letters die cut from black fun foam. I like to mix fonts, etc when creating titles to give some extra interest. 

Finally I sprinkled a few gold sequins here and there.