Simple Stories - Game Night - Shuffle, Roll. Laugh, Repeat

Here is my latest project using the colourful Simple Stories Game Night collection. For this layout I went for a grid design and used the Tag Elements paper. I challenged myself to use the majority of the tags as the foundation for my layout, and I love how it turned out. 

I began the layout with a sheet of white cardstock. I trimmed this down slightly and then matted it onto a sheet of black cardstock, making sure to leave a narrow border around the edges.

To add some texture I machine stitched a straight stitch round the outside of the layout with white thread.

I fussy-cut the tags from the Tag Elements paper and paired them up. I stacked them in doubles to create a 3 x 2 grid right in the centre of my layout, giving the layout a fun, game board feel.

On five of the tag piles I added a small photo. When I choose to use this collection I hunted through my photos to find as many game related photos as I could. We often play games on holiday and at Christmas so there were quite a few to choose from.

The tags were embellished with die cuts from the Bits and Pieces pack and a few images cut from some of the papers. The photos and the die cuts were raised on 3D foam to give some dimension.

The names of the games were printed on the computer using a font called 'KB Chatter Box' , cut into strips and added to each tag cluster.

To finish them off, I threaded some black and white baker's twine through the top of each tag

I purposely left one of the tags unembellished, so that the words served as the title for the layout.

Finally I punched a few stars from some co-ordinating cardstock and dotted them around the layout.

Photoplay This Happy Life - Loving This

This is my final layout featuring the This Happy Life collection from Photoplay. This collection is just bursting with brightness and happy colours, making it perfect for creating happy scrapbook pages. My layout today was inspired by a layout by Rebecca Meadows found on Pinterest.



I began the layout by layering a slightly trimmed 12x12 sheet of white cardstock onto a 12x12 sheet of black cardstock.

Next, I cut five long tags, each about 2" x 10", from various papers in the collection: It Happened, This Year, Sweet Hello, Everyday, and All My Life papers. To finish the tags, I made reinforcing rings from black cardstock and added them to the holes of each tag.



I make hole reinforcers for my tags by using a tiny round punch and a larger round punch. First, I use the tiny punch to punch a small circle from cardstock, and then I use the larger punch to punch out the hole, forming the reinforcer.

After attaching the reinforcers, I arranged the tags vertically across the layout and threaded black and white baker's twine through their holes.

I also incorporated a black cardstock tag onto the strung tags, using it as a mat for my 6x4 photo. For this one, I created a hole reinforcer from a piece of the patterned paper.



To secure the twine and give it some extra texture, I used metal staples.



In my stash, I found a black puffy phrase sticker that was the perfect title, and I placed it towards the bottom of the layout, slightly overlapping the photo.

To embellish the layout, I fussy cut flowers from the This Year paper. These were then arranged into clusters on both the photo tag and in the bottom right corner of the page.



I typed my journaling on the computer and printed the strips onto white cardstock. These strips were then placed next to the photo on the layout, with their right sides nestled into the fussy cut flowers, creating a natural flow.



Finally, I used a black fine liner pen to outline the white cardstock and the patterned paper tags. To complete the layout, I added a few pink enamel dots to the flower clusters.

Mintay Paper Blossom Serenity - Spring Snapshots

Recently I've been crafting with Mintay Paper's beautiful Blossom Serenity collection. The pastel colours and lovely spring-themed images, like flowers, birds, and butterflies, are just perfect for scrapbooking my spring memories.

To start my layout, I took a pink sheet of cardstock from the Bazzill Matchmaker Pack and placed a trimmed-down sheet of paper #5 on top, ensuring a thin border remained around the edges.

Using my sewing machine I stitched a straight stitch round the edges of the paper with white thread to add some texture.

With my Silhouette, I cut a long white picket fence from smooth white cardstock, designed to stretch almost the full length of the layout. I then mounted it along the bottom edge of the layout using 3D foam to create a raised effect.

I embellished the fence with flower and birdhouse die cuts from the Paper Die Cuts Pack. The Paper Die Cut Pack contains 60 die cuts so there were lots to choose from.

A two-part title was cut with my Silhouette: 'Spring' in yellow cardstock and 'Snapshots' in green. These were then arranged and affixed to the top of the white picket fence. Two die cut butterflies were also added to the title.

I printed four 2"x3" photos, matted them with white cardstock, and stuck them to yellow cardstock tags using 3D foam for dimension. The completed tags were then attached to the layout, and strung on white twine.

From the Paper Sticker Words sheet, I chose appropriate words and added them to the tags.



Journaling strips were typed on my computer, printed onto white cardstock, and then glued along the left-hand edge of the layout.



To finish, I added a sprinkling of pink sequins.

Vicki Boutin's Bold & Bright for American Crafts - Capture it All

I have a new collection to share with you - Bold & Bright by Vicki Boutin for American Crafts. As the name suggests, the colour palette of this collection is wonderfully colourful and vibrant. It is perfect for so many scrapbook layouts. The layout I have to show you today is a multi photo layout inspired by the Mixed Tags sheet of paper.

For the base of the layout I chose to use a sheet of paper from one of Vicki's older Painted Backgrounds Paper Pads but you could also create your own mixed media background or use a plain sheet of cardstock or tone-on-tone patterned paper. I trimmed 1cm from one edge of the background paper and stuck a piece of black cardstock behind to add a bit of interest,

The 5 largest tags on the Mixed Tags paper were cut out and cascaded down the centre of the layout. Onto each tag I mounted a 3" x 1.5" photo. 3D foam was placed beneath each photo for dimension. 

Some of the tags were threaded with black and white twine.

From the Bunches of Fun paper I fussy cut two huge flower clusters and tucked these behind the top and bottom tags.

From the Spinning Wheels paper I cut lots of the wheels and also tucked these behind the tags, making sure that the colours were evenly distributed throughout the layout.

On each tag, beside the photo, I added a word strip printed on the computer and a butterfly from the sheet of Mini Puffy Stickers. This pack of puffy stickers contains 110 tiny stickers which are so versatile and great for scattering on layouts. I think they're great value for money.

In the bottom right corner I added my title. I used one of the Puffy Title Thickers and some Mini Foam Thickers and beside the title I added a cute puffy sticker camera from my stash.

Finally, a few enamel dots were added and I doodled a line round all the paper elements using a black gel pen.

Simple Stories Winter Wonder - Let it Snow

Today I have another layout using the gorgeous Winter Wonder collection from Simple Stories. This is a winter themed collection, and whilst we seldom get much snow in the area I live, when we do I always take lots of photos. So I always have photos to use with winter themed collections.

I started this layout by layering a piece of the Comfy.Cozy.Cuddly paper onto a sheet of black cardstock leaving a narrow border and then using white thread I machine stitched a straight stitch round the edges.

Twelve of the tags from the Tag Elements paper were then arranged in three rows horizontally in the middle of the layout. The tags were strung onto white twine and glued in place. My photo was matted with some black cardstock and placed on the right of the layout, on top of the tags, with some 3D foam underneath.

From the pack of Floral Bits and Pieces I chose some of the blue flowers and leaves and tucked these under the edges of the photos.  Some of the flowers are quite big so they fill up quite a bit of the open space on the layout.

In my stash I found some wood veneer snowflakes and added these to the flower clusters.

On the Silhouette Cameo, using a cut file from the Silhouette Store, I cut the title and nestled this beneath the photo. I really like how the S in the word 'Snow' cuddles the words 'Let It'.  Another blue flower from the Bits and Pieces pack was used to embellish the title.

From the Brr Brr Brr paper I cut a word strip and placed this below the photo.

Finally I added the date at the bottom of the layout with some teeny tiny stickers ...

.... and scattered a few iridescent sequins from one of the Picket Fence Studio sequin mixes here and there to give the layout some sparkle.

Vicki Boutin Peppermint Kisses - 'Twas the Night Before Christmas

As we are getting closer to Christmas I have been playing with Vicki Boutin's Peppermint Kisses collection form American Crafts. 

I started by layering a trimmed down a sheet of the Winter Magic paper onto a sheet of the Sweet Holiday Wishes paper leaving a narrow border round the edges. I made sure to gut the pink paper before attaching the teal paper so that I had paper left to mat my photos.

Using a cut file from Peartree Cutfiles I cut my title from smooth white cardstock and attached this to the top half of the layout. 

I thought of backing the cut file or even creating a shaker pocket from it, but in the end decided instead to simply embellish it with sequins. I took some white, blue and pink sequins, which matched the colours in the paper, and glued a few inside each letter of the title. I like the sparkle the sequins add to the layout.

I then took four small photos and matted these with the remaining Sweet Holiday Wishes paper. Two of the matted photos were placed at the top of the layout either side of the title with 3D foam underneath, and two photos were attached to the front of a couple of tags cut from the sheet of tags. The tags were placed at the bottom of the layout with more 3D foam beneath.

Through the holes in the tags I threaded a piece of white twine.

Underneath the tags I placed a couple of die cut phrase strips from the pack of Journaling Ephemera. 

At the top of the page I added another die cut phrase strip to one of the photos and some Puffy Phrase Stickers.

To add more texture to the layout I took some silver embroidery floss and stitched onto the Christmas Tree images at the bottom of the page. I used a simple back stitch on one of the trees .....

.... and chain stitch on the other. More sequins were used to embellish the trees as well as some enamel dots.

Finally I printed some journalling strips on the computer and placed these in the bottom right corner of the layout and dotted some more white sequins around the layout.