Slipping into Spring with Simple Stories and others… xox

Hello little magpies,
How are you all? Good I hope. Today’s post has a spring like feel, using lots of different products. I use Simple Stories ‘I Am’ collection, We Are Memory Keepers ‘Love Notes’  and a bit of Maggie Holmes ‘Open Book’  too.  I have been very busy this month – we had a HLM retreat last weekend so I did lots of scrapping!! It was awesome to spend time with the wonderfully talented ladies on the team and I was so inspired that I have 9 layouts to share with you this month.  So go grab a coffee and let’s get started…
My first layout uses papers from the WRMK Love Notes collection. This collection is gorgeous, I love the pale pastel shades mixed with the black and white accents. The papers are great but I wasn’t sure what embellishments to pair them with. I did go for the cork shape stickers that come along with the papers but wanted some other  bits to go along too. The bows, clips and tags from Maggie Holmes Open Book went perfectly.  I started the page with my usual white background but added some alcohol ink splatters in the Ares behind my photo. These are awesome to use to make really bright vivid backgrounds. I just shake them from the bottle. Once dry I added papers behind my photo in layers, using a ruler to cut the edges for a distressed effect.
I added two sorts of lace, bubble gum pink and white from the shop, a Maggie Holmes tag and pin and some cork shapes from WRMK. A sparkly bow and some gold thread from my stash finishes the layout off.
I really love this layout, the picture is of me riding for the first time in 4 years, so its very special to me. Here is a close up of the layered cluster.
Next up is a layout that uses some bits of the ‘Kiss Kiss’ collection by Crate Paper that I had laying around on my desk. I had a few of the journaling cards left over and one or two of the chipboard bits.

This page is so simple.  I used 3 bits of American Craft white cardstock – which is my go to supply. I love using a white background – it gives me so much freedom with my designs. This time I made each sheet a little smaller than the next so that I had three layers. I mixed some pink acrylic paint and added it to the edges of the middle piece and stacked them all together.
Then I used some scraps of tissue paper to make the edging. I then took the whole thing to my sewing machine and sewed it all together.  Once done I painted a swatch of colour behind my picture. I backed the photo with the journaling cards from the Kiss Kiss collection. I used a stencil that I cut using my cameo to create the clouds and some flowers from my stash.
I also used the chipboard bits from Kiss Kiss, but they didn’t really go with the layout so I just painted them with the same pink paint that I had used on the layout. This is a really good tip for those bits left over that we all have.  You know the ones, that are a great shape but just not the right colour. I often paint these to be more useful to what I need. I hate wasting anything.  I finished off with the ‘wonderful’ sticker from My Minds Eye – these are just stunning – so very gold!

Okay, we are at the third layout already.  This on is made mostly using the Simple Stories range ‘I am’.  Now I am not normally a Simple Stories person.  I love the look of all there collections but when it comes to using them, I just find it a bit tricky. Then along came ‘I Am’. This is the most usable and gorgeous collection, I have thoroughly enjoyed making every layout and still have loads of papers left to make some more 🙂

This layout came together so very easily – the banner was a 4×6 journaling card that came from one of the cut apart sheets. I fussy cut it out and thought that it would look great.  After painstakingly cutting the whole thing out Jo pointed out to me that there is a banner in the chipboard shapes here!!
I used the ruler to cut the papers again and outlined all the papers in black, gold and my Wink of Stella pen and layered them up behind the picture. I used some gold tags and embellishments from the ephemera pack and gold hearts from the My Minds Eye gold stickers too.  The little gems are from the store and the bigger ones were some that came from an older Tereasa Collins line. The green alpha were on the Simple Stories sticker sheet and the pink ones from my stash.

Layout Four is another that’s predominately made from the ‘I Am’ collection and for this picture I decided that I would actually do an I Am layout.

I used papers from the WRMK Love Notes range along with the I Am papers.  I also used a piece of paper that I made using stamps and gold embossing powder.  The clips and bows are Maggie Holmes, the black foam hearts old Amy Tan and the black butterfly is one of the photo overlay stickers from Simple Stories as is the banner that says ‘Enjoying the Ride’.

Number Five is photos of the fireworks in November last year.  Its very hard to take pictures of fireworks and I was really pleased with these, but didn’t want to have lots of layouts about them. That’s where these great frames from I Am came in 🙂
I cut the pictures down and backed the frames with either patterned paper or tissue paper. There were some good spots on two of the frames to put gems so I added those. I used the new stamps for Heidi Swapp – the small icon stamps, which are awesome. I loved embossing the little icons onto black cardstock and then punched them out to make little embellishments and will be making them again as I loved the way that they turned out. You can also use these in your planner – they have lots of useful icons like a knife and fork and a present which would make a lovely addition to your planner pages.  I also attached Maggie Holmes clips and bows to two of the frames. The words and letter tiles come from Simple Stories too. That gorgeous ‘Simply‘ word is just stunning. Be careful when you use them though as they are very delicate and hard to remove from the sticker sheet. I finally finished off with wood veneers and gems.

 

For layout number six I used more papers from ‘I Am’ and created a layered background behind the pictures.

The embellishments are from the ‘I Am’ chipboard shapes, two of the flowers that I fussy cut from the Dreaming paper and a Maggie Holmes pin and tag.  The gold heart is from My Minds Eye. Finally I finished off with a flower from my stash.

Layout number seven uses the rest of the flowers that I cut from the Dreamer paper.

I made the background from tissue paper that I scrunched up before attaching to the white cardstock. The little round chipboard pieces that have hearts on all come from the chipboard shapes. These are really versatile and I wished that there were more of them.  I also used some ephemera bits, washi tape strips which are great, they come in different widths on each page and with circle washi bits too and there are two sheets of each design. I also attached a designer clip to the picture.  The page was finished off with gold thread from my stash.

For layout eight I created a wall like effect by cutting one of the cut apart strips along the lines of the brick work to make it look like a real 
I added a really good journaling card to the side, which has lots of different journaling prompts. I used some more of the frames and also added the tiny 2×2 square cut aparts from another one of the papers. Some washi tape, stickers and a brad finished the page of nicely.

For my ninth and final layout, which is also one of my favourites, I used some more of the flowers from the Dreamer paper – that paper is such good value for money if you use it to fussy cut the flowers.  These were offset with one of the gold doilies from Maggie Holmes and a piece of lace from the store. I used the tag from the ephemera pack and the large ampersand. The ‘postcard’ piece comes from yet another cut apart sheet, Simple Stories has so many of these in each of their collections and they are all so useful.

A little more washi tape and some stickers from the sticker pack and this final layout is done.  I have thoroughly enjoyed playing with all the goodies this month – they have all been so easy to use and all the different collections work well together.  I will say goodbye for now with love xoxox