Time for a sketch with Simple Stories

It’s time for another page sketch here at Hey Little Magpie, and this month I have been playing with a couple of the new collections from Simple Stories.
You can find them here:
Simple Stories Let’s Party
Simple Stories You Are Here
 

The sketch this month features one standard 4×6 photo (or smaller) grounded with some layering and surrounded with closely packed embellishments. The large amount of “white space” on the page can either be filled with pattern, or left as literal white space. For a change I actually stuck pretty closely to the sketch in both of my examples here!
 

I used the Let’s Party collection to make this page about my son’s 1st birthday a few years ago. We gave him cake for the first time on that day; put a sheet out on the floor and just let him go mad! He had great fun, and I got some great photos. The sugar high afterwards was quite incredible!
 


The green dot paper lends some interest to the large amount of plain space, but is simple enough that all the other elements don’t get lost. I added a couple of chipboard frames from the coordinating pack (I love these packs from simple stories – they’re such great value), and stickers from the fundamentals sheet. The puffy stickers are from Heidi Swapp, and add another texture to the page. I adore the diagonal stripe paper – I often buy this kind of pattern, but it can be overwhelming as a full page background. Used as a page border you still get to appreciate the colours and design, without it being “too much”. I gutted the sheet before I stuck the green dot down so that I have more of it to use on another page.

For my second take on the sketch I used another new Simple Stories collection – You Are Here. I purchsed the 6×6 paper pad, which gives you two sheets of each of the papers in the collection, perfectly scaled down in size. I love that they include their cut apart sheets in this miniature size, as I find it much easier to use the elements when they’re smaller. The designs are always gorgeous, but I struggle to add a 4×6″ design onto a page so that enough is visible. They work so much better for me at 2×3″. I added some embellishments in the form of coordinating die cuts and stickers, and some cork elements. The photo was taken on my birthday and I adore it – the clematis that is flowering in the background always reminds me of these photos, and every year I make a mental note of whether it is out earlier or later than it was this particular year. Funny, the things that stir a memory.


Thanks for reading, and see you all again next month!