Wednesday, 25 November 2020

Thank-fall For You - Simple Stories - Cozy Days Collection

Hi everyone, Rebecca here with you today. I can't believe how fast November is going - I feel like I'm going to wake up tomorrow and find out it's Christmas already! Whilst there's still a few days of Autumn left, I thought I'd share another layout I've created using the 'Cozy Days' collection by Simple Stories.


Before starting this layout, I drew myself a rough sketch. I knew I wanted to have the patterned paper strips coming in from the edges, with mixed media behind it, but at the time of starting - I had no plans beyond that!

I've used white, textured cardstock for my background and have applied acrylic paint with a dry brush. I've used a dry brush, rather than adding water as I wanted the brush strokes to be more visible around the edges. I've then layered strips of patterned papers on top of the paint. I've used a longer strip of the '2x2 elements' paper (B-side) and a shorter strip of the 'Falliday' paper (also B-side). I've distressed the edges of both papers, adding some texture to my layout. I adhered the Falliday paper flat to my background using double sided tape, and used a layer of foam behind the floral paper to add some dimension.


I matted my photo onto white cardstock to help give it some separation from the page, and added a layer of green bazzill cardstock behind it from the Matchmaker Pack - distressing the edges, of course!

I absolutely adore the 'Tags' patterned paper in this collection so decided to use several on this layout. I've placed one either side of my photo, and two peeking out above my photo. I've made more of a statement piece of the 'Happy Fall Y'all' tag and kept pretty much all of it visible, as opposed to just using it as a layer as I have the others. I punched a hole through all of the tags and threaded a different colour embroidery thread through each one.


I fussy-cut a large fox, a couple of squirrels and two small floral clusters from some of the remaining tags and placed these around the base of my photo - keeping back one of the squirrels and one of the floral clusters. 


I added a few elements from the Journal Bits & Pieces pack - a round piece of ephemera which reads 'have a cozy day', an oval piece which says 'gather' and a couple of small word sentiments. I also spent a bit of time fussy-cutting lots of the leaves from the 'Harvest Wishes' patterned paper and clustered them around my photo, making sure that the colours were distributed evenly. 


I added more leaves behind the 'gather' piece to create a cluster towards the bottom of my layout and also positioned the remaining fussy-cut squirrel in this cluster too.


I added my title using two different alphabet thickers. I initially wanted to solely use the grey 'Aria' thickers, but they were a little bit too big so I found a smaller alphabet thicker in my stash which matched the collection perfectly, and also added a bit of sparkle to the page.


I finished my layout by adding a couple more fussy-cut leaves cascading down from my title along with the remaining fussy-cut floral cluster. 


If you'd like to watch how this layout came together, there is a process video up on my YouTube channel, which you can find here.

I hope you've enjoyed seeing the layouts I've created with this collection. There's still a few days left before we officially hit winter, so I may try and sneak another one in before we are all living, breathing and sleeping Christmas! I feel like before I know it, it will be upon me so I'd better start getting a bit more organised! 

I'll be back next month, by which point I'll be in full-on Christmas mode (snuck the 'C' word in again there!!) as I'm working with Simple Stories 'Jingle all the Way'.

Until then, take care and stay safe,

Rebecca x



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