Favorite - Simple Stories - Simple Vintage Indigo Garden Collection

Hi everyone, Rebecca with you today sharing my first layout using the new Simple Vintage Indigo Garden collection from Simple Stories. Is it just me, or do the Simple Stories collections keep getting better and better?! I don't think this collection will hang around in the store for long, so take a look here before it sells out!

I'm scrapping a photo of my son among the snowdrops at our local National Trust today, so I wanted to take the opportunity to use some of the floral papers from the collection. I selected the Beautiful Heart and Simply Sweet papers, along with the B side of the Little Details to help balance out the busy patterns. I cut strips from the papers, 1.5 inches wide and then distressed the long edges to introduce some texture the the page. I trimmed the strips to difference lengths, and then rolled the short ends in on themselves, revealing the pattern on the reverse. 

With the papers distressed and rolled, I then arranged them horizontally on a sheet of Premium White Cardstock and machine stitched through the centre of them.

I matted my photo using the B side of the Simply Sweet paper, as there were hints of this pattern already on the page from the rolled edges, and then a second time using a Navy Cardstock from the 12x12 Basics Kit. I distressed all the edges for continuity and to bring more texture to the layout. I placed my photo in the centre of my page, raised up on a layer of foam. 

Either side of my photo, I placed some floral die cuts from the Floral Bits & Pieces pack, selecting colours to match my patterned papers.

I used one of the Foam Stickers for my title, and placed it at an angle underneath my photo. I think the foam stickers are one of my favourite products in the Simple Stories collections and they are always the first thing I add to my basket! I placed a second foam sticker at the top of my photo.

I used some of the butterfly die cuts from the Floral Bits and Pieces pack to embellish further, and also fussy-cut some smaller butterflies from the Grace & Beauty patterned paper to vary the style and sizes. I arranged these centrally on my page, in a vertical fashion through the photo.

I selected a die cut from the Bits & Pieces pack which read 'Love This Most', stitched through the centre of it and placed it to the left of my photo.

I finished off my layout with some some stickers from the Combo Stickers sheet, placing some hearts around the page, and a tab which reads 'Memorable' to the right of my photo.

Thank you for reading! I hope you've enjoyed this layout and it offers you some inspiration in using this beautiful collection. If you'd like to watch the layout come together, there is a process video up on my YouTube channel, which you can find here. 

I'll be back later in the month with another layout using this stunning collection, so keep your eyes peeled!

Rebecca x

@preciouspagespapercraft

'One Magical Amazing Day' by Meg, using Echo Parks Its's a Girl

Hey all, it's Meg here today with a layout using the sweet pink It's A Girl collection by Echo Park. I absolutely love the colour pink so I was super excited to see this in my DT pack! 

I looked through and this one paper especially caught my eye - it's the B-Side to the 3x4 Journaling Cards but it's so so pretty! They're like little tiles! So I cut out and distressed 6 of the 'tiles' to use as my background. 

I also loved the look of Rosies Studio 'By Starlight' Gold Puffy Stickers with the beautiful It's A Girl colours, so I wanted to create a title using them. I made a banner using a Paige Taylor Evans banner cutfile, cut from the soft Dreamland paper for the cutfile and backed with Dresses and Jumpers.

I had picked out a few photos of my little girl to go with this collection and decided on this one - I moved it around the page a bit to decide where it would go, and I double matted it with the Dreamland paper to co-ordinate with the title banner and a darker Coral Cream Bazzill cardstock. 

I decided I wanted the photo on the bottom right of my tile column and I wanted to do a sort of diagonal cluster, so I splattered some gold and green watercolour paint to highlight the diagonal shape and then I began building my cluster on top. 

The title 'One Magical Day' is made up of the Rosies Studio Gold Puffy Stickers and the 'Amazing' is a Bramblefox perspective. The tag tucked behind my photo, the mini green banner and the 'It's a Girl' are all Chipboard Phrases; I fussy cut the pink frilly dress, 'You will do amazing things' phrase and the yarn bunting from the 3x4 Journaling Cards and the sweet little deer and flowers came from the Dreamland paper. I finished my large cluster with stars from the pack of Rosies Studio Gold Puffy Stickers and a few gold Nuvo Drops. 

I popped my journalling on some vellum paper and made a mini cluster behind it on the top left of my page, with a rectangle of Dreamland paper and the 'Beautiful Girl' phrase I cut from the 3x4 Journaling Cards. 

And that's it! My one-month-old little girls pink page finished - perfect! 

Thank you for stopping by and until next time, 

Meg x 

Pebbles Kid at Heart 💕 #3

Hello! Welcome back to the @papermaze_uk blog! 

It’s Anna here today to share my third layout with the wonderful Pebbles Kid at Heart collection.

You can find the whole range over in the shop here.

For this layout I used the ‘b’ side of ‘You got this’ as my base. I then chose a cutfile by PeartreeCutfiles that went perfectly with the photos I wanted to use. I backed the wording of the cutfile with the ‘b’ side of ‘playful’ and the hearts with ‘party time’ I adhered the cutfile just slightly off centre and then placed my two photographs tucked in on the right side of the page.

I fussy cut lots of flowers from the ‘scatter happiness’ paper and adhered them in two clusters at the top right and bottom left of the layout. I also cut our some of the bees from this paper and poked them out of wording in the cutfile.

I then had a look through the phrase ephemera pack and picked out a few pieces that would work well with the layout. I added them in amongst my clusters of florals. I also scattered lots of sequins around my floral clusters. 

I fussy cut some of the scalloped boarder strips from the ‘playful’ paper and adhered them along the top and bottom of the layout. I trimmed two of them down and layered them up together.

Thanks so much for looking! 

Anna

X

@acraftylifewithanna

March Crop

Our March crop is a week earlier than normal, and our crop kit uses mainly Bungalow Lane papers from Paige Evans.

As usual, we'll be at Otley Village Hall with homemade cakes and a selection of tools.  The shop will not be open this Saturday though I'm afraid.  Drop us a message if you'd like to come along!

'Love love love' page by Meg using Happy Hearts, Simple Stories

Hey all it's Meg here today and I'm sharing my last page (for now!) using Simple Stories Happy Hearts. I love all of the vibrant colours in this collection and so I wanted to try a colourful non-white background! 

I started with the navy Bazzill cardstock and I used my Cricut and a Paige Taylor Evans cutfile to make the butterfly background, which added lots of texture and interest. I backed it using coral Bazzill cardstock and the Wink Wink paper (confession time - I used two co-ordinating papers to back it because I didn't have enough of either ha)!

This cutfile gave me a great starting point and I knew I wanted to create a central cluster with lots of colour. I looked through my photos and picked a photo of my baby girl and cut it into a circle shape, then matted it using the coral Bazzill cardstock and I popped it up with foam tape. 

I cut a larger circle of the Happy Hearts - Forever Yours paper and a couple of torn circles of vellum to layer behind my photo and then I began tucking in lots of pieces of colourful ephemera! 

The bouquet, 'cute' banner, the hearts and little cake on the left came from the Bits And Pieces pack, the 'Love Love Love' was a Foam Sticker, I fussy cut a few tiny flowers from the Forever Yours paper and the rest were Happy Hearts Puffy Stickers. I finished my central cluster with a sort of diagonal splatter of white paint, which I reallyyyyy loved against the navy blue cardstock! 

I added journaling on a little tag that I fussy cut from the Happy Heart Day paper and I popped that up in the corner of my page, with an acrylic clippie embellishment that came from Bramblefox. 

As my cutfile came out a little wonky on the page (a happy error!), it wasn't completely central and I had a little extra space on the bottom of the page, so I used the border sticker from the 12x12 Combo Stickers page which really finished the page off! It matches the paper I'd used behind my photo and it couldn't have worked out better. 

I'm thrilled with how this page came together, especially because I don't often use colourful backgrounds, su that was a fun challenge! I hope my page inspires you in some way and thank you so much for reading. 

Take care and I'll be back again soon with another page from a new collection! 

Meg x 

Doodlebug - Great Outdoors - Breathtaking Nature Hike

Hi everyone!

Claire here with you today, and this month, I am pushing myself right out of my comfort zone with lots of bright colours, patterns and mixed media - and I am having so much fun!!

During March, I'm using Doodlebug's Great Outdoors collection which you can find in the store here.

Doodlebug is a brand that's new to me, and I have been completely blown away.  The collections are bursting full of the most fabulous patterns with colours that immediately inspire creativity.  The ephemera packs are unlike any I have come across before - they contain so many different elements, I could make a dozen pages and still have product left over to play with!  

For my first page, I'm documenting a hike to the top of Howth Hill in Dublin. The views from the top are exquisite. 

I used two shades of Distress Oxide in Stormy Sky and Tumbled Glass, brushing them across a cloud cutfile from Cricut Design Space.

Once the background was done, I cut two rectangles (one slightly smaller than the other) from the b sides of the Happy Camper and Wild Things paper, and cut in fishtails to form two banners.

I sticthed around the edges in white thread and raised these on foam pads before adhering to my page. Along the top of each banner, I added some trim from the This and That Stickers, along with an orange 'Adventure Awaits' banner from the Odds & Ends Chit Chat pack.

Next, I positioned my photo, backing this with the Colors of Nature and Wildflowers papers along with some tissue paper for extra texture.

I built clusters around my photo using those beautiful coloured trees from the Odds & Ends friendly Forest pack - a real must have with this collection!

I also clustered some leaves from the same pack around my title and added a few of those super cute forest critters from the Campground Critters Shape Sprinkles pack - the cutest things you'll ever see!

The Breathtaking Nature Hike title is made from the Odds & Ends Chit Chat pack. It's full of statement pieces that make titles super easy. I stitched through the Nature Hike , folding them over for extra texture before sticking to my page.

This was soooo much fun to create - and I'll let you into a secret - Once I had created this one, I just kept going, making multiple pages one after the other!! The possibilities with this collection are endless and so enjoyable to play with.

You can explore everything this collection has to offer here, and I'll be back with another layout (or 2 or 3 or 4!) in a few weeks time.

See you soon!

Claire

@scrappysoulmate

Photoplay Notting Hill - So Many Good Books

Hello. Karen here. This month I've been playing with the fabulous Notting Hill Collection from Photoplay. This collection is perfect for book lovers! The collection features books, e-readers, bookshelves, library cards, and lots more and the colour palette is so bright and cheerful. 

For my first project I decided to scrapbook about my love of books and in particular some of the books I've read since joining a local book club.

I started with a white cardstock background and onto this I layered 3 pieces of the patterned paper. The blue (Books I Love) measured 11.5 x 7.5, The red (Book Nerd) measured 8.5 x 10.5 and the lime green (Currently Reading) measured 7 x 8. Because my photo was very colourful I choose to use the less busy B sides of the papers.

My 6.75 x 7 photo was matted onto a folded piece of white cardstock to make a 'book' which when opened reveals a couple more smaller photos, some journalling and a book list. 

Some of the stickers from the sticker sheet were used to embellish the inside of the book and the book was glued onto the layout on top of the lime green patterned paper.

More stickers were used to embellish the photo.

I created a bookmark, as a home for some more journalling, using one of the die cuts and a piece of white cardstock and this was placed beside the photo.

I made a tassel for the bookmark using some lime green embroidery thread. It turned out a bit bigger than I had planned but it adds a lot of texture to the layout which without it would be very flat. The tassel was held in place with some wet glue.

Finally I added my title at the bottom of the layout using some very, very old chipboard letters from my stash. 

I hope you like this page. I could think of so many themes the Notting Hill collection could be used for - your book collection, favourite book, people reading, World Book Day, your favourite book store. There are so many possibilities. 

I'll be back later in the month with another project using this collection so until then, please take care.

Karen x x