Simple Stories: Here Fishy, Fishy!

Camping in the mountains is one of my favorite places to be! The fresh air, the slower pace, the night sky exploding with stars, and the sound of a crackling campfire all inspire me to soak up life and reset my way of thinking.

The NEW Happy Trails collection by Simple Stories, with its cheerful colors and images, makes me want to pack up the trailer right now and head out for a weekend in the woods!

This page features photos of my son when he was younger fishing at a small roadside pond near one of our favorite camping sites. There he could catch and release as many fish as he would like and was his FAVORITE thing to do on our camping trips.

I LOVE every single pattern in the Happy Trails collection and wanted to find a way to include as many of them as I could on this page. I created a triangle-shaped template that I used to create long pennant shapes to go across the top of my page. I added a few red gem brads to one of them and a cluster of stickers and Bits & Pieces die cuts on another.

I fussy-cut this large floral from the 4×4 Elements paper to accent the left side of my photo strip. I added a red gem brad to the center of the yellow flower and then added  word die cuts to fill in the empty space in the top right corner of my photo.

I added the “Gone Fishing” die cut below the two smaller photos, along with a bit of journaling on the plaid journal block from the Journal Bits & Pieces pack. I fussy cut the fish from another die cut to accent the right side, and then tucked in a flower sticker on the right.

On the left side, I created a fun little sticker forest scene with the raccoon and a pair of fluffy pine trees. CUTE!

I almost always create three embellishment clusters in my page designs, and when I do, I like to add something that ties them all together. In this case, I used the ADORABLE mosquito die cuts! (Probably, the one and only time I will think mosquitos are adorable. Ha!)  How cute are they buzzing around each section of this page?!

If you haven’t had a chance to get out and do some camping yet this summer season, I think the Happy Trails collection gives you the perfect reason to go! *wink!* Get out there and take some outdoorsy photos so you can come home and scrapbook them with this amazing collection! Happy Camping!

SUPPLIES:

Echo Park Paper: Camping Trail Mix

Do you know someone who loves trail mix? I happen to know several people who would be delighted to get a large jar of trail mix as a gift, … it is their favorite treat! (And one of mine, too!)

For today’s project I decorated a large jar of this peanut-ty treat using the Carta Bella Paper Gone Camping collection. Your outdoorsman would be delighted to receive this as he is heading out for a day of fishing. I mean, who wouldn’t love having a delicious snack to take along?!

The first thing I did was wrap the jar with a strip of the striped Campout paper. I then added a band of the the fishing lure patterned Fly Fishing paper on top of the striped paper.  The top of the jar is decorated with a circle cut from the plaid paper in the 6×6 paper pad.

Next, I fussy-cut three wood slices from the Travel Patches paper and grouped them together on the front of the jar to anchor the rest of the decorative elements. The main piece is the Fishing Tackle Die Cut from the Frames & Tags Ephemera pack. I added the fisherman sticker on top of the die cut along with a few trees and the “Fishing Hole” sign stickers for a bit of scenery. A few die cut pine branches (Be Merry Branch Die Set) are tucked behind the left side.

I tucked in a few more branches cut from the Classic Green Felt Designer Cardstock on the right side of the label, and then added a group of fish “caught” … I mean CUT … from the Fish Facts Paper. A bit of jute tied around the neck of the jar finishes everything off!

SUPPLIES:

OTHER SUPPLIES:
Circle Cutter, Trimmer, Scissors
Manual Die Cutting Machine
White Crochet Twine, Jute Twine
Adhesive, Foam Squares
Brown Distressing Ink
Jar of Trail Mix from Target

More Shimelle Go Now Go

Happy Thursday, friends! I’m back with two more projects using a homemade kit I put together featuring the Shimelle Go Now Go collection.

CAMP FUN

At this point with my homemade kit I had lots of scraps left … I decided to see if I could layer them up to create a resting spot for some more camping photos. Here is the result!

I had purchased several of these Pebbles sticker sets at the American Crafts Warehouse Sale last year to give to some teenage girls at my church to use in a journaling project. I had a couple of sets left and thought they looked adorable with the Go Now Go paper on this page.

The flowers in the tin can was perfect for these camping photos … it’s a subtle nod to all the times we collect wildflowers and display them on the campground picnic table in a paper cup or left over tin can from dinner. Ha!

My goal was to do what I could to use up as many of the supplies as I could from my homemade kit … including the letters. I really like the way the bright green pops off of the page! I added more of the Pebbles stickers to decorate the open space to the left of the title and sprinkled in my favorite Stampin’ Up Metallic Enamel Shape stickers (seriously! I love these things! I have been using them on EVERYTHING lately!)

A line of red stitching around the edge adds the perfect finishing touch!

SUPPLIES:

OTHER SUPPLIES:
Cardstock: White, Navy, Red
Patterned Paper: Shimelle Go Now Go, October Afternoon, American Crafts, HSN
Chipboard Letters: Bella Blvd. Ciao Chip – Simply Simona Pickle Juice
Stickers: Pebbles Walnut Grove
Metallic Enamel Shapes by Stampin’ Up
Triple Banner Punch by Stampin’ Up
White Crochet Twine
Mist: Studio Calico Mr. Huey’s in Dewey
Sewing Machine/Red Thread
Black Journaling Pen
Adhesive/Foam Squares

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“HI” CARD

While I had everything out on my table, I decided to use up what I could by creating a card.

I layered together leftover bits of the patterned papers and then added stickers and a sentiment with the chipboard letters.

The result is a cute card I would be proud to give to a friend!

I hope you enjoyed seeing my homemade kit projects these past couple of days. Tomorrow I will be back with a fun back-to-school layout I created for Bella Blvd.

Bye for now!

         

Working with a Homemade Kit featuring Shimelle Go Now Go

I’m not sure if it is the beginning of a new school year, but I have been itching to play with some paper collections I purchased awhile ago and haven’t made the time to use. I decided to put together some homemade kits with those products and work on creating at least two projects with them to share with you throughout the end of the year. My stash needs some love!

This week the kit I put together has lots of Shimelle Go Now Go. I was able to create four projects (Yay, Me!!!) with this kit and wanted to share them with you today and tomorrow.

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First up … a two-page layout!

CATCH & RELEASE

I was in the mood to play with some cute cut files by Lettering Delights on this one. So that is what I did. The images featured on this page are from the “Happy Trails Too” set.

**SIDENOTE: I really struggled to get the colors just right on these pictures … so I hope you’ll bear with me!

Added into the mix are some older Pebbles stickers … I believe these ones were from the Walnut Grove collection.

I used my Silhouette Cameo 3 Machine to cut out the “Catch” letters (Font: Bebas Neue) and the Ampersand (“St. Patrick’s Day Set” by Echo Park Paper; Design #122732 in the Silhouette Design Store).

Those cute chipboard letter stickers are an older set from Bella Blvd.

It’s been awhile since I have played with my beloved embossing folders, so I used one here to add pattern to the light green pine tree.

The other side of the layout features this chubby bear; fishing for his dinner! Haha!

SUPPLIES:

OTHER SUPPLIES:
Cardstock: White, Kraft, Brown, Black, Red, Sunflower, Honey, Lime, Leaf Forest, Marine, Pink
Patterned Paper: HSN, Teresa Collins, American Crafts
Stickers: Pebbles Walnut Grove, Tim Holtz
Yellow Gems: My Mind’s Eye
Red Buttons/White Crochet Twine
Silhouette Cameo 3 Machine
“Catch” Font: Bebas Neue
Ampersand Cut File: “St. Patrick’s Day Set” by Echo Park Paper (Design #122732 in the Silhouette Design Store)
“Happy Trails Too” Cut File Set by Lettering Delights
Chipboard Alpha: Bella Blvd. Ciao Chip – Simply Simona Pickle Juice
Tab Punch: McGill
Adhesive/Foam Squares
Scissors/Trimmer
Black Journaling Pen

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Next up, is a single page layout featuring some vacation photos.

OUR TRIP

These photos were taken on the way home from a long family vacation. The kids were tired and, while we had a blast on this trip, we were all ready to get back home. Our fun had officially worn us out!

I used the Shimelle Go Now Go “Fly” paper for the background of this page, and then clustered my photos together on vertical strips.

At the top of the photos, I layered together several of the Go Now Go Chipboard stickers with one of the Wooden Buttons … of course I had to use the heart to go with the “I Left My Heart in Nauvoo,” right?! I also added in a couple of red gem hearts for good measure!

More gem hearts and another wooden button accents these chipboard stickers. I had to add a little sarcasm to this page with the “Happy Travels” chipboard sticker … because you can clearly see that Camryn was DONE. Done, and ready to be finished with this flying home thing! Haha!

I used the chipboard letter stickers again on this page for the title, clustering more stickers around it to give it some personality!

The “adventure” acrylic piece is available at Freckled Fawn. (I LOVE the handwritten script of this piece … it was created by talented friend, Crafty Jen Schow!)

SUPPLIES:

OTHER SUPPLIES:
Cardstock: White, Navy
Shimelle Go Now Go Chipboard Stickers
Chipboard Letters: Bella Blvd. Ciao Chip – Simply Simona Pickle Juice
Tile Letter Stickers: We R Memory Keepers, Cosmo Cricket Tiny Type
Red Heart Gem Stickers: Dollar Tree, Recollections
“Adventure” Acrylic Piece (Freckled Fawn)
Triple Banner Punch by Stampin’ Up
Computer/Printer for Journaling
Adhesive/Trimmer/Scissors

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I’ll be back tomorrow with two more projects featuring these darling papers!

See you then!