Fabulous | Simple Stories | Simple Vintage Essentials

 

Hello again everyone, here is my latest layout for Simple Stories using the Simple Vintage Essentials collection. Like the first layout I made with this collection, I’ve chosen to focus on the monochrome elements. I picked out a black paper to use as my background. It has a subtle lined pattern on it. I distressed the edges.

I used three copies of the same photo, which I layered together for a slightly different look. I cut a few circles from different patterned papers and a strip too. I distressed the edges of all of these and layered them onto the background together with my photos.

I then set about adding lots of the phrases and words from the Foam Stickers. I always find these such a wonderful embellishment to use, the words are always generic enough to work for a variety of photos. I turned them into a feature on this layout. I love that they are in different styles and fonts. In this pack there are some that are black text with a white outline and some are white with a black outline – this looked great against my dark background.

I felt that my layout needed a border or something done to the background. So I took a craft knife and cut some slits along some of the lines on the background paper. I managed to distress these a little and bend them up a bit, this was the texture my background needed. I backed the layout with another patterned paper from this collection, in a contrasting white pattern.

I added foam hearts from the Foam Stickers, a few ephemera hearts raised up on foam pads and I finished off with a few splatters of white paint.

Thank you so much for joining me today and happy scrapping

Niki xx

@nikiclairecreates

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Smile | Simple Stories | Simple Vintage Essentials

 

Hi everyone! Here is a layout using the new Simple Stories Simple Vintage Essentials collection. I admit that this wouldn’t usually be a collection I would buy for myself because my style is typically to use bright colours…but I was delighted to find some really beautiful papers and embellishments in this collection and I’m so happy with the layouts I’ve created using it. Sometimes it is good to step outside of our comfort zones, because we might just find we like it there!!

I’ve always loved monochrome layouts because I feel that the use of grouped colours makes for layouts with big impact. This collection is packed full of beautiful monochromes, with just a little vintage sepia. I focused on the monochromes.

For this layout I selected two papers from the collection and I trimmed one down, distressed the edges and added it to the other one. This formed the base of my layout.

I had a black & white square photo which I placed onto the background. I arranged it with multiple flowers from the Botanical Bits along with some ephemera pieces from the Bits & Pieces. I distressed the edges of all the ephemera bits, and pinched the petals of the Botanical Bits. I then stuck these in place using foam pads to give the layout lots of dimension.

I finished off with ‘smile’ as my title which is an ephemera piece and some foam hearts from the Foam Stickers. I also added some splatters of black paint to finish off!

I love how different this layout is from my usual style, I hope you do too!

Thanks so much for joining me today, happy scrapping

Niki xx

@nikiclairecreates 

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Destination | GoGo Getaway Cybercrop Challenge | Simple Stories Here & There

 

Hey everyone, here is the layout I made for the GoGo Getaway June Cybercrop sketch challenge. I’ve used the Here & There collection by Simple Stories and used two passport photo strips for this layout, which is travel themed!

Enjoy!
Happy scrapping

Niki x

@nikiclairecreates 

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Happy Days | GoGo Shopaway Scraplift Challenge | Cocoa Vanilla Studio Happy Days

 

Hey everyone! Here is my layout I made for a Scraplift challenge at GoGo Getaway that took place on 2nd June. This was the layout that people had to scraplift in order to take part in the challenge. I've used the Cocoa Vanilla Studio Happy Days collection.

I loved the colourful frame on the Juicy Fruits paper and wanted to feature it, so I cut around it and set the middle back in an aperture, then added my photos and several clusters and my title in the middle!

I love how it turned out!

Happy scrapping

Niki xx

@nikiclairecreates 

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Be Happy | Boho Sunshine | Simple Stories

 

Hey everyone! Here is a new layout for Simple Stories using the fabulous Boho Sunshine collection. I totally fell in love with this collection the moment I saw it and knew it would be utterly perfect for my holiday photos. We have a holiday home and go there every opportunity, so I had lots of photos to choose from!

I loved the paper with all the suns on it, they are just so cute! I cut a circle from the middle and used the leftover frame as an aperture which I backed with white card. I then added Foam Stickers, my photos and lots of embellishments around the edge of the circle aperture. It didn’t quite turn out exactly how I thought it would! I think my choice of background paper was the problem as it is quite busy and has a light background with the sun icons on it, it therefore doesn’t look like a solid print, but I just couldn’t help myself use it as it was just so super cute! The layout would have looked better if I had made that small change, but do you know what, it doesn’t matter if every layout isn’t perfect, I still love it! I love all the happy icons on it from the Boho Sunshine collection, I love my photos and that I have another memory scrapped. I just don’t feel that I did the collection justice with this layout – hopefully I will do better with future layouts!

I used Floral Bits, Bits & Pieces, Foam Stickers, Chipboard stickers, as well as Decorative Brads and Enamel Dots and then finished off with handwritten journaling and splatters of white paint.

Thanks so much for joining me today and happy scrapping

Niki xx

@nikiclairecreates

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Smile, Crazy, Funny | Guest Designing for Cocoa Vanilla Studio | Happy Days

Hi everyone! I’m delighted to be guest designing for Cocoa Vanilla Studio today!

I will be sharing four projects during June and July, and today I have my first layout to share with you, using the Happy Days collection. I cannot tell you how much I love this collection, it is so bright, happy and fun! I absolutely fell in love with the colourful stripes on the Sunshine Lollipops paper and decided to focus on that for this layout.

I decided to cut the stripes into their colour groups and make rosettes in a variety of colours. I really enjoy making rosettes and love how they look and really went for it on this layout! I cut out two wide pieces (four stripes wide), several smaller stripes (two stripes wide) and one teeny stripe (one stripe wide). I scored them every quarter-inch and concertina folded them. To make the rosettes themselves I glue the two ends together to make a cylinder, then press the cylinders down in the middle and glue a punched paper circle on top to hold them in place. I did this for all the smaller rosettes, but for the two wide ones the strips needed to be longer to make full circles, so instead I just made semi-circles. These were perfect for the edges of my layout!

I then arranged the rosettes across a white cardstock background, but felt they needed something more, so I added some ink in coordinating colours under each rosette. I also added splatters in the same colours. This creates a ‘glow’ behind each rosette and make them pop off the page even more! I then glued the rosettes in place onto the background, using hot glue.

I cut out the subjects of my photos and added them to each of the large rosettes. I also fussy cut several words from the Definitive paper and added these to all the smaller rosettes – I love these words so much, the font is awesome and the words are perfect for my photos!

I then added Floral Ephemera colour-on-colour, tucked in around the photos and rosettes. I raised some on foam pads for added dimension. I also added a few bits from the Die Cut Ephemera pack including two very cute pinwheels, several hearts and a couple of phrase banners.

I handwrote my journaling in black ink and underlined it to make it stand out more. I loved the look of the black against the colourful rosettes so decided to add splatters of black paint…a bit of a risky move but I LOVE how it turned out! I finished off by adding a few of the mini heart Puffy Stickers in the coordinating coloured areas.

Thank you SO much for joining me today, I really hope that you have enjoyed reading about my layout. I have also created a process video so that you can watch it all come together, it can be viewed below.

Once again thank you so much for joining me, and thank you so much to Cocoa Vanilla Studio for inviting me to guest design!

Happy scrapping and see you again soon

Niki xx

@nikiclairecreates  

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Good Vibes | GoGo Getaway Colour Challenge

 

Hi everyone, here's a layout I made playing along with a colour challenge at the June 2023 GoGo Getaway Retreat. I've used Boho Sunshine by Simple Stories.

Happy scrapping

Niki xx

@nikiclairecreates

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Adventures Await | Simple Stories | Here & There

 

Hi everyone, here is another new layout using the fabulous Here & Now travel collection by Simple Stories. I chose a dark background for my layout which I trimmed down and mounted on a wide white border.

I used the leftover strips of the background paper to create floral horizontal strips across the bottom of the layout, a place for my photos to sit. I added two photos and the fabulous ‘adventures await’ title from the Page Pieces pack.

Once my photos were in place I had fun adding lots of embellishments. I’ve used Bits & Pieces, Journal Bits, Floral Bits, Chipboard Stickers, Foam Stickers, Cardstock Stickers…basically ALL the things!

I also added in smaller details with the Decorative Brads and enamel dots. I handwrote my journaling around the edge of the dark patterned paper as I couldn’t write directly onto this because it wouldn’t have shown up. I had to get creative and therefore wrote around the edge. This worked really well and I have got a cute little story documented about my boy, who took me out on an adventure one day!

I added a border strip at the top of the layout together with more embellishments and then finished off the layout with some white paint splatters.

Thank you so much for joining me today and happy scrapping

Niki xx

@nikiclairecreates

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Travel | Simple Stories | Here & There

Hey everyone! Here is a new layout using the super lovely Here & There collection by Simple Stories. This collection is travel themed and is full of lovely earthy colours with traditional travel icons such as suitcases, tickets, passport stamps etc. I admit that this collection didn’t capture my eye at first,  as I naturally prefer a brighter colour scheme, BUT once I sat down to use it I was hooked!  The colours are completely perfect for travel and as always, the icons, phrases and patterns are absolutely spot on.

I particularly wanted to use the flight board paper on my layout as my photos are taken at the airport, but it was a little busy to use as a whole sheet. I cut a section to use on the right side of the layout together with the passport stamp pattern on the reverse of that sheet. I paired these with the narrow colourful stripes to bring in plenty of colours.

I added my two photos and then added lots of embellishments around them, forming two clusters either side. I used Floral Bits, fussy cut passport stamps, Cardstock stickers to create the cluster on the right, and mostly used the Foam Stickers to create my title and cluster to the left of the photos. I also used that fabulous chipboard plane, and chipboard phrase ‘we’re on our way’.

I mirrored the colourful stripes on the very left edge of the layout and also created a little cluster down the bottom. This was to balance out the very large photo cluster – it worked really well.

I finished off with some label stickers from the Cardstock Stickers, added Decorative Brads and Enamel Dots and also handwrote in my journaling. I also added a few splatters of white paint.

Thanks so much for joining me today, I hope you have enjoyed this layout. Do check out the Here & There collection as it really is wonderful to work with.

Happy scrapping

Niki xx

@nikiclairecreates

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Summer | GoGo Getaway NSD 2023 Sketch-a-thon!

Hi everyone! Here is my layout made playing along with one of the sketches of the GoGo Getaway Sketch-a-thon for NSD 2023!

Head over to the GoGo Getaway Facebook group to see all the sketches and play along!

I've used Simple Stories Boho Sunshine collection for this layout.

Happy NSD!