Hello Sunshine with Simple Stories Summer Fresh

Hi everyone! It's Kate here today sharing a Simple Stories Summer Fresh layout. I think the thing that I love most about Simple Stories products is how fast and easy it is to come up with a really beautiful page. They really do make it simple. There's so much interest and fun elements on their products.

This layout is of my youngest daugher in her cute little strawberry bathing suit from Gymboree. I swear that Gymboree must look at scrapbook paper and plan around that, or maybe scrapbook companies look for inspiration from Gymboree! We are at Great Wolf Lodge in Niagara Falls in these pictures. She loved the outdoor pool and wanted to spend most of her time there. That was fine with me, we had a lot of fun playing together in the water. The pool has a gradual slope at the front of it instead of stairs making it very toddler-friendly. It's almost like a beach. She doesn't want to be held all the time in pools - we're in the "I do it!!!" stage, so this spot was perfect for her.

I got some inspiration from fellow design team member, Michelle Gallant here. She added rhinestones to the centres of the flowers on her recent layout and I liked that idea, so I have done it here as well. Thanks Michelle! As usual, I have used my sewing machine a lot to add a little extra fun to the the page. I made the flower out of an old pair of jeans and a sizzix die. I just added some bling from My Mind's Eye, a red button, some pins and an epoxy shape from Epiphany Crafts. Fun and easy! The 'hello' part of the title is Simple Stories alphabet stickers and the 'Sunshine' part of the title was cut out of some Simple Stories paper with my Silhouette Cameo.

I poped up the mason jar sticker with 3D foam adhesive, and added the twine around the top of the jar and some brads to the centres of the pinwheels.

Thanks for looking.

Kate
www.scrapsation.com

Supplies

• Simple Stories Summer Fresh papers and stickers
• Twine from The Twinery
• Thread by Coats & Clark
• Silhouette Cameo
• Pen by Staedtler
• Adhesives by Helmar
• Rhinestones
• My Mind's Eye Miss Caroline stick pins and pearl stickers

Sewing on Paper 101 and Teacher Thank You Cards

Hi everyone, I created these simple teacher thank you cards really quickly with the help of my sewing machine and lots of Cosmo Cricket Baby Jane goodies from the store. Many of you have told me that you find sewing on paper cumbersome or that it's difficult to sew a straight line on a paper project. I want to show you a video that I made; you will see just how easy it is. I'm far from an expert seamstress, so if I can do it, you can do it too.

Why machine stitch on paper, you say? I can think of a few reasons, it's fast, it's easy, it's super cheap and it adds so much dimension and interest to a page. Once you start doing it, you're not going to want to stop.

Here are my finished cards. I completed these two cards in about a half an hour!

Here is a close up of the stitching and stamping.

I hope that this video will encourage you to give machine stitching on paper a try. Really, it's fun! I would love to see your machine stitched paper projects.

Supplies

• Cosmo Cricket Baby Jane paper and Element Deck
• Ribbons by May Arts and American Crafts
• Thread
• Acid Free Glue by Helmar
• Stamps by Stampin' Up and Imaginisce
• Staples and Stapler (Tiny Attacher) by Tim Holtz

Thanks for dropping by!

Kate Vickers
www.scrapsation.com