Simple Stories…

Welcome Simple Stories Blog Hoppers!!!

Those coming from Emily’s little corner of the web, I’m sure have heard all about the wonderful things happening at the Simple Stories blog.  You all have the opportunity to win a Simple Stories collection of your choice like the one I’m going to show you now!  Details below…

*Don’t forget to leave your comments here and at the Simple Stories blog for your chance to win.*

(a reader from the blog in the hop with the most comments will get a Simple Stories collection!)

Simple Stories – Happy Day…

This Simple Stories project isn’t your typical paper crafting project.  I wanted to give you an idea of how you can use these wonderful papers in a whole new way.

We celebrated Talitha’s first birthday last fall with a woodland themed birthday party, an emphasis on owls.  While there are a few owl options in the Simple Stories line, the Happy Day colors and birthday theme were perfect for our party and, ultimately, the inspiration for many of the decorations.

For this project, You’ll see a little bit of everything in the Happy Day series.  I bought one of everything before the planning even began knowing much of it would also end up in the scrapbook.  I love being able to perfectly coordinate the layouts and photos!

 

A Happy Day Birthday

So here’s the main table.  You can see several Happy Day Elements here.  The photos framed in Happy Day layouts, the banner on the bottom, the paper medallion garland.

Birthday banner…

This was lots of fun.  Using my Cricut, I cut out the scallop ovals from the Happy Day Designer Cardstock Paper Pack and mounted the solid ovals and letters in the coordinating American Crafts cardstock colors.

Tell me these aren’t adorable.  Seriously!  So cute and simple.  The “1st” tag is going in the scrapbook!

I also mounted these little wooden owls (I found for less than a dollar each!) onto the dark brown cardstock in the same collection.  You can see those hanging in the banner and around the table.

 

Paper medallion garlands…

The cardstock colors are delicious in this pack – so wonderfully foresty.  I had to do something to highlight this fact and chose a garland for a dramatic effect over the large window.  With another scallop edge, this time a Fiskars punch, I created a garland using the AC cardstock, everyday twine, and a glue stick.

Get your self a big bowl, your punch, cardstock and good movie for this project!  Punch beyond your heart’s content and you’ll eventually have enough. 

Next just glue two scallops together with the twine sandwiched in between at even intervals and you’re all done.  While a bit tedious, this project is so simple, even your little helpers could manage it.  I alternated the garland with matching crepe paper streamers.

 

A paper chain…

Another party decoration that I absolutely loved was this colorful paper chain.  I wish I had a great picture of it in place at the party, but I couldn’t find one.  Using links of all different widths, I made the chain using the Happy Day 6×6 Paper Pad papers, the AC coordinating cardstock, and some of the Signature Elements Pack.  And a glue stick, of course! 

 

Party fun & framed photo layouts…

This is where the scrapbooking and party-going really start to meld.  One of the activities for the guests to participate in was to leave a love note for the birthday girl.  From the Signature Elements Pack, I cut out cute journaling boxes and photo mats for the guests to write on.  A recycled aluminum can got a treatment from the Elements pack as well to hold some scrapbooking markers.

In the photo above you can also see more of the framed photo layouts with pictures of our baby girl already mounted.  These guys can go straight into a scrapbook layout with very little effort!

With the Happy Day Flash Cards, I decorated the craft table by mounting them to these scallop edged containers that held our crafting supplies.

A really fun game we played, Pin the Owl on the Tree, got the whole bunch laughing when even great grandma participated.  Again the AC cardstock served as the base for these die-cut owls.  My 10 year old daughter put these together for the party.

I had SO much fun with this project!  I still have to get it all into an album but, believe it or not, I have a ton of supplies left for that.  I’m thinking maybe a mini album just for this event is in order.

Do you have a favorite not-your-typical-paper-crafting project?  Tell me about!

Now head on over to Simple Stories team member Allison’s blog to see what cool things she’s done with the Simple Stories collections!

Don’t forget to leave a comment below!  A reader from the blog with the most comments will get a Simple Stories collection of their choice.  You can check out the other collections at the Simple Stories blog.  Don’t forget to leave a comment there for another chance to win!

*In case you get lost along the way, here’s the trail we’re hopping along!

1. Simple Stories
2. Welcome To Martha’s World
3. Simple Stories Design Team Member, Kim Holmes at The Holmes Crew
4. Pursuit of Scrappiness
5. Scrapixie
6. Simple Stories Design Team Member, Emily Pitts at Here I Am, Here I Am
7. Knittingprose (ME, you’re here!)
8. Simple Stories Design Team Member, Allison Landy at Scraps-Are-Fun
9. Queen Kat
10. Simple Stories Design Team Member, Wendy Morris at scrapnspire
11. Scrappin’ –N- Crafting Princess
12. Wild ‘n’ Krazie Memories
13. Simple Stories Design Team Member, Liz Qualman at My Little Sketch Blook

-knittingprose