September Simple Scrapper Blog Hop

Welcome to the September Simple Scrapper Blog Hop!

Today the Simple Scrapper Design team has loads of gorgeous takes on this month's layouts to show you. The great templates make our job easy!

True to my style, I kept my version simple and clean. My sister is also a clean-and-simple scrapper, and this page is going in her album, so it needed to be true to her too. I raided her stash of papers and embellishments and used a handmade brad. I also had her write the journaling. Isn't her handwriting gorgeous?

Materials: Bazzill Basics Paper, Metropolis/Market Street paper by Scenic Route for the top and bottom strips, Recollections glitter paper for hand cut stars, Disney Button, handmade fabric brad, American Crafts Thickers, Template from Simple Scrapper's Premium Membership

That's all for today for my little piece of inspiration! 

Hop on over to the rest of the Design Team's blogs for more! You'll be pleased! Leave a little love as you go, and don't forget to use this link to enter a giveaway for a one-month trial subscription to Simple Scrapper: http://ow.ly/ctrlx.

Julie Aldridge (This is me!)

Sue Althouse 

Jeryn Calisi
Lisa Corbin-Polak

Ronnie Crowley

Jess Forster

Michele Holcomb

Margrethe Aas Johnsen

Amy Kingsford

Pam Lozano

Aimee Maddern 

Valerie Mangan 

Jean Manis
Mandy Ross

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The Premium Membership at Simple Scrapper provides skills and shortcuts to help you simplify and find more meaning in your memory keeping.

All in the Design

This might be one of my favorites pages of all time. It mimics a sleek photo-book but has the 3D elements of traditional scrapbooking.

I've done enough scrapbook pages to learn that, for me, thought-through simplicity is beautiful. Like the ol' saying advises, I skimp on quantity and go for the quality. The scrapbook industry would be aghast if people start picking up this mentality because they want scrappers to use more product since that's what drives their money making. But always remember that this is your hobby, and what you do, what you use, what you love is your call--not theirs. Stay true to your self and style, and love what you do.

My illustration of simplicity: LOADS of pictures on a page with little product and no journaling and delighfully lovely.

Materials: picnic basket/PB&J paper by Basic Gray, American Crafts Thickers, scrap paper from my stash for the flag

RIC#13 - House of Holland Challenge

The Runway Inspired Challenge this week is a brightly colored houndstooth piece by House of Holland. Not being one to pass up a houndstooth challenge, I began misting and highlighting and coloring my glittery B&W paper to resemble the outfit on the model.

I finished last night but had to wait until this evening to take pictures in the sun.  I'm extraordinarily happy the sun is out late these days. Bring me sunshine any day of the week!

Materials: Pop up tape, thick white cardstock, black glitter paper, black and white houndstooth glitter paper, white thickers, black and white twine.

Two cards of encouragement

These cards were submitted to the 2012 Gallery Idol competition. Results came out today, and the winners were impressive. I was not one, which is no surprise, but I figured I might as well try!

To make these, I sketched the cards out by hand and used Photohop to map out the placement of the sentiments and the fonts. After that, I used the Silhouette Cameo (and the program that comes with it) to cut out the letters.

I'm half tempted to sell these or others like them, but the pop-ups just take so darn long to put together that I'm reviewing the situation. The letters were teeny! I think I better think it out again.

[Can you spot the reference to Oliver! (1968) which I got to watch last weekend? Yay for long weekends.]

Use what you have

I appreciate good design and art in any form, but paper crafting can be a wee bit expensive if not controlled. I want to address the question: how do you balance paper crafting with new items and follow the motto, use what you have?

1. Keep your organization and tools simple. I have a large paper filer for my paper. This is sorted by color. I have a bag that carries my tools, brads, washi tape, ribbon and other bulky items. A smaller bag keeps my embellishments. Other than that, I have my computer and a regular printer/scanner. For Christmas, I got a Silhouette Cameo, but I have been functioning using the basics listed above for 14 years. Using less space keeps me organized and less wasteful without hoarding.

2. Get to know a design program. My work set me up with the Adobe package, but if you are not so lucky, Photoshop Elements can become your best friend. It does pretty much everything I do design-wise and is a wonderful tool for any crafter. CreativeLive gives a wonderful 8-hour online video showing you everything! Once you have this and understand the basics, you can design so many things (like words, sentiments, journaling, layouts) on your own.

3. Buy only what you love. Using products that you know you love makes a big difference in your happiness with your craft. If there is a texture paper or embellishment that inspires you, buy it and use it on several projects. Each page, card, or other project that you use with it will make you happy, and that is better than buying 20 pages for 9.99 or a set of stickers on sale (yay!) but that makes you feel drab.

4. Sell stamps on ebay when you are finished with them. Some organizations don't ship overseas, and there is host of people who would love your leftovers!

5. Save lovely scraps. This saving method can easily turn into hoarding, but the key is knowing what you love and what is so-so. Save what you love. Toss something that is so-so. Strips can be used as a banner. Or you can print on it. Squares can be used as part of a grid. (Ex: my Christmas layout in which I used a pink square from 2001. No lie. It is older than my nephew.)

6. Test run a style before you invest. Jumping on the bandwagon can be fun, but some trends are just trends and may not fit your style. Before going out and buying one of every color, try one or 2 of an item to see if it fits your style.

7. Be proud of everything you make. Don't just make to make. Don't just buy to buy. Think about the types of projects that make you happy and the styles that make you happy. Keep track of your tastes on a place like Pinterest to determine what trends or new ideas you think really match your style.

8. If there is a paper or embellishment that you think is starting to kill your creative mojo, use it now to get it out of the way. Make a single card (like I did for a Christmas present) or a set of cards (like I did for Thanksgiving). You're probably thinking: how did you not like those items? Let me tell you: I had had the stickers for at least 8 years each, and they were just sitting there taking up space. The longer they sat, the less likely they were to get used. They were cute, and I did like them, but my scrapbooking style had evolved so that I was not going to use them in my scrapbooks. But as cards, they were great. The end result was adorable, and they are no longer taking up my precious storage space and killing my mojo.

9. Treat yourself on occasion. It's totally fine.