Laura Vegas

All this week, the designers at both Simple Stories and Kerri Bradford Studio have been teaming up to bring you projects showcasing the fabulous Simple Stories collections mixed in with Kerri's amazing cut files. Today's my turn to share what I created for our week long feature.

When I sit down to create my layouts for Kerri, I usually get so caught up in incorporating her amazing cut files into my page design that I oftentimes don't end up including many embellishments or "extras" on my pages. I've mentioned a few times that I honestly think I could get by with just cardstock, patterned paper, my Cameo, and a few basic embellishments. I don't always need the other "stuff".

Then again, it can be fun to use lots of other "stuff" on my pages. The Simple Stories collections have so many fun embellishments, chipboard, stickers, project life style cards, and even die cut cards that coordinate with their collections. So I went about this layout a bit differently, since I found so many different elements that I wanted to include on my two page spread. I only used three cut files from Kerri, and then focused a lot on using the extra products and embellishments.

I was sent the new Good Day Sunshine collection to work with. I didn't have any plans as to what I was going to make, or what photos I would use. I just knew that I would make a summer layout, since summer is one season that we do really well here in California.

Somewhere along the line, I remembered these photos we had taken a few years back (actually, 5 years ago, now that I did the math) on a day trip to the Alameda County Fair. I have tried numerous times to scrap these photos, but I just never found the right papers or products to go with them. This was also partially because the colors on the photos were a little "off". Turns out, I've picked up some new editing tricks over the last five years, so I was able to fix some of the color issues, which made them easier to work with. And this collection ended up working perfectly with the photos.

I started by cutting two large sunbursts, using Kerri's This & That Freedom: Just Shapes kit, from white cardstock. I lightly spritzed them both with yellow misting spray, and then adhered them to my white cardstock background pages. I love the white-on-white backgrounds for building my pages on.

I loved the die cut cards that came with the collection, and was immediately drawn to the larger aqua polka dotted card and the smaller white text diagonal striped card. These are shapes that I could also re-create with Kerri's cut files, but being able to pull them right out of the package and have them ready to use it kind of nice.

I pop dotted several of my photos and cards to add a little dimension to the page. I also bent the corners of all of my photos and cards up a bit. It's such a small thing, and yet I liked the way it looked. Once I had all of my photos and cards adhered across the spread, I started adding in some stickers and chipboard elements here and there.

I printed several photos in 3×3" and 3×4" sizes, and adhered them across the two pages, mixing in 3×3" and 3×4" cards from the Good Day Sunshine collection. I did intend to use more of the fun patterned papers in the collection, and in the end I only used two small strips of the yellow dotted pattern, two small strips of the pink dotted pattern, and the aqua dotted pattern to cut out part of my title.

When you love working with the white cardstock background pages like I do, and there are so many great project-life type cards to chose from, you can easily get away without using that much patterned paper.  

I did have more photos that I wanted to include, but I just ran out of room as I was assembling this spread. My plan now is to add in a smaller divided page protector between the two pages of the spread, and then add in my extra photos and maybe a few more of the 3×3" and 3×4" cards. If I had my act together, I would have that done as well, to show you here. But truth be told, I do NOT have my act together right now. Lol.

I combined the woodgrain "Summer" chipboard letters from the collection with the die cut "sunshine" that I pulled from Kerri's Summer Lovin' kit to create my title. 

Make sure and stop by both Kerri Bradford's blog and the Simple Stories blog to see the other projects that have been shared this week.