Scrapbooking Spring with Simple Vintage

Crafts
Written By Nancy Nally

Today I’m scrapbooking spring with a layout that celebrates some of spring’s most important heralds for us in north Florida: blooming azaleas and bees at work!

We’ve been making a big push outside in our garden lately to make it pollinator-friendly. So when I managed to get this close-up photo of a happy bee at work in the azalea plants we’ve been nursing back from years of neglect, I just knew that I had to scrapbook it!

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spring scrapbook layout simple vintage.jpg

Supplies Used:

spring scrapbook layout step 1.jpg

I started my layout with this absolutely gorgeous patterned paper from Katie Pertiet’s new Simple Vintage Garden District collection for Simple Stories. Nobody does vintage style botanicals like Katie does! And because there was no way I was covering up those beautiful flower designs, choosing where to position my photo was easy.

Matting feature photo.jpg

To mat my photo so it wouldn’t just blend in the busy background, I used papers from the Simple Vintage Garden District 12x12 Basics Kit to create a double mat. I loved how using wide coral mat set the photo off from the background, but the photo didn’t look right against it. Putting the slim cream border around the photo brightened the image, and kept the coral mat from giving the photo a color cast. I rarely fuss with using a double mat but this time I needed both layers to make my photo look right. (This is why I always check how a mat will look before cutting paper!)

Before assembling the mat I inked the edges of the papers with Old Paper (on the cream) and Tattered Rose (on the coral) to give the edges some depth.

making a journaling tag.jpg

The same cream paper that I used to make the bright edge on the photo mat I also turned into a matching tag. I used my paper trimmer to cut a rectangle the size I wanted and snipped the two corners. A few botanical images from Tim Holtz’s new Field Notes set stamped in Old Paper Distress Ink created a tone on tone design. Then I grabbed a strip of washi tape from last year’s floral Simple Vintage collection, which coordinates beautifully, to use for reinforcing the hole area.

testing ink colors.jpg

If you’re wondering how I knew to use a pink ink to edge the coral paper, or which brown to use for the tag images…there’s no magic involved. Only trial and error! This is why I keep even the smallest scrap or tear strip when I’m working on a project - they make great test pieces for sampling how inks will look on a specific paper. You can see on the strip in the photo above that I sampled about a half-dozen Distress colors before settling on the Old Paper for stamping the tag.

applying sticker lettersjpg

I use my Tim Holtz ruler for almost everything, and one of my favorite uses for it is getting letter stickers on straight! I’m really obsessive about getting things aligned right, and foam alphabet stickers like this have “give” that makes it extra challenging. Using the edge of the ruler helps get them straight enough that I’m not wincing at how crooked they are every time I see my layout!

Although I was putting my tag on at an angle, I put the text for my spring title lined up straight across. It kept it in alignment with the photo mat, and I think angling it would have made it look like it was falling off the edge.

scrapbooking spring construction.jpg

The next layer was a few embellishments! Because I hadn’t stuck down my previous layers yet, I was able to slide these doilies underneath them. And I finished off my tag with a little hole reinforcer that was custom made using two hole punches.

The biggest addition, though, was the section of patterned paper added to the top edge. It gives the photo something to be anchored to, instead of seeming to be floating.

paper tearing technique.jpg

I wanted to tear the edge to enhance the vintage feel but I also wanted the edge to lay in just a certain place. The solution was to draw (and really soak) a line with a wet cosmetic applicator. I waited a moment…and then was able to tear a perfect line right where I wanted it.

(I can’t remember who taught me this tearing trick, but it has been a lifesaver many times because I am hopeless at dry tearing paper!)

spring journaling.jpg

A phrase sticker filled some of the white space that was left on the tag. I wanted to add some journaling so I used the little label stamps from the Field Notes stamp sets to stamp on kraft paper. These were the perfect size since I didn’t need to write paragraph length.

(And now we’ll pause for a moment while all of you who live north of Florida mumble a few spirited things about my spring layout being dated February….)

spring layout embellishments.jpg

To finish off my layout, I wanted to add some sparkle and bling! So I grabbed my 28 Lilac Lane “Coral Reef” embellishment bottle. The color scheme looks like it was made to go with this collection! A few clusters of buttons, pearls, and sequns were the perfect final touch for scrapbooking a spring layout.

I still have tons more garden photos to use for scrapbooking spring…and I can’t wait to use more of this Simple Stories Simple Vintage Garden District collection with them!

Nancy Nally

I’m the owner of Nally Studios LLC, which owns the websites Nally Studios and Craft Critique. I’ve spent the last 20 years working in the crafts industry as a writer and marketing consultant. My newest venture is the Nally Studios etsy store, where I sell digital files for scrapbookers. I live in Florida with my husband, teenage daughter, and a cat who thinks its a dog.

https://www.nallystudios.etsy.com
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