A Simple Reminder

You have one more day to get your “Simple” layouts in! You can leave us a comment on the Simple Challenge post, or send an email to Brianna or Jamie. Remember you have until midnight (central time) tomorrow - February 28th! So get out your photos and patterned paper and get scrappin! We have already received many layouts, and we love seeing your work!

Have you checked out the gallery lately? Be sure to hop over there and check it out. And while your there leave some praise for your fellow scrappers!

We will see you on March 1st when we announce the lucky winner!

Who will win?

Happy Friday!  We hope you have had a great week.  Thanks to everyone who has played along so far this month for our 1st challenge.  It has been a lot of fun watching all of your submissions roll in this month.  Don’t forget that you have until the last day of the month – February 28th – to submit your entry. 

Here is a little taste of what this month’s winner can expect…

Have a great weekend and we will be back next Friday!!

Be My Valentine

Love is in the air and Valentine’s Day is approaching fast. Before you run out to the store to buy your loved one a card, why don’t you consider hand making one this year. Take a look at the cards that Jamie and I made. These cards didn’t take any time at all to make and it will probably take you less time than it will to go out and purchase one(and it will cost less too if you use Jamie’s tip and use your scraps).

 Jamie

Here are the cards that I made for my 3 little valentines this year. 

 

 

 Brianna

Here are the cards I made for my husband and kids this Valentine’s Day.

  

So get out your trimmer and adhesive and get started on those cards. A handmade card will go a long way and will show your Valentine just how much you care!

Real Life Weekend Project- Flip Flap Book

Hi Everyone!  This is Jamie and I wanted to post a “real life” project that you all can make – possibly over the weekend – and it will not take up too much of your precious scrappy time.  This flip flap book is a simple and very cute 6x6 mini album project that you can start and finish in very little time.  I made several of these (and taught classes) using a Christmas theme over the holidays.  With Valentine’s Day just around the corner, this project would also make a perfect gift for that special someone.

Here is a list of the supplies you will need:

Here’s a sample of the cardstock and photos that I used. 

• 2 sheets of 12x12 cardstock – in my example it is the red.
• 1 sheet of 12x12 cardstock in a contrasting color – again, in my example this is the black. 
• A couple sheets of patterned paper and some coordinating embellishments to go along with your theme.

Now let’s get started…

The 1st step is to get started with the cutting.  Take 1 sheet of your cardstock and cut to 6x12 inches.  Take the remainder of the cardstock (in my case the red) and cut to 5 ¾x12.  You should have 3 of these when you are done.  Then take your contrasting color (again in my example the black) and cut 4 squares measuring 5½x5½. 

This is what you should have cut with your 3 pieces of 12x12 cardstock.  The red cardstock on the left is the 6x12 piece, which will end up being your cover. 

 

Next step is scoring…

Take the 3 pieces that you cut to 5¾x12 and score 3 inches from each end – on both sides.

Next take your bigger cover piece and score at 2¾ inches and 3 inches from each end – on both sides. 

Now comes the assembly…

1st section is the interior pages. 

Attach the 3 pieces together using adhesive at the 3x5¾ section as shown above.
You will only need adhesive on 2 ends.

Now you get to assemble the cover. 

Take the 4 square pieces and adhere to outside flaps of your cover.
The key here is to adhere on the outside of your scoring lines. 

Next up you will adhere your cover (large square) to your middle interior pages.  Attach the back of the middle interior page (middle square) to the middle (square) portion of your cover.
**  Sorry!  I forgot to take a picture of this step.  **

The base of your album is now complete and the next step is having fun and using all your fun supplies. 

Now let’s take a look at some actual albums…

 Jamie

I decided to make my project into a mini album/card for my hubby Josh for Valentine’s Day.  We usually do not get each other anything big for V-Day so I thought this was the perfect solution for his gift/card.  I used a lot of coordinating products from the Making Memories Love Story collection that I had in my stash from last year.  I also used these too cute and FREE coupons from Shabby Chic Crafts. 

Here is the cover…

  

And a look at a few of the inside pages…

 



 

And don’t forget to embellish the back cover!

You really do get a lot of bang for your buck with this album.  You will soon realize that there are so many little flips and flaps to decorate and you only used 3 sheets of 12x12 cardstock.  It will amaze you.  I promise!!  I did not even show you all of my pages inside this book – yes there are that many!!

The key is to go ahead and pick out your stash of embellishments – a certain collection or kit – before you get started.  This will save you lots of time in the decorating process.  The rest will come together so quickly and you will have a blast putting your album together.  I think it took me about 2 hours start to finish (including printing photos) to make this one. 

Brianna

Brianna made a flip book to document her love story with her husband and she put some recent photos of their family in it. She used the Love Sparkles Simply Scrappin’ kit, from Stampin’ Up!  I just love the pink and browns that she used + their love story is going to be something that their babies treasure in the years to come. 

So that’s it!  We hope you have enjoyed this fun project.  If you decide to tackle your own Flip Flap Book, please leave a comment below or email us – Brianna or Jamie – to show us your album.  We would love to see it. 

Challenge #1 – Something Simple

Welcome back to Real Life Scraps!  February is here and we – The Real Life Girls – are super excited that today kicks off our **first ever** monthly challenge.  Like I said, we are very excited and hope that you will join us this month and play along.  So here goes… 

In honor of Simple Scrapbooks we wanted to make our 1st challenge a “simple” one. So this month we want you to use the word simple on a layout.   Be creative and remember you can use any variation of the word. 

Here’s a peek at our layouts for this challenge and a little funny to go along with it. 

Brianna

Jamie

Notice anything about those titles?  We just shared our final layouts with each other the other day and then realized that we had used the same title “Simply The Best” from the Tina Turner song. We laughed so hard and decided that we were still going to put them up here to share with you. As you can see, both of our layouts have completely different meanings but as it turns out, we have both been singing Tina for the past few weeks.  Great minds think alike, right? 

Just a few details about the challenge:  Feel free to submit any type of layout (paper, digital, or hybrid) or any size.  It is all a personal preference and we want you to feel the most creative with what you are used too.  You have until the last day of the month (February 28th) to submit your work.  Just leave us a comment on this post with a link to your work.  If you do not have a blog or online photo gallery, feel free to take a picture and email it to us – Brianna or Jamie – by the deadline.  We will be posting all of your work over in our gallery each month.  Oh and yes, feel free to submit more than once this month.  If you get on a roll with those “simple” layouts, keep them coming.  We will pick a winner on March 1st and of course there will be some fun scrappy prize involved!

We are looking forward to seeing all your “Simple” layouts this month.  Stay tuned for more inspiration and a peek at your prize in the weeks ahead. 

Happy Scrapping!