Hello Beautiful / Simple Stories

Hey there!  I'm back today to share one of my monthly layouts for Simple Stories.  I absolutely LOVE the Posh collection!  I mean....just look at the colors and pretty florals!  For this layout, I challenged myself to not use any of the navy blue.  There is a lot of that color throughout the collection, but I wanted to focus on the light and airy colors for this page.  I began with a neutral patterned paper with corner flower clusters.  The middle is blank, so I could add whatever design I wanted there. 

I wanted to place my photo in the lower left hand corner since my daughter is looking up and to the right.  So by placing the photo there, it looks like she's looking up and across the page at all the flowers :)  I used my Cameo to cut the big XOXO in the middle of the paper, and I backed it with patterned papers.  I came over a lot of that area with white gesso and then used some aqua, pink and gold Shimmerz Paints to add the watercolor.  I fussy cut more flower clusters and layered a few of them around and under the photo, and I placed one in the upper right corner.

I fussy cut this big XO from a Snap 4x6 card and stitched through it.  I also stitched around the big XOXOs with gold thread.  That took some time and patience, but I LOVE how it turned out!  It just seems to make the letters' edges sharper.  I layered this pretty shiny gold "today" die cut here along with a few clear stickers and word label stickers.

These colors....and flowers....swoon!  I added some thread for an extra bit of color and "messy" factor, and I fussy cut the "Live simply" from a Snap card.  I love cutting those up and using them as embellishments!

I added some tissue paper behind my photo as well as some foam to pop it up.  This makes the flowers look more dimensional, too.  I actually began this whole layout with this one "hello beautiful" Snap card.  I knew right away I wanted to layer it like this under my photo and use it as a small title.  The rest of the layout and color scheme was based on it.

I layered these flowers onto the photo's edge here, and I love the contrast of the dark and the bright.  Always think about things like that when you take your photos or edit them.  (If you know you're going to scrap that photo later, try and think of interest angles or how you can leave some white space on the photo as you take it).

Here's one more close up of the upper right flower cluster.  Again, more thread, clear stickers and stickers from the 4x6 sheets.

I had such a blast putting this layout together.  It's one of my favorites, I think!  Here's the process video for it if you'd like to see how I put it all together.

Thanks so much for stopping by!  Have a great Wednesday!