Hot Mess / Simple Stories

Happy Saturday, friends!  Three cheers for the weekend...woo hoo!  I'm back today to share one of my newest layouts for Simple Stories.  I used the super adorable Domestic Bliss collection, and I was immediately inspired by the big MESS letters on one of the patterned papers.  This line has a lot of bits and pieces centered around the home and the life that's lived there, so I thought about our home and things that are everyday occurrences.  I knew I had this photo of my daughter in her room after she strung every single toy in her room all over the place.  She was quite proud of her handy work...haha!  I thought of the title "Hot Mess" and that's how this page began.

I decided to use this beautiful blue and white gingham paper as my background.  I wanted to use the scribbly cut file from Just Nick since it totally reminded me of messy chaos...perfect for this photo!  In order for it to stand out, I "whited out" some of the background with some white gesso.  I smudged a lot of it around with an old gift card and my fingers.  I used some Shimmerz Paints in aqua, golden yellow and pink to add some watercolor splotches behind the cut file.

Since I wanted this page to scream MESS, I took this "mess" a step further and added lots of tangled thread under these big letters that I fussy cut.  Even though there's a lot of busy things going on, each piece stands out and doesn't take away from the other.  I think the contrast of the colorful letters up against the white cut file really helps each piece to be clearly seen.  I used a label sticker for my journaling and added a sentiment sticker under that.

I layered a bit of patterned paper, tissue paper and foam under the photo.  I also added some vellum in there and did some white machine stitching around the edges.  I love this cute house die cut!  It was perfect for layering in here.

I fussy cut this heart from a 6x8 Paper Pad paper and then dismantled a brad so I could glue it down without the prongs getting in the way.  I also added some pink tangled thread here.  I love the dimension!

I hand drew "hot" on some patterned paper and then just fussy cut it out.  I just realized you can still see my pencil marks...oops! :D  I added a "hello life" die cut...and I love that the arrow is pointing to the mess.

I hope this inspires you in some way...it was fun to put together and get a little messy!

Thanks for stopping by!