Simple Stories

Hedgehugs

~ dddesignz ~ 1 Comment

Who needs a hug today? I know I will take one anytime, especially from this sweet boy! Today’s post celebrates my youngest grandson’s love for hedgehogs. One of his favourite stuffed animals is a hedgehog fondly referred to as “Hedgie”. For Christmas, I made him a t-shirt with a hedgehog and the word Hedgehugs on it. It was an instant hit! You can see the t-shirt throughout the layout.

The cut file for the shirt came from the Silhouette Design Store. It is a creation from Planeta Silhouette and is Design ID #212569. It became the inspiration for this layout! I used this cut file to create the title on the left-hand page and repeated it on the right-hand side of the design.

The hedgehog on the left is a cut file from Confessions of a Paper Addict (COAPA). It was a perfect fit for this page. I used coordinating cardstocks to complete most of the cut file.

To give it a bit more punch I used coloured glitter papers to back the flowers, leaves, heart and ear of the hedgehog. Once it was secured to the layout, pearl beads were added to the flowers on its head. The final touch was adding a large googly eye for some dimension.

The patterned papers used in this layout come from PinkFresh Studio’s Let’s Stay Home collection. It was released early in the pandemic.

The adorable hedgehog wooden shapes, found on the right-hand page of the layout, came from Craft Consortium and from a collection called Over the Hedge.

The final touches for this two-page layout included adding a few foam stickers from the Simple Stories Good Stuff collection and then doodling the lines around each page with a fine sharpie. The date was added with Teensy Type cardstock stickers in Blue Jean from Doodlebug Design Inc.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this whimsical layout celebrating hedgehogs and the all-important HUG! This double page layout also shows you how you can mix and match many of the papers, ephemera and embellishments you have in your crafting stash. Thanks for dropping by today, and until next time, stay safe, stay well, and Happy Scrapping!

Sweet Moments

~ dddesignz ~ Leave a comment

How can it be December already? I’m not quite ready to jump on the Christmas bandwagon just yet. So today, I’m sharing another Fall layout using some of my October Peartree Pearscription files. It was a family tradition to take our children to the Pumpkin Lady each year to pick out the best pumpkin we could find. I’m so thrilled that my daughter carries on this tradition with her family. I love everything about this photo she captured from this year’s trip to the pumpkin patch. I wonder what my grandchildren’s children will say when they see their parents with face masks. We can only hope and pray that this pandemic will be a story from their past.

The stunning Pumkin Corner from the October Pearscription was a foundation piece for this layout. I dug into my stash of textured papers to create the warm Fall feeling for this cut file. The pumpkins were backed with a heavily textured burnt orange cardstock and the leaves were backed with a suede style paper with a green tye-dyed effect.

The title for this layout, Sweet Moments, was the free cut file offered by Peartree Cutfiles in October (purchase 5 cut files, receive one free). It’s highly versatile and could be used on so many different layouts. I highly recommend taking advantage of the monthly freebie from Peartree. When you sign up for the monthly Pearscription, it is included automatically with your purchase. A pretty “sweet” deal! I chose to back the title with a buffalo plaid patterned paper that coordinated with my youngest grandson’s jacket.

The large picture and cut files were placed on patterned paper from Simple Stories from their Simple Vintage Country Harvest collection pack. The specific paper is Item #16309, called Give Thanks. I chose this paper for its rustic feel and the way it offsets the picture.

Just a few embellishments were added to complete the layout. I selected the Pumpkin Time phrase and several hearts in different sizes and coordinating colours from the Foam Stickers that belong to this Simple Stories collection to complement the picture and cut files.

Overall, this was a fairly easy layout to assemble and I am thrilled with the result. Perhaps next year my grandchildren will be able to visit the Pumpkin Lady without wearing a face mask!

Thanks for checking in, and until next time, stay safe, stay well and Happy Scrapping!

Master Gardener

~ dddesignz ~ Leave a comment

Let me introduce you to my Grandpa, Harold Russell. He was a gifted carpenter by trade, but a master gardener in his retirement. My grandparents lived in Mississauga in a house he built. They lived at the end of a dead-end street with a huge lot to the left of the house that Grandpa turned into a massive vegetable garden. I often spent a couple of weeks with my grandparents during the summer months when I was young. My memories of these times included lots of time in the garden with Grandpa and watching my Nana cooking, canning and freezing all the bounty that resulted from his hard labour. Grandpa built a large cold cellar in the house and it was always fun to get inside to see all the filled jars from Nana’s canning efforts.

My favourite memories of Grandpa’s garden were visits in June when we were allowed to pick fresh strawberries ourselves, and later in the season when we picked fresh carrots. There’s nothing quite like a freshly picked carrot washed under the garden hose! It was one of my favourite treats from his garden! I also remember baskets of fruit and vegetables begin loaded into our car before we returned to London after a visit. Grandpa was a kind and patient man, and he treated his treasured vegetable garden with as much love and tenderness that he afforded his grandchildren. You can see how proud he was of his produce in these pictures. That squash! I wish I knew how many pounds it weighed, but you can see the delight on his face with the result. Grandpa introduced us to many new vegetables that we have never experienced before. Spaghetti squash was our favourite of all.

Marcy and Milly SVG‘s #freebiefriday cut file called Garden Words Background was the perfect file to document this story. You can find all the free cut files on the Marcy Milly SVG Facebook page. Once the file was sized to my liking for the layout, I created an offset of the cut file using Silhouette Studio software. The small sections that made up the centres cutouts of all of the letters were removed to provide a solid base. Then both sections of the cut file were cut on respective green and black cardstock. I chose not to centre the cut file on the offset background, and offset it slightly to the right to provide a more dramatic effect.

Simple Stories recent Simple Vintage Farmhouse Garden collection worked beautifully to help tell this story. Not only did I love the colour graphics in The Sweet Life patterned paper, but I loved the subtle pictures of garden vegetables in the rest of the paper. I used various pieces to embellish this layout from the coordinating Bits and Pieces and Garden Bits ephemera packs. The From the Garden sticker, seen in the photo with the large squash, came from the Cardstock Stickers found in the 12×12 Collection Kit. The title – Master Gardener – was added using doodlebug designs inc my type cardstock stickers.

I had a great time working on this layout and going down memory lane! So pleased to have a cut file that fit my Grandpa’s passion perfectly! Be sure to follow the Marcy Milly SVG page on Facebook to grab this #freebiefriday cut file and many more! Also, look for the post announcing a new monthly newsletter to keep informed on new monthly cut files. Sign up is via email. For all my gardening friends out there, I wish you the best growing season yet! Until next time, stay safe, stay well and Happy Scrapping!