Let's Party, Simple Stories Style

Let's Party makes
Hello, it’s Jo here with my May makes. This month I chose to work / play with the birthday collection Let’s Party by Simple Stories. Oh my, how I adore this collection, seriously I had to make myself stop creating with it as I had already made plenty to show you, but I could have easily continued! It’s full of lovely bright and colourful papers and embellishments, absolutely perfect for documenting your children’s birthdays and for making birthday cards.
OK, let’s get to it…scrapbook layout number one…
Birthday Cake
For this layout I used a full sheet of ‘HB2U‘, isn’t it gorgeous? The other side is really pretty too, like falling confetti. (I wish I’d ordered two sheets so that I could have used both sides, never mind I’ve popped another in my basket now!) I decided to use it on a layout about some of the more ‘adventurous’ birthday cakes I’ve made and printed out three square photos which I trimmed to look like polaroids. This gave me a space to write a little description below the photo. I mounted all three photos on craft foam which I’d cut to size. It acts to lift the photos adding depth to the page which is especially good if like me you aren’t matting them with other paper or cardstock. I added a title in large foam letters from my stash, replacing the ‘i’ with a chipboard candle from the Chipboard Elements pack.
Birthday Cake crop
Then I set about embellishing the page with three groups of clusters of chipboard pieces from the chipboard elements pack, stickers from the Expressions Sticker sheet and the Fundamentals Sticker sheet, die-cuts from the Bits & Pieces pack, self adhesive bradz and enamel dots. The ‘blow out the candles’ paper strip was cut from the ‘Hip hip hooray’ paper and simply adhered under the bottom cluster. The papers from the collection are not study enough to stand on their own so I ended up backing my layouts with a sheet of cardstock. This isn’t an issue with me as I have lots of coloured cardstock in my stash which I bought years and years ago and now can’t imagine using as I mainly use white and kraft as background.
My second layout is called Secret Agent Party. It turned out that it was the last ‘themed’ party had by my boys, which is kind of sad for this creative mum.
Secret Agent Party
I used another full sheet of patterned paper as the background, this blue one is ‘Teal Steamers/Orange Stripes’ (again I backed it with a sheet of unloved cardstock from my stash). I added a wide band of ‘Yippee’ paper across the middle and edged it with thin strips of ‘Red Wishes/Yellow Stars’ paper. I added my photos on top of the music paper, mounting the main photo on foam to make it stand out. I tucked distressed the edges of a luggage tag with red ink and added my journaling before tucking it under the main photo. I added embellishment clusters to the left of the main photo, to the top right and the bottom right of the layout. The title is made from red letter stickers from the Expressions sticker sheet and a chipboard ‘party’ banner from the chipboard elements pack. Finally I added a touch of gold with some splatters of Heidi Swapp Gold Colour Shine. This is something that I should have done before sticking down the photos, oops!
Secret Agent Party crop1
Layout number three is about my eldest son who will be 13 this month, eek, a teenager! He really doesn’t like that his birthday is in school term time, especially since his brothers is in the summer holiday. Every year he moans that he has to go to school on his birthday, so that’s what this layout is about (I used a colouful photo from a few years ago taken on his 9th birthday at first school).
Even birthday boys
I used the lovely red polka dot side of the ‘Woo Hoo!’ paper for the background (I actually cut strips so as not to use too much) and ‘Yippee’ paper again across the middle. I distressed the bottom edge of the Yippee paper with dark grey ink and added a border sticker from the Fundamentals sticker sheet at the top. The photo is matted on to the other side of the Woo Hoo paper and raised up on craft foam cut to size (it’s my new favourite thing to do!). I used a label from the die-cut pack for my journaling and added a long title with little blue letter stickers and large red letter stickers, both from the Expressions sticker sheet. I popped a boy die-cut up on foam pads at the bottom of the page and added a few yellow and teal coloured chipboard embellishments, stickers and die-cuts around the photo and journaling. Then I added a 3D glaze to three of the stars along the bottom of the Yippee paper and to a yellow star in the top cluster, this was easily done with Glossy Accents and left to dry. The effect is gorgeous when it catches the light, a little difficult to see in the photo here, but trust me it’s a great product.
Even birthday boys crop
 
My last layout is about my last birthday and the lovely presents I received. It’s a tradition to all pile on our bed and open birthday presents and cards.
Happy Birthday to me!
This time I used a piece of red cardstock for the background and trimmed a piece of the Hip Hip Hooray paper to 8×10.5″, oh how I love bunting! This time I remembered to splatter the paper with mist before adding anything else, I used the gold from before and the Heidi Swapp Color Shine in TropicanaTeal. I backed my photo with some vellum and a piece of Woo Hoo paper, distressing the edges of both. I tucked a luggage tag (from my stash) under the photo and added some journaling to it in situ. Then I added the embellishment clusters using bits and pieces from the chipboard, stickers and die-cut packs with self-adhesive bradz and enamel dots. The title is made up from a chipboard ‘Happy Birthday’ piece and teal chipboard thickers from my stash, but these glitter thickers in Teal from the Shimelle Starshine collection would work great with this collection. I also popped the balloons sticker on foam to lift it off the page.
Happy Birthday to me! crop
Birthday Cards
With so much lovely bits and pieces still left to play with I set about making some birthday cards.
Birthday Birdie card
This one is simply cut from the 4×6″ Horizontal Elements paper and trimmed to fit a 4×6″ kraft card blank. I added orange letter stickers to the top left from the Expressions sticker sheet, a die-cut ‘Birthday’ from the Bits & Pieces pack, an orange streamer and the cutest wee bird from the Fundamentals sticker sheet which I mounted on foam pads.
Birthday Girl & Birthday Boy cards
Next I made a birthday girl card and a birthday boy card. I love these chipboard stickers, especially the girl with the balloons. For the boy card I used the ‘Woo Hoo’ (striped) and the ‘Yippee’ (music) papers for the background with some gold Heidi Swapp Color Shine splattered on it. I curled over the corners of the papers, stuck the chipboard boy slightly off centre to allow room for the birthday boy die-cut (popped up with foam pads) to go on the top right and lastly added three yellow enamel dots. For the girl card I used the ‘Make a wish’ (teal) and the ‘Hip hip hooray’ (bunting) papers for the background. Adding a Hip hip hooray banner from the die-cut pack which I mounted on foam pads.
Birthday Girl card crop
Next I made a simple card with another of the 4×6″ Horizontal Elements paper cut a parts. I trimmed it down to fit on top of a piece of ‘Yellow Stars’ paper and added a string of bunting sticker to the top left.
Happy Birthday card
I could have left it at that, but having used the Glossy Accents on the layout above I thought I use it to write over the script word ‘Birthday’ and the bunting flags. It leaves a raised 3D effect and just adds enough detail to life the card.
Happy Birthday card side view
Finally I made a birthday card for my son who turns 13 on Wednesday. I used pieces of the ‘Woo hoo’, ‘Yellow Stars’ and ‘Yippee’ papers which I matted on to a piece of dark grey cardstock. I popped up the cake die-cut and the ‘happy day’ and ‘ hooray’ stickers with foam pads, added a ‘yippee’ bradz  and red 13 number stickers from the Expressions sticker sheet.
13! card
I really can’t recommend this Let’s Party collection enough, the colours are vibrant and easy to mix, the stickers, chipboard and die-cut packs are filled with wonderful images and there’s even more in the collection that I haven’t used. Go on, go and check it out here!
Thanks for stopping by,
JO
You can find me on Instagram @jobo_creates and @jobo74, on Pinterest here and here and on my blog Half a Cup of Coffee.

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