True Stories

Hi, Jo here to share some June CT projects with you all. This month I decided to use mainly products from the new Shimelle collection ‘True Stories’ to create a project life spread, a mini-album and a layout.
By now you might know that I love Project Life, and while I like to use ‘official’ products, more often that not I’ll mix it up with papers and embellishments from scrapbook collections. This means I can be free each week to use what is currently inspiring me and to make a dent in my ever growing stash of ‘must have’ products. Yes, I am indeed a magpie, true story.
So, let’s begin. Here’s a Project Life spread using the Shimelle collection ‘True Stories’ which covers half term week and a camping trip to Corfe Castle. I decided to use the Darjeeling paper for my 4×6 inserts; a section from the ‘a-side’ for the header insert and the ‘b-side’ of the cameras for the others.

I really love the vellum papers (Earl Grey and Chamomile) in the collection so chose to use those in the 3×4 insert slots, backing them on to white card so that they’d show up nice and bright. Another reason for this was that I will have inserts from the week before and after behind them and in this situation I didn’t want them to appear see-through.

I embellished the spread with cork stickers from Shimelle’s collection (the ones with white printed on top), some from Freckled Fawn (heart, star and arrow) and little enamel dots from the True Stories collection. For my journaling titles I used mini alphas by Jillibean Soup and journaling cards by Becky Higgins trimmed down. In addition to these for my weekly header I used some old Dear Lizzy ‘Cordial’ thickers I had in my stash for the W and the chevrons. Finally I used two red stickers from the True Stories sticker pack to create a visual triangle across the whole spread.
Here’s what I used from the True Stories collection;
     
Now, on to my next project inspired by the Shimelle True Stories collection, a mini-book about…coffee. Yes, coffee!

I love coffee, it’s hands down my favourite drink. So having seen the cute takeout coffee cups on the ‘Macchiato’ and ‘Mocha’ papers I was inspired to make a purely indulgent fun mini-book about my love of coffee. True Story.

Here’s what I used from the True Stories collection to make my mini-book;
         
Instead of using a mini album, I opted to keep it simple and use just a pack of 4×4 page protectors and hold them together with two ball chains. I had fun creating little clusters with word strips and accents to accompany my photos.

I typed the word strips on my typewriter, but these could easily have been printed on my computer. The only other things I added to my mini-book were some more Freckled Fawn cork embellishments and some American Crafts textured woodgrain cardstock in chestnut and white.

Want to see it all?
           
What would you make a mini-book about?

As you’ve seen in my mini-book I’ve used a typewriter to make my journaling strips and coincidentally there are lovely typewriter references in the True Stories collection so I thought I’d make a layout about my 1970’s vintage typewriter. I had a Bella Blvd typewriter font transparency which I’d been wanting to use for a while and now I had the perfect layout for it!

And just as I was typing the journaling strips about it’s quirky random addition of spaces, it obliged and added them, as if it knew what I was typing. True story!

Here’s what I used;
     
Plus some white American Crafts cardstock, red epoxy hearts from Pebbles and a red enamel dot from Simple Stories.
Thanks for stopping by. I hope I’ve inspired you to go and create something lovely. Do share a link here in the comments, I’d love to see!