Good Times with a Simple Page Kit!

I been wanting to do something different with a Simple Page Kit. They are so well-liked, but of course, I wanted to add that little bit more!

For your reference, this is the original page in the kit:

My son surprised me by coming home on Saturday! He lives in Dallas, and I don't get to see him enough at all. My husband was in on the surprise, and they did a good job of keeping it quiet!! I put everything down - taxes, work, housework - and I spent time with him until he left on Wednesday afternoon.

We took these photos at lunch yesterday, and I couldn't wait to put them on paper. Like I said at the beginning, I've been wanting to re-imagine a Simple Page kit, so that's exactly what I did. This is Simple Page Kit #2 from this year, and I'll tell you what I did:

• I cut 1" off the right edge of both base sheets. Then I took 3/4" of the top and 1/2" off the bottom of both sheets.

• My bottom base is Bright White, and I gutted a 10" square out of each sheet. You do this by leaving 1" on all edges. I used the gutted out portion for my photo mats.

• The next base is Starry Shimmer Paper. I cut it down to 11-1/2" x 11-1/2" and then gutted out a 9-1/2" square. This also leaves 1" on all edges. You will use this portion for photo mats.

• Adhere the Simple Page Kit base to the Starry Shimmer square, and then adhere that layered piece to the Bright White base.

• I used 5 x 7 photos. Cut (2) 5-1/4" x 7-1/4" Bright White and (2) 5-1/2 x 7-1/2 Starry Shimmer. Mat the photos and they are adhered 1/4" from the inside edge of both pages and centered from top to bottom.

• Because I didn't use the third piece of the kit for matting, I was able to use it for other things. I cut (4) 1/4" x 11" strips for the pages. I put them at the top of the page below the heart paper and at the bottom of the page above the heart paper. I also cut flowers for the page. I simply looked for a simple daisy and used two layers.

• After cutting the blue dotted daisies, I also cut Bright White daisies. I put all the daisies on the line below the photos, alternating white and blue.

• I cut some small banners for the upper left and bottom right of the photos. I used 1" x 3" pieces and dovetailed them and then you can just stagger them as needed. I also added the blue heart stickers.

• From there I just added some stickers. The rub-ons are from 49 and Market. I also added blue gems from my stash.

I hope this gives you some ideas of what you can do with your own Simple Page Kits!