Hello Simple Stories friends! Gloria Parra here today with a super fun and festive layout featuring the Hard Candy Christmas collection. The whimsical patterns, bright colors, and charming icons in this collection make it one of my absolute favorites to craft with during the holiday season. For this page, I decided to highlight the adorable ornaments found throughout the collection and let them shine as the main decorative element. Follow along as I walk you through each step of how this layout came together!
To begin, I selected the ledger pattern paper with the printed ornaments on the top corner as the base of my layout. I then added hand stitching directly onto them. Once stitched, I carefully fussy cut around the ornament section—this allowed me to layer a patterned paper behind it and create a beautiful contrast between the background and the top layer.
To back the stitched ornament piece, I trimmed the pink asterisk pattern paper to 10 ½” wide by 10 ¾” long. I adhered this behind the fussy-cut ornaments, creating a soft and colorful second layer that frames the design beautifully.
I then proceeded to select two photos for this layout: one vertical photo measuring 3 ½” × 5” and the other horizontal, measuring 3” × 4”. I matted both images using papers from the 6×8 paper pad, adding subtle layers of color to help them pop from the background.
For the title, I combined elements from different parts of the collection: the “Sweet Memories” foam stickers and the fussy-cut “Christmas” word from the Bits & Pieces pack. I layered them together and placed the completed title above my horizontal photo for a cohesive look.
On the bottom left corner, I created a fun little cluster using the adorable chipboard Santa carrying lots of gifts and a journaling ephemera piece tucked behind the photo to record my story. This area helps balance the larger ornament cluster at the top of the page.
To finish the layout, I added some word strip stickers beneath the right-side photo, a few extra ornaments from the ephemera pack and I sprinkled star stickers all around like festive confetti. These tiny details pull everything together and add that final touch of holiday magic.
I hope you enjoyed this step-by-step look at my layout! If you’d like to watch the full process, I’ll have a video on my YouTube channel, Gloria Scraps, where you can see exactly how it all came together.
Until next time, friends — happy crafting and merry memory-keeping! 🎄✨
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