deep waters

Hey paper peeps! When I decided to start a stamp subscription, I wanted to have some stamps for memory keeping of course, but I also wanted to start incorporating my faith into some projects too! Hence where I came up with the Happy Little Faith Stamp Subscription! I love that there's 2 separate ones to pick from, or you can pick both and it's still super affordable! 

I really love when you just "happen to stumble on" (wink wink) a verse that goes so perfectly with the storm or trial you are facing! That's how I came about with the August Faith Stamp verse, "When you go through deep waters, I will be with you!" ~Isaiah 43:2. Life has been super hard lately and it's going to get even trickier... I'm about to make a big life change and it's super scary! Well one day I opened up to this verse and was like oh yeah. Thank you Lord I needed this! 
I just love scraping texture paste over stencils ohmygoodness it's so much fun! These little stars are one of my faves to play with, and they fit so perfectly with this old sheet music paper :)

Look how fun these curly Q waves are! I think I used 3 different blue Tim Holtz Oxide Inks for them, then just dabbed a little white gesso over top of them to soften them up a bit! 

I am having so much fun creating a faith art journal with the Happy Little Faith Stamps! I love just adding layers and layers of messy-ness and paint and paper and ink until I'm totally happy with it! 

I can't wait to get more pages in it done, I know it will be one of my favorite things! It's kinda funny because I'll be able to look at each layout and know exactly what I was going through at that point! Kind of a faith journey :) If you want to play along and start your own journal with your Happy Little Faith Stamps, please make sure you tag me so I can see your amazing art work! #sbhappylittlefaithartjournal @sarahbargo

Thank you so much for stopping by! If you'd like to subscribe to Happy Little Stamps, the buttons are on the right in the sidebar! Have a beautiful day!
xoxo Sarah

sunny adventure

Hey paper peeps! Just poppin on to share a fun summery layout with you! I have been playing with 6x12 lately, it's just fun to play with different sizes sometimes! It's a good way to keep things fresh and maybe find things that work and don't work for you! 
Citrus Twist Kits has these awesome 4x8 shipping tags, so I trimmed off a little on the end and slid the tag right into a pocket! So easy and cute! 

I used a couple stamps in the up-coming August Happy Little Story Stamp set, can you find them?! Sneaky peeky!

I loved playing with these bright summer colors, they made me so happy! 

If you want to spice up your pocket pages, create a fold over flap using cardstock, then cover it with a journal card or paper or photos! Plus it makes it fun and interactive! 

Flip it.. flip it good! 

If you're ever feeling a little down or sad about how fast time is going or if your babies grew up too fast, break out some old happy photos and document something with them! It helped me a great deal this weekend when I was feeling sad ;) 

Thanks so much for stopping by! Have a bright & sunny day!

xoxo Sarah

pink sands mini album class

Hey paper peeps! This Saturday I'll be teaching this Pink Sands Mini Album class at the Hannah's Home Accents Summer Crafting Weekend Getaway! If you're in the area I would love to have you! If you would like the deets, please email me at sarah.smile21@hotmail.com!

I'll be teaching you how to build this mini album with lots of lovely layers that you'll want to use time & time again! 

Plus there's an exclusive cute new stamp in the kit that was designed by moi! :)

So excited! Til then I'll be dreaming of the sea..
Can't wait, hope to see you there! 
xoxo Sarah

Cake stamp set

Hey paper peeps! In honor of my birthday month I just released a new CAKE themed stamp set in my Etsy shop! I love cake so much, (ok I love all sweets) and I've always loved this cute rhyme, "bake me a cake as fast as you can!" So of course a stamp set had to be made lol! And look at those cute sprinkles eek!

I love playing around with different colored inks on my projects! This one is a Tim Holtz Oxide Ink, Pine Needles. It's up there as one of my faves for sure! I thought it's be fun to pull out the color of the strawberry leaves :) 

Look at these darling dipped berries ugh! I just love them! 

This darling plaid paper is by Pinkfresh Studio, it's one of my favorite papers by them I just love the colors! 

What is your favorite ink to stamp with and why? I'd love to hear! 

Thank you so much for stopping by! Have an happy scrappy day! 

xoxo Sarah

joy journey circle journal

Hey paper peeps! Today I wanted to share something fun I just conjured up! I created a "joy journey journal" to pass around to my friends in the mail, and then have each of them fill out a spot inside it with some encouragement! Maybe a favorite Bible verse or an inspiring quote? Then by the end I'll have a big ole chunky book of happiness to look thru!  Here is a look at the inside, I used a Tim Holtz folio as the shell! I mixed white gesso and light blush paint together and applied it to the inside using a makeup sponge to lighten up the pattern on the inside. Then took this gorgeous floral stamp set by Illustrated Faith and stamped once in each corner! 

Lots of lovely layers created out of the 49 and Market Collage Stacks! They were so fun to alter!

The watercolor splashes you see were made with Tim Holtz Oxide Ink refills in the colors of Spun Sugar and Tattered Rose! I did that technique to some of the papers and then ran them through my WRMK typewriter! I just love that look of typed words, it just gives such a cute nostalgic feel to the project! 

I also included some stamping, the black ink was a little bold for me so after the ink was dry, I just blotted it gently with some white gesso and it softened it..

To add some pretty details I topped some of the papers with some gorgeous washi tape like this floral  one here by Heidi Swapp!

Vellum butterflies are the perfect touch if you want to add a little dreamy-ness :)

I love these colors together, they are just so pretty and dreamy! I love all the verses I put in here so far, there are a few more that I'd like to add so I'll keep updating as I go! 

Thanks for stoppin by today, stay well and happy and get scrappy!

garden art journal

Hey paper peeps! I started creating an artsy fartsy art journal dedicated just for gardening! I love gardens so much, they are the most peaceful & beautiful places! To have a special little keepsake to keep all kinds of flowery goodness in makes me all sorts of happy! 
I used an old vintage hard cover book, and just tore a bunch of pages out to make room for new messy ones! ;)

I used a mix of vintage garden paper and new ephemera pieces to create a little collage area on the cover, then topped it off with a chippy painted book plate and some chipboard pieces!

I hung this beautiful charm off the binding with yarn, they were in my shop but are all sold out now! I may be putting more up soon!

I love mixing different sized letters, it adds a cute handmade eclectic feel!

Here's a couple pages I put in, I used a beautiful bloom cutfile by Just Nick Studio!

The floral hummingbird paper is by Maggie Holmes for Crate Paper, isn't it so pretty?!

Do you have a garden art journal? I can't wait to get this thing "dirty!" Thanks so much for stopping by! 

garden journal box

TGIFFFFFF WOOHOOOOO!!!! WE MADE IT!!!! Hey paper peeps, just poppin in to share this little garden journal box I put together for my mom ;) the other journal I made her is so full and so beat up she definitely needed a new one! 
I used mostly the Carta Bella "Spring Market" line in here, it is sooo beautiful with those big watercolor flowers oh my heavens... 

This box style journal is definitely going to work out perfectly because there are a ton of inserts that she can adhere pictures too, and then it's a box so she can stick seed packets or magazine clippings or whatever in there too! 
Here's a look at just a few of the inserts in the box:

   This is a great way to stash-bust through some of that pretty washi tape you have lying around... just stack them up like here below, and it makes the cutest background! I love love when there's little patterns on white tape it just adds the cutest little touch... also letter stickers are super fun to throw in too like these cute Heidi Swapp ones here:

This project was SO. MUCH. FUN. Just go shopping through your stash, get a big pile of cuteness together, some pieces of chipboard, and just start playing and making cute things! Seriously no rules just have fun! 

Can never go wrong with some splatters of Heidi Swapp Color Shine ;)

My cutie mom showin off her new floral garden booties at a flea market.. love her! I am so blessed to have her ;)

The little striped "awning" on the front is fussy cut from one of the cute papers in this collection, plus I added a word cut out piece and a Tim Holtz metal number piece ;) just some fun little touches. 

So go find yourself a cute little galvanized container and make something pretty! I'm working on a family one right now, can't wait to show you!
Have a wonderful scrappy weekend! 

stress free scrapbooking

Happy Tuesday paper peeps! Ok.. so be honest... do you guys freak out if you make a mistake on your projects? Or do you just say whatevs and fix it? I used to freak out kinda and sometimes even throw my whole page in the garbo... but you know what? That totally takes the fun out of it and sucks the joy right out of the whole scrappy process! So now if I make a mistake, I either just let it go or fix it the best i can and MOVE ON SISTAH!! Life's too short to sweat the small stuff ;) At the end of the day, your loved ones are not going to care about the little boo-boos on your layout, they're going to love it! The photo, the memory, everything! Because that's what's important ;)  On this layout, I wrote July instead of June and totally put my picture on crooked. I did fix the date because that's kindof important lol, but I left the pic where it stands. It's not that big of a deal right? 

Isn't this pinky palm paper by Maggie Holmes so beautiful?! It's probably one of my all time favorite papers evah! Love it. Plus it matches my dress lol! 

Another thing that can cause stress in scrapbooking (at least it does me sometimes) is the feeling that you're never going to get caught up on your photos. I have soooo many memories that need to be scrapped! How do you even tackle this? Like boxes and boxes of photos ugh... It's so easy to get overwhelmed isn't it?! But it's ok. Just so you start somewhere right? Just remind yourself that it's supposed to be fun! Take the events that are most important to you and get them documented, then the rest is golden my friend ;) Also, if you mainly just create layouts, throw a mini-album in there once in awhile, boom from start to finish. Then you'll get the feeling of accomplishment that you actually finished something and you'll feel better! Then go back to your layouts! I bounce around anyways because I love to make anything & everything in the world lol! 

Do you have any tips on how to beat the stress in the scrap room? What do you struggle with? Do you have hoarding issues like I do?! LOLOL we'll keep that for next time.. that's a whooooollleeee other blog post hahaha!  Thanks for hangin with me!

oh my, welcome back

Well hello there paper peeps, welcome back! I thought it was about time to update my little happy place here in blogland, it's been awhile! While I'm sitting here in my super soft mint green polka dot robe, sippin on my fresh & hot delicious French-vanilla coffee in my pretty Cath Kidston mug, wondering how in the world I'm going to get my hair to stop sticking straight up today... I thought I'd say welcome back with a pretty layout! I was thumbing through my stash one day and came across this gorgeous lace paper by Dear Lizzy, and my brain immediately thought oohhhh this would be so pretty with gesso smeared all over it.. turned out just like I hoped I was so happy!

This layout was just published in the most recent Jot magazine, their Issue 18! I love that mag, it's so inspiring! Something I've been doing lately is adding a 6x12 pocket page to one side of my layouts, I love love playing with pocket pages AND normal page layouts so this is a fun way to do both!

I feel like if you don't do mixed media all the time, it can be kind of scary or overwhelming at times, but I always have this urge to play with paint! Sometimes I'll just smear a smudge of paint across my card or layout and it adds just that little touch of artsyness I was craving, without getting all crazy..

Much of this layout's supplies are from my gorgeous Dear Lizzy stash, but these darling little word snippets are from Tim HOltz. I am a word snippet addict! For realski!

How come designers don't use taupy/brown colors more often? I love them!

Typing your journaling in adds the cutest nostalgic touch I just love it! I always always mess up while typing on my cards, whether it's spacing or margins or hitting the wrong letter on accident, but I don't mind it kinda adds that handmade feel to it ;) I may have squealed when Santa brought me the pink WRMK typewriter for Christmas last year..

Home is my favorite place to be, so I try to document it every so often! That's why I used this cute Heidi Swapp puffy sticker that says "favorite" down in the corner..

Thanks for poppin in loves! So happy to see you again ;) xoxo Sarah