Creating with Lindsay's Layouts: Simple Stories Retreat Gifts

A few weeks ago, I traveled to Utah for an amazing retreat hosted by Simple Stories. The team spoiled us with incredible classes and paper collections for three straight days. I came home with my luggage filled to the brim, and I had to ship an additional box to Colorado. The entire Simple Stories staff, plus some volunteers, were kind, helpful and gracious, no matter how demanding we got as attendees! Because I had gone to this event two years ago, I knew I wanted to take small gifts for a lot of people. Scrapbooking is about community, and I love it that my circle continues to grow. As I brainstormed gift ideas, I knew I needed to check three boxes: cute and personalized, relatively inexpensive, easy to replicate. I used a Lori Whitlock cut file to make a small sticky note "trapper keeper." I used the Crafty Things collection for both the paper and ephemera.

My Cricut did the majority of the heavy lifting. I could cut two folders at a time. I also had the scoring tool installed, but I felt that the lines weren't pronounced enough on the black patterned paper.

I grabbed my readers to give my eyes a boost and started scoring and folding each paper cut out. I added a small pocket inside the folder that would hold a vinyl sticker gift.

I printed my information on cardstock and added it to the back of every folder. Doing things in batches makes the process more efficient.

Next came the fun part! I went through the attendee roster and made a list of first initials of people I knew. I was able to personalize each folder with the letters from the Crafty Things collection. Can you guess which letter I needed the most of? As in, I had to open many, many packages to get enough of it? It's the letter J. A lot of crafty ladies have names that start with J. :)

For the finishing touch, I added a pink pencil and sticky note to each folder. The folder is held closed by a small Velcro dot. I ended up completing 50 of these total, and they were very well received. I love surprising people with gifts! I'll include all of the links below. I hope you are inspired to spoil a lucky crafter at the next retreat you attend.

Lori Whitlock Cut File

Simple Stories Crafty Things Collection