We're so excited to welcome Tya Smith to our 2023 design team. We can't wait to share her work with you. Before we jump into that, we want you to get to know Tya a little better. Bio: Hello there! My name is Tya Smith, I live in Syracuse, UT with my awesome husband of 27 years. We have 3 children ages 25, 22 and 20. (Who knew adult kids could be so fun?!?). I have been in the crafting industry since 1998 and love all aspects of this hobby! If it involves paper-I’m in! I’m so excited get to work with Simple Stories and their fabulous products this year!! Fun Facts: 1- My favorite season is winter! When you live in Utah-home of the greatest snow on earth- you just have to embrace it! My husband and I took up skiing lessons last year and now we hit the slopes once or twice a week. I also love all the cozy clothes , the holidays and the time I get to spend with my family since we are all at home a lot more in the winter! 2- I love all things Harry Potter! It was love at first read for me and I haven’t looked back since! P.S.-I’m in Ravenclaw -how about you? 3- I love to travel! There’s nothing quite like getting to experience going somewhere you’ve never been before and falling in love with a new culture and people! This year my husband and I are taking a dream bucket list trip and spending a month in Italy!! I can’t wait!! _____ Hello there Simple Stories fans! My name is Tya Smith and I am so happy to be back designing for Simple Stories once more. Today I am sharing my first post for the new term and I am so excited to share what I have been working on! I get the pleasure of designing handmade cards and this assignment was such a joy to create. I am using the gorgeous "Simple Vintage Life in Bloom" collection. For my assignment, I have created 8 cards that a full of some of my favorite products to use, as well as a couple of products new to Simple Stories! Let's jump right in, shall we? Some of my favorite things about this collection are all the beautiful florals. This collection is brimming with all sorts of lovely flowers so they will be prominent in my designs. This card features the new Layered Chipboard Stickers. These add such a wonderful dimension which I love! This card features some of the amazing Ephemera in the collection - I love that the ephemera was nice and large which made it super fun to layer and add embellishments to. Here I used the calendar piece and the blue ticket piece. I used one of the Chipboard Clusters as my focal point and then layered some pieces on top. This card features a fun camera die cut as the focal point from the Bits and Pieces. The addition of some lovely ribbon and a foam sticker add a fun touch to this card. Lots of layering went on in creating this card! I used a fun technique on this one by adding a small corner pocket on the bottom of the card - making way to add lots of tags and ephemera inside the pocket. I added more foam stickers to this card as well - love these!! On this card, I was able to play with another new product - Rub Ons! I added a couple to this card, and they added such a wonderful touch. Aren't the butterflies in this collection stunning? I used lots of them because they just complement the flowers so perfectly! More florals, butterflies, and ephemera on this card! I used mainly the 6x8 paper pad for my pattern papers when making all my cards - this black floral is heavenly! I also used some of the Vintage Ginghams papers as well - as seen here with the green paper. I love that the Simple Vintage collections include solids and some patterns that coordinate with the collections so well! The purples and blues in this collection were some of my favorites so this card features them. The "Just Be You" sentiment is from the 2x2 /4x4 Element paper. These are great to use on cards as sentiments! I also added some glitter enamel dots as well as a beautiful purple butterfly Decorative Brad to this card - so pretty! This last card is just a reminder to look for beauty in every day! With lots of layering again of Bits and Pieces die cuts and the Ephemera - this card makes such a statement! Thank you so much for stopping by the blog today! I hope that my cards have inspired you to create a few of your own using this fabulous collection! It makes me very excited for spring to get here with all of the lovely florals and butterflies - hope it does for you too! Happy crafting friends! Products used: -Simple Vintage Life in Bloom 6x6 paper pad - Simple Vintage Life in Bloom Vintage Basics Kit -Simple Vintage Life in Bloom Vintage Ginghams Kit -Simple Vintage Life in Bloom Collection Kit -Simple Vintage Life in Bloom Bits and Pieces -Simple Vintage Life in Bloom Floral Bits and Pieces -Simple Vintage Life in Bloom Ephemera -Simple Vintage Life in Bloom Chipboard Clusters -Simple Vintage Life in Bloom Foam Stickers -Simple Vintage Life in Bloom Layered Chipboard -Simple Vintage Life in Bloom Rub - Ons -Simple Vintage Life in Bloom Decorative Brads -Simple Vintage Life in Bloom Enamel Dots