Simple Stories Sn@p! album + give-away **closed**

I have a confession. I am a Simple Stories groupie. Totally. Love. Their. Stuff. I collect it. I hoard it. I covet everything that they make. Seriously, it's like a product love affair. Okay, maybe a like affair.

My girlfriend's daughter, who is 10, wanted to make her first scrapbook album. Now I could have just let Erin loose in my studio with a pile of paper, a stick of glue, and a box of embellishments and trims, but if that plan would overwhelm me (and it would!), imagine what it would have done to her? I mean, gosh, she's come to ME, Miss Becky, to make her first album. I wanted this album-making endeavor to be Fun with a capital F!

Enter the Simple Stories Snap album system. Hello, beautiful and gimme a "Gosh, you're brilliant!" while you're at it.

Erin chose a yummy Red 12x12 album, Design 4, 5 and 7 Pocket Pages, and the December Documented collection.

Over a weekend, mixed with eating waaaay too much junk food, rescuing three of her die cuts and one chipboard shape from puppy/thief/bandit Cooper, and texting to her BFF what a "super mag" time she was having with Miss Becky (hee hee), she completed six Snap pages. Dude, six 12x12 pages!

And here's the magic that made it such an awesome design experience for Erin. Everything is premade for you! Preprinted die cuts, cards, elements and inserts to fit all of the different pocket sizes, plus chipboard designs, shape and alpha stickers, transparency overlays and decorative brads.

Since the album is going to be a gift for her mom, she asked me not to share photos, so I took a bunch before she got started.

Let's begin with the album itself. I swear I sniffed it the first time I saw it, because I was just certain it was real leather. It is high-quality faux leather that scratches and dents just like the real deal. In fact, use baby oil or sticker releaser to remove the round label on the outside of the album. *ahem* Trust me on this little tip!

Love the contrasting backstitches in white thread. They go completely around the album, over the spine and continue onto the back. The metal corner bumpers are pretty cool and will keep the corners from getting dinged and dog-eared every time you take an album off the shelf or put it back on.

The bookplate is nice and roomy and I love how it is weld-studded onto the spine. That bad boy isn't going anywhere. The paper label slips in and out very easy.

D-rings are my fav. Seriously, they keep your pages from getting bent and bowed as the album fills up, and the pocket pages slide over the ring so smoothly.

Okay, here's where the fussy stuff gets kind of cool. You're probably thinking by now, "Hey, these are pocket protector album thingies. How can I add dimension to my designs I they are going into a pocket?" Yeah, I asked the same question, too. Simple Stories thought of everything when they developed this system. See that chipboard shape? That baby is nice and thin, like credit card thin. Yet it is sturdy, pre-printed and self-adhesive. It's easily half the thickness of most designer chipboard.

Even the designer brads are low profile thin. The epoxy domes are flatter than most and the layered die cuts are cut from matt coated text paper.

The variety of die cuts (called Snap Cuts) in each package is amazing! Shapes, positives, negatives and even scalloped edges. Use them alone or cover them over another pre-printed piece.

Then there are the cards. These babies are what brings everything together when you design a page. They come in 3x4 and 4x6 sizes and are printed double-sided. There are 38 cards in a pack, which gives you at least 76 options!

Of course all of the collections come in 12x12, along with sticker sheets (shape and alpha), transparency overlays and a whole bunch more 3x4 and 4x6 cards.

So there you have it -- the Simple Stories Snap! 12x12 album system -- perfect for kids and us adults!

Would you like to be the lucky winner of an album (your color choice) and a pack of pocket pages? Just leave a comment on this post and we'll draw a random winner on November 1st. This giveaway is open to everyone, everywhere in the world!

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Becky