Review: Summer Simmons

Summer Simmons sponsored the digital team at Treasures to Scrap this month, along with Kelley McDonald, so lots of digital this month. Which for me was a bad thing because all my computer issues this month. However I did get my required layouts done and enjoyed playing with her kits. So as usual here is a little review of her kits and some layouts.

Ok firstly Summer has an awesome name for her site! Sugar giggles, how fun is that? You can find a link to her gallery, design team, store and her blog there. We got a gift card this month for Summer's store and I got 3 kits and a couple of goodie packs, namely the fabulous frames and journaling brushes. The first kit I knew I definately wanted was "citrus grove", its my favorite color combo lately blue/orange and anything! Plus I was drawn to the papers. Definitely my favorite kit of hers.

Not surprisingly this is my favorite kit of hers. The accents are great with stitching flowers, tabs and beads. A very versatile kit too. Here are a couple of layouts using this kit.

Citrus grove kit by Summer Simmons; Vellum panel by me

Citrus Grove kit by Summer Simmons; Vellum circle by me

One of the other kits I was drawn to was the ladybug picnic kit. I'm not sure why? Maybe the fun colors and patterns? It just had a playful feel to it. I'm thinking these colors would be good on cards, so I'm gonna try some hybrid later this week, stay tuned for those!

Now I don't have kids but I made this work for other occasions! So next time you see a themed kit, think outside the box! I was kinda stumped initially but then as I was going through photo's spied this one of my sister-in-laws dog Flo, and remembered the "dream big" embellishment. Plus the background colors in the photo went well with the colors in the papers. I used the ribbon in the kit as journaling strips!

Summer Simmons Ladybug picnic kit; blue paper, paper clip - my own designs

Another trick to remember is if the photo clashes with the papers convert it to black and white. This is a photo of my Mum and her sister. Classic self portait shot with the arm outstretched, I cropped it a little and converted to black and white. (btw: I'm bringing vellum back in a big way apparently! 4 of these layouts today have a vellum look on them!)

Summer Simmons Ladybug picnic kit; vellum & blue papers - my own design

Last but not least is the Bohemian Summer kit, each month I try to pick things that don't jump out at me, that I wouldn't normally pick. It's a great way of challenging yourself or making you think outside the box.

First layout is a scraplift of Lynn, I'm her sponsor in this months contest at Treasures to Scrap. The contest this month is for undiscovered treasures, a new(ish) member gets sponsored by long time member and they complete challenges, this weeks was a scraplift your partner, you can see Lynn's original layout here.

Bohemian summer kit by Summer Simmons; Grunge Overlay - my own design

Strangely even though I the colors in this photo matched the colors in the kit great, I just struggled to make it work with some of the papers. I definitely decided that busy papers are meant for simple layouts, hence the switch back to clean layouts this week.

Bohemian summer kit by Summer Simmons; Vellum, frame and ribbon - my own designs

So a real mix here of styles and colors. I guess that really shows the diversity of Summer's kits. For more layouts with Summers kits check out the Treasures to Scrap sponsor gallery.