Howdy everyone! I’m back….:)

It’s Layle Koncar – think ‘Gayle’, with an ‘L’ – Director of Marketing for Simple Stories/Carpe Diem. I’m excited to be back with you again this month, sharing more from my Carpe Diem Traveler’s Notebook, or TN.

If you’re not familiar with a Traveler’s Notebook, in a nutshell, it’s a leather or faux leather cover with elastic bands to hold inserts/notebooks inside & an elastic band to hold it closed. It’s a refillable notebook, if you will, with SO MUCH MORE magic! Interested in learning more about them? Catch this Intro to Traveler’s Notebooks Facebook Live video I recorded!

I don’t know about you, but I’m still hanging onto summer with everything I’ve got! Sure, I love fall, but I’m a summer girl through & through! So when it came time to set up my Traveler’s Notebook for September, I knew the Forever Fall collection would be perfect to help ease that transition out of summer.

It’s all about the pastels! The blush pink & soft light blue in the collection make Forever Fall your not so ordinary fall collection. I just love that! They’re colors that you don’t see often this time of year, especially with the traditional oranges, browns and rust tones.

Now, I have a confession. Actually, it’s a rather funny story now that I think back on it! When I first sat down to put this spread together, I started getting out all of the Forever Fall product I wanted to work with. OOPS! For some reason, all I had with me at home were the 12×12 stickers and a few pieces of paper. A bit silly when you think about it considering my role at Simple Stories! This one slipped through the cracks and I didn’t bring all of the product home with me.

So rather than waiting to get the product and start working, I decided to challenge myself to only use that one sheet of stickers. And you know what, it was awesome! And freeing! Sometimes as crafters we feel like we need to BUY all the things and USE all the things and then we get PARALYZED by all the things. Anyone with me?!

A few things about my set up –

• Everything is written in pencil and will stay in pencil. This particular calendar is my work calendar. Things often change & it’s much easier to erase things than figure out how to cover something up that’s no longer applicable with a sticker! Pencil is good for that!

• You may have noticed that everything is in the center of the calendar & nothing on the weekends – it’s my work calendar so there’s rarely anything on the weekend. The sides of the spread were looking rather bare, so I decorated the sides like a front porch. I had seen this photo on Instagram (photo credit kindredvintage) and thought the same look would work so well on a planner spread! This would be a fun design for a layout, too :)

• Remember when I said I only had a sheet of stickers & a few pieces of paper? I used the product strip – the strip at the bottom of the paper with the product information on it – as faux washi. Another tip when you find you’re running low on product!

Here’s the sticker sheet when I was done with the spread – look how many more stickers I still have left over to use in my TN or even on a scrapbook layout!

So this was a fun challenge. I was amazed at how far the sheet of stickers stretched! Next time you find yourself low on product, or trying to stick to your ‘no spend’ goals, take a 2nd look the products you have; I think you’d be surprised on how far you can stretch them!

So there you have it – a super cute spread with minimal product. Now, don’t get me wrong… I’m not encouraging you to NOT buy lots of awesome Simple Stories products – ha ha! Just encouraging you to challenge yourself to see how you can use what you have so you feel like you have permission to buy more!

You’ll find me on Instagram here at @laylekoncar; keep an eye out on Instagram for more of my scrapping planning & traveler’s notebook adventures!

~ Layle