pretty paper. true stories. {and scrapbooking classes with cupcakes.}

_{This post includes affiliate links to scrapbook.com, where I bought my supplies for this page.}

What to do with that bold rainbow paper from Pinkfresh Studio… this was a question I had from the beginning! I knew I wanted it to be something that really made the rainbow special, but I didn’t order two sheets so I had to get it right the first time. In a move that shocked even me, I ended up needing to put it all on white cardstock – something that definitely crept into my pages this month way more than usual!

This page was made in a Facebook Live session, so it’s a chatty video today.

Abandoning the quick handcutting of the title in the video was the right call – I had drawn it out about twice as big as I needed and it’s more of a quiet and patient activity rather than one that has enough pace to watch in real time. For more about handcut titles, I would really suggest checking out this post from Kirsty Smith who has been sharing more about how she creates her beautiful title work.

For links to the supplies and indeed all about this first month of Best of Both Worlds scrapbooking kits – including how you are totally welcome to play along with the supplies you already have in your stash – please see this post.

If you make a page inspired by this project and share it online, please tag me @shimelle and add the hashtag #shimelleBOBW so we can all share ideas together!

The Vicki Boutin paper with a rainbow of stars may be my very favourite piece in this month’s kit, and I’m determined to use every tiny piece. I saved a strip with all the reds to use as a border for a half and half composition today, and paired it with the turquoise textured background and Field Trip specialty die-cut paper!

For links to all the supplies and indeed all about this first month of Best of Both Worlds scrapbooking kit, take a look at this post. You can also shop your stash for similar products to make your own kit from what you already have on hand.

These photos are from the first real bit of leaving our neighbourhood exploring that we did post lockdown – an afternoon at Didcot Railway Centre, which was open by appointment, with limited numbers. It felt safe and we were never crammed in. Indoor elements were limited to one household per room at a time and indoor staff all wore face coverings (as did we when we were inside) and there was lots of obvious cleaning and plenty of hand washing stations. A successful day and, most importantly, a very exuberant boy so happy to be on AN ADVENTURE again!

If you make a page inspired by this project and share it online, please tag me @shimelle and add the hashtag #shimelleBOBW so we can all share ideas together!

Next up with my August 2020 Best of Both Worlds kit: something with a custom title that is NOT cut with a Silhouette or other die cutter! For this project, I revisited a technique I used often many, many years ago: reversing and printing a title on the computer, then cutting it out with scissors. I used this font to mimic the title of the Friends television series to match photos from Friends Fest. I’ve scrapbooked several photos of this day trip already, but that BFFs piece on the Simple Stories cut-apart paper just shouted for my Friends-themed photos!

This page was inspired by a Pagemaps sketch in the Summer 2020 issue of Scrapbook and Cards Today magazine, but changed a bit because I wanted to add a 4×6 portrait photo into the mix of the small squares in a grid.

By the way, if you’re not already subscribed to my YouTube channel, that click means so much to me! Head over here and click subscribe. Thanks!

For the supplies and indeed all about this first month of Best of Both Worlds scrapbooking kits – including how you are totally welcome to play along with the supplies you already have in your stash – please check out this post.

If you make a page inspired by this project and share it online, please tag me @shimelle and add the hashtag #shimelleBOBW so we can all share ideas together!

When I scrapped my last marshmallow themed page, someone helpfully informed me there is such a thing as MARSHMALLOW DAY so I am all on board and it’s time for more marshmallow scrapbooking. This is again all from my August 2020 product picks (see the complete kit list in this post) and today I’m unwrapping that specialty die-cut paper from my Field Trip collection!

This video cuts off rudely, because in a shocking new development of this phenomenon called summer, my phone decided it was too hot and turned itself off until it reached a safe temperature! So I grabbed an ice block so we could have a part two. (Add that to the list of things I never thought I would do and yet they seem completely fine and normal in the year 2020.)

And completely cheesy title included, there we have part two!

Now that die-cut paper is designed to give you way more than just one layout. You can use some or all of the interior pieces together, plus there’s then the whole background frame that you can back with whatever colours and patterns you like. This is just the first take on that paper, but you’ll be seeing a lot more of it right here in the coming days.

For the supplies and indeed all about this first month of Best of Both Worlds scrapbooking kits – including how you are totally welcome to play along with the supplies you already have in your stash – please check out this post.

If you make a page inspired by this project and share it online, please tag me @shimelle and add the hashtag #shimelleBOBW so we can all share ideas together!

I promised YouTube videos as well as Facebook Live – especially for those of you who don’t do chit-chat and would much rather have something direct and on topic – and here we are! No chit-chat outside scrapbooking. With one exception: there is a lot of backtalk from the local crow population. I don’t know – you try your best to be professional, and a bunch of really clever, really loud birds just have other ideas.

Today’s YouTube video is all about using the stamp set in the August kit, stamping on a variety of patterned papers and cutting out the shapes to create a uniquely patterned background. You can use any stamp motif you like for this technique, but it makes things easier if you choose a shape that will be easy to cut out with scissors or you could use a stamp set along with a matching set of dies. As the stamping only requires a small space, this technique is great for scraps of papers you love and want to use to the very last inch.

For the supplies and indeed all about this first month of Best of Both Worlds scrapbooking kits – including how you are totally welcome to play along with the supplies you already have in your stash – please check out this post.

If you make a page inspired by this project and share it online, please tag me @shimelle and add the hashtag #shimelleBOBW so we can all share ideas together!

The next scrapbook page from the August 2020 Best of Both Worlds kit started with a discover of what did NOT work! I love this really simple mixed media technique of applying a mix of dye ink and water to a relatively plain background with either a paintbrush, an acrylic block, or a scrap of something textured, like cling film (plastic wrap, for some of you). With most dye inks, you can stamp the ink pad directly onto a resistant surface, like a craft mat, a plate, or an acrylic block, then add some water, and you’ll have a mix similar to watercolour. Using ink comes with the bonus that you can later stamp on the layout with an exact colour match. I’ve been stamping with a variety of the Scrapbook.com Hybrid Inks and somehow had never noticed they do not mix with water at all – I just ended up with water with specks of pigment, instead of a pool of colour!

Live and learn – I swapped to another (non-hybrid) dye ink in my stash and it worked just fine. I used an old Jenni Bowlin ink, but Distress Inks and lots of other inks would work for this too. You can also use plain old watercolours (even a children’s set) for this technique, if you’re not bothered about stamping to match.

The cut file for this page is a free download from the Summer 2020 issue of Scrapbook and Cards Today magazine, and I cut it at the size it opened – about 10 inches wide – from plain white cardstock. (If you don’t have a cutting machine and these page ideas give you a headache, I have a video coming next week with ideas and techniques for how you can adapt the ideas to a cutting-machine-free craft table!)

For the supplies and indeed all about this first month of Best of Both Worlds scrapbooking kits – including how you are totally welcome to play along with the supplies you already have in your stash – please check out this post.

If you make a page inspired by this project and share it online, please tag me @shimelle and add the hashtag #shimelleBOBW so we can all share ideas together!

A second live video, a second layout finished with the August Best of Both Worlds kit! If you’re starting here, pop over to this post to get up to speed with the whole Best of Both Worlds concept!

Today I started putting the summer issue of Scrapbook and Cards Today magazine to use! Take a look at their summer sketches – I used the sketch at the top right, but adjusted the design to two small portrait photos. (By the way, if you like the idea of scrapbooking videos from page sketches, I have a class on that and it includes 45 videos to work through at your own pace!)

Today’s is a live video, so it’s a chatty one, though not as far off topic as I sometimes find myself! We do cover my joy of secondhand copies of American Girl books. As you do. And also that ‘sup? is the perfect greeting for chickens. Please do join us with that the next time you pass friendly poultry.

I’ll be live again with this kit at 9:30am UK time this Friday, and I’ll be using the summer cut file from the magazine extras. (It will be available as a replay video as soon as it finishes.) But next up is a YouTube video that’s heavy on those camera stamps! See you soon!

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Annnnnnd thinking ahead to September, the next shopping list is now live! Here’s a look at everything on the list, and a few things to keep in mind! (Please note, these are affiliate links – thanks for your support!)

*This is rather a big kit, because I added a few things of opposite styles. If you love florals, you’re good with the Crate Paper stickers and die cuts, but not everyone loves a floral. Or a pink paper. Or primary colours. There’s a Pebbles cut apart that is quite friendly to card making, so if you don’t make cards and don’t love the b-side, skip that one. When I designed my AC collections, I always started with a really varied colour palette (Christmas Magic excepted) to make sure there would be potential for lots of scrapping topics – even if the collection at first glanced seemed very pink or purple or blue. This mix of papers is my way of bringing that logic to the kit. As always, choose the things that work for you!

*I’ve been asked a few times recently why I love mixing woodgrain with light and bright colours, so I’ve included two different woodgrain patterns in this kit to demonstrate just that. If you’re shopping your stash, my Glitter Girl collection might be useful for this.
*I’m going to keep the Scrapbook and Cards Today magazine on the list every month, but it comes out quarterly. If you ordered it with last month’s kit, that would be a duplicate. (The magazine is free with your order but you have to remember to add it to your cart, hence why it’s on the list.)

*The stash-building elements of this month’s selection are a Distress Oxide ink, a stencil, and a sticker book. These are all elements we can keep using well beyond the projects of the papers and embellishments in this kit.

Thank you so much for your support and enthusiasm for this project! It is truly brilliant to see and has made my heart so happy.

By the way, I’ve turned off comments on all my recent posts not because I don’t want to hear from you! It’s because I’m just getting a deluge of spam and some of it was most definitely NOT family friendly! I run a clean ship here! So comments are off, but you can always email me or get in touch via Facebook or Instagram. Thanks for understanding!

Kit all unpacked and ready to go, and I’m straight in to make that first page with the August Best of Both Worlds kit! This one is from a Facebook Live scrapping session, so it has lots of non-scrapbook chit-chat. (If that’s not your style, please don’t worry. There will also be strictly-on-topic YouTube videos of projects with this kit!)

Everything about the kit concept and the supplies used can be found in this post and I’ll be working with this kit again on Monday’s live session at 1:30pm UK time, on my Facebook page.

If you share projects made from your version of this kit, please tag me @shimelle and add the hashtag #shimelleBOBW so we can all share inspiration!

Have a fabulous weekend!