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

Catching up with some of the photos I took while I was in Kansas City… for some reason I didn’t get to take as many at my friend’s bridal shower as I had hoped so I have my fingers crossed that some of the other cameras that were there will share! But I do have this shot of the dessert bar! Red velvet cheesecake, dark chocolate brownies with fresh vanilla whipped cream and raspberries, lemon cupcakes, macarons in lemon, vanilla and raspberry (from Natasha’s), non-Oreo Oreos dipped in white chocolate and some Cadbury’s mini bars to add a bit of contrast. I don’t think we had any complaints! (But we better get planning for the wedding dessert bar now so it is an appropriately calorific follow-up!)

Ella Publishing Co. has nominated me as one of the nine Most Influential Scrapbookers of 2010. You can learn more about this award, the nominees, and the blog tour at Ella Publishing. Please help me honor my fellow nominees by visiting their blogs throughout the week. You could win one of 100 cool prizes! Click below to say hello to today’s spotlighted bloggers.

Today the blog tour visits Renee Pearson, digital scrapbooker, artist and educator. I’ve never met Renee but my goodness she makes gorgeous digital pages! You may know her work from Simple Scrapbooks and Digital Scrapbooking magazines, but you can also find her online at her very own website with lots of digital tips and tutorials.

I love that Renee’s digital tutorials have options for both the scrapper who only has a little time to spare but still wants things to look polished (like getting the most from quick pages and templates) and those who want to dig deeper into an artistic style or technique to create a look that is all their own. And her production values are just amazing! Be sure to catch Renee’s blog a chance to win lots of prizes today.

Next on the MISA list is Margie Romney-Aslett, a girl who adores pink and paper and beautiful vintage trinkets. For many years, she was busy designing some of the most popular items from Making Memories and early this year she launched her very own line, The Girls’ Paperie, which is so very Margie, right down to the pink typewriters.

Margie is such a woman on the go-go-go that I really, really want to know how she does it! She has a crazy travel schedule and one of the bounciest personalities I have ever met. If I didn’t know better, I would swear she had some sort of crazy secret to her energy, but I think it’s more likely that she is just driven by creativity and fun. If you ever get the chance to take a class from Margie, do not hesitate — just book and go! The girl is hilarious as well as fabulously talented so you will have a brilliant time. And a little known secret: I have been in a limo with Margie! (Another of the Influential Scrappers was there too!)

Visit Margie’s blog (named after a song I have long adored!) for a chance to win plus sneak peeks at her new collections ready to be released at CHA next week. Tinsel & Twig is most certainly going to make an appearance in my Christmas Journal this December! Can’t wait to see it hit the shops.

Which just leaves tomorrow on the MISA blog tour, and it will be my day to give away lots of fabulous prizes, so don’t forget to come by and enter! (Especially since the entries will close more quickly than most of my giveaways — it will be just one day!) See you then.

xlovesx

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_{Click to download.}

Here you go — whether you’re visiting from May’s Scrap Camp or just passing by! Click to download this free set of hand-penned word brushes (and PNG format) with a kitchen theme. They are absolutely free for personal use, and all I ask is that you leave a comment to say hello, pretty please! It’s lovely to meet you! If you like the hand-penned words, you can find more sets here and there are some new word sets coming over the next few weeks!

Ella Publishing Co. has nominated me as one of the nine Most Influential Scrapbookers of 2010. You can learn more about this award, the nominees, and the blog tour at Ella Publishing. Please help me honor my fellow nominees by visiting their blogs throughout the week. You could win one of 100 cool prizes! Click below to say hello to today’s spotlighted bloggers.

Today the blog tour visits Jessica Sprague, purveyor of beautiful digital goods and education to get you creating no matter what your level of expertise when it comes to things like Photoshop and Illustrator. That digital page above is made from one of her Photoshop Friday kits, which include all the supplies you need to make a layout plus a tutorial for creating the page, including one specific Photoshop (or PSE) technique in each project.

Be sure to catch Jessica’s blog for a coupon code as well as a chance to win lots of prizes!

And Wednesday’s second stop is Maggie Holmes, a Dream Team scrapbooker and very talented photographer. Not only does she know her way around a camera, but she seems to have an uncanny knack for photographing people with amazing fashion sense. I love to check out her photo shoot posts for the outfits as well as the photography ideas!

Visit Maggie’s blog for a chance to win today plus lots of eye candy from her photos and her fab scrapbook pages, like the ones she designs for Studio Calico.

Oh, how torn I feel that I don’t know either of these lovely ladies well enough to have a tenuous link for you today! But I look forward to getting to know them better and maybe I’ll have a story for you soon.

And of course, there are two more stops on the MISA tour tomorrow and Friday!

xlovesx

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Home again, home again: sweet London town! And oh my do I have a list of things to share with you today! Please excuse my slightly random nature this lovely Tuesday.

If you’ve popped over from Scrap Camp with the lovely May Flaum, then hello there! I have something special for you tomorrow — a free digital/printable download that fits with May’s project. It will be available for you right here on Wednesday so I hope you’ll pop by!

If you’ve been checking out the other scrappers featured in the Ella Publishing awards this week, you’ll want to grab the new e-book that features a layout from each of us plus lots of insight into our creative processes and how we find time to scrapbook. Grab the e-book here. It’s called Time to Scrapbook.

Yesterday I promised more tenuous links from influential scrapbookers to my funny little head, and there are two stops on the blog tour today: Noell and Jenni.

The next stop on the week-long blog tour of influential scrappers is multimedia maven Noell Hyman, creator of all things Paperclipping. That includes videos, tutorials, podcasts… it’s a scrapbooking media explosion. (My favourite is the Paperclipping Roundtable, where a group of scrapbookers have an impromptu discussion on some aspect of the topic. I subscribed through iTunes on my phone so it automatically downloads and I can listen to people talk about scrapping while I’m on the train! And it’s free!)

Aside from scrapbooking, what do I think of when I think of Noell? I think of vegan food. Specifically vegan cupcakes, baked goods and other lush treats. One day I tweeted about a particularly amazing cake from the lovely Ms Cupcake UK and Noell replied wishing there was someone selling vegan loveliness in her neck of the woods. I’m vegetarian rather than vegan, but I never stop being grateful for how much choice there is for quality vegetarian and vegan food here in London. Now when I stumble upon something both delish and vegan, I instantly wish Noell could come to try it out! I think I have planned at least a week of an itinerary for her to have a London food holiday if she ever decides to visit. (Clearly if I did not know her name, I would refer to her as Vegan Scrapbooker or something! Thankfully Noell is a much prettier name!) So in honour of Noell, I point you toward one delightfully yum vegan cupcake recipe. Though you may want to wait for it to chill a few degrees outside before you turn on your oven! Don’t forget to go enter to win prizes at Noell’s blog. (And Noell, if you’re ever up for that week of food, you let me know!)

Next up is supersweet superwoman Jenni Bowlin. Jenni is actually traveling back from a workshop today so her giveaway will go up a little later — keep checking so you can enter to win! But oh goodness, Jenni is such a talented lady. I love, love, love the products Jenni designs and her delicate, homespun scrapping style. I’m still so excited to be designing with her products.

Jenni’s vintage scrapping style always makes me think of old books, and although she has a far better knack at finding amazing vintage pieces than I do, I would still love to spend a day with her at my favourite place to search for unique old books — the booksellers on Charing Cross Road. Especially the stores that have basements where you can wander from room to room searching through thousands of books that were once part of the collections at public and private libraries, hospitals and schools. My favourite find is a 1926 book called Psychoanalysis for Normal People which is a sort of early version of what you would now find in the self-help section at Borders. The foreword explains how it is important for ‘normal’ people like teachers, nurses and scout leaders to understand psychoanalysis so they can be vigilant of the upcoming mental breakdowns of all those they encounter. It is somewhat hilarious and even more so when you consider this was groundbreaking, cutting edge stuff for the time! I don’t think I could ever cut that book up for artsy projects because it is just too interesting as a social artefact. But also it makes me giggle because I have always thought of Ms Jenni as a very esteemed and classic southern lady, so I could never in a million years imagine her using phrases like ‘normal people’, even in 1926! Somehow, if we went shopping in the same book store, I think she would find something elegant and classy and artistic instead of my silly old medical books! Be sure to pop over to Jenni’s blog for more chances to win in Ella’s week-long giveaway of 100 great prizes!

Two more scrappers up tomorrow… and that free download too, so don’t be a stranger!

xlovesx

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Right this moment I am heading home to London, incredibly homesick for the big city and The Boy but also a little maudlin after realising that even with three whole weeks there were so many things I wanted to do in my hometown that I just couldn’t accomplish all of them. Such is life, I suppose.

But in these last few days stateside, I was nearly as maudlin over this announcement from Ella Publishing. Ella Publishing Co. has nominated me as one of the nine Most Influential Scrapbookers of 2010. I am still a bit gobsmacked that something like that can happen from something I enjoy so much, and I really think it is all of you lovely people here in the little shimelle.com community that have made all this grow from just a little experiment to such a big part of my life. Thank you all so much for joining me in this passion of writing things down, telling stories and dressing things up with pretty paper.

Please help me honor my fellow nominees by visiting their blogs throughout the week on the MISA blog tour. You could win one of 100 cool prizes! Each day this week, Ella will be featuring different nominees and I’m going to tell you a little bit about how each of them fit in my mind. In ways that are a little different than how much I love their use of glittery letter stickers.

The first stop on the week-long blog tour of influential scrappers is superstar Cathy Zielske. You probably know Cathy for her amazing balance of sane design and not-quite-sane banter. And if you read her blog, you’ll know she has redefined herself as a fitness fanatic on her own personal quest to health and happiness. Of course, she has scrapbooked the entire journey.

One of my favourite recurring themes in Cathy’s fitness monologues is her worry that she will be spotted and outed as Not A Real Runner. Oh, the humanity: isn’t that the strangest and most awkward of feelings when you think someone will call you out… and yet, the fear is entirely made up in our heads? I remember feeling that way for my first few crops! Like someone would stand up and point and say ‘Thou art not a scrapbooker!’ and cast me out into the cold car park with nothing but a pair of decorative scissors to keep me company. That never happened. And no one has shouted faux Elizabethan insults at Cathy either. But it did remind me of something…

In case you haven’t noticed yet, I have a true obsession with Greenwich Park, which is just a short walk from our home. I may have mentioned it once or twice. Or scrapbooked it or something. In good weather, the park is pretty much my favourite place, and although I am not a morning person, I love going there first thing in the morning. I am not a Cathy-style runner, as my style leaves much to be desired. At an early hour, I am just impressed that I am outdoors and moving, so my pattern resembles something more like power-walk for a song or two, sprint until I feel like I will fall down, and then repeat. It’s quite a hilarious little routine and it’s entirely at the mercy of the shuffle function on my iPod, but I digress. What I really wanted to explain was this strange sense of respect that exists with the early morning park crowd.

That crowd is made up of a few groups of people. People who manage that city + pet scenario with the early morning dog walk. People who cross the park as part of their morning commute, since there are different transport options on either entrance. Gardeners. Security. Astronomers finishing their overnight work at the observatory (seriously, could this park be more amazing?). And people wearing running shoes.

It’s the same people, more or less, every day. We’re all doing our own thing, so we don’t really stop and chat. But we recognise each other and do that mystical nod of acknowledgement that says Hey there – hope you’re well but also please don’t shout too much about how fabulous this place is in the morning, okay? or something similar. (And yet, here I am blogging about it. If I get in trouble, I’ll let you know.)

Because I don’t know the names of these people who kindly share the magical morning park life with me, I have come up with various nicknames to keep them straight in my mind. (Actually, this is something I do everywhere — alas, The Boy’s original moniker was Exceedingly Polite HMV Boy since he worked at HMV and was, well, exceedingly polite. Go figure.) On my morning rounds I often see Man with Happy Springer Spaniel and Lady with Supercute Haircut and my all-time favourite, Official Greenwich Park Ninja, a older gentleman who does an amazing ninja-ballet styled workout under the trees. But Cathy’s tales of fearing someone will point and shout remind me of one specific character at the park: Man with Sony Discman.

Like his name suggests, he runs not with an iPod but with a portable CD player. But if you ever tried to play one of those while driving down a bumpy road, you know they are ridiculously short tempered and skip at every slight movement. And yet he runs with one. How that works at all, I am not exactly sure. Intrigued, I have watched him run, holding the player out like a posh waiter would hold a tray and then running while keeping his arm perfectly level. It’s amazingly graceful, and I am quite afraid to break into my crazy bouncy sprint when he is near because surely he would point and laugh at my practically hari-kari pace in comparison. But of course he never has – instead we exchange unspoken park nods and go about our day.

So today’s tenuous link? When I see a Cathy Zielske scrapbook page, I think of people I recognise by labels rather than names and get a little grateful for how we can all happily co-exist in a big city in a bigger world with a bit of mutual respect. People are good. Cathy Zielske: zen and the art of scrapbooking.

Now don’t forget to go to her blog and enter for a chance to win a fabulous line-up of prizes! And more chances to win at the Ella Publishing blog too!

More tenuous links all this week, if you think you can handle this much insight into my crazy head!

xlovesx

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Oh goodness, that is probably the longest break I’ve ever taken from blogging… and I didn’t even have a chance to warn you! While Love your Pictures, Love your Pages has been keeping me busy, I’ve also come home to visit my family and hometown for a few weeks. It’s been a somewhat crazy journey that has involved everything from appearing in a musical to a trip to the hospital (in a supportive role – I’ve managed to stay injury-free so far!) and in general it’s been quite surreal. (Probably more so since the boy who keeps me sane is still in London, working away!)

Today was the first day when things started to show a semblance of calm and I have about eleventy billion scrapbooking deadlines to catch up on (thank you to all who have been patient with me!) and for a while this morning I was worried that I might not remember how to scrapbook. So far, I think I have managed to remember how to glue one piece of paper to another piece of paper in an aesthetically pleasing manner. We’ll see if that continues!

So between hanging out with the world’s most amazing grandparents and having a bit of a volume duel while I sing and my mum plays flute and piccolo in Chess, it is proving to be quite the experience.

You know… the sort of thing I should scrapbook. Or something.

Crossing my fingers that you’re still out there and it’s okay for me to come back to the blogging world now!

xlovesx

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_{Admittedly unrelated to the rest of this post, but yay for pretty things, right?}

Some of my blogging friends are giving away class passes — they are all comment-to-win giveaways, but they all have different deadlines and things to leave in the comments, so do read each post carefully! And of course check out (and bookmark!) their fabulously crafty blogs for more inspiration!

I came to know Jen Martakis as a digital scrapper and digital designer, but she’s been crafting with paper for ages too! Lately she’s been posting some fabulous cards as well as her scrapping projects. Enter Jen’s giveaway here.

Danielle Flanders has an amazing blog for anyone who loves papercrafting. Her cards and pages have such a classic, beautiful style with just the right amount of edge to make them hip and now! Enter Danielle’s giveaway here.

Doris Sander is the sweetest lady I’ve ever met at a trade show. She designs for Jenni Bowlin and American Crafts, and she is hilarious to boot. She has been known to email about scrappy things while she’s with her family at the local pool, and I find this an amazing image in my head! Enter Doris’s giveaway here.

If you’ve been reading for long, you should know Laura Buckingham. We worked together on the SI team and it was lovely to meet a scrapper with a similar sense of humour who was a Londoner! Just this weekend she happily obliged with taking faux-tourist photos in Westminster — and you may recognise her as the Cheshire Cat! Enter Laura’s giveaway here.

Angie Lucas is one of the ladies behind Ella Publishing, and I’ve only just started to get to know Angie but she is so with-it and together and her demeanour just really inspires me. Her blog has a lovely mix of different types of storytelling that I love. Enter Angie’s giveaway here.

If I could be reincarnated with another scrapbooker’s style, I think I might pick Jennifer Johner. I just love how she designs and photographs and lives! Her blog is a must-read in my book. Enter Jennifer’s giveaway here.

SJ Dowsett should be a familiar face by now too — she threw the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party for her birthday! She has an adorable drawing style and gives away a free illustration for print or digi projects on her blog every single Friday. Such a talented lady and she also helps keep me sane by making a lot of behind-the-scenes things tick here at shimelle.com. Enter SJ’s giveaway here.

Kandis Smith is a fellow Garden Girl at Two Peas in a Bucket and her projects are just so perfect every time. I would love to spend a day in her designing brain — she has a great eye for colour, balance and embellishment. Her work is always fab! Enter Kandis’s giveaway here.

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This weekend, choose just one photo of all the images you have. Make it a picture you love but a picture you haven’t scrapped. Or you haven’t scrapped enough.

This weekend? Make something of it.

Blog the photo and share what it means to you.

Or scrapbook the photo and give yourself the freedom to love what you create.

Or have it printed and frame it or display it in your home.

Or find a way to carry it with you wherever you go, as a picture in your wallet or the wallpaper on your mobile phone.

You’re invited:
Choose a photo. Do something with it. Share.

Share in the comment below. You can either just write a comment explaining what you did or you can leave a link to your blog or online page gallery so everyone can check out what you made.

I have a lovely prize to share with one or two of you who take up the invitation by the end of the weekend.

As for me, I’m going to scrapbook that photo at the top of this post. From shooting straight into bright sun, it came out of the camera just like that — completely overexposed and not in any way perfectly composed. And yet, I find it somewhat magical. I’ll be back to share the results soon. Can’t wait to see (or hear) what you plan to do!

xlovesx

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In case you didn’t see it late last night on the Frog Blog, we’re starting a new series of videos all about stamping titles on your scrapbook pages. We asked what you wanted to see, and it turns out I’m not the only one with a heap of letter stamps at the ready! So we’re going to walk you through a variety of techniques that focus on the title for your pages. This first instalment starts right at the beginning, with letters stamped in plain black ink on plain white cardstock, then cut out and used just like letter stickers or Thickers.

Coming up in the series, we’ll be sharing stamped titles with embossing, punching, resist techniques, masking and more. I hope you enjoy, and I’d love to see the pages you’re making with letter stamps. Share a link in the comments if you’d like us to check out your pages!

xlovesx

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