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

A little something new in my divi shop today…this template and alphabet set featuring some of my favourite things: blocks of four patterned papers, zig-zag stitches and woodgrain-filled letters.

Click to make this set your own for just two bucks! And that alphabet can be printed out for hybrid projects and you can change the colour to match your papers, like the green title in the first example.

The Baker’s Dozen have been putting their own touches on the page template over the last few days, and I love how they’ve created pages with so much variety in the mix of photos and papers.

Here’s what this alphabet looks like all printed out for a paper project! Love this card by Avital.

Thanks for all the comments from the Banana Frog Birthday Hop. The random number generator pulled an actual birthday girl! Alissa, Bev from Banana Frog will be sending you some stamps — email me with your mailing address so I can get that all set for you!

I hope everyone had a lovely long weekend and these four days are good to you too! I have a bit of a special scrapbooking project to share with you later this week, if you’re up for that? It’s in its final pieces on my desk right now!

xlovesx

Comment [6]

_{Supplies: Kawaii Kokeshi stamps by Banana Frog, Cosmo Cricket patterned papers and letter stickers, cupcake transparency by Hambly Screen Prints and punches by Martha Stewart and EK Success.}

The Banana Frog girls are blog-hopping today to celebrate the stamp company’s fourth birthday this month, and there are presents for you of course!

Each stop on the hop has a chance to win a free set of Banana Frog stamps just by leaving a comment. Plus you get to see all the stamping and scrapbooking projects everyone has made on a birthday theme too — so what are you waiting for?

The next stop on the hop is Jofy, or visit any of these blogs also participating today:
Debbie, Audrey, Nat, Michelle, Anthea, Julie, Kirsty and Annlouise.

And leave a comment on this post for a chance to win a set of Banana Frog stamps!
Entries close at 6am tomorrow morning, London time! Winner will be posted during the day on Monday.

Plus don’t forget to enter the £100 giveaway here — it closes today and you’d be crazy not to enter, right?!

Have a lovely Sunday, and happy birthday or unbirthday to you, as they case may be!

xlovesx

Comment [78]

_{Click for wallpaper size.}

I am not a morning person. It’s something you learn within about two days of meeting me. Morning and I just don’t get along and over the years I’ve developed strategies for putting morning in its place. Things like getting up ridiculously early so that 8am won’t actually feel like morning when you’ve been up since 4, or the classic staying up all night before a long-haul plane journey not just to lessen the jet-lag, but also to make sure I actually get to the airport on time! But most effective is something far simpler: finding a reason for the morning to be motivating.

Like when the sky looks like this and casts such a pretty light on everything. These cherry blossoms (or whatever they are technically — I’m far from a garden expert!) are so fleeting that I’ve learned to take my camera everywhere once they appear. These first few shots with the rich blue sky were all taken before eight in the morning. (That ‘sun’ glare in the first shot isn’t actually the sun, but a spot of brightness at the edge of a cloud.) Perfect because the light is amazing and also perfect because only a very few people appear in the park at that hour and they all share an unspoken respect for others who go there at this hour. They are extra polite. The park is extra quiet. And no one will disturb you while you spend nearly thirty minutes photographing a single tree.

That is the sort of thing that could make me a morning person. Shame it really only lasts a fortnight if we’re lucky.

I know the sky isn’t that blue later in the day. And it really was that blue early in the morning — these shots are all straight from the camera, imperfections and all. I have long loved rainy days, but I could get lost in these blue skies for hours, I do believe!

Not long ago, I asked what kind of camera you used and more than half of you replied that you use a digital SLR. Which is both exciting and a little daunting! Exciting because so many of you really have all the options that create a real look or style to your photos, but daunting because we all have a different mix of equipment and every piece has its own look.

All the shots above were taken with a wide angle lens, which isn’t my default lens. It’s so easy to get used to shooting with the same lens almost all of the time, and I fall into that trap just because I have one lens that is easier to pack, lighter to carry and it’s adaptable to lots of situations. If I could only have one lens, that would be the one I would pick, and when I need to pack light I will leave all the others at home. But half the fun of having an SLR is having the ability to change lenses! It’s no good just collecting them and taking them out once a year. I think part of the adventure is to try lenses in situations when they wouldn’t be so obvious. Wide angles aren’t what you think of for shooting flowers; wide angles are for shooting mountains or skyscrapers or other giant scenes that won’t fit in a single frame any other way, right? The last time I really spent time with this lens, I was shooting a gigantic inflated bunny floating in a market building! (No, really.) So trees and flowers were something different, but oh how I loved being able to look past individual blooms and frame them with the greater scene of the sky. Definitely worth zooming out sometimes – even amongst pretty flowers.

But three photos to show you a little contrast. I headed back to the same trees in the same park with the same camera, but a different lens and a different time of day. In the middle of the day, you still would have described it as sunny, but those gorgeous blues were gone and the sky now appeared just white in the background. Not as much fun at all!

I also used a macro lens this time — exactly what you would expect for photos of flowers and little details. These three images are my favourites from that midday stop, but I can’t help but think they would be so much lovelier with that clean blue edging of the early morning.

So what on earth can I gather from all that rambling?
…I think we can learn a great deal about our photography by looking at the same thing in different ways.
…Sometimes using things against their obvious purposes can create your favourite results.
…There really is truth in that old chestnut that early mornings and dusk have the best light. If it’s enough to make me a morning person, it’s got to be more than just a little bit better.
…And also, that I may have a small obsession with trees that turn fluffy and pink in the spring.

By the way, some of you have heard that I’m teaching a photography-ish course this summer, and that’s true. But it’s not a course based on how to use your camera. (I’ll be sharing more about it soon but I have some things to finish before I start to dish!) If you’re looking for a class that will help you with the mechanics of using your SLR or bridge camera, Cheryl at Feel Good Photos has a class open for registration now that you might find useful.

Have a lovely long weekend and take some gorgeous pictures, won’t you? (Anybody have anything exciting planned?)

xlovesx

_{Technical details: wide-angle shots taken with a Canon 17-40mm lens and macro shots taken with a Canon 100mm lens, both on a Canon 5Dm2.}

Comment [13]

Hey there. My name is Shimelle and I seem to be living in crazydeadlineworld. How about you? (Actually it’s okay as it is all fun work! It just never fails to amaze me how things bunch up on the calendar.) But I wanted to take a minute to let you know two things…

First, volume two of Scrapbook Inspirations Ideas Books will hit UK shelves on the 8th of June. It’s our summer edition and it’s pink this time! Also, if you have volume one, be sure to go download your free kits from Two Peas, as the code expires at the end of May. (And all the elements are printable so don’t miss out!)

Second, I’m looking for a dozen fabulous minibooks to feature in an upcoming project. Would you be interested? If so, please send me an email and let me know the basic topic of the minibook you would like to create and a link to your blog or page gallery. Don’t worry about project details just yet. I’ll be in touch with more details over the coming week if your book looks like a good match to the project. Thanks!!

xlovesx

PS: Scrapamia girls: it was lovely to meet you all last weekend! PDF is coming to you tomorrow, so watch your inbox!

Comment [8]

So I fell in love with Hipstamatic in early April and started sending pictures to various friends with iPhones, and suddenly I found we were all ignoring all other cameras in favour of Hipstaprints. And then I started promising to blog specifically about scrapbooking with Hipstamatic, but got so inspired actually scrapping with these pictures that the blog post was maybe a long time coming. So without further ado, grab an iPhone and let’s get scrapping, Hipsta-style.

About Hipstamatic
Hipstamatic is my favourite of all iPhone apps, and in basic terms it turns your iPhone camera into something that is more like film. Of course, the pictures are still digital, but it uses the technology to give you digital equivalents of several kinds of film, different lenses and a variety of flashes, all which can be switched, mixed and match to get lots of looks. (And it’s seriously a huge number of looks. You can see them all here to get an idea.)

The app is only available for the iPhone and it only works as a camera — you can’t open a photo you’ve already taken and apply the effects like Photoshop. (Well, not without cheating, which we’ll talk about in a minute.) You have to use it as a camera to take your picture and wait to see what you get — like a film camera. Admittedly the wait is shorter than developing a roll of film, but you do have to wait: if you close the app before the developing process finishes, the photo won’t exist! Because you can’t fire off a shot every second or so, Hipstamatic makes you think just a little about how you take the picture — or you learn to get what you’re given! The waiting part of the app is part of the fun more than frustration. A cute little reminder to slow down and stop taking things so seriously.

If you want to scrapbook with your Hipstamatic photos, go straight to the settings and make sure you’re set to save high quality images. Higher quality does slow the app down, but it then saves images that will print without losing any definition. It’s limited by the quality of the camera in an iPhone, but if you think about it, there are just as many megapixels available in the iPhone as in many of the cameras we used for the first few years of digital-camera-mania. And those photos printed just fine.

The app has two main screens – the front and the back of the camera. Swap them by clicking at the bottom right corner. Changing the lens, film and flash is as simple as swooshing across your screen on the front of the camera and clicking the one you want. Or shake your phone to randomly choose a combination. When you view your prints within the application (click at the bottom left on the back of the camera) you can click on any picture and see what lens, film and flash were used, so if you find a combination you love by chance, you can go back to it on purpose. My current favourite is the Float film and the John S lens with no flash, which creates an aged look like this.

Ordering Hipstamatic Prints
I love ordering photos online and it’s my default way to make sure I have plenty of photos ready to scrap at all times, so printing Hipstaprints online was one of my first big questions. The answer is that they don’t just print – they print so very well! The images from Hipstamatic are square rather than the standard rectangle, so you will need to pay attention to the settings when you order your prints to get what you want.

I order my prints at Photobox and it’s super easy once you know what to do to get your square prints. Start by uploading your images, then select what you want to print and add it to your basket. There are a few options for square prints. Photobox offers 5×5, 8×8 and 12×12 print options that already a square format, so you can pick these from the dropdown menu when you choose your photo size and just add it to your basket and be done. (I have ordered them at 5×5 and the print quality is just fine. I haven’t tried 8×8 or 12×12.)

Or if you want a smaller print, select the 4×6 or 4.5×6 size and add it to your basket. But be careful – you need to follow one extra step. The default 4×6 setting will automatically crop your picture to a rectangle.

If you want it to be a square, go to your basket and click on Print Options. Your photos will then load as thumbnails and you can see how they are cropped.

Default cropping:

Shrink to fit cropping:

Click the box that says Shrink to Fit and then Apply Changes at the bottom of the page. This will change your prints so you have a 4 or 4.5 inch square on the print, like the stack of prints above. Then you can just trim off the extra for the square print.

If you’re in the US, Scrapbook Pictures makes it even easier as they offer square prints right down to 2 inches, so you can add the photos to your card then just select your size. Easy!

Printing Hipsta photos at home
Of course, you can print these photos on your home photo printer. I use iPhoto, so I tend to just select a bunch that I want to print and choose the 2×2 size or a custom size for any other size that would fit the project.

If you use Picasa, select your photos then click to make a photo collage, and you’ll be able to print several images on one sheet of photo paper. These photos look great at a teeny, tiny size that is handy for page designs with grids or that use photos as an embellishment of their own.

Hipstamatic cheats
So technically you can’t open an old photo and apply the Hipstamatic effects to a non-Hipsta photo. But you can open any photo on your computer, display it full-screen size and then take a picture of your computer screen with your iPhone. In fact, you can probably do that quicker than you can open it and alter the levels in Photoshop. That’s what I used to create this minibook with photos taken last summer, in life before Hipstamatic.

Or if you have a real preference for rectangular photos rather than squares, just select a film that has a minimal frame and print your photo at the standard 4×6. You’ll get the image and colour effect, minus the frame, in a standard rectangle rather than the square. (I may have done this by accident by missing a few ‘shrink to fit’ buttons and the prints are still definitely scrappable, just with a different look.)

_{Supplies: Patterned papers by October Afternoon and Pink Paislee. Die cuts and small letter stickers by October Afternoon. Large letter stickers by Bella Blvd. Transparency by Hambly Screen Prints. Tapes by Pink Paislee. Glass bauble by K&Company. Ranger Distress Ink, American Crafts pens and border punch by Fiskars.}

Paper scrapping with Hipsta photos
So once you have prints in hand, the scrapbooking is the fun and easy part! If you love lots of pattern and embellishment, you can use just one photo and have plenty of room for open space and journaling. This particular image is one of my favourites so I wanted to give it a page of its own.

_{Supplies: Patterned papers by BasicGrey, October Afternoon, Cosmo Cricket and Girls’ Paperie. Webster’s Pages journaling card. Butterflies and labels by Jenni Bowlin. Letter stickers by Cosmo Cricket, American Crafts and Bella Blvd. American Crafts pens and border punch by Fiskars.}

The square nature of the pictures makes them great for grid-based layouts, which can be easily adapted to clean and simple or something more embellished. I printed this particular set of Hipstamatic images at 1.5 inches all on one 4×6 sheet of photo paper and then used a square punch to quickly make them identical in size.

See more examples of paper scrapping with Hipstamatic photos here, here, here, here and here. And if you have more examples in your gallery or on your blog, please leave a link in the comments!

_{Supplies: Page template and papers from Shimelle Digitals. Travel and floral embellishments by Vinnie Pearce.}

Digital scrapping with Hipsta photos
The images from this app are definitely the right quality for digital scrapbooking. Just open them in Photoshop or your preferred scrapping software and copy and paste them onto your layouts. I love this app for capturing random snapshots when you only have a few minutes or can’t bring along all your camera gear – hence these shots between trains in Germany and the six shots above from a long walk along the Cornish coastline. This digital page is made with a layered page template so it came together in just minutes.

_{Supplies: Template, paper and embellishments all by Vinnie Pearce.}

Or if you want to draw attention to a favourite image, try a page design that leaves lots of open space on the page, like this template from Vinnie Pearce.

See more examples of digital pages with Hipstamatic prints here, here and here. If you have more examples on your blog or in your gallery, please leave a link in the comments!

So I reckon that’s enough of a resource post for now! I can’t wait to hear your ideas for what you would photograph and scrapbook with Hipstamatic. Please share!

And for those that don’t have an iPhone, please don’t throw too many tomatoes. I promise I don’t make those rules.

Learn more about Hipstamatic for the iPhone here.

xlovesx

Comment [47]

After a travel adventure involving the ferry, many hours in a cold and busy station, three trains and a walk through a spontaneous downpour of small hail, I am happy to be home and intact and in good humour. I have somehow even managed to do all this without the assistance of ice cream, which is quite a feat in itself.

Actually I do find this sort of nature-taking-charge event to be a good reminder not to stress and just roll with the punches. It may not have been fast or luxurious but we got from point A to point B without flying or crying, and there is really not a lot more one can ask from the world. It actually made this trip the first time I have been to Wales — bonus!

I even managed to be awake enough to play with two new goodies I found on my doorstep: new stamps from Banana Frog and the new DeLovely collection from Cosmo Cricket. Check out two cards made with those here on the Frog Blog. And expect more from both… but if you don’t mind, I think I’ll take a nap first.

Happy Monday!

xlovesx

Comment [11]

Assuming the ash cloud behaves (which of course is quite a big assumption) we shall be heading home from our minitrip to Dublin in just a few hours. Thanks so much for the fab advice — it has served us well and we’ve been to Trinity College, Avoca, Temple Bar, Cafe du Seine, Queen of Tarts, Phoenix Park and even the Guinness Storehouse, though I am about as much a fan of Guinness as I am of Marmite, which is to say… not at all.

ETA The ash cloud has not behaved, so we’ll be on the overnight ferry… and I love sailing nearly as much as I love Guinness. But everything is an adventure, right?

This was my favourite find of the Guinness tour: a retelling of Alice’s adventures in a Wonderland filled with pints?! (Sadly no reproductions available in the gift shop — they are clearly missing a trick!)

And a little crafty inspiration for you this Sunday! The lovely Rachel has been knitting adorable things for a while now and has opened a Folksy shop, The Funky Beau. I love this flower for spring-ing up things that are a bit wintry. I’m still too cold to go without a scarf but I am tired of feeling dressed for winter! She has it in teal too and she might even take special requests for colours to match your favourites too. You know, if you ask with lots of pretty-pleases and cherries on top.

Care to share a link to something that is inspiring you today? Let’s have a little windstorm of pretty things!

xlovesx

PS: If you haven’t already, I would love your answer to the camera poll here. Thanks!

Comment [15]

First question: is it just me, or does this scene make you think you should be watching out for time-traveling Deloreans?

Second question: is your camera a point and shoot or a dSLR? I’m working on a little project that has made me curious as to what our mix is. If you have both, choose the one you would use to capture your best images please.

Thanks for your input!

xlovesx

Comment [20]