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

I feel like my layouts all follows the same design, even though I try to make them different. I wish I created pages that always looked fresh and exciting. Is there some special trick I can remember? Glitter Girl, can you help?

Of course she can! Start with a layout you made that you love but you haven’t made recently, so you have some visual inspiration that isn’t conforming to your most recent design habits. From there, we can create a new page that will look new by changing three specific things but keeping the rest the same. Glitter Girl starts with this page from NSD 2012, which came from a challenge to scrap lift a beautiful page by Jaime Warren. (There are so many beautiful interpretations of that challenge on that post!) Jaime works in photography these days and you can see her beautiful work here, but her archive of scrapbooking inspiration is still online as well.

This page includes a fair amount of ‘vintage’ scrapbook supplies, including Love Elsie papers from 2007 and my favourite blue Thickers that are at least six years old. There are a few more recent things though, I promise! The black and white patterned paper from Crate Paper’s Heart Day, a few things from Amy Tangerine’s On a Whim collection, and the colourful grid paper and wood buttons from Little by Little. Those enamel dots are by Doodlebug (and were a good mix of sizes to make the Mickey heads).

And Happy National Scrapbook Day 2017! This weekend I’m going to develop one product from start to finish and take you along for the ride, and you can help decide what we make and how it looks. Join in the fun at Scrapbook like a Superhero.

Plus I’m pinning the NSD sales, challenges, and excitement I can find to this Pinterest board. Feel free to let me know about anything I should add and I’ll get it pinned!

Happy scrapping!

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I have a photo from a wedding where there are literally 100 faces in a single 4×6 landscape print. I keep looking at embellishments, but I’m not sure what to use that won’t overwhelm the photo. Glitter Girl, can you help?

Of course she can! Try using mostly paper for your embellishment and an overlay of vellum to preserve a roll call for your crowded group photo.

Supplies for this page include plenty of patterned papers from the Tealightful collection from Pebbles and Chasing Dreams by Maggie Holmes. Both letter sticker sets are older (grey Sassafras letters and white puffy Thickers from Dear Lizzy), and the only other embellishments are enamel dots, pearl dots, and pearl brads. You’ll need a sheet of vellum to make the overlay, of course.

As always, Glitter Girl would love to see what you’re making and hear your questions! Please stop by our Facebook group Scrapbook like a Superhero and say hello.

Have you scrapbooked a group photo that made you think twice about your usual embellishment process? We’d love to see your solution! Please join the link up below to share what you’ve made – you can link to your blog, social media account, or scrapbooking gallery OR just upload the photo from your computer. Happy scrapping!

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Contributing Designer Sheena Rowlands created this beautifully layered and folded page over the winter, and as much as I’m ready for spring to arrive, her winter crafting has me inspired! Today we’re each sharing a page we’ve made with the same technique: folding circles punched from double-sided patterned paper. We hope it inspires you too!

I wanted to make a page focusing on some of life’s little pleasures from this time of year and give it a warm and cosy feel. I could create a quilted look to the background of my page so I cut lots of 2 inch circles using a die, but a punch would work just as well, from off cuts and scraps in tones of red, green and brown.

I cut a square from scrap card which fitted within the circles, then whilst holding it in place I folded over all four sides. Don’t worry if the papers you chose aren’t double sided just cut a few patterned paper squares using the template as a size guide to pop inside your folded circles.

I then had fun moving them around trying to find a design I liked and I cut a few of them in half after I settled on a heart design. Starting in the centre I stick them down butting them up against each other.

I used the title to kick start my journalling, welcoming winter coats, takeaway drinks and watching TV from under a snuggly blanket as some of my favourite things about this season.

The patterned papers and embellishments used are all from ranges by Shimelle from the past year and I loved how well they sit together with the copper highlights from the Go Now Go collection.

I love Sheena’s design, but wanted to use the folded circle idea as a much, much smaller detail, so I punched just a few circles and lined them up behind the title on this page.

The rest of the design includes papers from Go Now Go and True Stories, with plenty of big dot patterns to play off the colourful balls in the photo. I love adding stars to designs that have plenty of circles, since the shape has such a contrast with all its points and angles next to the calm of circular curves.

As an aside, this page documents a day we went to play with a project from a family in our neighbourhood: they have designed a set of multicultural dolls for small children. They are currently fundraising and spreading the word about the toys, and you can find a video and more information at One Dear World, should it be relevant for you!

We’d love to see what you’re making with circles, so don’t be shy to show your own projects in the comments. Have a happy and creative Friday, won’t you?

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Maybe the last episode of Glitter Girl just got me into some sort of hot beverage trend, but it turns out it’s not the only page on that topic to hit my desk recently. I’ve been inspired by Kirsty Smith, so today we each have a hot mug and a layout to share with you! Kirsty’s first!

I LOVE Christmas. And by extension, scrapbooking about Christmas. I made this as my first Christmas page of the year last December and it was so exciting to dive in with sparkles and stars and all things twinkly. I like to make my own hot chocolate during the festive season, rich and spiced with wintery flavours of cinnamon and ginger, and this Christmas tradition was perfect for the subject of my page. I drew inspiration from the structure of one of Shimelle’s older pages, using a vertical column to anchor the design. As I typically like to keep areas of white space when I scrapbook, I used the beautiful vellum from Shimelle’s Starshine collection to keep the structure of the page soft, and to introduce a little gold sparkle.

I layered up my photo from there, replacing two photos in the design with one slightly larger photo of my own, framing it with layers of patterned papers from the Christmas Magic line. Cut-apart journaling cards a lovely for this, and I added in anything that fit with a colour scheme of pale greens and aqua, soft pinks and flashes of gold. This is a great colour palette for Christmas as it’s a more delicate take on the bolder reds, greens and golds that feel like traditional Christmas colours.

Embellishing this layout was my favourite part of the process: I hand cut lots of snowflakes out of patterned papers from Shimelle’s Christmas Magic collection, swirling them around the page, and tucking in snowflake sequins for a touch of shimmer. I finished off the design by adding in an extra-Christmassy golden sparkle with the glitter Thickers and a star or two. Merry Christmas; I hope this is the first of many a Christmas page this year!
- Kirsty

I love Kirsty’s page but of course I just had to start with a patterned background. No matter how many pages I bookmark on a white background, it’s just not what’s right on my own desk. I compromised with a black and white patterned paper from Dear Lizzy’s latest collection, and added some white paint in the vertical column on the right to tone down the pattern behind the coffee cups.

I definitely didn’t have Kirsty’s patience with scissors this time around, and both the coffee cups and the title were cut files found in the Silhouette store – they both came up when I did a search for ‘coffee’ there, and I promise you’ll find plenty of options if you have a look there. Then I took more inspiration from Kirsty in choosing wood buttons (from Go Now Go) and wood veneer shapes (by Studio Calico) to scatter across the page, plus a few adhesive pearls as a finish touch.

I try to include at least one coffee-at-home layout in each year’s family album because it is such an ongoing theme in our home. I like trying to include the bag and the cup in the photo so I can document what we are drinking from where and how long we stick with favourite cups and such. It’s something we do at least once a day, so one or two layouts a year doesn’t seem over the top at all really.

Thanks so much Kirsty for helping me get this in my album – and reminding me that my Silhouette machine still works if I plug it in! We’d love to see what these designs inspire you to scrap – be it hot beverages or something else entirely. Happy crafting!

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I try to use my stamps when I scrapbook, but I find I’m just using something faded into the background and then maybe a small design scattered here and there. I would love to make my favourite stamps more of a feature on my pages, but I’m not sure how to compose the rest of the page. Glitter Girl, can you help?

Of course she can. Try a simple composition of two photos and one stamp that you can put right in the centre!

Unfortunately the Hero Arts coffee cup stamp I used is quite old and I haven’t found it online with a quick search. There are many coffee stamps currently available though, from Hero and other manufacturers, like this selection. The papers are all old too, I’m afraid! Cosmo Cricket, October Afternoon, and Sassafras, though the grey coffee cup paper is still available in the True Stories 6×6 pad. You might find you have these older items in your stash, but if not, don’t fret: it’s easy to substitute the types of patterns that are there: find a dot, a small and a large floral, and some single colour patterns like a check or swirl design, and they will go together in exactly the same way.

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I should have planned this post for World Book Day last week if I’d thought ahead, but of course I didn’t. There’s never a bad day for Harry Potter scrapbooking, is there? I have an entire album of layouts from one day at the studio tour, so I better make a start on the photos from our trip to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter!

I will admit upfront that we visited Universal Studios entirely for the Harry Potter element. Universal doesn’t cater for the super young in the same way that Disney does. Their target audience is older and even the Dr Seuss and Minion rides have height requirements. We managed the Dr Seuss carousel, but the rides here are more fabulous if you love the twists and turns of serious roller coasters, and well… that is not my jam. But I wanted to see all the details of Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley, brought to life in a way you could just be fully immersed. And it is pretty amazing.

But the youngest member of the party was most excited by the train. Of course.

Some of the supplies on this page are far, far too old to be in stores (like that 2009 paper!) but you can find the newer stuff, I promise. Red camera paper and white foam Thickers by Amy Tangerine, train stamp from Go Now Go, stickers and patterned paper from Little by Little, star vellum from Christmas Magic, die cuts by Pink Paislee, enamel dots by Doodlebug, and Typecast journaling paper by WeR Memory Keepers. And seriously, someone needs to make those star-shaped rhinestones like Jenni Bowlin did back in the day. They are so lovely! The woodgrain Thickers were a Studio Calico exclusive about five years ago. I may have rationed them.

If anyone sees steam train washi tape, please let me know. For today I went with this grey Amy Tangerine tape from her first collection for its colour and cuteness. But I have a lot of steam train photos and I don’t see this obsession ending any time soon. So steam train washi: it needs to happen.

Thanks for taking a look! And not rolling your eyes too much at the sheer number of Harry Potter scrapbook pages I have made over the years.

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I can’t be alone in loving to collect 6×6 paper pads. But they are piling up quicker than I can figure out how to use them on my scrapbook pages! I’d love some simple page formulas to work with this size. Glitter Girl, can you help?

Of course she can. This week Glitter Girl shares a page composition formula for four sheets of 6×6 paper plus a circle punch. With her embellishments, she’s taking inspiration from the March 30 Day Colouring Challenge at from Kathy at The Daily Marker.

Come along for the adventure!

The papers featured this week come from the Oh My Heart collection by Paige Evans for Pink Paislee. I love the beautifully bright and happy colours in this collection! The floral stamp is by Amy Tangerine, embossed with white embossing powder and Versamark ink, then coloured with Sharpies. The tile letter stickers are from Heidi Swapp but are several years old now I’m afraid. The silver Thickers are Fitzgerald from my True Stories collection.

This page turned out to be quite the example of embracing things as they go. The colouring was certainly an experiment and I didn’t expect to not be able to colour the centres of the flowers, but mixing the colours of the petals instead worked just fine. And I managed to get green ink on the layout not once but twice! Sigh. One spot is still there and I’m just going to leave it. The larger smudge bothered me more and I just chose to move the embellishment there to cover it rather than bring it down to the bottom edge like I first imagined. Actually, with a few days passed and going back to look, I like it there better, so yay for happy accidents!

A few posts from the archives might be useful if you’re looking for more to do with your 6×6 paper pads on 12×12 pages:
Glitter Girl’s take on minimal supplies
A rainbow-filled colour story

If you’re busy scrapping with your 6×6 paper stash, please share what you’re making! This link up will remain open until the end of the month, and you can choose to upload a picture or link to your blog, Facebook post, Instagram picture, or scrapbooking gallery.

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I’m delighted to share a scrapbook page from Kirsty Smith to kick off a look at what other designers are making with Little by Little. I’d love to see what you’re making too! If you’re posting pictures on social media, add the hashtag #AClittlebylittle. And now over to Kirsty for a quick dive into the new collection!

It was such a wonderful treat to be able to work with Shimelle’s beautiful new collection, Little by Little. I was really struck by the versatility of this collection: the colours are wonderful and I was able to select a whole range of complimentary hues from a wide palette of options. To stay in keeping with my photo, I chose shades of blue, purple, pink and green; the range of shades and designs was just made for layering!

I used patterned paper to frame my photo in layers, opting for one of the boxes from the cut-apart sheet for my journaling. I love the paper with the large chevron as it has such a lovely textural mix of colours and patterns. I used the chevron to point towards the central design.

I love the floral motif that moves through Little by Little, as it’s subtly present in lots of different elements of the collection, creating a delicate, whimsical feel. To complement my page I introduced the floral die cut word ‘happy’ (from the die-cut pack) and matched it with the scripted word ‘adventure’. I adore anything that involves a hand-written look and so I love this page of foam Thickers in a brush-lettered style.

There are so many lovely elements in this collection to add the final embellishment for a scrapbook layout. I punched hearts out of patterned paper to scatter over the page, and layered stickers in little clusters. I am a big fan of including cameras on pretty much every page I make, as I feel it’s so relevant to scrapbooking, and one of my favourite parts of the collection are the puffy camera stickers. They’re so cute and petite, but add a brilliant splash of detail. I love the enamel dots too!

Overall this is such a beautiful collection to work with, and it has the potential to work for layouts of so many different themes. I hope you will enjoy using Little by Little as much as I am!

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