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

_{Click to download layered .psd template.}

Every month, Scrapbook Inspirations includes a sketch and six corresponding scrapbook pages, but how about a little bit more? Karen Cole contributed the sketch in our October issue, and it’s here today for you to download as a digital template or use as a starting point for a paper page.

_{Supplies: Cosmo Cricket Earth Love patterned papers, My Little Shoebox Mini Alpha Stickers, Bazzill Basics Dotted Swiss cardstock, and letters from American Crafts and Basic Grey.}

Here’s my paper page derived from the sketch — with some Cosmo love, which I do believe has developed into a requirement for every page lately! Quite happily, I might add. Their papers always look so lovely.

_{Supplies: papers by Meredith Fenwick, Holly McCaig and The Queen of Quirk Worn Frames by Mary Ann Wise Hand-stamped alpha by Meredith Fenwick plus title alpha & flowers from Paislee Press/Audacious Designs collab kit and spatter brush set by Rhonna Farrer.}

And a little something digital from the layered template — photos from the Japan Festival held in East London a few weeks back. Crowded but delicious fun.

(By the way, does anyone else suffer from a Juno-induced problem with Benihana? I can’t walk by the place or hear it referenced without saying…either to myself or aloud..that the plan is to go to Benihana, then the prom, then Vijay’s parents’ cabin. Seriously, it’s a problem. Thankfully I am easily distracted back again by Japanese food. Otherwise I will get really angry about Katrina Devorte, perhaps. And no one wants to see that. Wait. It’s just me, isn’t it? Rubbish. Back to scrapbooking now.)

You can also catch Karen’s original layout and Rachel Ward’s layout for more inspiration.

We’re always looking for layouts that our readers create when they’ve been inspired by something in the magazine, like the sketch. If you tell us about them, you might even find your page on the SI blog or on the pages of the magazine. So it’s your turn now: let’s see what you do with this sketch. If you upload your page online, make sure to leave a link in the comments so we can find your page!

xlovesx

Comment [5]

It is autumn and there are pumpkins and in short, this means I could quite happily just stay in my kitchen and bake and bake and occasionally move to the dining table to eat. Somehow I have managed to prevent that level of obsession, but I have already made these twice this season and I am sure there will be a few more times when they seem highly appropriate.

Here’s the recipe so you can share my pumpkin obsession.

Pumpkin Cupcakes
(makes apx 24 standard sized cakes)

115g / 1 US stick unsalted butter, at room temperature
200g / 1 cup dark brown sugar
60g / 1/3 cup caster sugar
2 large eggs
1.5 teaspoons vanilla extract
200g / 2 cups plain (all-purpose) flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate (baking) soda
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
pinch of salt
120mL / 1/2 cup milk
270g / 1.5 cups pumpkin puree (fresh or tinned)

To make fresh pumpkin puree, start with a small pumpkin. Cut a few vents into the top and place on a foil-lined roasting tray. Roast the entire pumpkin for an hour or two (depending on the size of the pumpkin) at a low to medium heat — no more than 120C/250F. Let cool until it is easy to touch. Cut a hole in the top to make a lid, like a jack-o-lantern. Remove the guts and seeds. With those insides gone, you are left with the wall or flesh of the pumpkin — you want the wall but no skin. Many recipes will tell you to shred the flesh, but roasting it first makes shredding unnecessary — just make sure the skin is gone then puree in a blender, food processor, mixer or with a potato ricer.

Preheat the oven to 180C/360F. Line a cupcake tray with paper liners.

In a mixing bowl, mix the butter at a high speed until creamy and without any lumps. Add sugars and beat until fluffy.

Add eggs and vanilla and mix at a slower speed until the consistency is even.

Add the dry ingredients and the milk in alternation until all incorporated. Add pumpkin and mix until even and relatively light.

Fill cupcake cases halfway for flat-topped cupcakes, two-thirds full for domed cupcakes. Bake for 18 – 22 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Remove immediately from the pan and cool on a wire rack for best results.

When cool, ice with cinnamon cream cheese icing and finish with more cinnamon on top.

Because it’s autumn, and that means there is rarely such a thing as too much cinnamon.

xlovesx

PS: If you share my disdain that there is no such thing as a pumpkin spice latte from the UK coffee chains, know that this is the stuff you need to make them at home. It may be habit-forming. I may be evidence of this. Just so you know.

Comment [18]

I’m working on a little project at the moment and have come to the point where I need to hear from some people. Think you can manage to leave me a comment today? I would love to be able to take your answers on board.

The question is…what are your photography wishes?

What kind of photos do you wish you could take?
What do you wish you understood about your camera or photography?
What problems do you wish you could eliminate?
What do you wish you could learn?

It doesn’t have to be something you would necessarily want to learn from me—pretend you could have any teacher in the world if that helps.

It can be hifi technology or old school toy cameras, technical tricks or how to get people to make nicer faces instead of bunny ears. I would seriously love to hear as many things on your list that you would do if a photography fairy godmother arrived on your doorstep.

Thanks so much for your help! Have a lovely Friday!

xlovesx

Comment [51]

I am Jamie Waters and I love this picture because it’s a rare moment where my daughter isn’t moving or talking. I was able to catch her lost in thought, looking so serious. I love her little sundress, her haircut, her belly and her perfectly straight legs.

Jamie Waters lives in California with her husband and 4 children. She spends her days scrapbooking, finding recipes, drinking coffee and having tea parties with her toddler. She is a wedding photographer on the weekends and her kid’s number one fan at each of their sporting events. Visit Jamie’s blog here and the JAC photography website here. Jamie’s photo by Jonathan Canlas.

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Check back later today for a little something—I have a big question for you!

I love this photo… was a special week-long series of posts during A Month of Colour, but so many of you said such nice things about it that I’ve decided to make it a weekly post. From now on, we’ll have a special guest share their favourite photo most every Friday. I hope you enjoy!

Comment [3]

_{©twopeasinabucket.com Supplies: Bazzill Dotted Swiss cardstock, American Crafts Thickers, My Little Shoebox Mini Alpha Stickers, stickers from Sassafras Lass, Basic Grey and Pebbles Inc and Jillibean Soup Journaling Sprouts, which are on a crazy 60% off sale for the next day or two.}

The garden is filled with typography projects this month—a place to declare my love for Thickers and those tiny little letter tiles, all mixed together.

I had fabulous plans to share a Halloween project with you today, but somehow I got distracted by old books and cupcakes and dance class, and the project is still in pieces on my table. No promises that it will get finished tomorrow either, since The Boy has taken the day off to celebrate the day during the year that marks the point from which I am four whole years older than him, in numerical terms. Except somehow I think I stopped counting before I got to his age so we will focus less on age and more on cupcakes and photo booths and a trip to the natural history museum. Because that sounds like a very grand day indeed.

xlovesx

Comment [13]

This photo makes me smile the sort of smile that exists only inside your head because your face cannot completely capture it. I’m not sure exactly when it was taken—it was on my birthday, but which one? I am thinking maybe 8? But that isn’t particularly what matters about the picture. The card I’m opening matters—it was a card with a present and I can see the pewter ballet shoes that I remember so very clearly as a prized possession for many years. The furniture in the background tells me I was opening presents at my grandparents’ house, which was something we did not uncommonly, as it was easier for everyone to get there (and it probably meant far less stress since it would mean no need to travel with the birthday cake). But it’s the hair and the clothes that say the most, perhaps: the uniform of a black leotard which I wore so many nights for so many years. It must have been a warm October to still be wearing short sleeves that late in the year. I know without seeing that I was also wearing the palest of pink tights, in that course weave that no one seems to wear anymore but was quite the norm then. Too young for a ballet skirt, but most definitely hair in a bun, held in place with so many zig-zagged hair pins, and the odd comment here and there about how the natural parting in my hair was not the correct style for ballet. It took jars of gel, black eyebrow pencils and much tugging at my ponytail to get it just right for performances.

My dance teacher inspired without ever being frightening, which is a more complex thing that one might imagine, and I certainly had no idea at that age. She was never the type who scolded mistakes, but somehow managed to get the best from a demeanour that was polite and graceful even when we were too slouchy or too slow or taking time steps out of time. I can’t place any other element of life where there was absolutely no nonsense ever and yet things were always so enjoyable. (This may be because I have grown to creatively forget the pain of pointe shoes and minor injuries.) When I discovered recently that Miss Nina is still teaching dance to this day, it somehow didn’t surprise me. I can fully imagine that she would never plan to live a day without a pair of tights and Capezio heels.

People who have never danced have asked me why it was so important to me, especially when it would appear on the surface that I was far more the academic, but academia never gave me discipline. Academia was always about the short-term: one homework assignment at a time, usually done at the last minute, studying for test just an hour before class. Dancing never worked like that: every class built on the last. Missing one day was horrific in my mind, as it seemed so impossible to catch up. It took effort to get ready, to get to class, no falling out of bed and catching the school bus barely out of pajamas. And there was always a little bit of a feeling that if you slipped up or stood less than straight, you would destroy things for everyone—no one wanted to be the one person who stepped on the left when everyone else stepped on the right. Those are the things that taught me the definition of hard work, and perhaps it is that unique form of discipline that has given me tremendous focus on things I love partnered with a complete lack of patience with things I cannot abide.

I say it was important to me; I mean it is. But that is a story for another day.

xlovesx

_{Supplies: Bazzill cardstock, Cosmo Cricket patterned papers, a completely ancient pink paper from Making Memories, Vera Thickers by American Crafts, Heidi Grace chipboard, Heather Bailey rub-ons, Rhonna Farrer transparency, Amy Butler die cuts.}

Comment [17]

Learn Something New just finished and I’ve taken a little mini-break from the internet…trying to stay offline for a few more hours a day over this past weekend and enjoy the last few days before we have to finally commit to turning on the heating for the temperature freefall into winter. And also to bask a tiny little bit in that lovely feeling that comes when you finish a project and you just want to flip through it a dozen times and show it to everyone and say look! I made this! I really, really did! And why yes, that is a tiny three-ring binder tied into the shell of an old book with woodgrain-printed ribbon, why thank you for noticing! I love it when the project works in the end and everything just fits into place.

Other finished Learn Something New books are surfacing in blogland, so I hope you’ll pay them a visit.

Read more about GezzyB’s album here.

Read more about ScrapDolly’s album here.

Read more about Rachel’s album here.

Read more about Alissa’s album here.

See Becky’s album here.

I absolutely love seeing how everyone starts with the same idea and yet every project is unique to the crafter that made it and tells the story of their September. Simple things perhaps but something that makes me very happy indeed.

xlovesx

Comment [86]

Just a quick note — I have a free digital scrapbooking kit up this week (and also a new set of penned words brushes). The free kit celebrates the upcoming online crop at Two Peas as well as my love of The Cure.

The crop is on American time, so how I’m going to stay awake is still a question in my mind! But if the hours suit you, definitely stop by this board where Jen, Gen, Meredith and I will be hosting with games and challenges and prizes all evening. We would love to see you there!

xlovesx

Comment [9]