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Merci!

scrapbooking class

Merci infiniment de venir pour classer des dames! Il était beau pour vous rencontrer à la chute de Version Scrap. Je voyage à la maison le mardi, ainsi ceux dans les classes de minibook recevront des images par l’email mercredi et jeudi.

(and I apologise if that is the worst French you have ever read!)

xlovesx

Comment [48]

Time for some scrappy shopping

^{©twopeasinabucket.com}

Two cool things at Two Peas today: *A new garden of ideas…lots of stamping goodness this month. *For today only, 20% off pretty much the whole store.

Sales count as cool, right?
(And I promise it’s not an April Fool.)

xlovesx

Comment [5]

A little wooden scrapbook

Brain slightly boggled.
Counting to the same number repeatedly, making sure there is enough of everything.
Reviewing step by step instructions and taking and checking pictures.
Giddy about woodgrain!
Hoping Cropodiles are pretty popular with French scrappers. I only have one.
Remembering that I speak pretty much NO French.

Catching train to Paris on Thursday morning!

Version Scrap is this weekend. I’m teaching four scrapbooking classes there and very excited, in case you couldn’t tell. If you’re coming to class and have any questions, let me know! I now have someone helpful to translate these things for me! (Seriously need to bring her the biggest gift I can.)

Possibly more sneak peeks tomorrow, assuming my eyes have uncrossed and everything fits in my suitcase. Please may the weather report be accurate!

xlovesx

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Sunday sweets

Out with one crazy week of work and in with the next: we are both in a state of working more hours than we can count. Some of it happy fun work, some of it work that has to be done, some of it we’re just trying to get through and call it finished!

Apparently we both react to overwork with…baking? Over the past few days I made Cannelle et Vanille’s Rhubarb and Pistachio Tart and some not-too-sweet sugar cookies. The Boy made rosemary and raisin rolls, partly to celebrate his amazing skill at nursing the rosemary back to health after I spent most of the winter killing it.

Super Easy Not-Too-Sweet Sugar Cookies
makes a bunch of dough to keep in the freezer and bake as desired
250g unsalted butter
150g icing sugar
50g caster sugar, plus extra for dusting
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg
350g flour, plus extra for dusting
1/2 teaspoon baking powder

Cream butter, sugars and vanilla in a mixer. Add the egg and mix until even. Stir in flour and baking powder and mix until it magically balls up as a big lump of cookie dough. Wrap that up in plastic and pop into the fridge for an hour or two.
Remove from the fridge, unwrap and roll out on floured surface. Roll up whatever dough you don’t want to cook, wrap in plastic and freeze. Roll out dough you do want to cook until about 1/4” thick. Cut with cookie cutters and place on greased baking sheet. Sprinkle with extra caster sugar.
Bake at 180C for about 10 minutes.

And now? Back to work.

xlovesx

Comment [14]

Getting the most from free digital scrapbooking kits

digital scrapbook papers printed out

I am not ashamed to repeat time and time again free is my favourite price. Because it really, really is. I have been a bargain girl for years and years, and if you offer me something for free, I will probably say yes before I actually realise what it is. Which is perhaps slightly dangerous, but so far I haven’t been offered hard drugs for free so I’ve been okay. Brilliant!

So yes, I am all about the freebies to be found in the world of digital scrapbooking, even though I am going to choose paper over pixels almost every time. I might just be amassing quite the collection of these freebies here on my computer. Seems to me I should be doing something with them in order for the freeness to be a bargain, right? A little challenge for myself today then: can I get three proper projects by starting with this free digital kit?

Idea #1: Put the freebies together
An all-digital page made entirely from free kits…and hopefully it doesn’t scream ‘I made this for free!’ too loudly. The majority of the layout is all from the All U Need kit, but I’ve also added bits and pieces from other free kits. The spotty orange paper is from Indie Pops Celebrate, the shape in the middle and the date strip both come from this kit, the faded scrolly frame behind the photo comes from Color my World and the stitched ribbon is part of Spring Fever. So somehow yes, I do seem to have a big folder full of freebies. Of course they don’t all match at first…but replace colour is my friend and eventually it all matches!

Idea #2: Mix freebies with investment pieces
You know that theory that magazines tell you will make your wardrobe absolute perfection—how you should have a few investment pieces that last years and years that represent the bulk of your spending, then inexpensive items for trends that will come and go in a season or two? I think this is pretty sound advice for digital scrapbooking too: buy the kits you would use over and over again without them ever going out of style, then dress them up with freebies that are in style right this second. Definitely Dotty is my little black dress. It will go with everything and always look appropriate…dress it up, dress it down, that sort of thing. I’ve also used the Bada Bing Overlays so many times that I must be into pennies per use, so that seems like a good investment to me! And well, there is so much packed into Made in France that is just pops up on my pages pretty often—here it’s the round stitching. Everything else on this page? Totally free.

Idea #3: Print them out
Hello hybrid! Made a new document that was A4 sized, covered it in the free kit papers and printed it out to make a page. And I’ve even got a bit leftover to make a card. But if I don’t finish this blog post I am going to be in trouble for both not finishing all of today’s work and being late to dinner, so perhaps I should go now!

Hurrah for free!

xlovesx

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A Year in a Scrapbook

Today is the 25th…and the 12th 25th at that. That picture marks a dozen shots taken early in the morning out the very same window. And the final album prompt is online here.

Thanks so much for all your support throughout this yearlong project! There will be new things to come, but I need to wrap this up first, so make sure you post a link to your album online if you haven’t already.

If you want to continue the project after today, you can set email reminders to yourself here and the materials will still be here for you.

If you want to hear about the next project, be sure to sign up for pretty paper. true stories. in your inbox., which once or twice a month will let you know the highlights of what’s going on around here!

So for one final time, Happy Scrap your Day Day!

xlovesx

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One last reminder: Take Pictures Tomorrow!

It’s our final month of Scrap your Day, and the 25th is tomorrow!

You can download the final Photo Fact Sheet here and a .png file that accompanies it here.

xlovesx

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Scrapbook pages and prizes, oh my!

What happened to the time today? One moment it was ten in the morning, the next it was seven at night. I swear there was no time in between!

A few happy things for today:
...you can win two sets of stamps plus a framed piece I made just by commenting here on the Banana Frog Blog anytime between now and Sunday! Go comment so you can WIN!
...the Garden Girls went a little crazy posting pages this morning. I added nine layouts to my gallery and you’ll find tons of pages from the other girls if you scroll through the gallery today. Definitely check out this page by Kelli Crowe because it is seven levels of awesome, I do believe.
...I am really thinking I may only scrap with this cardstock from now on. There are only two things nagging me about that decision: I do have quite a lot of other cardstock on my paper rack that I should probably use too…and it will be one of those things where it will be so obvious when I made pages when you look at my albums. So maybe I won’t really. But I think it is positively fabulous. So maybe 85% of the time.

Lots of Scrap your Day goodness coming Tuesday and Wednesday!

xlovesx

Comment [5]

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