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

lovely to meet you Twitter Facebook Pinterest YouTube

Take a Scrapbooking Class

online scrapbooking classes

Shop Shimelle Products

scrapbook.com simon says stamp shimelle scrapbooking products @ amazon.com shimelle scrapbooking products @ amazon.co.uk

Reading Material

travel

Girly secrets

pretty scrapbook

It’s been a very girly few days. A day out with the girls taking a scrapbook class just for fun. A day sorting out petticoats and shoes and all sorts of lovely. And today, a day of dress fitting and sewing and getting a bit giddy to see my actual dress made just for me. Hurrah for three days of girly.

Tomorrow? I have to take the car for a service. Exceedingly girly, that.

girls at scrapbooking class
For more info on the class project above, see Donna’s website. Especially advised if it matches the fabric you have been sewing into curtains for your living room.

But I also have some things to show you tomorrow…a little look inside that album from yesterday. And maybe a few other albums over the next few days.

Aside from the new class, there is something else new here if you care to look around. A few of you managed to find it last night. So far, so good: but no big announcements in case it breaks the internets. Please be nice to her!

xlovesx

A new class for summer

online scrapbooking class

My Freedom is an online class for the summer. Over five weeks, we’ll put together a complete album designed to help you tell your story in a new way. Through daily prompts that focus on photography, storytelling and design, we’ll capture the spontaneity of life and put it in perspective with thoughts about the past, present and future.

Starting Monday, the 7th of July, you’ll receive five prompts each week. We’ll start the week with our cameras clicking, as the photography prompts get you snapping photos that will inspire the stories we’ll be telling that week. The photography prompts are not technical and you don’t need a fancy camera to get these shots. There’s also the chance to search in your existing photo library for earlier shots that add perspective to the topic.

As the prompts continue in the week, we’ll focus on telling our own stories with certain topics in mind. Whether you love to journal or find it intimidating, you’re safe here. The journalling resources included in these prompts take you step by step and offer a variety of ways to add style to your writing without just recording the who, what, when, where and why. We’ll write stories in a way that will make them be read again and again.

In the design prompts, you’ll see how the same starting point can create several different styles of project, and you can choose the right style as your creative springboard. As the weeks go by, you’ll see four completed albums come together: a stream-lined scrapbook, a contemporary-styled album, an art journal and a digital album, with tips for creating in each style. As a bonus, you’ll also be able to download digital elements to add to your designs—they are suitable for printing out and including in paper pages or as elements in a digital scrapbook project.

Our classroom is a private message board where you can access a permanent archive of the class materials and also discuss the project and share your work with others. You’ll receive the daily prompts by e-mail, so it’s up to you whether you want to stay and chat on the board or get straight to work or save the project for a rainy day.

My Freedom, in summary:
...class starts Monday 7th July
...there are twenty-five prompts delivered Monday to Friday for five weeks
...all prompts are permanently archived so you can come back to the project at any time in the future
...all participants are invited to a private message board to discuss the project and share their work
...the completed album will be at least twenty pages, and works best in a format of 8×8 or larger.
...the album focuses on the world from your perspective

Between now and the 7th of July, I’ll post a few snippets from inside the albums to shed a little more light on the project.

You will need a forum name to join us. If this is your first class, just go here to choose a name and you’ll be all set.

Ready to join us? You can pay in Pounds Sterling or in US Dollars—simply click on the cupcake of your choice.

Things to remember:
Keep the email you receive from Paypal after you pay. This is your receipt.
The first prompt will be emailed to you on Monday 7th July.

Any questions, just let me know. Otherwise, stay tuned if you want to see a little more.

xlovesx

Something new on Saturday

scrapbook mini album

It’s a very busy week, but a very good one I think!

So I’ll keep it brief but a few more details about this Saturday…

*You may want to check back here around 11am British time.

*There may be new scrapbooking classes and projects for the summer.

*There may be a few other random things as well.

*The photo above may be just a tiny sign of things to come.

More to see tomorrow!

Off to enjoy today’s sunshine, even if it is with notebook in hand. No reason why an office can’t be outdoors, right? Not today, anyway!

xlovesx

It's here!

scrap your day morning

Two twenty-fifths in a row when I actually went to sleep on the twenty-fourth when it was technically already the twenty-fifth! What this is telling me about my supposedly changed night-owl habits, I am not too sure, but alas I was still up early today to start snapping bits and pieces of my day. (And I took a few pictures of last night’s reason for staying out late. Always worth it. And then some.)

Whether you were up late last night or asleep before my ears started ringing, I wish you a very happy and beautiful twenty-fifth to photograph and document. And here’s this month’s album prompt to help with that if you fancy!

Do comment here to share your plans for today and to leave a link to your pages when you get them completed. (And don’t forget: you may want to check in here the rest of the week too, as something new just might be happening.)

Scrap your Day links & schedule:
About this project
Sign up for reminders
Getting Ready
Photo Fact Sheet #01
April Album Prompt
Photo Fact Sheet #02
May Album Prompt
Photo Fact Sheet #03
June Album Prompt
Our Flickr group
UKScrappers discussion thread
Small image for signature files
Blinking image for blog side bars

xlovesx

From the grass to the clouds

scrap your day reminder

Today’s the twenty-fourth…tomorrow is the twenty-fifth! So yes, we shall be taking pictures tomorrow.

This month’s Photo Fact Sheet is here to download. Nothing technical at all this month—but an easy way to shake up your images as we enter into month three. I love shooting angles like this in the summer, but I think our participants who are more wintry right now might encourage us to try it again in another season.

Scrap your Day links & schedule:
About this project
Sign up for reminders
Getting Ready
Photo Fact Sheet #01
April Album Prompt
Photo Fact Sheet #02
May Album Prompt
Photo Fact Sheet #03
June Album Prompt: available Wednesday (25.06.08)
Our Flickr group
UKScrappers discussion thread
Small image for signature files
Blinking image for blog side bars

xlovesx

Nearly a full month ago...

May scrap your day layout

...it was Scrap your Day day for May, which is a phrase with a lot of ‘ays’ to it. But also a year long project that is about to enter its third month.

If you didn’t know about the project until now, you can still join in. Scroll through entries here to see everything we’ve done so far.

In keeping with last month’s vow to use a sprinkling of whatever embellishment I have been using repeatedly, I went with this lovely satin ribbon from American Crafts and some brads. A bit more ribbon is tied to the outside rings of the binder so the cover has a bit more embellishment as the project goes on.

scrap your day layout

If you snapped photos for May but didn’t scrap them yet, you still have two days before you can even tell yourself you are behind, so here’s a big heap of inspiration from pages posted on blogs, Flickr and UKScrappers as part of May’s Scrap your Day festivities. I love watching these pop up as the month goes on—I’m starting to recognise faces in the pages and it will be lovely to see how progresses over the year.

scrap your day samples
1. PrincessCarly1978 2. MissKoolAid 3. Sandslippers 4. Surlepetitchemin 5. Jayneb2008 6. Davendos 7. Missy6568 8. K Bell 9. Scrappy-Sarah 10. Jen VC 11. Mock Choc Croc 12. 2lloydsandme 13. 2lloydsandme 14. Rjanen 15. Brigetta00 16. Annie LaLa 17. Jaydaly.t21 18. Suky Allen 19. MajicinOz 20. Scarymary555 21. Ladkyis 22. Penguin Pie 23. Aimee 24. Karen 25. Cannycrafter

more scrap your day samples
You will need to be logged into UKScrappers to view these links. 1. CountyCrafter 2. Wingus 3. Harrys Gal 4. TracyG 04 5. Paddy 6. Soozee 7. Jo M 8. Lesleygee 9. Chicken Licken 10. Silverstar 11. Fionaken 12. Suky 13. Clairewill 14. Mummybecks 15. Beautifullily 16. Bookworm 17. USA2UK 18. Retired Nana 19. Katj 20. Ladybug 21. Stargazer 22. Lacemaker 23. Debbieh 24. PapermadMand 25. Harrys Gal

Scrap your Day links & schedule:
About this project
Sign up for reminders
Getting Ready
Photo Fact Sheet #01
April Album Prompt
Photo Fact Sheet #02
May Album Prompt
Photo Fact Sheet #03: available tomorrow (24.06.08)
June Album Prompt: available Wednesday (25.06.08)
Our Flickr group
UKScrappers discussion thread
Small image for signature files
Blinking image for blog side bars

More tomorrow!

xlovesx

Getting Away

GoGo Getaway scrapbooking retreat

You know you’re getting away from everything when you arrive at the hotel to see this. The GoGo girls do take things a little seriously!

It was such a treat to be invited to the first ever GoGoGetaway last weekend. Fabulous people in a beautiful setting…just good stuff all around.

My little project looked something like this…
Note This scrapbooking project

Get it? Take Note…Note This…and lots of the pages are made from note cards? Oh, how I kill myself with jokes about paper products.

But it was a delight to see so many of these come together—and a massive high five for everyone doing their homework, whether they wanted to or not! It’s always lovely to see people go home with finished projects rather than a book that needs to have photos and journalling added later. Finished just makes me happy. If only because then I can be nosy and look through everyone’s books in the crop room!

And goodness, these girls…they do like to take pictures. It seems a few of them brought their cameras along.

scrappers with cameras

more photography

caught in the act

snapping away

more photos for the scrapbook

yet more camera action

getting it perfect

Many, many thanks to the GoGo team for a fabulous weekend!

GoGo Getaway team os scrapbookers

Can’t wait for next year!

xlovesx

Special offers for Beyond Blogging participants


Two limited-time special offers are available just for participants in Beyond Blogging for Scrapbookers. Both offers expire at the end of Tuesday 14th June. Choose a new class, an archived class or both!

THESE OFFERS HAVE NOW EXPIRED.


For those looking for something new, a chance to sign up for the next brand new class at shimelle.com before it has even been announced. Admittedly, that means there is a bit of mystery! But I can tell you this much:
…it’s an album-focused class where you’ll be creating pages.
…there is much creative freedom built in so you can choose what size of album you want to make, whether you work on pages daily, weekly or just whenever you have time.
…prompts include all sorts of fun things like craft techniques, new ideas for things you already have in your stash, photos to take, words to write. a new little adventure in each prompt.
…class starts on Monday the 11th of July.
This class will soon open for registration at £10 or $16. But Beyond Blogging participants can sign up early at a discounted rate of £7 or $12.


For those who like to know the full outline before you sign up, a special price for the archived class Love your Pictures, Love your Pages. You can see the full class details here. This class ran last summer (July 2010) and all the materials are available for you to download and work through at your own pace, including the message board. Please note the discounts for Totally Rad Actions and Digital Photography School have now expired, but all the class materials are ready and available.

Love your Pictures, Love your Pages is usually £16 or $24. Beyond Blogging participants can add this class to your account for £10 or $16, but only until Tuesday 14th June 2011. Click to sign up in your choice of currency.

Please note the following for both classes:
You can pay by debit/credit card or Paypal account – choose your option from the screen that follows. Class registration can take up to 24 hours (though it is usually much quicker). If you do not see the class on your forum account after 24 hours, please send me an email so I can help.

If your Paypal account is under a different email address than you use for classes, please leave me a note or send me an email to let me know the email address you prefer. You can also buy either or both classes as a gift – again, I just need the email address for the recipient.

These special prices expire at the end of Tuesday 14th June 2011 and are not available beyond that point.

Any questions, just send me an email.
Thanks!!

-Shimelle