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

I’ve been working my way through those two Studio Calico kits and inevitably I got to a point where I just have less stuff left on my desk than what I would normally pile onto a layout. I’m not the heaviest embellisher in the entire world, but I like my pages with ‘stuff’ and I always get to the same decision point: do I continue to use just the kit and end up with a page that is significantly different in style, or do I supplement the kit with supplies from my own stash to create a page more in line with everything else I’ve been making. Surely this is a pretty common conundrum if you’re using most of your kit supplies, so I posted an ‘in progress’ shot of this layout on Instagram and asked which option you might tend to take. The vast majority said they would add in more stash.

And that makes sense, and was definitely where I was headed because the more I looked at the sparse version of the layout, the more it felt unfinished to me. And it makes more sense when I step back and look at how many supplies I have waiting to go onto pages… there is no need to keep things sparse unless that is a design decision! It seems a little overwhelming now to know that there were so many years when I was scrapbooking with so very few supplies because they were hard to source and my budget was almost nothing, and then I went and did that thing I always said not to do about shopping when I wasn’t scrapping and I’m surrounded by supplies. Like to the level that I pretty much wish I could host a crop at my house and tell people just to bring their photos, scissors, and adhesive and I will provide the rest because we need to work our way through this stuff. I don’t do well with an overwhelm of supplies and would prefer to get pretty things on pages in albums and scale back on the rest of what is waiting! …that was a really long-winded way to say it was really obvious at that point that I should go with the ‘add more stash’ option.

I knew I wanted a grey and pink colour scheme for this page, inspired by raspberries and grey sweatshirts. This was the first time I had actually cooked something for Wonder Boy, rather than steaming some carrots and broccoli, so it was a monumental occasion in my mind, but also a very messy one and I knew we would both be covered in raspberry pink by the end, so this old grey sweatshirt became my uniform for those first few weeks of messy meals and he had a few plain vests with raspberry evidence on the ends of the sleeves, no matter how many times they were washed. This time of year was quite bleary and grey as well so all those shades of grey and the one colourful punch of magenta really stuck in my mind, so I knew from the beginning that’s where I would take this page in terms of colour. I started with those pink cards from the Project Life kit, plus the card that would work well for journaling a list of first favourite foods, and the food-themed sentiments from that tear-apart sheet, all on grey cardstock. The letter stickers and wooden arrow were from the kit too, but then I added the floral tags, some black rub-ons, silver gems, washi tape, and a chipboard border. That seemed to bring things more in line with my style but it all still seemed a bit sparse and I’m sure that’s because it’s on solid cardstock rather than patterned paper, so I cut the background down and added the whole thing to an older sheet of Dear Lizzy paper for just a bit more happy colour. The ‘Ate This’ stamp is from an older Studio Calico kit, I believe, and I have a similar one in a Kelly Purkey set too.

I realise ‘this is my jam’ isn’t really a food-related sentiment. Except when the This is My Jam website was starting up, someone sent me an invite when it was in beta and there wasn’t a lot of information in the email invitation. I hadn’t made the leap that it was about music at all, and thought it was going to be a website where people shared pictures of what they were making, like crafts and jam. As in jam in a jar to eat with tea and toast. It turns out I was really wrong about the website, but it has made me forever associate that phrase with food. I’d still join a website with pictures of jam, to be fair.

And there are one million websites to read about parenting decisions so I don’t have any plans to talk about it here, other than to say ‘BLW’ is short for Baby-Led Weaning, which is what worked really well for us with Wonder Boy so far. He loves food and it has been a huge joy! But I don’t want to say anything further really, for fear I jinx myself and end up with a picky toddler who gives me sleepless nights for wanting to only eat choc ice and chips. Since these photos, he has found a few more complex favourite foods, but he is still a big fan of pancakes and asparagus. Not together, necessarily, but I can’t think that I’ve ever tried.

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It is only in the last month that I’ve realised just how few specifically birthday themed crafting products I’ve collected over the years. In fact, I’m pretty sure I have about six times as many products about ice skating – something we do roughly once every three years – than I do about birthdays, which everyone I know does every single year. I may need to do some work on my impulse shopping, it would seem.

With a flurry of first birthday cards to make, not only did I need birthday things, I needed cute birthday things that would work for tiny toddlers! I knew there was a reason I’d been holding on to this lovely Lawn Fawn stamp set with smiling cakes!

I have some cards with this stamp set to share with you as well, but for now, a scrapbook page with a video and some very, very loose colouring of the stamped images!

You can find this Lawn Fawn stamp set at scrapbook.com. Other supplies for this scrapbook page include papers from the Pink Paislee Solstice collection and some older Jillibean Soup papers, plus October Afternoon Tin Pins flair badges and Fiskars punches.

So yes, cards and such to share tomorrow and another scrapbooking video here this Thursday! I might be edging closer to getting my act together or something. Wait. I just looked at my to-do list. I am nowhere near ‘act together’ status at all. But I’m going to continue to move in that general direction – that’s the plan!

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Apparently there is an unwritten rule that babies in our neighbourhood are to be dressed as either a pumpkin or a witch on their first Halloween. I had no idea of the existence of this rule and neglected to dress Wonder Boy as either of those things. Instead, I put him in a red knitted hat and stitched a school uniform shirt down from junior school age to his size, and made him an honorary member of Team Zissou, and knowing that it was a pretty subtle costume, dressed myself to match so that perhaps in some universe there would be a chance that we would appear to have dressed as something, whatever it might be.

And so we went to the local baby and toddler Halloween party, to be met with a room filled with pumpkins and witches and no one really understood that we were dressed up but it didn’t matter. It also just didn’t make sense to me to scrapbook that story with pumpkins, so I went for reds and blues rather than orange and black.

Supplies here are a real mix of old and new, including American Crafts papers from Mayberry and Soho Garden but also the new Crate Paper Craft Market, woodgrain and red glitter Thickers from years ago, Sassafras letter stickers, and small stamps and foil hearts that were more recent releases from Heidi Swapp. But no pumpkins.

For quite a while now, there have been so many products with ‘hello’ somewhere in the design. Now I seem to be collecting things that say ‘happy’ in one way or another. My technique for both words is the same: pile it on with all the different versions of the same word in one place. You know, just in case someone looks at that photo on the right one day and wonders exactly what emotion it is meant to portray… just in case. inserts significant wink here

And thank you for the comments that you don’t mind the vast number of pages featuring Wonder Boy… because I don’t really think that’s going to change all that much at the moment. I’m having far too much fun with it and you know… it makes me able to use all those ‘happy’ stamps AND the ‘hello’ stickers too.

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It is suddenly and beautifully spring here, complete with days where one can go outside for an extended amount of time without an actual coat! Take that, Winter! There are pink trees and baby ducks and ample opportunities for vitamin D. It’s exciting stuff. So I’m scrapbooking autumn pictures of people bundled in coats and hats and blankets. Of course.

Maybe all this spring outside my window is what made the green leaves feel completely appropriate with the autumnal theme. I can even make a leap to think I might have been inspired to use the black and white background paper with the brightly coloured photos and embellishments by the leap from the grey of winter to the colours of spring. Possibly. I’m not sure at what level of my consciousness that thought was present while making this page, but it seems completely plausible. And you can hear whatever else stumbled across my consciousness as I made this layout in the latest As It Happens video – it’s about sixteen minutes this time.

This page is the third I’ve made from the combination of the Walden scrapbook kit and the Underground Project Life kit, both from Studio Calico. I don’t have a monthly kit subscription as I like a bit more freedom in my supplies (and I enjoy shopping piece by piece when I can!) but I also like to change things up and work within the confines of a kit now and then. I tend to be most inspired to work with kits when there is a sale or a special offer. Funny how that works!

I could try to impress you by pointing out that I have technically scrapbooked a non-baby photograph here! Look! That photo on the right is just trees! But apparently it doesn’t count when I stick the tree photo next to a baby photo. Well, I’m calling the tree progress. Just the right amount of progress. I think I’ll scrap a non-baby layout soon, but probably not the next page. Or the one after that. But soon.

Have a happy weekend filled with crafting or baby ducks or something just as exciting.

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This week, it has made me giddy to see what the talented design team at American Crafts created with the True Stories collection. You can find a whole week of scrapbook pages, cards, and home decor ideas with all that saturated colour and pattern on the AC Studio blog.

There’s also a little bit of the surreal for me in that week of posts, as we filmed quite a few videos with the new collection in January just after CHA, and it’s time to share them now! I usually share videos with you a few days after they are filmed, so it feels a little different, but it was lovely to film with the whole crew in the AC studio. There was even someone to remind me not to make stupid faces while cutting and sticking. I know, that probably would have been your favourite part. Let’s just say sometimes the concentration face is right to be hidden away with just my hands on show! My hands never stick out their tongue to concentrate.

True Stories products are just starting to ship – there are a few that have made an early appearance at Hey Little Magpie here in the UK. I’ve been keeping an eye on the US retailers but haven’t seen it show up just yet. Very soon – and I will shout when it does! And I’ll have plenty more ideas and videos to share with you as it hits stores and kit clubs.

And because I truly believe in the power of hot beverages and baked goods, please feel free to save this printable! Click here to download as a full size PDF.

Wishing you a fabulous weekend with any problems cured by tea or the remainder of the Easter chocolate. Happy scrapping!

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If it’s working, carry on with it, right? And so goes the idea of just turning on the camera to capture a scrapbook page as it happens, the supply set of Studio Calico’s Walden scrapbooking kit and Underground Project Life kit, and the idea of scrapping Disney in colours other than red, yellow, black, and white.

I said last time that I made one terrible error in taking Wonder Boy to Disneyland. It was not remembering that the Peter Pan ride is entirely in the dark. It was the first thing we took him on and it scared him to bits. Apologies to the lovely, well behaved young ladies in the next ship who wondered why someone was screaming as if it were a death-defying roller coaster! But he soon recovered in the sunshine and that was really our only meltdown of the day. (Truth be told he wasn’t hugely keen on Dumbo. But he loved-loved-loved the Toy Story laser tag thing. A story for another page.)

Thankfully the queues weren’t all that bad since January is the off-season, but in truth, the queue was pretty fun with the combination of baby and friends! Plenty of conversation and plenty of giggles, and of course plenty of him flirting with strangers. We took quite a few of our photos while we were waiting for rides, and that difference of what sometimes seems like drudgery was something I really wanted to record somewhere in these pages. This seemed as fine a time as any!

So many thanks for the amazing response to Monday’s flash sale on classes. All registrations have been processed now, so you should have a welcome email and the ability to see your classes at our forum. There are a few orders here and there that didn’t specify a class or the email came up as invalid and I’m trying to track all of those down. If that’s you or you don’t think you’ve received what you should have, please don’t hesitate to get in touch. If you missed the sale, I’m sorry to hear that, but I hope you’re happy to hear there are new classes on the horizon. All existing classes are always open for registration, always include permanent access, and I always endeavour to make sure you’re getting good value for the purchase price, not just on sale days. Thanks again for your support!

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Of all the years I’ve been attending the winter trade show in Anaheim, I’ve basically ignored Disneyland until last year. This is somewhat ridiculous, as it is literally across the street from the trade show, but for whatever reason it just never crossed my mind to book extra time in California to take in some Disney fun. Until last year, when some local friends convinced me to wobble around the park pregnant before I caught my plane, and then this year, now known as ‘let’s take the baby to Disneyland’ day.

For the months ahead, I kept having this conversation with people that I’m sure he would be too young to truly appreciate the park and would get just as much joy from the Downtown Disney shopping area (which requires no ticket, of course!) and truthfully, he loved Downtown Disney and Downtown Disney loved him. He flirted with strangers and they talked to him and staff at the biggest Disney Store I’ve ever walked through gave him tiny souvenirs to keep. There were no real life characters but there were many fountains, a giant fish tank, and an animated chalkboard in Starbucks of all places. He loved it.

He loved it so much we decided to go ahead and go to the park after all. Aside from one significant error on my part, he loved Disneyland and I take back everything I ever said about how he wouldn’t be able to appreciate it. I’m now convinced that those creative people behind Disneyland have really thought about the experience for all ages.

Now I have a stack of heart-warming photos from our day and a mind of memories I want written down before he gets much older and they grow fuzzy around the edges. I honestly didn’t take enough photos for an entire album, so plan on splitting these between a good number of 12×12 pages in my chronological album for 2015 and some further photos (including some duplicates) in his Project Life baby book documenting his first year. That was an easy decision. What was not an easy decision was supplies, and I think that is because there have been so many gorgeous product collections and beautiful pages made with that traditional red, black, white, and gold colour scheme that is now synonymous with Mickey and Disney. When I look at the actual photos we have taken, I just don’t see those colours. I see the blue of the sky, the warmth in skin tones, quite a bit of greenery – really it is only our photo with Mickey Mouse that alludes to those traditional Disney colours. So decision made: I’m not going with one set colour scheme. I am simply happier crafting when I choose the colours based on the photos and story I’m telling on any particular page and I think if I tried to stick to that colour scheme here I would find myself blocked and then not get the pages done.

If I can imagine it would make me stop scrapping those photos before I even get started, that is a big sign of which direction not to go!

I’m also finding as I start working on these photos in particular that I have a new appreciation for that conundrum of what to write on each page. I’ve not really struggled there for years, but I find now some photos really do evoke something that is just such a simple and wholesome feeling that it is difficult to find words that feel right! I think maybe that is why the ‘we had fun at the park’ became the big journaling example years ago – because when you look at the photo and remember a smiling child on the swings, you can be filled with enough emotion that in the end, you don’t know what to say other than something obvious and simple. Plus most of us get a little self-conscious with anything that seems too gushing. But really, what else can you say about something so random as how a baby gets the never-ending giggles at a fountain to the point you’re nearly in tears other than calling it a whole new level of happiness?

(I’m going to come back to this topic soon. It’s been something on my mind as I work through these pages and I did eventually start to turn a corner and get to something that is not just gushing but is also not ‘we had fun at the park’.)

Instead of using licensed Disney embellishments or creating Mickey shapes on my own or anything, I’m just going with the type of supplies I tend to collect, which includes plenty of travel themed items and I haven’t done so much traveling in the past two years! No reason not to pile it on to the travel pages I do assemble then. Much of this comes from the Crate Paper Open Road collection but there are also some Heidi Swapp enamel words and stars, BasicGrey and October Afternoon labels, Studio Calico map stars, BasicGrey map paper, and vellum strips by Ormolu. The woodgrain paper is an old favourite from American Crafts Campy Trails. The title letters are a small sticker set by Pebbles, blue Amy Tangerine Thickers, and map print chipboard letters by October Afternoon. Definitely a mix of new and old supplies.

I’ve filmed a few Disney pages too, so look for more non-red-and-black Disneyland scrapbooking here this week!

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This offer has now closed and registrations are being processed. Thanks so much!

Getting back to work has meant lots of different things starting at once: making pages, filming and editing videos, and composing blog posts like you see here, but also some things you don’t see here, like boring accounting jobs, tedious software updating, and exciting creative work on new classes! Let’s skip to that last point and I have three things to share with you on the class front:
1. New classes are in the works and will be available here very soon.
2. Hitchhiker’s Guide to Scrapbooking and Glitter Girl’s Scrapbooking Survival Guide (workshops I taught at Two Peas in a Bucket) will be up and running here even sooner. I think this will be next week, to give an estimate. I am also working on transferring content from my older Two Peas workshops, but those newer titles are my first priority. I will be emailing students through the list I was given, but I will also post here so if you miss the email you’ll be able to get in touch. (And those classes will then be available here to anyone who still wants to purchase them.)
3. Right now for just 24 hours, you can take your pick of the existing class line up for just $10. Choose from The Perfect Collection, Return to the Collection, Scrapbook Remix, Pretty Paper Party, Blogging for Scrapbookers, Beyond Blogging for Scrapbookers, Cover to Cover, Learn Something New Every Day, Journal your Christmas, Something from Almost Nothing, True Stories, and Love your Pictures, Love your Pages. Each of those links will take you to the class info page, but do not use the sign up buttons on those pages if you want to take the $10 offer! To take up the discounted price, click the button above on this page, which will take you through for a $10 payment, and includes a box to name the class you want to take. Presto! By default, your class registration will be emailed to the address on your payment. If you want materials sent to a different email address, please add it in the comment box with the name of the class.

Other details on this offer:
*Valid 10am GMT Monday 23 March 2015 to 10am GMT Tuesday 24 March 2015 only.
*There is no limit on how many classes you can purchase with this offer, but you will need to click and pay separately for each class.
*There is no refund for purchases made at the full class price today. Please use the button above on this page to get the offer!
*Purchases for this 24 hour period do not include the standard £1 donation to Plan UK that is normally included in the class price. (Happy to be working on some Plan projects very soon though!)
*You can purchase from anywhere in the world, and the US dollars will be converted to your own currency. For current market rates to any currency, please see xe.com.
*I aim to process class registrations within 24 hours. If you have not received your welcome email by that time, please check that it hasn’t gone to your spam folder, then email me so we can find out what’s gone wrong. You can also email me on that link for any questions that I haven’t answered here.

Thanks so much for your support and I hope you have a wonderful and creative week ahead!

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Last week one of the questions that came up was how do you decide what goes in the Project Life album and what makes it to a 12×12? and I thought about this all weekend. I kept thinking perhaps I could come up with an amazing answer that would have real sparkle and clarity and insight.

I don’t have that answer. Shame.

Basically, I am totally going with the moment and just not worrying about it. So far every photo that has appeared on a 12×12 page about Wonder Boy is also somewhere sitting in a pocket in his Project Life baby book. But the journaling isn’t duplicated, and at the moment I feel the two types of album have a different feel. The baby book is for him, basically. Not that he will appreciate it in the immediate future, but that some day he will be able to look at that first year. He looks so much like his father that I have found much joy in comparing pictures of the two of them at the same ages. With a book like this, perhaps he will do the same one day. Or maybe he will not be the nostalgic type and it will continue to live on my shelf forever. I’m okay with that too. But that album is written and compiled with him in mind.

The 12×12 pages, however, are all for me. They go in the standard chronological albums I’ve always kept, and will be mixed right in with whatever any of us are doing. I write more on these pages about what has been going through my mind and how life has changed and what running factors have stayed the same, like how this page documents the love of handmade.

But I will also say I am just grabbing prints that inspire me at any given moment. I have no shortage of photos to scrap right now, that is for sure! And I’m inspired by colours and textures and moments that I see in the photos. If something grabs my attention as I flip through the prints, I just run with it. No master plan. Much like the way I have always scrapbooked in a seemingly random order of topics and chronology.

This weekend I have had knitting on the mind (I have knit for many years but I am dreadful at actually finishing things) and seeing this photo in the stack made me excited to get started. The colour scheme comes from the quilt in the background of the photo (a lovely gift handmade by SJ) and made with papers from BasicGrey Second City and My Mind’s Eye Jubilee, then quite a few die-cuts, including Cosmo Cricket tags, ephemera from Maggie Holmes and Amy Tangerine collections, Jenni Bowlin rhinestones, Ormolu stamps, Prima enamel hearts, and sparkly Sassafras letter stickers. (I did tell you the old is new again in my world!) All to document a tiny cashmere sweater made without knowledge that his first summer would be one of unbelievably beautiful weather and basically three days total of any slight dip in the temperature. But I love it so much, it will live on the wall on a cute little hanger to remind me how small he was in those early days.

(For those who knit, the pattern is here and very well written with lots of options.)

Hoping I can knit a row or two on my current project at some point today. What creative things are you hoping to make this week?

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