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Adventures of Glitter Girl Category

Glitter Girl Adventure 155: All The Stickers

scrapbooking with stickers // Glitter Girl scrapbooking process video by Shimelle Laine

I always buy the 12×12 sticker sheets in my favourite collections because they are always so eye-catching, but I have trouble using more than a few stickers at a time. I need a strategy quick or I’m going to be overrun with stickers! I’d love a style of layout I could create now and then to really embrace my sticker love rather than trying to ration them out indefinitely. Glitter Girl, can you help?

Of course she can! It would probably be overkill to use most of a large sticker sheet on every layout, but there’s no reason not to embrace your sticker love in an explosion of pretty things on a chosen page.

I used the sticker sheet from Little by Little for this challenge, along with patterned papers from Pebbles. The Thickers are from many years ago, I’m afraid, and the tiny letter stickers were from a Studio Calico Documenter kit.

scrapbooking with stickers // Glitter Girl scrapbooking process video by Shimelle Laine

If you’re trying to create your own page with a surplus of stickers, I’d suggest these top tips:
Make it a single photo page. You’ll need plenty of space on the page to work with the stickers, plus you need that photo to hold its own. Of course you could print smaller photos to still have the same page space, but then everything in the smaller photos is more likely to be lost amongst all the designs of the stickers. Something with a simple visual composition to the photograph will work best to hold its own.

Select your sticker sheet wisely. If the set of stickers is just too varied, it will be difficult to pull all the randomness together. Look for a mix of things that are easy to use across lots of topics – labels, banners, and simple geometrics help. Florals can work beautifully if they are your thing. A sticker sheet with a typewriter, a mailbox, a bicycle, a birthday cake, and four birds is going to be far more difficult to pull together than some flowers, feathers, and labels.

Find a line on your page and stay on the line. If you’ve been scrapbooking for a while, you may have heard of the old ‘sticker sneeze’. It was a description of a certain scrapbooking look, where pages were made by first matting and arranging the photos, then taking a sheet of small stickers and just dotting them anywhere and everywhere in the gaps. I have an early page like this where I scrapbooked photos of a beautiful rose garden and filled the gaps with tiny frog stickers. (Of course.) Admittedly, it’s quite fun in that embrace-your-inner-pre-teen sort of way, it can leave your eyes not knowing where to look. For a look that says ‘I meant to do this’ rather than a sneeze, find a line somewhere on your page – probably with the photo on the line but it can work elsewhere – and build your stickers from that point. Foam squares are your friend for adding dimension to all your layers of design.

Have you made a page using at least half a sheet of stickers? Share it with us!

Introducing Glitter Girl: My newest collection with American Crafts

Glitter Girl from Shimelle and American Crafts :: Patterned Papers

I’m terribly torn by the lack of ridiculously brightly coloured, ultra positive, bordering on a rainbow-powered daydream supplies available in the scrapbooking world right now. I need my pretty paper with unicorns and stars and plenty of sparkle. Glitter Girl, can you help?

Of course I can.

Today I’m delighted to share my newest collection with American Crafts: Glitter Girl. This is undoubtedly the pinkest, most upbeat, most fairytale of collections I’ve done and there is an extra heavy dose of sparkle on top of Glitter Girl’s two favourite colours: pink and turquoise, of course. Plus woodgrain, gold foil, pearlescent cardstock, holographic washi, and ditty little self-inking rolling stamps. I hope you’re ready to indulge in the paper collection thirteen year old me would have bought with every penny of babysitting money she could save.

Here’s a look at most (not quite all) of the collection right when I opened my box! Come share my excitement at things like lenticular die-cuts and scissors with glittery handles and positive affirmations. It also shows the papers so you can take a good look at all those b-sides too.

Glitter Girl from Shimelle and American Crafts :: A Selection of Embellishments

There are a few things not in that video, and they include the embellishment pack (wood buttons, small enamel dots, and adhesive sequins all in one pack), washi tape set, and the self-inking roller stamps, which include a camera design and come all stacked in a set.

Glitter Girl from Shimelle and American Crafts :: Woodgrain and Gold Glitter Thickers letter stickers

Glitter Girl from Shimelle and American Crafts :: Sparkle-filled Puffy Stickers

I’m not sure which of these two is my favourite of favourites from the entire collection! I have needed both of these in my life for a very long time!

The Glitter Girl collection ships to stores in mid August, so now is the time to let your favourite store know you want to see it on their shelves or website! (They can order directly from American Crafts or through their favourite AC distributor.)

Of course this collection is brand new in my own hands, so I will be sharing so many projects as I make them, including videos on YouTube, Friday Live on Facebook (we chat while I make a layout, starting at 3:45pm UK time / 10:45am Eastern time on Fridays), and Instagram, so please do join in! I’m also excited to see what you make with this collection, and the “Scrapbook Like a Superhero”: group is a great place to share what you make.

Glitter Girl from Shimelle and American Crafts

Thanks so much for taking a first look at all this new paper happiness in my world! I really, really hope you enjoy taking your own turn at saving the world, one piece of pretty paper at a time.

Glitter Girl Adventure 153: Take Away Crafting

Scrapbooking Disney Hollywood Studios // Glitter Girl video by Shimelle Laine

Have you every taken a “scrapbook on the go” kit? Sadly I’m not going to a crop, but as summer arrives my family tends to spend more time away from home. I’d love to be able to scrapbook while we’re there, but I can’t pack everything in my stash. Glitter Girl, can you help?

Of course she can! Using a kit that’s either purchased and ready to go or inspired by one using the inspiration of something like the Counterfeit Kit Challenge can be the perfect way to have just enough to keep you going while you craft away from your usual home.

If you have the March 2017 kit from Gossamer Blue, then you can basically follow along! I didn’t change much at all because I had most of it to hand, but I did swap one sheet of patterned paper, one sheet of embellishments (I didn’t have the puffy stickers from Oh My Heart so I used a sheet of chipboard stickers that were in my field of vision), and some wood veneer pieces. The kit is largely my Little by Little collection along with Paige’s Oh My Heart collection. If you don’t have those to hand, no problem! Check out the different combinations created by the design team for the Counterfeit Kit Challenge, who all put together something similar from the supplies they had on hand, new and old!

Scrapbooking with a Counterfeit Kit // Glitter Girl video by Shimelle Laine

I’m really looking forward to making the facing page for this now, with lots of aqua to pull out that tiny bit of accent in the enamel dots. I need to figure out what photos those should be, then I’ll get that committed to paper. I’ll also be using the rest of this kit, so I look forward to making more and sharing soon!

If you’ve tried the Counterfeit Kit concept or if you have made packing your scrap supplies into a art and a science, do share! We’d always love to hear from you here or at Scrapbook Like a Superhero. Happy scrapping!

Glitter Girl Adventure 152: Getting Unstuck

Getting Unstuck with your Scrapbook Style :: Glitter Girl Scrapbooking Process Video by Shimelle Laine

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).

Getting Unstuck with your Scrapbook Style :: Glitter Girl Scrapbooking Process Video by Shimelle Laine

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!

Glitter Girl Adventure 151: Faces in a Crowd

Scrapbooking group photos // scrapbook page and Glitter Girl video by Shimelle Laine

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.

Scrapbooking group photos // scrapbook page and Glitter Girl video by Shimelle Laine

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!


Glitter Girl Adventure 150: Stamped in the Centre

Scrapbooking with Stamps - Glitter Girl video 150 - scrapbook page by Shimelle Laine

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.

Scrapbooking with Stamps - Glitter Girl video 150 - scrapbook page by Shimelle Laine


Glitter Girl Adventure 149: A 6x6 Solution

Scrapbooking with 6x6 Papers on 12x12 Pages - with Glitter Girl video - by Shimelle Laine

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.

Scrapbooking with 6x6 Papers on 12x12 Pages - with Glitter Girl video - by Shimelle Laine

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.


Glitter Girl Adventure 138: On a Minc Mission

I recently purchased a Minc machine for metallic foiling and have used it easily enough for cards and gift tags, but I’m at a loss as to how to use it on my scrapbook pages. I have plenty of foil, so it seems only right to make this investment work for all my paper crafting, including my layouts! Glitter Girl, can you help?

Of course I can! This week, Glitter Girl takes on the challenge to use the Minc on her pages by customising 3×4 Project Life cards with metallic foiled fish to match some toddler artwork that needs a spot in the scrapbook.

I have the full size twelve inch Minc but the foiler is also available in a smaller six inch machine if that better suits your budget, your space, or your needs! This project would work perfectly fine with the smaller size, since the journaling cards are 3×4 inches. Do be sure you buy the Minc for your part of the world: as it plugs in and heats up, you’ll need the version with the right plug. They are available!

Other supplies for this page include the Color Chaos collection and Sand & Surf papers from Bella Blvd, enamel dots from Doodlebug Designs, letter stickers by October Afternoon, word stickers by My Mind’s Eye, flair badges by American Crafts, and a variety of washi tapes.

In terms of kids and artwork, I can already see why this becomes such a challenge over the years! He’s only just turned two and of course I already have a significant stack of paint strokes, colouring sheets, and other creative projects! (Stickers are big here. Of course stickers are big here.) We have a big art-student-style book with plain pages to paste things in and leave a little label with any relevant notes, but I’d like to include just a sprinkling of the actual pieces in our chronological family albums, and it struck me that it will work perfectly to include things that are a) the right size for a 12×12 page and b) have a corresponding photo that helps tell the story. Aside from letting him doodle on a card in my Christmas journal, I’m pretty sure this is the first page where his artwork appears right in the album. It was a delight to show the page to him when it was in the album and he clapped! That’s probably the biggest accolade I’ve ever had for scrapping, so I’m flying high now!

I’ve long had the Paislee Press Mini Masterpieces project in my bookmarks, thinking that big student portfolio may become unwieldy over the years to come and thinking a Photo Book would be a lovely way to keep the evidence without the complication. I’d love to see other ways you’ve kept child art, be it in your scrapbooks or another system of saving things. If it’s something you’ve shared online, by all means leave us a link in the comments. Or feel free to just share a thought of what has worked for you. I’m sure many of us go through this stage of wanting to find some sort of guidelines for which pieces we keep and which ones go from the fridge to the recycling bin!

And of course, links to your projects with the Minc are also welcome! If you have the Minc, do you find you use it more for small format projects like cards and gifts or is foil becoming a definite design theme in your scrapbooks?

Disclosure: Product links in this post are affiliate links. All are supplies I use and enjoy! Affiliate commissions on shimelle.com blog posts pay the guest artists who share their work here. Thank you for your support.