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

_{Scrapbook page by Victoria Calvin of Victoria Marie Scraps}

I’ve been curious about how scrapbookers would take to Patreon, an online platform that processes subscriptions for creators to offer perks to those extra special followers. I’ve followed Victoria Calvin on both Instagram and YouTube for a long while now, so I suddenly had to ask myself why I hadn’t joined her Patreon community, so I made my pledge and signed right up. It turns out there is a wealth of content included in the membership and all my quarantine insomnia need not fear, because I can just sit here and watch Victoria scrapbook 24/7 if I need to, and actually, that doesn’t sound like a bad idea at all.

This page is one I made recently on Facebook Live, but it was entirely inspired by a sketch and accompanying process video Victoria posted in her Patreon community. And yes, that photo is most definitely a throw back – that’s Wonder Boy’s first EVER character meet! I’ve scrapbooked this photo years ago, but I just love this image and working with that memory was exactly the creative pick me up I needed for the day!

(I scrapbook live on Facebook twice a week – Mondays at 1:30pm and Fridays at 9:30am, UK time – almost every week of the year. You can find more info here.)

Although Victoria and I definitely have differences in our creative styles and our video delivery, we also have a lot in common, and if you like the sorts of videos I upload to YouTube and include in my classes, I would bet you will also enjoy Victoria’s videos. They are straight forward and her education background is clear, and the pages she makes are layered and lovely! I love Victoria’s enthusiasm for the craft and also for telling stories. I always want to read the journaling on her pages.

_{Scrapbook page by Victoria Calvin of Victoria Marie Scraps}

You can find Victoria on YouTube and Instagram as well as her Patreon community. Her Patreon membership tiers range from $5 to $10 USD per month, which includes a great deal of video content, and when you join you can access everything from the past too, so that’s a serious amount of videos to watch. There are sketch videos but also other themes, and there are some live lessons, like a recent session covering ideas for what to do with a surplus of 3×4 and 4×6 cards when you create more traditional full-sized pages than pocket pages. Patreon memberships don’t have a set time frame, so you’re not tied down if one day you realise you don’t have the spare cash or the spare time to scrapbook!

A few of you have requested more examples using my Never Grow Up collection* recently. It seemed like the perfect time to share a scrapbook page composition that would work well with either small scraps or something like the 6×8 paper pad*!

*Just to be super clear, these are affiliate links. If you choose to purchase through this link, I’ll receive a commission which won’t cost you anything extra! Hooray!

My small assistant starts us off with a watercolour project. If you’d like to get straight to the scrapbooking, scrub ahead to the 22 minute mark. Thanks!

I used the rainbow ledger paper* as the base but a clean white base will work as well. This is a really quick way to use some of those little scraps and papers you have lingering in your stash.

I’d love to know how you like to use your small scraps! And if you’re sharing pages with this collection, please tag me and add the hashtag #ACnevergrowup!

I’m excited to share a new free mini class, Timeless Layout Techniques. I filmed this in the Scrapbook.com studio in January and it’s available now, with three videos taking you through some core page design principles that always lead to pleasing pages. The examples use my Never Grow Up and Field Trip collections, but the ideas presented are not specific to those collections and are techniques I use with all styles of paper designs.

This video is a teaser, and you can access three full videos by viewing the class at scrapbook.com. Class is free!

My goal when I teach is never for you to just copy my project. I always want you to walk away feeling confident that you can take the ideas and make something completely your own! You can use these tips with stash you’ve had in your cupboard for fifteen years or you can use the latest and greatest scrapbooking products to be released. (Have a need to see what’s new? I have a handy, dandy affiliate link for that! Scrapbook.com always has a section of brand new products! But seriously: use what you have and you love. I love a good shopping day too, but it really, really brings me joy to use what I have and love and to see you breathe new life into the papers you bought with the best of intentions but let them sit for a while.)

In each of the three videos, I focus on one composition technique that can become a go to for building pages with any product you like and putting things in places that will get you started and created pages that are pleasing to the eye, and don’t take hours to make either.

If you create pages inspired by Timeless Layout Techniques, please share! I’d love to see what you’re making in the gallery at scrapbook.com or by tagging me @shimelle if you share your pages on Instagram.

When I need to rediscover my creativity, I do three things.

I listen to the score from Amelie on repeat.
I go to the V&A.
I buy a new box of crayons.

Somewhere between the sound of the piano, the colour of the museum, and the smell of the crayons, lies my reset button, and it is a very powerful thing in my life. But it’s a life I refuse to take too seriously. Enter Box of Crayons, my shout out to crafters that I understand the need to make things, the need to use all the colours in the box, and the need to order the milkshake that comes topped with candy floss and a lollipop just to see it on your table. Let’s make stuff, okay?

This collection will debut in full this weekend at the Creativation trade show in Arizona, but my first samples of some of the products arrived today and I’m allowed to give you a look. I shared everything straight out of the box today on my Instagram Stories, so you can see some products there. You can also see more on the American Crafts blog.

Here’s a look at all of the papers, a and b sides, and the three paper pads: 6×6, 12×12 project pad, and the 6×8 writing pad.

Box of Crayons is scheduled to ship to stores from the 19th of February, so I hope you’ll enjoy cutting and sticking with all things bright and colourful all spring and summer this year! There will be plenty of projects to share as I get a chance to cut into all those papers, and can’t wait to see what you make too. If you share your projects on social media, please add the hashtag #ACboxofcrayons and tag me so I don’t miss your creative genius!

Oh, and one more thing. There are these:

NAVY BLUE THICKERS.

Because you know that thing where you open the fridge to see if there’s anything you want when you know full well the contents of said fridge? I open my Thickers drawer at least six times a day looking for navy blue. And there is never navy blue.

BUT NOW THERE WILL BE.

I’m a little excited about that. That and new boxes of crayons.

Stop and say hi if you’re at the show this weekend!

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I know we’ve had this conversation before: sticker books were one of my favourite parts of childhood. I can say that loudly and proudly in front of scrapbookers because you probably had ten one too. I loved collecting the stickers and trading the stickers and finding the right page and placement for the stickers. I especially loved the part of the process where I was far too young for a job and needed to find every available moment to convince my mother I needed new stickers. And I loved sitting in my room when I was supposed to be asleep, quietly turning the pages under the lamplight to catch all the little foils and glimmers and shines on the most special of all the stickers in my book.

Tell me this is not crazy talk and it has long been time to bring back sticker books. Sticker books should never have left.

So I’m rather excited by this new collection from American Crafts that is actually called #StickerBook and it’s made up of… books of stickers. Yep. Big books of stickers from all the different designers and collections you know and love: Amy Tangerine, Dear Lizzy, Heidi Swapp, Vicki Boutin, Maggie Holmes, Jen Hadfield, Paige Evans, 1Canoe2, and me too! Each book has thirty pages of stickers, so you can trade and stick on repeat for a long while before you’re running anywhere near low. These stickers also have a thinner profile than the cardstock stickers of our collections, making them great for things like planners where bulk can be a real concern.

My sticker book has over 2000 stickers, thanks to several pages that have lots of tiny pieces designed to be scattered around the page in the same way I often use enamel dots and mist. It has the same colour palette as the Glitter Girl collection, with lots of brights and also gold foil and iridescent holographic finishes. Because 1987 me was very serious about her iridescent holographic finishes, and just maybe this is my gift to her.

You can collect all the #StickerBook editions from HobbyLobby stores in the US, or your favourite paper craft retailer, like here.

I’ve used my #StickerBook on a few Friday Live pages now, and here’s the most recent – it is definitely possible to find plenty of stickers in this book that are not pink and purple. (But if you need pink and purple, when yeah: you are covered.)

Here’s the full Friday Live session if you want to see this page from start to finish, alongside plenty of random Friday afternoon chitchat! (This week Friday Live moves to a new time – 1:45pm UK time. You can join in live on Facebook.)

And now… which of these sticker books will make it to your collection? I can’t wait to see them on your desk and the stickers on your projects! I won’t even tell your mum if you’re up late looking at page after page of shiny stickers. I promise.

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Black cardstock is totally what comes to mind when you decide to scrapbook with rainbow-print patterned paper, right? Yep, that’s what I thought too.

Or maybe that’s not where I started at all. But that’s where the last Friday Live scrapping session took me!

The supplies for this page are a mix of the new Glitter Girl collection, Amy Tangerine’s Oh Happy Life, and green glitter Thickers in the Eclair font, which I may have been holding onto for longer than I care to admit.

Friday Live happens on my Facebook page and I’d love for you to join me! The next Friday Live is the 11th of August at 3:45pm UK time, 10:45am Eastern.

Happy scrapping! And let me know what you pair your rainbows with, of course!

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I have to admit filming the products in a new collection without getting stuck in immediately with scissors, glue, and photos is tough! It’s a hard life, I know, but with that out of the way now I can have fun actually making stuff! For my first project, I wanted to make a scrapbook page with plenty of colourful layers and other than that, I didn’t have much of a plan! But you can watch the whole process if you like.

Everything on this page is from the Glitter Girl collection. I also used a small heart punch and some grey ink, but that’s it!

The journaling for this page was something I’d already written and posted with the photo here on Instagram, though I changed the voice from ‘him’ to ‘you’ to be more consistent with my family albums. I knew I wanted to use lots of colour with this picture and its big amount of white and black, because the story is actually quite cute and whimsical. If the same photo had a more sombre story, I think it would work beautifully with a largely soft white, grey, and black colour scheme, but that just doesn’t suit the energy in this memory for me. Colour it is!

The Glitter Girl collection ships to stores in mid August, and I can’t wait to see what you make with all these colours and patterns.

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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.

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.

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.

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.

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