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

This time last week we were full steam ahead with scrapbooking challenges and discussions… and today those challenges draw to a close. It’s not too late to share your work for a chance at a prize! How about a round-up of all your options and some answers to the prizes on offer? Why certainly!

There are sixteen scrapbooking challenges. For each, create a page following the challenge and upload it to your blog or a page gallery, then share a link with the list at the end of the post. Each of the link share buttons reminds you how long is remaining to enter. If you miss the deadline, you can still share your work via the comments, but you won’t be eligible for a prize.

Speaking of prizes, for each of these sixteen challenges, one winner will be randomly selected to win a prize pack of a $10 gift certificate to Two Peas in a Bucket and a class pass to your choice of Learn Something New, Love your Pictures, Love your Pages or True Stories. Each person can only win once – in the event of a duplicate drawing, we will draw another name for that prize.

Here are the sixteen scrapbooking challenges:
Challenge 01 …scraplift a page by Jaime Warren
Challenge 02 …mixing papers
Challenge 03 …mixing styles
Challenge 04 …choose your own colour adventure
Challenge 05 …inspiration points from Wilna Furstenberg
Challenge 06 …from one to another with Relly Annett-Baker
Challenge 07 …put it in a pocket
Challenge 08 …stamp just once
Challenge 09 …take your pick
Challenge 10 …something bold with Jill Sprott
Challenge 11 …two patterns
Challenge 12 …one photo twice, with Amy Heller
Challenge 13 …scrap with a free printable from Little Musings
Challenge 14 …four sections with Jen Gallacher
Challenge 15 …scrap some rubbish photos
Challenge 16 …use your scraps with Amy Tan

And there are plenty of discussion topics. From all the comments left on these posts, two will be drawn at random to win a prize box of goodies courtesy of Two Peas in a Bucket. Just join in the discussion to enter – what could be easier than talking about scrapbooking, right?

How do you store your Thickers and letter stickers?
Where do you find inspiration?
How do you use washi tape in your crafting projects?
How do you deal with imperfect digital photos?
How did you discover scrapbooking?
How do you store scrap papers and off-cuts?
How do you make a scrapbooking page kit
How do you typically create a page?
How do you sort and organise your scrapbooking paper?
Where do you scrapbook?

And then we have one very special Grand Prize to bring it all to a close. From all the submitted layouts and all the comments in those discussions and all the pins of those challenges or discussions… all of those are going into the hat and one winner will be chosen at random. That grand prize winner will receive a fabulous workshop pack from Two Peas: you’ll get access to The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Scrapbooking, The Scrapbook Stamper’s Workshop, Collect and Create and the brand new workshop Sassy Scrapbooking. That’s a $100 value, twenty videos, twenty chapters of scrapbooking ideas and nearly two hundred exclusive scrapbook pages. And all four workshops include permanent access and a self-paced format, so there’s absolutely no rush and you can dip in and out of all the workshops as you like.

Thanks so much for all your participation in the event so far! If you have time to scrapbook or chat or pin today, it’s not too late to join in. Happy crafting!

xlovesx

Comment [38]

Don’t miss this post with a special offer on the new class!

And one final challenge to close… long-time readers may have seen this one coming! I always believe it is more fun to keep making things than to clean up, so I always like to finish on this note.

_{layout ©twopeasinabucket.com}

For your final challenge, try to make something else out of just the leftovers and paper scraps from the other things you have created. I suppose that might be easier if you did maybe three or four challenges and harder if you only did one or you’ve already finished fifteen. And of course you’re allowed a full sheet for the background or whatever else you just must have, but the idea is to create in the spirit of using whatever you had left from the things you made!

Amy Tan scrapbooks with all sorts of tiny little pieces of paper and tape, so a page like this one might be just the inspiration you need to make something from just those pieces at the side of your trimmer. See more of Amy’s work on her blog or in her page gallery, or take her workshop Collect & Create.

Don’t forget: if you’re shopping at Two Peas, using code SHMRCKS can get you free US shipping (or $5 off international shipping) and up to $10 off your next order.

To enter this challenge, create a page with your leftover paper scraps and upload it to your blog or page gallery. Leave a link here. Entries close at the end of next weekend!

PS: I’ll post a round-up in the morning with all the links and the prize info of what’s on offer for each challenge! But for now, I’m going to get some sleep. Happy scrapping, and thank you so much for joining me this weekend!

Comment [28]

I can be polite and call them ‘imperfect’ all I want, but sometimes what I really have are rubbish photos. Like completely grainy images taken from a million miles away with a 1980s point and shoot camera with expired film. There’s this sea of orange and then a tiny little blurry dot in the middle that I can only make out because I remember the day quite clearly. There is no fixing this in Photoshop, there is no making it elegant or artsy. It’s a rubbish photo, but it’s the only photo I have of a very real moment in life. So I love that photo all the same.

So I challenged myself to just let that go and scrapbook those sea-of-orange images as if they were clear as crystal and not treat them in any other way. I finished that layout late tonight. It’s totally dark. If I were to show it to you now, it would be a rubbish photo of rubbish photos. I’m not doing very well with this idea, am I? So I’ll show you that very soon, from the daylight, but you can be your own judge of the imperfect or rubbish photos in your collection that you could do with permission to just scrapbook anyway! That’s your challenge – scrap in any style, on any theme, but treat a rubbish photo (or several) like they were any other picture in your world!

To enter this challenge, share your completed project on your blog or in a page gallery, then leave a link here. Entries close at the end of next weekend!

Comment [27]

Nearly every time we work through a weekend of scrapbooking challenges here, I throw a quadrant challenge in the mix. I love pages divided into the four quarters and it works so well with 6×6 papers… but I didn’t want to make it too easy for you this time around, so I have a special challenge inspired by the work of Jen Gallacher.

_{Layout ©twopeasinabucket.com.}

You’ll need to start by dividing your page into the four quadrants, but specifically, make each of those four quarters unique. I love how she divided this page into four different sections with different elements, but because Jen kept the colour scheme to just a few shades, it all sits together so well.

And you can get a closer look at how Jen created this page from her Memory Keeping Monday video… no matter what day of the week it might be when you watch!

See more of Jen’s work on her blog or in her page gallery. Jen teaches the Scrapbook Stamper’s Workshop, which is available at any time.

To enter this challenge, create a new scrapbook page with four unique parts. Upload your project to your blog or gallery and link it up here. Entries close at the end of next weekend.

Comment [8]

Thanks so much for joining me this weekend for all the challenges and discussion! Not to worry – there are still a couple challenges left and they all remain open right through the end of next weekend, so there’s no rush to do all of that tonight. But there is a rush with just this one thing: the early bird offer for my new class.

Here’s what I can tell you so far:
…class starts on Monday the 7th of May and will run for four weeks, finishing on the 3rd of June.
…this class is not about just pages.
…this class is not about minibooks.

This class is a result of what happened when I found an album system that worked for me and made me fall in love with scrapbooking all over again.

It’s not about a single album system with steps to follow. It is definitely about options. You won’t need to buy specific supplies (though eventually you will need albums of your choice) and you won’t need to feel like you have to scrapbook certain topics.

Along the way, we’ll look at real ways to break down a story and make albums that have value to anyone, not just scrapbookers.

The class will include PDFs, videos, private message board and online chat. There is permanent access to everything so you will not have to follow along in those four weeks if they don’t suit your schedule or if you want to take more time.

In twenty-four hours I will announce the full details, including the name and how many of everything to expect and a specific run-down of what we’ll be doing throughout those four weeks. But that will be at the full price of £18 or $30. If you want to sign up within those twenty-four hours, before the full reveal, then you can take advantage of a bit of a bargain: £12 or $20. But just for this one full day: as soon as the announcement goes live tomorrow it’s full price across the board.

So if you’re ready to take a journey through from the single 12×12 to the stack of pages to a book you love, I’d love for you to go ahead and sign up!

Sorry, this special offer has ended. Please find class registration here.

You do not need a Paypal account to sign up – you have the choice when you click of secure card payment or from your Paypal account if you prefer. Please make sure you pay from a valid email address, as it is the only way I can reach you with your class supplies. You will receive a receipt for your payment via Paypal when you sign up, then tomorrow night you’ll also receive an email from me when the full class details are posted and registration opens fully. If you don’t receive that tomorrow night, please check your spam folder and if it’s not there, email me (shimelle at gmail dot com) so we can make sure your messages will reach your inbox.
ETA: Thank you for your amazing response. I need a little more time to get through the full list! All remaining early bird registrations will be processed on Tuesday! Thanks so much.

Tomorrow I will be happy to answer questions, but not until then! If you have been waiting for a new class here, then please take advantage of the discount with a little bit of mystery. If you would rather wait to know all the details, then just check back tomorrow night!

Thanks so much!

Comment [34]

There are so many things about Project Life that have had an impact on the scrapbooking industry this year, but one that has made me smile is the new surge in scrappers considering printable options for their albums. All sorts of different journaling cards and photo backings and other things to make pages attractive while remaining affordable, since you can use them plenty of times. Very cool. And extra affordable is when they are free, right?

I may have a little something for you in that case.

Click to download the free printable.
This challenge is that simple: download this free printable designed by Little Musings and use it on a project of your choice – traditional scrapbook page, something digital, your Project Life album, a card, whatever you fancy. It’s a JPG file so you can print it exactly like a photograph – you can add it to your photo library, you can digiscrap with it in Photoshop, you can open it in your word processor and change it to whatever size you want and print from there. All of those options will work.

You might also want to check out the set of cards in the top photo – they are available here, from Little Musings.

To enter this challenge, create your project with the free printable and upload it to your blog or page gallery, then link it up here. Entries close at the end of next weekend.

Comment [11]

The last of the question and answer posts for this weekend (though there are still four challenges and the class announcement left to go live before the clock ticks over to tomorrow in my time zone) brings me to this…

Where do you scrapbook?

At home? At a friend’s house? At a craft store?
At the dining table? Your desk? On the sofa, the bed or the floor?

When I first start scrapbooking, I sat cross-legged on my studenty futon and all of my supplies fit in a file box I had emptied when I finally finished accounting class. (It was required. The teacher was awful. The textbook came in three weeks before the end of term and was the most expensive book I ever had to buy and then the bookstore wouldn’t buy it back. Accounting class had the most loose paper of any class I ever took, which is saying a lot to someone who wrote a dissertation on literature.)

I now scrapbook at my standing worktable in the middle of our living room.

Between the two I’ve scrapped at dining tables and on hotel nightstands and once on a train with a friend.

By and large if I go elsewhere to scrapbook, it’s either at a friend’s house or at a weekend we’ve arranged at some place where we can all stay and not have to worry about kicking anyone’s family or partner out of the house! That picture of the pink suitcase is me ready to go to such a day – packed with an album of page kits, my tool bag and then a few extra bags of paper and embellishments thrown on top just in case. And the last minute realisation that I hadn’t packed any pop dots, so there’s a sheet of those thrown on top. That’s everything I take and I still only end up using about two percent of it. So then once I come home I’ll continue to scrap from what I packed until I’ve gone through all those page kits, for the most part!

So… where do you scrapbook?

Comment [84]

Sometimes we end up with a photo that we feel deserves special treatment on a scrapbook page. It might be a beautiful, well-staged portrait or it might be a simple snapshot that just makes us smile. We can fancy it up by printing it larger or scrapping it on its own or dressing it up with plenty of embellishments. But for this challenge, we have another idea for you.

_{Layout ©twopeasinabucket.com.}

Taking inspiration from Amy Heller’s scrapbook page, For Like Ever, take one photo you love and print it twice for the same page. You can try her treatment of one full colour and one faded image, or you can try something else that comes to your mind. Try colour and black and white or plain and covered with vellum or one big and one small… whatever you fancy as long as one photo is printed twice for the page!

See more of Amy’s work on her blog or in her page gallery.

To enter this challenge, create a new page with one photograph included twice, then upload your results to your blog or page gallery. Leave a link here, and entries close at the end of next weekend.

Comment [10]