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

With book one nearly ready, I’m currently on the lookout for layouts for our second volume which will be in stores this summer.

If you’re interested in submitting to this call, please email me with a photo of the pages you would like to submit. An image around 600 pixels wide is ideal — please do not send full-size photographs straight from your camera. (If you don’t know how to resize the image with your own software, you can do this at Picnik online.)

Submissions of both digital and paper projects are welcomed from anywhere in the world. Please keep in mind that paper pages will need to be posted to the UK for photography. Your pages will be returned when the book goes to press.

I’m currently looking for layouts for these themes and techniques:
Girls (any age)
Boys (any age)
Summer
Outdoors
Pets
Love
About Me: Crafting (layouts about your crafting projects, be they scrapping, sewing, or anything else creative)
Pages with machine stitching
Pages with detailed borders (the border can be anywhere on the page)
Pages inspired by this template (paper or digital)
Interactive pages
Pages with an interesting focal point, like a unique frame or large photo or anything else that draws the eye to one point on the page

Please keep in mind that all submissions should be unpublished and your own work. A little clarification about whether pages posted online can be submitted: yes, given a few guidelines. We would prefer pages with fewer than 100 views in a gallery or on your blog but will consider those with up to 1000 views. You will need to be able to take your pages offline until the book is out if your pages are chosen. Pages shouldn’t have won contests or been posted on websites where you can’t take them offline. If your pages posted online fit those guidelines, you’re all good to go!

This call closes on the 17th of February. Successful submissions will be requested on the 18th and 19th via email.

Looking forward to seeing your favourite pages!

xlovesx

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_{Supplies include the ever-so-lovely Jolly by Golly collection from Cosmo Cricket and journaling paper by Making Memories.}

Throughout 2009, I’ve led a weekly challenge at UKScrappers called Scrap Like You Mean It, and we’re in the final few weeks of that year-long adventure. We’ve scrapped with different materials, different topics, different sizes and different designs to make sure we made time each week for something fun and crafty.

This week’s challenge is a sketch challenge based on the layout above from the December issue of Scrapbook Inspirations. The sketch is also available as a free digital download.

Click to download this sketch as a digital page template in psd format.

The challenge runs through the end of next Wednesday and I’d love to see your pages! Paper, hybrid and digital all welcome! Find this week’s challenge discussion here on UKScrappers. UKS members can upload their pages to the Scrap Like You Mean It gallery, or you can play along by leaving a link to your page in the comments here.

If you’re downloading the template, it would be lovely if you said hello! I hope you find it useful.

Happy scrapping!

xlovesx

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By now many of you have heard the news that the next issue of Scrapbook Inspirations will be the last, as it was announced late last week. Perhaps I hadn’t said anything here just yet because I was in a bit of denial. But also because it was admittedly quite difficult to read speculation from others as to how this happened, why this happened, how long it had been happening. It is very difficult to see speculation from the other side, when part of you wants to say ‘No, really, that’s not how it worked’ but really the end result is the same: after the Christmas issue, there will be no regular, monthly issue. I’ve worked on this magazine since issue two, and over the past few years have done more work behind the scenes, so inevitably it has been very sad news.

In a way, coming to work for SI came from a similar experience, going away with some scrapping friends for a weekend having just learned of the end of Scrapbooking Memories and More, a magazine we had worked on back when things like that were really in their infancy in the UK. We had all been upset about it individually and by the time we headed home, we had banded together in hopes of working together on something, somewhere. And SI gave us that opportunity and trusted us with ideas that went from silly conversations and rough pencil sketches into real articles. Sixty issues later, that is still a magical feeling for me. Working with that team always had energy and creativity and I loved seeing how we would each interpret a single idea.

It has also been lovely working with new scrappers, and recently new team members, as the hobby took a step in a new direction earlier this year and we were able to see new styles evolving from British scrappers. I know these ladies will continue to be inspiring crafters, even if I don’t have that little glee of seeing their work before it goes to press.

And please indulge me as I must say a huge public thank you to Rosie, Cara and Jane, our editors. These girls are amazing and I am so sorry that such amazing people are now faced with the upheaval that comes with the end of a job. Jane, our art editor, needs a medal just for not killing me, as I often send her notes like ‘I know this article was supposed to have three layouts but now it has five. Ummmm. Sorry.’ or ‘I dropped an ink pad on this layout at the last minute. Can you fix it?’ and I would completely expect her to call me every name in the book and just refuse to make the changes, but presto, it would have all five layouts and no scary ink pad evidence, beautifully and without any swearing that I ever heard. Cara is an organisational goddess, and I have never known anyone to be so calm with changes and short deadlines. If I were her, there would have been many times I would have shouted at me for leaving things close to the deadline (ahem, I am deadline motivated, but that is an entirely different discussion) but nope, she always had everything under control. And Rosie, well, Rosie is so awesome I have no words right now. And if I did, we would both get really upset to the point that it wouldn’t be pretty in any way, so let’s just say for now that I feel incredibly lucky to have worked with her and now I’m going to try to end this paragraph really quickly before I lose it.

Less than two weeks ago, we drafted the entire 2010 editorial calendar. There is so much stuff on there that makes me excited. Here’s to hoping it finds its place, even if it’s not where we first thought.

xlovesx

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_{Click to download layered .psd template.}

Every month, Scrapbook Inspirations includes a sketch and six corresponding scrapbook pages, but how about a little bit more? Karen Cole contributed the sketch in our October issue, and it’s here today for you to download as a digital template or use as a starting point for a paper page.

_{Supplies: Cosmo Cricket Earth Love patterned papers, My Little Shoebox Mini Alpha Stickers, Bazzill Basics Dotted Swiss cardstock, and letters from American Crafts and Basic Grey.}

Here’s my paper page derived from the sketch — with some Cosmo love, which I do believe has developed into a requirement for every page lately! Quite happily, I might add. Their papers always look so lovely.

_{Supplies: papers by Meredith Fenwick, Holly McCaig and The Queen of Quirk Worn Frames by Mary Ann Wise Hand-stamped alpha by Meredith Fenwick plus title alpha & flowers from Paislee Press/Audacious Designs collab kit and spatter brush set by Rhonna Farrer.}

And a little something digital from the layered template — photos from the Japan Festival held in East London a few weeks back. Crowded but delicious fun.

(By the way, does anyone else suffer from a Juno-induced problem with Benihana? I can’t walk by the place or hear it referenced without saying…either to myself or aloud..that the plan is to go to Benihana, then the prom, then Vijay’s parents’ cabin. Seriously, it’s a problem. Thankfully I am easily distracted back again by Japanese food. Otherwise I will get really angry about Katrina Devorte, perhaps. And no one wants to see that. Wait. It’s just me, isn’t it? Rubbish. Back to scrapbooking now.)

You can also catch Karen’s original layout and Rachel Ward’s layout for more inspiration.

We’re always looking for layouts that our readers create when they’ve been inspired by something in the magazine, like the sketch. If you tell us about them, you might even find your page on the SI blog or on the pages of the magazine. So it’s your turn now: let’s see what you do with this sketch. If you upload your page online, make sure to leave a link in the comments so we can find your page!

xlovesx

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Sometimes magazines are so frustrating in terms of keeping quiet about exciting things! Subscriber copies of the new issue are already in the post, so we can finally let the cat out the bag!

A very warm welcome to our new extended team at Scrapbook Inspirations.

From the top left, that’s…
Andrea Gourley
Anita Mundt
Anne Parry
Charlotte Poole
Cheryl Johnson
Chloe Harp
Helen Miles
Jane Dean
Jen Naulls
Jo-Anne Cavanagh
Julie Kirk
Karen Cole
Kathy Bridgwater
Laura Buckingham
MaryAnne Walters
Morag Cutts
Sam Ball
and me!

_{Cake paper by Jill McDonald.}

These ladies have been a blast to work with so far and I can’t wait to see their debut in the new issue. You can get a sneak peek of issue 58 here – and subscriber copies are already on their way so these faces may be in your post today.

If you’re not a subscriber, the new issue will be on the newsstand this Friday, the 18th of September, throughout the UK. And of course you can always subscribe.

xlovesx

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~Supplies: Bazzill cardstock, American Crafts Thickers, Doodlebug letter stickers, Making Memories stamps and ribbon, Fiskars border punch.~

It was my turn to put forth a sketch for this month’s Sketch Collection column in Scrapbook Inspirations. My favourite thing about this column is just a little bit awkward: I always love the contributors’ layouts far more than my own! But the boss never lets me change my layout at the last minute, so I’m always stuck with that first page I made from the sketch. There are five additional pages in the magazine, but you can see pages by Lisette and Jen on their blogs to get an idea of their yummy pages.

If you read the fine print rather than just looking at the pictures, you’ll already know that we added the sketch in a digital layout format as a free download — you can find it here, even if you didn’t read the fine print in the magazine! That template is what I used for the hybrid page above — the middle section of the layout was created digitally and printed out on an A4 sheet of photo paper, then the paper embellishments were added from there. Even better, you can also download a second version of this template just from me by clicking here. The second template is a bit more suited to a full digital page I think, but you can use either for your digital or hybrid projects. Both templates are .psd files, ready to go in Photoshop or Photoshop Elements. Enjoy!

So this month’s sketch looked something like this:

The space in the middle was the part I was most interested in when the pages started to come in. It can be filled with journaling, patterned paper, a border, a larger photograph…lots of options.

And since the article was done and dusted, I’ve been able to use it a few more times. Like this page that was featured on the Banana Frog Blog.

~Supplies: Bazzill Dotted Swiss cardstock, BasicGrey patterned paper, American Crafts Thickers (and these), Doodlebug border stickers, 7gypsies word stickers and Banana Frog stamps.~

And this fully digital page made with the layered template…

_{Supplies: Study Hall kit by Jen Allyson, Swirls by Rhonna Farrer}

So of course, I think there’s a need for a bit of a challenge, right? We’re always looking for layouts that our readers create when they’ve been inspired by something in the magazine, like the sketch. If you tell us about them, you might even find your page on the SI blog or on the pages of the magazine.

Your turn now: let’s see what you do with this sketch. If you upload your page online, make sure to leave a link in the comments. If you don’t upload your pages but still want to share, email me pretty please!

Happy scrapping!

xlovesx

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