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

The summer idea book from Scrapbook Inspirations is available now with its pretty-in-pink cover. This edition features pages about summer, the outdoors, girls, boys, pets, plus workshop articles on outdoor photography, detailed borders, interactive pages and machine sewing. There’s also our regular Sketch Collection, the scraplift feature Take it up a Step and Colour Story with lots of projects in my favourite colour combination for this summer. And more than £28 in free downloads for our readers too!

This edition is stocked at some WHSmiths stores and is available for online ordering as well. I know there were significant issues with the online order fulfilment with the last book (trust me – I was frustrated too!), so I actually held off in posting this until I could place an order and give you an honest account of the ordering process. I ordered my copy from here last Tuesday evening and I received it in the post today (Wednesday), meaning the current UK delivery time is one week. I even ordered under The Boy’s name so it wouldn’t stand out, just in case, so I do think this is an accurate measure of how long it will take you to receive your copy. Orders are being shipped by a different contractor than before: nothing to do with me, but I am thankful for it nonetheless. That same order page will let you send a copy to a friend as a gift or order a copy to an international address. The prices there include shipping: £10.99 for the UK, £11.99 for Europe and £12.99 for anywhere else in the world. Or if you happen upon a WHSmiths who is stocking it, you’ll find it on the shelf for £9.99. (For Londoners, I found it at Waterloo Station of all places! The shop that is right in the centre of the station had it on the bottom shelf behind the regular craft magazines.)

If you’re in the US, it will appear in Barnes and Noble and some Borders stores sometime in the next two weeks I believe. Unfortunately the import/export process seems to mean there isn’t an exact release date, but rather just when it arrives!

On a sad note, this is the last printed edition of Scrapbook Inspirations. It is my favourite of the books we have been working on, so I’m happy it was printed, but of course sad that the series won’t continue. I know there are things that were not ideal about this book, like the higher price when advertising was minimised or the harder-to-find distribution, but those were things that were always outside of my control. On the editorial side, it has been lovely to get to know even more scrappers and publish our favourite pages from all the submissions. And I really must thank Jane, Helen and Jenny who took a stack of layouts and pages of my crazy notes and made it into such pretty books. They are amazingly talented women and it has been a pleasure to work with them over these last six months.

If you had sent in pages for book 3, we are currently waiting on a few things to know what our options are for publishing your layouts in other titles, like our sister magazine Papercraft Inspirations. Your layouts are safe and will be returned, of course. But right now we’re waiting to see how many we can publish in another format, and when I know the result of that consultation, I’ll be in touch with all of you to let you know. Thanks for your patience.

And just to show you exactly how long I could wait before scrapping at least one photo from last weekend’s tea party, I made this page this morning, with pretty papers from The Girls’ Paperie and a lovely older collection – Adele from Rouge de Garance. Now I just can’t wait for the giant stack of photos I’ve ordered to arrive!

xlovesx

Click here to order your copy of the new Scrapbook Inspirations Ideas Book!
UK delivery time of one week.

Comment [29]

Hey there. My name is Shimelle and I seem to be living in crazydeadlineworld. How about you? (Actually it’s okay as it is all fun work! It just never fails to amaze me how things bunch up on the calendar.) But I wanted to take a minute to let you know two things…

First, volume two of Scrapbook Inspirations Ideas Books will hit UK shelves on the 8th of June. It’s our summer edition and it’s pink this time! Also, if you have volume one, be sure to go download your free kits from Two Peas, as the code expires at the end of May. (And all the elements are printable so don’t miss out!)

Second, I’m looking for a dozen fabulous minibooks to feature in an upcoming project. Would you be interested? If so, please send me an email and let me know the basic topic of the minibook you would like to create and a link to your blog or page gallery. Don’t worry about project details just yet. I’ll be in touch with more details over the coming week if your book looks like a good match to the project. Thanks!!

xlovesx

PS: Scrapamia girls: it was lovely to meet you all last weekend! PDF is coming to you tomorrow, so watch your inbox!

Comment [8]

With our first edition currently available and volume two moving toward the final stages of preparation, we’re searching for fabulous pages to feature in volume 3, the autumn edition of Scrapbook Inspirations.

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 with a complimentary copy of the book when the book goes on sale.

I’m currently looking for layouts for these themes and techniques:
Autumn
Teens
Home
Celebrations
Family trees
Your favourite things
School
Layouts featuring fabric
Great ways of using stickers
Pages with five or more photos
Layouts created with your favourite scrapbooking gadgets
Pages that feature one area of detail surrounded by a fair amount of white or unembellished space

Please keep in mind that all submissions should be unpublished and your own work. 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 a given date if your pages are chosen. Pages shouldn’t have won contests or been posted on other 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 25th of April. Successful submissions will be requested during the following week.

Looking forward to seeing your favourite pages!

xlovesx

Comment [8]

I know some of our regular readers were very sad to hear of the end of Scrapbook Inspirations’ monthly issues last December, and it was certainly sad news for all of us involved behind the scenes, both our full-time staff at the office and our team of contributors. But I am so very excited to report Scrapbook Inspirations is officially back on the scene.

Instead of thirteen magazines a year, we’re bringing you quarterly books. We’ve changed the format to bring you more ideas and less clutter, and there’s only a tiny amount of advertising. Each volume will include a variety of themed galleries sharing beautiful pages in a range of styles as well as articles on techniques, composition, photography and colour. In volume one, we’ve focused on some classic scrapbooking themes like family, weddings, babies and travel and there’s also an article on improving your everyday candid photographs, great looks with hand-stitching, ten techniques to put your patterned papers to work and a range of projects with one of my favourite colour combinations. We’ve also kept some of your favourite features from the monthly issues, like a revamped edition of Sketch Collection. We’re also bringing you special codes for free downloads from some of your favourite scrapbooking websites.

Volume One hits stores on the 31st of March. In the UK, you’ll find it at WHSmiths, Sainsbury’s and newsagents. It is on its way to the States as well, so keep an eye in the magazine section at your local Barnes and Noble and some other stores too. But even easier, you can order it online and have it delivered right to your door. Click here to order your copy now and it will be on its way to you on the 31st of March! The prices include postage: £10.99 for the UK, £11.99 to Europe and £12.99 to the rest of the world. (If you buy it at the store in the UK, it will be £9.99 — I’m not sure what the price will be in dollars in the stores just yet.)

We shared a few preview copies with readers at the Stitch and Craft show and it was lovely to see people excited that SI is not gone! As far as contributors, you’ll see familiar faces from our team and also new faces who have joined us to share their amazing pages. As the editor, this project is obviously pretty near and dear to my heart — but I hope you enjoy this new publication as much as I do! I have more bonus features to share with you online on and after the 31st of March too, so don’t be a stranger!

Contributors for Volume One, your layouts will be returning to you with a copy of the book very soon.

In other news, it’s rather an exciting week all round here! Tomorrow afternoon we’re having a Shimelle Digitals blog hop with some brand new releases and this Wednesday you’ll find a new step-by-step tutorial for the minibook class I taught this weekend at Stitch and Craft. So lovely to see so many of you in class — please do stop by on Wednesday afternoon for the post we discussed!

It’s sunny here today too — may this be a good week for everyone!

xlovesx

Comment [19]

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

Comment [17]

_{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

Comment [24]

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

Comment [43]

_{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

Comment [5]