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

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This week Glitter Girl can be found under a giant pile of layered embellishments, with pop dots stuck to her fingers, face and hair! She answered this question about adding depth to the embellishment on scrapbook pages and then used it as an excuse to add more than a little embellishment to a new layout – the title page of an album filled with pictures from the Harry Potter film studio tour.

All the supplies for this project can be found here – just scroll down to the bottom of the page to find the shopping section. That includes both heights of pop dots as mentioned in the video. I regularly use two brands so I can have two different levels of things that are raised up off the page. A pack lasts quite a long while, and they aren’t very expensive to start, so if you’re looking to add dimension to flat embellishments like stickers and die-cuts, then they will definitely be your new best friend.

Aside from that, there are plenty of things you’re likely to already have on hand that are great for adding depth. Buttons, brads, chipboard, fabric, thread and badges are all things that add depth instantly. Three-dimensional layered stickers and bold letter stickers like Thickers add depth easily since all you have to do is peel and stick. But don’t ignore the background! If you really want to great depth, you need to build something flat first, so look at stamp designs you can use for many themes and don’t be afraid to cover up much of the stamped design or a paper element. By adding that extra detail to the flat background, your raised elements will create even more depth.

This isn’t a Glitter Girl layout, but I thought this was as good a time to share it as any! My Harry Potter album has just three layouts at the moment – the ‘Welcome to Hogwarts’ title page, the ’5 girls 1 enchanted car’ page here and this one with us knocking on the Dursleys’ door on Privet Drive. The layering on this one is different but follows the same principles – build up the flat layers first (in this case it’s with ink splatters and washi tape), then build up with various dimensional items (papers on pop-dots, dimensional stickers, Thickers letters, badges and brads) and don’t be afraid to make sure everything is overlapping and close together. I think that is probably the thing that tends to go wrong with layering from time to time – for fear of covering up the things we like, the embellishments get spread too far apart and then they don’t read as one united element but rather lots of different things. If your layers aren’t making you as happy as you would like, try pushing them closer together and see if that’s the solution. (Supplies for this page are all by American Crafts – find them here.)

This week, Glitter Girl challenges you to build depth in the embellishment of your project, then share the results in the gallery! You can also leave a link in the comments here if you like.

Onward, covered in glitter, my dear scrapbookers!

The Adventures of Glitter Girl is a weekly series on Two Peas in a Bucket, and goes live every Wednesday. I’ll share each adventure here shortly after that. I hope you enjoy her quests for crafting happiness, and if you ever have a scrapbooking dilemma yourself, you can always call her to action on the message board.

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This week Glitter Girl posts her first double page layout! This week’s adventure is about extending single page sketches to double page layouts, something being discussed here on the general scrapbooking message board. Her adventure takes her through the creation of a two page layout with four 4×6 photos, starting with this single page sketch meant for two photos.

You can find a full list of supplies here. If you’re looking for additional ways to include more photos over a two page spread, you might find 4×6 Photo Love useful too – especially November.

If you’re thinking kits are a strange choice of embellishment for photos of a bridge, fair enough (though there are map prints in the kite design, so there is at least one tiny bit of travel theme, I promise). There’s an interesting discussion brewing on that topic here, if you have an opinion either way on whether all embellishments should hold relevant symbolism or whether vaguer connections or total randomness are fair enough on your pages.

This week Glitter Girl challenges you to create a double page using any single page sketch, then share the results in the gallery! To get you started with sketches, you might try the two sketch resources at Two Peas – Stretch your Sketch by Jen Gallacher or Super Sketches by Kelly Purkey. You can also find plenty of ideas in sketch of the week or you’re welcome to use a sketch from any other source too. – and share it in the Two Peas gallery. You can also leave a link in the comments here if you like.

Onward, covered in glitter, my dear scrapbookers!

The Adventures of Glitter Girl is a weekly series on Two Peas in a Bucket, and goes live every Wednesday. I’ll share each adventure here shortly after that. I hope you enjoy her quests for crafting happiness, and if you ever have a scrapbooking dilemma yourself, you can always call her to action on the message board.

Comment [14]

On the twenty-second of every month, we bring you Gardeners’ Digest – a blog hop of scrapbooking news from the Garden Girls at Two Peas in a Bucket! Since last month, I’ve had five different videos at Two Peas: scrapbooking about yourself, making a scrapbook sketch your own, a quick lesson in mixing letter stickers, thoughts on handwriting, and ideas for using your sticker stash.

This month we have a brand new face in the garden: Marcy Penner has joined the team and will inspire you with her love of layers and dreamy photos.  

This month my shopping basket has been filled with spring and summer colours, and I love that the good releases just keep coming this year.  (My bank balance may not share my enthusiasm.) I just placed a new order with Two Peas this week and it includes October Afternoon Cakewalk, Studio Calico Heyday, Jenni Bowlin Wren, Crate Little Bo Peep and new Doodlebug letter sticker sets.  Have you been scrap shopping this month? What collections have caught your eye?

This month I’ve been loving Amy Heller’s workshop on colour so much that I’m going to buy a seat in class for one of you who comments today, making today’s prize a $25 value.  To enter, just leave a comment on this post! Entries close at the end of next Thursday, UK time, and the winner will be announced on Friday.

Now, once you’ve left that comment, remember to click on over to the next Garden Girl. Your next stop is the positively lovely Julie, a blog filled with stamping beauty. And enjoy the digest posts from all the Garden Girls!

Gardeners’ Digest is a monthly update from the Garden Girls, the design team at Two Peas in a Bucket. To keep up with the Garden Girls throughout the month, check out the garden gallery, find us on Twitter or subscribe to all our blogs with just a couple clicks.

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Glitter Girl has a sticky situation on her hands this week: scrapbooking with stickers! It started with this discussion on the message board, and Glitter Girl’s adventure took her through two layouts: one using the themed stickers in the new “Shoreline collection”: from American Crafts and another using a mix of stickers from different manufacturers and collections.

You can find all the products mentioned in this week’s video right here, though that set of glittery stickers has already sold out in the sale today! But all the sticker books are there, as are all the papers in today’s video. You’ll also find an additional video on that page with Shannon Tidwell’s top tips for using border stickers, if you have more of those in your stash.

Speaking of American Crafts, it’s actually a sticker-themed week on their blog! Check out those projects here for some further ideas on using their stickers.

The second layout in today’s adventure is one that can be used with plenty of part-used sticker sheets and it’s great with Instagram or Hipstamatic images if you find yourself with those square photos to scrap… otherwise you can crop a square from a more traditional photo. Either way, you don’t need much else to the rest of the page since all the embellishment comes in those squares. I’m sure you could also adapt this idea to Project Life when working with those smaller pockets. The JBS Hodge Podge stickers are a real winner for mixing different brands of stickers – they provide a nice neutral design to bring all the other elements together.

This week Glitter Girl challenges you to use your own handwriting on a crafting project- no matter what happens – and share it in the Two Peas gallery. You can also leave a link in the comments here if you like.

Onward, covered in glitter, my dear scrapbookers!

The Adventures of Glitter Girl is a weekly series on Two Peas in a Bucket, and goes live every Wednesday. I’ll share each adventure here shortly after that. I hope you enjoy her quests for crafting happiness, and if you ever have a scrapbooking dilemma yourself, you can always call her to action on the message board.

Comment [11]

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I’m sure Glitter Girl was born with all her scrapping skills fully developed, but that is definitely not the case for me. Especially when it comes to handwriting. I got in so much trouble at school for terrible handwriting. Even though it got so much better with repetition, I had such a complex about it, thinking it still looked like that third-grade scrawl that I would have to rub out and trace again, over and over. On my first few years of scrapbook pages, everything is carefully pencilled and printed. Then I gave up handwriting entirely and typed every bit of journaling for the next few years after that. It was only when I was faced with life without a printer that I started to write by hand again and since then, I’ve never gone back really. I think I’ve printed my words three times in the past seven years? Something like that. I still don’t think my writing is perfect but I have reached a point where my penmanship and I are on speaking terms and we understand each other. I’ll take that as a win.

So this week, Glitter Girl takes on a question about what to do with written mistakes. The simplest answer? Write it again and paste it over the top! Easy. Again something that would never happen to Glitter Girl, but one of my most embarrassing moments demonstrating at a craft show involved a customer looking closely at a sample page for ages, then announcing that she had counted and there were thirteen layers on paper in one spot. And I immediately knew why: I had made twelve mistakes. Sometimes less is more, but on my scrapbook pages? Usually more is more. More mistakes, more second chances, more layers, more patterns, more colour. All sounds fine to me!

Today’s video has three parts – the kit of supplies at the beginning, then the step-by-step process of the layout and then we start talking about handwriting once the layout is about two-thirds complete. (If you’re only interested in certain parts, you can of course skip to what you want to see!) If you fancy crafting with that specific kit of goodies, you can find the Pieces of Me kit listed here. Just scroll down the pages until you reach the supply list and pop it in your bucket! Glitter Girl also shares some of her top tips for handwriting on that page too. (And if you’re interested in learning more about what to write rather than just how to write the alphabet in an aesthetically pleasing fashion, you might consider True Stories, my journaling workshop that can be taken any time in a self-paced format.

This week Glitter Girl challenges you to use your own handwriting on a crafting project- no matter what happens – and share it in the Two Peas gallery. You can also leave a link in the comments here if you like.

Onward, covered in glitter, my dear scrapbookers!

The Adventures of Glitter Girl is a weekly series on Two Peas in a Bucket, and goes live every Wednesday. I’ll share each adventure here shortly after that. I hope you enjoy her quests for crafting happiness, and if you ever have a scrapbooking dilemma yourself, you can always call her to action on the message board.

PS: Glitter Girl will be looking for a few extra good topics over the next couple weeks, so don’t be afraid to ask away!

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Last month I put together a little video that I thought would make quite a few people roll their eyes. It’s just forty minutes of me scrapbooking, starting with a kit and working on pages until it’s all gone. That was eight layouts later, starting with a kit of about $40 (including two long-term items – a stamp set and a bottle of mist). I had no idea that it would strike such a chord.

First Jenn at Live.Teach.Create. started this challenge and invited her readers to create a similar kit from their own supplies, then scrap until it was gone. And this month, the Counterfeit Kit Challenge decided to make it their June project, and they invite you to join in the fun and see how many pages you can make… all by choosing things from your existing stash of scrapbooking supplies.

Now, just in case you use those supplies and fancy something a bit new, you can also purchase the original kit in my video here. Just add one of each element that you want, and presto: a kit for getting crafty! (And just a little advance notice: I’ve just picked out the supplies I’m using for a new project along these lines, so this sort of flexible kit may become a regular thing at Two Peas if enough people like the idea!)

Anyway, I just wanted to say how humbled and thankful I am that so many scrappers find the videos like this to be useful and helpful in using that stash. I love to hear scrappers say they are creating more and collecting less. (Not that there’s anything wrong with collecting if you have plenty of space to save all that pretty paper! I have days when I am definitely envious of a big space to store such prettiness!) If you found this idea useful, I hope you’ll take up one or both of those challenges and I hope your stash proves exceptionally useful!

xlovesx

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This week, Glitter Girl tackles a bit of tricky title typography… or what to do when you’re running out of letter stickers! In this discussion on the message board, the question specifically came up to how to make mixed-font titles without it going all wrong, so Glitter Girl has a few hints to share with you!

Truthfully, I could spend an entire workshop discussing things to do with letter stickers, so this week Glitter Girl focused on just that specific question, but she also curated a collection of other examples for you! You can find that here, with an ongoing collection of ideas for mixed letter stickers.

All the supplies featured this week can be found here. Just scroll down and you can add anything you fancy! There are lots of Thickers and letter stickers to choose from, plus badges from Hello Forever and several items from the Amy Tangerine Sketchbook collection.

Three things to keep in mind for great letter sticker titles:
…keep the height relatively similar, unless you’re trying to make some sort of point with certain letters larger (like spelling a second word)
…arrange them on a common baseline, and keep the letters close together. Both of these help make it easier to read a mixed-up title and make it look less like a ransom note. Both awesome.
…choose the colours from things that already exist on your page, even if they only appear in a tiny little area.

And now, put those tips to use! This week Glitter Girl challenges you to mix your letter stickers to create a title and/or subtitle on your project, then share it in the Two Peas gallery. You can also leave a link in the comments here if you like.

Onward, covered in glitter, my dear scrapbookers!

The Adventures of Glitter Girl is a weekly series on Two Peas in a Bucket, and goes live every Wednesday. I’ll share each adventure here shortly after that. I hope you enjoy her quests for crafting happiness, and if you ever have a scrapbooking dilemma yourself, you can always call her to action on the message board.

Comment [7]

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You know that big giveaway that closed yesterday? Scroll down to the end of this post for the winner!

This week one of the topics up for the discussion on the general scrapbooking message board was whether it was considered ‘cheating’ to use a sketch for your scrapbook page. Glitter Girl says not at all – sketches shared by blogs, magazines and indeed Two Peas itself – are there to be useful for you so that’s their entire purpose. And of course the resulting page can become true to your style when you take care to add to, subtract from or otherwise edit the sketch from its original form to what is most suitable for your scrapping.

You can find a full shopping list for everything featured in this video here. On that page you’ll also find links to three free resources for sketches at Two Peas – Kelly Purkey’s Super Sketches (12 lessons of a sketch plus different interpretations), Jen Gallacher’s Stretch your Sketch (12 lessons with videos showcasing different ways to adapt sketches to your needs) and the archive of sketch challenges (including the current challenge with a sketch by Amy Heller).

This page started with a sketch by Kelly Purkey (here), and this was a sketch in the style I tend to imagine in my mind – the sketch gives just a general idea, then you can add what you like as you go. I love sketches that have plenty of room for that reinterpretation – I prefer more open space on the sketch than everything to be determined exactly from the beginning.

This page started with a sketch by Jen Gallacher (here) and this one was not a sketch I would normally pick, as it fills the page more and includes a lot of photos, including a bunch of smaller prints. But sketches can be interpreted in your own style, of course! I swapped six small photos for one 4×6 photo of six people and replaced an additional two photos with a pocket for writing.

This week Glitter Girl challenges you to create a page inspired by either of the two sketches and share it in the Two Peas gallery. You can also leave a link in the comments here if you like.

Onward, covered in glitter, my dear scrapbookers!

The Adventures of Glitter Girl is a weekly series on Two Peas in a Bucket, and goes live every Wednesday. I’ll share each adventure here shortly after that. I hope you enjoy her quests for crafting happiness, and if you ever have a scrapbooking dilemma yourself, you can always call her to action on the message board.

Gardeners’ Digest Giveaway Winner!
Thanks so much for all your entries into the big giveaway – we had just over five hundred at the closing time, so that means our winner gets $10 to spend at Two Peas, the exclusive Oh Happy Day stamp set by Studio Calico and Hero Arts, five rolls of washi tape and the Pieces of Me Studio Calico kit! That’s a bunch of stuff! And here’s our lucky lady:

And her goodies are on their way!

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