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

I am still loving the last bits of wedding decoration in central London. Today I passed the offices of The Lady magazine and the entire building is wrapped in giant purple ribbon, like a wedding gift. So sweet. But I have the very best wedding story to tell you.

On Friday, I headed to Charing Cross as I usually do, but I brought The Boy along because well, I needed him to babysit my luggage while I was in class, believe it or not! And he could happily work on his project sat in Starbucks so this seemed ideal. Upon arriving at Charing Cross station, he first comments on how many people are milling about the station at lunchtime on a Friday. And then adds ‘But why are they all carrying Union Jacks?’

Darling, it’s the wedding.

‘What wedding?’

I kid you not.

So, a wedding layout then, even if my dress was less fancy than Kate’s. At least I could get away with wearing comfy shoes in the evening, right? I am very excited at how the former Miss Middleton has now brought sleeves back to wedding fashion, as a random aside! So more on topic, papers here are from Jenni Bowlin’s Be Our Guest collection. A little scrapbook info about Jenni’s papers — starting from this collection, the patterned papers are now double-sided and cardstock weight. They are seriously lush and I love that I can use them as a full page background now. The colours and the paper quality are just fabulous with the new stock, so definitely give them a try.

That ‘photographs’ stamp? Best £1 market find ever, perhaps! One of the camera stalls had it tucked away in a box of old photographer’s business cards. I couldn’t come up with a reason to buy thousands of business cards with someone else’s contact details, but asked if I could just buy the stamp and was quoted that princely single-quid sum. Also, actually useful for sending photos in the post… and usually my market purchases are not exactly practical. Unless one needs a dozen different editions of Through the Looking Glass. Maybe I’m gearing up for some epic readers’ theatre someday…

Oh, and look: it’s a single photo layout again! I didn’t even plan that. I promise.

xlovesx

_{This weekend, join us for challenges, prizes, chats and inspiration aplenty at the Two Peas three day party for National Scrapbook Day. I’m hosting a live chat on Sunday (8pm UK time / 2pm US Central time) and we’ve planned lots of other fab things for the weekend too. I would love to see you there!}

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_{©twopeasinabucket.com}

Remember when I may have mentioned that I was head over heels in love with the photo booth at Laura’s wedding? I think I may have made half a dozen photo booth layouts already but have another to share with you today. This one is from the Garden over at Two Peas – just click to see the full page. I used the chalkboard mists from Tattered Angels and decided I like the chalkboard finish more than the regular glimmer mists — it’s a great mix of opaque colour with a superfine dusting of sparkle. I am really fond of the mist + paint splatter look – I think the combination makes it look a little more purposeful. Though my recent habit of splattering paint on many projects is making it a firm requirement to wear dark nail varnish, as I keep staining my nails with the paint!

I’m also hosting the weekly photography challenge and it’s a challenge to kick it old school – by using film! Read all about it here. The challenge ends at midnight Sunday, and one entry will be chosen for a prize so consider it your invitation to go retro!

What crafty project are you working on or just finished? Tell us about it or link us up in the comments! I’d love to see what you’re making.

xlovesx

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_{Supplies: patterned papers by My Mind’s Eye, Bo Bunny and Cosmo Cricket, die cut and mini paper by Jenni Bowlin Studio, chipboard letters by Making Memories, letter stickers and border sticker by The Girls’ Paperie, bird sticker by My Mind’s Eye, word sticker by K&Company, label sticker by October Afternoon, lace rub-on by Hambly Studios and border punch by EK Success.}

As promised, a layout to start scrapping the photos from Laura’s wedding. I highly approve of her wedding colour scheme – I love scrapping with pink and green! I just had a few of the pictures printed so I could test out the various styles in the post-production. A few more little tweaks and I shall order prints of the whole lot! Exciting stuff. For a scrapbooker anyway.

In other news, there’s been a little switch up here at shimelle.com, so if you’re reading through a reader, stop by for a look. If you have any trouble with the changes, please let me know. Over to the right you’ll find all the online scrapbooking classes that are available. All the classes are available at any time – each class runs once on a ‘live’ schedule when the prompts are sent to your inbox each day, but you can also sign up at any date as an ‘archived’ class. You get full, permanent access to all the materials – you just download them from the website instead of getting them in your inbox. Two classes (Learn Something New and Journal your Christmas) run every year, and no matter when you sign up, you get to participate for as many years as you would like at no additional charge. So you can sign up any time!

I’m down to my last few days of this September visit to my hometown, and I’ve been able to meet up with some of my oldest friends, which was super lovely. I’m looking forward to heading home (and The Boy), but not until after the Britney episode of Glee, obviously! Ha.

xlovesx

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_{Supplies: Dotted Swiss cardstock by Bazzill Basics, patterned papers from Echo Park and the new Cosmo Cricket Togetherness collection, die cut by My Mind’s Eye, Thickers letters and pearl brads by American Crafts and labels by October Afternoon.}

Here’s a little start to the wedding scrapping for September! One pink and green wedding and another in yellow and grey, so I’ve stocked up on cardstock and patterned papers to match, of course!

Wearing yellow for this wedding had its own little story. Pretty shortly after Tami asked me to be a bridesmaid, she asked what colours I would or wouldn’t want to wear. I figured my vote didn’t matter really – that’s the bride’s vote! But I said something like ‘oh, I don’t mind — I just don’t usually wear yellow, but I’m fine with whatever.’ Of course a few weeks later she chose yellow! Darn the power of suggestion!

She let each of us choose our own yellow dress, so we had three very different styles. One breezy and summery, one dressy and tailored and for me, something vintage. I didn’t even go looking for this dress particularly. All I remember is looking up something on ebay and the next thing I knew, vintage yellow dress was in the search box. I’m not sure how that happened at all!

_{All photo credit to The Boy, bless him!}

So I don’t usually wear yellow, but this one I like! Do you have colours you don’t usually wear? Just curious!

Now if I don’t get the snaps from Laura’s wedding uploaded, I’ll be in trouble. Better get on to that!

xlovesx

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Laura officially has a new last name and at least a million memories of an amazing day. It was such a fabulous, fabulous wedding.

I promise to share more once I’ve had a chance to share properly with Mrs Harrison herself!

xlovesx

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_{I really love Jenni Bowlin’s butterfly rub-ons, can you tell?}

We’re off to the Sussex countryside today for what promises to be a beautiful day for the wedding of Laura and Will! If you know Laura (or her scrapbook pages!), do go send her wedding well-wishes at her blog if you fancy! I know it will make her smile when she finally gets back to her computer after the big day!

This jar of goodies is a finishing touch, and I can’t wait to see the rest of the amazing world of butterflies and bunting. I promise plenty of photos tomorrow!

But must dash for now!

xlovesx

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_{I tried out the brand new Jenni Bowlin inks and paints for this layout and I am so in love with the pink that I may need to stockpile it! I’ll show you the polka dot painting at the top in more detail soon.}

I actually blogged about my wedding dress before the wedding, but of course I couldn’t share any pictures at the time — that would have ruined the secret! I actually went to every fitting on my own because I didn’t want anyone to know about the dress. Apparently I was so secretive that some of my friends had a betting pool about what colour it would be, so I suppose in the end it may have been far more traditional than some expected!

I actually only tried dresses on at one place. I looked at some others but couldn’t commit to trying things on that just weren’t right. The fabulous girls at Candy Anthony never tried to talk me into dresses that didn’t meet my little checklist of what I had imagined in my mind. It was so refreshing to have someone take me at my word when I made blanket statements like I don’t want a strapless dress. They never tried to change my mind like so many others. The studio is an amazing little place and the in-progress dresses just visible through a doorway were just as intriguing as all the beautiful things on display. Popping in to see the dress come together was particularly cool. Taking it home in that giant bag, I don’t think I stopped smiling at all, even though I had to take it on the train during rush hour. Men were clueless and thought I had clearly gone on some sort of ridiculous shopping spree; women knew exactly what would come in a bag that big and smiled or even asked about the big day.

Originally I had imagined I would go with something a little more funky — I loved the idea of her polka dot dresses (and if this one had been in the collection at the time, it might have swayed me!) but in the end they seemed too much, and it was the simplicity of this dress that had me at hello. It wasn’t one they would bring out for an obvious choice of a summer wedding, but it turned out that sleeves were exactly what made the difference to me. I just liked the line of it all and when I asked if they thought I would melt wearing sleeves in August, the reply was Darling, you’ll be wearing a million layers of crinoline. If you melt, it will have nothing at all to do with sleeves. Oh: quite right.

And pink crinoline, yes please! Pink and white in the veil too — although given the choice again, I think I would have gone for an additional petticoat and foregone the veil, but it was hardly an issue. As much as I wish I could wear my wedding dress for other occasions, I do actually wear that pink petticoat from time to time with other skirts and dresses. Once I wound up in a Marks & Spencer in full petticoat and it was quite amusing to try to fit through the sandwich aisle in all those layers of fluff!

I have worn my dress exactly once since the wedding — for some photos taken by SJ in which we spent the day walking all over the picturesque seaside town where she lives. It’s a quiet place, so anyone who did see us seemed shocked at the idea of walking around in a white dress, and several people asked if we were going to a fancy dress party (what was SJ’s costume then? A photographer?) and some people stared a little more than what was comfortable but all in all it was a fabulous fun day and something I would totally recommend. We didn’t take lots of portrait type pictures at our wedding because we wanted to enjoy the day, so we knew something like this would be an option. Some people actually do trash the dress sessions, but I didn’t want to trash my dress in the slightest and I can assure you that it survived entirely. Perhaps another benefit of a slightly shorter dress was that I never had to worry about it dragging along the ground.

Also, I think if you have a friend who is a dab hand with a camera, this is exactly the type of photo shoot that is perfect for a friend. Don’t get me wrong – there are amazingly talented photographers out there who do bridal shoots and I’m sure the experience would be amazing! But it was also nice to have a known quantity for the support when you’re doing something a little out of the ordinary, like walking around town in your wedding dress. Some of the silly ideas we tried didn’t make for amazing photos after all, but some of them worked and some of them just happened — like when we walked along the sea front to see this gorgeous old car. The people who owned it were sitting nearby and they giggled as we tried to take the pictures quickly before anyone noticed. But really – how perfect was that?

_{More Jenni Bowlin paint here – for the stamping and painted onto the back of crepe paper to make the flower. I promise to share more paint things once it hits the stores!}

I have been trying to plan a day for The Boy to join in the photos as well but sadly he is a bit more camera shy. Seriously his suit was amazing so eventually he will have to give in to more Kodak moments at his sartorial best! Oh, and unlike my dress which was many, many months in planning, he picked out his suit about 72 hours before he walked down the aisle. And had it tailored in that time too. I kid you not.

For the record, I don’t think I have ever included so many photos of myself in one post and I’m not planning to do it again any time soon. Eeep. But many thanks to SJ Dowsett for taking these pictures for me!!

Also, I am loving the snippets of your own wedding stories that are being left in the comments this week. I can’t wait to hear your wedding dress stories now!

xlovesx

PS: I still have the giant purple bag, and although it is a ridiculous size to store, I have no intention of ever giving it up.

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Oh dresses. I do love a dress. I will happily wear a dress every single day of the week (and in fact, I am wearing two dresses as I type this, for I am also rather in love with layering and quite unsure as to what has happened to our summer weather in recent days) so today I have not one but multiple posts about dresses for weddings. Starting with my bridesmaids.

When I started, I had dreams beyond my league for the handmade creations I would sew for each of my three bridesmaids. The plan was for each girl to have a dress that was unique to her, but all made from the same fabric. All started well: something classic and feminine for Abbie, our maid of honour, something youthful but sophisticated for Cassie and something with a twinge of late eighties rock for Beks. All cut from a dusty blue starchy silk found on Berwick Street.

But it turns out that making dresses for other people is entirely different to making dresses for yourself. When I sew for myself, I just try it on before I sew each seam. By the time the dress is done, I’ve tried it on more times that I’ve actually worn some items in my wardrobe! And when you sew for someone else, it’s significantly more troublesome to get that exact fitting part right. Sadly, sewing with silk means you need to get the fit a great deal more exact than something like… jersey.

We were going fine until about a fortnight before the wedding when I made a huge mistake that just wasn’t something I could fix. And I didn’t think I had time to do the finishing touches on the other dresses and also pretty much make that one again from scratch.

Enter plan B.

Through sheer coincidence, the dresses were all quite similar from the waist down. I quite literally sat on the sofa with a seam ripper and took the tops off all three dresses. All the stitching and paneling and details of the tops were tossed to the side and I ended up with three blue skirts and their three white petticoats and one night of horrible dreams in which my three bridesmaids wore ratty old t-shirts down the aisle.

_{I promise she didn’t wear jeans during the ceremony. But somehow she still makes it look cute.}

But everything was salvageable as skirts (aside from the fact that I made one at least a full size too big and she was so polite that she just coped and carried on, bless her) and I headed to Oxford Street to find three tops that would work, now that I had overcome the barrier of ‘it’s a bridesmaid’s dress – it shouldn’t be a skirt and top‘. Oh, and then I had to get over any worries about the girls wearing black at a wedding, because I found black formal tops at Coast, a sort of corset style with lots of layers of ruched fabric. A bit like this in their current collection, but sleeveless. I was in the store for ages as I worked out with a measuring tape and a patient sales assistant. I called Abbie and she actually went to a store near her to try the same top on. I remember having real discussions with the shop girl like ‘why are you still waiting?’ ‘oh, someone is driving to another store to try it on and see what will work’… but I think I must have been too nervous to leave the store without the tops in hand, so I stayed there for quite some time. Anyway, I left with four tops for three girls, as one of them I thought was going to be in between sizes and I figured whichever one didn’t fit I could return.

Meanwhile, my grandmother sat in my flat and fixed my wobbly hems, and said nice things like It’s only because I’ve been sewing for forty years more than you when I was about to break down at some of my mistakes. (Silk is not exactly the most forgiving of fabrics, but mostly I was just on emotional breakdown from having Ruined An Entire Dress. Sigh.) Her help was fantabulous.

So on the day… petticoats (which I made quite early so they were hanging there for ages waiting for something to dress them up appropriately!), blue skirts and black tops, plus black beaded bracelets with one big rose, and blue-grey t-strap shoes from Aldo for the ceremony and blue Converse All-Stars for dancing, which happened to have a lovely print with handwritten words about love and friendship and other such sweet things.

If you fancy making skirts and petticoats, this tutorial is pretty much how I made the petticoats (and I stitched ribbon around the bottom edge for my maid of honour) and this is the process for a flared circle skirt. You don’t need a pattern for either.

And after all that sewing for nothing and the breakdown and the stress, I actually loved how these all worked out in the end.

xlovesx

PS: I never returned the fourth black top. The extra one fit me, so I kept it thinking it would be such a good go-to piece for occasions that called for dressing up. The first time I wore it, I spent the entire evening feeling like I needed to apologise to these three lovelies, since none of them ever mentioned how wholly uncomfortable it was. Bless them.

Photos in this post – with the exception of the first two – were all taken by Ben Roberts who now shoots weddings with Jay and Ben photography.

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