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

I love projects that can start with something very, very simple and work into something that still has an air of that simplicity while also having a few more layers of depth to the finished meaning. So we start with a simple list but in the end, we’ll have so much more. This Year is one of those types of projects.

You can download prompt two, the journaling worksheet, now. It’s just one page to print out, fill in and get the thoughts going in your head. We’re going to do a lot more with this than just what’s on this sheet—but this forms our foundation. We’ll be using it to formulate our design choices and our wording in the finished project, so perhaps a little different angle than the design choices we make regularly.

The next prompt will be available for download on Wednesday (21.01.09) but I’ll be chatting about the project a little bit each day here as well. And tomorrow I’ll post all our prize winners too!

For more information about This Year, see this post.

xlovesx

Comment [18]

Just in case you’re hitting refresh today… The worksheet download will be up this evening! Hope you’re having a lovely Sunday! We’re catching up with family who were away for Christmas.

Still time to enter for prizes – scroll down for more info!

xlovesx

Comment [13]

I promised a kick-off party and I promised prizes, so let’s not waste any time!

Prizes to be won:

One set of all five of my Banana Frog stamps (almost £60 retail!)
One set of Paper Chains stamps
One set of Circus Stories stamps
One set of Backgrounds stamps
One minibook kit
One $10 gift certificate to Two Peas

...and…
For one winner, I will pay your way for you and a friend on my next online workshop, which starts on the 15th of February! (registration details soon!)

How to enter and win:
Leave a comment below for one place in the draw. (If you comment more than once, your name will only go in the draw once.)
OR
Post about This Year, the free online class we’re starting, on your blog (or Facebook, delicious, etc). Link to this post in your blog post. Leave a comment below with a link to your blog post for two places in the draw. You can take a picture of your supplies for your blog post or use this picture that will keep cropping up through this project or share a photo you’ve taken after reading the getting ready prompt—absolutely whatever you fancy! It’s all part of the kick-off party so might as well pretty up blogland however you see fit!

Entries will close at midnight Sunday night – London time (GMT), so you have this weekend to party it up as we get started with This Year (which I promise is not a book of resolutions or anything of the sort, even if the name + the January timing might make it seem so). ETA: it’s just gone midnight here so I’m closing the comments. Winners will be announced tomorrow afternoon. Good luck!

There are seven prizes to be won, and it’s Friday night! What are we waiting for? Let the party begin!

xlovesx

Comment [278]

Back in January 2007, I found myself with the overwhelming desire to do something to say ‘thank you’ for all the fabulous things that had come my way from this crazy scrapbooking thing. Going places, meeting people, and later that year actually stepping away from a job that was partly amazing, partly immensely frustrating and taking a chance at taking this crazy scrapbooking thing full-time.

Now all I wonder is how I ever did this part time. I love doing this and all I want is more hours in the day to do more of it. I learned some very hard lessons in 2008, but by the end all I could think was that same feeling: I feel like I am so lucky. And since I’m never going to win an Oscar, I have to settle for my little spot in blogland to say my big thank you.

And I’m doing that with a free mini-class. It’s open to everybody, whether you read my blog all the time or you’re brand new, whether you’ve taken a class or you’ve never heard of me, I don’t mind. You don’t have to do any formal signing up, you don’t have to join anything, you don’t have to give me your name, address or first-born child. The class materials will be right here on the blog for you to download with a click. Easy enough? Shall we get on with what this class is actually about?

For the last seven years, I have made a layout called ‘Right Now’ during the week of my birthday. This year’s layout is above and you can see more about that here. The Creating Garden is filled with ideas for scrapping yourself this month and I was excited to share my little ‘Right Now’ tradition. But the current time of year also got me thinking…we do a lot of plotting out plans, hopes and resolutions in January, but not as much documenting of what just is. One of my favourite teachers from my youth used to start lessons with a brainstorming session and she encouraged us to ‘piggy-back’—which meant to listen to the other ideas that classmates shouted out, think about them and build a unique twist that makes a new idea that can be contributed to the group. That’s how these two projects are linked…an idea that has worked for seven years of layouts (so I’m obviously pretty happy that it’s worth continuing) that has been rethought and reinvented into something a little more complex that I’d like to share with anyone who is interested. And you’ll probably put your own unique spin on it too, and the cycle starts over. Are you in?

Here’s our class schedule:
15.01.09: Download the supply checklist so you can get your stash and your photos ready to go.
16.01.09: Kick-off party with a prize giveaway
18.01.09: Download the journaling worksheet so you can make a start with your notes.
21.01.09: Download part one of the construction instructions.
23.01.09: Download part two of the construction instructions.
25.01.09: Download the finishing notes.

All you have to do to download the prompts is click—the supply checklist is already there for you to download now so you can go ahead and start getting organised. ETA: Not sure why the links in the file decided to break half way through last night! Nevertheless, I’ve updated the file with fixed links now, so you can download it again if your links weren’t working. Sorry about that!

Thanks for so much in 2008. Now I hope you’ll join me for a fast start to a happy, scrappy 2009.

Who’s with me?

xlovesx

PS: Be sure to stop by tomorrow so you don’t miss out on prizes!

Comment [80]

Just two days of November left, which means Journal your Christmas starts on Monday! So, so excited for all the new stuff going into this year’s class.

Must get back to work so I can find some time to put up the Christmas decorations!

All the details for the class are here or check out pages from years past by Julie Ann, Nat, Ali, Alissa, and Karen.

xlovesx

Comment [17]

The holidays are just around the corner and in my world that means one thing for certain: it’s time to journal even more.

It’s something that started small. One year it was just me and my pen and my book, trying to take back Christmas and rediscover my love of the holiday after a few years when Christmas lacked a certain sparkle. The second Christmas, I shared the idea with a small group of crafty friends, just to see if this reclaiming idea was something that made sense outside of my head. It did. And from there, Journal your Christmas became an online class that I shared with the rest of the world. And by ‘rest of the world’, I mean we now have Christmas journallers from more than forty countries.

This is the most magical time of the year, so it’s time to make Journal your Christmas just a bit more magical yet.

Like every year, Journal your Christmas includes daily prompts from the 1st of December to the 6th of January, the twelfth day of Christmas. The 37 illustrated PDF files are delivered straight to your inbox so you can read them over your first cup of coffee and mull over each topic for a full day. There’s also an archive of the class materials online in case you can’t get to your email or in case something dreadful happens to your computer. And like every year, you can go it alone or be as social as you like, with a private discussion forum where you’ll find other Christmas journallers who will cheer you on and share your excitement, but if you prefer to stick to the prompts only, that’s completely fine too. And like every year, if you’re participated once, you can join us every Christmas for as long as you like at no extra cost.

But what’s not like every year? Well, there’s definitely a bit of extra kick this year. A few kicks, perhaps.

A kick-start for your writing…
Journal your Christmas isn’t just for crafty types. If you love to write or want to improve your writing, you’ll have thirty-seven different topics for daily journal entries, whether you use your favourite pen, a typewriter ribbon or a blog to compile your stories. Each prompt offers a few quick tips for making your story that little bit more memorable.

A kick-start for your photography…
Rather document Christmas through your viewfinder than by picking up a pen every day? Or just wishing your Christmas photos had a bit more sparkle? This year we’ve got experts on board! Fabulous photographers share their secrets for taking your holiday photos to the next level, from family portraits to Christmas lights to making Christmas morning photos into works of art.

A kick-start for your crafting…
For the past few years, the daily prompts have featured one or two scrapbook pages per day to provide visual stimulation for you crafty types. This year the visuals get a big kick: you’ll see more than 250 amazing pages over the 37 days, and that doesn’t include the hundreds more you can view in real time as participants share their work online.

So can you handle all that kick into the best Christmas ever? Sign ups are open now. I hope you’ll join us this Christmas — or gift the class to a friend!

xlovesx

Share on Facebook

Comment [99]

That’s better—we have a bit of light now so we can have some pictures! Next weekend I am teaching four classes at the Skrapztacular Christmas weekend—two layout classes and two project classes on Saturday.

Yuletide Magic is the first layout class—and we actually make two pages in class because we’ll use die-cut paper and cardstock lace to create two pages back to back, so when it goes in your album you can see right through it. There are two colour options for this class (you choose when you arrive) so although one is certainly Christmas themed, there is also a second colour option that could go with a wider variety of photo themes. And this is a class that you can add the photos either on the day or later (which is a bit rare for me!) so you don’t really even need to plan anything. The kit includes everything you need to make the double-sided die-cut layouts plus an additional 12×12 page to construct outside of class. Click here to book.

Sing, Sparkle & Shine is the other layout class and it too is two pages, and you’ll even have more left over in the kit to make two more after that, so it’s a blingy kit for four whole layouts. We’ll be working with a mix of new and vintage bling as well as glass, paint and a few other little tricks. Again there are two kit options so on the day you can choose something in Christmas colours or brighter florals. There are only a couple spots left for this one, so click here to book if you fancy!

I want to show you a bit more on the two project classes—one is a fabric book (I’m packing my sewing machine!) and one is linked to Journal your Christmas, where we’ll make the album together so you’re ready to go when December hits…so I’ll share those two classes with you tomorrow!

More info on the retreat is here and there is a chat thread here if you want to say hello to others who will be there!

xlovesx

PS: Tomorrow I am going to get caught up on all my email from when I was away, so if you’re waiting for a response, you should hear from me soon! Thanks for your patience!

Comment [16]

It’s not quite as fun as more wedding stories I want to share, but I still wanted to give you the heads up: all archived classes are on sale in the shop this weekend. Archived just means that these are scrapbooking classes that have already run and won’t be run on a set schedule in the future, but you can still sign up and download all the materials to work on the project at your own pace. You still get access to the forum for that class, but it may be a bit quiet (though actually, it may not). You could always convince a friend to sign up too then you’d have a guarantee of someone to talk to!

The sale is for this weekend only and includes:
When I Grow Up (including guest artists Joy Madison, Rosemary Waits, Nisa Fiin, Marcy Lambert, Jen Tillman, Stacy Fike, Alissa Fast and Natalia Harandon)
You Think You Know Me (including guest artists Anne Parry, Cheryl Johnson, Venessa Matthews and Kristina Contes)
There’s No Place Like Home (including guest artists Kate Bucci, Beshka Kueser, Allison Kimball and Barb Novak) (There’s also a kit to match.)
Worth a Thousand Words
My Freedom

Sale prices are valid just until Sunday night and only when purchased through the store, which means your transaction will be in priced in pounds. But the store takes cards in any currency, and you can even check your local currency against the pound here if you’re wondering what that price is in ‘real’ money.

If you sign up for a class during the sale, you will receive access to all the class materials on Monday. (If you’re new to our classes, you can speed this along by registering your name and password for our forum where you will be able to access the classes.) Your access to the class is permanent, so you can sign up now and leave the project for a rainy day if you like.

Sheesh, that’s more detail than I first thought! So here’s the short version: Hey! Stuff’s on sale! Cool!

Have a fabulous weekend! Happy scrapping!

xlovesx

Comment [146]