paper: A scrapbooking update: classes and other good stuff! | pretty paper. true stories. {and scrapbooking classes with cupcakes.}

Now seems as good a time as any to do a little round-up of all sorts of bits and pieces in my corner of the world.

The Hitchhiker’s Guide
Loving getting to know scrapbooking hitchhikers from all over the world (so far, all from this planet). The message board there has so many great conversations going on – we’re talking about choosing supplies, page design, journaling, getting comfortable with your own handwriting, how to include lots of photos – all sorts of good stuff. Thanks to everyone who has stuck out their thumb and jumped on board!

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Scrapbooking is self-paced (with permanent access to all the materials) and will continue to be available, so it’s there any time you fancy. But the special offer of the bonus video on paper layering expires this week – on Thursday the 8th. You can find details on that here.

True Scrap
True Scrap is a two day online event, and next month marks its third incarnation. I’ll be teaching along with fourteen other instructors, with everything organised into an online convention format – so it’s much like booking a scrapbooking weekend at a big event, except it’s right there in your own home on the computer screen, and you get permanent access to all the classes in case you want to go back or you can’t watch everything live.

Each workshop is presented in a video format followed by a chat session where you can ask anything you would like and the instructor is there to respond. This time around I’m teaching a little something called The Perfect Collection. It’s all about taking a collection pack (or a stack of papers and a few stickers from your favourite collection) and using it right down to the last scrap to create a bunch of layouts you’ll love. It includes a set of printable diagrams for cutting your papers and notes on how to adapt and reinterpret those for different paper combinations, then in the video workshop I’ll take you through making a whole stack of layouts, including how to make the ideas work with your preferred style and your photo needs. You can use this method to create an entire album from start to finish or all these pages could be entirely different topics spread throughout all your albums, with that collection appearing here and there.

If you fancy a look at what you get with True Scrap, you might want to pick one or more individual workshops from the two previous events, so you can see what this style is all about. For the first True Scrap, my workshop was Creative Stash Diving, with my answer for boosting your productivity and using your papers rather than saving them for a special day that inevitably never comes. Then last autumn I taught Go with the Flow, featuring my system for adding meaning to an album through continuity, journaling and design – but it’s also useful for just plain finishing an album that has sat in your unfinished category for too long. Both workshops are available individually, along with others from teachers like Jennifer McGuire, Nichol Magouirk, Tracey Clark, Noell Hyman, May Flaum, Lisa Dickinson, Kristina Werner and more. Picking whatever strikes your fancy from those thirty a la carte workshops can act like a preview to the big event in the works for April.

If you do fancy the big event, it’s on the 20th and 21st of April, but there are two things to keep in mind: registration is cheaper if you sign up before the end of March, otherwise the price goes up another twenty dollars in April. So March is a better deal. AND if you decide to sign up and do so through my link, I have a pack of extras for you! Those who sign up for True Scrap 3 (the full event) through my link also receive:
…an exclusive video extension to the Starting Points series. Over this set of videos, I’ll take you through six brand new scrapbook pages from three starting points, so you can see just how varied one page starter can be. This series of videos is only available in this offer.
…a bonus PDF printable with a dozen page sketches, perfect for taking to a crop or scrapping at home. This is also exclusive to this offer and not available elsewhere.
…a class pass to your choice of either Pretty Paper Party, True Stories, Learn Something New or Love your Pictures, Love your Pages. That means you can take your pick of paper and design tricks, journaling inspiration, a month long album class or a photography project! Depending on what you pick, that’s up to a $24/£18 value. (And if you have taken all of those classes, you can gift it to a friend and be their favourite person!)
…a bonus $5 to spend at your choice of Two Peas in a Bucket, Amazon or Starbucks. (And if you’re not in the US, that can be your currency at the Amazon or Starbucks for your country if you prefer!) Just for fun.

So if you sign up from here, you’ll get the whole event (including fifteen video workshops, five project make and takes and a key-note interview with Becky Higgins) plus an extra video series, a set of scrapping sketches, an entire online class and $5 to spend somewhere fun. Which is, in general, a great big pack of scrapbooking wonderment.

Sign up for True Scrap 3 here and email me (shimelle at gmail dot com) a copy of your receipt to claim your bonus pack. Those extras will be sent on the 22nd of April, just after True Scrap!

CHA prizes
Remember at the beginning of all the CHA posts, I said I had a big batch of prizes to giveaway once they were all posted? It’s true! Except it’s taken me ages to get everything posted! Well, those are almost entirely done now so Monday evening look for a summary list that will take you through to all the different CHA posts, and entering for the prizes will continue until this Thursday with winners announced this Friday! (As a little reminder, there are ten $10 gift certificates and one $100 (!!!) gift certificate to Two Peas to be won, and every comment on a CHA post is an entry plus every share of those posts via Pinterest, Twitter or Facebook!)

Pinterest
Oh, Pinterest, you are such a hot topic right now. I’m going to say it right now: you can pin absolutely anything from my blog any time and I am totally cool with it. I’ve read the articles from those who have pulled their site or their artwork from Pinterest. I’m aware of the terms and conditions. I also believe I can make my own decision in this matter and to me, I believe in sharing my work or I wouldn’t put it on my website in the first place. I have great respect for Pinterest doing what much of the internet didn’t (crediting the original source – easily!) and I don’t care for one second if they add links that allow them to make a commission from things pinned from shopping sites. I’m still pro-Pinterest, despite all the criticism and I believe in the work they are doing to try to make everyone as happy as can be, knowing it’s pretty darn impossible to get everyone to see eye-to-eye on any particular subject. I think that’s enough from me on this subject, but I just wanted to put it out there that I am totally okay with my work being pinned, and I take every pin as a big compliment!

Return to something more normal
I had a few weeks of scrapbooking to an insane degree while I worked on those big projects. I’ve had a few days off to collect my thoughts. I’ve had my first day of Olympic tourist-wrangling training from the Mayor’s office. So my schedule has been a bit different recently, but writing this on a Sunday evening, I am looking at a very normal week ahead. Here that means things like I have a Starting Point post and Sketch of the Week video ready to go! It feels pretty amazing, really. So I hope you enjoy! I mentioned on Twitter at the weekend that it felt like it might be a good time to schedule a crop weekend and consensus seems to agree, so I’ll see when that can happen soon! (But not too soon!)

As for all things Olympic, so much has happened recently. The gate to our local park has been demolished and will be moved to accomodate the vehicles that need to get in to build the equestrian arena. A giant view screen will be placed on the heath right outside our house, and according to the diagrams that have been published we should actually be able to see it from our living room window. (Non-olympically, there was a Bollywood movie filmed there this week and they covered the heath in fake snow!) And I’m doing two Olympic projects: one I can talk about that is probably rather boring to read about here (helping tourists, essentially) and one I can’t talk about that is way more exciting (I think so, anyway). If you want my advice on transport during the games, I have now been fully briefed and my advice is merely one word: WALK. It is quite possible that you could walk from the tower to the West End along the Thames path in less time than you will be able to get from a Central line train to the ground at Bank station. And I’ve done that walk: it’s quite lovely really (the walk along the Thames, not the better part of an hour navigating the tunnels at Bank). So let’s cross our fingers for great weather, wear your most comfortable shoes and walk anywhere if at all physically possible. It’s a much nicer way to see the city anyway!

Has that been enough randomness for a Sunday evening? What’s happening in your world? Let’s share the random, shall we?

Have a beautiful week ahead!

xlovesx

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04 March 2012

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