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

_{Click for layout.}

Heads up: a new garden full of scrapbook pages is here and this month we were set a fashion theme. Great ideas in there for how to take inspiration from fashion to your layouts as well as scrapbooking about fashions you love. Like perhaps my teeny, tiny Orla obsession. Perhaps.

My pages are here, here and here definitely take in the whole garden for all the pretties!

xlovesx

PS: Prize winners—postal strike over (for now?!), I have started to post these off to you! I have a few more of you I need to contact, but I am working down the list and will be in touch! :)

PPS: HARRY. POTTER. TONIGHT. Woot!

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I am not, and never have been, a water person. I can swim well enough to not drown but not well enough to engage in anything that can be marked by laps. Luckily, this was not much of a problem growing up rather far away from any coast line.

I moved to England more than ten years ago now, and we do not need to start discussing just how old that may make me. In terms of geography, the big shift was less about mileage and more about living just a short walk from the beach (as well as my sudden discovery of hills, but that is a tale for another day). You have to understand that if I call Brighton Beach the beach, I cannot really be a water person, because swimming in the channel is not really something that many people do past a quick wade in. And that may have been on a dare.

There have been times when I’ve thought of myself as completely fearful of large bodies of water like swimming pools and oceans. I will do anything possible to take the tunnel rather than the ferry to cross the channel. And yet, there has been something intriguing there, like the rhythm of the waves hitting the rocks were water’s way of laughing ever so slightly and saying ‘Really, you’re making a big fuss of nothing.’ So on our trip to Hawaii, I talked myself out of this conflict and figured it was about time I discovered for real if I really should be terrified of the sea, or just respect it.

I want to record this honestly: kayaking in the open water pretty much freaked me out and there’s no way to put that feeling in pretty terms. But I did not fall out, panic or cause a big problem (other than being slightly useless at paddling but hey – one thing at a time). There were occasions in which I chickened out of things. But there were occasions in which I was swimming along and realised there just happened to be sea turtles on either side of me. I’m also pretty sure that one of my snorkeling scrapes is going to be at least a semi-permanent reminder that the current is certainly stronger than I am.

But sometimes there are little things we do in life that feel like really big personal victories. For me, this was one of them.

What you may find more interesting is the photography challenge I’m hosting at Two Peas this week — it’s all about photographing water.

Personal victories not required.

But seriously: do you have a little thing that gets the better of you? I’d love to hear about the sorts of things we go about beating from day to day. Just something on the brain recently, I think.

xlovesx

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this series of photo masks by Carina Gardner. So very pretty. And very easy to use.

I’ve added a photo mask tutorial here in case you have wondered how these lovelies work!

_{Supplies: Photocuts Masks v.2 and Inked Edges by Carina Gardner, Rich Bohemia Solids and Spool of Stitches by Tia Bennett, Bare Branches by The Queen of Quirk, Bada Bing overlays and Travel Journal Tool Kit by Rhonna Farrer. Adler & SocialAnimal fonts.}

Wishing you a lovely week!

xlovesx

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...it was lovely to see you all so beautiful at the prom last night!

Enjoy your summer and I’ll do my best to see you on results day – may it be just as happy!

xlovesx

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_{Supplies: Bazzill cardstock, Love, Elsie patterned paper, Project Cuts Noel Card by Jen Allyson and a few little adhesive pearls.}

It seems to be big-time deadline time here, which is always exciting if a little disconcerting. The flat seems to suffer the most: there are class kits stacked in pizza boxes all over the living room (including in the window, so I am sure the neighbours think we eat far, far too much pizza) and layouts in a line on the counter with rough-draft PDF files printed out and sitting on top. Which means a new class is so very very nearly here. Excited.

_{Supplies: Digital quick page by Michelle Underwood.}

So not a lot of time for making things for the blog this week, but these two projects took no time at all. They are both part of the Christmas in July celebrations, which might catch your fancy if you are a) getting ahead on next Christmas or b) still catching up from last Christmas.

I’m afraid I am most definitely in camp B, although I do so long to achieve camp A status one day!

xlovesx

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©twopeasinabucket.com…click any layout to see larger

Just a few things inspring craftiness here today:

Some of my favourite pages from the latest garden (click those thumbnails above to see).

A pancake picnic for breakfast, listening to a brass band concert in the park and a stroll through the rose garden, now that it is sunny but not so unbearably hot.

Seeing what people are making with the library cards, like this popsiclelicious wonderment, which I love.

Pretty much every single item in this etsy store.

And possibly (hopefully!) inspiring for you, I’ve got a post over here today. Hop over and take a look!

xlovesx

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Lots of giveaways that were open for all of June…and a drumroll for our winners please!

Scrap your favourite colour:
Selina_C and her love of green win an archived class of her choice.

Scrap with the template or rainbow border:
ConnieC and her digital page win a $15 gift certificate to Two Peas.

Spin the colour wheel and scrap the combination that comes up:
Wendy and her tulips win a set of letter stamps.

Use the colour wheel to make a project:
Nathalie and her pumpkins win a spot on learn Something New Every Day this September.

Symbolic colours:
Emma and her green symbolism win a green themed print.

Blog badge:
Dawn of Artist Reborne wins £10 shopping money at shimelle.com.

Green photo:
Brit and her greenery win a green 8×10 print.

Red, rose and pink photo:
Loumaroo and her flowers win a rose 8×10 print.

Grey & black photo:
Alison and her mosaic win a grey 8×10 print.

Blue photo:
Julie and her antique finds win a blue 8×10 print.

White and light photo:
Lynn and her white house win a white 8×10 print.

Earth tone photo:
Alissa and her daily Starbucks win an earth toned 8×10 print.

Cool pastel photo:
Rebekah and her pink blossoms win a cool toned 8×10 print.

Green crafting:
Leanne and her Jedi mind tricks win an online class.

Red, rose and pink crafting:
Lisa and her red laout win an online class.

Grey and black crafting:
Scrappycarrie and her Eiffel Tower win an online class.

Blue crafting:
ScaryMary555 and her blue beads win an online class.

Light and white crafting:
Anso and her owl card win an online class.

Earth toned crafting:
List and her rock chick layout win an online class.

Cool pastel crafting:
MarieP and her buddies win an online class.

Acrylic paint:
Laura and her bird book win a set of Banana Frog stamps.

Kirsty’s colour combination challenge:
Anne and her moped win a set of Banana Frog stamps.

Tia’s guest comment giveaway:
Mariangeles wins her choice of a Tia kit from Two Peas.

Write in colour challenge:
Tifany D and her green stitching win a set of Banana Frog stamps.

Thank you so much for all your participation over the last month! If you are one of the winners, please email me at this special email address so I can get your prize to you. Some will need to be posted; others will go by email so bear with me while I get them all out over the next week.

Catch you tomorrow!

xlovesx

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_{©twopeasinabucket.com Supplies: Bazzill cardstock, Cosmo Cricket patterned paper and stickers, Martha Stewart butterfly punch, Hero Arts pearls, My Little Shoebox letter stickers, American Crafts Thickers, Prima Flowers, Ali Edwards for Technique Tuesday stamp, Colorbok leaf stamp, Creative Cafe tag and Brown Precision Pen by American Crafts.}

The first of the month means a new garden of inspiration—there are some amazing scrapbook pages in there this month so be sure to check it out. I am hoping I can actually buy the butterfly punch I used on this page—I had only borrowed it from Leanne and it was pretty painful to give it back! So definitely need one to take up permanent residence in my punch drawer.

_{Supplies: Dotted Swiss cardstock by Bazzill Basics, patterned papers by Cosmo Cricket, 7gypsies border stickers, Doodlebug letter stickers, Punches by Woodware, EK Success and Martha Stewart, Narratives brads by Creative Imaginations, Chipboard buttons and epoxy circles by Love, Elsie, Nailheads by Canvas Corp, and brown precision pen by American Crafts. And a bunch of pop dots!}

Today has been of a wind down from the month of colour. Watching Harry Potter, listening to Harry Potter, reading Harry Potter and scrapbooking about Hawaii, which has nothing to do with Harry Potter.

Am I the only person who is excited about Harry Potter? Okay, so we know what happens at this point but that is completely irrelevant to the films. I am more excited for Half-Blood Prince than I have been for any of the others…which is saying something. But the last film was by far my favourite of the five and book six is by far my favourite of all seven books…AND film six has the same director as film five, so in my head that equation all comes out to equal this film will be amazing. I really hope so, anyway. We have opening night tickets at a cinema with old-fashioned, super comfy red velvet chairs. And I’m taking great pride in the chairs because someone else I know has press screening tickets for this Friday which is just not to be thought about at all!

Okay, I shall try to end my Harry Potter ramblings here until after I have seen the film. Try being the operative word. No promises.

_{Supplies: Bazzill cardstock, Cosmo Cricket patterned paper, Making Memories straight pins, American Crafts Thickers, Prima tape, Punches by Martha Stewart, EK Success and Fiskars and precision pen by American Crafts.}

In other non-Potter news, I uploaded nearly seven hundred pictures from our two weeks away to Photobox and am pretty close to clicking the ‘order me one of everything’ button. Not sure. I am excited to scrap them (printed a few at home because I am impatient!) but I want to print way more than will fit in my ‘photos to be scrapped’ binder.

The good thing is I can tell this week is nice and calm because a) I can scrapbook for fun and b) I have time to think about how many photos I should order. I am learning to notice and embrace these weeks when they happen! {Now if someone can teach me how to channel them during the weeks where everything is so crazy that I realise far too late that I really need a shower, that would be brilliant useful.}

_{Supplies: Bazzill Basics cardstock, Cosmo Cricket patterned papers, Making Memories journaling paper, Die cut file by Kristina Werner (cut on the Silhouette), American Crafts Thickers, Fiskars border punches, Creative Cafe sticker strip, Prima bling and a brown precision pen by American Crafts.}

And my last thought for the day? Clearly the crazy heatwave we can’t stop talking about has made it impossible for me to string together logical thoughts. Hopefully you can forgive me and just be distracted by scrapbook pages? Perhaps my rational mind will return tomorrow.

ALSO: The prize list for Month of Colour is pretty long and I still visiting all the links! I will post the complete list of prize winners tomorrow! Thanks for your patience and participation!

xlovesx

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