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

It’s (almost) finally time for an all new class here. It’s been a while since I’ve developed a big workshop with daily emails and all new content and a specific direction. I’m excited, and I really hope you’ll find it worth the wait!

My favourite classes all come from a key personal experience in my own crafting. Journal your Christmas came from keeping my own diary one year, Cover to Cover came from my frustration at stacks of layouts and no order and no easy way to show someone what scrapbooking could really be. Both of those experiences completely changed the way I worked going forward, and I’ve had more changes in the past year as I got my head round this craft again. The changes all came in my process, and most importantly realising that one single process is not the way I work best on every project.

I kept coming back to this word, process, and it wasn’t lost on me that a film of a scrapbook page being made from start to finish is now commonly known as a process video. We tend to think of a process video as just one layout being created, and like I talked about so much in Cover to Cover, one layout at a time is not where I find the greatest value in this craft. I love the book in scrapbook. I needed a way to go beyond the page at a time of a process video and share how each of those layouts is just one small part of my process of creating a bigger and more valuable project. That’s where this class comes into fruition.

The Scrapbook Process is an online class that begins Monday the 2nd of May 2016 and runs through to the end of the month. It includes 22 videos, each accompanied by a PDF, emailed directly to you Monday to Friday, plus a weekly review sheet for weekends to help you put the ideas into practice with your own scrapping, no matter the style or subjects you scrap. The class also includes a private forum to chat and share your work with other participants, and you’re welcome to email me at any time to discuss anything you’d rather not take to the full group. Like all shimelle.com classes, this course comes with permanent access, which is something I take very seriously and I’m happy to discuss with you if you have any questions about what that means here. I’ve been teaching online for twelve years now and all of those classes have archives available to the participants. Work at any pace and return at any time, so if the schedule of materials throughout May doesn’t suit you, you can make it work with a better time on your calendar.

In those twenty-two videos, I’ll take you through three specific albums in depth, including creating new pages (one and two page layouts are both covered) as well as other relevant topics dealing with printing photos, selecting supplies, and writing your stories. One is a plain old family chronological album with no specific theme and the other two albums have a narrower focus, but I promise you do not need to have an album with a similar topic to apply the ideas to whatever themes you want to document. Each of the three albums has a different process, each with its pros and cons, each with its way of being just right for a given situation. You may find one process is the best for how you work or you may find it useful to flit from one to the other. Both options are worthwhile! Along the way, we will talk extensively about making it your process, and that means that everything is just how it works best for you, from choosing what to scrap to creating the embellishments on your page. This is definitely not a ‘now do this just like me’ class and more a class for picking, choosing, and adapting to find things that not only work for you right now but invigorate your process and leave you wanting to push everything else aside and scrap!

There are no specific supplies needed for this course, and it’s quite likely you’ll want to use supplies you already have on hand.

I’ll share a bit more about The Scrapbook Process throughout April as we near the first day of class, but I think that’s enough food for thought for now. The class is $30 US dollars or £20 UK pounds, and if neither of those is your currency you can click on either option and it will automatically convert to your currency. XE gives currency exchange rates if you want to see what that works out to in numbers that make sense in other countries.

To sign up in US Dollars:

Email Address for Class:

To sign up in UK Pounds:

Email Address for Class:

Thank you so much for the tremendous response to the early bird offer. I had hoped to open the forum today but today we have been finding a remedy for a technical hiccup that was preventing some participants from accessing their classes. First thing Tuesday, I will verify that everything is indeed working and open the forum! Don’t worry, there are no class materials until the 2nd of May, so it’s just for friendly chat between now and then.

Happy scrapping!

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This page is a bit of a blast from the past! It’s a design I’ve been meaning to come back to lately in terms of birthdays, as a certain small person in this household has one of those coming up later this week! I’d love to take this idea of journaling by numbers and instead of documenting just one evening, document a longer time frame, like possibly two whole years of milestones on one page. Could that fit? And more importantly: could I use a massive stack of number stickers?

This week I challenge you this week to scrapbook with numbers. Create a new scrapbook page that highlights numbers as a significant part of the design, be it in the patterned paper, the title, the journaling, or the shapes on the page. Everything else is completely up to you, so you can take your inspiration in any direction you like! To get you started on this week’s challenge, take a look at these examples from contributing designer Heather Leopard and guest artist Chris Robertson.

It’s a big deal when it comes to turning double digits so I decided to go big with this layout. I have a couple of goals with this page: 1. document how my little girl still makes wishes even though she was turning 10 and 2. include a space to include either 10 things she’s into or a space for me to write my thoughts, wishes and feelings for this little girl.

_Using my Silhouette software, I mocked up the size and placement of the numbers and words to make sure that I could get the numbers as large as possible. I used a font that has the middle of the “0” cut out but you could also cut your photo and place it on top. I then cut little strips of paper and added them to the outside edge, overlapping here and there. Once that was all complete, I stitched them to the paper. The next step was to cut the title and add confetti, using pattern paper circles and mist. Last but not least, I added journaling strips to the section of the “0” that is opposite the photo. Now I just have to decide if I write my wished for her or if I quiz her about her wishes and dreams for her future. You can see more photos of this process on my blog
- Heather

Birthdays are so much fun to scrapbook! I love the fact that all my glittery numbers reinforce the milestone birthday that my daughter was celebrating at the time. When I started to work on this page I wanted each of the special number clusters to resemble the colorful balloons we had for this super fun celebration.

The balloons were a great sparky addition to the day so I thought the glittery numbers would always remind me of that. All the supplies used to create the layout are from Close to My Heart.
- Chris

You have a week to complete the challenge and share a link – but of course you’re welcome to set your own time schedule. Whatever keeps you happy and creative!

If you’re looking for the new class information, that will be posted here later today. Thanks!

Today’s Guest Artist: Chris Robertson loves, her family, photography, and paper crafting. You can find more from Chris on Instagram, Pinterest, and her blog.

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Today I’m delighted to share this beautiful scrapbooking project from contributing designer Meghann Andrew. Meghann and I would both love to hear what stories you love reading to young ones!

I could sit and scrapbook photos about my daughter as a baby all day long. Being a preemie, she was a very cherished, loved baby, and everything about her amazed me- from those tiny fingers and toes to her soft baby skin. However, I don’t have that much of a story to tell about her as an infant. She really didn’t do much besides eat, sleep and … well, I’ll digress. Now that she is a toddler, I have so much more to write about, including the funny things she says, and how she fearlessly jumps off of everything, looking to me for approval afterward.

But, I still go back to those baby days and look for stories to tell. Stories that may be deeper than, “today you rolled over for the first time.” That’s when I found the photos of myself reading my daughter her first story, when she was still in the NICU, a mere two pound little creature laying on my chest. Yes, reading Peter Rabbit to her for the first time was monumental, but there is so much more to the story than that. By introducing a story to my child, I was also sharing with her a world in which she could go anywhere and dream anything- a magical place where bunnies wore little blue coats and everything turned out all right in the end. I wanted my layout about this event to reflect some of that magical place.

The trouble is, I had an idea straight away of how I wanted my layout to look, and it only included one photograph. However, I had several that told the story, including an image of the book that I wanted to include. So, since my layout was about a book, I decided to also create one to house my photos in a neat arrangement on my page.

While I created the layout, I created a process video to show you just how easy it was to bring together.

This soft, dreamy layout is exactly what I had hoped it would be when I sat down to create it, and I love that I have an interactive book to flip through and remember this beautiful moment that I shared with my baby daughter.

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Way back at the very beginning of Glitter Girl’s adventures – adventure four, in fact – she went on a layering mission, and then the layers rarely stopped on her pages! This week’s adventure takes her right back to that idea: if layers are something you love on other scrapbook pages but you’re not loving how they come out on your own desk, what simple steps could you remember to help it all work?

In this case, it’s layers in the embellishments of the page, and those steps include allocating space with horizontal grounding lines, adding texture with ink or mist, and working through different textures, like paper, stickers, and enamel dots. Add in a limited colour palette and slight angles, and the layers work with a variety of supplies for a new look from the same technique on each page.

If you’re this far and you’ve watched this video, you might be wondering what this new class talk is all about. It’s been a while since I developed a new extended class, but I’m happy to say that is exactly what’s on the way. This class will start Monday the 2nd of May, and includes videos, PDFs, and regular emails over the course of the month, concluding on the 31st of May. I’ll be sharing the full class details here next Monday, but I try to offer an early bird discount on most of my classes and I’m happy to share that with you today. This course is a natural follow-on from Cover to Cover, but it is not a requirement to take that course in order to participate or enjoy the things we’ll cover. Looking at three specific albums, we’ll bridge the gap between the smaller things like supply choices, embellishment placement, and page design up to the big things like selecting the photos when you take thousands, how to make the album feel like it goes together without getting too repetitive, and writing your story as you create each page. The full price will be $30 USD or £20 GBP, but from now until next Monday, you can sign up for $24 USD (that’s about £17 GBP, and the currency will convert automatically, so no need to worry). At this point, you’ll receive a payment receipt email, then you’ll get another email on Monday to welcome you to the class forum, though the class does not begin until the 2nd of May. And at any time, you can contact Nikki or me, if you have a question or need further help. Thanks so much for your interest in the new class, and I look forward to showing you the full outline on Monday!

Sorry this early bird offer has now expired.

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Today brings a little something different to share with you. Stay with me a moment, as the dots may need connecting. Occasionally someone gets in touch and invites me to some sort of blogger event, but they don’t tend to be scrapbooking related so I don’t attend, because I want to keep things relevant here. But a recent invitation struck me as a different opportunity: a chance to share passions. I had an invitation to a cooking evening with Lisa Faulkner, who has a cookbook and won Celebrity Masterchef a few years ago. I love a good baking project, but I knew someone who would enjoy the full evening far more! Some of you have talked to Nikki over the last couple years, as she helps out with things behind the scenes, like if you have trouble with the password on your account or need some technical help. That’s a terrible description of Nikki though – she is a lovely person, a fabulous friend, and although she isn’t a scrapbooker, she is very creative! She is a whiz in the kitchen and every recipe she has sent me has been fabulous. So we made a deal to share passions: she would take up the invitation for the cooking evening and then we’d have an afternoon to scrapbook about it!

Handy for scrapbooking, the tables were beautiful and someone was on hand to take photos! Nikki chose two photos for her page, one with the table settings and another that included her (she’s on the right!) as part of the evening. You can see more about the event on the Curry’s blog.

It’s been a long time since I helped someone with their very first scrapbook page! It’s easy to forget that things that seem so second nature are totally foreign when you first start scrapping – things like tape runners and paper trimmers are probably at the top of the list! The good bit is they are super simple in a matter of seconds, of course.

Apparently it’s excellent to take crafting advice from anyone around to give it! He normally points out where I should put my stickers, for the record.

And this makes me happy: a very first scrapbook page that includes not just a photo of the scrapper herself but also her journaling in her own words and her own handwriting. Complete with hilarious pun in letter stickers, which I do believe is a rite of passage when it comes to making pages.

Here we have Nikki’s very first scrapbook page! (I wish my first page was nice and clean like that. It involved a lot of cut out photographs and multiple pairs of decorative edge scissors, but we all have to start somewhere.) While we were working on her page, Nikki told me all about the evening and what they were cooking and the different people she met, and all other sorts of lovely things. I don’t want to overstretch here, but we know our craft is getting smaller. Companies close; crafters change hobbies. These things happen. But sharing a passion with someone else can also happen. If there is someone you feel would enjoy making a page or a mini book or whatever it might be, please don’t be shy. Share some paper and get them to share their passion with you too. It’s okay if they don’t become a full-time scrapper (and I don’t think Nikki will), but we all start somewhere. We all need an introduction.

❤

Disclosure: The evening of cooking was provided by Curry’s and Hotpoint. They provided a copy of Lisa Faulkner’s cookbook and an apron, and Nikki and I decided we’d give that away to a reader, via Instagram. You can find that giveaway here. We were not compensated further for this post or the giveaway, but Nikki did get to eat the dinner she cooked. Including pineapple upside down cake. In case you want to put a dollar amount on things like eating cake and calling it work.

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Okay, I hear you: last week’s challenge was not the easiest… but it was so much fun to see those pages appear with that familiar embellishment placement yet each page looking completely unique! How about we go a little simpler this time though? And it gives me an excuse to repost this layout that is years old and inspired by a layout a decade older than that, and yet it still makes me smile with one of my favourite colour combinations and that little pocket trick that means there’s no need at all to spend time getting everything just so in an embellishment cluster, because it’s just going to move when you turn the page anyway!

And now, on to the challenge! This week you need to look for something specific in your stash. I challenge you this week to scrapbook with vellum! Use a lot or a little; plain or patterned – whatever you have on hand. Everything else is completely up to you, so you can take your inspiration in any direction you like! A few years ago, my sparkly friend shared a video on this topic, if that’s helpful! To get you started on this week’s challenge, take a look at these examples from contributing designer Nicole Nowosad and guest artist Jen Schow.

Vellum adds such a soft touch to a project. I love combining vellum over patterned paper to create a completely different look, or even using it on it’s own in replacement of patterned paper. I did both on my project to create a fresh and easy layered look by using some yellow vellum on my project.

I trimmed some of the clouds from the Shimelle vellum paper, and to hide the adhesive, I added some buttons and glitter heart so the adhesive has a place to hide behind it!
- Nicole

I love the softness and depth that vellum adds to a layout, and a baby layout? Even better. I paired up the Shimelle Starshine collection (and bits from True Stories as well) with some of the new Crate Paper Little You collection and I love the way these two collections work together. I knew I wanted to use the constellation paper for a background the minute I saw it, but sometimes dark papers are hard for me to use as a full sheet.

Enter vellum. It softens it up just enough, but you can still see the stars shining through. I cut some clouds from the Starshine 6×6 paper pad and layered them on top of and underneath the vellum and I love the depth that creates. You can watch the whole thing come together in my process video.

- Jen

You have a week to complete the challenge and share a link – but of course you’re welcome to set your own time schedule. Whatever keeps you happy and creative!

Today’s Guest Artist: Jen Schow loves pretty paper, taking photos, and putting together puzzles. You can find more from Jen on Instagram, YouTube, and her blog.

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Happy Friday, scrappy friends! Spring is starting to spring up here (storms included!) and it seems just about time for some glorious floral scrapbooking to bring a little spring inside to the craft desk. Contributing designer Heather Leopard has a beautiful idea for page design that might inspire you to go floral or to find something a little different for your next page!

When I think of girls, or at least my littlest girl, I think of flowers and frills so I thought it would be fitting today to talk to you about “dressing” up your page to tell the whole story. When thinking through this page and the photos I wanted to scrap, which feature my youngest daughter dressed to the nines and her daddy in a top hat and ready for the ball, I knew I wanted to create a background that helped tell the story of them going to a daddy daughter dance. I chose a cut file that featured floral designs that all had a similar geometric shape. I cut them out of white cardstock and set out to find colors that complimented their attire. After carefully selecting four different patterns, I traced the perimeters of the flowers and then hand cut the pattern paper so that it could be placed behind each of the large floral cuts. It seems like quite the daunting task but it’s really not so bad, since the cuts don’t have to be perfect. You just need enough so that you can adhere them to the back of the flower cuts.

Once the flowers were all filled in, I stitched the large die to another piece of white cardstock. I stitched around the edges but I may go back and stitch around some of the flowers for a little more added interest.

The next task was to determine where to place the photos. I started out by overlapping the photos and keeping them together but it just wasn’t working for me so I separated them and went to work with layering. I absolutely love to layer. I think it helps draw attention tot he photos. Some of the ways I like to layer are: adding three to four pieces of pattern paper behind the photo, adding a frame (die cut or chipboard), adding tags and other ephemera and of course stickers. In addition, I will add staples and foam adhesive to make the bits pop a little more. It helps to layer a little bit over the photos, being careful not to cover up anything important or distract from the photo. I’m pretty sure I ended up using all of these ideas on these photos. …Yep, I just checked and I did!

Of course no layout would be complete without a title and journaling. I decided to make good use of the large flower at the top right of the page for the title. I love the quote that a daddy’s is a daughter’s first love so I used a condensed version of that and used a combo of alphabets, placing the individual letters on the outside and inside curve and completing the title using the lovely script word. I also added a little subtitle in the upper left near the photo to document why they were all dolled up. Last but not least, the journaling and date is tucked behind the bottom photo. It reads, “You, Rheagan and Daddy love going to the daddy daughter dance every year. I love the pre-dance prep, from finding the perfect dress, shoes, and accessories to helping with hair, nails, and make-up. Y’all have so much fun doing carriage rides, crafts, flipbooks, having dinner and of course…dancing!”

I hope the one thing you will take away from today is to try to look for different ideas on how to tell the full story through all the design elements on your page, not just with your photos. I’d love to see how this concept works for your stories!

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The loveliness of sketches: use them once, use them twice, use them a dozen times and still come up with something that looks new while completely eliminating that phase of creating when we just push paper around on a desk wondering where all the pieces should go. This week’s challenge is a throw back to one of my favourites of all the sketches I’ve ever posted here over the years. It made me giddy to see two people take it on for today, so I’m very excited to see you give a try!

I challenge you this week to scrapbook with this page sketch. You can see the full layout, along with a process video, from my original try with this sketch here. To get you started on this week’s challenge, take a look at these examples from contributing designer Sheena Rowlands and guest artist Irit Landgraf.

I find sketches are a really useful way to kick start my mojo. I was instantly drawn to the circles on the left side of this sketch and decided to make them the feature of my page.

I chose a photo of my daughter as a bridesmaid at my brother’s wedding last year so I felt flowers would be perfect to cascade down the side. They are hand sewn using embroidery floss and decorated with sequins. I picked out some of the pink papers from the Starshine collection plus a couple from True Stories to create a soft feminine page. I added a cluster of embellishments, cut title, and journaling tag to complete the page.
- Sheena

Thanks to the sketch, this layout came together really fast. I wanted to use some stickers and rub ons from Shimelle’s first collection. I love the images, the cupcake, tea cups, and vintage cameras, but larger embellishments can be tricky to use.

The circles in the sketch gave me the idea for my design. Grouping elements by color is another go-to technique that makes my process much easier! Watch my process video and see how everything came together!

- Irit

You have a week to complete the challenge and share a link – but of course you’re welcome to set your own time schedule. Whatever keeps you happy and creative!

Today’s Guest Artist: Irit Landgraf loves traveling, scrapbooking, and chocolate ice cream (preferably Italian). You can find more from Irit on Instagram, YouTube, and her blog.

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