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

Hello there! Today I’m going to give you a tutorial on some creative ideas to scrapbook with extra large photos. Being a photographer, my favorite way to scrapbook is starting with an extra large photo. My photos are definitely my inspiration, and usually the rest of my creativity flows from there. I also LOVE to sew, so you will see a lot of sewing in my layouts.. although it’s not complicated sewing! My favorite size to use is an eight x twelve photograph.. and sometimes I will trim that down to a seven x twelve or six x twelve, depending on the photo. I love the photo to reach end to end on a twelve x twelve page. I think some people get stuck with this size, because they feel there is not a lot to work with.. but there definitely is!

For my first layout, I did some sewing. I went through my fabric stash and pulled out some strips that were already cut from a quilting pack, some lace, and burlap. I pinned them to make ruffles (super easy) then stitched them to my page. I covered the seams with the lace trip and burlap trim. I then added a coordinating tag to the top of the layout, some resin flowers and wooden buttons, and done!

For the second page I really wanted to keep a monochromatic theme, so I chose black, grey and kraft. I also LOVE doilies, and love using them as backgrounds! I decided to stamp black sentiments on kraft tags, and then adhere them to the dollies. I added some gold stickers and a project life card for my title.. and I was done! I also added a line of burlap trim as an afterthought to keep the craft/natural theme going. I really like using burlap on layouts as well.

For the final layout, another favorite technique of mine is cutting shapes out of paper, and layering other paper underneath, and embellishments over top. I chose to add my title over two of the cut shapes, and embellishments over the top and bottom hearts. I cut my hearts different shapes and sizes to add interest to the page. I then zig-zag stitched down each side to adhere everything to the page.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you are inspired to try showcasing some of your favorite photos on your scrapbooking pages!!

Naomi is a lover of all things creative and crafty… but has not always been so!! She left her career as a law professor at a local college to become co-owner (and photographer) of Inspired and Enchanted Photography in 2009. Her love of photography was the result of her love of scrapbooking.. and the two fit together so well! She has been published and had three covers for Scrapbook Trends magazine, and currently designs for Crate Paper, Gossamer Blue Kit company, and Kerri Bradford designs. Her husband and five children, as well as her business keep her busy! The highlight of her year was a recent trip to Africa with her daughter, doing missions work for the American Foundation for Children with AIDS. You can a gallery of her other work at Studio Calico..

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Actually, the words ‘birth story’ make my skin crawl a little bit and I can’t put my finger on why. My best guess is because in the last few months of pregnancy, I suddenly read so many birth stories and like anything else in the world, they run to extremes. Some were beautifully written and compassionate, no matter what did and did not go to plan. Others resembled a horror movie and some were devoid of all emotion entirely. For a while it became my answer to reality TV: pick a story and click and see if it would make me excited, nervous, or confused. Do I have any idea my mind thought that was a good idea? Not really. Not at all.

But of course I eventually got to a point where in theory I had my own story and for me, stories go in scrapbooks. What struck me when reading is how there are so many birth stories told all in one go, essentially a chronological narrative from the first twinge to meeting baby, and that often made for long and somewhat tedious stories that lost the best bits of storytelling. My aim is not to write one long piece of work under the birth story heading, but to break it up into different pieces, telling the story across a series of scrapbook pages, allowing for pace and reflection and a focus on the things I really want to remember rather than just a timeline of contractions. Though Wonder Boy really took his time to arrive, there is a lot of humour of those days that is dear to my heart. We were at a hospital on the Thames near Waterloo station and we kept singing Waterloo Sunset but couldn’t remember most of the words though I could usually tell you the lyrics to that backward and forward. At one point I needed to move and get some fresh air so we walked back and forth across Westminster Bridge, which was closed for the London Marathon. I had to stop every few steps to brace myself and the bridge was filled with spectators watching the race, so at one point I was convinced someone had just instagrammed a picture of me with the caption ‘someone is in labour at the marathon’. And even a few weeks later I was able to have a big laugh with the instructor of our birthing class, who had started one session by saying ‘If you meet someone and they say they were in labour for forty-eight hours, that’s not completely true’, explaining that bit about how the hours of early labour don’t really count and the active stages tend to be significantly quicker. I can’t debunk her quote entirely, but my discharge papers break down the active labour time and my total was forty-seven hours and forty-two minutes, so I guess I did my best to try to prove her wrong!

There is something else in my scrapbooking process that makes telling this story a bit of a different exercise and that is that I have no intention of actually writing it in order or all in one time span. I’m using my personal standard for scrapbook storytelling: I have a notebook where I jot random things down and another book where I draft longer pieces of writing if I want to get my thoughts in order before I start writing on the page. From there, I have ideas for a few different pages to help this story come together, and I use that to look at my photo library and see how the two can match up.

This page is the first under that heading and I wanted to start pretty simply as a bit of a warm up. Partly because scrapping less for the last few months makes me doubt myself as I paste pretty paper to other pretty paper, partly because I’m still adjusting to the work flow of creating a page with plenty of interruptions rather than a solid block of creative time, and partly because I don’t like diving into the most weighty writing first. I always find I tell the story better if I start simply and find my feet before I work on something that feels more important.

Most everything here is from my own collection, but I added in just a few little extras – some Doodlebug enamel dots, thin turquoise washi tape from the Amy Tangerine Plus One collection, and the gold mist and the chipboard ‘love’, hearts, and arrow are from Heidi Swapp’s line. And this page includes some pieces from the ‘Lovely’ Project Life edition, which coordinates with my line. From the top left, the turquoise hearts, pale pink with embossed hearts, aqua date, and white hello are all 3×4 cards in that kit, which includes cards with dry embossing and gold foil. (By the way, I’m continuing to update this post with shops that have the collection in stock.)

And a big yay from me to The Boy, who was with it enough after those forty-seven hours and forty-two minutes to snap these photos of Wonder Boy and I. They are something I never imagined in my photo library and definitely in that ‘what do you grab from a burning building’ category to me.

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Much like my very own nature, my scrapbooking style tends to involve the combination of clean straight lines and a little bit of arty ‘mess’ thrown in. I think there’s a big trend right now for the addition of mixed media techniques into more traditional layouts, and today I’d like to share with you some fun ways to use ink refills to achieve that look.

I’m using the Color Theory Ink Refills from Studio Calico, but there are many brands out there that would work just the same. The beauty of these is they’re water soluble dye inks and so they blend really nicely, which is important for this first technique of creating an ombre ink pad.

What I’ve done is place a folded up baby wipe (still wet… but clean!!) onto a hard plastic surface. I’m using a plastic take-away container lid because I’m not concerned if it gets stained by the ink. I squirted the Ink Refills across my baby wipe making sure to use three colours in the same spectrum so they blend without creating muddy browns.

A good stamp to use with this kind of technique is either one that’s big and bold, or a background pattern stamp so you can really appreciate the ombre effect. Use your freshly created stamp pad like you normally would to get your stamp all nice and juicy!

Before you plonk that stamp down on paper though, a good trick is to give it a quick spritz with water to ensure all the colours mix nicely into one another. Using water colour paper is another trick to use.

Inspired by my own success, I went ahead and created a second ink pad using a blue-green spectrum of colours this time.

Both look good, and it gave me some options for when I finally construct my layout. Stamping them onto scrap pieces of paper like this gives me more control – I can keep practicing until I get one that’s perfect. Then I simply trim around it to stick onto my page later.

Another, perhaps braver, technique (only because you never know what the outcome is going to be) is to use the ombre ink pads to create some interesting background effects on your page. Squash an acrylic block directly into the ink pad and then apply it straight to your paper.

Do this haphazardly, or repetitively to create a kind of pattern.

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When you’re done creating for the day don’t throw the ink pads away! Store them in plastic containers to use again another time. It doesn’t even matter if they dry out. Because these Ink Refills are water soluble all you need to do to revive them is make them damp again by spraying with some water.

Here’s my finished page. It’s a 6×8” page which will slip directly into my Handbook opposite some pocket pages with continue on with the series of photos and better explain what’s going on here! The ‘Fancy’ stamp and all the scrapbook supplies for this page all come from the Hercules Add On from the latest Studio Calico Sandlot Kits.
Thanks for letting me share today. I’d love to know if you’ve ever given anything like this a try before, or if you have any other techniques to use with ink refills. Leave a link in the comments and I’ll be sure to pop by!

Natalie lives in Melbourne Australia with her Trophy Husband and two beautiful girls. She works full time as an Obstetrician and Gynaecologist but still manages to set aside lots of time to play with pretty paper. She is a Studio Calico Creative Team member and a current Australian Scrapbooking Memories Master. She shares all her stories on her blog One Scrappy Doctor and her Facebook Page.

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In the days since the closure of Two Peas in a Bucket, we found ourselves still wanting to work together as a team, even though we were no longer ‘the garden girls’ as it were. We’re working on a few little projects, and also keeping on our toes by putting together a weekly round-up of what we’ve been making for our own scrapbooks, and we invite you to share what you’ve been making too.

For some scrappy inspiration today, have a look at…
Mel’s project with new Jillibean Soup goodness,
Marcy’s projects with the Studio Calico Sandlot kits,
Lisa’s Wardrobe Wednesday layout,
A guest post from Kirsty Smith on Wilna’s blog while Wilna is beavering away on projects behind the scenes,
Jen Kinkade on learning new, artful things,
A lovely and delicate mini book from Stephanie,
A video from Jen Gallacher featuring new Echo Park dies,
Pretty painted projects from Celine,
Jill’s lovely layering, mists, and custom school supplies too,
Laura getting a jumpstart on Halloween,
Nancy’s beautiful travel scrapping,
Paige getting colourful for American Crafts,
and a baby book update from me.

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I think it has taken me nearly three weeks to finish this spread, working just a few minutes at a time, but it’s complete now! Week four in Wonder Boy’s baby album is made almost entirely from supplies in my American Crafts collection. I added some Studio Calico wood veneer hearts and that Amy Tangerine stamp I’m using throughout the album.

I guess my two colours this week are aqua and orange, though I didn’t specifically set out to do that from the first step like I had in the earlier weeks. It’s not a combination I think I would pick often, but I like it here, especially balanced with the vanilla.

There is actually a coordinating Project Life kit for the collection, but it hadn’t arrived when I started working on this, so I started with the 12×12 papers, plus the sticker book and the smaller set of stickers that include words and letters. Plus plenty of the half-height pop dots!

That 3×4 photo is cut down from a 4×6 print I ordered in my first try of the Free Prints App. This app (available for Apple and Android) lets you order up to forty-five free 4×6 inch prints each month, though you do pay for postage, which runs between £1.49 and £3.99, depending on what you order. In comparing these prints to the same from Photobox the free prints were just a smidgen darker and the paper is just a teensy bit lighter weight, but I was certainly happy with the quality. I order more than forty-five prints per month so I think I will continue to use both printers. If you’d like to give the Free Prints app a try, you can use code SLAINE3 for five extra free prints for each of us, then you will get a code to share with your friends to continue getting the extras.

Start the timer now: let’s see if week five can be completed a little more quickly!

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I’ve been playing around with my Thickers and my watercolors as of late and I want to share my new favorite technique with you all today. I absolutely love combining watercolors with my Project Life and I’ve found a way to make filler and journal cards using Thickers as masks with my paints. The concept is simple. Place your Thickers firmly on white cardstock and paint around them with your watercolors. The possibilities are truly endless.

For this you shall need, watercolor paper cut to PL sizes (I love mixed media paper for this), watercolors and a palette, brushes, Thickers (an assortment of sizes and fonts), water, paper towels and washi tape or painters tape.

Let’s begin by designing your cards and placing your Thickers. Herein lies the beauty of this, you can say anything you want! Go ahead, get silly, curse a bit if you must, customize your cards to your heart’s content. Don’t pay any attention to colors at this point, the Thickers won’t be on the final product, remember we’re simply using them as masks. You’ll want to focus on font combinations and the graphic look of the words, letters and numbers. They aren’t going to look like much at this point, but I promise it gets so much better.

Now you want to get your watercolors set up and your colors mixed. Once you start applying the paint, you’ll want to move fast so it’s best to have your colors ready to go. Pick your brush and start painting. This is where things get really fun. You can be painterly with splashes and splatter…

…or you can keep things very linear by doing some further masking with washi tape.

There are a couple important things to remember at this stage:

1. The more saturated your colors, the more the words will pop. Start strong with your colors, they lighten as they dry.

2. Apply a lot of paint right up along the edges of your Thickers. You want that defined edge and you won’t accomplish that without really jamming your brush into the letter’s edges. Also, watch for bubbles that may form along the edge. These will result in a white spot, so pop ‘em if you see ‘em.

3. You can remove excess water and paint by drying your brush on the paper towel and placing it gently onto spots where too much water has collected. If you leave too much water on your paper you’ll achieve the “bloom” look.

4. Let your cards dry completely! This is a very important step and one that almost none of you will follow, at least I never can, but trust me, you’ll have much better results if you do.

Once your cards are dry, peel off your Thickers and marvel at your creations! At this point, depending on your PL style, you can use the cards as they are, add a few more layers of watercolor or embellish with stamps, washi, enamel dots, etc. You name it!

This technique is perfect for all kinds of papercrafting. I’ve used it in my PL album, but it would also be perfect for a layout background or a card front. Make it your own! Thank you so much for reading today, it was truly a pleasure crafting with you.

Carson Riutta is one crafty lady! She is a card-maker, a Project Lifer and most recently an art Journaler. She has been crafting with a vengeance since she was introduced to the wonderful world of paper crafts in 2008 when she quit her job as an environmental scientist and decided to develop the other side of her brain. You can see her latest endeavours on her blog Pine & Plum and her past creations over at her Studio Calico gallery. She spends her days running after her two littles, taking too many Instagram photos, and perpetually organising her craft room… Occasionally she does the dishes.

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I just wanted to keep a post with links to where you can purchase the Shimelle collection. I’ll update this as it reaches additional stores. If you know of a store with stock on hand that is not listed, feel free to let me know. Thanks!

First to have it ready to ship seems to be Blue Moon Scrapbooking.*

Also in the US, you can find select products at Simon Says Stamp*, A Cherry on Top, and Scrapbook Generation.

For California shoppers, you can find the collection in store at Paper Tales, a lovely scrapbooking store in San Diego.

Many thanks to kit clubs selecting my products as well! Take a look at Hip Kit Club and Citrus Twist.

In the UK, you can find products at Hey Little Magpie and Craftie Charlie.

In Germany, find them at Scrapbook Werkstatt.

In Thailand, products are available in store at Mind Memory, Bangkok.

There are also four coordinating cut files available from the Silhouette Online store.

As stock arrives elsewhere, I’ll add those links! Have a great week.

_{*Stockists with an asterisk are affiliate links. Your purchase from these sites helps support shimelle.com, including payment for all our guest artists. For more about what affiliate links do for this site, see the last paragraph in this post. Thanks for your support!}

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Keeping with that idea of choosing two colours per week for Wonder Boy’s album, week three is blue and yellow. I started with the Dreamy collection from WRMK, which I think may be exclusive to Target. I picked it up there when I was at CHA and searching online, I don’t seem to see it in stock at any specialist scrapbook stores. It caught my eye because the colours weren’t particularly girly, but it wasn’t the standard baby blue either. Not that it’s baby themed in anyway, but it just seemed like a versatile set with a different colour scheme to my usual.

I knew when it came to scrapping this week, I would want to beat myself up about the photos, but I think I waited long enough to just have a bit of perspective about it. By this point in Wonder Boy’s life, he had plenty of energy, and I was trying to keep up with him but I was nowhere near back to health. I think I was only just starting to process what had happened, because although I knew our labour experience looked rather scary on paper, it felt relatively calm and collected. Just getting from one hour to the next kept me from realising how much strength I had really lost, and it just caught up with me. The evidence is how someone who photographs seemingly everything took remarkably few photos in this third week of Wonder Boy’s life. These things happen! This resulted in a week wherein the entire right side is just from the weekend, and indeed all but one photo there is from Saturday. As that was his first big night out, I think that really worked out okay in the space, and this week can just be a reminder to me that I’d like to take a few more shots of the everyday too.

That divided photo was the result of some tinkering with the Fuzel app on the iPhone. It has all sorts of templates (some plain squares and rectangles, some filled with fancier shapes) so I just picked one and filled it with my photos. To get the split image effect, I needed three copies of the photo in my library, so I edited it slightly to have a different colour cast to each section of the image. I’m not sure it’s a look I would use as a highlighted photo on a 12×12 page, but with so many photos going into this album, I like the idea of worrying a bit less and giving new things a whirl. The white text on the images on the right hand side was also done in the Fuzel app, under the ‘stickers’ tab.

Thanks for taking a look!

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