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

The situation was incredibly surreal. Wonder Boy was sound asleep in bed, which was surreal enough, and I was staring at a desk full of papers, embellishments, and tools with my own name on them. Exactly where does one start in this scenario? I figured I had to just start cutting paper or I might stand there paralysed by fear, and I know that is never a wise decision in those short windows of time in which a baby sleeps contently!

And so, I’ve done it: one completed scrapbook page to get me started using my own supplies! Nearly everything here is from my collection, with the exception of three aqua enamel dots, Mister Huey’s green mist and gold Color Shine mist. There are five patterned papers (one cut-apart and one branding strip), some of the die-cuts and stickers, three designs from the stamp set, glitter hearts from the rub-ons, the ‘lovely’ steel die, and all three lettering options – two kinds of gold Thickers plus a small tile alphabet in grey.

I know Wonder Boy has a Project Life album and then I go and scrap him on 12×12 pages. I promise there is method to my madness: the Project Life album is a baby book made for him; the 12×12 pages are for my chronological albums. I would call those family albums but I make them for me, most of all. When others enjoy looking at them, that’s a definite bonus, but I create them for my own wellbeing first and foremost. Plus I don’t like choosing one extreme or the other. Having both album options keeps me happy, no matter how much time I have or what mood I’m in. Sometimes more is more, right?

It’s been gloriously sunny, which is lovely but does produce some rather extreme shadows!

To answer a couple product questions, the collection is shipping to stores imminently, and when it arrives I will post links here to a variety of places where you can purchase what you like. (Thanks so much to anyone considering a purchase!)

I’m looking forward to making more with these now that I’m past the fear factor of it all! And even more excited to see what you make with it. Cannot wait for that!

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In 2012, I taught one of the sessions for True Scrap 3, and my contribution was a forty minute video workshop entitled The Perfect Collection. The idea was to take a collection pack of patterned papers and use it until it was all gone, creating a stack of layouts that stretched that paper investment to lots of scrapbooking! That workshop remains available, but it is time to return to that idea with something new.

Return to the Collection is a new workshop here at shimelle.com. Earlier this year, it was open for Early Bird Registration, but it is now open to all and will remain available. Unlike many of my workshops which are PDF based but with some accompanying videos, this one is video accompanied by notes. Those of you who prefer to watch will find plenty of new material here – none of the video in this workshop has been shared in any other class nor on the blog – it is all exclusive to the workshop. There are also some printable notes to help (and so you can have still shots of the completed layouts) but these notes support the videos rather than the other way around.

Return to the Collection showcases six layouts from start to finish, using one collection pack – the Wild & Free collection from Glitz Design – but instead of the limited embellishment focus of The Perfect Collection, this time the pages feature a more embellished style and a range of techniques.

…Examples include both single and double page layouts and a variety of numbers and sizes of the photographs. My pages are all 12×12 (making a 24×12 double page) but you could adapt the ideas to other page sizes if you prefer.
…Techniques and design ideas are easily adapted to the collection of your choice. You’re welcome to follow along with Wild & Free, but my aim is to give you the confidence to use these tips with the papers you love. In fact, many of the early bird participants reported that Wild & Free was really not their style, but they were still able to apply the strategies to papers they loved. That’s exactly what I hoped for, since my goal is always to help you find things that will work in your own way so you find some creative independence rather than just duplicating any particular project.
…The design process for each layout includes building and embellishing, with all of that explained on video, including my reasons behind each choice. I do not teach in a ‘glue this here and stamp that there’ fashion, and always value the ‘why’ more than the ‘do’ in sharing my scrapbooking process.
…The page designs can be used together for a cohesive series of pages or separately across a variety of photos and albums – whatever suits your needs best!

Once you purchase the class, you’ll receive access within 24 hours, with details sent to you by email. (If you don’t receive a message within 24 hours, check your spam folder just in case, then get in touch so I can help!) Shimelle.com classes are accessed via a forum, so if you’ve taken a class before, this will be added to your account. If it’s your first class, you’ll also receive login details for your new account. When the class is live, you will have access to everything all at once – it’s not a daily email class. Like all shimelle.com classes, you’ll have permanent access to all the materials so there is no rush to work through the videos. You can view them any time you like.

Choose your currency and click to sign up for the class. You can pay by credit/debit card or by logging into your PayPal account. The email address on the payment is where your registration will be sent. If that email address is not correct (or if you want to give the class to a friend as a gift), then leave a note in the ‘notes to seller’ section with the correct email address. If you accidentally forget that step or have any other problems, email me. You’ll receive a PayPal email receipt when your payment has been made, then class access within 24 hours.

Questions and Answers
Do I need to take The Perfect Collection first?
No, it’s not a requirement. There are a few references in the dialogue of the class, but they are simple enough to understand without having taken the class. If you prefer more embellished styles, The Perfect Collection may not be the best class for you – it is more aimed at stretching a collection page to many layouts without having to sacrifice colour and pattern. But of course you are welcome to take both! The Perfect Collection is still available here.

Do I have to have the same collection pack for the workshop to make sense?
No, not at all. The papers are all referenced with explanations and descriptions that make it easy to apply the same tips to any paper collection of your choice.

What other supplies are you using in this workshop?
For the embellishment, you’ll see many little things from different manufacturers and collections. The idea is to start with a collection pack of papers, but not to feel you have to then buy every pack of embellishments in the line. Instead, pick from your existing stash to find frames, die-cuts, stickers, brads, and stamps to create unique combinations. You don’t need to use the same exact products as in the video. For example, there is a fabric-covered brad by Cosmo Cricket on one page. You wouldn’t need that pack of brads specifically. You might have fabric-covered brads in your stash, and if so it’s easy to select one that will work. If not, that’s still fine – use a plain or epoxy brad. No brads? No problem – substitute an item that is of a similar shape and size – like a button or a maybe a flair badge. This way you are free to use what you love and what you have on hand, while at the same time learning to embellish on your own so you can add as much or as little as you like without needing to keep looking back at a reference point once you have the hang of it. That’s the goal!

Any other questions, please feel free to ask in the comments and I’ll do my best to answer. Thanks so much!

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I know it’s been ages since we first mentioned it, but today I’m thrilled to finally show you my debut paper crafting collection for American Crafts, which hits stores this month! Here’s a look at what just hit my desk.

Embellishments include wood veneer pieces, glittery rub-ons, and a pack filled with paper die-cuts.

The wood veneer includes four heart designs, so you have enough for a visual triangle on your page without needing multiple packs.

And so many die-cuts! Some have gold foil and some are embossed.

I’m hoping you can see the embossed texture here!

There are two sets of transparent overlays. The big set is seriously big! They have the holes in the side like a page protector so you just pop them into an album and the next page shows through. They can be used plain or with extra embellishment on top. The smaller set has 4×6 and 4×4 overlays to go over photos, including colour, white, and gold foil designs.

There are three sets of stickers – printed cork, a small pack with mini letters + words and phrases, and the eight page book of stickers, which again has gold in the mix. Still keeping those page design tricks in mind – there cameras and three hearts on the cork, and the small letter tiles match the numbers on the clock die-cuts.

And two packs of Thickers letter stickers – one in gold glitter on foam and the other is gold foil on chipboard circles.

Plenty of patterned paper, of course! I wanted colours that could seem bold and muted at the same time, and shades of the same colour so there is red but also multiple shades of pink, turquoise, and orange.

Because you might otherwise miss it – the back of the aqua paper with words and hearts has this calendar journaling print!

There are four cut-apart papers: 4×6 blocks, 4×4 squares, 3×4 cards, and a ticket and tag print with a variety of sizes.

The clear stamp set includes the globe and camera, but also two texture stamps – one for corners and one for layering under words. The date stamp has months in the middle, like 01 JUL 2014, for example.

Aside from the roller date stamp, there is also a set of metal dies and a woodgrain embossing folder.

I gave the dies a run this morning and they came out like this with my Big Shot and kraft card stock. Still a bit surreal to see my handwriting as a die!

And one last little addition: adhesives of all things! The roller is a narrow adhesive, perfect for small pieces, and the pop dots are half the height of the standard AC dots, so you can vary the dimension in your layering or use them in a pocket where the thick dots might be cumbersome. Plus, yes: a tape dispenser that looks like a camera for your favourite wash. Because why not?

All of this ships to stores in mid-July, and I’ll be sharing projects here that I’m making as well as the AC design team! Thanks so much for taking a look! Take a look at the American Crafts blog for more images and the chance to win the collection!

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Over the past few months, you may have seen pages from my ’40 weeks’ album documenting my pregnancy. It used a format of one 12×12 page opposite a divided page protector, and some weeks are completed and other weeks are works in progress. But Wonder Boy is getting bigger every day so it is high time I got started on a book all his own, and for that I’m using Project Life and an all-divided-page-protector format.

Several years ago I led a project called Document:2010 that was not far from the concept you often see in Project Life albums now – it was a way to document the everyday of life for a full year. It started brilliantly but went pear-shaped for me when 2010 proved to be a very challenging year. So many sad, earth-shattering-to-me things happened in 2010. If you ask me about the hardest parts of my life, I will tell you just surviving seventh grade and 2010 are in my biggest accomplishments. I wouldn’t want an album retelling the daily struggles of seventh grade and by midway through the year, I didn’t want a permanent record of 2010 either. It put me off the idea of any sort of year-long documentation project, because stopping that album in 2010 was good for my sanity but also made me feel like a failure. Making one page at a time let me pick the things I wanted to scrapbook without any obligation to a certain time. I could leave out the bad and the sad and focus on the happy, or I could come back and write extended entries working through those life challenges on the days when I felt it was helpful.

But all that said, the one thing that has always struck me in looking at Project Life albums from a variety of scrapbookers is how amazing that format would be for a baby book, when you feel like you can basically see them getting bigger if you concentrate on not blinking. So I knew I wanted that format, but the caveats I am setting myself are there is no obligation to be working on last week this week or anything sort of ‘on time’ or ‘caught up’ notion and that I can stop this album at any point that feels right. It does not need to be exactly one year of documentation. It can be more or less, and both are fine.

All that said, I am having to make some changes to how I work with a tiny baby in the house! Gone are the days when I could spend all day scrapping with no interruptions, so I’ve found a few things that are helping me with this project so far. I’m sure there will be more tricks I’ll find over the coming months, but these are the things that made a big difference to me from the beginning.

Finding a dedicated place to work on just this project. Aside from the video below, I am not working on this project in my usual space. I cleared a countertop that usually held tools like my die cutter and arranged it so I can leave the full 12×12 album open on the top all the time. This way there is no desk clearing or finding things to give me a road block. I can just walk there, add a few words, and walk away again without worry.

I don’t have a huge amount of space to work with, so this did take some compromise and I still have a few things I need to rearrange elsewhere to get it to its best. I am very lucky to have a room for all this, but it is not huge and it holds a great deal, and I try very hard to stick to our household rule of ‘scrapbooking stays in the scrapbooking room’ for all our sanity.

Labelling the weeks with dates on the page protectors. This was key to me because I’m working at a delay. When I print a photo, I want to put it straight into the right week, even if I’m not going to embellish that week just now. I’ve always found I’m better at getting my pages straight into albums if I put the page protectors in from the moment I take the plastic off the album. So this is filled with Project Life Design A page protectors, and then I added the dates and week numbers with post-it notes so everything is easy to find and I don’t need to repeat that job each time.

Keeping certain supplies within reach. I’ve selected a few things I’ll be using on every spread in the album, including the Pebbles rolling stamp, a date stamp, and a ‘currents’ stamp that is handy for journaling cards. Instead of putting them away, I’ve given them a spot on that counter top so I can work quickly. (Admittedly this tactic may work great now with a tiny baby and may be a terrible idea for a five year old. So it goes!) Other supplies I use often are here too, including having an extra set of scissors, adhesive roller, and journaling pens so I’m not transferring them from my main desk each time. Having fewer things nearby also helps me make decisions quicker, as I’m not all that tempted to dig in a basket for five minutes looking for something that’s perfect when I have something that will do just fine right in front of me. As a result, you’ll probably see less product variety in this album, but I think that will add to the consistency in style when it has plenty of pages with so much going on.

Making some design choices. I’ve selected the same page protectors for the whole album (though I may use smaller insert pages for particularly busy weeks). I’m printing many of the photos with a wireless Canon Selphy CP910 printer, which I must admit I am currently leaving on all the time so when Wonder Boy falls asleep in my lap, I can use my phone to select and print the images without moving. I also decided after the experience from the 40 Weeks album that I’m (gasp) not really all that keen on the rounded corners of the Project Life brand cards. I love the designs on the cards themselves, but I prefer the look in the pockets of everything with clean, square corners. I decided I would use patterned paper instead of the Project Life cards for the base layer of everything, and when I do use the Project Life cards, it will be as a layer, so you’ll see in this first example that the rounded corners exist within the card but the outside edges of each pocket have square corners. I also decided from the beginning that I will aim for four 4×6 landscape images with white borders on each double page spread and use an Amy Tangerine label stamp to caption each of those. That’s four pockets done straight away each week, and that helps!

This is week two in Wonder Boy’s album, and I already had to confront the ‘do I scrapbook the sad stuff’ because the first couple weeks here were hard mentally and physically. (Every baby has something that just wrenches your heart, right?) But I actually found it quite helpful to write about in this case, and it let me see the bigger picture that all that heartache and time going back and forth to the hospital was worth it, and I’ll never forget the amazing feeling of finally being set free from all that and sent home knowing we didn’t have another day of tests when we woke up the next morning. Hence that ‘finally’ card there on the far right!

_{Viewing on a blog reader? Click through to the full post to watch the video!}

Here’s a look at how this double page spread came together, including further notes on how I’m making this work by scrapping in just tiny amounts of time rather than doing everything at once!

(And yes, this video is on my own YouTube channel!)

Now… I know many of you have FAR more experience in making your albums work when your hands are full! I’d love to hear from you. What are your secrets to making projects like this work with your unique and overfilled schedule?

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Dusting the stress along with the cobwebs this Monday morning and moving forward after last week’s news. It was just ten days ago that I posted a weekend of scrapbooking challenges, and yet it seems like another world! So I’ve taken some time to get back to those projects, and the challenges are open for your submissions until today. (The link up tool at the end of each post tells you how much time is left, so that’s the easiest way to see it in your timezone!)

This sketch was the post that kicked off those three days of challenges, with Corrie Jones supplying the first interpretation. Find that post here to share your page inspired by this sketch.

I realise I’ve always encouraged my readers to use the gallery at Two Peas as a place to upload your pages, and that’s all a little awkward as I write this. I haven’t come close to fully exploring the options for other places to share your work. There are page galleries at many scrapbooking sites, including Scrapbook.com and Studio Calico. You can upload and share via your own blog or Instagram account. There are options to try.

If you are interested in preserving your entire Two Peas gallery, you may be interested in this announcement that would copy all your uploads to the gallery elsewhere. I haven’t tried this so I can’t say from experience how easy it was, but have a look to see if it is something you might find helpful. I know many of us have layout galleries that provide an interesting look at our evolution as crafters.

Here’s my interpretation of this simple sketch, and a return to that original idea I mentioned that a patterned paper could remain largely on show and the rest of the page could be made with just scraps from other papers. This page was made with the last papery bits of my kit from last August, which brings me to something else that is changing – my product links have always gone to Two Peas and that will be a lot of links to change. It also means I don’t have a nice and easy way to post a Best of Both Worlds kit tomorrow, of course. I have some investigating to do as I want to make sure I am happy with any retailers I recommend, so I appreciate your patience as I find the best way forward. Of course you can find products via a search of Google or your store of choice, so this layout was made from Carta Bella’s Hello Again and Fancy Pants’ What a Wonderful Day collections, plus stickers from Dear Lizzy’s Lucky Charm line.

If you’ve created layouts from the weekend challenges, I hope you’ll share them with us! Find those challenges here.

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Yesterday scrapbooking lost something very special: Two Peas in a Bucket announced they are closing their doors. It saddens me as their shop and community have been part of my life for fifteen years. First as a customer, shopping for the latest supplies and waiting for the clock to tick over to the first of the month when their design team projects were posted, and then eventually I joined that very team. For nearly six years, I’ve worked on something for Two Peas every week of the year, eventually letting my sparkly friend take up her weekly video series and retiring from the individual layout assignments. For me, Two Peas has been a great place to work. I’ve worked with people who made me better. I am very sad to lose this avenue of working with the team and the community from Two Peas.

Since the announcement, I’ve had many questions about my paid workshops and the Glitter Girl video series. At this point, I don’t have answers you will love. All the work I’ve done for Two Peas belongs to them – I don’t currently have the rights to those workshops or videos. The FAQ on their site says workshops will not be accessible once they close the store in mid-July. So that is the short answer. I would love to find a better answer and I will keep you informed of any changes. I really can’t say more than that right now because I just don’t know what is possible. But I am aware of your concerns and am doing whatever I can.

The other question I’ve been asked is will I go somewhere else to teach and make videos. If you’re reading this, you’re at that somewhere. Shimelle.com existed before I became a Garden Girl, before I permanently lodged a tripod and camera over my workspace. I blogged here and taught workshops here and I will continue to do so. You can subscribe to the blog via a reader like Bloglovin if you like or scroll down the page here to request posts go direct to your inbox. If you love video, consider subscribing to my YouTube channel. If you want to take a workshop, find your options here. If you want to encourage a crafty friend to watch or read, please share a link now and then. I thank you for your continued support in any way.

I thank the Garden Girls I’ve worked with over the years, and the fearless leaders who have managed the team. They have inspired me at so many levels and I’m honoured to have worked with these women. If you would like to bookmark the current team, you can find them on the following blogs:
Céline Navarro
Jen Gallacher
Jen Kinkade
Jill Sprott
Laura Craigie
Lisa Dickinson
Marcy Penner
Mel Blackburn
Nancy Damiano
Paige Evans
Stephanie Bryan
Wilna Furstenberg
Many have YouTube channels you can find through their blogs.

And I thank Kristina and Jeffrey for building something full of inspiration and community as well as the best pick of craft products fifteen years ago. It was such an innovation to our industry and so much good came of it. I am so very sorry to see it go.

Details of the closing can be found here. Thank you for keeping things positive as I work to find any solutions for those invested in my workshops. It will take time, I’m sure, but I’m hoping for the best.

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The sun has set on Sunday evening here and that leads me to post this final challenge of this weekend’s online adventure! Just one last sketch for today, of a page design I must have used more than a dozen times and still love. It works so perfectly as a way for me to remember how to make a page when I’ve had to take a little time away. I usually feel I’ve forgotten how to scrapbook after three days or so – which I realise is a scarily short window of time. It was seven weeks, I think, that I didn’t even walk into my studio this spring, and I wasn’t sure I’d even remember how to work the paper trimmer. Thankfully muscle memory seems to have sorted that one out!

So here we are: two 4×6 photos, use of the rule of thirds, a triangle of embellishments to surround the important stuff, and a balance of vertical and horizontal flow across the page. It’s all my favourite design elements right there together.

Our final guest of the weekend is Manda Moore, who stepped up to give the sketch a spin in her own style!

I love working with sketches as a starting point for a layout especially as you can adapt them to suit your photos or your style. Because of the composition of my photos (of Shop Houses in Singapore), having one picture above the other did not look right so I flipped the sketch onto it’s side. This also meant the title had to be moved but I kept the journaling spot in the same place. I am a huge fan of layering and because I had quite a bit of white space above the photos I used some ephemera and photo overlays to fill in that area. (I find that a couple of ephemera packs can stretch over quite a few layouts so they are a great investment). This was a very versatile sketch to work with and I can see myself adapting it to use for a few other layouts. -Manda

Thank you so much for joining me this weekend! All the challenges remain open until the 30th of June – and the little countdown timer on the link ups should help you figure out what time in your part of the world. Of course you can follow them any time, but I’m going to try to work through them by the thirtieth, so if you want to see how many you can get done too, it would be lovely to see your work! Happy scrapping!

Manda Moore is a graphic designer living in a small country town in Victoria, Australia. She is the Creative Director of Life.Paper.Scrapbook a free online magazine that is published quarterly, a project she started to share her love of scrapbooking with other designers from around the world. She has always loved art and craft and has been making a crafty mess of paper, glue, paint, glitter and anything else she can use as long as she can remember! When she is not creating something with paper and glue she loves to cook, take photos, travel and spend time with her two kitties, Harry & Winston. You can find her at her blog Mandalika Designs, Facebook page or on Instagram

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Ready for a sketch that go from one extreme to the other? This next challenge is just that: you can stay right in line with the sketch as shown or take a leaf from guest Gina Rodgers’ book and go full tilt with the layers and details!

I often add titles right over my photos in sketches, and somewhere along the line I realised that is a reflection of something I tend to do when I have my camera in hand. I may take plenty of photos of whatever we’re really doing – be that people or landmarks or food (it’s probably food more than I should admit) – but in the mix I tend to take a few with some more jarring spacing, like filling two-thirds of the frame with a pretty wood flooring or the texture of the grass and capturing some small detail in that remaining sliver of the frame. Those shots are great for layering up with a title or journaling, since there’s space that won’t change the meaning of your story. It’s not at all like putting letter stickers across someone’s face!

Now the sketch looks really clean and graphic in that design, but Gina took it in her own style for something quite different!

I loved working with this sketch and changed it up a little by reducing the photos to just two and adding layers consisting of several tags and labels cut from the Crate Paper and Maggie Holmes Flea Market papers along with stickers, paper scraps, and washi tapes. One of the tags had the phrase ‘happy day’ which I thought was perfect as the title. Once I had things stuck down where I wanted them, I add a few touches of slightly watered down glimmer mists and splatters and a scattering of embellishments including Teresa Collins enamel dots, D-Lish Scraps pearl cabochons, SODAlicious wooden stars and Evalicious flair. I also added some stamping using the Amy Tangerine rotary stamp in place of one of the journaling blocks in the sketch. -Gina

Gina Rodgers lives in Tasmania, Australia and has been scrapping for about 6 years. She is currently on the design team at Citrus Twist Kits and is an Ambassador at Jenni Bowlin Studio. She shares her creative journey on her blog Daydreaming in Aqua and you can also find her on Instagram and Pinterest .

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