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

New year, new projects. There are so many projects out there this January! That makes me happy – I love that the scrapping community continues to share so much online. Here’s a 2012 filled with craft and creativity! But specifically, let me introduce you to some projects that are near and dear to my heart.

And all of these are free, by the way. Entirely.

Saying Thanks
In this day of tweets and text messages and all those fast ways we communicate, real mail that is handwritten and sent through the post or handed to a friend is extra-special, right? My personal project this month is make a point to say thanks. Thank you cards for Christmas gifts, thank you gifts for hostesses, thank you notes to let friends know how awesome I think they are. That sort of thing.

I also want to say thank you to all of you, who make all my crazy adventures possible. I am thankful every single day that I get to do this – this whole crafting and writing and picture taking and class teaching and blogging thing. I can’t say thank you enough to convey it all.

But I’m going to share a whole bunch of thank you cards and thank you card tutorials with you throughout January. I hope you’ll pick your favourite and know it is from me to you.

You’ll find Saying Thanks right here at shimelle.com, in blog posts throughout the month. You can also subscribe via Youtube if you prefer that way of catching the latest video.

The Adventures of Glitter Girl
Every day of the week, scrapbookers gather on the General Scrapping message board at Two Peas in a Bucket to discuss their latest finds, their favourite projects and also their crafty conundrums. There are plenty of interesting discussions to compare products, stretch supplies to more crafting and otherwise find new and interesting ways to glue a piece of paper to another piece of paper in an aesthetically pleasing manner. The General Scrapping board is my go-to place for scrapping discussion!

I don’t know much about the rest of this. See, mild-mannered scrapbooker Shimelle Laine can only do so much. I read the boards, I post when I can add to the discussion. But some crafty conundrums call for something more than I can offer. But in times of crafting crisis, there is someone who can help. Just call out for Glitter Girl!

Every Wednesday, Glitter Girl takes on a new adventure, helping the world one crafting dilemma at a time. Glitter Girl joins Two Peas via video to solve a problem posted on the message boards. That includes project tutorials, product comparisons and technique tips throughout the new year.

So yep, there’s that. Whoever she may be.

And there are more new scrapbooking classes at Two Peas from other Garden Girls too. If you like videos featuring scrapbook page tutorials from the supplies to the finished layout, tune in at the beginning of the week for Memory Keeping Monday. Jen Gallacher, Shannon Tidwell, Nancy Damiano and Lisa Truesdell rotate as the weekly hosts, so you’ll see each of them about once a month, which means there is a great balance of varied styles. If you prefer cardmaking tutorials, then the end of the week is for you. Laura Craigie, Julie Campbell, Kandis Smith, and Lynn Ghahary host Finally Friday with a new card tutorial each week.

You’ll find all these projects on the classes page at Two Peas, and you can also subscribe to the Two Peas Youtube channel. Glitter Girl might just persuade me to share her adventures here on the blog too. We’ll see.

All of the Garden Girls are bloggers, by the way. If you want to start 2012 with a great bunch of scrappy blogs, you can find them all together here, and you can even subscribe to all of them in Google Reader with just one click to make it nice and easy. (Not quite all of us tweet, but you can find all who do here, if that suits your style!)

And now for something completely different…
The other message board where you might find me talking scrap? UKScrappers. It’s the place to talk to other scrappers and papercrafters in the UK, but everyone is welcome really, so do grab yourself a username if you want to join in the fun. In 2012, I’ll be leading a monthly project at UKScrappers. Each month includes a full scrapbook page tutorial, but each month that tutorial covers something completely different.

On the 10th of each month, a supply list will be published at UKScrappers. All of the projects can be completed with your own stash – they don’t need specific supplies. But the supply list lets you find the right photos, print them at the right size and gather the supplies of your choice so you’re ready to go when the tutorial goes live. That happens on the 20th of each month. Then you have till the end of the month to upload your project to the gallery at UKS… and you just never know what goodness might come your way for that!

If you like the idea of a year-long challenge but also know doing the same thing for an entire year isn’t really your idea of fun, then this sort of project can be just right for you.

Other classes offered at UKScrappers this year include Art Journey, an art journaling workshop on Mondays and Wednesdays, Simple Recipes on the first and third Tuesday of each month, a new technique post every Thursday (called Technique Thursdays, of course!) and Snap 2012, a photography project with prompts on Fridays.

You’ll find each of those projects has its own location on UKScrappers, but your best bet is to always check the UKS homepage for links to what’s new. I’ll be sharing my tutorials here too.

So wow that’s a lot. My head is spinning a bit! But it’s a spin of excitement!

I hope something here grabs your fancy and you find a project or two to enjoy in 2012!

Thanks so much.

xlovesx

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_{Click here for supplies.}

2011, you were a year of adventure. A year of 50,000 miles and thirteen countries, yet moving house by only a quarter mile. Of backpacks and notebooks and cardboard boxes. Of no scrapbooking for the first three months followed by falling head-over-heels in love with it upon getting back to my desk. Of becoming the house-of-freelance wherein neither of us did anything that seemed like a ‘normal’ job. Of a few hopes being completely dashed and unfulfilled. A few others doing their best to make up for it. A year of growing and giving and letting go of what I cannot control.

I will remember this year as one that changed my perspective. That made realise the real definition of luxury and unnecessary. That an adventure through new places followed by coffee with a stranger would lead me to find a way to support and help even when I can’t physically spend all my life building schools in places where there are none. (One day I will help build one. Not in a someday maybe kind of way, but in an my eyes well up at the thought sort of way. Some part of me was meant to do that and not all that long from now.)

It was the year that I raised my hand a great deal. Who wants to volunteer? Who wants to help? Who wants to give this a try? Who wants to audition? My hand was in the air. Seriously: 2011 was the year we ATE SPIDERS*. On purpose. That’s a year of adventure, right? A year of signing up, pitching ideas, meeting people and constantly rewording my explanation of what I do for a living. But always ending with the idea of ‘it’s not really traditional, but it’s perfect’.

I hope the adventures of 2012 are just as lovely.

_{Click here for supplies.}

And can I just say there are some very new things coming here to shimelle.com throughout the new year? December has been quiet on the blog as we worked behind the scenes so much. But I am excited. I love this craft. I love pretty paper. I love creative people. And I love the idea of sharing even more of all that with you throughout 2012.

Best wishes for a beautiful new year.

xlovesx

*I say ‘we ate spiders’. I mean ‘he ate spiders’ and ‘I ate a spider femur’. But I still think it counts. The menu asked ‘who wants to try fried tarantula?’ and my hand my have been very timid, but it was somehow in the air. I’m calling it a win. And I’m making no plans to eat spiders on purpose any more. They aren’t as crunchy as you imagine.

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_{All class content ©twopeasinabucket.com. Click here to view supplies and full details.}

It’s the thirtieth of the month, so that means it’s time for a brand new edition of 4×6 Photo Love! This is the final lesson in the year long class. Since it’s the twelfth month of the year, we’re scrapbooking a full dozen 4×6 prints on one scrapbook page – and it’s even a single page layout, if you can believe it!

This month’s idea is super simple: create a stack of photos and attach them to the top of the layout with string, twine or ribbon. With double-sided patterned papers, you can make the stack of photos extra pretty and colourful. I used the Little Black Dress collection from BasicGrey for one layout and a mix of collections from Studio Calico for the second page.

By the way, just for today Two Peas has marked all patterned papers from Studio Calico to 60% off, like the dozen papers I used in my Year in Review layout. Check the sale out here and stock up on 12×12 papers for thirty-four cents and 6×6 paper pads under three dollars. (Your order might qualify for free US shipping too – try code NKFFRL for free shipping on orders of $35 of physical, non-phase out products up till the stroke of the new year.)

Depending on how you prefer things in your album, the loose mini pages can stay inside the page protector or you can attach them so they are on the outside of the page protector with just a little tweaking. Punch the hole through the page protector as well as the layout, staple or sew through the page protector, or just cut part of the page protector away. You can also cut extra page protectors to size to fit all the photo layers. Stitch them or close the edges with pretty washi tape.

Stop by Two Peas to download a PDF with notes on this project and visit the Education message board for all the Two Peas classes.

This month I’m joined by special guest Leah Farquharson with her take on this design principle. Leah added border punches to the mix for a beautifully detailed

You can find Leah’s project here at Two Peas to add to your bookmarks.

Now it’s your turn…
Every month, there are two ways to win a prize for participating in 4×6 Photo Love! The first is at Two Peas: create your page and upload it to the gallery. Be sure to tick the box for this challenge in step four of the upload process. One participant will win a gift certificate to Two Peas to go shopping for whatever you like. But there’s a second chance to win right here: on this post, leave a comment with a link to your page (in the gallery at Two Peas or on your blog, whatever you prefer) and one of those links will win Two Peas shopping money too! The deadline for both is the 29th of January.

Congratulations to Gaby for winning the draw for last month’s eleven photo class! (Gaby, I need your email address. Can you contact me at shimelle at gmail dot com please?) Will you be next? Just choose twelve 4×6 photos to scrap and follow along with this month’s class prompt.

xlovesx

PS: Feel free to grab the button there on the left for your blog or to share this class with a friend – since it’s free, the more the merrier! This is our final update to this project but it will continue to be available for free to help any scrapper with ideas for 4×6 pictures.

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Happy Christmas Eve!

Around here, family gathering sessions are well underway and we’re spending plenty of time on trains and bundled into the back of cars to visit here and there in hopes of seeing everyone we can manage! I’m working on eating my body weight in Christmas chocolates and ginger cake, to ensure a full celebration of the holidays!

There’s also the delivery of Christmas cards, which included some more made with the lovely die-cuts from Elle’s Studio. Other supplies include Lily Bee papers, Simple Stories paper tablet, pinked circle dies and the artbox sprinklers set.

Many happy Christmas Eve wishes to your home if you’re reading this today!

xlovesx

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Congratulations to Sam, who wins the printable paper craft files OR a custom printable silhouette PDF from Happy Thought Papercraft.

Sam please email me (shimelle at gmail dot com) with your address.

There’s a new giveaway every Friday night, so check back next week for another chance to win just by leaving a comment.

Have a great week!

xlovesx

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I promise I’m finding my way back to pretty paper and some scrapbooking! I now have a table to work on again, which is a big step in the right direction. Now if I can just make an arrangement with some sunlight, that would be fabulous. I think once we get past these shortest days of the year, that part will improve marvellously. But the exciting bit is this first foray back to crafting post-move is extra lovely fun as the December guest for Elle’s Studio.

This photo is one I came across when I was back home last summer and up close it made me laugh so very much. I’m sitting on the lap of the Santa at the mall, which is simple enough. But up close, that isn’t an old man Santa. It’s not even a middle-aged Santa. I’m not sure if it’s an old-enough-to-buy-beer Santa! He looks like a teenager with a fake beard, and I’m more than a little curious if he was originally hired as an elf rather than Mr Claus himself! I’m sure I believed with every ounce of my six-year-old being. I loved the chance to put all those Ho Ho Ho! themed goodies from Elle’s Studio to good use on a Santa page, and I’m more than a little in love with woodgrain snowflakes this year. (Oh reality, you’re not as fun as pretty combinations of things I like!)

And if woodgrain snowflakes are go, why not houndstooth? Exactly. Elle’s Studio has quite a few items in their Christmas range that would work equally well as diecuts on a scrapbook page or as sentiments on a Christmas card, so hurrah for equal-opportunity paper crafting.

I’ll be sharing more Elle’s Studio fun throughout this week, so if you have a minute between now and Christmas, do come back for a look!

xlovesx

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This weekend, one commenter will win either two printable paper craft files OR a custom printable silhouette PDF from Happy Thought Papercraft.

“At Happy thought papercraft we are passionate about offering fantastic looking, fun and easy to assemble paper craft products. It is so satisfying to create your own decor, stationery or party pieces. And of course, you have the added bonus of having the file to use again and again!”

To enter, just leave a comment on this post telling us why paper is your passion.

Entries close at midnight Sunday UK time and the winner will be posted Monday evening, so be sure to check back to see if it’s your lucky day!

Good luck!

xlovesx

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Congratulations to Lianne, who wins the gorgeous print from Caroline Rose Art.

Lianne, please email me (shimelle at gmail dot com) with your address.

There’s a new giveaway every Friday night, so check back next week for another chance to win just by leaving a comment.

Have a great week!

xlovesx

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