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

This weekend, one commenter will win a very stylish pair of enamel earrings made by Alisha Louise.

Alisha began working with metal and enamel in 2000 at Seattle’s Pratt Fine Arts Center. Soon after, she began assisting local jewelers and honing her skills on production work while working towards her goal of debuting her own line. Alishalouise.com was launched in August 2005 and her pieces have been featured in Bust Magazine, Teen Vogue, Daily Candy and Mighty Goods.
Her newest line focuses on graphic silhouettes of romantic Art Deco and Nouveau patterns in a spectrum of colors.

You can follow Alisha on facebook to keep up to date with her latest projects and designs.

To enter, just leave a comment on this post describing your favourite era of style from history.

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

Comment [51]

Before I even start, let me just say Youtube and I seem to be on a very slow friendship this week. There is a new sketch and a new video but it’s been uploading all day and then some. It’s getting there. Goodness me, it’s taking forever. Anyway, onward.

Every year I try so very, very hard to make it to the first of November, which is the day on which I deem it socially acceptable to start openly talking about Christmas. It is also the first day of the year in which it is acceptable in our house to watch Elf or listen to A Very Special Christmas 3, in case you were ever curious about such things. But it seems the world wants me to move a few days ahead, so here it is: my first blog post about Christmas 2011, and not even a dose of Will Ferrell in tights to add extra sparkle to my Christmas spirit. Are you ready?

That picture up there? That’s a look at the supplies I’m using this year for Journal your Christmas. If you’re new to my little world, Journal your Christmas is kinda a big deal. It’s a class that runs every year from the first of December to the sixth of January, and it’s all about making Christmas completely magical. I talk more about that on the first of November, but you can still find the details and sign up at any time really. Anyway, back to the supplies!

The supplies I’m using are available in a kit – and this year I have an answer for both UK and non-UK crafters. I have a limited number of kits packed right here in my very own craft room and they will go on sale on the first of November to UK addresses only. However, at that time you’ll also find an easy way to order the same kit for a US address – or opt for international shipping from a US supplier. All of that info will be available right here on the blog on the first of November. Even if you decide to order other supplies, it might be worth stopping by that day for a little something special that could help your pocketbook.

So that’s the first date to put on your calendar: on the first of November, I’ll take you through all the new additions and details for this year’s Journal your Christmas and there’s some potential shopping. But how about a second date?

Mark the 11th to the 13th of November on your calendar too. Over those three days, you’ll find a bit of a special Christmas-preparation version of our online crop weekends. The 11th to the 13th will include tutorials (both written and video) for several different ways to prepare a Christmas journal or December album, along with some other Christmas crafting projects you might enjoy. If you want to prep your Christmas journal before the first of December arrives, this is a fab time to do that. And if you order a kit on the first of November, it will be with you in time to put it to use! (For those of you who are super early-birds and have already prepped your books, stop by to join in with some other challenges and be part of the fun. You can offer your advice to those who are brand new to the Christmas journal adventure.)

Okay – I’m going to go back to my rule now and not talk about Christmas again until the first of November. But know these three things:
…YES, Journal your Christmas will run again this year, alumni do not have to pay anything extra to participate and all the new details will be posted on the first;
…YES, I am offering a kit for this Christmas and there is a way to order it both in and out of the UK and it will be posted on the first;
…YES, there will be an online crop devoted to prepping your Christmas journal and other Christmas crafts – it’s on the 11th to the 13th of November!

Fabulous? I hope so. Now back to autumn and October and all that non-Christmas stuff for just a few more days please. Thanks!

xlovesx

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As it’s almost Halloween, I just wanted to post a quick round-up of Halloween projects from the archives! This shadow box is something that could be made for Halloween or the idea could be reworked for any other theme of decoration you might need in your hallway. Clearly every hallway needs a handcrafted, themed decoration. These are the laws of the land.

I’ll warn you – this is pretty much the first scrapbooking/papercrafting video I ever filmed, and that is pretty obvious. There’s a section where the focus is completely off. But it does come back into focus and you should be able to get the general idea. (At least it shows I have learned a bit in the last year!)

For supplies and a printable PDF with the instructions, click here. That shadowbox is still available and is now on sale, by the way.

If you need to throw a party, this printable kit is perfect for making everything match in a jiffy. It includes cupcake flags, posters and cards – perfect for a class party but useful for something at home or on Halloween night too.

And I’m working on an entirely pumpkin-themed post, but in the mean time you can find my favourite pumpkin cupcake recipe should you wish to bake up a bit of autumn in single serving size.

What are you doing for Halloween?

xlovesx

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Congratulations to Jennifer, who wins the fabulous polaroid camera necklace from Cute as a Button.

Jennifer, 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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From this starter with a sheet and a half of paper to this finished page, and it goes into the high school section of my early years album! Growing up near Kansas City meant a summer trip to Worlds of Fun, the big amusement park north of the city. This particular summer I took quite a few photos but I was always behind the camera and never appeared in the images, so I’ve started scrapping them anyway and documenting some of the things that made up the day to day back then. I haven’t been to Worlds of Fun in years – actually, my last trip was the day before I moved to England in the spring of 1999. This past summer it came up in conversation and we talked about all the rides that were new and fabulous when we were kids but have since been retired or moved to other parks. I couldn’t quite remember all the names but it turns out there are roller coaster fans who keep track of these things and post them on Wikipedia, so I can now write about how it seemed completely amazing to survive the double-loop of the Orient Express and verify the year the wooden Timber Wolf opened and how naming that coaster was a contest open to all the local school children. More than a few of us are sad that Worlds of Fun decided the Zambezi Zinger was no longer cool enough for the park and sold it. Admittedly, the Zinger was completely tame in comparison to most roller coasters, but it held the novelty that it didn’t require a seatbelt or harness of any kind and somehow this always made you feel you were living on the edge. While it isn’t exciting enough for Kansas City, it is apparently open to ride at a coffee-themed theme park in Colombia. Wikipedia, I salute your ability to fill my head with completely random factoids!

And just to make myself feel old, I looked up the price of a ticket to Worlds of Fun these days. I’m pretty sure it was between $20 and $22 for a day ticket when I was in high school, but they ran special two-for-one deals on certain days if you brought in a Coca-cola can, so we usually arrived in even numbers and full of sugar and caffeine. Today the standard price of a ticket is apparently $48.35! Yes. That does make me feel old and thrifty and I may start calling teenagers ‘whippersnappers’ at any moment.

Let’s quickly move to favourite pages from last week before I feel any older, okay?

Here are four of my favourites from last week – starting point nine. Clockwise from top left, they are by Deb, Maja, Maya and Jude.

If you give this week’s starting point a try, please share what you create on this post. Can’t wait to see your version!

xlovesx

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What a funny little week this was – so much fun with Pretty Paper Party and True Scrap that the hours seemed to escape from me. But can’t complain about anything but wishing there were more hours in the day, so that’s okay in my book.

The good news is this week’s Scrapbook Starting Point is super quick and easy! You’ll need two papers – one in a full sheet for the background and another could be a half sheet, as long as it the full width. The papers I used are from the new Chap collection, but of course pick whatever papers you like! From that second pattern, cut three strips: half an inch, one inch and three inches – all the full width of the page. Then grab your favourite border punch and punch the edge of what you have leftover. Take that punched piece and line it up with the pattern in the three inch strip. Small, repeating patterns work best for this – stripes also work really well. Once the pattern is lined up, adhere the punched strip there and cut off the excess so this layered piece is still three inches by twelve (or the full page width, if you’re working in another page size).

Attach the three strips to the full sheet with the smallest strip at the bottom and the largest strip in the middle, and just a small gap between each. When you attach the strips, be sure the pattern is all lined up in the same direction so there’s no jarring reverse of the design.

What you do next is completely up to you! Start here and create your own page, then take a picture and share it with us when you’re finished. Stop back to see my finished version of this page plus some of my favourite submissions from last week. Have a fabulously crafty day… or evening… or whenever this may find you!

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This weekend, one commenter will win a quirky polaroid necklace from Cute as a Button.

Beckie of Cute as a Button makes some seriously funky and modern jewellery. “I’ve studied applied textiles and fine art for five years now and I’ve been pining to be able to do what I love as a way of supporting myself. I hope you find my shop delightful and my handmakes make you smile.” To keep updated with the wonders of Beckie’s shop, become a fan of her facebook page.

To enter this weekend’s giveaway, just leave a comment on this post telling us what in your life is as cute as button, even if it is a cute button!

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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Serious show of hands: when you make a page, does it go in a stack with other pages or in an album? Because I really want to talk albums. Like honest truth about albums.

I’ve talked about my personal album process before – for a long time, my pages were in quite a mess. Some in albums, some not. Some in order, some not. I’ll be honest: when I was creating more than half my pages for books and magazines, it was hard to figure out how to keep pages organised because I wasn’t particularly amazing at keeping an inventory of what I had made and sent away to the publishers, so I had no accurate idea of my page inventory, so to speak. At that point, if you had asked to see an album, I would have gone straight to a Christmas journal, because those albums are made in order and kept in order and no matter which day marks the end of the project, there is always some sort of finished feel to that journal. It’s real and it’s readable from start to finish and I love how it’s cohesive without being repetitive.

But that was then. Now the majority of my pages are photographed here rather than sent away, so I don’t need a complicated spread sheet to remember the pages I’ve created. I set up an album system, I moved my albums to a place where they would be easy to reach every day, and truly if you walked into my flat and asked to see an album, I would point you to the shelf and let you pick any book that’s there. Because I am truly happy with each of them in their current state. Aside from annual Christmas journals, none of them are in an officially ‘complete’ state. As far as I can tell, they never will be. I like that I can go back and add more at any time, but I also like that there’s nothing that works out as a project that can’t be seen because it’s unfinished. You know those projects? I have minibooks like that – the pages all covered, and then only the first half completed – that sort of thing. But in my 12×12 albums, you wouldn’t really know there was a gap – you just wouldn’t be able to read what happened between page a and page b, because I haven’t added anything there yet.

Truly the system I use for my albums is totally beside the point – I don’t mean you have to follow the same system I use in order to be happy with your albums. You don’t. Not in the slightest. But the last few times I’ve written about albums, several people have come out of hiding to say they have scrapbooked for years and don’t actually have a single album. Their pages live in stacks or in drawers or in boxes, and once they are completed, they don’t really see the light of day again. And not in an I’m meaning to put them in albums when I get a minute way, but in an I don’t really feel any need to ever look at them again way.

If I’m being honest, I read those comments and my face dropped.

Yes, making a scrapbook page is this creative, enjoyable experience in and of itself. I love that our craft is one that can offer real results in a short amount of time. I don’t think I would enjoy scrapbooking quite as much if it took weeks or months to make one single page. (This is why I have never knit a pair of socks, for I am convinced I would give up before I turned the heel.) So yes, I love that we make pages and enjoy making them. But albums are this whole other level, just waiting to be discovered. Once you come up with the way you want to organise your pages in albums, looking through an album gives you a new plane of creativity. A new way to write, when you keep the longer format in mind. A new way to embellish, when you consider what pages you have already created on related topics. A new way to get the most from your supplies by looking at a range of pages rather than a single page.

If you really don’t have any desire to look back at your pages in an album, then I respect that. It doesn’t work for me. If you mean to put pages in an album but just keep putting it off, I really recommend taking a couple days and just making it happen. It doesn’t need to be perfect and it doesn’t need to be complex and calculated. Just find a way to let your pages be enjoyed after you make them, that’s all.

I don’t love this instead of making each page at a time. I love this as an addition. Like creative step one: make a page. Creative step two: look at how that page affects the album. Sometimes the album itself inspires my next page. Sometimes the next page comes completely on its own and making it a smooth transition in the album becomes its own creative challenge. That may sound a bit esoteric, but what I really mean is albums now make me more excited about scrapbooking than I have ever been.

And here’s a big bonus: if someone who doesn’t understand scrapbooking asks to see what I mean, I can show them an album that will make sense without needing to know about the crafty stuff. The story makes sense as you flip from page to page. I can still make every page as embellished as I want, with products I like and in whatever style makes me happy. Every time I finish a page, I love seeing how the album itself is coming together and it makes me relive the memories and think of more things I want to write in my very own words with my very own pen in my very own hand.

So in short, to me, albums are good. Looking at pages again and again is good. Enjoying both the single page process and the long game of curating all these individual moments into the full autobiography is definitely, definitely good. This month marks my thirteenth year of scrapbooking and I’ve never been happier to call myself a scrapbooker.

But if the short version isn’t enough, I’m teaching a workshop on this very principle of making albums take on that whole new level. It’s called Go with the Flow and it’s part of True Scrap 2. My class is live tomorrow (Thursday) at 7pm UK time/2pm Eastern time. But at True Scrap, there are also sixteen more workshops from instructors like Nichol Magouirk, Kristina Werner, Jennifer McGuire, Noell Hyman, May Flaum, Kelli Crowe and on and on. We’ve all selected topics on our very own scrapbooking passion, so everyone is sharing something they truly love.

True Scrap works like this: you sign up and have access to the whole event – both live and recorded. So if you can make the live sessions Thursday, Friday and Saturday, then you can ask questions of any instructor and chat with everyone. If you can’t make the live sessions (or you can only make some of them), that’s okay too because you get access to the recordings and you can watch them (and rewatch them!) in your own time. Each class is presented by video and followed by a Q&A session where you can type in your questions for the instructor and she’ll be there live to answer.

The classes include a mix of techniques and philosophies – some things you can actually make right along with the video, others encourage you to think and process an idea and then make it work for you over the long run.

So yes, it starts tomorrow, but you can still sign up. You can find all the details here. If you do sign up, I hope to see you tomorrow night when we’ll be talking albums! And it’s concrete album discussion. Things you can follow and use, less of the idealistic I! Love! Albums!, I promise.

And if True Scrap is not for you, I’m sorry to miss you – but we can still discuss how fabulous this hobby is. Any time. I’m going to stop gushing now and close this post, but some days I am just extra, extra happy to make things and glue things and write things. Today is one of those days.

Sending much happiness to you and your scrapbooks!

xlovesx

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