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

So you may have noticed not long ago there was a little bit of a crazy weekend of scrapbooking here on the blog and lots of challenges and prizes and all sorts of cool stuff like that. I hope you noticed, anyway. It looks like you did. Because there were some entries for those challenges. In fact, there were 1,476 entries to those challenges! I am rather excited that there are 1,476 more scrapbook pages in the world as a result of a weekend of creativity.

Each of the challenges had a prize to be won, and the entries have all been pulled from the hat and here they are! A little drumroll, please…

The prize for the Sketch of the Week challenge goes to Abbey for this layout. She wins a class pass for herself and a friend.

The prize for the Printable Challenge goes to Sanna for this layout. She wins a prize pack of scrapbooking supplies and printable elements for hybrid crafting

The prize for the Stickery Challenge goes to Steffi for this layout. She wins a prize pack courtesy of American Crafts.

The prize for the Starting Point Challenge goes to Chipper for this layout. She wins a prize pack courtesy of BasicGrey.

The prize for the Chop your Paper Challenge goes to Julia for this layout. She wins a prize pack courtesy of Pink Paislee.

The prize for the Add to the Story Challenge goes to Jennifer Grace for this layout. She wins a prize pack of assorted scrapbook goodies.

The prize for the Grid it Up Challenge goes to Jane for this layout. She wins a prize pack of assorted scrapbook goodies.

The prize for the Colour Story Challenge goes to Janelle for this layout. She wins a prize pack of assorted scrapbook goodies.

The prize for the From the Heart Challenge goes to Cynthia for this layout. She wins a prize pack of assorted scrapbook goodies.

The prize for the Go Retro Challenge goes to Funkipickle for this layout. She wins a prize pack of assorted scrapbook goodies.

The prize for the 3 is a Magic Number Challenge goes to So.Creative for this layout. She wins a prize pack courtesy of Studio Calico.

The prize for the Half Page Challenge goes to Amanda for this layout. She wins a prize pack courtesy of Pebbles.

The prize for the Signature Accent Challenge goes to Fay for this layout. She wins a prize pack courtesy of Lily Bee Design.

The prize for the Butterflies & Bingo Cards challenge goes to CinniBinni for this layout. She wins a prize pack of Jenni Bowlin Studio goodies.

The prize for the Hot Pink Hoopla challenge goes to Sarah for this layout. She wins a prize pack courtesy of Cosmo Cricket.

If you are a winner, please email me (shimelle at gmail dot com) with your mailing address so I can either send your prize or have it sent to you by the challenge sponsor. I’ll be hopping around to leave you a comment today in case you haven’t checked this post.

Thank you so much to the sponsors of this event – I am so glad I could offer great prizes like these! And thank you ever so much for being part of it, whether you just shared a link or created a dozen scrapbook pages. If you are proud to scrapbook and love this crafty thing we do, you are pretty awesome in my book. I really hope you’ll stick around and join me for another weekend of fun in the future!

And just in case you’re still feeling crafty, you can find two challenges here every week – sketches on Wednesdays and starting points on Saturdays! Or you could join in a class and Learn Something New, you know.

New sketch later today!

xlovesx

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_{©twopeasinabucket.com. Click here for supplies and more images.}

Turns out Learn Something New isn’t the only bit of back-to-school scrapbooking on my desk at the moment. At Two Peas, the Garden Girls are going back to school with a twist – it’s all about the elements of making stand-out pages, cards and albums. It’s called Design School. It’s a free event with a range of example projects plus PDFs to review design principles and inspire your projects.

My part in all that design talk is the idea of continuity, and specifically how I try to keep some continuity throughout an album. In particular, there were two pages in my album that were bothering me as neither stayed true to the continuity elements throughout the rest of the book and wouldn’t you know they ended up on facing pages in my album. So I set out to find a way to remedy this and make those two pages less awkward. You can watch that process all in a tidy little video!

Be sure to check out all the other projects in the first week of Design School and beyond – it’s a great resource with lots of scrapbooking styles represented so you’re sure to find something that catches your eye.

xlovesx

PS: Winners of the crop weekend challenges will be posted later today Wednesday morning!

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Click here for kits! These are limited supply and for UK mailing addresses only.

Kits are now sold out. Thank you!

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Congratulations to Claire S, who wins the Tealight Lantern from Cat’s Ceramics.

Claire, 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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Now I don’t want to cause any alarm or anything, but it won’t be very long until it’s time to turn the calendar to September. The ninth month of the year. A change of season. And around here, time to learn something new.

Learn Something New Every Day is an online class I’ve been teaching every September since 2006. It focuses on just one sentence and maybe one photo per day for thirty days. Learn Something New encourages you to take each day as it comes and find at least one thing in every day that can teach you something. Something big, something small, something funny, something solemn. Some days you might learn a random fact and others might teach you something about patience, determination or reflection. Every day is a new opportunity, and we track it all through things we love: some photographs, a bit of writing and as much pretty paper as we fancy.

I would love for you to join me this September.

Now it its sixth year, this online scrapbooking class encourages you to observe the world around you and learn from your daily experiences and surroundings. We work with a small format album to make thirty daily entries, and we adopt a few short cuts and techniques to make those daily entries possible in even the busiest of weeks. And once you’ve joined, you’re welcome to participate for as many years as you like at no extra cost.

The class includes:
…preparation notes delivered next week
…thirty daily full-colour pdf prompts delivered to your inbox
…printables for paper scrapbookers and a digital kit for digi scrappers
…technique tutorials and other crafty inspiration to keep you creative
…access to a private class forum at shimelle.com to chat and share your work
…permanent file archive so you can come back to the materials at any time

Plus new additions for 2011:
…revamped prompts with a fresh perspective
…a printable mini-book you can create in no time
…two live chat sessions – one to start the class and another to celebrate the end of September
…a few little surprises along the way, of course!

Each of the daily prompts includes full colour photos of pages from a range of albums so you can see a variety in styles, from simple scrapbook pages to looks that use more layers to art journals. There are also hundreds of additional samples to view in the members’ forum, so no matter what your creative style you can always find something right up your street.

There is no set list of required supplies and everyone is encouraged to use their own stash and make the project their own. UK participants, I have put together a small number of kits and these will go on sale tomorrow (Tuesday) at 6am.

Ready to sign up? You can choose to pay in UK Pounds or US Dollars. If neither of those is your currency, you can choose whichever you prefer – you don’t need to do anything special to change the currency from your account.

Yes, that means the price has remained the same. Yes, it still includes permanent access for as many years as you would like to participate. Except this year, your class registration will also help someone else learn too. I will donate £1 for every LSNED registration between now and the 1st of September to the Plan Girls’ Fund, which supports girls in developing nations, provided education, improving living conditions and passionately working to break the cycle of poverty and gender discrimination. Past participants, if you would like to help this cause you can gift the class to a friend or make a direct donation to Plan, of course.

You can pay your class registration by credit/debit card (click on the left of the payment screen) or Paypal account (log in on the right of the payment screen). Please be sure to enter a valid email address as part of your payment so your prompts can be delivered to your inbox. If you would like to gift the class to a friend, please provide her email address. (You can email it to me if you like.)

Participated last year? You don’t need to do anything. You’ll receive a message in the next day or so with all the relevant links for you. If your email address has changed in the past year, however, you will need to update it on your forum account to ensure you receive your emails. If you can’t remember your login details, send me an email and I’ll get that all set for you.

If you have any questions, feel free to email me or ask in the comments on this post.

I look forward to Learning Something New with the class of 2011!

xlovesx

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I spent yesterday at the wedding of a lovely scrapbooking friend, Leanne and her main man, Kevin. Just wanted to share this little jump for joy and send then many, many congratulations and much happiness for their newly married life!

Enjoy your getaway and see you when you’re back!

xlovesx

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When I posted the Starting Point challenge last weekend, I had no idea just how popular it would be! I mean seriously, as I write this there are more than 130 layouts entered! Which is fabulous.

And it also means we should have a starting point challenge every week, right? On Saturdays. Saturday Starting Points. It has a ring to it.

So here’s a new Starting Point challenge for you. Above is where I started with the design for this layout:

_{©twopeasinabucket.com. Click here for supplies and details.}

If you use this starting point to create a layout of your own, share it with us by linking at the end of this post. Next week I’ll post some of my favourites with the new Starting Point page.

Now… I don’t have a prize lined up for this regular Starting Point challenge just yet – but if you click here, this layout is the weekly challenge at Two Peas. It’s a take your pick challenge – you can enter by creating a page with either paint, hidden writing or trying this grey/turquoise/yellow/black colour scheme. And there you can win a prize. So consider the starting point a little kickstart toward that challenge perhaps!

And don’t forget, there ARE still plenty of challenges with prizes open for entries! Most of them close tomorrow night (Sunday) at midnight. You can find the full list here and pick whatever you fancy!

Have a beautiful and creative weekend!

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This weekend, one commenter will win a Tealight Lantern from Cat’s Ceramics.

Cat’s Ceramics is a beautiful shop full of hand crafted items in clay, ranging from jewellery to little ceramic snails, all finished with complementing glazes.

Cat started working with clay purely by chance when an American clay sculptor asked Cat to be her apprentice. “She trained me up and taught me the techniques, and I helped in the studio with her sculptures. It was one of the luckiest of adventures, not only for the experience, but there and then I found out what I was meant to do.” You can read more about Cat and her Ceramics on her blog.

To enter, just leave a comment on this post describing to us where you would put this beautiful lantern.

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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