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

For the first time in a while, I’m back to blogging from my very own living room in my very own chair at a respectable hour of the day. Quite novel, really. After my week in Portland, I stopped in Kansas City to visit family (as well as more work stuff) and found there was quite the collection of old Polaroids to go along with that first birthday photo I scrapped not all that long ago. It turns out my grandfather was pretty much in love with instant film for several years, as there are Polaroid images galore to document my life from ages one to five. Especially Christmas. I seriously have a Polaroid with me on Santa’s lap. I am completely in awe of its coolness.

So this is the very first thing I have scrapped upon unpacking all my craft gear from my suitcase. I wanted to share this with you yesterday but I was so stuck for a title that it sat on my desk overnight. This morning I woke up realising what I remember most about this place – that it felt glamorous to go to the lake and stay in a house so close to the water. Let me explain why…

For those of you who aren’t familiar with the geography of the individual states, if you draw an asterisk over the lower forty-eight, I come from the middle of the asterisk. That big purple rectangle in the middle that is Kansas? It is pretty much as landlocked as you can get. So beaches were not really something I grew up with. That big glamorous lake in the Polaroid? It’s in the next door state of Missouri, so a lake is still the only kind of beach on offer. And even then, this isn’t a natural lake. The Lake of the Ozarks didn’t even exist until it opened in 1931. So you can understand the midwestern spirit of a beachfront – let’s make a giant lake and be far more concerned with lots of land along the edge than how much open space exists in the middle, and as a result there will be a seemingly endless amount of beachfront (okay, lakefront) property.

One little work adventure on this trip took me not all that far from this lake, and I have to say it hasn’t really changed all that much since way back when. Lots of old pick-up trucks and small family-owned stores and the occasional hitchhiker at the side of the highway. I’m guessing there are many Polaroid cameras in closets of almost every house.

xlovesx

PS: My new class, Explore starts next Monday – sign up and join us in the fun!

_{Map image courtesy of Graphics Fairy.}

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This weekend’s winner is Chipper who wins the cutest flower cabochon ring from Josephines Jewellery.
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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This month, I’m dedicating my ten things post to a list of ten things I loved in Portland, Oregon, where I spent a week working, wandering and generally trying to keep my eyes open to everything I passed.

1. Seriously amazing breakfast made straight from the garden by Jean, a bnb hostess who is better known as the Measure-Free Hippie Cook. She is seriously cool, her food is seriously fab and her guest room is a fabulous place to stay. (You can find her here on Airbnb.)

2. Vintage everything, pretty much everywhere. I’m not sure there is anywhere else in the world that has embraced the reuse of older items on such a grand scale. There’s an Ikea in this town but I’m kinda wondering how it stays in business, as it seems like much less of this community is about all things new.

3. On a related note, the estate sales here are pretty fabulous and I may have picked up some treasures for pennies and then struggled to carry them around all day with all my work gear (camera, laptop, notebooks) while wearing flip-flops (fail).

4. All things rhubarb and coffee. Rhubarb muffins. Rhubarb pie. And the very best idea ever: rhubarb danishes. And lovely coffee via Stumptown and other Portland roasteries. (I have a real love of trying small local roasters when I go somewhere new, but so far my personal world champion medal goes to Sensory Lab in Melbourne, which I really wish was my local. Aside from the fact I would spend approximately 97.2 percent of my annual earnings on their coffee. So maybe it’s a safe distance.)

5. Gourmet food carts. Street food at an entirely different level. I know this is also taking off in New York and a few other cities where the rent makes it ridiculous to open a restaurant, and I would love to see it here in London. I ate at six different carts and every single meal was fabulous, and all six focused on making dishes from fresh and mostly local ingredients. The kitchens are open so you can see exactly what’s going on (which is something I love about street food in general and I always prefer street kitchens to carts that just sell something that was made elsewhere… though I do bend the rules for baked goods, as it’s pretty tough to bake a cake on a bicycle).

6. Bicycles in general. Lots of people on bicycles in Portland. Little bicycles, big bicycles and adorably customised bicycles. Except I am the wobbliest bicycle rider perhaps anywhere so I just walked. But I still like towns where bicycles are part of the scenery. Just don’t make me turn a corner on one.

7. Real photo booths that produce photo strips that smell like a darkroom.

8. Meeting some of the loveliest people who volunteered to show me around their happy city. I am trying to do this more and more in my own town because it breaks my heart when people say they don’t like London. I love this place and there truly is something for everyone if you know where to look. Meeting locals who are excited to show you their favourite places? It says a lot about a place. And Portlanders seem to be Portland’s biggest fans. That is pretty cool.

9. The crazily awesome book store, specifically the children’s section where I could happily live for at least a week. I found myself half in awe of their fabulous collection of books and half wanting to write lesson plans to go along with titles I wish more people would read.

10. Beautiful weather with sunshine but not ridiculous heat. Which was rather polite of a city known for rain. Perfect for sitting on the pavement and making plans for taking over the world in best possible ways. (Though actually most of my favourite cities in the entire world? Known for rain. I’m cool with that.)

There are other people blogging Ten Things today too, and you’re welcome to join us if you like! Blog your ten things on the tenth and add your link – easy! Then click through to visit other participating blogs to meet some new friends and revisit old favourites. We’ll be doing this every month, always on the tenth! See last month’s posts here.

xlovesx

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This weekend, one commenter will win a gorgeous flower cabochon ring (in a colour from the available choice) from Josephines jewellery.
I asked Josephine to tell us a little about her shop and she said: “I have been making jewellery for many years now and have sold lots of my pieces to friends and boutique shops. I love making jewellery with a passion, you could say I have a love affair with vintage jewellery! I love strings of pearls, cameos, vintage buttons, rhinestone encrusted pieces, vintage lace, Victorian jewellery, wire, brass, copper, charms, crystals and gems! I love mixing old and new and everything from my shop comes wrapped up in decadent lace ribbons and couture tags for that extra luxurious touch!”

Other items we love from Josephine’s store are her gorgeous birdcage necklace and this rather beautiful swooping bird necklace

To enter, just leave a comment on this post. If you could chose any time period in which to live, which would it be?

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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More and more I’m learning that travel is all about perspective for me. I love to go somewhere new because I love to be surrounded by something that will inspire me in a new way. But when I return home, that feeling of awe and awareness continues as I try to look at my own surroundings as an explorer. Whether you love to travel or prefer to stay close to home, I would love to share that process with you. And that’s the basis behind a brand new online scrapbooking class starting here soon. It’s called Explore.

Explore starts Monday, 18th July 2011 and runs for four weeks with prompts Monday through Friday. These prompts take you through an adventure from your perspective. Everything is written in a way that you can participate from home – this is not a travel album. Instead there are prompts on using your camera, your pen and your crafting supplies to look at your surroundings and your memories in a new way. There’s a new adventure in every prompt.

Many of you have said your favourite classes here at shimelle.com are those that result in a completed book that you make day by day, so a mini album with daily entries is one way you can participate in this class. The day by day entries can be small and not take too much time, so I think this will be a popular option! But there are additional ideas included if this isn’t right for you. You can follow along by filling in a printable workbook or by writing blog posts or by writing in a journal or by creating fewer pages in a larger format so you can add them to your 12×12 albums. There are even ways you could explore the class prompts through other kinds of creativity if you prefer to paint, stitch or otherwise make beautiful things. Everybody is welcome.

Explore includes…
…twenty full-colour PDF prompts, which can be read on your screen or printed onto paper.
…four tutorial videos to expand on the printed materials.
…a printable workbook to follow along by filling in the blanks.
…a bonus printable minibook to continue your exploration after the class has finished.
…a private message board for participants to chat and share their work.
…full, permanent access to all the class materials so you can participate on your schedule, even if that means this live run doesn’t suit your calendar.

Some special guests will stop by during the class to share their perspective with inspiring stories and projects. A few surprise opportunities will present themselves throughout the course. And if you join us on the message board, you will find so much support from others working right alongside you. By the end of the class, you’ll not only have the experience of this specific project, but also photography, journaling and crafting ideas you can take forward into your own future projects.

You can sign up any time and in your choice of currency: 10 UK pounds or 16 US dollars. If neither of those is your native currency, you can check exchange rates here then click whichever currency you prefer. You can pay by credit/debit card or from your Paypal account – click the currency button of your choice then follow the prompts on the next screen for your payment method.

Ready to sign up? Click one of these!

Registrations are processed individually, within 24 hours of a completed payment. A welcome message will be sent to the email address on your payment — if your paypal address is not where you would like your prompts to be sent, please leave a note on your payment or email me. If you have not received a welcome email within 24 hours, please check your spam folder. If it’s not there, please email me at shimelle at gmail dot com so the information can be resent.

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to get in touch through the comments or by email. I’m so excited to teach this class and I very much hope you’ll join me for the fun!

xlovesx

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Switching it up for this week’s sketch with a bit of an older layout and no video this week while I’m working on the road (not to worry – the video will be back next Wednesday) because this layout has a few things I’ve been wanting to discuss on a sketch day. Things like using four small images as a photo strip in place of larger images. Or opting for black and white photos but pairing them with plenty of colour. Or the differences from a sketch to a finished page.

When I look at this design in sketch form, it already feels quite busy to me, but if you compare it to the layout, I actually added way more stuff than what’s here on the sketch. Recently someone mentioned they felt my layouts were coming out more “dynamic and alive” from the sketches and goodness, that was just such a lovely thing to say! But it also made me want to identify what it is that created that feeling she wanted to recreate on her own and I think the extra stuff is part of that. When I scrap from a sketch, I start with those basic shapes, but then I put the sketch aside and start adding more bits and pieces with extra layers. A lot of it comes in paper strips – either just plain rectangles or scalloped pieces from die-cuts or border punches. Then I realised I needed more room to journal and added two journaling die-cuts. Then layered those circles to become embellishment rather than just a shape. And eventually decided some butterflies could tie all those different shapes together. (Also I am very excited to tell you this time butterflies are actually relevant, since these photos are from Laura’s wedding and there were butterflies in her wedding decorations!) Perhaps it also helps that when I add extra stuff, I try to add the same stuff in multiple places – so the butterflies repeat, the ribbon repeats, the dotty label stickers and so on. I don’t often scrap from just one collection of supplies, but I do repeat the same elements in multiple places on a page to make it obvious that they belong.

You may want to add more stuff or you may want to stay more in line with the sketch – and either is fine, of course! I love hearing about our process in creating your page, so if you have a real system for how you build or interpret a sketch, feel free to share in the comments!

As always, the weekly sketch is no-stress and just for fun! If you use it, I’d love to see, so please leave a link so we can see your work.

Last week left a few regulars really stumped with the mix of square and standard sized prints on one page, but I loved the variation in the layouts from those who were up to the challenge. Here are four of my favourites this week, and I love how all of them are clearly from the sketch but they have each chosen something in particular to change and make the design their own. Click the corresponding links to see any of these pages in more detail:
Top left
Top right
Bottom left
Bottom right
Thank you to everyone who participated in last week’s sketch! I hope you’ll join us again!

xlovesx

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So yes… a new class.

It celebrates your adventurous side. But skydiving, deep sea diving, marathon running, middle-of-the-woods camping, bungee jumping and trying to be first in line for the biggest sale of the year are all completely and totally optional. Instead, it’s perfectly fine for your adventures to be very much your everyday routine.

It’s a class you can follow along with by writing blog posts, jotting in a journal, making a minibook or creating a series of standard-sized scrapbook pages.

You can use no photos, old photos or new photos.

And every single project that results from the class will be completely unique, even though they all have the same starting point. (I think that is my very favourite part of this craft.)

Registration will open right here in the next 24 hours, so keep your eyes open… and say yes to a bit of an adventure, just for you.

Back soon!

xlovesx

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This weekend’s winner is Rhoda who wins the fabulous cupcake kit from Stitch Kits.
Please email me (shimelle at gmail dot com) with your address!

If you didn’t win – but still love the idea of starting cross stitch, why not try one of Stitch kits cute Starter cupcake kits or if you are a dab hand already and have supplies, you could purchase a PDF pattern and get creative straight away!

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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