Just in case you haven’t read enough about scrapbooking and travel with me, now you can listen too! Last week I recorded an episode of the Paperclipping Roundtable, a podcast (online radio show) all about scrapbooking. Our main theme for the episode is scrapbooking places, but we also cover some other things like album organisation, the debate of themed versus non-themed supplies and scrapbooking without children. I hope you’ll have a listen! You can play the podcast straight from the Paperclipping blog here or you can find it here on iTunes and download it to your iPod.
We cover quite a bit of stuff throughout the show, so I’ve put all the links on one board on Pinterest so you can find everything I mentioned in one place. Find the links here and you can click through any of those pictures to go straight to the specific blog posts or products. (You don’t need to be a member of Pinterest to access the board or click through to the links.)
If there’s anything else you want to discuss as a result of the show, let me know in the comments here or at Paperclipping! And if you listen right through to the end, you’ll hear a little about a very important announcement that will be made here tomorrow. Ready for something new to appear in that class list? I am!
Thanks so much to Noell and everyone at Paperclipping for having me as a guest!
xlovesx
PS: If you like the show, I’ve been a guest once before (last September) and you can listen to that episode here.
This weekend, one commenter will win this gorgeous Cupcake stand cross stitch kit from Ruth at StitchKits.
StitchKits is a very cute Etsy store selling cross stitch kits in original designs designed by Ruth herself.
Ruth started developing StitchKits to kick off 2011. “In January I was inspired by a TV show (Kirsty’s Homemade Home on Channel4) and I picked up cross stitching again for the first time in many years. I haven’t been able to stop since.” Ruth aims to create fresh, beautiful, contemporary kits to inspire the modern crafter to get sewing. She strives to create designs anyone would be proud to hang in their homes, drawing inspiration from the world around me, from magazines, from well designed interiors, art galleries and life.
Prior to StitchKits, Ruth studied Fine Art as a mature student at Wimbledon School of Art in London and has lived and worked in London as an artist ever since. “My experience as a painter has proved invaluable, helping me to carefully select the colour pallets that form the starting point for each design.”
To see more of Ruth’s fabulous kits, log onto her Etsy store. You will find loads of cute designs, including beginner cupcake kits.
To enter, just leave a comment on this post sharing with us if you are a seasoned stitcher or just discovering this cute craft.
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!
I can’t believe we are already at the half-way point for 4×6 Photo Love, the online scrapbooking class I’m teaching throughout 2011 at Two Peas! (If you haven’t heard about it until now, it’s free and you can jump in at any time.) The lessons post on the 30th of each month, so that means I have the June edition to share with you, and it’s all about scrapping six photos this month.
This month’s design concept is a variation of what we created with three photos in March. Then we lined them up to go all the way across a 12×12 page. This time we’re placing them all the way across two pages to make a double page layout, but also offsetting the photos with boxes of patterned paper to create a bit of a zig-zag effect. I’ve used portrait photos for the examples, but if you only have landscapes, you could try turning the pages so you have two columns of three photos from the top to the bottom of the page rather than one long line from left to right. Have a look at this month’s video to get a better idea of how these pages were constructed.
Both my examples are travel related, purely because that tends to be when I take the most photos and there aren’t many other events where I would have six portraits that all worked together – but that’s just me! You are welcome to participate with any theme, colours and supplies you would like.
This month I’m delighted to feature Jamie Sorenson as my guest. She’s our community manager (and the Garden Girl boss!) at Two Peas, so she’s a face many peas know from the message boards and newsletters, but she’s also a fab scrapbooker and I love her creative spirit. This layout is just what I mean – she took my boxed-out, linear sketch and infused it with youthful energy for these family photos. Try tilting the pictures and adding embellishments that don’t have to sit right inside each of the patterned paper boxes. You can add this page to your bookmarks here. Thank you for joining me, Jamie!
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 July.
Congratulations to Daphne for winning the draw for last month’s five photo class! (Daphne, you will receive your gift certificate by email.) Will you be next? Just choose six 4×6 photos to scrap and follow along with this month’s class prompt. I hope you enjoy a bit of double-page fun!
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! And you’re welcome to use any supplies and any photos, so there’s no boundaries to your scrapping with this year-long project.
A little later than I had hoped, but please forgive me for getting a bit distracted by getting to see my family now that I’m in Kansas City for a little while – even my new nephew! Now I’m all hooked up with wifi and have lots to share! This week’s sketch has one 4×6 photo and two smaller square images. I printed mine at 2.5 inches, but you could change that to suit your pictures. This week’s page is pretty quick to come together and is great for using several patterns from one collection. Most of what I used here is from the Salt Air collection by Cosmo Cricket.
This week I actually made a big change to the sketch while making the page. In the video, you’ll see that it started ninety degrees different, but I decided everything was a bit too vertical and it worked better like this. If your photos suit vertical a bit better, try turning the sketch back to the other side.
The horizontal sketch also reminded me of an older layout with a similar design but lots more detail — this one might be more your style if you like more stuff on your pages! But sometimes simple is just right.
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 in the comments.
Last week there was lots of single-photo fun! Thank you to everyone who shared their work. Here are a dozen of my favourites, and I can’t help but think the love of kraft cardstock is something many of us share! Click the corresponding link below to see any of these pages in more detail and meet the scrappers who created them. Top row, L to R: one, two, three, four. Middle row, L to R: five, six, seven, eight. Bottom row, L to R: nine, ten, eleven and twelve.
Time zones are confusing me a little today – it’s Tuesday where I am but I’ve just been talking to friends in London who are already at work on Wednesday! Funny old world.
There is a sketch coming today but I need a little longer to upload the video as I can’t do that from here. So here’s a little preview of the layout! If you want to find three pictures – one 4×6 and two smaller squares – you can get those printed and be ready when the video is up later today!
I’ve been drafting a little list in my notebook. Journaling myths or something like that. Literally, that’s what I wrote at the top of the page because it seemed like there should be a catchier way to say ‘journaling myths’ but so far it hasn’t come to me. Journaling myths it is, unless one of you has the better name. But obviously the things on the list are more important than the title anyway – all things that are hang-ups and road blocks to writing about life’s adventure. One of those myths is It’s only real writing if I can write a lot.
Of course that’s not true at all – it’s just something we tell ourselves from time to time.
Sure, sometimes writing at length is great. It can tell a story in detail. It can develop an intricate plot. It can help get a whole bunch of stuff out of your thoughts on onto paper so you can evaluate and move forward. But it’s not length that makes writing real or meaningful, and it’s certainly possible to overdo it. We’ve all read or listened to a retelling that just went on so long that it was hard to find the point in all those words.
And therein lies the key: writing is about sifting. Taking all the possible tangents and all the possible perspectives and all the possible details then shaking them up and sifting through to collect the shiniest or the smoothest or the most colourful of the bunch. Depending on the circumstance. Sift, sift, sift and the end result might be pretty short.
Sometimes when I write straight into a journal I don’t sift at all and just try to remember everything and write it down… but it takes ages and can sometimes be quite frustrating, especially since I like to keep things in order but my memories might not stay that way. So on this trip I am sifting, and what was actually a really packed day came down to a little bullet pointed list. For now.
I’ll stop there before I end up on an entirely different myth on the list!
Are there writing roadblocks that keep you from getting words on paper (or screen)? Just curious if your list matches up with mine! I’ll sift through some of my thoughts on the rest of the list another day!
This weekend, one commenter will win this truly unique and beautiful hand cut statement necklace designed by the very talented Sare Green who runs Miss Fluff. I asked Sare to tell us a bit about her shop and this is what she had to say:
“Hi there! My name is Sare. Miss Fluff is simply me, designing and handmaking intricate and unique leather jewellery. I studied at the London College of Fashion after I had my beautiful daughter and did a Foundation Degree in Accessories specialising in leather. I love working with leather. It’s so tactile and I find it only improves with age. Everything I produce is designed and handmade from start to finish by me!”
To see more of Sare’s amazing work, log onto her Etsy store. I just LOVE this gorgeous white feather necklace. It is so beautiful don’t you think?
To enter, just leave a comment on this post sharing with us where you would wear this special necklace.
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!
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