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

I know Five Ideas posts are usually on Fridays. I also know that I usually keep the tone on this blog pretty light and I do things like sing the praises of the Martha Stewart butterfly punch on a regular basis. And because you read my blog, I assume you enjoy such lovely, light-hearted things as scrapbooking, paper butterflies and the odd sparkly rhinestone or three.

But today, I actually want to shake that up.

Because I also figure that if you’re reading my blog you’re most likely a girl. (No offence boys, but you are the vast minority of my readers, you’ll understand.) And because you’re reading this, you can read. And you have internet access. And you probably even have at least a little spare cash that you use on super fun but not really important things like the Martha Stewart butterfly punch. And all that adds up to mean you are one of the luckiest girls in the whole world.

Today, I am really hoping you’ll help me with something a little different. Can we – all these lucky girls around the world who read things on the internet and craft with photos and paper and glue – can we get together enough girl power to help some of the girls in the world who don’t get all the things we take for granted? Not even butterfly punches. Things like a basic education and a way out of poverty.

Recently I got to speak with someone who works with the charity Plan-UK, who told me a lot about their Because I am a Girl campaign. I was so impressed with everything they explained. They are passionate about helping children in the world’s poorest countries get on their feet, get educated and break the cycle of oppression. Last year they worked with over 27 million children in poverty. They inspired me to be thankful for my luck in this world and to try to use what I know – scrapbooking – to help others. So today, I bring you five ideas for scrapping with girl power… but also, a little something else.

Scrapbook your inner super girl
What? You don’t have a photo of your three-year-old self in a super girl swimming costume? And you weren’t obsessed with Wonder Woman for the vast majority of your childhood? (Two words: invisible plane!) Then perhaps you’ll need to get more creative, but I’m sure there is an inner super hero just waiting to go from the depths of your personality onto a scrapbook page. Find your finest qualities and immortalise them in writing – be proud of your strengths, even if the flying over buildings part of super hero life is still leaving you perplexed.

I don’t even need to explain that just the fact that I watched super heroes on television and played in a paddling pool in the back garden means I had a pretty charmed life compared to girls whose families can’t afford clothes, books or transportation to the nearest school.

Scrapbook the girls who know your history
These two lovelies literally were the girls next door – their family moved into the neighbouring house in the summer before I started fourth grade, and they had two girls my age. Scrapping an old photo of the three of us was so much fun and brought back so many memories. And it reminded me that I’m lucky to still be in touch with some of the girls I have known for years (thank you, Facebook).

A little perspective: we were about twelve and thirteen in this picture. We had nary a care in the world. But in some of the world’s poorest countries, up to one in seven girls are forced into marriage before their fifteenth birthday.

Scrapbook your own baby photo
I don’t think I had even seen this picture until a couple years ago when it surfaced on a DVD of family photos. I wasn’t quite sure exactly how to scrapbook a photo of something I clearly can’t remember in any way, but after a while, it seemed like a lovely page to do a bit of wondering and contrasting all those years ago to where I’ve ended up today. Whether you still live in the same town or you’ve moved thousands of miles away, I’m pretty sure there’s a story in there from baby you to today’s you!

And in case you weren’t already thinking it: I was not exactly malnourished there at my first Christmas. Unlike the estimated 925 million people in the world currently suffering just that.

Scrapbook a girls’ getaway
Have you scrapbooked your gratitude for the girls in your life from day to day? Almost all of these ladies blog, so it may come as no surprise to see us all on yet another scrapbook page but my scrapbooky friends and the times we can get away from real life to get together and scrap? I never want to take those good times for granted. All our group photos remind me that I am a lucky girl indeed.

Let’s not even start on cultures where it would never be a girl’s choice to spend time with friends or loved ones… because she isn’t afforded choices at all.

Scrapbook the reasons why you’re happy to be a girl
And of course, there’s always that trick of a numbered list. You could take this really seriously and come up with a stack of reasons why you are happy to be a girl or happy to be a girl today and I think the resulting page would be very moving. Or you can just get show tunes stuck in your head and decide to go with sillier reasons why being a girl is awesome.

But here’s the serious side:
More than seventy-five million girls in the world don’t get the chance to go to school. It’s something that broke my heart, especially in Cambodia – to see children encouraged to sell things to tourists because the immediate income was more ‘important’ than the long-term good of an education. As a teacher, it also brought a new definition to the words ‘teacher shortage’ to my understanding. When my class sizes were climbing and I had to send students out to find spare chairs, I worried about where things were headed, but I never once thought of turning a student out of my classroom. We talk about teacher shortages here, but we have teachers who are trained and qualified and do their best. There are places in the world where there just aren’t people to fill that role. What happens if no one in your village is literate? How do you end that cycle? You can’t do it without some sort of outside help.

I really want to help.

For the next twenty-four hours, I’m going to donate 100% of my class sales to Plan-UK and their efforts to help these girls. You get a class (for you or a friend or a sister or a daughter or a mother) and all of the class fee will go to these girls who need a hand. I’m going to make my own donation too, but the more of us who can get together and help, the better.

So you can help in a few ways:
…sign up for a class. If you want to gift it to someone else, just let me know via the notes or an email. I’m happy to send the class to anyone you would like! And you can sign up for any shimelle.com class – they are all over there on the right and they all include permanent access and the classes that run every year (like Learn Something New and Journal your Christmas) include membership every year at no extra cost.
…help spread the word. If you tell a friend about any post I’ve ever written, let it be this one. Email someone you think can help, tweet a link, share it on Facebook, pin a layout to Pinterest, tell your message board friends – whatever works for you. If you want to reblog any of these images, go for it – any way we can spread the word and generate a bit more girl power is a great thing in my book.
…check out Because I am a Girl and see the ways you can help, like signing a letter to your MP, pledging your own direct donation or reading about the specifics of the different things they are doing to help girls break the cycle of poverty and illiteracy.
…make your own girl power layout and share it on your blog or in a page gallery. SJ has already started us off, and if you let me know about your own blog post, I’ll link to it.

I promise I will get back to posting things that are light-hearted and I will return to my vast overuse of the Martha Stewart butterfly punch. But today, I just want to help these girls.

And it would be awesome if you do too.

xlovesx

UPDATES
Thank you to ScrapDolly, Natalie, Debbie, Sally, Jenni Bowlin Studio and The Making Spot for blogging their own girl power today. And more blog posts from Kat, PaperCraft Inspirations, Vicky, May, Lisa, Abbey, Dina, Ali, Mel, Rhonna and Danielle. And many thanks to those who have tweeted, pinned, emailed and shared links with your Facebook friends. Every bit of help is so very much appreciated! Thank you.
Look here to see the end result of our day of girl power!

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We have TWO winners for you today.
The first up is Abigail Rose, who wins the Acrylic Photo Block from Bags of Love.

AND our second winner is Be(e) who wins the butterfly goodies from Jenni Bowlin.

Congratulations! 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

Comment [28]

_{All class content ©twopeasinabucket.com. Click here for supplies and here for this month’s message board thread.}

It’s the 30th of the month, which means a new edition of 4×6 Photo Love, a free online scrapbooking class I’m teaching all year at Two Peas in a Bucket. As it’s the fifth month of the year, we’re scrapping five 4×6 photos. This month’s design is… gasp… a double page! So something a little different than the four prompts so far. It’s not all doubles from here on out though – some of the pages later in the year pile on a surprising number of 4×6 prints on a single 12×12! But this month, I’m hoping you’ll give the double page layout a try.

The design concept this month includes four of the photos as landscape, so they can create a straight line all across the double page. Then borders go above and below the photos, and a fifth photo is added above the line. That picture can be either portrait or landscape, and it’s a great way to give a bit of special treatment to a single photo.

These two layouts follow the same principles, and it’s this second layout that I create step by step in this month’s video. Grab the beverage of your choice and have a watch! And don’t laugh too much when I start dropping things on the floor. (Live television presenters: how do you not fall to pieces on an hourly basis, I ask?!)

Click here for a printable PDF, full list of supplies and more details on the class page at Two Peas!

This month I have two special guests playing along with the class. This first page comes from May Flaum, who you might remember from her five ideas post not too long ago! May opted for embellishing the middle border, all the way across the page. Perfect for lots of little bits and bringing in plenty of colour and texture! Check out May’s page and supply list here at Two Peas and if you like her style, be sure to check out her blog and Etsy shop too.

My second guest is Melissa Stinson, often better known as the Scrappy Jedi. I love how she added her embellishment to the top left corner of the layout, so that’s a third option while still using the same basic outline for your two page layout. Click here to see Melissa’s supplies and to add her page to your Two Peas bookmarks.

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 June.

And it’s time to catch up with some winners while I’m on that subject! I’m happy to announce Jen, Charity and Lisa all have 4×6 Photo Love prizes coming their way!

Will you be next? Just choose five 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.

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In school, the biggest sewing project I had to complete was a set of pockets designed to hold a reading book, notepad and pen on the edge of a bed by tucking a long tail of the pocket beneath the mattress. A nifty idea, perhaps, but it was ironing rectangles of fabric and sewing them together, and I can’t say I’d ever sat in bed really searching for a place to keep my reading book. So when a reader emailed me recently to say her daughter wanted to learn to sew things for herself but was finding her school sewing lessons a bit less than inspiring, I totally understood. She is thirteen and just getting to grips with the sewing machine, so I thought this might be a good starting project, as turning an old t-shirt into a new skirt is super easy, and you don’t even need elastic or a zipper. All you need is the shirt, plus scissors, thread, iron and sewing machine (or needle and patience). Plus an optional second piece of fabric for the waist of the skirt, if you prefer a contrast trim. In case it’s useful for you or someone you know, I’m posting it here too!

A few Sunday reminders: There are two giveaways that close tonight: the butterfly prize pack from Jenni Bowlin and the Acrylic Photo Block from your own picture. Today is also the last day to enter to win prizes for April’s 4×6 Photo Love challenge both here and at Two Peas. And you can vote or play along with Scrap Factor over at UKScrappers. Who knew it was such a busy day in the crafty world?! And now, on to the ridiculously easy skirt!

You’ll need a t-shirt to start. I had this shirt that has been bothering me – the very first time I wore it, tiny holes started to appear in the fabric. Clearly I fell for a bargain price that wasn’t actually a bargain. But all the holes were at the very top of the shirt, so it seemed something could be done from the rest of the fabric. Make do and mend, as it were! Start by making sure the work surface is clean (which seems obvious, but I can’t be the only person in the world you might have inked or misted on the same surface where they lay out their fabric? Oh. Maybe it is just me.) and iron the shirt to make it easier to cut and sew.

Cut straight across the shirt, right under the arms, so now you have a tube with an unfinished top edge. Go try it on. The bigger the shirt, the looser the skirt will be, of course. Unless you’re sewing this for someone quite young, you’ll probably find the top edge of the skirt is way too loose for the waist, even if it fits at the hips. Make a note of roughly how much you need to take in by pulling the fabric at the sides and marking the spot that would make it fit.

Then take the skirt off, turn it inside out and sew a diagonal line on both side seams that will take it in to a good size for the waist. You don’t want to make this too tight, since you’ll need to get the skirt on and off without a zipper (we’re going to add a tie to keep it snug while it’s on). Try it on again to see if it’s a good fit. If not, rip out those stitches and sew again. When you’re happy with the fit and you’re sure these stitches are secure, go ahead and cut off the excess fabric.

Next we’ll add a sash-styled waistband. For this, you can use a piece of contrast fabric or you can use the leftover fabric from the top of the t-shirt. You need a length that will go around your waist and tie. If a measurement will help, grab some string or ribbon and find your own waist + bow measurement! You can also decide how wide to make your waistband. The fabric will be folded in half, so cut a strip that is twice as wide as what you want. If you use a different piece of fabric, you may be able to cut this all in one strip. If you use the t-shirt leftovers or scraps of fabric, you’ll just need to patch and piece it together to make the length you need.

Fold the strip in half, right side out, and iron in a crease. You can also hem the very ends if you would like.

With the skirt and the sash right side out, find the centre of the sash and the front centre of the skirt. Pin the unfinished edges together, then pin around the edge of the skirt if you like. Jersey will curl around the unfinished edge, so either pin or go slowly while you sew to uncurl those edges.

Sew all the way around with a plain running stitch on your sewing machine. You’re sewing the unfinished edges together, right sides facing – the sash is going to fold up from this seam when you’re done. Leave an inch or two unstitched at the back centre of the skirt. That will let you pull in the waist of the skirt when you tie the sash.

Trim any loose threads and iron the waistband so the join of the two fabrics are smooth. And that’s the basic skirt done! Of course, you can further customise it with patches, bling, embroidered butterflies… whatever your style may be.

And if you have extra fabric left over from the top of your shirt? You can cut that up to create fabric flowers or an alice band or something else lovely to match your new skirt from your old t-shirt.

…and I’m not sure which is better: super easy projects or projects that work for both youngsters and grown-ups!

So… what have you been making this weekend?

xlovesx

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This weekend, one commenter will win a stunning Acrylic Photo Block from Bags of Love.
Bags of Love is a personalised gifts and photo gifts company based in London, specialising in cute personalised birthday gifts and baby gifts. This custom prize will be made from your very own photo.

To enter, just leave a comment on this post describing what sort of photo you would like to treasure forever in a photo block.

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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I may have an unhealthy obsession with butterflies as craft embellishments. I know I use them when they are not really needed or thematically linked to the page at hand. I punch them and stamp them and cut them and glue them, and really if all my closest friends staged a butterfly intervention for me, with a big banner and heartfelt words composed in advanced to let me know that I’ve gone too far down this dangerous butterfly path, the truth is: I would still have a hidden stash of butterflies. They really aren’t going away.

Instead, I’m up for the challenge of taking one very favourite butterfly stamp from Jenni Bowlin Studio and using it for five very different projects. So while I may be an addict, at least I value variety.

(Also, if I were a true addict, I wouldn’t be able to give away butterflies – and that’s just what I’m doing at the end of this post, so don’t miss out.)

Mix with another stamp for a card
I love how the butterfly stamp is just the right size to make a dramatic flourish for a card, and it’s a similar size to the Flower Wood Background stamp by Hero Arts. For these cards, I stamped the butterfly in black ink on smooth white cardstock and coloured them with Copic markers for lots of rich colour, and spritzed them with Chalkboard Glimmer Mists for some shimmer too.

Embellish a scrapbook page
If you like pages where a bit of embellishment goes a long way, this stamp will be your best friend. I love how it looks when stamped in colour on white cardstock, and it’s easy to cut out with scissors. I thought it would be a ridiculous mess but really it cuts quite simply.

Make a butterfly garland
If you really fancy cutting out butterflies, try stamping and cutting two for each butterfly in a garland. You only need antennae on one in each pair. Then cut a slit halfway through the body – from the top to the middle on one and from the bottom up to the middle on the other. Then you can slot the two together for a butterfly garland that is both dimensional and delicate. Make several and hang them in a circle if you prefer a mobile to a garland, or make just one and attach it to a card or parcel with some pop dots to hold it in place.

Stamp and embroider
Stamps make perfect embroidery patterns, and it’s easy to customise any bit of fabric by stamping the design then stitching the outline of the design. For this design, I stitched the outline plus a little bit of detail from the butterfly, then filled the centre by pencilling in a word and stitching over that.

You can see more notes on this embroidery project here on the Jenni Bowlin blog and you may also want to check out this different take on embroidering another stamp by Kerry Lynn Yeary. It’s lush, even if it’s not a butterfly.

Stamp, repeat and quilt
I love stamps that are interesting even when they are stamped simply and even when they are repeated. This project is super simple but makes a great gift. Cut twelve squares of cardstock and stamp a butterfly on each. Ink or paint the edges if you like. Then sew it all together with a zig-zag stitch and pop it in a frame. You can create it in any colour scheme, so it’s a lovely housewarming or new baby gift.

Okay… so here’s the deal: to prove I can let the odd butterfly go, I have a butterfly giveaway today! Just comment on this post to be entered to win a gift pack from Jenni Bowlin Studio that includes this butterfly stamp, butterfly chipboard and some other butterfly goodness that can wing its way to you! (And I’d really appreciate it if you wanted to share this post with anyone you know who is also bordering on butterfly intervention. We need a group, right? Thanks.)

And this isn’t even the regular weekend giveaway – there’s one of those coming tonight too. Goodness gracious, giveaways!

xlovesx

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It’s Wednesday, so it must be time for a scrapbooking sketch? And there are three photos on this week’s page, and it’s not all that different from the March edition of 4×6 Photo Love. But with this little added detail across the bottom of the page:

this combination of something circular plus a label or rectangle below is something I’m using here and there throughout this particular album. Word stickers are perfect, but you can also customise your own word strips with your own handwriting, a typewriter or anything you want to print from your computer. Give it a try!

If you prefer smaller photos, you can make this same design hold six or twelve smaller photos in the same space or you could take it back to a single photo layout and use a panorama-style print.

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.

I’m loving the patterned paper explosion from last week with the quadrant design! These are a few of my favourites. Click to see any of these pages in more detail and say hello to these scrapbookers.
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.

xlovesx

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This weekend’s winner is Terri-Ann who wins a cute pendant from Cherry Loco.
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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