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

It started as National Scrapbook Day, and it’s recognised as NSD or maybe iNSD for those who embrace the international participation, but I’m just going to make it easy and call it Scrapbooking Day. Sound okay to you? It’s today, by the way. The first Saturday in May, each year.

And to mark that special occasion of Scrapbooking Day 2011, there’s something special in store for you here at shimelle.com, all day long. Perhaps even all week long, depending on how you like to play!

Today I’m posting a series of challenges with new layouts, tips and tutorials, and each challenge has a prize up for grabs. Plus there are some bonus discounts and special offers coming up. But to get started, I’m all about getting some supplies ready.

The projects I’m featuring today are all made from the same supplies that I chose at the beginning. You can do the same and create a set of supplies then use them for all the challenges OR you can approach any of the challenges on its own and not worry about the supplies for the whole stretch. Cool? That way if you’re wanting to stretch your supplies as far as they can go, we’ll do that. And if you would rather take part in lots of NSD Scrapbooking Day challenges around the web with whatever supplies you fancy, you can do that too.

When I limit my supplies for a batch of layouts, I tend to grab four things: patterned paper, special paper, embellishments and letters. I like to choose things that will mix and match and are not overly themed, so I look for a mix of bold patterns and small patterns so there will be a balance. I also tend to go overboard on paper because I love it the most! (Shhh – don’t tell my other supplies.) So for today’s projects, I’ve set aside:
15 sheets of patterned paper, including Cosmo Cricket Upcycle and Social Club, American Crafts Hello Sunshine and Campy Trails, Sassafras Starters and Paper Crush and Sweetly Smitten, Studio Calico Countryside and Jenni Bowlin Family Tree. Which means I picked lots of different designs and manufacturers, but if you find it easier to stick with one collection, then that works too!
4 sheets of special paper, which is a very official term I’ve given to those things that are generally paper but they aren’t just a plain 12×12 sheet. I’ve chosen two sheets of dot-embossed Core’dinations Cardstock, one die-cut label paper by Jenni Bowlin Studio and one screen-printed transparency by Hambly.
5 types of embellishments, with my love of stickers really showing here! Three of the things I selected are all from the same collection – the large and small sticker sheet plus the banner stickers all from the Sweetly Smitten collection by Sassafras. In typing this, I’m thinking I may go pull the Sweetly Smitten foldie sheet too, though it’s not counted in this picture. Those stickers are all quite vintage and soft, so then I picked some stickers that are quite clean and modern, by American Crafts. And my non-sticker item is a butterfly, of course! These are wooden and by Studio Calico.
3 sheets of letters, and again I’ve gone with stickers. Letter stickers are really my go-to item with titles, especially a mix of sizes and some including dimension, so I have a shiny new pack of these Thickers by American Crafts and a smaller, flat set of Mini Market stickers by October Afternoon. Then the third option cheats a little bit, because this sheet of letters by Bella Blvd actually has four different alphabets on one sheet. Makes it great for packing for crops or working in a series like this. I’ve chosen brown and white but it comes in brighter colours too.

Now obviously there are some things missing here! If I use full sheets of cardstock for the background, I don’t count that. In this case, most of these pages will be on kraft cardstock, and I will just pull those sheets as I go. If you’re packing to go somewhere else, then you’ll need to that that with you! I also don’t include tools – so punches, cutting dies, stamps, inks and paints I will just choose as I go. That can help to change up the look even if the supplies remain the same. And lastly, if I’m scrapping at home I don’t worry too much about adding little things. If there’s something in my scrap basket or bowl of die cuts and I suddenly thing that’s what the page needs – then fine. The idea of the starting supplies is to make things easier, not to make everything else prohibited. So you won’t see any other major elements, but I might add in a scrap of paper or ribbon here or there. That’s pretty much my process!

Oh, and I don’t really use many themed papers, but I do like to include some themed things that can be subtle. I’ve been using this stamp set by House of 3 for Pink Paislee on many of my travel pages, so it’s pretty much living on my desk right now. I will admit I pretty much bought it for the globe, but the whole set looks lovely, and it stamps especially well with Distress Ink.

So there we go – that’s where I’m starting! But how about a GIVEAWAY to get Scrapbooking Day off to a great start? I have a pack of scrapbooking supplies to send to a lucky winner. Just comment on this post for a chance to win! (By the way, on some browsers, it helps to click the preview button when you’re leaving a comment.)

Happy Scrapbooking Day! See you soon with the first project challenge!

xlovesx

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This weekend’s giveaway comes to you from Heather at Sparklehen. Two fabulous 8×8 prints for you to frame and adorn your walls.
Sparklehen sells light-hearted and whimsical creations. Themes vary from animals in teacups to dream-like landscapes with flowery lights! Heather also wanted me to let you know that she has a 3 for 2 offer on all prints!

To enter, leave a comment on this post, inspired by the tea cup print, telling us who you would invite to a tea party.

Entries close at midnight Sunday (UK time) and the winner will be posted Monday night, so be sure to check back and see if this was your lucky weekend!

xlovesx

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After my single-photo soap box, I promise I have something slightly more versatile to share with you today. Two photos and plenty of opportunities for patterned papers and stickers and ink, if you like. Just don’t do what I did: think ‘oh but it’s such a lovely day, I’ll just step outside to spray this ink across the top of the layout’. Because there is a big difference between outdoor spraying and indoor spraying, and that difference is… wind. If you look closely, you’ll see it’s somewhat snowy on that lovely beach, since the spray went in entirely a different direction to what I was expecting.

I think we are all very clear now on why I am a scrapbooker rather than say a meteorologist.

This page captures a moment of impulsive seaside behaviour: it looks like a gorgeous beach because it truly is! (This is Wineglass Bay in Tasmania.) But as gorgeous as it looks, that water was incredibly cold. But yes, a certain individual who shall remain nameless thought it was too good to miss, regardless of the temperature, and swam a few laps across the bay. He lasted significantly longer than the next group of tourists who stepped into the water and promptly ran back to dry land with a scream.

Truly, this is a very basic sketch that I use time and time again by just customising the embellishment. This time I used a similar technique to this layout by changing the rectangles at the top right to that flag shape with the inverted V. Chipboard is a little something different for me too – I don’t tend to use plain chipboard shapes like these, but I quite liked them here! Maybe this sketch can help you use a few embellishments you might otherwise ignore.

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.

From last week’s sketch, I really want to highlight two layouts. The page on the left, by Kate made me smile a huge smile, because Kate hadn’t really been scrapbooking for a while. And then she decided to get back in the swing of it and I just love that she started with a lovely layout about herself. Kate, I hope this is your gateway to much crafty happiness! And the layout on the right is by Amy who decided to combine the sketch with the bunting ideas, and I love her unique bunting treatment for the additional photos! So very clever.

Please also check out beautiful pages from Julie (who can turn t-shirt shopping into a brilliant scrapbook page), Jeannie (who made friends with Charlie Chaplin just for the excellent scrapbooking potential of black and white papers), Amy (who discovered her perfect kraft paper in digital format and made this sketch look lush at a unique 8×10 size), Linda (who braved additional photos and used fab lacy paper with panache), Claire (who wins for most adorable this week with her little ones and their royal wedding celebration), Alyssa (who took on the multiple photo challenge and did some very cool stuff with pink and black) and Heather (who made me swoon with her use of fabric and paper flowers). Oh, and Rachel gets bonus points for actually making her page in front of me, while we were scrapping in a lovely cottage last weekend! Scroll to the bottom of her post to find her layouts. Thanks to everyone who played last week!

xlovesx

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I am still loving the last bits of wedding decoration in central London. Today I passed the offices of The Lady magazine and the entire building is wrapped in giant purple ribbon, like a wedding gift. So sweet. But I have the very best wedding story to tell you.

On Friday, I headed to Charing Cross as I usually do, but I brought The Boy along because well, I needed him to babysit my luggage while I was in class, believe it or not! And he could happily work on his project sat in Starbucks so this seemed ideal. Upon arriving at Charing Cross station, he first comments on how many people are milling about the station at lunchtime on a Friday. And then adds ‘But why are they all carrying Union Jacks?’

Darling, it’s the wedding.

‘What wedding?’

I kid you not.

So, a wedding layout then, even if my dress was less fancy than Kate’s. At least I could get away with wearing comfy shoes in the evening, right? I am very excited at how the former Miss Middleton has now brought sleeves back to wedding fashion, as a random aside! So more on topic, papers here are from Jenni Bowlin’s Be Our Guest collection. A little scrapbook info about Jenni’s papers — starting from this collection, the patterned papers are now double-sided and cardstock weight. They are seriously lush and I love that I can use them as a full page background now. The colours and the paper quality are just fabulous with the new stock, so definitely give them a try.

That ‘photographs’ stamp? Best £1 market find ever, perhaps! One of the camera stalls had it tucked away in a box of old photographer’s business cards. I couldn’t come up with a reason to buy thousands of business cards with someone else’s contact details, but asked if I could just buy the stamp and was quoted that princely single-quid sum. Also, actually useful for sending photos in the post… and usually my market purchases are not exactly practical. Unless one needs a dozen different editions of Through the Looking Glass. Maybe I’m gearing up for some epic readers’ theatre someday…

Oh, and look: it’s a single photo layout again! I didn’t even plan that. I promise.

xlovesx

_{This weekend, join us for challenges, prizes, chats and inspiration aplenty at the Two Peas three day party for National Scrapbook Day. I’m hosting a live chat on Sunday (8pm UK time / 2pm US Central time) and we’ve planned lots of other fab things for the weekend too. I would love to see you there!}

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This weekend’s winner is Kerry who wins herself the beautiful Pendant from Dottery Pottery.
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

A few weeks ago I came across an image that made me want to scrapbook. It wasn’t a picture of a scrapbook page, it wasn’t the image itself that I wanted to scrapbook – it was this image from Pink Suede Shoe with its explosion of colour and pattern that made me wonder why I was sat at my computer when I could be cutting and pasting plenty of pretty paper onto a scrapbook page. And so I did what any scrapbooker would do… I pinned it on Pinterest.

I say that in jest, of course, but seriously: Pinterest is fabulous, right? If you’ve joined, I’m here, by the way. If you haven’t joined, think about it! It’s a bookmarking system for images you find on the internet – and those have existed in several forms for a while now. But Pinterest takes that idea and does it very well: first, by letting you create categories for your images so you can go back and find the things you bookmarked so easily, and second, by maintaining the links back to the posts where you first found the image. No more not remembering where you saw something – the image links back to the original source. I use it primarily for bookmarking things I want to try or otherwise want to return to, which makes it quite time-efficient, as it saves me the time I normally waste trying to remember something from six months ago (or let’s be honest: I probably don’t remember even if it was yesterday). There’s also the second side of Pinterest, and that’s following what your friends and other Pinterest members are adding to their boards. That part really does offer up a host of amazingly inspiring pictures and projects on all sorts of topics… but it can also become anything but time-efficient, because there is a near-infinite amount of material you can view. I try my best to save that for little ten minute sessions so I don’t lose myself to the world of pretty things on the internet!

On Pinterest, I do have a scrapbooking category for layouts I see and want to reference later, but it’s the other categories that I really like to use for scrapping inspiration – taking some small element of something and letting it translate to paper and photos. That’s exactly how that image inspired this layout. All those little flags gathered up there in the corner behind the photo – it’s something I’ve already found myself using on additional layouts. And it’s not the only pin that has been making the translation to paper. This image makes me want to try something oversized and in an unexpected colour on a scrapbook page. This makes me want to try something with extra-bold typography and spring colours… possibly with our printing press, which is sitting sadly neglected lately. This photo makes me want to plan a layout in advance and hold the title in the picture. Just a little insight into how outside inspiration works for me.

This week, I want to know how it works for you. I’m hosting a challenge at Two Peas that ends this Thursday. Take inspiration from something outside the scrapbooking world – absolutely anything you like. Use that inspiration to make a paper or digital scrapbook page, a card, a tag or anything crafty. Upload it to the gallery at Two Peas and be sure to select the weekly challenge box in step four of the upload process so you’ll be entered for a Two Peas prize.

And here I would love to hear about how your inspiration process works! Do you prefer taking ideas directly from finished scrapbook pages? Do you like something that gives you a starting point, like a colour combination or a sketch? Do you like taking bits of pieces from non-papercraft things and turning them into a scrapbook design element? Or do you really not even think about all this and just enjoy gluing pieces of paper to other pieces of paper in an aesthetically pleasing manner?

Have a beautiful – and inspirational – week!

xlovesx

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_{©twopeasinabucket.com. Click here for supplies and class details or click here for the message board thread.}

Have you checked out the latest edition of 4×6 Photo Love? In the fourth prompt of the year, we’re scrapping with four 4×6 photos. It’s a design concept that features just three photos at first glance, but the title is actually a card that opens like a door to reveal journaling and an addition photo. This month’s video shows how the page comes together with either portrait or landscape photos and how to customise your page protector to make this page work in your album. Have a look:

I love simple interactive pages like this that allow you to add just a little something unexpected to your layouts – it makes your albums a bit like a pop-up book when you turn the pages.

The first example uses four portrait photos and the journaling tells the story of how Laura was the logical choice for the Cheshire Cat, as I have never known someone to contort their smile into so many silly faces! She will probably kill me for scrapping that, but I figure if she’s going to make those faces for the camera, then she knows they will end up in my scrapbook, right? The pink, turquoise and yellow paper range here is Upcycle by Cosmo Cricket.

And this is the page I walk you through in the video. This page uses a mix of supplies, including October Afternoon, Cosmo Cricket, Jenni Bowlin Studio, Echo Park and Bazzil’s dotted cardstock. I love the baker’s twine for adding a little something to borders on a page. It’s available in so many colours now.

The creative Karen Moss is my special guest this month, and she used this month’s design concept to create both a paper page that follows the steps in the video but also a genius digital page that layers two printed copies of the same digital page (with just one change – swapping the title for the photo) to create a page that is both digital and interactive. I so happy to share her work and I hope you will add her ideas to your bookmarks.

So now it’s your turn! Throughout this month, I challenge you to create a page with four 4×6 photographs and an interactive title box. As an added incentive, you have two chances to win a prize too! When you upload a picture of your completed project to the scrapbook gallery at Two Peas, make sure to check the box for the 4×6 Photo Love challenge in step four of the upload process. Then come back to this post and leave a link to your page here in the comments. One person from all the entries at Two Peas and one person from all the links here will be chosen and each wins a gift certificate to go shopping for your favourite stash! You need to upload and link by the 29th of May for both chances to win. (I also have winners to post here for earlier class participation – look for those later this week!)

Would you like to receive an email reminder each month when my class is live? If so, please send an email to shimelle at gmail dot com with this subject line: 4×6 Photo Love Reminders. (Copy and paste that subject line, as you won’t get added to the list unless it’s just like that! Thanks!) You’ll get one message each month when the class has been posted – no other mailings and I would never, ever sell your email list or anything else evil, I promise. This month’s message will go out later today.

So what four photos will you choose? Can’t wait to see what you create!

xlovesx

PS: As this is a free class and it lasts all year long, I’d love for you to invite a friend to join in the fun. Click the share button, reblog the video or grab the badge there on the left for your blog’s sidebar. Thanks!

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This weekend’s giveaway comes to you straight from the studio of Dottery Pottery. It is a beautiful glazed pendant stamped with leaves and on a chain. Very summery!

Dottery Pottery is run by Sarah Duke who says:
I am the dottery potter and I work from my little studio in Hampshire creating fun, bold ceramics.
I draw inspiration from a wide variety of sources but particularly enjoy using imagery from nature, dreams and fairytales. My love of bright colour and texture dominates much of my work and I like things to be very decorative and eye-catching.

To enter, leave a comment on this post about something that inspires your creativity.

Entries close at midnight Sunday (UK time) and the winner will be posted Monday night, so be sure to check back and see if this was your lucky weekend!

xlovesx

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