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

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Say hello to lovely friends Leanne and Kevin on this week’s page, one from the garden at Two Peas. They are getting married this summer and I am so excited to catch up with them when I get home (so soon now!) to hear all about their wedding plans. And these photos? Taken at another wedding, so there we go!

I suppose this sketch could look a tiny bit crazy, but I promise there is method to my madness. Or at least that’s what I tell myself. Look at the sketch from right to left (probably opposite to how your eyes naturally flow) and see how the boxes of patterned paper start quite big on the right (12” strips of paper) and then get smaller and boxier as they head toward the left edge of the page. Great for using lots of patterns or colours, and you can just skim through your scraps to find some strips for the longer pieces of paper and smaller boxes for the area to the left of the photos. (Again, it’s two four by six pictures! How I swoon.) Once in the habit of using up all those bits and pieces of paper, I just carried on with the embellishment, so I grabbed lots of sticker sheets that were three-quarters used and just had a few bits left and threw quite a few of them at this page. You can do the same or you can keep it much cleaner if you prefer!

As always, the sketch is for fun and no stress! If you create something, please link us up in the comments as I’d love to see and share it here too.

And here are eight of my favourite pages submitted for the last sketch. Thanks to everyone who shared a page! Click any of these links to see these in more detail:
Top row, L to R: one, two, three, four.
Bottom row, L to R: five, six, seven and eight.

xlovesx

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And the winner is….

The True Scrap giveaway winner is Rosalie!
Rosalie, Lain will be in touch to get you all set for the True Scrap weekend!

If you didn’t win but would still like to join us for True Scrap, we’d love to see you! You can sign up here, and remember, if you sign up by clicking my link and then email me your receipt, you can have a free shimelle.com class too! Bonus!

Happy scrapping!

xlovesx

This Monday, the 21st, marks the first day of a new run of Blogging for Scrapbookers, an online class all about how blogs and scrapbooks are not all that different. It’s not to late to join us! If you’re thinking about it, here are ten reasons to jump on board!

Write with meaning.
There are blog posts that say a little and there are blog posts that say a lot. You know the posts you have read that made you really sit back and rethink something or even physically nod in agreement? The sort of reading material that captures your emotions? We’ll break down just how easy it can be to move your blog from a list of things that have happened to something that captures your true feelings and captivates your readers.

Keep in touch.
Have friends and family far away and wish you could keep them up to date with what’s been going on, but find it hard to find the time to write or phone everybody? Use your blog to write everything once, and in class we’ll discuss how to get your family involved so they communicate with you too, even if blogging isn’t for them.

Scrapbook with your blog.
Blogs are words and photos. Scrapbooks are words and photos. So really, they have the very same starting point, which means you can use your blog to gather your thoughts and words together and craft this part of your scrapbook page, even when you can’t get to your scrapbooking supplies. When you do have time to get crafty, you’ll have a bank of posts ready to help you. And if you’ve never approached a layout with the words written first, you’re in for something that can totally change the way you feel about the most important memories in your albums.

Make new friends.
Our class is filled with people who love the exact same thing you do: scrapbooking! And they all blog too. On our private message board, you can chat and get to know your fellow classmates and follow their blogs. Leave a comment for them and they might leave a comment for you and suddenly, new friends! There are several bloggers who met in our original class run in 2009 who are now the closest of friends. Love it!

Pretty up your corner of the internet.
Sold on the idea of having a blog but want to make it look great too? We’ll cover all the technical stuff (in an easy-to-follow way) for giving your blog a make-over, customising the look and making sure everything is exactly your style.

Remember little moments you might forget.
Scrapbooking is all about preserving our memories, right? We’ll talk specifically about ways you can use your blog to get the littlest of things you want to remember committed to words as soon as possible so you don’t lose the details between the time something happens and you get around to scrapbooking it. Whether you share your blog with the world, with a group of trusted friends or just keep it to yourself, this is something that makes blogging a fab journal to day to day life.

Something for everyone.
Whether you’re just thinking of starting a blog or you’ve been blogging for a long while, if you love scrapbooking there is something for you in this class. In our first run, some of the most amazing blog posts came from participants who hadn’t written a composition since school and some experienced bloggers pushed their blogs to the next level and even started their own blog-based businesses.

Discuss everything with like-minded bloggers.
When you read a book, it’s been edited by someone other than just the author. But blogging eliminates that step and lets us publish anything we want, whenever we want and from wherever we want. But sometimes a little direction and editing is just what we need to make things have that lovely polish. No scary editors here, but a members-only message board where you can discuss your goals or get opinions on a post from others in exactly the same boat.

Participate in multi-blog events.
One way to bring new readers to your blog is to participate in blog parties or events that jump from blog to blog. Throughout the class you’ll have the opportunity to participate in events like this and even step up and host one of your own. Jump in and have some fun when you see a topic that inspires you!

Continue your learning.
In addition to fifteen detailed prompts (delivered to your inbox, Monday to Friday for three weeks) you can also download two workbooks to continue your Blogging for Scrapbookers experience: Blogging Blueprints is a step-by-step technical guide for making things work on your chosen blogging platform and A Year of Blogging includes a blog post idea for every single day of the year, all written specifically for scrapbookers! Follow along daily or just refer to the workbook when you need some ideas to get your blogging thoughts going again.

And reason number eleven? All that is just £9 or $15! Click to sign up and join us now!

xlovesx

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Today please welcome Kirsty Smith, a London teacher by day, scrapbooker by night! I love her designs with fauxlaroids – things that are a bit like a Polaroid picture, but not really! Today she’s sharing five of her favourite ways to scrapbook with Polaroid-inspired design.

Create the instant-look border
A quick and easy way to make photos pop is to give them a border, and I’ve been totally inspired by the polaroid photos popping up all over the place. So, by matting a photo onto white paper, leaving a larger border at the bottom, and a little spot of inking, I give you: the Fauxlaroid.

Change up the colour
The great thing about making your own polaroid pictures is having the freedom to make them any colour. You can pick a colour that complements your photo and lifts it from the page. The borders here disguise the fact that my so-called panorama pictures of that famous skyline don’t really match up, plus there’s space at the bottom for a few words. So will the term Polaroid-arama catch on? Probably not.

Or change up the size
Once again, making your own polaroids wins out as you can do them in custom size. A year in review page is a fab way to make use of mini pictures and index prints and mounting each one as a tiny polaroid means they can each be labelled with a word or two of explanation. Miniroid it is. (These terms are really not working)

Frame up your words as well as your pictures
Polaroid-style doesn’t just give you space for a sentence. You can put your journalling where the photo would normally go in not only do you get an instant lift for the journalling, but as a design element, it will draw together your words and photos. To me, journalling is the most important part of the layout as it tells the stories that I want to remember, so I love to find new ways to incorporate it. In this page I used a stamp to get both frames to be the same size.

Framearoid a title
Something I do every year is wish for a White Christmas. Well, I don’t always get the snow but I can always document the wishing in my Christmas album. Here the polaroid is frame only. It’s a nice way to highlight the title without confining it – the title extends beyond the frame(aroid?).

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Kirsty is a 23-year-old maths teacher living in North London who tries to avoid marking by scrapbooking instead! She loves taking pictures in the city, puns, reading, baking, singing, macaroni cheese and then scrapping it all. Oh, and she’ll take a cup of tea with all of the above. She is a member of the ScrapaGoGo design team and you can find more of her work and stories at her blog.

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A very special giveaway for you today – and it’s open until the 20th! One person will win a free basic admission pass to the True Scrap online scrapbooking event on the 7th to 9th of April. That’s a $97 value, so definitely worth leaving a comment!

For one entry into the prize drawing, leave a comment on this post. Easy!
For an additional entry into the prize drawing, link to this post on your blog, Facebook page or Twitter feed and indicate as such on your comment here. You get one extra entry for each of those, for a maximum of four entries! Entries close at midnight UK time on the 20th of March, 2011.

And a little bonus for you if you sign up for True Scrap via this blog post. If you sign up for the event (basic admission or the fancier version that lets you have access to the classes after the weekend too) through my link, you can also have a free shimelle.com class. Here’s how: click here and sign up for True Scrap. You’ll get a receipt via email. Forward that receipt to me via email (shimelle at gmail dot com) and let me know what class you would like: Blogging for Scrapbookers (starts 21st of March), Learn Something New (runs every September) or True Stories (an archived class you can do at your own pace). So that means you’ll get access to the full event plus full access to a class here too! (If you’ve already taken all three classes, let me know in your email and I have an option for that too.)

True Scrap includes a full weekend of workshops online, including a keynote interview with Ali Edwards, a workshop with me and lots more, so if you’ve always wanted to go to a scrapbooking convention but it seemed like a lot of hassle or cost to travel to something like that, this could be perfect! It’s a convention right in your own house.

I’m spending a lot of time on buses this week as we are crossing through the mountains and plains of South America. Have a great week!

xlovesx

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This week’s sketch is a little more open to interpretation, since it’s easy to change the number of photos, size of the pictures or the placement on the page without having to make too many changes to the original design. (Also, while we’re looking at this layout, don’t you think the cardstock companies need to embrace grey even more? I love grey cardstock as a background! Grey dotted swiss would seriously make my year. The world needs a steady stream of beautiful grey papers, I do believe.)

While several of the sketches I’ve shared are great for using lots of patterned paper, this sketch is a stash-buster of another kind: it’s great for using lots of bits and pieces of papers and stickers. Perfect for the sort of stuff that ends up sitting on your table once you’ve finished one layout, so you can keep this sketch handy and just create a second page instead of worrying about where to put even more small pieces of paper and unstuck border stickers!

I’m loving a bit of acrylic paint splashed over the embellishment for a finishing touch. I used black and yellow paints on this page, and just use a dry paint brush to splatter it over different elements of the page. Easy! Now it’s your turn – I wonder what you’ll scrap with this sketch! If you create something, I hope you’ll leave us a comment below so we can see.

And on that note, here are some favourites from our last sketch! (Actually, sketch of the week skipped a week since last week’s Jenni Bowlin challenge had a sketch of its own… and I think one sketch a week is quite enough for here!) Click these links to see these pages in more detail:
Top row, L to R: one, two, three.
Bottom row, L to R: four, five and six.

I hope you like this sketch. Happy scrapping!

xlovesx

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In the autumn of 2009, I taught a funny little class here at shimelle.com. That class was Blogging for Scrapbookers. I call it funny because when I was working on that class, the first few people to discuss it with me responded along the lines of That sounds cool, but do you think it will be very popular? Guessing that scrapbookers just wouldn’t really be thinking all that much about blogging. I call it funny because actually it is one of my most popular classes ever. Apparently plenty of scrapbookers were thinking about blogging!

Of course, times change and technology moves quickly! So much has progressed since that original class – different blogging options have become popular, existing blog platforms have upgraded or changed their interface, social networking platforms like Twitter and Facebook changed how we interact online. And things have been changing in the scrapbooking world too: we have fewer print publications, more online opportunities and crafters around the globe are still discovering this hobby for the first time. What does all that mean? It means it’s time for something new.

This spring, I’ll be teaching a sequel class to Blogging for Scrapbookers called… well, Beyond Blogging for Scrapbookers. Because we’re going to start right where the original class finished and move beyond that into a whole new realm wherein blogging and scrapbooking are the best of friends at every level.

So yes, there’s a new class. But it also seems like it would be ideal to have a refresher of the original class, either as a brush up or as a prep course if you didn’t take it the first time. If you haven’t taken Blogging for Scrapbookers, sign up now and participate in the class from the 21st of March to 10th of April. If you have taken Blogging for Scrapbookers, you can join in again at no extra cost (and you should have an email in your inbox that has instructions on opting out if you prefer).

Blogging for Scrapbookers includes 15 PDF prompts and 2 workbooks: one that covers all the technical stuff for getting your blog up and running and customising the design and another with a full year of blogging topics specially designed for scrapbookers. You can read more about Blogging for Scrapbookers here.

Click here to sign up for the first class, Blogging for Scrapbookers:

Then there’s a one week gap to gather your thoughts, tie up loose ends and get excited for the new class, Beyond Blogging for Scrapbookers. That class starts on the 18th of April and runs until the 8th of May.

Beyond Blogging for Scrapbookers is a completely new three week journey through the blogworld, with each prompt designed to help you get the most meaning out of what you post, how you post it and how you share those posts with others. We’ll look at what makes some of the most successful blogs so amazing and how you can set and achieve goals that are just right for you, whether that is to write more meaningful content, get more readers for your blog or increase the conversation that goes on in the comments of your blog posts. Since this class doesn’t start until the 18th of April, I’ll expand more on the specifics as we get closer to that day, but if this sounds like it’s right for you, you can go ahead and sign up and just wait for class to start!

And actually, there’s one more thing that some of you may want to add beyond that. From the 16th of May to the 16th of June, I’ll be leading a very special month-long extension of these classes that is just for crafty entrepreneurs. This isn’t about scrapbooking, but rather about how you can use a blog, social networking, online classes and more to develop your crafty business. It’s perfect for etsy shop owners, bricks and mortar store owners, crop organisers — anyone who wants to focus on bringing in more customers and increasing the participation of their existing customers in the world of crafty small business. Numbers will be limited for this group to keep it small, helpful and friendly. If you’re interested in this option, email me (shimelle at gmail dot com) and I’ll send you all the details!

I know this was a class that made lots of friendships — can’t wait to see some of those familiar faces along with new bloggers too! If you have any questions, please leave a comment or send me an email and I’ll be happy to help!

xlovesx

Please note: Class registrations may take up to 24 hours to process, though they are usually processed much faster! If you do not receive a welcome email within 24 hours, please email me and I’ll be happy to help! If your paypal account does not match the email address you would like to use for prompts, you can leave a note with your preferred email – that’s no problem! Otherwise, your prompts will be sent to the email address indicated on your paypal account.

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One of the lovely things about online classes is that they can truly be self-paced and fit your schedule — which means if you’ve just heard about 4×6 Photo Love now (or you’re reading this next year), you can join in any time. As a little added bonus to participating at a later date, you can find further inspiration from all the participants who have shared their interpretations of each lesson. And with that, I think it’s about time for some highlights from the first month of this free class for 2011!

Here are nine of my favourite scrapbook pages that were uploaded to the Two Peas gallery during the first month of class. Follow these links to see each page in more detail and add them to your bookmarks or click that like button to make some scrappers’ days!
Top row, L to R: one, two, three.
Middle row, L to R: four, five, six.
Bottom row, L to R: seven, eight, nine.

Each month there are two chances to win – one winner is randomly selected from al the participants at Two Peas and another is randomly selected from those who leave a comment and a link here at shimelle.com. These are our two lucky crafters for the first month, and I love both their pages! LadybugUK (the layout on the left) is the Two Peas winner and Scrap Maman (the scrapbook page on the right) is the winner here! (Please email me at shimelle at gmail dot com so I can get your gift certificate over to you! Thanks!)

Lesson two is live now, so join us in scrapping two 4×6 pictures this month… or any time it fits your schedule!

xlovesx

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