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

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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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All this weekend, Jenni Bowlin Studio is hosting an online crop party, complete with challenges and prizes and chats! It’s my turn to host the challenge, and you have three options, so I hope you’ll find something that fits your style!

My challenge all starts with this layout, In a Looking Glass. Here’s a look at how it came together from the scrapdesk cam!

Now it’s your turn to create a project – it can be a scrapbook page, card, tag, clothing project or anything else that comes to mind. You can even go bake cupcakes with option one, I think! Pick your poison from three challenges.

Option 1: Use this colour scheme as your inspiration.
Create your project in black, white and green for something that’s a little unexpected but very simple and elegant!

Option 2: Use these products as your inspiration.
Create a project using butterflies, die-cut label papers, polka dot papers or paint dabbers! They don’t need to be the exact same products that I used – feel free to choose what you have in your own stash, using these as an inspiration point.

Option 3: Use this sketch as your inspiration.
Create any project you like, using this sketch as a guide for placing your elements. Feel free to rotate, reverse, add more photos or whatever else makes it work for you.

How to enter: Head over to the Jenni Bowlin Studio message board where you’ll find a special section just for this weekend’s online crop. Each challenge has a thread there and that’s where you enter. You can either link to your project or display it right there on the board, whatever you prefer. While you’re there, be sure to check out the various challenges throughout the weekend, as sometimes you can win a prize just for joining in a chat, plus there are lots of crafty challenges you can enter all week.

What you can win: There are two types of prizes up for grabs. Each challenge (like this one) has a JBS gift certificate as a prize and that will go to a randomly chosen participant. There are also some special prizes on offer that are not randomly chosen: throughout the crop, Jenni and her team will be looking for some stand-out crafting. One runner-up will win a JBS giftbox worth $75 and one grand prize winner will win $150 of JBS goodies – plus both the runner-up and the grand prize winner get to guest on the design team and have their projects highlighted.

Remember, the deadline is Sunday, the 13th of March. Jenni will announce all the winners on Monday the 14th.

Now, this blog post isn’t the place to enter, but if you would like to leave a link to your projects here, you’re most welcome to share them with everyone!

Have a great weekend and happy scrapping!

xlovesx

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After a little break, I’m delighted to bring back Five Ideas Fridays, with guest posters sharing their ideas for their favourite scrapbooking supplies. Today please welcome Nancy Doren, who hopes you will fall in love with something a little artsy: watercolours! (But as it’s her post, I’ll let her spell it the American way. Just for today.)

Hello! This is Nancy Doren, coming to you all the way from snowy Colorado, USA! I’m so excited to share one of my favorite craft supplies with you today… watercolor paints! Yep, those simple watercolor paints you used as a kid can give your craft projects a sophisticated, unique look.

I’ve had my box of Prang Watercolors since I was 14. I can’t believe they’ve lasted this long! You can also use an inexpensive kids’ set… it will work just as well for these techniques.

I just love the blended, soft look of watercolors, even for a masculine layout. I created this look by using a doily as a mask, painting over the doily with a wash of colors. It’s better to use a heavy, textured paper with watercolors; I love the heavy papers from My Mind’s Eye, like this one.

I even love to use watercolors on fabric! I painted flannel houndstooth fabric from Samantha Walker with a wash of green paint.

Watercolors are great on raw chipboard, too. Here I stamped and embossed a simple pattern, then painted over it with a blend of warm colors.

Did you know that these Twinkling H2O’s are just watercolor paints with shimmer?
I used the H2O’s to color in a black and white design on this My Mind’s Eye paper. Think of all the patterned paper in your stash that you can transform with this simple trick!

You can also create a super-artsy look with this easy technique: create a puddle of paint on your paper, then blow at it through a straw to spread the paint around.

Let it dry and you’ve got a Pollack-like masterpiece!

I used to think watercolor paints were just for painting landscapes, but after playing around with mine, I’ve realized that they are the perfect crafting tool. I hope you’ve enjoyed these tips… you can find more tips in my Scrapbooking Secrets.

xo,
N

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It’s less than a month until I am home and back to my crafting supplies – hard to believe! If you’re feeling the need to craft (I totally am!) then I thought you might be interested in three upcoming events – all online so you can participate from anywhere in the world! Go grab your calendar and see if you can make any of these.

March 4-6: Jenni Bowlin Studio Online Crop Party
A weekend-long scrapbooking party, hosted by Jenni Bowlin and filled with crafting challenges, live chats and prizes. This event is totally free and you can participate as much or as little as you like. It starts this Friday and the chats and challenges go through the weekend, but you have a full week to work on the craft challenges as they don’t close until Sunday the 13th. I’m hosting one of the challenges and you’ll find it here on the blog as well as on the JBS message board when the party gets started.

March 11-13: Two Peas in a Bucket Online Crop Party
Another weekend event, this time hosted by Garden Girls Caroline, Lisa and Margie. Everything starts on Friday night and chats and challenges end on Sunday. Again, it’s totally free and you can participate in lots of challenges or just one if you like. Two Peas gives great prizes for their online crops so there could be some shopping in your future! (I’m not hosting for this crop but they are always great fun so I thought I would pass it on to you.)

April 7-9: True Scrap
If you ever wanted to attend a big scrapbooking convention with lots of classes and workshops, but just never seemed to be in the right place at the right time, this may be just the event for you. True Scrap is essentially an online scrapbooking convention with a dozen classes plus make and takes and a keynote interview with Ali Edwards. The event is hosted by Lain Ehmann and the teachers include Jennifer McGuire, Kelli Crowe, Nic Howard, Katrina Kennedy, Noell Hyman, Aby Garvey, Stephanie Ackerman, Tami Morrison, Tracey Clark, Erin Bassett and… me! We’ll each be leading a session on a unique topic and these classes will encourage you to try new techniques, get the most from your creative process, stretch your supplies and more. In addition to all those workshops that will inspire your crafting on many levels, there are also virtual make and takes, where you can follow detailed instructions for recreating beautiful projects, step by step. This event also includes several live chats so you can discuss things right then and there with the teachers, just like at a real convention.

This is a live event that requires registration, and has two options: participating live or also having replay access to all the materials, so you can watch and rewatch and reschedule classes to fit your schedule.

And actually I’ll be teaching a real, live workshop that weekend too – I’ll be in Germany for Crop on the Rhine 3! If you want more details on that, just let me know and I’ll email you.

Now… it’s just between you and your calendar to see if you’re allowed to have a weekend or three of scrapbooking fun!

xlovesx

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With February already drawing to a close, it’s time for the second edition of my free scrapbooking class for 2011, 4×6 Photo Love! As it’s the second month of the year, we’re creating layouts with two 4×6 photos, a number I just love.

Two photos are my default option for pages, because two images can show two different elements of any one moment or event. If you’re a fellow lover of crazy shallow depth of field, you can create a diptych of two images that show the same scene, but with different points in focus, so one focuses on the foreground and the other shows the background. Or you can show one detail shot and one wider shot of an entire scene. Or two different people at the same party, two angles of the same monument, one shot from the beginning and one from the end of the day, one in-progress picture and one of the finished item… so many ways to pair two photos to tell a story!

In this month’s video, we look at one design principle that works well with two 4×6 pictures, and I walk you through the creation of the Lady Liberty layout. I hope you enjoy!

If you prefer a written version to the video, you can download the class materials as a PDF and view it on your screen or print it out to have right there on your table as you scrapbook. You can find the PDF download link here. There’s also a thread on the message board for chatting about this month’s class.

Throughout the year, some special guests will be showing their own take on the design principles outlined in 4×6 Photo Love. This month, dear friend SJ had an early peek at the class and created two layouts in her beautiful style. I love them! I still have another month before I am back to my scrapping supplies but these pages just make me want to get scrapbooking right this second. Sigh! Please visit SJ’s blog to say hello and read a bit more about her creative process.

Now, each month you have two chances to win a prize for participating in class. (And you don’t need to have participated in the first class to take part in this month’s class!) Your first chance is to upload your page to the gallery at Two Peas and be sure to click the box for 4×6 Photo Love in step 4 of the uploading process. Your second chance to win is to then post a link in the comments here on this blog post to your layout (in the gallery or on your blog, etc). At the end of the month, a winner is randomly chosen for each way to enter and wins a gift certificate to Two Peas, so you can go shopping for whatever you like!

And one little request from me: since this class is free, care to invite a scrappy or crafting friend to join in? You don’t need any certain supplies to participate and can use whatever you have on hand and most of us have at least two 4×6 prints sitting around somewhere. Use the share button at the bottom right of this post or just email a friend with a link. I’d love for anyone to join us for this year of fun! Thanks!

Happy scrapping!

xlovesx

PS: I know some of you love to collect badges for your blog sidebars, so you can add one for 4×6 Photo Love if you like! Copy and paste this html into your blog sidebar to display it:
<a href="http://www.shimelle.com/category/4x6-photo-love/" title="online scrapbooking class :: 4x6 photo love"><img src="http://www.shimelle.com/images/1868.jpg" alt="4x6 photo love" /></a>

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This week’s layout is a little Christmassy! It’s a page that recently appeared in the Garden at Two Peas, and that woodgrain background paper by Studio Calico is one of my very favourite patterns, so perfect for just enough pattern to create interest but not take the attention away from all the important elements.

I used two 4×6 photos for this page, but you can adapt it to just one by adding an additional block of patterned paper or you can include more photos by replacing the paper at the right with an additional photo. The journaling circle could also be swapped for a photo if you like, though I am rather partial to those JBS die cut circles for writing.

As always, feel free to make the sketch work for you by turning it on its side, shrinking it to smaller photos or anything else that suits your style. And don’t feel like you have to scrap Christmas photos either – use anything you like.

Fancy a go at last week’s sketch? Here are fifteen different pages all from the same start!
Top row, L to R: one, two, three, four, five.
Middle row, L to R: six, seven, eight, nine, ten.
Bottom row, L to R: eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen.

If you create a page with this week’s sketch, upload it and share it with us! You can share via your blog, Flickr, Two Peas, UKScrappers or any other page gallery you like. Just leave a link in the comments and your page could be here in next week’s post.

xlovesx

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