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

1. Corner Love {Explore ♥!}, 2. Polaroid Calendar from JerseyMaids, 3. Nursery, 4. ten garlands in ten days: index card lurve, 5. Strawberries & Cream bunting banner, 6. christmas garland, 7. Untitled, 8. Molly’s Sketchbook: A Party Garland, 9. DIY 5 Minute Doily Garland, 10. spring bunting, 11. Molly’s Sketchbook: New Year’s Garland, 12. Cozy Winter Decor, 13. 214/365.2 Bunting at Blists Hill, 14. #11, 15. sprightly spring scraps…, 16. kitchen bunting, 17. d o w n t o w n, 18. Valentine bunting, 19. living room, 20. Untitled, 21. newspaper bunting, 22. tiny bedroom vignette, 23. Shadeé‘s room, 24. newspaper heart bunting, 25. delicate newspaper bunting

If tonight’s three challenges are all about my three favourite design motifs, any guesses on what the final trend would be? Hopefully all those pretty pictures give you a clue.

And of course, before we go any further, we need to call the party DJ back to action and request another rockin’ tune.

I love very simple bunting. These little triangles became bunting for our wedding that now appears anywhere I can put it: above the bed in the guest room, on the Christmas tree, and across my table whenever I am a vendor at a craft show! No hemming at all, and I actually think it looks sweeter with age and a bit of fray around the edges.

And now bunting is everywhere in crafting land too! I can only applaud this. You can see more in the video I posted this week.

Your 10pm challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to create something – anything- with bunting! Make something, take a picture and upload it to your blog or a page gallery. Then leave a comment on this post to enter!

One project will be randomly chosen to win a prize package filled with bunting themed scrapbook supplies. You can enter until 6am UK time on Monday 19th April.

xlovesx

PS: This is our final challenge for Friday night — challenges start again at 8am tomorrow morning! But you can enter all challenges until Monday morning so you can pick and choose your favourites to enter! See you tomorrow! Party on!

Comment [39]

It’s 8pm so it’s time for another party challenge all about one of my favourite design motifs: woodgrain!

This layout isn’t brand new but it’s one of my recent favourites and it features woodgrain letter stickers and fabric strips from Studio Calico.

_{©twopeasinabucket.com}

Your challenge this time is a little different — it’s not actually to use woodgrain but to use this layout as a sketch. Use a big picture if you want — or you can replace that with patterned paper and arrange standard sized prints over the top. Maybe just use the title portion as the sketch – that’s my favourite part of the page!

Of course… bonus points if you use woodgrain in your layout! Well, imaginary bonus points because we’re not counting but you know…woodgrain! It’s lovely! Is there need for further justification?

Oh, and how about another movie tune for our party soundtrack? Here you go!

_{This challenge: make something based on the design of the layout above — however you would like to interpret it. Then take a picture, post it online in a gallery or on your blog and leave a comment here with a link.}

_{One project will be randomly chosen to win a prize package filled with woodgrain themed scrapbook supplies. You can enter until 6am UK time on Monday 19th April.}

xlovesx

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It’s 6pm here so it’s time to get the party started! Shall we put on a little party music? That’s better!

The party schedule is pretty simple: even numbered hours have challenges and themes and the chance to win prizes. Some odd numbered hours have a little post about something I find inspiring — no challenges for those, just something to keep you creative! Those inspiration posts start tomorrow though! Tonight there are challenges at 6, 8 and 10 — so I’m devoting this Friday night to three of my very favourite motifs! Starting with…cupcakes!

I love to bake cupcakes even though I don’t get to make them quite as often lately. Turns out it helps to have a captive audience when you bake something that often has two dozen servings!

Plus I do tend to like going overboard. Like how we had more than three cupcakes per guest at our wedding. That was just a perfect amount in my mind! My friend Jackie makes amazing cakes (and teaches cake workshops here) and she made every single cupcake and even made them with our favourite recipes to make them extra perfect. Perhaps I shall tell you more cupcake stories over the weekend!

_{©twopeasinabucket.com}

So your very first challenge is to create something – anything – cupcake related! Make a card, a layout, go bake a dozen cute cakes! Then take a picture, post it online in a gallery or on your blog and leave a comment here with a link.

One project will be randomly chosen to win a prize package filled with cupcake themed scrapbook supplies.

You can enter until 6am UK time on Monday 19th April.

And if you’re a shimelle.com member (you’ve taken a class!) then hop over to the forum for a place to chat!

xlovesx

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Document:2010 is a free year-long project at UKScrappers where we make four pages each month. One holds a collection of things from every day life – cards, receipts, ticket stubs. Two are divided pages where you can break down little things onto their own 4×6 block, making them easier to record than having to create a full page for each thing you want to remember and the final page focuses on one thing you want to highlight with a bit more detail.

It took me longer than normal to finish my March pages, but now they are all finished and at home in the album along with January and February — so that’s one quarter of the year scrapped! (Is it just me or was it the first of January like two weeks ago?) This month I used mostly the Handmade collection from K & Company, along with some American Crafts and Cosmo Cricket.

If you’re interested in this project, you can check everything out here.

And if you’re ready to party…you’ve come to the right place! We’re kicking off the weekend-long scrapbook party right here at 6pm UK time. It might even be more fun than a goat in a party hat! See you soon!

xlovesx

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If I were to do this post as a character in Zoolander, I would have to say things like ‘Bunting: it’s so hot right now!’ because it really is the trend of the moment in scrapbooking terms. Paper Chains is a bunting stamp set that I designed for Banana Frog last year and I still love the look of all the little pennants. The set has solid and outline stamps for triangles, circles, rectangles and hearts and you can stamp as many as you want to get just the right length and angle. There’s also a teeny alphabet that fits inside! You can see the stamps in action in this video that shows this minibook cover’s creation:

This project also uses Tattered Angels Glimmer Mists and a free printable kit by Wilna. I’ll show you the inside of this book as part of this weekend’s upcoming scrapbook party!

And if you hurry over to the Banana Frog Blog, you can comment there for a chance to win a free set of Paper Chains stamps! So click here to enter that giveaway!

xlovesx

Comment [8]

Participants in Something from Almost Nothing already know this is on the horizon, but it’s about time I extended the invitation to all of you! This weekend, from Friday to Sunday, I’ll be hosting our very first online crop party here at shimelle.com!

Throughout the weekend there will be tutorials, projects and downloads as well as challenges, prizes and a few surprises! And it’s all free. You can stop by and participate in as much or as little as you like, and you can participate no matter where you are in the world (or what time it is there)!

If you have taken a class here before, you’ll have access to our members-only forum, where you’ll find a new section of the board set up just for the three-day scrapbooking party. If you’re not a member, you’ll still be able to find quite a bit right here on the blog, or you can become a member by signing up for any of the online scrapbooking classes you fancy, of course.

All of the party classes and challenges are designed for you to create using what you have on hand, so you won’t need to purchase any special supplies in order to participate. You can use any photos too — there are projects with photos at 2×3, 4×6 and 8×10 inches — but all of them can be adjusted to whatever size of photo you prefer to use. There’s also a balance of paper-only, hybrid (paper + computer) and digital-only projects, and you can pick and choose which ones suit you.

So if your desk is looking a little messy, maybe today is the day to tidy things up and get some photos in your to-scrap pile. Then join us here on Friday, when it will be scrapbook party time!

(Seriously, if you can say the words ‘party time’ without wanting to follow them with ‘excellent’ and an irrational desire to perform Bohemian Rhapsody in a packed car, I bow down to your ability to not have your entire world affected by this key moment of my adolescence.)

xlovesx

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With our first edition currently available and volume two moving toward the final stages of preparation, we’re searching for fabulous pages to feature in volume 3, the autumn edition of Scrapbook Inspirations.

If you’re interested in submitting to this call, please email me with a photo of the pages you would like to submit. An image around 600 pixels wide is ideal — please do not send full-size photographs straight from your camera. (If you don’t know how to resize the image with your own software, you can do this at Picnik online.)

Submissions of both digital and paper projects are welcomed from anywhere in the world. Please keep in mind that paper pages will need to be posted to the UK for photography. Your pages will be returned with a complimentary copy of the book when the book goes on sale.

I’m currently looking for layouts for these themes and techniques:
Autumn
Teens
Home
Celebrations
Family trees
Your favourite things
School
Layouts featuring fabric
Great ways of using stickers
Pages with five or more photos
Layouts created with your favourite scrapbooking gadgets
Pages that feature one area of detail surrounded by a fair amount of white or unembellished space

Please keep in mind that all submissions should be unpublished and your own work. We would prefer pages with fewer than 100 views in a gallery or on your blog but will consider those with up to 1000 views. You will need to be able to take your pages offline until a given date if your pages are chosen. Pages shouldn’t have won contests or been posted on other websites where you can’t take them offline. If your pages posted online fit those guidelines, you’re all good to go!

This call closes on the 25th of April. Successful submissions will be requested during the following week.

Looking forward to seeing your favourite pages!

xlovesx

Comment [8]

A very happy Easter Sunday to you and yours!

xlovesx

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