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

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online scrapbooking classes

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Class giveaway day!

I’ll keep it short and sweet today: comment below and you’ll be entered in a drawing for a free place for you and a friend on the new class, My Freedom.

Entries close at 8am Sunday, London time.

If you’ve already signed up for the class, you can still enter and win. If your name is selected, you can give the place to a second friend or have your money back and enjoy the class for free!

I’ll pick three winners Sunday morning—class starts Monday!

Good luck!

xlovesx

ETA: entries closed…will post winners shortly!

Notes on style

scrapbook supplies

I promised a bit more info about My Freedom, and it comes in two parts. A little about style and a little about content.

Let’s start with style.

The class notes mention that you’ll see four albums come together over the completion of the prompts – each in a specific style: stream-lined, contemporary, arty and digital. That’s just the four versions that are done before we start—of course, you’ll also get to see the albums from fellow students come together as you share the creative journey.

Identifying four styles for this class certainly doesn’t mean there are only four styles possible—they are merely a sampling and a springboard. Take direction from the one most like your own style or try something in an entirely different style to what comes naturally. Or if style and scrapbooking in the same sentence ties you up in knots, use this album as an exercise in finding out what works for your scrapbooking. Each album points out design tips along the way, so trying something new is easy, while you’re also free to ignore the design ideas entirely and strike out with something that is undeniably you.

Your completed album will be at least twenty pages and you can actually finish this project within the five weeks, as there’s never one day with an uneven balance of stuff to do. Plus you have the weekends to give you a little break and keep a spring in your storytelling step. There is the option to add extra pages, especially if you would like to incorporate stacks of photos, or if your style would like to embrace a little more space here and there.

You can create the entire album using your own stash, and you can even get ready early if you want—registered students can access a from-your-stash shopping list this Friday. Or you can have almost everything you’ll need shipped right to your door: the kits used to create the projects in the prompts go on sale tomorrow at noon. There’s a little peek above, but you’ll be able to see more from each kit (including a sample page) in the shop tomorrow.

scrapbook supplies for sale

So tomorrow: shopping, a look inside each book and we’ll talk about what story we’re going to tell this summer.

Join this class here

xlovesx

Girly secrets

pretty scrapbook

It’s been a very girly few days. A day out with the girls taking a scrapbook class just for fun. A day sorting out petticoats and shoes and all sorts of lovely. And today, a day of dress fitting and sewing and getting a bit giddy to see my actual dress made just for me. Hurrah for three days of girly.

Tomorrow? I have to take the car for a service. Exceedingly girly, that.

girls at scrapbooking class
For more info on the class project above, see Donna’s website. Especially advised if it matches the fabric you have been sewing into curtains for your living room.

But I also have some things to show you tomorrow…a little look inside that album from yesterday. And maybe a few other albums over the next few days.

Aside from the new class, there is something else new here if you care to look around. A few of you managed to find it last night. So far, so good: but no big announcements in case it breaks the internets. Please be nice to her!

xlovesx

A new class for summer

online scrapbooking class

My Freedom is an online class for the summer. Over five weeks, we’ll put together a complete album designed to help you tell your story in a new way. Through daily prompts that focus on photography, storytelling and design, we’ll capture the spontaneity of life and put it in perspective with thoughts about the past, present and future.

Starting Monday, the 7th of July, you’ll receive five prompts each week. We’ll start the week with our cameras clicking, as the photography prompts get you snapping photos that will inspire the stories we’ll be telling that week. The photography prompts are not technical and you don’t need a fancy camera to get these shots. There’s also the chance to search in your existing photo library for earlier shots that add perspective to the topic.

As the prompts continue in the week, we’ll focus on telling our own stories with certain topics in mind. Whether you love to journal or find it intimidating, you’re safe here. The journalling resources included in these prompts take you step by step and offer a variety of ways to add style to your writing without just recording the who, what, when, where and why. We’ll write stories in a way that will make them be read again and again.

In the design prompts, you’ll see how the same starting point can create several different styles of project, and you can choose the right style as your creative springboard. As the weeks go by, you’ll see four completed albums come together: a stream-lined scrapbook, a contemporary-styled album, an art journal and a digital album, with tips for creating in each style. As a bonus, you’ll also be able to download digital elements to add to your designs—they are suitable for printing out and including in paper pages or as elements in a digital scrapbook project.

Our classroom is a private message board where you can access a permanent archive of the class materials and also discuss the project and share your work with others. You’ll receive the daily prompts by e-mail, so it’s up to you whether you want to stay and chat on the board or get straight to work or save the project for a rainy day.

My Freedom, in summary:
...class starts Monday 7th July
...there are twenty-five prompts delivered Monday to Friday for five weeks
...all prompts are permanently archived so you can come back to the project at any time in the future
...all participants are invited to a private message board to discuss the project and share their work
...the completed album will be at least twenty pages, and works best in a format of 8×8 or larger.
...the album focuses on the world from your perspective

Between now and the 7th of July, I’ll post a few snippets from inside the albums to shed a little more light on the project.

You will need a forum name to join us. If this is your first class, just go here to choose a name and you’ll be all set.

Ready to join us? You can pay in Pounds Sterling or in US Dollars—simply click on the cupcake of your choice.

Things to remember:
Keep the email you receive from Paypal after you pay. This is your receipt.
The first prompt will be emailed to you on Monday 7th July.

Any questions, just let me know. Otherwise, stay tuned if you want to see a little more.

xlovesx

Something new on Saturday

scrapbook mini album

It’s a very busy week, but a very good one I think!

So I’ll keep it brief but a few more details about this Saturday…

*You may want to check back here around 11am British time.

*There may be new scrapbooking classes and projects for the summer.

*There may be a few other random things as well.

*The photo above may be just a tiny sign of things to come.

More to see tomorrow!

Off to enjoy today’s sunshine, even if it is with notebook in hand. No reason why an office can’t be outdoors, right? Not today, anyway!

xlovesx

It's here!

scrap your day morning

Two twenty-fifths in a row when I actually went to sleep on the twenty-fourth when it was technically already the twenty-fifth! What this is telling me about my supposedly changed night-owl habits, I am not too sure, but alas I was still up early today to start snapping bits and pieces of my day. (And I took a few pictures of last night’s reason for staying out late. Always worth it. And then some.)

Whether you were up late last night or asleep before my ears started ringing, I wish you a very happy and beautiful twenty-fifth to photograph and document. And here’s this month’s album prompt to help with that if you fancy!

Do comment here to share your plans for today and to leave a link to your pages when you get them completed. (And don’t forget: you may want to check in here the rest of the week too, as something new just might be happening.)

Scrap your Day links & schedule:
About this project
Sign up for reminders
Getting Ready
Photo Fact Sheet #01
April Album Prompt
Photo Fact Sheet #02
May Album Prompt
Photo Fact Sheet #03
June Album Prompt
Our Flickr group
UKScrappers discussion thread
Small image for signature files
Blinking image for blog side bars

xlovesx

From the grass to the clouds

scrap your day reminder

Today’s the twenty-fourth…tomorrow is the twenty-fifth! So yes, we shall be taking pictures tomorrow.

This month’s Photo Fact Sheet is here to download. Nothing technical at all this month—but an easy way to shake up your images as we enter into month three. I love shooting angles like this in the summer, but I think our participants who are more wintry right now might encourage us to try it again in another season.

Scrap your Day links & schedule:
About this project
Sign up for reminders
Getting Ready
Photo Fact Sheet #01
April Album Prompt
Photo Fact Sheet #02
May Album Prompt
Photo Fact Sheet #03
June Album Prompt: available Wednesday (25.06.08)
Our Flickr group
UKScrappers discussion thread
Small image for signature files
Blinking image for blog side bars

xlovesx

Nearly a full month ago...

May scrap your day layout

...it was Scrap your Day day for May, which is a phrase with a lot of ‘ays’ to it. But also a year long project that is about to enter its third month.

If you didn’t know about the project until now, you can still join in. Scroll through entries here to see everything we’ve done so far.

In keeping with last month’s vow to use a sprinkling of whatever embellishment I have been using repeatedly, I went with this lovely satin ribbon from American Crafts and some brads. A bit more ribbon is tied to the outside rings of the binder so the cover has a bit more embellishment as the project goes on.

scrap your day layout

If you snapped photos for May but didn’t scrap them yet, you still have two days before you can even tell yourself you are behind, so here’s a big heap of inspiration from pages posted on blogs, Flickr and UKScrappers as part of May’s Scrap your Day festivities. I love watching these pop up as the month goes on—I’m starting to recognise faces in the pages and it will be lovely to see how progresses over the year.

scrap your day samples
1. PrincessCarly1978 2. MissKoolAid 3. Sandslippers 4. Surlepetitchemin 5. Jayneb2008 6. Davendos 7. Missy6568 8. K Bell 9. Scrappy-Sarah 10. Jen VC 11. Mock Choc Croc 12. 2lloydsandme 13. 2lloydsandme 14. Rjanen 15. Brigetta00 16. Annie LaLa 17. Jaydaly.t21 18. Suky Allen 19. MajicinOz 20. Scarymary555 21. Ladkyis 22. Penguin Pie 23. Aimee 24. Karen 25. Cannycrafter

more scrap your day samples
You will need to be logged into UKScrappers to view these links. 1. CountyCrafter 2. Wingus 3. Harrys Gal 4. TracyG 04 5. Paddy 6. Soozee 7. Jo M 8. Lesleygee 9. Chicken Licken 10. Silverstar 11. Fionaken 12. Suky 13. Clairewill 14. Mummybecks 15. Beautifullily 16. Bookworm 17. USA2UK 18. Retired Nana 19. Katj 20. Ladybug 21. Stargazer 22. Lacemaker 23. Debbieh 24. PapermadMand 25. Harrys Gal

Scrap your Day links & schedule:
About this project
Sign up for reminders
Getting Ready
Photo Fact Sheet #01
April Album Prompt
Photo Fact Sheet #02
May Album Prompt
Photo Fact Sheet #03: available tomorrow (24.06.08)
June Album Prompt: available Wednesday (25.06.08)
Our Flickr group
UKScrappers discussion thread
Small image for signature files
Blinking image for blog side bars

More tomorrow!

xlovesx