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

In case you haven’t noticed by now, I love coming back to a few old standby designs and just changing a few small elements to the general outline of the page to make something new. This sketch is one of those examples.

It’s also an example of having zero problem with taking my page titles from Saturday Night Live sketches. (I’ll give you a topic.)

This sketch is designed for three 4×6 photos all facing the same direction, making it particularly useful for action shots in a sequence, but I’ve used the all-in-a-row concept for plenty of pages that just happen to include three portraits or three landscapes too. In fact, there’s a whole video from the 4×6 Photo Love series just about scrapping three photos, and that was the basis for the most recent Glitter Girl Adventure too. This time, instead of running a long border to connect the three photos, the sketch uses three separate elements to fill the page with repetition, providing plenty of room for journaling and embellishment.

The supplies here are a bit of a mix: the embellishments come from the March Best of Both Worlds product picks, but the papers include a sheet of kraft cardstock and scraps of the two non-kit papers I used for this page, which is the facing page in the album. And just a bit of that yellow patterned paper that forms the background of that page, stolen with a punch from the part that is covered by another layer. There is also some dark brown Mister Huey’s ink and some brown candy dots by Pebbles – they are much like the enamel dots but with a matte finish instead of glossy.

I know that’s a bit of a liberal use of the kit but almost all of us have other things in our stash aside from what we order one month, right? This month it turned out that I used my papers quicker than my embellishments, so I have a few more things to share with you about how I got to the end of the March kit!

These photos are the type of pictures I find on my camera when I’ve been setting up a shot – the sort of thing where everyone gets in the right spot, but someone has to set up the camera to frame it and get the focus, then click the self-timer and run into the shot just in time. I always just tell people to talk amongst themselves while I’m messing with the camera, but secretly I love these shots because they are always so natural and show everyone just being themselves and interacting as they really would, like the camera isn’t even there. So I never delete pictures like this really – and I like how they can sit on the facing page in my album to show a behind-the-scenes glimpse at getting an ‘official’ group picture. There’s a slightly more extended version of this idea shown here, with a much bigger group of crafty girls too. Too many shots there to fit into this sketch though!

Today’s guest creates beautiful scrapbook pages, but almost always in the 8.5×11 size, so I was interested to see what Kristina Nicolai-White would do with a sketch that is so mathematically aligned to the 12×12 page. I love her result, with a delicate page and a single square photo, and really enjoyed hearing what she had to say about her creative process in getting from the sketch to her finished scrapbook page.

As busy as my life is these days – with three active teenage kids – I don’t find a lot of time to actually scrapbook. But when I do, it is usually about a moment. A brief moment in time that I don’t want to forget. I don’t take a lot of time to record the “firsts” or main events anymore. Because of this, I don’t usually have more than one photo that I want to actually use on a page, if any at all. However, this sketch is obviously made for three photos. I weighed out repeating my photo three times and popping up the middle for emphasis, or putting a layer of vellum over two of the three. I am an 8.5×11 scrapbooker, rather than a 12×12, so this also makes it more difficult for three 4×6 photos, unless they are smaller than a standard 4×6 print. In the end I decided to use the grey area in the sketch as more of a composition guideline rather than a rule for where the photos should lie in the composition. The grey area became the main design area for me, and instead of it being a stack of photos I used one wide piece of paper and took it from the top to the bottom as seen in the sketch. Within this area I placed my photo with the idea that my title would lie approximately in the same space shown on the sketch, in the right upper 1/3 of the composition.

I really wanted to emphasise the pink in this photo, but in trying not to take it too over the top, I used a cream/white wide chevron paper (from this pack by Crate Paper) as the background and left most of it as free space. I used a pink ombre paper from Dear Lizzy for that main greyed area where the sketch intends to be photos. The rest of the patterned papers and scraps that I used to lift up and create focus around the photo are shades of white and gray. I wanted to create a more dreamy quality to the layout as it already exists in the photo. I had edited this photo previously with several layers of filters and bokeh treatments. I really wanted the colors and papers to further convey the dreamy love feeling in the layout. The direction of the layout is almost all leading down, my daughter in the photo is looking down at her pointe shoes, the pink ombre paper is going from light to dark while the white chevron is pointing down. And then the pink triangle stack on the left side is leading up to the heart. I used few embellishments, only some Studio Calico Mister Huey mist to add depth to the pink ombre paper, a few die cuts thrown in to the paper layers, a single brad, some white sequins and a few enamel dots from My Mind’s Eye. I finished this layout with a simple title using bot letter stickers and a pen, and a date stamp.

Kristina Nicolai-White has been scrapbooking and memory keeping in various forms for most of her life. Founding and owning the online scrapbooking company Two Peas in a Bucket has kept her active and part of the scrapbooking industry for more than 15 years. Kristina loves using her iPhone to document the craziness of her everyday life with three active teenage children, two giant dogs and her high school sweetheart husband. Her work is usually full of color, products and blurry photos. You can find more of Kristina’s work in her Two Peas gallery, of course.

And now it’s your turn! Create a page in your style with this sketch, post it online, and share it with us. You can upload to your blog or to a scrapbooking gallery like Two Peas or UKScrappers, then just follow the steps to link to your project wherever it can be found online!

Comment [8]

Time to return to Disneyland photos! And still not a Mickey Mouse embellishment in sight. I know some of you may be smashing your head against the desk for that, but my train of thought is that I don’t own any licensed products like that and I would really like to scrapbook these photos without adding products to my pages that are so far removed from what I use on most of my layouts – so just like I haven’t used Harry Potter products on my Harry Potter scrapbook pages, I’m not planning to use Disney products on my Disney scrapbook pages. I hope that seems sensible – to use what I have and love – and if you love patterned papers and embellishments with the Disney characters, then I would be right there cheering for you to use them! (Which leads me a bit to a recent treatise I wrote on scrapbook storytelling here, which leads to what is often my overwhelming cheer to the scrapbooking world: All hail variety!)

This page sketch was originally designed with a panoramic portrait photo in mind – a 4×12 inch column taken from a single image. But the truth is I always have grand ideas for prints like that but actually have thousands of 4×6 prints to hand and little motivation to print special sizes like 4×12! So I used two portrait photos stacked to create that column, then three smaller square photos. On the sketch they are more like two inches square, and I imagined this as a good way to mix ‘proper’ photos with phone photos, but in truth I didn’t take any phone pictures at Disneyland and instead cropped the squares from standard prints, choosing a few nice details from photos that I didn’t feel fabulous enough to warrant their own pages in my album.

This page uses mostly supplies taken from my March Best of Both Worlds product picks, but I added a sheet of pink chevron by Crate Paper for the 12×12 background and some pink baker’s twine.

If you’re just reading and not watching the video, I can tell you I already know that embellishment grouping in the middle of the photos is going to be a love/hate choice. On the sketch, it’s a much simpler, smaller embellishment, and I think it would be less jarring that way, but I chose to make it almost as heavy in weight as the other two embellishment groupings, and it is a little unexpected in the middle of the page. I decided to go with it anyway and lightened it by using a small bit of text cut from a larger sticker instead of the same size rectangle as the other two clusters. I’m also okay with it because I looked carefully at what I was covering up on the photos and there is nothing covered that I really wanted to be visible. This is a prime example of when I decide to just try something on camera and see what I think. Is it my favourite embellishment of all time? No. But it didn’t upset me either: I’m quite happy with how it gives the page quite a whimsical look, like it’s not taking Disney too seriously. And now you know exactly how much I over-analyse my design choices!

Today’s guest artist, Sophie Crespy, has a less literal interpretation of the sketch, and a beautiful page to share with you. I hope it sparks your creativity!

I love this sketch because of its simple lines and multiple photos: typically my type of design! I changed the square photos for a rectangle one and turned the sketch around into a horizontal layout: that way the vertical photos are balanced by the horizontal pieces of patterned papers. I love the visual triangle created by the stars on the sketch: it brings balance to the page. A visual triangle is a design tactic I use often: you can find a visual triangle on my layout created by the colours? I placed three yellow elements on my page: can you spot them? The two pieces of doily and the piece of yellow paper on the bottom left. It helps the eyes to travel on the page, from the photos to the journaling. I also replaced the stars by some stitched elements on my page, created with the new Amy Tangerine Embroidery Stencil kits. It matches the theme of my photos: my son helping me to sew a costume for his sister. I like to mix textures on my layouts: here and there is hand and machine stitching, rub-ons and buttons. The kraft envelope adds interest and creates a frame for the first photo. The photos are mounted on dimensional adhesive and the peg also adds depth to the overall design.

Sophie is a part-time teacher from France. She lives in the Alps with her husband and two children. She started scrapbooking five years ago in order to document her daily life. During those years, her style changed tremendously until she found her own style: fresh, bold and colorful, clean with a whimsical twist! She is currently a member of American Crafts and Crate Paper design teams. She also writes articles for French and International magazines such as Entreartistes magazine. She writes about her creative adventures on her blog.

And now it’s your turn! Create a page in your style with this sketch, post it online, and share it with us. You can upload to your blog or to a scrapbooking gallery like Two Peas or UKScrappers, then just follow the steps to link to your project wherever it can be found online!

Comment [3]

Those of you who subscribe over on YouTube got an earlier glimpse of three Sketch to Scrapbook Page videos this week. I’m almost caught up to the dates on the sketches, and when I really do reach that point I may dance around my studio in joy! But now it’s far time for me to get these sketches on the blog so you can see not just the videos, but also the sketches, pages, and unique interpretations by the sketch guests. First up is a two photo layout to document a recent weekend away with friends.

This sketch is designed for my favourite combination of photos – two standard 4×6 prints in the same direction. This time, that’s landscape. Then two patterned papers to make up the background, with one cut on the diagonal to add a quick and easy twist on a really simple page design. I just cut the diagonal with my paper trimmer, angling the paper on its side instead of lining up all tidy like normal. I’m sure there’s some amazing way you can measure this and work it out if there is an exact angle you want to achieve across your page, but I was just going for an angled line and didn’t need to be precise about that.

Most of the supplies here are from my March Best of Both Worlds product picks, but I added in the woodgrain arrow paper and some red patterned paper for the photo mat.

These photos were actually taken at the beginning of March, but it was freezing and definitely felt like the middle of winter. We always have a group photo session when we go away for a weekend now and then, but this one was finished in record time because we couldn’t wait to get back inside to the warm. They will forever make me laugh because I was so cold, I didn’t bother to tie my shoes for wasting time once the door was open. I love these getaways with such lovely and creative girls I’m so lucky to call friends, and I tend to scrap most of the photos we take on our little escapes – so you’ll see a page soon that goes opposite this one in my 2013 album.

Today’s guest, Leslie Ashe, has a different twist on this sketch, having taken her inspiration from different parts of the design that what I first noticed. If the diagonal line isn’t your thing or you don’t want to use two landscape photos, check out how Leslie took her inspiration from the two stacked elements on the left and the stars as embellishments.

This sketch was so fun! It let me be creative in my own way, with keeping with some of the details of the sketch itself. I decided to stay with the rectangle shape by using a 4×6 photo and a journaling card. I wanted to separate the two, so I cut a title with my Silhouette Cameo and placed as a border. I used that as my main title and my subtitle is my note card with numbers and journaling. I love stars so of course I had to use them on this layout about my sweet son! I was inspired by the Elle’s Studio paper and tags (from the Day To Day collection) I used and built my layout from there. Punching several stars to embellish my title really made my project stand out and draw you to my subject.

Leslie Ashe is a born & bred Texan girl who loves to create memories with her family & put them on paper to remember always. She began scrapbooking over sixteen years ago after going to a craft party with friends. She’s blessed to have work published in Scrapbook Trends, Cards, Simply Handmade, Create: Idea Books, and Creating Keepsakes magazines. She designs for American Crafts, Pink Paislee, Lily Bee Design, Prima and Noel Mignon Kit Club. You can see more of her work on her blog, or follow her on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest or Instagram.

And now it’s your turn! Create a page in your style with this sketch, post it online, and share it with us. You can upload to your blog or to a scrapbooking gallery like Two Peas or UKScrappers, then just follow the steps to link to your project wherever it can be found online!

Comment [3]

As a card-maker, rather than a scrapbooker, one of the things I often find tricky is adding sentiments. I much prefer alphabet stickers to stamps, not least because it makes personalizing your message so much easier, but larger letter sets (such as Thickers) can look out of proportion on a small card. It’s also harder to use up a full sheet. You might manage to include the odd q, z, j, k or x in your layout titles, but it’s a harder sell when you’re going for a short, snappy card sentiment. My solution is very often a set of DIY letters, made to fit both the card and the occasion, as well as an overstretched craft budget. These are a couple of my favourites, if you’re looking to try something similar.

Adding Pattern to your Favourite Fonts
This is a fun way to combine typography and pattern. Pick a favourite font – it can be as simple or as fancy as you like – and type out your chosen message. Check it’s the right size for your card, then print onto normal copier paper. Trace onto the reverse of your patterned paper (don’t forget to flip the letter so the patterned side is the right way round), and cut out with scissors or a craft knife.

Printing Your Own Mini-Alphas
Who doesn’t love mini-alphabet stickers? They’re a great size for card-making, come in lots of colours and there are usually plenty of letter options on each sheet. But, that said, if you find yourself in a fix – nothing in quite the right shade, or a sheet with no vowels left – it’s really simple to whiz up a set from scratch. Draw out a few rows of rectangular boxes (I used Photoshop, but you could just as easily do this in Word or PowerPoint), add a letter on top of each one, and print. Try a selection of colours and different fonts if you want to fill up a whole page; I used a silky, coated sheet, rather than plain copier paper, for a slightly smarter finish. You can then press a strip of double-sided tape onto the back of the paper behind each row, and snip out the letter tiles as you need them.

Cutting Out Cursive
You can either try this trick with your own handwriting, or (don’t panic!) find a cursive font to use as a guide if you prefer. Grab a piece of scrap paper and a chunky marker pen, then write out your chosen word in a nice, fluid hand. It might take a couple of tries, but once you’re happy with the way it looks, cut out the word, snipping around the outside edges of the inked lines. Flip it over, and trace around the outline onto the back of a piece of paper or thin card (I used a sheet of self-adhesive glitter). Cut out with scissors or a craft knife, then glue into place on your project.

Using Shrink Plastic
If you’ve never used shrink plastic or (horrors!) think it’s only a material for children, I’d definitely encourage you to think again. Yes, it can be temperamental and unpredictable – a good helping of patience is as important as a heat gun here – but it’s also tough, dimensional and versatile. The letters on this card were made from two different types – some printed directly onto inkjet-friendly plastic (with patterns added to the letters in Photoshop), and others traced directly onto plain sheets, cut out and then decorated with washi-tape after shrinking. Both work just as well, although the latter makes it a little easier to colour-match, as printed shades intensify after shrinking.

Stitching Words with Yarn
As someone who loves sewing just as much as papercrafting, I’m always happy to see the two combined. It’s pretty rare to find anything other than running stitch, backstitch and the occasional freehand cross-stitch on paper projects, but this technique really isn’t much harder. If you’re a stitcher, you’ll probably recognise it as couching, and it involves using tiny straight stitches to hold a length of yarn or cord in place on the surface of your fabric or paper. It works especially well with cursive lettering, which lets you use a single, continuous length of yarn to form a word. Although I’ve used it on fabric here, it works beautifully on paper, too. Try using contrasting yarn and thread colours for a fun, striped look, or coordinated shades for a more subtle effect. (You can find an alternative version of this project, plus a simple template over at my blog , if you want to try making your own )

I hope something here might inspire you to have a go at making your own lettering, whether it’s on a card, scrapbook layout or home décor project. Even if you’re a die-hard fan of alphabet stickers, it’s good to try out new techniques and really good when those techniques mean you’ll never have to run out of vowels halfway through a project again!

Kirsty Neale is a freelance writer, designer and online shopkeeper living in London. She enjoys working with fabric and paper, often combining new and vintage materials, and is very detail-focused (which is just a nice way of saying obsessive). She’s a regular contributor to PaperCraft Inspirations magazine, and has just finished writing her first craft book, Hoop-la! 100 Things To Do With Embroidery Hoops . You can find her newly-revived blog at kirstyneale.typepad.com

Comment [8]

I love customizing and making my own embellishments for my scrapbook projects. On this particular project, I decided to step it up a notch and customize my entire background for my layout! This gives you a chance to really make your layout your own and allows you to use some mediums that maybe you wouldn’t necessarily use in your customary scrapbook projects. I used watercolors, stamping, rub-ons, and stitching on my background!

Cut a repeating pattern from your Silhouette Cameo. If you do not have a cameo, a simple shape such as a circle, which I used, or a star or heart are things that could be easily cut out using a craft knife.

Lay the card stock with the shapes cut into it against another block of card stock. I used white on white for my layout. I did this because I really wanted the watercolors I planned on using to stand out on the white card stock. Using washi tape, tape around the entire outside frame of the smaller block of card stock & stitch this down using your sewing machine.

Choose your watercolors. Make sure to choose a color scheme that works together. I chose some of my favorite colors: yellow, blue, green, & pink. You do not want to use colors that clash such as blue and orange and red. Choose colors that compliment each other; you could even choose the pattern papers you are going to use on your layout and pull some colors from the papers.

Paint in random circles using various colors. I put a dab of watercolor paint and diluted it with water to get various shades of the same color. This also gives it a soft pretty look.

Once the watercolors have dried, stamp an image in the middles of the circles that you painted. Choose some rub-ons and apply them to some unpainted circles.

Use a big needle or a paper piercer and poke holes around the shape. Use floss to stitch around the shape.

On the circles that have a rub-on in them, use colored pens or markers and doodle around the shapes and/or color them in.

Layer your pattern papers and photo off to the right hand side in the middle of your layout; place your title in the negative space of your photo and add a strip of typed journaling. I also sprinkled a few little epoxy dots on both sides of my photo.

I hope you will try this technique out! You will surely have some one-of-a-kind layouts in your scrapbook album! If you are scared of trying this on a big scale item such as a layout, you can always practice on tags or cards. These would be great things to have put aside that are available at a moment’s notice! Plus, it allows you to get a little more crafty and adventurous in your memory keeping adventures :-)

Melissa Mann has always had a love for paper and stickers. As a child, she collected piles and piles of Lisa Frank stickers and stationery. The infatuation hasn’t changed much these days! She found her start in the scrapbooking world in 2005 when she and her husband made a move from Maryland to Florida. The hobby quickly took over their spare bedroom and these days she is honored to design for American Crafts, Lawn Fawn, and Scrapjacked. Her projects have been published in Cards, Create, and Scrapbook Trends magazines. Melissa lives in the beautiful panhandle of Florida along the Gulf of Mexico. She is married to a terrific guy named Troy and they have a lab named Samantha, a pug named Lucy, and a cat named Daisy aka Ms. Kitty. You can keep up with Melissa on her blog , facebook , or Pinterest . She also has galleries at Studio Calico and Two Peas in a Bucket

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It may be the first of April, but I promise I have no April fools planned here! It’s still a holiday here today and I’m looking forward to a day of mostly scrapping! My studio is almost all back in place, and taking all my supplies off the shelves, into boxes, and back onto the shelves again has made it so tempting to just give up on the unpacking and scrap away for hours and hours.

One thing I’m very much looking forward to diving into is the new box of goodies set aside for April’s Best of Both Worlds collection. The April selections are now available to add to your shopping cart, and you can find them right here. Of course there are a few things I hope you’ll keep in mind, as each month’s product picks have a slightly different train of thought behind them!

_{A look at the b-sides of the patterned papers.}

This month I’ve included a 6×6 paper pad and just a couple fewer 12×12 papers (there are still seven 12×12 sheets plus a 12×12 transparency). The 6×6 paper pad is on sale at a great price, and it’s a collection of papers I have really loved using. Throughout the next month’s projects, I’ll be including different tips for using 6×6 papers on 12×12 pages, plus a few thing along the way will highlight other useful spots for 6×6 papers too. If you’re already a 6×6 fan, you might already have that tablet in your collection; if you haven’t yet ventured to 6×6, this is a great way to give it a try at very little cost, and I know this particular one is very versatile and will mix and match easily with lots of other supplies.

You’ll also notice there are three sets of stamps on the list this month. I don’t expect you to order all three (unless you are a total stamp fiend, and then by all means go ahead), but much like the letter stickers last month, I’ve included three different designs so you can pick something that is most likely to fit the type of pages you do. One has a very general theme, one is more specific to daily routines or everyday documentation, another is quite quirky with a crafty vibe. They are three different prices so you can also look at what best fits your budget – they range from $7.99 to $14.99. Of course, if you prefer not to stamp at all, you can omit the stamps from the kit and take the price point down straight away.

Click here to shop for the April Best of Both Worlds scrapbooking kit.

One of the embellishment choices this month is a great pack of printed chipboard shapes. I’ve chosen the more girly colour option, though there are only a couple pieces that are really specific to little girls (there is a pink crown that says ‘princess’, for example, but there are also lots of butterflies, circles, and flowers). If you have a household of boys and don’t do any pink scrapping at all, it still may be too much. There is a boy equivalent of this same pack here, but it’s currently sold out. I would suggest this die-cut pack instead, but please note that’s not chipboard so they will be flat embellishments (that’s fine – pop dots are your friend), and I don’t have that one in my own stash so I won’t be showing examples that use that pack specifically.

For lettering this month, I have only added one option to the list – a set of woodgrain Thickers. It’s actually not the set in this picture, I’m afraid. The set in the picture is the Goodness font in woodgrain, but that’s sold out at the moment. I’ll actually be using the set that is in the list – the darker woodgrain alphabet in the Patchwork font. It’s just that those are newer and my set is still on its way! I think either would work fine, so if you have one of the two sets already, you’re all set. But I think the darker woodgrain will be easier to read on the patterned papers. The Thickers are often the first things to sell out from the list, so if that happens quickly, I will come back to this post and add some suggestions for others that would work too. But I just wanted to point out that I didn’t add the usual set of smaller letters too. Right now, I have a big stash of all sorts of half-used sheets of small letter stickers, and I’m thinking that maybe quite a few of us are in the same boat. So this month rather than add yet another sheet, I’m challenging myself – and you! – to use those sheets that are stacking up in our own collections. If you don’t fit that description in the slightest, choose a lovely new sheet of a small alphabet you will use and consider yourself a pillar of virtue when it comes to getting the most from your scrapbooking purchases!

If you’re new to the Best of Both Worlds idea, the basic premise is that it has the convenience of a scrapbooking kit, but without the subscription concept – so you can jump in on the months you like and sit out when you know your scrapping time or budget is limited or you’re just not convinced the selections are your style. Plus you can make customisations – so if I’ve selected an item you already have, you don’t need to pay for that duplicate as you can just pull it from your existing stash. Likewise, you can add more of something if you know it will suit your style best that way – add two of a patterned paper if you like double page layouts; add cardstock if you tend to use it as a base for your pages and don’t already have it to hand. Make sense? Then throughout the next few weeks, I’ll be using those supplies on my layouts here on the blog, including plenty of them in videos. That’s all free to read and watch right here.

All the order placement is done through Two Peas in a Bucket and you’re welcome to add in any other shopping you want from their wide variety of supplies (and amazing sale section). If you’re treating yourself to some lovely crafty luxury, don’t forget that Two Peas offers free US shipping for orders that include $50 of full-price goods, and that same order qualifies for a $5 discount on international shipping. You will need a coupon code for that – it can be found at the bottom of their weekly newsletter. Your Best of Both Worlds purchases count toward their loyalty program too. There is good stock of all items as this post goes live, though it is all first come, first served – leaving items in your shopping basket doesn’t reserve them, just to make that clear. (It happens to me all the time with my own orders – I tend to leave my shopping for a week or so and then I find some of the most popular items have jumped out of my cart. Such is life, I suppose.) If the items you would like are out of stock by the time you are ready to buy, you have two options – click the ‘request and notify me’ button on any sold out item, and Two Peas will send you an email as soon as that is restocked. Or take the shopping list elsewhere and collect your supplies from wherever is best for you.

Purchasing through the links from shimelle.com (and my Twitter and Facebook pages) to Two Peas helps support this blog – it makes the free videos and guest artists all possible, so if you are sharing or bookmarking this shopping list, I would love for you to link or bookmark this individual post and not the shopping list itself, as going straight to the shopping list does not support those projects here. I hope you understand and I thank you so much for making this all possible.

A couple important notes before I go for now!
…Yes, there are more videos with the March product picks! I’ve finished those now, but for as lovely as our new/old home and studio can be, fast and reliable internet is not a bonus here. That’s okay, as I have somewhere else I can do all that sort of thing – but they have been closed for the long holiday weekend while I have been scrapping and filming! So my first order of business at work tomorrow when they reopen is to get all those videos and blog posts uploaded. You’ll see them here throughout the coming week, and I hope you enjoy using up the the end of your March kit while April wings its way to you in a cardboard box!

…Thanks for all your patience while we’ve moved yet again. I won’t fib and say we’re completely organised and out of boxes just yet, but it is fabulous indeed to be back in a place we love so much, with friendly neighbours and happiness! I’m sure we’ll get everything back in its place soon.

Click here to shop for the April Best of Both Worlds scrapbooking kit.

Comment [14]

Please welcome the lovely Julie Kirk, who note only has a delightful sense of style in all things papercraft, she is also in the middle of a very interesting and useful series of posts on making the most of your blog! Do check that out – but after you have checked out her fabulous five ideas, of course!

If you looked closely at everything I’ve created for the fun of it [in my scrapbooking, art journaling, card making, collage and more] over the last couple of years I’m pretty sure you’d be able to spot at least one snippet cut from an old book somewhere on the vast majority of it. So much so that working with old book pages seems to have become a ‘signature style’ for me and it’s all because of the serendipity of it all, the delight in never quite knowing what inspiration I might find hidden inside a book that nobody’s opened in a long time!

Now, don’t get me wrong, I love browsing through and selecting brand new supplies, new patterned papers never fail to inspire and set me off planning which pages to make with them. But when it comes to finding that something extra, to help me tell the story of a layout, or to put a new spin on a familiar technique or to add another layer of interest then it’s my collection of old books I turn to. So here’s a few projects to tempt you to do the same.

1. Inked and die-cut flowers
This is a fun way to add several additional levels of interest to a technique often used with plain tissue-paper. Grab several sheets of very thin book paper [you can often find this inside pocket dictionaries] and spritz and splatter them with a few shades of spray ink. Once dry die-cut the sheets using various small pinked circle and flower dies [you can cut through several sheets at a time as the paper’s so thin].

For each flower stack-up around five or more layers, push a small brad through the centre then, starting with the top layer, carefully scrunch each layer up toward the centre to create a perfect papery bloom.

2. Using dictionary definitions to tell your story
Dictionary definitions occasionally make an appearance in scrapbooking ranges don’t they? But, to be sure of always finding the exact one you’re looking for … try an actual dictionary because it’s full of them! Definitions can help to support the subject matter of a page in a way that’s often easier and more subtle than seeking out a fully matching themed paper range.

For this page I used the definition of ‘Home’ as found in a 1960s children’s dictionary to fit the theme of my page which documents an everyday adventure: a walk I took from home to the Post Office last month. I’d blogged about the trip as part of the ’Simply A Moment’ meme hosted by Simply Alexa then I printed off the text from the post
and popped it inside the envelope on my layout.

3. As a background for stamping and colouring If there’s one thing on my ‘just don’t like it’ list of crafty activities it’s stamping images directly on to cold, blank, white cardstock before colouring them in … so I don’t do it! Instead, I tend to stamp onto lightly patterned, self-patterned, off white papers and book pages which offer a lovely soft and interesting base for stamped images especially those which have open areas in the design, where you can see the text beneath.

Here I stamped a super-cute Polka Doodles elephant onto a page all about Shakespeare and gave him an envelope stamped onto a book page filled with numbers (which I stock in packs as well as regular text page packs).

Once stamped I colour my images with ProMarkers or pencils depending on whether the print on the old page reacts with the pen ink or not.

*4. Hiding an image behind an aperture&
Aperture cards offer you the chance to have a focal image hiding away behind a frame or two, just waiting to be revealed in full when the card is opened. And there’s some fun images to be found on the pages of old children’s annuals, which you can find really very cheaply in charity shops and car boot sales, that are ideal for this.

For this tri-fold card I placed the image on the central panel before cutting frames from the two panels on either side. If you’d like a clearer idea of how this works, there are a few extra images of this card, taken at different angles, on my blog today.

5. Giving a title to quick wall art
If you’re anything like me you’ll have at least one empty frame sitting, lonely, on a shelf in your house. Go on, admit it! But with a few items and a snippet of text from an old book you can transform it into a sophisticated piece of wall art in under twenty minutes!

Here I used a scrap of spotted scrapbooking paper, two shells and a phrase cut from an old architecture book to create a little work of art for my bathroom wall. Alternatives could be to frame a selection of buttons, crafting embellishments, or even a brooch.

Then, when it comes to finding a phrase, there’s no need to go flicking through pages for any specific wording, or with any preconceived ideas of what you want to say. Simply leaf through with an open mind until your eyes to find something as serendipitously perfect as the one I found.

I hope my projects today have given you a few ideas of how old pages can be combined with modern styles of paper crafting and even home décor. One of the best things about introducing book pages into your crafting is that it’s cheap and plentiful meaning you’re free to experiment … and fail … and then experiment again without feeling restricted.

And, if nothing else, old pages offer so much in the way of surprises, you really never know what wonderfully inspiring image, print or phrase will leap out from between those dusty covers!

Julie Kirk documents everyday stories through her scrapbooking and shares her love of vintage paper supplies through the packs she creates for her Etsy shop. She’s a regular designer for Papercraft Inspirations magazine and contributes to the 3DJean design team blog. Meanwhile through her own blog ‘notes on paper’ and her Facebook page, she shares creative projects, hints and tips, stories, plus anything which might raise a smile. She is currently raising money for charity by swapping free blogging-advice for donations in her Push-Up Bra Blogging e-course which is open to all.

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It took me a while to jump on the washi-tape bandwagon but once I jumped on, I did it with exuberance! After I broke down and purchased my first roll of washi tape, I simply couldn’t stop! I wanted every color, every pattern, every design – they are all so fun. Now I have a large collection, and I“m always looking for new ways to incorporate the washi tape on my projects. Today I am happy to share one of my latest washi tape creations with you – a Double Washi Frame! The process is really quite simple, but so unique to each and every project.

First, gather some of your favorite rolls of washi tape from your stash. You’ll also need two sheets of cardstock. I chose kraft and off-white 8 ½” x 11” papers for my layout.
Decide which sheet you want to use for the base of your layout. Grab your washi tape and start tearing off pieces – placing them around the perimeter of your background paper. Leave a ¼ border of the background paper showing around the edges.

Complete the frame around the background.

Now trim the other sheet of cardstock to fit within the border you just created. I trimmed 1” off the side and 1” off the bottom.

Add a strip of washi tape all the way across the top of the card stock. Leave part of the washi tape hanging over the edge & wrap the edges around to the back to make the edges look finished.
Repeat this process on all four edges.

Now place the smaller frame on the background.

After the frames are complete, go ahead and add photos, journaling, and embellishments to the layout.

I challenged myself to crate this layout with NO patterned paper! Don’t worry, there are still oodles of patterns happening – but they all came in the form of washi tape, printed chipboard, and stickers!
I know I’m not the only scrapper out there with an enormous collection of washi tape, so hopefully this is an idea you can use too! If you decide to give it a whirl, I’d love to see your final project – please leave a comment with a link to your project so I can check it out!

If you ask Wendy Sue Anderson what her favorite hobby is, she’ll tell you it’s scrapbooking and paper-crafting. But if you ask her what her favorite job is, she won’t hesitate to tell you that it is being a mom to her four awesome kiddos! Although she currently works as a contributing editor for Scrapbook Trends and Create: magazines (which she thoroughly loves), her top priority is always her family; her handsome husband Brad, her two teenagers, Meagan and Josh, and her two little boys, Seth and Zach. Family is always first for her, and spending time with them and having fun together also affords many memory-making opportunities, which is why her next love is capturing and saving those memories on the pages of her scrapbooks! In addition to writing monthly articles for the magazine, Wendy is also lucky enough to design for some of her favorite manufacturers in the scrapbook industry – be sure to stop by her blog to get to know her and to see more of her work!

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