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

I love the concept of inspiration points: looking at a scrapbook page you like and identifying different points that could inspire something of your own. It can be anything from something small, like seeing a layout with pink and suddenly feeling like you would love to create a pink project to scraplifting the placement of all the elements of the page.

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I’ve been coming back to this page by Wilna Furstenberg in my bookmarks, thinking I loved the design but worrying that I wouldn’t like something I might make like this with my own photo because the picture makes it extra amazing. The expression of joy on her daughter’s face is just fabulous! But in coming back to the idea of inspiration points, I thought maybe I could give it a try after all… and I would love for you to give it a whirl with your own choice of points!

See more of Wilna’s work on her blog or in her page gallery.

There are so many things you can identify on Wilna’s page and use just one, a few or a whole bundle. I started with the combination of the white cardstock, the side strips and the panoramic landscape photo, even though I didn’t have a beautiful picture like her page. (By the way, if you’re starting to see a theme in these layouts, you’re not wrong, and all will be explained before the weekend is out!)

Now it’s your turn: take a little or a lot from Wilna’s page. You could easily adapt this design to include two landscape 4×6 pictures instead of one large print. You could try the tone on tone punches that I didn’t put to use on my page. Adapt as much as you like to make it work with your own style, photos and pages!

To enter this challenge, create a new project taking at least one point of inspiration from Wilna’s scrapbook page. Upload it to a gallery or your blog and leave a link on this post. Entries close at the end of next weekend!

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How about a colourful challenge this morning? But instead of giving you a set combination to follow, it’s a bit like a choose-your-own-colour-adventure. So don’t be scared from this little preview: I promise you don’t have to work with purple unless you choose to do so!

Instead, your challenge is to scrapbook with yellow, grey and one other colour of your choice. Yellow and grey has been a fashionable combination for a couple years, and this year I’m loving how designers have started to inject other colours with this combination to keep it fresh and new. Yellow and grey look great with turquoise, pink, red, navy… so many different looks. For this older Easter photo, I went with purple (you can see the supplies here, at the bottom of the page). As I obviously don’t have a clear memory of the moment captured in the picture – and I also don’t have lots of photos from Easters growing up – I used this page to record a variety of jumbled Easter memories from childhood, even if they didn’t come from this particular year.

For this challenge, you have two chances to win from just one layout! Two Peas are also making this their challenge of the week, so if you upload your page to the gallery there and tick the box for that challenge, you can also be entered to win a gift certificate there.

Speaking of which, how about a special discount for shopping at Two Peas? Throughout the crop, you can fill up your bucket, then when you check out, enter code SHMRCKS to receive a special bonus: you’ll get free domestic shipping off an order of $50, but even more exciting, you’ll get an extra discount for your next offer – $5 of a $50 order or $10 off an order of $100. Perfect to order something now then look forward to more new things later, knowing you can take that discount off the top! (Thank you so much for shopping at Two Peas through my links: it is what makes it possible to hold events like this. I earn a small percentage of the orders placed through my links, and that’s what pays for the hosting costs of the website and for all the prizes and special guests that come as part of the weekend! I love that I can share it back out with all of you who come to read my little corner of the web.)

To enter for a chance to win here, create a new project in yellow, grey and one other colour of your choice, then upload it to a page gallery or your blog and leave a link below. Entries close at the end of next weekend.

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The next question of the weekend comes from a recent discussion on the Two Peas message board: what’s the use of washi tape?. Or indeed, any tape for that matter. Is it something you use in your papercrafting?

I definitely love it and I replied in the original question with these suggestions:
…a photo frame – both over and under the photo look cute! You can square it off to be neat and tidy or leave each piece a bit long and tear it for something more freestyle.
…add a strip along one edge of the page (or both the top and bottom or right and left edges)
…crinkle or ruffle it up and top with a brad or other embellishment.
…take your tapes and alternate strips down the middle of the page, then add photos and everything else on top
…tear a strip and add it to the top of the photo, like you’ve stuck it to the page with the tape.
…add a fold-out piece to your page (either on the layout or on the page protector) using washi tape as the hinge.
…hide your writing in an envelope and use washi to close it (you’ll be able to open and close it over and over again since it doesn’t stick in the same way as normal tape).
…make a noughts and crosses (tic-tac-toe) style grid from washi tape. In each gap, add a photo or embellishment.
…make me a card and seal the envelope then add a strip of washi and send it to me in the post. Okay. I’m kidding on that one but seriously, it does look cute stuck on pretty much anything.

Plus there are some great examples that have been posted on that thread too if you would like some visual suggestions!

Every time I talk about washi tape, I have the same general thought: it’s like a border sticker that never runs out! Admittedly, a roll of washi tape can be more expensive than a single sheet of border stickers, but it’s rarely more expensive than two sheets, and you get yards and yards of the stuff. Because there’s so much on one roll, I tend to choose designs I know I will use over and over again, even as the paper collections change. Before there was so much washi tape specifically, there were some decorative tapes more like a regular household tape but printed (washi is more like a patterned masking tape rather than clear), and my best choices from way back when are still going strong, like polka dots and grids. So I’ve tried to learn from that in choosing washi tapes I’ll be happy to use for plenty of pages to come!

Of course, there’s also another answer to a product that comes with so much packed into that little package: although it doesn’t really work with clear tapes, washi tapes are easy to share with friends, so you can each buy different tapes then get together for a tape swap (or trade by post). Just take a blank tag or another piece of cardstock and wrap the tape around, and it will stick and unstick just like it does on the roll. I’ve also used this technique to take a few tapes when cropping away from home without needing to take the entire bowl of tape! Perfect for travelling light… well, as light as one can travel for a crafting adventure!

So… how do you use tape? What do you choose in terms of designs? If it’s not something you’ve tried yet, what roll of prettiness might make you change your mind?

And… a little shopping fun if you’re tempted. A) You can find lots of washi tape options here. B)I have a very special coupon code to share with you tomorrow morning, so if you’ve been thinking about a little shopping trip, that might be useful for you!

Right: let’s hear your thoughts on tape!

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This next challenge was so much fun for me – permission to try something new and just not worry about whether it worked or went wrong. Think you can give that a try? I promise you don’t need to be this inky necessarily – in fact what you decide to try is up to you!

One thing I absolutely love about scrapbooking is how there is room for so very much. If you like simple, you got it. If you want to be layered, no problem. If you want to spend hours, if you want to be messy and inky, if you want to stamp or sew or write or type, if you want to use a dozen photos or just one: every single style is completely welcome here. As a result, there are plenty of scrapbookers out there with very different styles to my own, but I still love what they make.

For this challenge, it’s time to choose one of them – either a specific person or a style – and mix it with your own.

For my page, I took inspiration from Dina Wakley and mixed her inky, artsy style with my own love of layers and butterflies and such. See this post for more details on my creative process learning from Dina and applying her look while remaining true to my favourite things in my own scrapbooking routine.

Now it’s your turn! Choose a style or a scrapper you admire but with a different look to your own pages. Mix something from that with your own style to create something new. Upload it to a page gallery (like Two Peas or UKScrappers) or your own blog and link to it here to enter to win this challenge. Entries should be new projects created in response to this specific challenge and entries close at the end of next weekend!

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This question came up in the list earlier this week during the 10 Things Q&A, but it was too far down the list to make it into the ten answers. That’s okay, because this is a question that would benefit from all of your input too!

The question: Where do you go to find inspiration?

But we don’t mean taking classes or reading a magazine or browsing a gallery in this case. Those are great ways to find scrapbooking inspiration, but let’s focus on something bigger than that. The kind of inspiration that makes you feel right again, from the tips of your toes to the top of your head. The kind of place that can be your own personal reset button, and when all of life seems to go topsy-turvy, that place will always be there for you.

Here in London, that place for me is often the V&A. There are many museums and galleries I love here, but the V&A is a vast treasure trove of amazement. I have been dozens of times and there are rooms I have not yet entered – something entirely purposeful as I like to ration them so I haven’t worn out the place. I almost always go there alone, though I have been known to meet friends there for coffee or lunch. I start with my favourite rooms and the pieces I’ve seen so many times, like paying a visit to an old friend who can’t leave her house. Then I wander without looking at the signs and just find my way to something I haven’t noticed before and get lost in all the details. I turn my phone off when I’m here. I don’t write or sketch (though I admire the work of many who do). Sometimes I feel like I don’t breathe. It is a beautiful place to be still and imagine all that has been there and what will be there in the future.

And yes, I know I am over the top and it seems cheesy to say I don’t breathe. Clearly I do. In case you haven’t noticed: I am over the top in life. It’s just who I am. Bring me the big, the crazy, the emotional, and I will say yes, yes and yes. So when it comes to finding creative inspiration, I say yes to the V&A.

(Also the Natural History Museum is on the same street and it has something even more over the top than me: DINOSAURS. I love it there. But the V&A wins out because it has never tried to become falsely modern. The Natural History Museum has swapped dioramas for computer screens and modern techno stuff and I prefer my museums to feel a bit… old.)

Other favourites: listening to anything at St Martin in the Fields, sitting at the quiet end of Brighton Beach, walking the South Bank and going into anything that seems lovely that day – like the Tate Modern, the Haywood Gallery or window shopping at the Oxo Tower, and for my little daily boosts, Greenwich Park. It’s right on my doorstep so I go there more days than not, and it’s at the top of a big hill with a view of so much of the entire city, with lots of old and new all there together. And there are deer. And I’m quite worried about what my soul will do while the park is closed to the public for six months this year (it’s hosting the Olympic equestrian events) as I really do find it a place important to my sanity.

So that’s enough of me: share your answer. Where do you find particularly inspiring?

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Did you catch the theme in the most recent Glitter Girl Adventure that I may have a habit of mixing manufacturers to create the page kits I like the best? Now it’s your turn to create a project doing just that: mixing it up.

For this page, I started with a background paper from the new Heidi Swapp collection, and the bold floral across the middle is also Heidi paper, so it’s not that I have anything against using more than one thing per collection. But if I break down the rest of what’s there, the grey stripe, the polaroid paper with the bunting and the chipboard border are all from Rhonna Farrer’s Follow your Heart collection for My Mind’s Eye, the buttons, chipboard shapes, journaling sticker, sequins and word stickers are all from Dear Lizzy Neapolitan and the letter stickers are from the two different Amy Tangerine collections. Each of those collections has a signature look and they aren’t an obvious matching, but when I started mixing them on my desk, I came up with a combination I liked and just started cutting and pasting!

By the way: notice how this page really only has a tiny bit of journaling? Two sentences that pretty much tell what is relatively obvious from the photo, given a little bit of context. It’s a start – but I’ll come back to this before the weekend has finished.

For your project, you can scraplift if you like or you can create any design you want! Totally up to you. But you must use products from at least three different collections on your page. Upload it to a page gallery (like Two Peas or UKScrappers) or your own blog and link to it here to enter to win this challenge. Entries should be new projects created in response to this specific challenge and entries close at the end of next weekend!

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In between our crafting challenges, I have a few questions for you. These are the sort of questions that come up in the comments here and elsewhere, and sometimes I’m quite hesitant to answer not because I don’t want to help – but because I really believe there is no single right way to do these things. What works for me may not work for you and vice versa… and in fact, I have tried my share of things along the way that work for others but have failed miserably in my world.

So I want to answer… but I hope you’ll chip in with your answers too.

First up: how do you store your Thickers and other letter stickers?

My answer: First I divide them into a few categories. Thickers, other letter stickers that come on 6×12 sheets, letter stickers that come on 12×12 sheets and mini alphabets that come on sheets smaller than 6×12.

Thickers are what I use most, and they live in the second drawer of my desk (top drawer has pens and adhesive), and they are arranged in colour order. Some stay in packages and some don’t. Mostly depending on how well they stick to the sheet, as I would happily get rid of the plastic straight away but some of them would fall to bits in my desk drawer if I did that!

At the back of that drawer you may be able to see other sheets – that is where all the small letter sheets live. That includes the small Sassafras letters and mini alphabets from both Cosmo Cricket and My Little Shoebox.

6×12 sticker sheets live in a cardboard magazine file on my shelf, with 12×12 next to them – just in an upright stack, not in a box.

And that’s that!

So… how do you store your Thickers or letter stickers? Share with us in the comments!

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Welcome, welcome! Throughout the next three days, you’ll find a whole slew of posts here, including challenges, tutorials, page ideas, photography thoughts, organisation concepts, a few special guests and plenty of prizes along the way. I’m even going to announce my new class before the weekend is out. All of the challenges (and all of the prizes with the exception of a quick draw giveaway or two) will remain open until the end of next weekend, so there is plenty of time to participate and you can pick and choose whatever challenges inspire you most!

But why don’t I stop blathering and just jump right in with the first challenge so you can get started?

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How about some scraplifting for our first challenge? Taking inspiration from another layout is a great way to warm up your creative process! So for challenge one, take a look at this beautiful page by Jaime Warren and take some inspiration. You can scraplift it as closely as you like or you can take away just one or two little ideas and run with them on your own, so there’s plenty of room for your interpretation.

See more of Jaime’s work on her blog or in her page gallery.

I took plenty of inspiration from Jaime in creating this title page for a new album currently in the works. I started with the colours, though I chose different papers, and followed that through with similar placement on the page and the use of one small photo – though mine is a 4×4 square rather than a small landscape image. I loved how Jaime scattered small, round embellishments around the page, and I tried that with buttons and pearls instead of flowers, then echoed the round shape by using the view-master reels from an Echo Park paper as embellishments at either side of the page.

Now it’s your turn! Take whatever inspiration you would like from Jaime’s page and create something new. Upload it to a page gallery (like Two Peas or UKScrappers) or your own blog and link to it here to enter to win this challenge. Entries should be new projects created in response to this specific challenge and entries close at the end of next weekend!

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