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

Last year I talked about an album mindset class and it took a while for me to find a system that was really working for how I could share this ongoing process on a monthly basis. Well, halfway through 2024 and I am happy to say it’s been rolling along relatively well so it’s time I talk about it a bit more!

This Year’s Story begins with a starter class. It discusses my album philosophy, how I organise and plan for the photos I’ve taken, how everything gets filed into albums, and what my real goals are when I’m building a scrapbook, one story at a time. Remember, I’m really big on the ‘book’ element of ‘scrapbook’! I love creating individual pages, but I find it even more exciting to turn the pages of a book and see our stories develop with time! So if that sounds like something you’d enjoy learning, you can join the starter class to see all the philosophy behind it and see two months of stories in action: one from 2023 and one from 2024.

JUST the This Year’s Story Starter Class – no additional months

$22 USD

Now if that sounds perfectly up your alley and you’re ready to just dive in, you can sign up for the starter class and the full year of 2024 updates – so if you signed up now, you’d already have the stories from January to May 2024 there, and you’d see June’s stories in videos throughout this month and so on for the rest of the year. Each month I tell current stories in my regular YouTube livestreams, then I fill in all the gaps and complete storytelling over the next month, so on YouTube I scrapbooked June stories in June. In class, I’ll scrap the rest of my June stories throughout July. Which means the 2024 membership will actually include January 2025, when I’m completing the December 2024 stories. Got it? If you love that whole idea and want to jump into the full ‘members only’ content for all of 2024, you can go ahead and sign up all in one go with nothing extra to add later.

BUNDLE This Year’s Story Starter Class AND Full 2024 Membership – all months

$75.00 USD

But you might not want a full year and that’s absolutely fine too! Once you have taken the starter class, you can add on additional months individually and access just the videos for that month. Please make sure this is WITH a starter class membership. It needs the starter class to get the most of the individual months, and I’m not offering the months without the starter. (Think of it like the starter class is the main kit and the months are the add on options!)

INDIVIDUAL MONTHS – Be sure to take the Starter Class first!

What month would you like? (February – December 2024)

$15 USD per month – January 2024 is included in the Starter Class, so select your month from February to December. Repeat the process for additional months.

The additional content is all shown in video – some prerecorded and some live-streamed, but the livestream content in my classes is not informal chitchat like our random rubbish chats on YouTube! I do answer questions from the live audience but we keep things on track to both the storytelling (so topics that come up on the pages I’m making or you’re making) and the crafty elements like design, products, and techniques.

Like my other classes, registrations are processed by a real human (me) rather than being automatic, so you should have access within 48 hours. If you don’t, please drop me an email! ALSO, if you are having trouble accessing the class forum (for any of my classes) and would like some help, the lovely Alice has returned to help me keep on top of this and you can contact her directly! Click here to email Alice about your forum username or password.

Thanks so much to everyone who has stayed with this class since the early days! If you joined way back when and haven’t signed in lately, you might find there are lots of videos for you to watch, so do have a look.

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Happy International Scrapbook Day! I hope you’ve found something crafty to inspire you today! Here’s a quick round up of some special NSD offers around here.

1. Class Discounts! Three classes are available at a special price this week. These are all self-paced classes with permanent access. Registration can take up to 48 hours, but is usually much quicker.

Half & Half is all about page composition that starts with a background that is half one paper, half another paper. It also includes a mini class on quadrant page design. For NSD, this class is just $12 USD.

Start with a Sketch breaks down how sketches can be interpreted to create a variety of pages. For NSD this class is just $20 USD (it’s usually $30).

Most Magical Scrapbook shares fifty layouts from start to finish to follow my entire process in creating an album to document a trip. It’s a Disney trip, but you can decide to follow along with your own Disney photos or ignore the theme park element entirely and adapt it to any story you want to tell. For NSD, this class is just $20.

This offer ends next Saturday, the 14th of May 2022.

2. Words, words, words!
When I designed paper collections, I always started with lettering. A selection of words would fit together to set a theme and make everything make sense to me! In honour of NSD, I’m sharing words with all of you! I started taking requests during Friday Live yesterday and will finish taking them next Saturday, so I’ll be adding to the collection for a little over a week. All the words will be letter as transparent PNG files and will be free to download. Use them on any personal crafting projects you like: cut them on a cutting machine, overlay them on photos, print them on journaling boxes, whatever you fancy. Downloading a word is free; requesting a word is $2. To request a word, pop it in the box and click through to check out!

Requested Word:

This offer ends next Saturday, the 14th of May 2022.

If you would like to request a word but don’t want it shared with everyone else, that won’t be available this week. Once I have lettered all of these words, I’ll open those requests for a short time. Those words will be $6 during that time period. (During the rest of the year, this is something I offer on a contract basis for things like logo design, and it’s considerably more than $6.) I just want to make sure I finish this project before taking on those extras. Thanks!

3. 5% off at Scrapbook.com – including next month’s Best of Both Worlds kit!
Today only you can use code NSD2022 for 5% off your full order. (Heads up – affiliate links here!) You could order the June Best of Both Worlds kit and scrap along with me during all the livestreams next month. You could check out the Pops of Color special that’s a particularly excellent value. Or stock up on essentials or grab a new album! Whatever you fancy. Happy shopping!
This offer ends at the end of today, Arizona time.

Strangely enough, we’re starting the build on our kitchen here on National Scrapbook Day, so I’ll leave you to those special updates for now, and see you on Monday’s livestream at 1:30pm UK time!

How often do you cut into a piece of patterned paper and save the rest for later, and even with the best of intentions you find you’ve saved it… indefinitely?

Would you like to feel more confident mixing patterned papers while still keeping your photos as the focus of your scrapbook pages?

Are you up for a crafting adventure that is light-hearted and fits your own schedule, but still has a very clear set of things to try and ways you can take them forward in your own crafting style?

If so, then my new class is right up your street! Half and Half is a class all about making pages that start with two 6×12 boxes of patterned paper: half the page is one pattern, and half the page is another pattern! Perfect for using your saved scraps, great for building your pattern mixing skills, and taught in a way that makes it easy to use your own stash, your own photo themes, and your own embellishing style.

Half and Half includes 12 new full length videos, and a few shorter segments:
10 12×12 single page layouts, each broken down in its own extended video plus a simple summary PDF.
2 12×12 double page layouts, again each in their own video + summary sheet.
A selection of short videos that adapt some of the ideas to 4×6 and 3×4 cards to create coordinated pocket pages.

As with all my classes, it includes permanent membership so you can come back as many times as you like or work at your own pace, plus a private class forum to chat with other participants, and you’re always welcome to email me to chat about the class materials while the class is live or long after. This class is suitable for all levels, so you’re welcome to invite a friend to sign up as well, even if they are new to the hobby.

Two of the class videos feature cut files, and both include ideas on what to use instead of a cut file if you don’t own a cutting machine!

If you’re new to my classes and know the videos I post on Facebook or YouTube, it’s worth knowing that I share three types of videos in those three places. My Facebook Live videos are the most chatty and least formal – I answer scrappy questions as we go and share why I’m making something, but we also talk about any old random rubbish! On YouTube, I don’t do off-topic chat, and you’ll find videos where I walk through a project but they are generally a single page at a time. In my classes, everything is focused on a planned curriculum – my goals I hope for you to achieve so you can leave the class being able to take what you learned and apply it on your own projects! So these videos are not only very focused, but also build on and relate to each other. While everything is on topic, I’m still open to your questions and tangents on the forum, and there is absolutely no pressure for you to finish anything by any certain time or date. You’re welcome whether you want to scrap all day or you’re watching because your supplies are packed away for a few months and you’ll get to the crafting later!

Half and Half starts Tuesday 20th April and can be purchased for $15 US Dollars or £11 British Pounds.

$15 USD	£11 GBP

For regular participants who would prefer to pay in a lump sum and not worry about signing up individually for every new class, you’re welcome to sign up for the new Class Pass. This allows you to prepay $150 or £110 in one go, and you’ll receive every class I teach until the value of the individual classes has surpassed that total. That means you’ll get a discount off that last class, but it is largely just an option for convenience, as it’s hard to keep track of everything and easy to miss something like a new class announcement! You’re also welcome to receive the prompts for Journal your Christmas and Learn Something New Every Day, should you not already have those classes on your account. They are not included in running total value, just a bonus! A while back, I called this the ‘annual pass’ but it ended up lasting… significantly longer than a year. So let’s call it the Class Pass now, and if you want to go for that option, you can sign up for a new one starting now, with Half and Half. (To give you an idea of class prices, Half and Half is the low end of my price range, with classes varying from $15/£10 to about $40/£30.)

$150 USD	£110 GBP

PLEASE NOTE: my class registration system is not automated – I am old school and add you to the class myself! You’ll receive a payment receipt email straight away, then your registration will be processed within 48 hours (usually quicker, but I don’t work Sundays). If you don’t receive a welcome email, check your spam (and your forum account, if you’re an existing student!), and if it’s not there, just send me an email so I can chase up anything that has gone astray! If you pay from a different email address than you would like to use for receiving class emails, that would also be something to let me know in an email please.

If you’d like to gift the class to a friend, use the sign up button as normal, then email me and let me know your friend’s name and email address. Thanks for being such an awesome friend!

Here’s an example of a half and half page I’ve shared in the past. Not to worry if you cringe when I cover half a sheet of background paper in this video. We’re going to cover your options for building those half and half backgrounds, including taping them together instead of layering over the top, if that’s what you prefer!

All the layouts in this post are half and half style pages I have made and shared recently. They give you an idea of my style, but everything in the class will be new and unseen.

Comments are turned off purely because they get targeted by spammers, but please do not hesitate to drop me an email if you have any questions at all! Thanks so much! I can’t wait to see you in class so soon!

It’s the first of November! Time to start talking about something special. We all need a little glimmer of brightness shining through the holidays this year, and for years my Christmas journal has brought me just that. Some years have been tales of happiness and some have brought more than their fair share of tears, but my journal has always kept me grounded and helped me remember where and how to find my Christmas joy. Part writing, part photography, part crafting, that journal is a little oasis of calm in my December days. But what if making a book isn’t part of your Christmas joy? Could there be a way to take this same spirit and put it in the palm of your hand, no scissors and glue required? So this year, I’m actually offering two Christmas classes: the classic Journal your Christmas scrapbooking project, and a new Share your Christmas project, that lets you document your holiday joy with your phone.

Journal your Christmas

This year I will make my seventeenth Christmas journal! If you’d like to join this project for your first time, you can sign up and then participate for as many years as you would like at no extra cost. This way you are welcome to either make a full book each year or to create just a few entries each year that go into one overall Christmas album. There’s no such thing as falling behind and adapting ideas to your style, time, and calendar is most definitely encouraged.

Each day, you’ll receive an email with a PDF that walks you through a topic of the day. These topics are revised every so often and as it’s a very different year, there are indeed several new topics on the calendar. This should keep things relevant and refreshing even if you’ve been keeping a journal since those earliest years of the class. Class runs from the first of December to the 6th of January (the twelfth day of Christmas) though you are welcome to finish your journal on any day that feels like the close of Christmas to you.

There are also near-daily scrapbooking process videos, where you’ll see my album come together one entry at a time. (I don’t post videos on days like Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, so both you and I can focus on enjoying those days with a live first, scrapbook second mentality!) You’re welcome to follow along with any supplies and format you like, and if you want to use similar supplies to mine, I will publish a list of those tomorrow afternoon.

Once your registration is processed, you’ll also have access to the full class archive, which includes hundreds of examples from different participants’ journals, assorted printables and cut files, and all the previous prompt topics, should you wish to make an early start. Please note that registrations are not automatic, and I will email you within 48 hours (usually 24 or sooner) with your login details. If you don’t hear from me in that time, please check your spam folder and if nothing’s there, please email me at shimelle@gmail.com.

Just choose your currency and click the button below for your choice of UK pounds or US dollars. If neither of those is your currency, you can still join us! Choose either and the payment will convert automatically when you make your payment.

I donate £1 for every Journal your Christmas class purchase to The Girls’ Fund at Plan, a charity that helps millions of girls who otherwise wouldn’t have access to education or basic survival needs.

Share your Christmas

I know that over the years, many who joined the Journal your Christmas project have largely left behind their paper craft hobby, as well as friends who have laughed to me about wanting to join the project but having no plans to make a book or glue any paper to another paper. I know I have come to use my phone for memory keeping right alongside my camera, my pen, and my scrapbooks, and that’s where a brand new class, Share your Christmas, comes into play.

Share your Christmas is not a scrapbooking class and does not include videos about making paper pages. Instead, it is a 24 day journey through finding Christmas joy and documenting it through your phone. You can also use your ‘proper camera’ if you like, but it’s not a requirement. You don’t need a super fancy latest edition phone, but you will need a smart phone that can take photos and short videos.

Share your Christmas begins the first of December and includes daily prompts for 24 days: finishing on Christmas Eve. Just like Journal your Christmas, class includes permanent access so you don’t have to worry about things expiring or disappearing.

The Share your Christmas prompts will take you through five themes: guided photo styling, caption concepts, portrait practice, video challenges, and staying positive. Prompts will be delivered to you by email, and include a mix of PDF and video content. It’s up to you to decide if you would like to share your project with friends and family via social media, and we’ll cover the pros and cons of different options there as we get started. But if you have been looking for a way to bring meaning and positivity to your social media posts, this is definitely a road map for doing just that. If you follow along, you’ll have a range of photographs, videos, and captions that document what’s most important to you this holiday season.

I will donate at least £1 for every Share your Christmas purchase to my local Trussell Trust Food Bank to share Christmas joy with those finding it most difficult this December.

For both classes

You can pay by credit/debit card or Paypal account. If you would like your prompts to come to a different email address than the one on your Paypal account, please be sure to leave a note in the message to seller section with the email address you would like to use. (If you miss that, send me an email to let me know, with both email addresses.) If you’re a past participant and you have changed your email address or forgotten your login details, send me an email for that too. Thanks! If you’re a current pass holder, both classes will be available on your account from this week.

I’ve had to close commenting on blog posts because they just get hundreds of spam messages and I lose the real questions! But you can always email me, or come along to a Facebook Live (Mondays 1:30pm and Fridays 9:30am, UK time) to chat about anything that will help you!

Update: Pre-orders have no closed. A very limited number of stamps will go on sale shortly, which will be in a separate post here.*

I may not have a full paper release this autumn, but I do have autumn and Christmas Journal stamp sets ready to preorder now! Please be aware this is a preorder, which will be open for one week, and then the stamps will be manufactured and sent to you straight away. These stamps are high quality photopolymer, created here in the UK, and packed and posted by yours truly. Worldwide postage is included in the prices, which are listed in US Dollars (purely because there are more of you reading from the States than from any other country, but you can see what that will convert to in your currency at xe.com).

First up, the autumn set: Courage and Kindness. All the words are individual stamps so you can make several different text blocks by mixing and matching, or inking just ‘kind’ from ‘kindness’. The solid black stamps fit the outline shapes, so you can use different colours of ink to layer the designs.

Next up is the Christmas Journal set for 2020, which is two sheets of stamps as one purchase. Again, the words are made to mix and match for a variety of text block options!

Both sets of stamps will be delivered at the same time, please be aware that the autumn stamps will be arriving late in autumn. I decided I would rather go ahead and offer them, since we often scrapbook things after the fact! But please be aware they might not arrive in time to make Halloween cards, if you are a cardmaker!

Any questions, please email me. I’ve had to turn off comments on the blog because I get some rather not-family-friendly spam! Egad. So email me. Please. Happy to chat!

Thanks so much!

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Now I love making a scrapbook page more than the vast majority of the population, but making a layout that really feels like something new and exciting? Those are the moments that feel like ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED. Next level crafting that reminds me of the joy I find in memory keeping and in creating pages, from the photos to the stories to the pretty paper. I’ve always found it’s way too overwhelming to think about developing my crafting style by looking at all the elements at once. Instead, I go through seasons where I really focus on improving my photography, and times when I really write and draft to get the words just how I want them, and days when it’s all about where things can go on the canvas of a page, and times when I want to try every new embellishment technique I can find. So it makes perfect sense to me that the way we can level up is to take the time to look at each of those things closely. Just imagine the level of Achievement Unlocked it will feel when you put all those things together on your pages! I hope you’ll join me in class and level right on up!

Level Up starts Tuesday the 5th of March 2019, and includes four weeks of class materials in video and printable PDF formats. We will focus on one specific topic each week and you’ll identify your strengths, joys, and challenges at the beginning of the week and follow steps to improve your skills and make it all easier: levelling up! Those four topics are photography, page composition, writing, and embellishment.

Photography: join in with your phone, point and shoot, or SLR camera. We’ll be looking at portraits, still life, and scenery, and you’re welcome to try all three or choose one to really bring it into focus. If you will be shooting on a DSLR camera, I would suggest reading through the Camera School section of the blog first, so we can go beyond those points in class.

Page Composition: how many photos and where can they go on the page? We will look at both single and double page layouts (and a tiny look at pockets alongside full pages) and where things can go on those 12×12 pages. I really do believe there is a page design for every occasion, so we will look for that right occasion for everything from a single photo layout to more than a dozen photos from a single day.

Writing: after I’ve done the pretty stuff, I’m supposed to journal too? You might already love to journal or you might currently be aiming to just get a name and date on the page. Either way, you can level up. We’ll explore different ways to find your own voice and make the writing feel just right.

Embellishment: then the pretty stuff to close! We’ll try different techniques with different supplies you have on hand – and there will be things to try if your stash is limited and things if it’s really, really not. I even went out and learned some new techniques I had never tried for this topic, so I am excited to see you put your own spin on those.

There will also be a few live Q&A video sessions to discuss the class materials. All the other class videos are edited, instructional videos. (Just thought I’d clarify if you’re new to class and have been hanging out in my much more casual environment of Facebook Life scrapping! I don’t talk about random rubbish in class videos. Also, is it to the point where I need to start using a trademark symbol after the words ‘random rubbish’? Answers on a postcard please.)

If you have a annual pass from 2018, this class is included and will appear on your class list when the forum opens. No need to do anything else.

If you don’t have an annual pass, you can sign up for just this course in your choice of currencies: $30 US dollars or £23 UK pounds. If neither of those is your currency, you can choose the one that is best for you.

$30 – US Dollars

£23 – UK Pounds

(You will be taken to PayPal’s secure website, where you may pay by credit/debit card or a PayPal balance.)

Once you sign up, you will receive a PayPal receipt email confirming your completed payment. The forums will open next week, and when that happens you will also receive an email from me welcoming you to class. Any questions, just email me.

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Join me for a day of creativity at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California!
Tuesday 22nd January 2019

Disneyland absolutely fuels my creative fire, and I would love to share that with you! After a few light-hearted discussions on Facebook, I’ve made a schedule and worked it out to really happen! I’ll be ready with pens and songs and the biggest smile I can find!

We’ll start the day bright and early with a special breakfast together, then hit the Disneyland park with a creativity-driven itinerary. Bring your camera of choice, be it your phone, Polaroid, compact camera, DSLR, or something with film. We’ll be spending a big part of the day gaining confidence both behind and in front of the camera, in my very favourite place to take pictures! That includes daytime photos, golden hour portraits, and some other special subjects. It’s too early to know if there will be a night parade or firework celebration that day, but if there is, we will make the most of it! We’ll also have a very relaxed group photo shoot with a local photographer. After the day, we’ll share all the photos from each of us, so you’ll have plenty of scrapbook gold to remember the day.

We can’t have a traditional scrapbooking workshop inside Disneyland park, because scissors and security don’t mix, for starters. But a special kit of scrapbooking supplies is included for you to take home, and you’ll be able to share what you make with the others from the group in our online chat just for everyone attending.

I’m also so inspired by Disney history that I’ve arranged a little trivia walk, so I can share some of the little secrets of the park that make me absolutely giddy. (We might have to start with the Monsanto House of the Future, and how it’s still secretly there in the present because it just won’t leave.)

Lunch, dinner, and snack breaks are scheduled in, but you are welcome to eat with the full group or take a break to head out on your own. Breakfast is included in the price. If you have dietary restrictions, please don’t fret, as Disney cater so well for food needs. (We test this regularly, since my son and I both have food allergies and they aren’t even the same foods!) Just let me know so I can make any needed notes to our reservations.

If an open to close day at Disneyland is just far too long for you, I encourage you to join us from the start of the day and head home when you feel it’s best. That will be much easier than trying to join us midway through the day.

There are just twenty spaces available, in order to keep the group to a size that will let us all make new friends but not be overwhelmed or feel lost in the crowd. If there is more interest, I will open a waiting list in case anyone has to change their plans.

A Day of Creativity is $185, with $100 due on registration and the remaining $85 due any time before the 31st of December 2018. It includes a special table service breakfast, exclusive scrapbooking kit, and all the photographs from the day. It does not include park admission, additional food and drinks, or any hotel you might need. If you are not an annual pass holder and would like assistance booking your tickets, I’m happy to help with that.

Just to clarify, this is at Disneyland in Anaheim, California! If this event goes well and there is interest in something similar at Walt Disney World or Disneyland Paris, we’ll see what we can arrange in the future.

Thanks ever so much for your interest and I look forward to seeing some of you soon!

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I love the story involved in scrapbooking – as you may have noticed – but it’s not just a single page story that truly has my heart. It’s that ‘book’ element of ‘scrapbook’: telling a detailed story, page by page, all contained in an album. That is what brings me my biggest scrapbooking joy! And yet I create just one page at a time, and you might see one of those layouts on Facebook Live and another on YouTube and a few more in a class demonstrating a composition technique and a few more posted on Instagram. So how do they all come together to create that book I love? With a bit of planning behind the scenes.

My next class will show you this specific process in real time: I start with all the photos from Summer 2018, and I go through what has always been a more ‘behind the scenes’ process for me. That includes choosing which photos, how many pages each event will get, editing the photos, ordering the prints, gathering the supplies for each page, and working out how they will flow in a chronological album. I’ve offered two classes before that focus on my album process (Cover to Cover and Most Magical Scrapbook), but I’ve never covered my current photo editing process, how I cover my dining table in supplies for a day just to see what works together, or how much drafting I do for journaling. You’ll find all that and more in this Behind the Scenes workshop.

Here’s the real twist though: six of the class videos will be presented live, so you can watch and participate if you would like. You can also watch a recorded replay if you can’t make the live times and you’ll be able to post in advance with any questions you know you want to ask if you will be waiting until the replay. While I will be answering questions throughout the live videos, this won’t be the off-topic discussion we often have on Facebook Live – each of the live videos has a specific topic to cover and we’ll discuss it in depth.

After watching the Behind the Scenes class videos, you’ll have a whole new understanding of what I’m working on when I create pages for any other format – you’ll see those exact planned pages come to fruition on Facebook Live, in YouTube videos, and other pages posted here. Though not to worry – you’ll see several pages made in the class videos themselves, so you’re getting a mix of the planning and the page creation through the class as a whole.

The six live scrapping videos will take place at three different times of day to accommodate the most time zones. (It works out to two that will be morning in my time zone, two in the afternoon, and two in the evening.) The live videos are planned for Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday: 30th and 31st of October, 1st, 6th, 7th, and 8th of November. There are also two prerecorded videos included in the class. (If you’re new to my videos, these class lessons are extended video sessions and not a 10 minute presentation.)

$25 US Dollars

£20 UK Pounds

Class begins on the 30th of October, so you can sign up any time before then to get the best potential for interaction, including discussions during the live scrapbooking videos. Class registrations are not instant and are processed by hand. If your PayPal email address doesn’t match the email you’d like to use for class or more than two days goes by without receiving access to the class, please drop me an email.

If you are a 2018 annual pass scrapbooker, this class will automatically be added to your account once the forum opens.

I hope to see you soon, so we can go behind the scenes and put a plan in action for scrapping whatever might be on your to-scrap list!

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