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

It has been such a delight and an inspiration to see the pages posted from our weekend of challenges! These have now closed, and 353 layouts were posted. Hurrah for all that crafting and creating and memory keeping. If you posted your work, you’ll receive an email over the next week with a little something I hope will help you with further pages too. If you want to mark your calendar for the next time, then that’s easy – the 7th of May for (Inter)National Scrapbook Day! (And again there will be two days of challenges and they will remain open until the end of the following weekend.)

Anyway! It’s Monday so there is a new challenge here right now and you don’t need to wait for weekends or crafty holidays! You just need letters. You have letters, right? You need letters!

This week, I challenge you to scrapbook with lots of letters. Use letter stickers, stamps, or pens; spell actual words or just use all your leftovers as a design element. Everything else is completely up to you, so you can take your inspiration in any direction you like! A few years ago, the page above was a letter-sticker-dominant design I liked so much I used it twice, and it might actually be one I return to for this week’s challenge, now that I think about it! To get you started with all these letters, take a look at these examples from contributing designer Meghann Andrew and guest artist Tracy McLennon.

Ireland is such a lovely place in which to travel- its beauty is astounding and people are so welcoming. I had originally planned on sharing a layout about my first trip to Ireland, when I was 17, however, I greatly overestimated the quality of photos back in 2000. To spare you having to view blurry pictures, I’m sharing a layout about my most recent visit to Ireland, for a weekend trip to Dublin with my best friend.

Since this week’s challenge is to use a lot of letters, I’m here to show you how you can get the same effect without breaking into your most-cherished packs of Thickers, using a die-cutting machine. I chose words from our trip- the things that stood out to me the most, including places we toured, restaurants we ate at and even the weather. After I printed my photos, and arranged them neatly in a grid on the left side of my layout, I began typing and placing all of my words in Silhouette Studio, keeping them in the same sans-serif font family, and leaving spaces to add Thickers from the True Stories collection for extra dimension, my journaling and my title.

Each individual line was then backed with patterned paper from Starshine, True Stories, and the Shimelle collections to add a lot of color to my mainly-neutral photos. I love how easy it is to mix and match the three collections on my projects! Using such bold colors and patterns on the right side allowed me to keep my embellishment fairly simple, and just a few elements finished off my page.
- Meghann

It’s not often that I have great photos to scrapbook for St Patrick’s Day, but last year was the exception for sure. I got some beautiful photos of some equally beautiful people…my in-laws. With their Irish blood, they love to celebrate St Patrick’s Day and last year we just happened to be with them to celebrate and capture how sweet they are.

I used a hodge podge of different letters to create my title and I just think it suits the photo and their love for each other perfectly! I love mixing lots of pattern, texture and colour, this layout and it’s super fun nature let me do that with a rainbow of colours.
- Tracy

You have a week to complete the challenge and share a link – but of course you’re welcome to set your own time schedule. Whatever keeps you happy and creative!

Today’s Guest Artist: Tracy McLennon loves papercrafting, vanilla milkshakes, and musicals. You can find more from Tracy on Instagram, Twitter, and her blog.

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I’m not sure if ten challenges is enough for you, so why don’t we go ahead and have our regularly scheduled weekly scrapbooking challenge too! (Don’t worry, there is still time to enter the challenges from the past weekend – they don’t close until the end of this coming weekend, and there might be some little tokens of appreciation coming your way if you share your work!) Challenge weekends always make me think about what has changed in the time I’ve been scrapping, and this week we’re looking at something that has definitely changed behind the photos. When I started scrapping, we were all shooting film, usually in quite big and clunky cameras, and part of our scrapbooking process was that wait to develop the film and the surprise when you picked up a pack of prints to see what you had snapped! Now we wait less than a second to see what we’ve shot, and we don’t even need to carry a separate camera if we don’t want to. This week, we’re taking a look at all the things we now do with photos taken on our phones!

And now, on to the challenge! This week, make a little progress with a never-ending stack of photos. I challenge you this week to simply scrap three photos on one page. Everything else is completely up to you, so you can take your inspiration in any direction you like! A few years ago, I posted a sketch and video for the layout above, and it’s still a design I find practical on my pages. To get you started on this week’s challenge, take a look at these examples from contributing designer May Flaum and guest artist Lisa Hausman.

Memory keeping has changed a lot with smart phones. Having a camera everywhere from school drop off to grocery store runs means that I almost always have a way to capture a moment. The best part? The quality of those cameras keeps getting better and now I print out my regular camera photos alongside my iPhone camera photos and often use them together in layouts as I have here today. Which brings me to my favorite number when creating a single page scrapbook layout: three. It’s so easy to work with three pictures on a single page design, and it lets me get a few more shots onto a page while still having plenty of room for embellishing fun.

On this layout I have three very random pictures that capture my daughter as she is right now as she turns 11. I love documenting what my kids are into right now every year or two. Looking back it has changed so much, and yet there are things that remain. Those differences and similarities are favorites, and these kinds of pages are family favorites. A favorite tip of mine when working with three 4×6 photos is to use thin strips of patterned paper at the top and bottom (or sides, depending on photo orientation) of your pictures. Use scraps, or patterned paper like this that is designed in thin strips!
- May

I have to admit that most of the photos I take these days are with my phone, so it was no problem to find three that I wanted to use and as soon as I saw the Shimelle Starshine collection with this amazing constellation paper, I knew that these three photos from Amsterdam would be perfect. Printing the photos at 3×4 ensured that I could fit three onto a single page and still leave myself plenty of room to showcase the pretty products on my page. This smaller size also helps when the photos are not great quality, which can often be the case with phone photos taken inside – or using the front camera.

I added in some new Simple Stories paper from the Heart collection to really bring out the colours in the globe that Atlas is carrying, and some gold elements along with veneer stars and a couple of items from the Starshine seemed the perfect additions to support my star theme and the fact that I’m recording something I love. In this way, the story is less about the event of visiting the Royal Palace and more about me, telling another little snippet of my story.
- Lisa

You have a week to complete the challenge and share a link – but of course you’re welcome to set your own time schedule. Whatever keeps you happy and creative!

I’ll see you tomorrow to share how I took on this challenge!

Today’s Guest Artist: Lisa Hausmann loves all things gold, messy clusters, and stars – obviously! You can find more from Lisa on Instagram, Pinterest, and her blog.

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Just so you know this definitely happens here, the layout I was working on to share with you at 4pm has gone horribly wrong. I’ve reached that point where I need to look at something else rather than stare continually at something that just isn’t working for me. So I’ve made a little change to this final challenge. I want you to challenge me.

I’m going to scrapbook the photo above. It was taken Friday, so the story is all very clear in my mind and I will happily share that with you when I finish the page. But I will take all my design suggestions from the comments on this post. Feel free to give me your choices of things like photo size, techniques, colours, specific supplies, motifs – whatever you would like to see me try. I’ll wait just a bit to get started, and I’ll share the page as soon as it’s complete!

As for how you can then take part in the challenge – you need to choose one of the other comments left and use those suggestions for your challenge. You can read them all and pick or you can just close your eyes and point and see what you get in a lucky dip! It’s the Choose-Your-Own-Challenge!

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Hands up if you still have some of the original American Crafts Shimelle collection in your stash! I’ve asked three inspiring crafters to share their ideas for putting those supplies to use. They’ve made me want to go back to those patterns and embellishments, so I hope they get you crafting too! Please welcome Stephanie Baxter, Steffi Ried, and Jana McCarthy!

Stephanie says: There are a couple of birthdays on my calendar that always fall when I’m busiest and can catch me unawares if I haven’t prepared for them in advance of all the hustle and bustle! I decided to make a birthday gift box ahead of time so that I can just pop the gift in and have it ready to go in no time at all. I’ve been loving looking on Pinterest at all the gift-wrapping inspiration lately, feeling super inspired by all the lovely paper, doilies, and die-cuts that I’ve seen layered on top of gift boxes. I used an empty box that my Studio Calico Project Life kit comes in as the foundation and built up layers using various beautiful pieces from Shimelle’s first collection, adding in a couple of doilies and other bits and bobs to finish it off. I didn’t glue anything down but kept it all together with a wooden peg instead, so that the recipient can reuse each piece if they want to. It’s the gift that keeps on giving!

Stephanie’s first scrapbook page was about her high school prom and made in maroon in 2005. See more of her work at her blog.

Steffi says: And here comes my layout. The name of the layout is “Good Morning”. I used a snapshot from my little girl in the morning with her hot chocolate in the kitchen to capture a sweet moment in our everyday life. The embellishments and colours from this beautiful collection fits perfectly with my photos and the theme. They made it so much fun to scrap!

Steffi lives in the south part of Germany. You can see more of her work on her “blog”: (www.steffiried.blogspot.de) or on Instagram.

Jana says: I really love the greens and blues in this collection, perfect to scrap photos from my boys! This photo was taken on a lovely walk into a little forest. We had a great trip and so much fun, but we needed to take some breaks and just enjoy the moment! That’s what I hoped to capture on my page.

Jana’s first scrapbook page was about her youngest son and made in kraft with a touch of blue in 2013. See more of her work at her blog.

Now it’s your turn – and hopefully you could see this coming! It’s time to craft with that first Shimelle collection. If you don’t have any on hand, please don’t worry and just enjoy any of the other challenges! But if you do, it’s time to move something from your stash to your albums! And we’d absolutely love to see what you make. You’ll inspire someone else to get using that stash!

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Welcome back! Ready for another challenge? This time we’re going on a colourful adventure. I asked Jo Boland to choose a colour story and she came up with a combination perfect for hitting the road near or far. We wonder what adventure of yours springs to mind when you see these colours.

When I think of travel layouts I think of the colours red, light blue, and cream, I think it’s because of the colours associated with airmail labels. I love this colour combination so for me using it on a layout makes me happy.

I used the Hubble paper for the cream and Rosetta paper for the blue, both from the Starshine collection and pulled an old red polka dot paper from my stash, layered these on the page and stitched them into place.

Next I built up my layout with the photo, journaling and title, then added clusters of embellishments around the page pulling in pops of colours from the photo. I made cork embellishments with the Starshine stamp set, VersaMark ink and AC Zing embossing powder, which I cut / punched out and adhered to the clusters. I love the texture the cork brings to the layout and I’m really happy to have another story documented.
-Jo

One of my favourite layouts from my own albums uses this colour scheme too, and works with plenty of patterned paper scraps. Designs that let me use papers I’ve already used elsewhere without looking repetitive in my albums always make me feel better about my shopping habits!

When I created this page, I only had a Big Shot in terms of manual die cutting, and this post shares how I used the WeR letterpress plates with that. I’ve since used the WeR Evolution with the letterpress platform and it does work very well! I should do a video comparing the two machines perhaps. Until then, Amy has a video sharing the WeR letterpress process if it’s something you’d like to see.

Now it’s your turn, of course! What adventure (big or small!) suits this colour scheme for you? Create a new scrapbook page using these colours in any style and share it with us!

Today’s Guest Artist: Jo Boland loves making stuff, vintage style, and drinking coffee. You can find more from Jo on Instagram, Pinterest, and her blog.

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Please welcome special guest Ashli Oliver, with a scrapbooking style I positively admire! Ashli always makes me think she must be having the most fun when she crafts. I hope you agree!

I am never one to turn down a creative way to use a circle, and this post by Melissa Mann had me itching to try something similar!

I just love how a simple circle can be turned into such a fun feature on a page with just a few little touches.

In order to leave ample room for journaling, I chose to keep my circles confined to just my area of embellishment, as opposed to the entire background Melissa did on her gorgeous page. Using a stand-by favorite of stamping on kraft, I pulled out some often forgotten stamps and had the best time playing! Please have a look…

When I came across this old photo, I just knew I wanted to tell a story. And, this trip down memory lane was so much fun, thanks to this awesome inspiration!

So, the next time you aren’t sure where to start with your layout… grab some punches and have some fun with circles, or whatever your chosen shape may be!

Your turn now! We challenge you to create a new scrapbook page with circles as your inspiration. How you use the circles is completely up to you, but circles it is. We’d love to see what you make, so please share with us!

Today’s guest artist: Ashli Oliver loves scrapbooking, gardening, and knitting. You can find more from Ashli on Instagram, YouTube, and her blog.

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Time for a project from one of our contributing designers! Sheena Rowlands is here with a new layout and an interesting source of inspiration for your next challenge.

When I hear the word portraits, I immediately think of art galleries and museums and remember numerous visits over the years to see painted portraits of the famous and not so famous. I was also reminded of some photos shared by a friend (scrapbooker and fellow Hey Little Magpie designer) Niki Rowland, showcasing a wall she had decorated in her new kitchen where she had created her own personal gallery wall of her family.

The mix of shapes and frames on her wall had me thinking this would be perfect as a starting point for my page. I sketched up a few ideas using frames as a background and once I was happy I got started.

First I gathered supplies to use with my photo. It’s an informal family portrait we had taken a few years ago now, but I’ve not scrapped it before. I printed it at a standard 4×6 so it could take centre stage but also leave plenty of space for the framing work.

I tend to find that I’m colour led when choosing stash to use and this time was no exception as I pulled out supplies of blue, teal, yellow, and navy from the Starshine collection plus some embellishments and threads to go with them.

I am lucky enough to be able to die cut a selection of frames from white cardstock, but handcut frames or purchased frames would work equally as well when making this background.

To add interest and texture to some of the frames, I backstitched around a few using some of the large supply I have of embroidery threads from my cross-stitch days and also embossed a couple using a woodgrain folder and my trusty Sizzix machine.

The best part of layout making for me is the fiddling about. I like adding layers and embellishments, then moving them around till I find the perfect spot for them. Sometimes I take some quick snaps on my phone as I do this so I can see how the page looks and the ideas that I’ve tried. As you can guess, I’m not a quick scrapper but that doesn’t bother me, it’s the process that I love!

I used vellum, patterned papers, die cuts, and chipboard to back the frames, which were added using foam pads for dimension. When I was happy with the placement of the frames I adhered them down before adding my photo with more foam pads.

When I look back to Niki’s gallery wall I can see how it influenced the flow of my design, the colour scheme used, and I’ve even included our initial like she did, to create my own little family work of art.

Now it’s your turn! Create a scrapbook page inspired by a wall of frames (Niki’s or another wall you admire!) and share it with us. What you scrap and what colours and techniques you use are totally up to you, and we can’t wait to see your framing work in action.

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If you haven’t caught up with Glitter Girl recently, her latest adventure is a big one – oversized photos! She’s been helping me with this ongoing addition to that first year baby book: one 12×12 page each month with a photo printed at A4 size. I love how this changes the pace of all the tiny pockets in that book and lets me include those favourite portraits to chart his growth over the first year.

The photos were all taken with the same set up and the first six months went really well! I have the first six framed on the wall because they look so lovely together (in my opinion, anyway!) because he would happily lay on the duvet and look at the camera without much moving. There’s no fancy photo backdrop or anything – the walls in the room are white and there’s a white duvet on the bed and a big window to open the curtains for good light! I actually tried a bunch of different cute settings the day he turned one month, including props and my beloved rocking chair and all sorts of things that would give scale to him growing, but they were so much work to set up that I realised I would never have the stamina to reset the props and get it just right every month for an entire year! Making the bed was a lot easier. All the white makes it less about stuff and more about him anyway, which is why I love the pictures. But from month seven, things got very complicated as he wouldn’t sit still for a second! The second half of the year is hit and miss in terms of photographic brilliance, but the whole set makes me happy and this one is a definite favourite.

I love how big, gorgeous photos almost make the page themselves, but the space remaining still gives you plenty of potential. I’ve put together a special Pinterest board just for scrapbook pages with big photos, so do give it a look if you’d like to find something that works with your picture and style.

Then I asked special guest Karen Moss to join us with a big photo of her own! Please give Karen a warm welcome.

My daughter had her hair dyed auburn as a post exam treat and I loved how different it made her look. The only photos I had were the ones I ‘swiped’ from her Facebook page and particularly loved this one. The majority of my pages have a single photo and although this photo was not very good quality it was worthy of being printed at 8×10 to showcase her new ‘red hot’ look.

I am a big fan of detail cutting and foam pads, and the grey floral paper from True Stories I chose was ideal for this. I used two sheets as I wanted to use the polka dot b-side for part of my base and cut out the flowers from the a-side for my embellishments.
-Karen

Now it’s your turn! Choose a photo you love and scrap it in a big way. Anything else is totally up to you.

Today’s Guest Artist: Karen Moss loves family, foam dots (by the million), and new experiences. You can find more from Karen on Instagram, Facebook, and her blog.

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