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

It is only in the last month that I’ve realised just how few specifically birthday themed crafting products I’ve collected over the years. In fact, I’m pretty sure I have about six times as many products about ice skating – something we do roughly once every three years – than I do about birthdays, which everyone I know does every single year. I may need to do some work on my impulse shopping, it would seem.

With a flurry of first birthday cards to make, not only did I need birthday things, I needed cute birthday things that would work for tiny toddlers! I knew there was a reason I’d been holding on to this lovely Lawn Fawn stamp set with smiling cakes!

I have some cards with this stamp set to share with you as well, but for now, a scrapbook page with a video and some very, very loose colouring of the stamped images!

You can find this Lawn Fawn stamp set at scrapbook.com. Other supplies for this scrapbook page include papers from the Pink Paislee Solstice collection and some older Jillibean Soup papers, plus October Afternoon Tin Pins flair badges and Fiskars punches.

So yes, cards and such to share tomorrow and another scrapbooking video here this Thursday! I might be edging closer to getting my act together or something. Wait. I just looked at my to-do list. I am nowhere near ‘act together’ status at all. But I’m going to continue to move in that general direction – that’s the plan!

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It is suddenly and beautifully spring here, complete with days where one can go outside for an extended amount of time without an actual coat! Take that, Winter! There are pink trees and baby ducks and ample opportunities for vitamin D. It’s exciting stuff. So I’m scrapbooking autumn pictures of people bundled in coats and hats and blankets. Of course.

Maybe all this spring outside my window is what made the green leaves feel completely appropriate with the autumnal theme. I can even make a leap to think I might have been inspired to use the black and white background paper with the brightly coloured photos and embellishments by the leap from the grey of winter to the colours of spring. Possibly. I’m not sure at what level of my consciousness that thought was present while making this page, but it seems completely plausible. And you can hear whatever else stumbled across my consciousness as I made this layout in the latest As It Happens video – it’s about sixteen minutes this time.

This page is the third I’ve made from the combination of the Walden scrapbook kit and the Underground Project Life kit, both from Studio Calico. I don’t have a monthly kit subscription as I like a bit more freedom in my supplies (and I enjoy shopping piece by piece when I can!) but I also like to change things up and work within the confines of a kit now and then. I tend to be most inspired to work with kits when there is a sale or a special offer. Funny how that works!

I could try to impress you by pointing out that I have technically scrapbooked a non-baby photograph here! Look! That photo on the right is just trees! But apparently it doesn’t count when I stick the tree photo next to a baby photo. Well, I’m calling the tree progress. Just the right amount of progress. I think I’ll scrap a non-baby layout soon, but probably not the next page. Or the one after that. But soon.

Have a happy weekend filled with crafting or baby ducks or something just as exciting.

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This week, it has made me giddy to see what the talented design team at American Crafts created with the True Stories collection. You can find a whole week of scrapbook pages, cards, and home decor ideas with all that saturated colour and pattern on the AC Studio blog.

There’s also a little bit of the surreal for me in that week of posts, as we filmed quite a few videos with the new collection in January just after CHA, and it’s time to share them now! I usually share videos with you a few days after they are filmed, so it feels a little different, but it was lovely to film with the whole crew in the AC studio. There was even someone to remind me not to make stupid faces while cutting and sticking. I know, that probably would have been your favourite part. Let’s just say sometimes the concentration face is right to be hidden away with just my hands on show! My hands never stick out their tongue to concentrate.

True Stories products are just starting to ship – there are a few that have made an early appearance at Hey Little Magpie here in the UK. I’ve been keeping an eye on the US retailers but haven’t seen it show up just yet. Very soon – and I will shout when it does! And I’ll have plenty more ideas and videos to share with you as it hits stores and kit clubs.

And because I truly believe in the power of hot beverages and baked goods, please feel free to save this printable! Click here to download as a full size PDF.

Wishing you a fabulous weekend with any problems cured by tea or the remainder of the Easter chocolate. Happy scrapping!

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If it’s working, carry on with it, right? And so goes the idea of just turning on the camera to capture a scrapbook page as it happens, the supply set of Studio Calico’s Walden scrapbooking kit and Underground Project Life kit, and the idea of scrapping Disney in colours other than red, yellow, black, and white.

I said last time that I made one terrible error in taking Wonder Boy to Disneyland. It was not remembering that the Peter Pan ride is entirely in the dark. It was the first thing we took him on and it scared him to bits. Apologies to the lovely, well behaved young ladies in the next ship who wondered why someone was screaming as if it were a death-defying roller coaster! But he soon recovered in the sunshine and that was really our only meltdown of the day. (Truth be told he wasn’t hugely keen on Dumbo. But he loved-loved-loved the Toy Story laser tag thing. A story for another page.)

Thankfully the queues weren’t all that bad since January is the off-season, but in truth, the queue was pretty fun with the combination of baby and friends! Plenty of conversation and plenty of giggles, and of course plenty of him flirting with strangers. We took quite a few of our photos while we were waiting for rides, and that difference of what sometimes seems like drudgery was something I really wanted to record somewhere in these pages. This seemed as fine a time as any!

So many thanks for the amazing response to Monday’s flash sale on classes. All registrations have been processed now, so you should have a welcome email and the ability to see your classes at our forum. There are a few orders here and there that didn’t specify a class or the email came up as invalid and I’m trying to track all of those down. If that’s you or you don’t think you’ve received what you should have, please don’t hesitate to get in touch. If you missed the sale, I’m sorry to hear that, but I hope you’re happy to hear there are new classes on the horizon. All existing classes are always open for registration, always include permanent access, and I always endeavour to make sure you’re getting good value for the purchase price, not just on sale days. Thanks again for your support!

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I know it’s early days, but so far I’m making good on my quest to get using those supplies I ordered when I wasn’t really stepping anywhere near my scissors and glue. It means I have a page that is out of season for this hemisphere, but I’ve never really been one for having to scrap in line with the calendar anyway, so why not a bit of crunchy leaves and knitted hoodies?

In pretty much every video I’ve ever shared, I’ve had a specific goal from the beginning, like a technique, design concept, or some sort of problem and solution that guided the process. I decided to throw all that out the window and see what would happen if I just made the page and narrated it as I went, and kept the editing pretty minimal. The answer is about thirty-two minutes long. Sigh. That will not be everyone’s cup of tea. I’m warning you now, so if half hour videos of a single scrapbook page are just not your style, please don’t watch and then invoice me for those thirty-two minutes of your life. I can’t give them back, I can only warn you in advance.

On the other hand, if you want to see what random thoughts come to mind as I scrapbook in pretty much real time, then the ‘As it Happens’ concept is for you. You just may want several cups of tea ready to go before you press play.

The supplies for this page came from two Studio Calico kits I purchased a few months back: the Walden scrapbook kit and the Underground Project Life kit.

May your autumn bring you plenty of pretty, crunchy leaves… whether that is now or in six months!

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For so long, I’ve had the mantra that I must use at least as much as I buy – preferably more – in terms of scrapbooking supplies. But somehow I forgot my mantra entirely while taking that break More than once or twice, I convinced myself if I placed an order for new supplies, I’d find a way to scrapbook.

It may have taken me a few hours to open those parcels and find my desk recently. It’s shameful. My immediate plan is to get out of this surplus situation with a new stack of layouts into albums, a file of cards ready for all occasions, and perhaps even catching up on Wonder Boy’s Project Life baby book. And so Cut, Stick, Stamp is born: one of the new series I’ll be sharing here with projects and videos. It’s a pretty simple concept – multiple ideas for one stamp. I’m starting with a Studio Calico stamp I couldn’t ignore: this Alice in Wonderland Tea Party set by Emily McDowell.

Starting with just the text and teacup outline, I tried a simple photo embellishment shaded with markers. This teacup was coloured with Copic numbers G82, G24, and G99. Simple, quick, and easy to add just a bit of journaling to the empty space of a 4×6 photo to pop it into a divided page protector. But I think this stamp gets a bit better…

The set also includes a large solid image to create a shadow effect that colours the cup with ink. Sets that include a solid shadow and a coordinating line drawing are always my favourites! This 3×4 card is cut from watercolour paper, with the cup and text outline stamped first (using waterproof black ink) then the shading stamp added with two shades of pink Distress Inks. For this card, I added a bit of the same watercolour shades to the top edge and some of the small flower stamps in this set, plus a label and some stitching, but the video below shows the same stamping technique step by step for use on a 12×12 page.

Same idea, but quicker and less fuss: stamping the block image with a paler ink rather than adding any water to things. Just an even colour rather than the more delicate shading with the Distress Inks and water. Other supplies on this card include Cosmo Cricket patterned papers, Dear Lizzy washi tape, adhesive pearls, and a Crate Paper label sticker.

My first video in a long while – I think it will take me a few to find my pace again! So you may need a hot beverage to make it through the twenty-two minutes or so, but it does include the Distress Ink watercolour technique in detail (and it’s easy, I promise). I realised after filming that my narration assumes you make the leap with me that things that are vaguely Alice in Wonderland themed should include some things that are upside down. I’m not sure if that is something that makes sense to the world or only the scrapbooker inside my head. Moving right along then…

And yes, that is an Alice in Wonderland themed tea party put on entirely for babies. It was mind boggling, and included a tiny drink me vial that changed flavours mid-sip. And Wonder Boy spent most of the party trying to drink my rhubarb and custard flavoured tea. Anyway: back to the crafting.

One last card with the same sort of idea, but much bolder in colour and the addition of embossing powder in place of black ink. This was still Distress Ink, just two shades of blue, and the steps are still in the same order – I stamped the outline and text in Versamark then embossed with white powder before adding the blue. The stamp at the top is an older Studio Calico design from a kit with different sentiments, and most of the papers here are from the Pink Paislee Solstice collection.

My aim is to try this with a different stamp set most weeks, so if there is a particular stamp set or technique you want me to try, do let me know! Likewise, if you’ve shared anything with this stamp set or similar techniques and different stamps, I’d love to see. I am definitely in that soak-up-the-inspiration phase of diving back into something you love, so links and tags are even more welcome than usual! Share away, and have a lovely day!

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Today I’m delighted to introduce a new online scrapbooking workshop: Inspired By.

I’ve worked with some of my favourite scrapbookers to break down how we translate different sources of inspiration into unique scrapbook pages, and we’re sharing that process with you through ten videos and an accompanying PDF for reference. This workshop is self-paced, so you can view all the videos now or any time!

Across the ten videos, we take inspiration from the photos we will scrapbook, a patterned paper collection, geometric graphics, party decor, mixed media art, watercolours, commercial illustration, interior design, text art, and an existing scrapbook page. Then we walk through our individual scrapping process from taking that inspiration and turning it into something we love for our albums. It’s inspiration without sacrificing personal style, and we’d love for you to join in the fun.

I’m thrilled that Nancy Damiano, Paige Evans, Stephanie Bryan, Marcy Penner, Jen Kinkade, Wilna Furstenberg, Laura Craigie, and Jill Sprott were able to join with me and each share a brand new video. That makes eight videos, and there are two from me to add up to ten. And if you like getting a bit computery with your crafting, there are also some gorgeous bonus downloads: printables and cut files designed by Wilna and Jen.

Your registration includes the ten videos, accompanying reference PDF, bonus printable and cut file downloads, and a private message board to discuss things with the contributors, chat with other participants, and share your own work. I have always offered permanent access to class materials and that is included here as well. I know it’s a tangent from this actual workshop but in light of recent things in our industry, I want to address what I mean by permanent access to materials. I have been teaching online for more than ten years and all the materials from even that very first class are still available to those participants. Yes, passwords may be forgotten or email addresses may change, but I can help with those instances and though it may occasionally take a bit of time to track things down from all those years ago, we can and do get that remedied for past class participants. (One big change last year was automating the password reset on our class forum, so if you forget your login name or password, you can get that in moments and don’t have to wait for me to read your email.) Yes, I changed formats many years ago from a set up that was more like an email group where we all chatted back and forth to using message board as a classroom set up, but all the previous materials have continued to be maintained. If I were to upgrade again in the future, that would be my plan. And in addition I have what I call my ‘hit by a bus policy’, which is a dreadfully terrible name for how I have tried to do all in my power to make sure that if something horrible happened and I went out of business or disappeared from the face of the earth next week, all my customers would continue to have access to everything for many more years than they would probably want to reference those materials. I can’t guarantee that policy will work in every way because I am most definitely not volunteering to be hit by a bus just to test it out. But this is something I have meant since the very first day I said I was offering permanent access. It makes sense for me and I’m happy to offer it, and I’m sorry for the tangent, but the notion of losing trust due to decisions made by other companies is one that plays on my mind.

Also related: yes, students from my Two Peas workshops will soon be able to access them via my own site. You will be sent an email when that is ready and I will also post here (so if your email has changed since your Two Peas days, we will be able to sort that out for you). I know it’s taking a long time and all I can say is that everything is taking me a long time right now, and Wonder Boy is worth it for me. But I can see the end of that project in sight and I’m so happy to be able to extend those workshops under my own little umbrella.

Right: back to Inspired By! It’s £10 British Pounds or $15 US Dollars. If neither of those is your currency, that’s okay – you can choose either and it will automatically convert. Check XE for exchange rates to get an idea of the price in numbers that make sense for you!

If you’re ready, click to sign up!

After you sign up, you’ll be given access to the materials, generally within 24 hours. (I try not to work on Sundays but also try to make sure process registrations last thing on Saturday night and first thing on Monday morning!) If you have made your payment and do not receive a welcome email within that time frame, please double check your message hasn’t gone to your spam folder, then email me to let me know. If you are paying from a different email address than you would like to use for the workshop access (including giving the class as a gift), leave a note in the comments of your purchase – or send me an email if you miss that step. Any questions, please do not hesitate to email me and I will get you an answer as soon as possible.

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Oh, hi. Originally that die-cut said ‘hello’. I had to explain that I pretty much never say hello. I say ‘oh, hi’, and if extra excited, ‘oh haiiiiii’, but that wouldn’t translate to so well to a die-cut. And thus, dry embossed hearts on pink squares that say ‘oh, hi’ and make me very happy.

I also have finally been able to finish the editing on a new scrapbooking video, and that makes me happy too.

_{Reading somewhere that doesn’t show the video? Click through to watch!}

Although I’ve really enjoyed scrapping with just my own products, my true style for many years has been to mix and match brands and collections to get a look I love, so throwing this all together was a whole new kind of scrapping adventure.

Supplies for this page include text background paper, heart patterned paper, map patterned paper, die cut pack, colour rub-ons, gold rub-ons, elephant card, cloud card, hello card, sweetness card, true story card, gold sequins, journaling pen, and turquoise mist.

I hate to repeat what I said in the video, but I will anyway. Because I love this photo and I love it a little bit more for having totally missed it for quite some time. I don’t remember it being taken (apparently this was while I having vitals checked or something), though I do remember the midwife giving The Boy instructions for dressing Wonder Boy and then getting a bit short with him when he didn’t know the difference between a vest and a sleep suit, and then shorter still when he told her I didn’t bring sleeveless vests, but Wonder Boy did eventually end up clothed. He was wearing a panda outfit that was the very first gift he ever received, such an early gift that I was quite terrified by it and I buried it at the bottom of a drawer for many months because otherwise I would have spent those months looking at it and clutching it and being ridiculously emotional. Instead I get to be ridiculously emotional now, seeing it on him at the hospital, seeing it in the photo, and seeing it now in the box of teeny-tiny outgrown clothes. I need to write all that on another page, but on this one I wanted to document just a bit of my feeling that although the process of his arrival was many miles from what I imagined in my head, it didn’t matter for a moment. …and to think it was just tiny panda-printed clothes that made me ridiculously emotional.

Thanks for watching.

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