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

I share enough pages that you can easily put together an idea of my general process. I don’t really reinvent the wheel or worry about replicating a design I’ve used previously. For all the times I start a page by piling a mix of rectangles on top of a subtly patterned background, I like the chance to balance that with a look that’s a little more tidy and inspired by dividing the page into different blocks.

Today’s sketch is not wholly unlike this one in the archives. But this time it’s a bit streamlined and includes more photographs – the same idea of two landscape 4×6 prints but also three small square pictures. This makes it perfect for using with photo photos (Instagram or otherwise) but it’s also handy for cropping into details that might be lost in a larger, less-than-perfect shot. That latter option is what I included on this page.

Again, I’m working a bit simply, but not quite as sparsely as the diagonal sketch. And the recent episode of the Paperclipping Roundtable inspired me to get some of our silly self-portraits onto a page. In addition to the difficulty of taking such a picture, these particular photos make me laugh as this marked the point in the trip where my hair started to get really awkward. Because we had no checked luggage, I couldn’t travel with scissors, and I had a lot better luck getting a mani/pedi on the road than a haircut! By Malaysia, I had definitely reached that point where my fringe was so long it was in my eyes, but not long enough to pin back! I did eventually just take matters into my own hands… I bought some scissors in New Zealand and used the wing mirror on the van to cut it back to something more manageable. We’ve all had these moments of frustration, right? I suppose that’s something that needs to go in the Kiwi volume of these scrapbooks! Anyway, back to this page, these photos were taken when we toured the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The smaller photos are cropped images of the view from the bridge that connects the two skyscrapers.

This page was made with the February product picks for Best of Both Worlds. If you ordered the same, you’re welcome to put it to use in the same way, but of course you can use any supplies you would like! There are just a couple small pieces not taken from the kit – a sheet of kraft cardstock for the background and the wood veneer camera used in the final bit of embellishment. I used Staz-On ink in black for the stamping, since the surface of the JBS stickers is a bit more glossy and while some other inks work perfectly well with that surface, it is a bit more slippery and I’m just less likely to make a mess of it with Staz-On!

I had a slightly different challenge in mind for today’s sketch guest, SJ Dowsett, and that involved taking a page sketch and adapting it to a Project Life entry with divided page protectors. I think there’s quite a bit of potential for adapting sketches in this sort of way, and a more blocked page design seemed the best place to start, but I was really enlightened by SJ’s creative process for making it work:

Using a sketch in conjunction with Project Life presented me with a challenge I hoped I could rise too! – breaking the sketch up into segments so it fit into a divided page protector was harder than I initially thought. But instead of panicking, I got a pen and ruler and drew over the sketch so I could see what areas I needed to focus on.

I applied the rules, of being able to flip and turn the sketch and although it may look loosely based, the double photo, stars, scallops and left hand title are all there. I used an Ampersand card as a focal point, which is a digital download from my _Chalk it up kit available from my digital store has made me want to explore the idea of breaking up sketches like this again for Project Life. Sometimes it is a great chance for your brain to take a break of the planning the weekly layout when it’s already laid out in front of you to work from the sketch._

SJ is a stay at home mum and freelance graphic designer. Creating digital stamps and prints, she spends her days within arms reach of pen and paper for doodling all the random thoughts that wander through her mind. She believes in finding cost effective ways to scrapbook, making pretty printables and noting down the tiny things in life that ordinarily she’d forget. Read more about SJ on her blog and find her digital and printable designs at Little Musings.

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

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Wow, this has been quite a day already, but the videos are a-loading and it’s definitely all systems go around here! I have one video and sketch for you now, and then I’ll pick up again in the morning with the rest of this catching up session! I hope you find something useful in the mix.

This sketch is meant for a scrapbook page with a single, portrait photo. It’s shown as 4×6 but could easily be bigger – especially if paired with quite simple patterned papers. The smaller strips on the diagonals could be paper, but they could be all sorts of other things – border stickers, washi tape, ribbon, stitches, and so on. This could easily work with additional photos too with a bit of rearranging to the other elements. Feel free to move it around to make it work for you!

I worked very close to the sketch this time around, and the resulting page is quite simple in style. Considering some of the major embellishing I’ve done on some pages in that album, I’ve wanted to add a few simpler pages to give a bit of balance. I love embellishing but I also want the focus of a book to be on the writing and photos, not just ‘wow, you added a lot of stuff there’, so some more stream-lined pages are in order.

For this page, I’m working with the supplies from the February Best of Both Worlds kit. Of course you’re welcome to join in with any supplies you choose.

Why yes, that will be much prettier when photographed properly in some daylight tomorrow morning! But in case you don’t have time to watch the video right this second, here’s a still image for now to show the final project.

This page from today’s guest Paige Evans makes me swoon. I love that stitched strip detail she chose to emphasise the diagonal! Paige has a few further notes:

I made this layout while I was at home in Washington state. I didn’t have my scrapbooking supplies with me, but luckily my sister is also an avid scrapper so we rummaged through her stash and found some super fun things to work with! The sketch was such a great start. I liked the two diagonal lines and decided to keep going with that idea and make diagonal lines of patterned paper across the entire layout. I mostly used the On Trend collection by Crate Paper, with some gold accents thrown into the mix. The placement of the photo, title, three embellishment clusters, and journaling are right where they are in the sketch – sketches make things so easy peasy!

You can find more of Paige’s work on her blog. She designs for American Crafts and Two Peas in a Bucket, and also works for Northridge Publishing, the company behind Scrapbook Trends magazine. She loves to create on a daily basis and enjoys dabbling in everything from fine arts (painting, drawing, sculpting, printmaking), to bookbinding, basketweaving, photography, graphic design, and more.

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

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All told, my January kit (with the help of one extra sheet of cardstock, one of patterned paper, a few paper scraps and some enamel dots) made six single-page scrapbook pages and one card. And just in time, I am ready to roll onto February with new product picks for the month. (And I have a little video to show you both things – all those finished pages from January plus a look at the February kit!)

February and March present something rather interesting: in late January and early February, prices on current scrapbooking products are slashed to make room for all the brand new products that start to hit the shelves over the next few weeks. So this month, we can get quite a bit for our money! Next month will have fewer items but they will be brand new releases. I like that balance – hope you find it useful too!

Click here to shop the February edition of Best of Both Worlds!
(Also, the original cut-apart sheet has now sold out, so I added the second design to the list while it is still in stock. You can see all remaining designs from that line here in case something is to your liking!)

If you’re new to the Best of Both Worlds idea (and don’t worry – this is only the second month I’ve done this!), the basic premise is that you can pick up the whole kit just like I’m using by going here and adding one of each to your order. But Best of Both Worlds gives you the freedom to customise so you get exactly what works for you. If you don’t stamp, remove the stamps and save that price. If you already have some of the items in your stash, don’t buy them again and wind up with duplicates. Or if there is something you really love, add more. I don’t use much cardstock on my layouts, so I don’t include it in the list, but if you want cardstock you can either add it (find it here) or you can replace some of the patterned papers with solid cardstock so you’re not adding to the overall price. There’s no subscription and no obligation. But if you would like something simple to assemble a nice box of goodies for you and you like the sort of things I tend to use, then there you go. All nice and easy.

A few questions that came up last time around…
International shipping
I totally understand that the shipping may not work out to make these the best prices for you in the world. But it might not be as bad as you think. Two Peas is working on improvements in their international shipping system, which often over quotes the price. If you open a service ticket on their site (there’s a link at the bottom of the screen), they will credit the difference if you report it within thirty days. (The thirty days is important!) I know that’s not perfect (and they know too, and are working to improve it), but if you didn’t ever think about the difference in the quote and what was on the box, that is important information so I’m sharing it with you. I do it on my orders too. If you have a local source that makes the shopping better for you, then fair enough! You can replicate the items as best as possible with your own source if that’s a much better option for you. (Several people asked why I didn’t set this up with insert name here shop. I like craft shops everywhere, I absolutely promise. Two Peas goes out of their way to work with me, and they support my crazy ideas. So for me, it’s a good match.)

What if things sell out?
As of the turn of midnight on the first of February, there is good stock on all the chosen items. But that doesn’t mean they will all sit around forever, of course. You can take a look at what is and isn’t in stock from the January kit here to get an idea. Some of those items went out of stock earlier in the month and were reordered because many people clicked the ‘request and notify me’ button so they are now back in stock. If you come to this post later in the month and some of the items you want are no longer available, never underestimate the power of that ‘request and notify’ button.

How do I get free shipping at Two Peas?
You need to subscribe to their free email newsletter (you’ll find that in your account settings). Every month they have a code you can add to your order. If you spend more than $50 on physical, non-close-out items, you qualify for free US shipping OR $5 off your shipping to anywhere else in the world. The kit alone would not qualify you for that, but if you had other things to add to your order, then you’re not ridiculously far from the $50 either, and it might work out better for you to spend a little more on product rather than spend the same amount on shipping. Remember you can always see your shipping cost by going part way through the checkout process – you can see the shipping cost before you pay, so you can back up and make changes if needed.

What’s the deal with the Two Peas customer loyalty programme?
It changed over the past month. They had the same loyalty programme since it started, more than a dozen years ago. This industry has changed so much and I can tell you flat out the profit margins a dozen years ago were far, far higher than they are now. Plus inflation meant the amounts for the levels of discounts were not a fair comparison. I mean… think about what you spent for a cup of coffee twelve years ago versus what you pay today and you’ll know prices are not the same. Patterned paper is the same thing: when I started buying 12×12 scrapbooking paper by the sheet, the retail price was lower than the wholesale price in 2013. That’s extreme. To offer such a high discount at such a low threshold in a market with such little profit margin left must have been dangerous to the bottom line. (Please understand that statement is complete speculation from my knowledge of the industry and a bit of simple maths – I do not have any information about the financial side of Two Peas specifically.) They have revamped their loyalty programme and yes, it means that many people (myself included) had their percentage discount diminished. That is sad all around, but I would be sadder if Two Peas didn’t exist! The difference per order from my old percentage discount to my new discount is less than five bucks. And having just been to California, I paid more than that for a cup of coffee. So I’m trying to use that information to put it into perspective for myself. Short answer, yes, you will likely find your loyalty discount is not as great as it once was. However, there are also opportunities now to get loyalty points by chatting on the scrapping boards and uploading projects the gallery, which didn’t exist before. And there will be special opportunities to earn bonus points throughout the year in all sorts of different ways. I love that the end result will be value added to the scrapbooking community at Two Peas. But yes, there have been changes, no, I don’t have any say in them, and above all I really hope it means Two Peas can continue to offer such a great variety of scrapbooking products all in one place. Also: since late November, Two Peas has offered better sales than they ever have before. Loving that.

*What’s the shipping turnaround right now?
I ordered yesterday. It shipped today. I would say things are pretty in the zone in their warehouse right now!

How long does it take an order to arrive from the US to the UK
Once it has shipped, my orders tend to be at my door in 10 to 14 days. If you order a lot, it may need to go through customs, which adds charges and time, yes.

Can I post the kit contents earlier?
No, it will always be the first of the month, and then I’ll use that kit throughout the month. The videos and blog posts don’t expire, I promise, and you can use them at any time. Because you are not subscribing, I need to have one day when I check all the inventory and make sure everything I will be using is in good stock, so it wouldn’t matter what day of the month that was, the same conundrum would exist. The first of the month to share the product picks and then that month to share the projects keeps my brain from imploding.

I think that’s all! I look forward to sharing projects from this kit with you throughout February!

Click here to shop the February edition of Best of Both Worlds!

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Pretty much every winter for several years, I’ve headed to Anaheim, California, for a week. Except I’ve occupied pretty much every moment of the day with work, and barely had time to breathe and sleep. Every year I would try to find some time to steal away to meet with two localish friends, and we would catch a quick cupcake or lunch, and they would ask if I wanted to go to Disney. You know – that reason why most people visit Anaheim, California! And I would say maybe next year and then forget about it all over again.

Except this year, I remembered. I could only do a little more than five hours, but to Disneyland we went, where we ate pancakes shaped like Mickey Mouse and spun the teacups and sang It’s a Small World and drove through London on Mr Toad’s Wild Ride and even played some sort of alien laser tag with characters from Toy Story. Don’t ask me which characters: I have never seen Toy Story. None of the Toy Stories. I know, it’s weird. I just… like my animation hand-drawn. (No, I haven’t seen Shrek either. I’ve seen Finding Nemo and I was sorely disappointed. But oddly, I quite like Monsters, Inc. Anyway, I digress.)

I’ve been saving that piece of BasicGrey paper with the lovely watercoloured-fabric texture. Saving it to use as a lush background for something with lots of layers. Except I didn’t have a lot left to layer, so to finish this last page from the January Best of Both Worlds kit, I headed to my scrap basket and ended up including some paper in the one-to-two-years-old category along with some positively-ancient-KI-Memories paper in a colour that makes me swoon.

I don’t tend to use a sketch with the very last remains of a kit – I tend to just move the scraps around until an idea emerges! If you’re looking for more ideas for what to do with those last scraps at the end of a kit, the end of this video might be useful too. I’ll see if I’m able to share a last look for most of the kits – though sometimes it may just happen that the pieces fit perfectly into the sketches and starting points… we’ll see!

If you watched the last Sketch to Scrapbook Page video, you might remember the two hot pink 4×6 cards I considered throwing into the mix before deciding the colour was just too much. In the end, I put both of them together with a black cardstock card blank and made a simple card with the stamp set and two heart punches. There’s quite a bit going on on the front of this card and I’m not completely convinced that I love the chaos of it, but I do really like all the different word and arrow stamps together in the text bubble. I think I’ll try that on a page soon too, because it could make quite a clever embellishment on the right sort of page. Show of hands: should this be my Valentine card to The Boy or should I try again? Ha! I am definitely a scrapbooker first, but still like to make a card now and then.

So here is what remains of my January kit, six pages and one card later: the stamps and tape that I’ll continue to use for quite some time, three alphabet sets that can each do a bit more (some more than others – the navy is particularly spent of some key letters), and some too-small-to-save paper scraps that have now gone in the recycling bin.

Onward to February then!

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I can’t tell you how many times I got confused over how add-on three was called Four Square, but that’s where I’m up to with this video series for Studio Calico. Using this add-on and the main kit, Elmwood Park, I decided to pretty much ignore the patterns on the papers and think purely in terms of colour. This was a bit of a twist on how I normally scrapbook, but I really enjoyed the process of not worrying about whether things went with letters or pie charts or butterflies or hearts or anything else. Sometimes things can be all about colour if that’s the strongest part of a particular memory.

I’m afraid there are no more of those pie chart stamps since this kit is sold out, but you can find many of the items from Four Square on this shopping list if there’s something you love!

And yes, if you caught the date, that was part of Christmas day not so long ago. Such an amazing day that there is no shortage of scrapbook pages about it and yet I still haven’t written down everything about that day.

My goodness, I love scrapbooking.

xlovesx

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In addition to the main kit of scrapbooking goodness that’s available on subscription each month at Studio Calico, there are four different add-on kits that go on sale on reveal day. Getting to scrap with all four of them was pure luxury! So today’s video includes one page from start to finish (mostly) using the main kit (Elmwood Park) and the first add-on, Capture the Flag. Take a look at the kits here to get an idea of where I started.

Also… I say this is mostly start to finish. After many grumpy looks at my computer screen, I had to admit defeat with one part of the video that wouldn’t play no matter what. Of course it was the bit of video that showed the embellishment (and the title). Please forgive me. The goal of the using up everything in all five kits meant I couldn’t go back and film it again with additional supplies! I promise it’s not difficult embellishment – what you see is what you get with cute little die-cuts strung along a bit of twine, with the safety pins in the BasicGrey embellishment pack.

While the add-on kit is sold out, you can find some of the items here, all in one place to help if you missed out on the kit at Studio Calico.

I’ve been scrapping the photos from Luang Prabang in Laos so slowly. It was my most favourite place on our adventure and scrapping it lets me relive it a little. Even though I have hundreds of prints from this town, I’m taking my time so I don’t rush to the end of them! These photos are at the top of a big hill in the centre of town, with a beautiful view in every direction, including a river either side. There’s a very quiet temple at the top too. And ladies who catch and sell little birds in tiny cages so you can set them free at the top and they repeat the entire process. But that’s another story entirely.

xlovesx

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Welcome to the very first day of Saying Thanks, my personal mission to make, write and send a great deal of thank you cards to start the year! This first tutorial is for a very simple card, and I’ll be honest: I like many of my cards very simple! I think it takes a certain kind of recipient to really appreciate a card that takes a very long time to create, and most people appreciate something that is simple yet handmade. And there is absolutely no reason why simple can’t be beautiful, as most of good design reminds us in branding, stationery and all other sorts of things. So I’m starting simple.

I’m also starting with an idea of not being wasteful. Not collecting stamps without using them. I ordered some Christmas stamps that didn’t arrive until a few days after Christmas, so they won’t be useful for Christmas cards until next year. But they can still be useful for scrapbooking Christmas photos, of course, and I believe they are appropriate for thank you cards sent regarding Christmas things, like saying thank you for a Christmas gift or to the hostess of a Christmas party. So I’m going with it, even though it’s January. Christmas stamps, you will not sit in my drawer uninked for a year! You will start stamping now!

For these cards I used this Hero Arts stamp (currently on sale), this Technique Tuesday sentiments stamp set, this Hero Arts background stamp (not sure where that one might still be in stock), Jenni Bowlin for Ranger inks, American Crafts pigment ink (in brown sugar on kraft cardstock for a very subtle pattern) and a bit of Distress Ink too. The star stickers are by Studio Calico.

Plus, with a simple card you can always dress it up. Add stickers. Add pop-dots for dimension. ADD GLITTER.

You know you want to. (I just used a glue pen and dotted it about the stars, then sprinkled the glitter over the top. Seriously an under-sixty-seconds technique for all that sparkle.)

Do you have a big stamp like this that could work for a simple thank you card? If you make something similar, please share – we would love to see what you make! And thank you for stopping by!

(Why yes, that does mean there are more thank you card videos on the way! I hope you enjoy.)

Thank you for reading and watching. Always.

xlovesx

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Not long ago, SJ upgraded to a camera that included video and I kept asking her if she had shot any video yet. And the answer was mostly no and I kept thinking if she did shoot some video it would be lovely because she has such an interesting style and outlook. So one day she sends me an email to say ‘I finally shot a video! And I’ve uploaded it!’ and I watched it and I suddenly thought: this is such a very, very good idea.

I had no idea what she would be filming with her camera but it turned out she made a scrapbooking video – with a new challenge that had been rolling around in her head and I love it. Also, SJ has a voice that is often so calm I think she should narrate books-on-tape for toddlers at bedtime, but that’s just me. (By the way, what do they call those now? Books-on-iPod just doesn’t have the same ring to it, and audiobooks sounds far too grown-up for fairy tales.)

So first of all – here is her video. Watch and listen and see if this makes a lightbulb spark for you!

I love this idea: go back to your very favourite pages, find a point of inspiration that makes that page special, then use that inspiration point for a brand new scrapbook page. Such a beautifully simply way to stay true to your own style. So I pulled out an album and found a page I made long ago (in days of yore!) and found one point I could take from that and put to use on something new.

I started with this layout, which was actually my very first page created for the garden at Two Peas, and it’s still one of my favourites. I love quite a few things about it, but the idea is of course to take one, and what I really wished I had done more often was the treatment with the patterned paper. Lots of bold mats layered to create a big frame of colour. And I remember when I made this page I had mixed papers that were quite new at the time with some old favourite patterned papers too – and suddenly I was off and running.

I am usually quite good about my paper stash: use what I love, give something away if I don’t love it anymore – don’t collect it just to look at it in a stack. But we all have our weaknesses, and mine comes in old KI Memories papers. I have so much old KI (both their regular line and the Love, Elsie collections) and there is no way I’m giving it away. I still love it. The trick is to find ways to make it work so the pages stay true to my current style even when I’m using papers that have very old dates on them. The Love, Elsie papers I used on this page are most definitely labelled as 2006. But I love how they work with more current collections, like the Amy Tangerine paper and stickers, the new Eclair Thickers, all the labels and stickers from October Afternoon.

Take One was a fabulous challenge for my creative process: I’ve been meaning to get these two photos on a layout. I’ve been meaning to use these papers that aren’t getting any younger. Finding something I love about an old favourite page meant making this page was such a lovely adventure.

You can join in SJ’s Take One challenge any time. She’s going to post a new video tomorrow, I do believe!

xlovesx

PS: Just a little heads up in case you like the recent collections from American Crafts. Two Peas is running a one day sale with 25% off more than 300 AC products, including albums and brand new lines like the Amy Tangerine collection. It’s not often that the new stuff is on sale so soon, so today is a good day to go shopping! Plus my stand-by the 12×12 3-ring album in black fabric is in the sale too. Perfect. Find the sale here. But it’s today only so don’t dilly-dally, okay?

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