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

A little later than I had hoped, but please forgive me for getting a bit distracted by getting to see my family now that I’m in Kansas City for a little while – even my new nephew! Now I’m all hooked up with wifi and have lots to share! This week’s sketch has one 4×6 photo and two smaller square images. I printed mine at 2.5 inches, but you could change that to suit your pictures. This week’s page is pretty quick to come together and is great for using several patterns from one collection. Most of what I used here is from the Salt Air collection by Cosmo Cricket.

This week I actually made a big change to the sketch while making the page. In the video, you’ll see that it started ninety degrees different, but I decided everything was a bit too vertical and it worked better like this. If your photos suit vertical a bit better, try turning the sketch back to the other side.

The horizontal sketch also reminded me of an older layout with a similar design but lots more detail — this one might be more your style if you like more stuff on your pages! But sometimes simple is just right.

As always, the weekly sketch is no-stress and just for fun! If you use it, I’d love to see, so please leave a link in the comments.

Last week there was lots of single-photo fun! Thank you to everyone who shared their work. Here are a dozen of my favourites, and I can’t help but think the love of kraft cardstock is something many of us share! Click the corresponding link below to see any of these pages in more detail and meet the scrappers who created them.
Top row, L to R: one, two, three, four.
Middle row, L to R: five, six, seven, eight.
Bottom row, L to R: nine, ten, eleven and twelve.

xlovesx

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Time zones are confusing me a little today – it’s Tuesday where I am but I’ve just been talking to friends in London who are already at work on Wednesday! Funny old world.

There is a sketch coming today but I need a little longer to upload the video as I can’t do that from here. So here’s a little preview of the layout! If you want to find three pictures – one 4×6 and two smaller squares – you can get those printed and be ready when the video is up later today!

See you soon!

xlovesx

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This weekend’s winner is Helen who wins PRIZE from Miss Fluff Leather Jewellery.
Please email me (shimelle at gmail dot com) with your address!

There’s a new giveaway every Friday night, so check back next week for another chance to win just by leaving a comment.

Have a great week!

xlovesx

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I’ve been drafting a little list in my notebook. Journaling myths or something like that. Literally, that’s what I wrote at the top of the page because it seemed like there should be a catchier way to say ‘journaling myths’ but so far it hasn’t come to me. Journaling myths it is, unless one of you has the better name. But obviously the things on the list are more important than the title anyway – all things that are hang-ups and road blocks to writing about life’s adventure. One of those myths is It’s only real writing if I can write a lot.

Of course that’s not true at all – it’s just something we tell ourselves from time to time.

Sure, sometimes writing at length is great. It can tell a story in detail. It can develop an intricate plot. It can help get a whole bunch of stuff out of your thoughts on onto paper so you can evaluate and move forward. But it’s not length that makes writing real or meaningful, and it’s certainly possible to overdo it. We’ve all read or listened to a retelling that just went on so long that it was hard to find the point in all those words.

And therein lies the key: writing is about sifting. Taking all the possible tangents and all the possible perspectives and all the possible details then shaking them up and sifting through to collect the shiniest or the smoothest or the most colourful of the bunch. Depending on the circumstance. Sift, sift, sift and the end result might be pretty short.

Sometimes when I write straight into a journal I don’t sift at all and just try to remember everything and write it down… but it takes ages and can sometimes be quite frustrating, especially since I like to keep things in order but my memories might not stay that way. So on this trip I am sifting, and what was actually a really packed day came down to a little bullet pointed list. For now.

I’ll stop there before I end up on an entirely different myth on the list!

Are there writing roadblocks that keep you from getting words on paper (or screen)? Just curious if your list matches up with mine! I’ll sift through some of my thoughts on the rest of the list another day!

Have a beautiful week.

xlovesx

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This weekend, one commenter will win this truly unique and beautiful hand cut statement necklace designed by the very talented Sare Green who runs Miss Fluff. I asked Sare to tell us a bit about her shop and this is what she had to say:
“Hi there! My name is Sare. Miss Fluff is simply me, designing and handmaking intricate and unique leather jewellery. I studied at the London College of Fashion after I had my beautiful daughter and did a Foundation Degree in Accessories specialising in leather. I love working with leather. It’s so tactile and I find it only improves with age. Everything I produce is designed and handmade from start to finish by me!”

To see more of Sare’s amazing work, log onto her Etsy store. I just LOVE this gorgeous white feather necklace. It is so beautiful don’t you think?

To enter, just leave a comment on this post sharing with us where you would wear this special necklace.

Entries close at midnight Sunday UK time and the winner will be posted Monday evening, so be sure to check back to see if it’s your lucky day!

Good luck!

xlovesx

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Late Thursday is the new Wednesday? Something like that. My apologies for the delay and I hope you’re still up for a sketch this week! It’s a page from almost nothing – a single photo (landscape 4×6), a few strips or scraps of patterned paper and a handful of mismatched die-cuts. Easy on the stash and pretty quick to put together too!

Here’s the sketch brought back to basics, and you can keep it simple with just a few circles or you can layer as many embellishments as you’d like in that same space. This week’s video is pretty quick (just under eight minutes) so you can see how I got from A to B.

By the way, those three mists that I used really quickly at the beginning of the video are Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist in sand, Tattered Angels Chalkboard Mist in chalk (slightly opaque white with shimmer) and Studio Calico Mister Huey in Calico White (opaque white with no shimmer). I don’t always use both whites together but wanted to show them both so you can see the difference in the opaque quality. I love both but they are definitely not the same – one soft and shimmery, the other bold and matte.

As always, the weekly sketch is no-stress and just for fun! If you use it, I’d love to see, so please leave a link in the comments.

I am pretty much giddy about the response to the big photo sketch last week. I thought for sure that many of you would take a week off because the big photo would be a pain to print perhaps… and instead more of you joined in than ever, I think! See the links at the end of this post for three dozen pages to inspire you to scrap your giant-sized prints! Totally love it. So I picked just a small group of favourites because it was pretty much impossible and I wanted to include them all. Click the corresponding link to see the page in more detail and say hello to the scrapper behind the page.
Top row, L to R: one, two, three, four.
Bottom row, L to R: five, six, seven and eight.

xlovesx

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_{©twopeasinabucket.com. Click here for full layout and supplies.}

I just wanted to share this page with you. It’s one of my most favourite photos of our entire journey and it was captured entirely by accident. I promise I didn’t follow monks around all day trying to catch them at the most photogenic moments of their day. No, I was taking pictures of a boy who happens to climb steep and wobbly staircases far, far quicker than I do and he just happened to be oblivious to the next few pedestrians on those stairs. When I had told him to go ahead he thought I was ridiculous, but this picture made me very thankful to have stayed at ground level just a few minutes longer.

You can see the full layout here, in the garden.

A few other things:
…The Garden Girls are hosting a special event called Snap and Scrap your Summer – it’s totally free and fun. There’s an interview with me here, and I got to talk about favourite summertime photo opportunities, things I’ve made and projects by other crafters that are currently inspiring me. I also got to post a challenge, and it’s all about capturing the details of summer in day to day. It’s open until next Monday and there’s a Two Peas prize for one lucky participant.
…Or there’s the new challenge for the UKS Scrap Factor contest – and it’s to find an old layout and return to those photos or that event and scrap it again in your current style. The Play Along side of the contest is open to anyone and there are prizes given each week for one page each in paper, hybrid and digital. That challenge is open until the third of July.
…Today is the last day to post a link to your page for the current sketch and perhaps be featured in tomorrow’s post. Which doesn’t include a giant photo, interestingly enough!

So you know… don’t let anyone say there aren’t enough scrapbooking challenges to keep you busy! (Kidding. Scrap as you love to scrap. Always.)

xlovesx

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This weekend’s winner is Imperfectionist who wins a name print from Clarkie Designs.
Lady Veronica, please email me (shimelle at gmail dot com) with your address!

There’s a new giveaway every Friday night, so check back next week for another chance to win just by leaving a comment.

Have a great week!

xlovesx

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