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

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After much lovely warm weather, today it has been so chilly that it seems apt that this wintry layout falls as this week’s sketch! Maybe I needed the reminder that it really isn’t freezing cold – it was just a combination of being spoilt by spring weather and dreadfully tricked by a boiler that was fine in its yearly inspection on Monday but today decided it had lit its last fire. Strangely I did not panic as quickly as usual at the aspect of no hot water – oh, how I have mellowed! {Not to worry – it apparently shall be back to working order tomorrow, when someone will come to fix it and wonder why there are umpteen boxes of craft supplies in our hallway, for it never fails that something breaks just as you do something to make you wish for no guests at all. Or perhaps that is just me.} So yes: a winter layout for this week’s sketch with space for one or more photos, a fancy border and an embellished title.

If you don’t scrap single photos or don’t print pictures larger than 4×6, please don’t panic: you can fill all the grey space there at the left with photos in any way, so it would work with two 4×6 pictures, one larger print, a collage or smaller prints – whatever you prefer. And the sketch is simple in outline for a reason: instead of piling on lots of patterned papers with this page, all the detail is in the border at the middle and the title. It’s a great place to use plenty of small pieces from scraps of your favourite papers, plus little embellishments that add dimension like buttons, gems or epoxy circles.

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. (And an extra thank you to those of you who have been pinning the weekly sketches to your Pinterest boards! It pretty much made my day when that popped up on my screen!)

I think last week was our busiest week yet in terms of how many pages were created, blogged and linked to in the comments! It was tough to choose this week, but these are ten of my favourites. Click through below to see any of these in more detail!
Top row, L to R: one, two, three, four, five.
Bottom row, L to R: six, seven, eight, nine and ten.

So… what bits and pieces are you going to create into a lovely border for this week? Can’t wait to see!

xlovesx

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It was no coincidence that we went away in December, headed to warmer climes and came back right at the start of spring. Goodness do I love this time of year! And this week is the one I feel is most beautiful in my little corner of the world, for the pink trees are in full bloom. Nothing can get me down during cherry blossom season.

I spent this past weekend in Germany at the lovely Crop on the Rhine, where we attached many a Jenni Bowlin butterfly to many a layout! And we started on a long-term project that I look forward to sharing with you later. An idea that has me excited! And my sincerest thanks to Barbara and Heike who put on such a lovely event, plus Andrea and Andrea’s husband for their kindly volunteered help and chauffeur service!

And I also taught a workshop as part of True Scrap, an online scrapbooking convention. My session was all about getting the most from your stash, and it was great to chat with everyone, even though my session ended up being in the middle of the night my time. Totally worth staying up! If you are interested in True Scrap but couldn’t make it at the weekend, you can sign up any time and have access to the recordings of all the classes and workshops, so you can take your time and make it work for you. All the details are here.

I think I am finally getting back to reality in our post-travel world. Hilariously, after nearly four months of only having a carry-on bag, I walked straight past the baggage claim in Germany, only to be nearly out the door when I remembered I had two big suitcases filled with scrapping materials! Traveling lightly is definitely easier, but not really possible for a crafting weekend. I knew when we were on the road that I would come home and want to streamline some things, after getting used to existing with just the basics. I’ve been spring cleaning and my crafting space was first in line, and although I’m not quite finished, I’m already loving the clarity of the space with much of the clutter stripped away. Except when I say ‘much of the clutter’, really… there is still a lot of stuff. Funny how that works.

I have a new online scrapbooking class that starts next Monday – I’ll share concrete details about that tomorrow! And there’s a new sketch. And spring? It’s also making me want to make stuff.

Spring, you are amazing.

xlovesx

PS: I just realised, this is my 1000th blog post since I moved my blog to shimelle.com. How sweet.

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It’s Wednesday, so how about a little sketch for a scrapbook page or two? This one is a bit simpler compared to last week, so probably a bit quicker to put together! And this layout of Leanne and family just makes me smile! It also makes me notice just how much I truly love letter stickers. If letter stickers had their own fan club, I think I would join. Which reminds me of the days of the Lisa Frank sticker club of my youth. I often wonder how many Lisa Frank sticker fans are now scrapbookers. Important issues that go through my brain, obviously.

So here is this week’s sketch. Although it’s shown with a single photo, it can easily be adapted to two or more photos in the same space there in the middle of the page. You don’t need to use the scrolled label shape either – you could substitute any shape that fits the style of your page. The idea is to repeat that shape once above and once below the photo. I have to remind myself that sometimes you can repeat a shape without repeating the same exact embellishment!

Here are eight of my favourite pages posted from last week’s sketch. Click to see any of these pages in more detail!
Top row, L to R: one, two, three, four.
Bottom row, L to R: five, six, seven and eight.

As always, if you create something from the sketch, please share a link in the comments! And no matter what you’re making, happy crafting!

xlovesx

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Have you checked out the latest edition of 4×6 Photo Love? In the third prompt of the year, we’re scrapping with three 4×6 photos. It’s a design concept that lines everything up and makes use of border strips, so you can get a big impact from relatively little stash – and it’s also quick to do! You can pretty much scrap right along with the video in real-time – just pause to grab your photos and papers perhaps. Have a look:

As always, this video includes random facts like why there is a swirl stamp permanently attached to my large acrylic block, blue nail varnish and paint spattering. Which may or may not be the true reason for wearing blue nail varnish. Oh, and making a layout with three 4×6 photos, of course!

The first page features some photos taken by SJ a while back. So much fun – a highly recommended post-wedding occasion to wear your dress again! But back to the layout: this month’s design concept using three photos and three borders. This page uses Crate Paper for the border strips and some lovely ribbons and trims (from Making Memories and American Crafts). And butterflies. Here’s a secret: I like my butterfly punch. I bet you never, ever knew.

And this is the page I walk you through in the video. No butterflies this time, I promise. Snowflakes seemed far more appropriate. This page uses October Afternoon papers and a border stamp by Studio Calico. Both pages use this EK Success border punch which is one of my absolute favourites.

The lovely Laura is my special guest this month, and she gets all creative with this month’s design concept – one option for using landscape photos instead of portrait and a second option for scrapping in 8.5×11 instead of 12×12. You can leave her a little comment love if you like her pages, you know! I love how her pages are always so bright and fresh.

So now it’s your turn! Throughout this month, I challenge you to create a page with three 4×6 photographs and three border strips. As an added incentive, you have two chances to win a prize too! When you upload a picture of your completed project to the scrapbook gallery at Two Peas, make sure to check the box for the 4×6 Photo Love challenge in step four of the upload process. Then come back to this post and leave a link to your page here in the comments. One person from all the entries at Two Peas and one person from all the links here will be chosen and each wins a gift certificate to go shopping for your favourite stash! (By the way, they have added a crazy amount of new stuff in the last week – like several thousand new products! Just in case you felt like you needed some new product to inspire your creativity!) You need to upload and link by the 29th of April for both chances to win.

So what do you think about three pictures? Can’t wait to see what you create!

xlovesx

PS: As this is a free class and it lasts all year long, I’d love for you to invite a friend to join in the fun. Click the share button or grab the badge there on the left for your blog. Thanks!

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This weekend’s winner is Jennifer! Congrats!
Kelly will be in touch with all the details for your class pass for Sketchbook 3!

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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If you love scrapbooking sketches or online classes, this weekend’s giveaway is for you: Kelly Purkey’s Sketchbook 3 class. Kelly has created fifty sketches to share in this four week class, and I’m thrilled to be one of the guest artists. You can read all about the class on Kelly’s blog. One commenter will win a place in the class, which starts Monday. 

To enter, simply leave a comment on this post mentioning something that has recently made you happy! One comment will be randomly chosen as the winner. Entries close at midnight Sunday, UK time, and the winner will be posted here on Monday. Be sure to check back to see if it’s you!

Good luck!

xlovesx 

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First up: something you should consider this weekend. Enter the Scrap Factor contest. Scrap Factor is happening over at UKScrappers, but you don’t have to be from the UK to enter. The grand prize is £500! (If you don’t speak pounds, that’s 800 American dollars once you convert it.) That’s enough to buy a fancy new camera or a fancy electronic die-cutter and the ultimate in sets of fancy Copic markers. Or you could just buy every piece of patterned paper you liked and then go shoe shopping. Heck, you could remodel a room! So yes, a very nice prize to win.

Scrap Factor is a bit like the X-Factor, one of those televised talent show series in which the audience vote every week. For Scrap Factor, things start with an ‘audition’ in which you choose five layouts to represent your scrapping style. They can be 12×12, 8.5×11 or a mix. And you enter in your choice of category: Paper, Digital and Hybrid. Hybrid pages should be paper layouts with at least one digital element included – like printing digital designs onto paper to use as accents or adding digital text to your photographs before printing.

In choosing your five layouts for your audition, you need to include a few things: one page about yourself, one page with no photos and one double-page layout. You’re free to scrap in any style, with any products, any themes, as long as you’ve met those three requirements somewhere in your five layouts, you’re all set.

Your five layouts don’t have to be created just for the contest – you can choose them from your albums if you wish! They just can’t have been published (print magazine or book, online magazine, online course materials, etc) and if they are on your blog or in an online gallery, you’re asked to remove them until the audition phase finishes.

Once you’ve chosen your layouts, you’ll need to upload them to enter. You need to be a member of UKScrappers with at least 10 posts OR 30 days of membership. That means you can certainly join UKS this week – from anywhere – and just find ten conversations to join in and you’re set! Of course, existing members are certainly welcome, whether you’ve been a regular chatter for ages or actually haven’t said that much recently. So log into UKScrappers, make ten posts if you’re new, then head to the gallery. Just above the first row of gallery pages, there’s a link at the right to upload a project. There you go! Upload your five layouts and choose the Scrap Factor Auditions from the drop-down menu. When you title your layouts, declare your category with the page title – so PAPER – A Day at the Seaside, for example. That’s all there is to entering! The deadline for uploading your entries is Noon (UK time), Friday the 8th of April.

From the auditions, fifteen scrappers will go through to the next stage. Five paper scrappers, five digital scrappers and five hybrid scrappers. Each group has a mentor – Mary Anne is mentoring the paper group, Dolly is mentoring the digi group and hybrid girls, I’m your mentor! We’re not judges and we’re not there to tell you what to do – just to be a sounding board. You can ask us questions, show us something and get feedback. We’re there to help and cheer!

Those fifteen finalists will then go through a series of week-long scrapping challenges with the members of UKScrappers voting, just like talent shows on television. It’s generally one layout per week to create throughout the contest, and we say good-bye to one scrapper each week until we’re down to the final three. The final three have a special final round, of course! And the grand prize winner gets £500 plus a variety of sponsored prizes and the two runners-up receive £100 and a selection of sponsored prizes. So cash and stash for three scrappers at the end of it all! For the rules of the contest, you can see this post at UKS.

Entries close next Friday, the 8th of April, and we’d love for you to join in the fun! I’d especially love some hybrid entries so I can have a full team – at the moment we are outnumbered by paper and digi girls! But seriously – no matter which category you enter – UKS has thrown some great contests in the past and I know this one will be fabulous too. In fact, I made these three layouts as part of a UKS contest several years ago and I absolutely loved how it stretched my creativity. I hope you’ll consider entering!

In other news, I am working on the travel Q&A, yay! And there’s a giveaway post here this evening, so stop back for a comment-to-win chance!

Have a lovely and craft-filled weekend!

xlovesx

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Please welcome a new guest blogger today – Britta! She’s a big fan of the scoring board and I have to admit this is something I wanted to know more about as I don’t have one! I hope you enjoy her five ideas this week!

One of my favorite tools in my craft space is my Scoring Board. It’s so easy to use and can be used to produce many looks. From layouts to cards to boxes, this tool is something that I’m constantly reaching for. Today I have five ideas to share with you so you can get the most from this versatile crafting tool.

Scoring to Create Rosettes
Rosettes are a super hot trend right now in the crafting industry, and with a couple simple steps, you can create your own out of any paper.

Here, I just cut strips in different widths from patterned paper, scored every 1/2 inch, flipped the paper over, and scored in between the lines I made on the other side. Just fold the strips accordion-style (places where you scored become a mountain fold while places where you scored on the other side become a valley fold). Glue the ends together so that you have a contiguous zig-zag circle and then gather and press one of the edges into a rosette. Use strong dry glue and liquid adhesive (I used Glossy Accents by Ranger) to keep everything in place. Set an object on top of the rosette to help everything stay in place while drying. Embellish as desired.

Scoring to Add Emphasis
Measure and draw out straight lines in a square on the inside of a card. Score the lines from the inside of the card, making sure to stop where the lines intersect. Cut a piece of paper down to fit inside the scored square that is slightly smaller. The scoring around the outside of the focal piece provides texture and a level of sophistication.

Scoring to Create Texture
Using the diagonal envelope guide included with the Martha Stewart Score Board, Line up a card on the diagonal and score every 1/4 inch. Turn the card 90 degrees to the left or right, and then score going the opposite direction to create a diagonal grid. Use an ink pad directly to the paper as well as with a blending tool to emphasize the texture with a coordinating colour.

Scoring to Keep it Clean and Simple
Simple cards are easy, fun and elegant. Scoring on the front of a simple card like this adds a lot of interest and texture without overpowering the message.

Scoring to Create Clean and Accurate Folds on 3D Projects
Create quick and easy gift boxes using just two sheets of double-sided patterned paper and a few embellishments. The score board helps to keep all of your sides the same measurement and create nice, clean folds that look like you spent a lot of money on the box and the gift inside.

To make the bottom, I started out with a sheet of paper cut down to 10 inches by 10 inches and scored 3 inches in from each side. Cut down one of the folds from the outside to each corner, and use the remaining extra flap for each side to glue everything together. I followed the same process for the top as well, just using an 8 ¼ inch by 8 ¼ inch piece of paper and scoring 2 inches in from the side. The result is a fantastic box that your recipient will love almost as much as the gift you put inside.

Do you have a scoring board? We’d love to hear your favourite techniques!

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Britta Swiderski is a 21-year-old Graphic Design major at the University of Minnesota and spends her free time inking and making projects. She’s tried pretty much every hobby out there but always seems to gravitate towards paper and all of the amazing things that are possible with it. To see more of her stamping, scrapping, and cardmaking projects, visit her blog and check out the tutorial videos she posts at least once a week on her YouTube channel.

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