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

_{I really love Jenni Bowlin’s butterfly rub-ons, can you tell?}

We’re off to the Sussex countryside today for what promises to be a beautiful day for the wedding of Laura and Will! If you know Laura (or her scrapbook pages!), do go send her wedding well-wishes at her blog if you fancy! I know it will make her smile when she finally gets back to her computer after the big day!

This jar of goodies is a finishing touch, and I can’t wait to see the rest of the amazing world of butterflies and bunting. I promise plenty of photos tomorrow!

But must dash for now!

xlovesx

Comment [4]

_{See the JBS Inspiration blog for more details about this layout.}

Once again, thanks so much for all your participation in last weekend’s online crop! I know August is a tricky month for lots of people, so I’m taking it as a sign that our autumn crop will get even bigger. I have my thinking cap on already so you can look forward to some new things then!

But now the exciting part if you could take part — the list of prize winners! It’s a long list, so be sure to check for your name. If you’re a winner, please follow the instructions at the end of this post to claim your prize. (If you’re not a winner, I’m sorry and I wish I had something for everyone! Please play again at our next crop, and I hope you enjoyed the challenges anyway!) Okay — winners then!

Crafting challenges:
Scrapbooking with red, aqua and white
Jenny B wins a prize package of red and aqua inks, paints and mists!

The first sketch
Liz wins a selection of label stickers

Scrapbooking with a free printable alphabet
Connie C wins a selection of goodies from Shimelle Digitals.

Scrapbooking with circles
Jenny Pitcairn wins a set of Banana Frog stamps.

Scrapbooking with black and white photos
Mary Bainbridge wins a class pass for herself and a friend on Learn Something New, the September online class here at shimelle.com.

Scrapbooking with patterned papers
Helen Overton wins a prize package filled with patterned paper.

Journal around the page
Lisa Funky Fairy wins a prize pack filled with paper goodness from Jenni Bowlin Studio.

Scrapbooking with squares
Kitty Scrapper wins a prize pack of scrapping supplies with a square theme.

Scrapbooking with at least a little pink
Maja wins a prize pack of pink scrapbooking supplies.

The second sketch
Lisa O wins a copy of Stretch your Sketches=, an e-book from Ella Publishing

Scrapbooking with heart
Mandy Mck wins a selection of scrapbooking goodies from the Green at Heart collection by BasicGrey.

Scrapbooking with letters or numbers
Lisa wins a copy of Time to Scrapbook, which features the layout above and tips for finding time from each of the Most Influential Scrapbooker nominees.

Scrapbooking with paper rosettes
Jimjam wins Scrapbook Inspirations Idea Book volume 2.

Scrapbooking with stamps
Susan Roh wins a set of Banana Frog stamps.

Scrapbooking with quadrants
Karen wins a custom portrait (person or pet) as a Little Musing by SJ Dowsett.

The third sketch
Shannon Hager wins a prize pack of scrapbooking supplies.

Scrapbooking with layers
Anne wins a prize pack of scrapbooking supplies.

Scrapbooking with your favourite supplies
Hannah wins a prize pack of supplies from a manufacturer of her choice.

Scrapbooking with whatever you have left
Kirsty wins a prize pack of scrapbooking supplies.

Photo challenges:
Get close
Daphne wins Picture Perfect a photography e-book from Ella Publishing.

Manmade
Aussie Mon wins Scrapper’s B&W Actions, a workflow of black and white processing options for your photographs. Or her choice of another product of the same value from Two Peas in a Bucket.

Through the glass
Natalie wins a new album.

Explosive energy
Rachel wins a camera t-shirt from Threadless.

I saw the sign
Leah wins a Keep Calm and Snap On print from the Keep Calm Etsy shop.

Night light
Christina wins a selection of fonts available exclusively at Two Peas in a Bucket.

Up above
Emy wins a pack of photo paper in her choice of brand.

Add a laugh
Tape wins her choice of a hilarious book.

Nature
Karen wins 40 Top Tips for Better Photos, an Ella ebook by Rebecca Cooper.

Below the knee
Gemma wins a care package of funky socks.

Reflections
Rinda wins a selection of glittery scrapbook supplies.

Study session
Louise wins some reading material and some pretty paper.

Get in the picture
Co Co wins this adorable handmade owl in navy AND this supercute one in red from etsy seller Vivikas.

Portrait or candid?
Jennifer wins Scrapbook Inspirations Idea Book volume 2.

Craft in progress
Lizzie wins a prize pack of scrapbooking supplies from Imaginisce.

Zoom out
Anso wins a prize pack of scrapbooking supplies from American Crafts.

Smiles
Bethan wins a prize pack of scrapbooking supplies.

At home
Kirsteen wins a prize pack of scrapbooking supplies with a home theme.

And the two comment-to-win posts:
Share a favourite quotation
Lorraine wins this gorgeous print from the always amazing Vol.25.

Share a scrapbooking thought
Smeepee wins her choice of a knitted bow headband or a knitted flower wearable from The Funky Beau.

To claim your prize, please email me (shimelle at gmail dot com) with the relevant details for your prize. If it’s a digital prize, I need your email address. If it’s a physical prize, I need your mailing address. If there are options (like t-shirt size or paper brand), please let me know. If it says ‘from a selection’, just email me and I’ll get back to you with the options so you can choose. Please make the subject line of your email PRIZE WINNER so I don’t miss your message. Thank you!

On a totally different note, I’m packing up a small number of kits appropriate for Learn Something New. They will be available for UK addresses only, I’m afraid, and I’ll probably pop them in the shop first thing tomorrow morning. Watch Twitter as I’ll post there first when they are in the shop. Once they are gone, I won’t be putting together any other kits for this class. (For those of you outside the UK or not fancying a kit, there will be notes on supplies in the prep notes that go out next week.)

Right – back to packing those boxes then!

xlovesx

Comment [17]

Every year, September makes me excited. Whether I’m headed back to school in a literal sense or not, the back to school season still seems to flip a switch that makes me think it’s time to learn something new. For the past several years, I’ve gone back to school by means of a month-long album called Learn Something New Every Day.

This adventure started in 2006, when back to school was more literal and I was heading to back to my classroom after the summer holidays. And somehow I still managed to create a 6×6 scrapbook page each day, even while working on lesson plans and seating charts and making sure everyone in my department had enough colours of board pens to annotate exemplar essays. In fact, the few minutes I set aside each day to review the experiences of that day with some pretty paper and a pen became my own little oasis of calm every day during that crazy back to school time.

In 2007, I followed the same class prompts but focused more on writing by keeping daily personal blog entries. It was like scrapbooking from another part of my mind, since I couldn’t depend on pretty papers to take the emphasis if I hadn’t had a particularly eventful day. But it worked, and I promise it only felt a tiny it like the end of a Doogie Howser episode.

Every year is a little different, and yet I still find there is something new to learn just from going through the day. In 2008, my September journal documented the first thirty days of married life. In 2009, I used my book as a daily reminder to myself to get out and make things happen rather than just hoping for the best. Each book has its own mood that matches life for that month and sharing that journey with other scrappers has become part of the process through an online class. Here you can see a few other albums that were created last September, and because past participants can join in every year at no extra cost, you’ll see some of these lovelies return to make new albums this year too. I can’t wait to see what everyone – both new and returning scrappers – learns through their back-to-school journal this year.

Now it its fifth year, this online scrapbooking class encourages you to observe the world around you and learn from your daily experiences and surroundings. We work with a small format album to make thirty daily entries, and we adopt a few short cuts and techniques to make those daily entries possible in even the busiest of weeks. And once you’ve joined, you’re welcome to participate for as many years as you like at no extra cost.

The class includes:
…preparation notes delivered next week
…thirty daily full-colour pdf prompts delivered to your inbox
…access to a private class forum at shimelle.com to chat and share your work
…permanent file archive so you can come back to the materials at any time

Plus new additions for 2010:
…custom printables for paper scrappers
…page templates and a digital kit for digi scrappers
…Try Something New Every Day, a back-to-school workbook with quick and easy crafting techniques that adds an element of challenge and surprise
…bonus technique tutorials (as PDF and video formats) to spice up your creativity
…two live chat sessions: one to start the class and a second to celebrate at the end of the month

Each of the daily prompts includes full colour photos of pages from a range of albums so you can see a variety in styles, from simple scrapbook pages to looks that use more layers to art journals. There are also hundreds of additional samples to view in the members’ forum, so no matter what your creative style you can always find something right up your street.

Ready to sign up? You can choose to pay in UK Pounds or US Dollars. If neither of those is your currency, you can choose whichever you prefer – you don’t need to do anything special to change the currency from your account.

You can pay by credit/debit card (click on the left of the payment screen) or Paypal account (log in on the right of the payment screen). Please be sure to enter a valid email address as part of your payment so your prompts can be delivered to your inbox.

Participated last year? You don’t need to do anything. You’ll receive a message in the next day or so with all the relevant links for you. If your email address has changed in the past year, however, you will need to update it on your forum account to ensure you receive your emails. If you can’t remember your login details, send me an email and I’ll get that all set for you.

If you have any questions, feel free to email me or ask in the comments on this post.

I’m excited to meet the class of 2010!

xlovesx

Comment [95]

Thank you so much for joining me for the online crop over this past weekend! I am loving all the projects and photos that are being posted. If you still have some time to take some pictures or finish up a crafting project, you can still get in on the fun — all of these challenges are open until 6am Tuesday morning — UK time. And each of these has a prize package up for grabs! Here’s a quick run-down of everything in one place:

Crafting challenges:
Scrapbooking with red, aqua and white
The first sketch
Scrapbooking with a free printable alphabet
Scrapbooking with circles
Scrapbooking with black and white photos
Scrapbooking with patterned papers
Journal around the page
Scrapbooking with squares
Scrapbooking with at least a little pink
The second sketch
Scrapbooking with heart
Scrapbooking with letters or numbers
Scrapbooking with paper rosettes
Scrapbooking with stamps
Scrapbooking with quadrants
The third sketch
Scrapbooking with layers
Scrapbooking with your favourite supplies
Scrapbooking with whatever you have left

Photo challenges:
Get close
Manmade
Through the glass
Explosive energy
I saw the sign
Night light
Up above
Add a laugh
Nature
Below the knee
Reflections
Study session
Get in the picture
Portrait or candid?
Craft in progress
Zoom out
Smiles
At home

And there are two posts where you can win a great prize just by leaving a comment.
Share a favourite quotation
Share a scrapbooking thought

Winners will be posted on Wednesday, and look for some details about an online class tomorrow! I hope everyone has a lovely week.

xlovesx

Comment [28]

Thanks so much for joining me for whatever part of this three days of crafting you could! It’s been lovely to see your photos and projects pop up across the blogosphere and in page galleries!

For our final giveaway, just leave a comment on this post sharing a thought about why you love scrapbooking. That’s all — just a little positive thought about this creative outlet that everyone here has in common.

One comment will be randomly chosen to win your choice of a knitted bow headband or a knitted flower wearable from The Funky Beau, Rachel’s lovely folksy shop with cute and affordable hand-knitted accessories. Please see this post for all the deadlines and details about this weekend. You have until bright and early Tuesday morning to enter this and all the other prize drawings from this weekend. I’m also going to throw in some extra prizes here and there. All of the prize drawings announced on each post will be randomly chosen, but I’ve saved some shimelle.com class passes to give to a few scrappers who have really made the most of the crop by taking part in many challenges or by creating a real masterpiece for one of the challenges. So those are out there to be won too! All of the prize winners will be announced on Wednesday, as the challenges are open until Tuesday morning.

Thanks again and I hope you had a lovely weekend, no matter how much scrapping you had on the schedule.

xlovesx

Comment [60]

If you’ve been cropping with us all weekend (or you’ve been out and about with all the other things on your schedule), it’s about time to crash and relax for the last few hours of Sunday. So this final challenge is something nice and calm.

Your challenge is to take and post a photograph from home! Absolutely anything in your home – a tiny little detail or a wider shot of everyone relaxing in the living room. As long as it’s from home, you’re all set.

Post your image on Flickr, on your blog or in another online photo gallery. Leave a link to it in the comments on this post to be entered.

One winner will be randomly chosen to win a prize pack of scrapbooking supplies with a home theme, but also great for a variety of other projects.

Please see this post for all the deadlines and details about this weekend.

You can even take this picture from right there at your computer screen if you fancy!

xlovesx

Comment [55]

One final crafting challenge for this weekend to help get the most of the supplies you’ve hauled out over the last three days or so: create something with the leftovers from everything else you’ve been creating. Try not to cut into any full sheets of paper or open any new packages of product – make a card, scrapbook page or tag with whatever you have open. Digi artists won’t have run out of anything of course but try using just elements you’ve already worked with this weekend to get a new look from the same selection of supplies.

As always, upload your project to your gallery or blog and post a link in the comments. One entry will win a prize pack of scrapbooking goodies — all full sheets and new packages, I promise!

Don’t miss the two hourly posts to follow — one last photo challenge and then a comment-to-win post to draw things to a close!

xlovesx

Comment [19]

If you’re happy and you know it… you should be smiling, right? So here’s a challenge that I hope won’t be too difficult for this weekend.

Your challenge is to take and post a photograph with at least one smile! Whether it’s you, a friend, a family member or your dog – just make sure there’s a smile on display.

Post your image on Flickr, on your blog or in another online photo gallery. Leave a link to it in the comments on this post to be entered.

One winner will be randomly chosen to win a prize pack of scrapbooking supplies, and the winner can choose from several options to make sure it’s just what she would like to add to her stash.

Please see this post for all the deadlines and details about this weekend.

Now run off and command people to say cheese!

xlovesx

Comment [44]