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

With True Stories in the spring, collection three arrived for the holiday season and brought a bit of nostalgia along for the fun. Christmas Magic was actually named after my childhood puppy! This is the most limited colour palette I’ve worked with in the paper collections: predominantly evergreen, brick red, and cream, but actually you’ll find some shades of blue and turquoise in there too. Plus silver and gold! I think my favourite part of this collection was two vellums – one with stars and one with snowflakes, each with a bit of special shimmer. But I also love the stories told in the ephemera and sticker motifs: the Christmas records my family would pull out year after year, the toys inspired by the look of Christmas TV specials, like Rudolph and Frosty. I also loved a product that was very different for me: a die set to cut paper chains to put on the Christmas tree. The challenge was to make a set that would have an interesting pattern even with plain cardstock (so you’d feel better about cutting plenty!) while also making them possible to assemble without any adhesive. Last Christmas, I made lots of these with crafters in pubs across London, and I got such a thrill from an email from someone who used the die with a Brownie troop to make seemingly endless paper chains to decorate their community centre.

Today contributing designer Leigh Ann Odynski has a beautiful page to share with you, featuring Christmas Magic.

_My design for this Christmas scrapbook page was inspired by Heather and Laureen who shared their pages here at the last online crop weekend.

I love how the quilted look works with the Christmas Magic Shimelle collection. To start off, I took the 6×6 Christmas Magic paper pad and picked out patterns in my layout colors. Turquoise, red, and black and white. Try for a variety of pattern styles. All over, tone on tone, text, and scenes are some of the patterns I chose. Punch four to eight squares of each pattern and then trim them all into triangles.

To lay them out on the page, I started at the very top left corner, by placing a triangle even with the edges of that top corner and then flipping it over. You can line up all the triangles quite easily in this way. A T-Square ruler helped me keep the horizontal line of the diamonds lined up.

After your triangles are all glued down with a tiny dab of glue, then you can stitch as shown, through all the triangles. I chose to keep the embellishing to a minimum so that the patterned papers and the quilted design are the focal point of the page. A 3×4 photo and snowflakes cut from the patterned papers, new Go Now Go enamel dots and some die cut pieces are all you need to finish out the page. You can add a few drops of Mr Huey’s “Dewey” color to coordinate with the colors in this line if you like!

Notice how I kept the embellishments in three small areas around the page. They form a triangle, but are kept close to the diamond shapes of patterned paper.

I love how Leigh Ann’s tiny triangle technique could be used to make gorgeous Christmas cards out of the smallest scraps. I’m trying to tell myself to let go of some Christmas scraps I’ve kept for years, but this idea is not helping that effort, I’m afraid!

Much of what I made with Christmas Magic was part of my Journal your Christmas project in 2015, but there is one very Christmassy process video should you require that sort of inspiration! Again, please feel free to link up your own Christmas Magic projects in the comments! The more the merrier.

Not long until CHA now. I’ve even started putting things in a suitcase! Tomorrow, we go to infinity and beyond in terms of paper collections. See you then!

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With that first collection meant – if only in my mind – to be called Pretty Paper, the next one had to be True Stories. There was the idea that we could just start with Pretty Paper in collection two, but I already had ideas for what True Stories would be and I was just too stubborn far down the path to go back and change my mind. True Stories it would be. This is always what I find scrapbooking to be: pretty paper and true stories.

I will never forget our original pitch meeting for designing this collection. It was on a computery-conference-call thingy with me in London and the American Crafts team in Utah, and a seven hour time difference that may have been enough to make for plenty of ‘huh?’ opportunities. But I started with one clear vision: ‘I want coffee cups and rocket ships. And now I need to find a way to bring those things together.’

The thing that brought them together – along with a few other motifs, including the pastel plastic radio I carried onto the school bus every day in the fourth grade – was ‘everyday daydreams’. A sort of place where the mundane of everyday life collided with the fantastical. Coffee cups and rocket ships. Actually, for a while this collection had the alternative name Six Impossible Things, based on the Alice in Wonderland quote that sometimes I’ve believed six impossible things before breakfast, but it was deemed a bit too confusing so we scrapped that name but did keep some text from Alice, including that line, if you look at some of the less bold patterns.

Today please welcome guest Sarah King to share a new page with the True Stories collection!

I used the Shimelle, True Stories collection to create this layout about one of the major things I craved while I was pregnant. Strawberry Shortcake!! Yum! I used a Fancy Pants, Park Bench envelope to keep my moms recipe I used to make my yummy snack, I thought this would be a good way to keep the recipe for my kids when there old enough to cook too.

I love how the little envelope here hides something practical like the recipe, but given a different story, it could just as easily be used to hold journaling you really want in your album but don’t particularly want read by every casual visitor to your home who takes a look at your pages.

Each of these is clickable for additional layouts and videos from the archive here, with those projects I made and a mini class I taught with True Stories. The next collection? It was all inspired by a scrapbooking class. I’ll share that one tomorrow!

Today’s Guest Artist: Sarah King loves scrapbooking, her family, and coffee. You can find more from Sarah on Instagram, YouTube, and her blog.

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With just a week until the doors open upon Creativation, the CHA trade show for 2017, it feels like a perfect time to think about using (or at least earmarking) all the supplies we’ve gathered over the years. Every day for the next week, I’ll share ideas for scrapbooking with my previous collections with American Crafts. Today we head all the way back to that original collection, which was just called ‘Shimelle’. Trivia: I had hoped it would be called Pretty Paper, but for marketing reasons, it was name only. In my head, this is still my Pretty Paper collection! First up, here’s a beautiful project from contributing designer Meghann Andrew, mixing that original collection with paper from Starshine.

When creating a layout, I typically try to match the style of the layout with the mood in my photo. When I came across a photo of my daughter asleep on the floor after playing with her toys, I wanted to create a playful layout, almost as though toys were scattered around my photo.

As soon as I saw the Phoenix paper from the Starshine collection, I knew that it would create the perfect background for this fun, colorful page. It also helped me to dictate the design of my layout, using a circular photo to match the colorful, circular lines on the paper, and arranging my embellishments in a circular frame around the photo.

I typically use several different patterned papers on my layouts, but I didn’t want to compete with the lovely background paper. So, I decided to die-cut part of my title from Starshine patterns. This added more color and different patterns to the page. Since I also kept the title on the radial axis, it became a starting point for my embellishment cloud around the photo.

Mixing and matching several of the Shimelle collections from American Crafts was easy, and gave me so many different options to add embellishment. I’d love for you to take a look at how this layout came together, and how I mixed and matched several collections. It certainly was a fun layout to create!

Hands up if you have any of this original collection sitting in your stash to this day! If you have pages in your gallery or on your own blog that you’ve created with this collection, please share in the comments – the more the merrier!

Each of these is clickable for additional layouts and videos from the archive here, with those projects I made in the early days of this collection with American Crafts. And what came after this collection that was called Pretty Paper but was not called Pretty Paper? That would be something we’ll review tomorrow!

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It’s nearly time for CHA, so that means plenty of new papers and embellishments! Today I’m delighted to share my newest collection with American Crafts: Little by Little!

My box of Little by Little literally arrived this afternoon, so I’ve just filmed a video of these products! I hope you enjoy the commentary.

There are plenty of papers and a lovely little collection of embellishments, including a sticker book with cardstock, clear, and washi stickers all in the same book. It includes two small alphabets as well, to make sure you have plenty to use with that big colourful set of Thickers.

As always, I design my collections to be equally useful for boys and girls, young and old, so you’ll find plenty of whimsy here but also the types of patterns that can just be used again and again, with geometrics and black and white patterns thrown in there too. And if you like special papers for special things, there’s a gold foil metallic printed on navy blue cardstock. I’m ridiculously excited about how pretty it is. I wish it was a dress so I could wear it, but I guess that’s going a bit far with a 12×12 sheet of paper.

The sticker book includes a page of stickers that let you build your own wreath, perfect for framing your journaling or the sentiment on a card.

I can’t wait to see what you make with Little by Little! When you share something, please tag it with #AClittlebylittle and #shimelle so we can all see your fabulous creativity! Little by Little is shipping to stores now, so you’ll see it at your favourite shops very soon.

Stop by the American Crafts Blog for a chance to win a Little by Little prize pack too!

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It’s nearly time to start keeping a Christmas journal for many of us, and the annual Christmas in a Box is boxed up and ready to help you with all your December projects! After keeping a similar format for the last several years, this year’s kit is just slightly different. I’ve heard from so many of you that your box of Christmas embellishments is positively overflowing, but of course we all love a bit of new Christmas fun to make our albums an inspiring project. I’ve combined that feedback with my love of patterned paper and created a kit that will complement a running theme of Journal your Christmas this year: making the best with our old and new. Christmas in a Box (or just the stamps!) can be your ‘new’ element to mix with your existing stash of supplies as the ‘old’. It also means this year’s kit is less expensive!

Christmas in a Box includes:
18 12×12 patterned papers (all double-sided, 2016 releases)
1 12×12 metallic vellum paper
1 set of red and white Christmas striped Thickers letter stickers
1 pack of puffy heart stickers
1 pack of textured snowflake stickers
2 sets of 4×6 limited edition clear stamps: Christmas words and Christmas numbers
and a few tiny little things (just a small sampling of buttons, wood veneer, and thread) that coordinate specifically with one of the JYC videos)
PLUS a handmade gift from me made just for each of you, which is a little surprise.
Christmas in a Box (including stamps) is £32 including UK postage. Postage to other countries is available, but costs a little more.

The stamps are also available as a pair on their own, which may be helpful if you want to order from overseas but would prefer a lighter shipping bill. Stamps on their own are £18 GBP (or about $23 USD) including shipping to anywhere in the world.

To order Christmas in a Box as a full kit:

If your Christmas in a Box kit should be shipped outside the UK, you will receive a second invoice for shipping and have the chance to change your mind if the shipping is prohibitive.
If you would like to order the same items from a US-based shop, you can find the papers and stickers on this scrapbook.com shopping list. Most everything on the list is also available at Blue Moon Scrapbooking, also based in the US.

To order just the stamps:

Stamps can be shipped anywhere in the world at no extra charge.

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With our big red challenge in full swing, it seems apt to have a bit of a London-scrapping week! I’m delighted to share this page and process video from contributing designer Meghann Andrew, who just might make you fall in love with those bold and graphic patterned papers in your scrapbooking stash.

Movement is a powerful tool in visual design. It directs your eye through a piece, and points you to the takeaway, or what is most important. By tapping into this technique, you can create visually stunning designs on your layouts, that still get your stories told!

When I sat down to create this layout about a long ago day trip to London, in which I introduced my parents to the amazing city, I was immediately drawn to the bold diagonal lines in the Ranger patterned paper from the Starshine collection. By placing my column of 3” x 3” photos in its center, I created a heavy diagonal line that led directly to my photos.

Diagonal lines create a dramatic visual effect, and to make my design even more bold, I decided to colorblock embellishments along the red and teal stripes leading to my photos. These elements, which include quite a few arrows, create even more movement along the page.

To bridge the gap between all of these embellishments and my photos, I decided to use a large transparent arrow. Not only did it house my title, London, but it also pointed directly through my photo column to my journaling tag, the stopping place when looking at this layout.

To lead you through my design process while creating this layout, I’ve created a video! Please feel free to ask any questions or leave any comments about movement on your projects, and don’t be afraid to use bold lines and embellishment to create movement on your next layout.

Have a great weekend!

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_{Scrapbooking process video for this older layout can be found on YouTube if you fancy a watch.}

Maybe it’s the inspiration of bonfire night just this past weekend or maybe it’s the arrival of little signs of the holidays, but the colour on my mind right now is red! Time to bring it to a scrapbook page, and this week, we challenge you to do just that. Go big with red on your next page to participate this week. You can do that through paper, embellishments, ink, paint, ribbon, or washi tape – whatever gets you excited to create something new. To get you started on this week’s challenge, take a look at these examples from contributing designer Heather Leopard and guest artist Jessica Brown.

For this week’s Go Big Red theme, I knew I wanted to document a recent trip to London and that I wanted to include two things that I’ve enjoyed seeing in abundance almost every time I’ve visited – the Union Jack and red Poppies. I had this cut file in my files so I supersized it and cut it out of some fun pattern papers in the same color scheme as the Union flag. Of course I stitched all of the different patterns together.

I kept the embellishments to one – fussy cut flowers to demonstrate the poppies. I layered most of them around my photo on the bottom right and a small cluster in the upper left. Then I added a journaling tag tucked behind my photo. I think this will make the perfect opening page for our London album.
- Heather

I found the big red challenge very challenging indeed, because I didn’t want to just go with all red and ignore all the other wonderful colours out there! I started with red and navy due with my London photos, then I added aqua and finally, to brighten it up a bit I chose yellow. For the London theme, while I considered doing something more abstract, I decided upon going with an obvious use of London motifs. I love London and I don’t often embrace theme scrapbooking. I know that a lot of scrappers make themes work beautifully, so I went with it!

The background paper is one that has a pre-printed design on it. These are difficult for me to use so I wanted to show one way that I use them – cover up the parts that you don’t want!

Simple, but it makes you look at those papers hanging around in your stash in a different way.

- Jessica

You have a week to complete the challenge and share a link – but of course you’re welcome to set your own time schedule. Whatever keeps you happy and creative!

Today’s Guest Artist: Jessica Brown loves travel, history, and scrapbooking. You can find more from Jessica on Instagram, YouTube, and her blog.

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With autumn in a colourful force in our neighbourhood this year, it’s with a big smile that I share a beautiful Go Now Go autumn layout today, by contributing designer Meghann Andrew. Enjoy! And jump in some leaves if you can.

Autumn layouts are my most favorite to create. Sadly, I have to travel a few hours north to get photos of autumnal colors, but luckily, I did just that a few weeks ago, and I had a day to document using the Go Now Go collection.

The design of this layout came together quickly using the “World” patterned paper. The delineated lines on the “B” side told me exactly where to place my photos and title, then the dark blue vertical section became a playground of sorts for some fun embellishment. I find that autumnal layouts almost require layers upon layers of leaves and pretty things, almost like a pile of leaves.

I gathered plain white and vellum die-cut leaves, colored paper leaves, as well as fussy-cut leaves and trees from the “Live” and “Park” patterned papers, and layered them, using dimensional adhesive, buttons and string. I wanted to match the copper color of the beautiful glittered Thickers in my piles, but I didn’t have any copper metallic paper. So, I grabbed white die-cut leaves, and pressed them into a Versamark pad, then covered them with copper embossing powder. After heat-setting, they were beautiful and shimmery, and the perfect metallic accent on the right side of the page. For additional texture, I added small enamel dots.

The “see the beauty” journaling tag from the “Run” patterned paper couldn’t have been more perfect for this layout about a beautiful valley that we visited, and I typed and printed my journaling onto the tag to get the most out of the space I had. I love that this layout feels like fall on a page!

PS: Don’t forget the challenges from last weekend remain open for this weekend too. We’d love to see what you’re making!

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