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

It wouldn’t be September without a leaf challenge, right? Southern hemisphere friends, please tell me you can take some leafy inspiration for springtime and use an entirely different colour scheme than we are up here, okay? Leaves, leaves aplenty!

This week I challenge you this week to scrapbook with leaves. It is that simple! Use a leaf-printed paper or stamp some leaves or punch them or put some stickers to work, or all of the above. Leaves it is, and everything else is completely up to you, so you can take your inspiration in any direction you like! You might find this tutorial or this video from the archives inspiring for this challenge too, but to get you started on this week’s challenge, take a look at these examples from contributing designer Leigh Ann Odynski and guest artist Ingunn Mankiewicz.

This week’s challenge is such a great starting point to tell the story of a morning nature walk along the ocean. To enhance the organic feel of the layout, I chose to punch a couple different leaf shapes from lots of different patterns. You can create an ombre look by punching lighter tints to darker shades of the same color. Layer and glue them to a simple hand cut leaf shape, then stitch around each one. Have fun punching away, and see how many different patterns you can use! (I used patterns from True Stories, Starshine, and the new Go Now Go collections.)

Decide how to position your leaf shapes without adhesive first, then glue smaller single leaves around the page. I then machine stitched around the page in a loose circle about five times.

Now add your ombre leaves, and some new Go Now Go puffy Heart Stickers and enamel shapes.

I think the stitched wonky circles continue the organic lines in the photos, and the punched leaves. I added three photos from this peaceful walk along the shore, and attached them according to the colors in each photo.

Now you can simply add your journaling and title, and your favorite Go Now Go stickers and enamel shapes to fill in any empty spots around the circle! I really love these challenges, as they always get me thinking more about the story I want to share and how to connect it with the supplies!

Thank you for stopping by today, and I can’t wait to see what you create for this leaf motif challenge!
- Leigh Ann

One of the things I remember most vividly from this hike was how amazingly delicious the huckleberries were, and I keep going on about them in my journaling. Unfortunately I somehow failed to get a photo of those tasty little trailside snacks, so I wanted to at least honor them in embellishment form.

I had limited space due to squeezing in as many photos and words as possible, but I opened up a little half circle for them in the main photo. I cut out a couple of leaves and colored them with two shades of green ink (while congratulating myself, an incorrigible clean & simple scrapbooker, on my extreme artsiness) and used enamel dots as berries. I used the same inks for my title background to repeat the pop of green color.
- Ingunn

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!

I’ll see you tomorrow to share how I took on this challenge!

Today’s Guest Artist: Ingunn Markiewicz loves hiking, scrapbooking, and eating plants (not just huckleberries). You can find more from Ingunn on Instagram and her blog.

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It’s not just back to school time for many of us, it’s also back to school scrapping time! Contributing designer Nicole Nowosad is here to share a fabulous idea for just that!

It’s that time of year where all the kids are heading back to school, if not already there! Like alot of other parents, I like to take back to school photos each year. They sure pile up year after year! It’s about time that I get some of them scrapped.

This past year in particular was an exciting one for my middle son – he started (& finished) his last year of elementary school. I thought it would be great to follow suit of many by taking a first and last day of school photo of him in this big year for him.

You can really see in the two different photos how he has grown up a little in his own way over the 10 month school year. It’s fun to look back and see the progression of your child in the short time span. It is also important to document some of those fun things that happen throughout the year at the same time. I kept both the photos black and white, so that the focus is on the photos themselves, and not so much what color he was wearing those particular days.

I chose to use before and after approach to my page for this – dividing up my project into two similar halves. I really tried to keep things quite monochromatic on each side of the layout, and mimicked the embellishments on both sides as well. It’s great to have a similar approach to each photo on the page, that you can really see each of the photos side by side and see those little physical changes.

I asked my son about his school year and typed up those items and added simple journaling under each photo. It would have been great to have it in his handwriting, but he didn’t want me to use his writing on the page. Preteen drama!

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It was so lovely to see all your paper layering in last week’s challenge! Today I write from a window with a gloomy, grey sky, and plenty of raindrops. Is this the end of summer and the start of all things autumnal? Well, let’s have at least one more challenge with something filled with summer blossoms.

This week, I challenge you this week to scrapbook with floral motifs. It can be something quite minimal, like the single flower tucked into each embellishment cluster in the double page above, or it can be something completely filled to bursting with blossoms! Everything else is completely up to you, so you can take your inspiration in any direction you like! To get you started on this week’s challenge, take a look at these examples from contributing designer Meghann Andrew and guest artist Diana Rivera Torres.

One of the things I remember most about my wedding day was the morning of rain, and the feeling of dread I had before walking out in the downpour wearing a silk wedding dress. I guess that’s what you get when you get married in Scotland, right? Our wedding photographer captured several photos of the wedding party arriving at the church under umbrellas, which I had not yet documented, and it was about time to do that.

Instead of using raindrops, I decided to create a shower of flowers on my 8-1/2” 11” layout!

To create a lot of contrast from the brightly colored die-cut umbrella and fussy-cut flowers, I used black and white photos and a clean, white background.

The dreary, rainy morning turned into a beautiful, warm sunny day for our wedding reception, and this layout definitely looks on the bright and sunny side of the day!
- Meghann

Scrapbooking is the perfect way to express my feelings about these pictures. I love to challenge myself to give a whole new way to use paper collections that are supposed to be used for other topics or experiment with materials like heat transfer in paper.

Because of a mistake I don’t have many pictures of my wedding, but this is one of my favourites, and I always tell a different story or feeling about it each time I work with it. I love the flowers of Shimelle’s Starshine Collection because they remind me of the bold colors of my bridal bouquet. I made the title with Silhouette heat transfer and adhesive vinyl.
- Diana

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: Diana Rivera Torres loves writing, music and stories. You can find more from Diana on Instagram, YouTube, and her blog.

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In celebration of a lovely layered challenge to start September, contributing designer Leigh Ann Odynski joins us to share her take on scrapbook layering. Enjoy!

I love this week’s challenge! I’ll be honest. It struck me that vehicles are really not something that I’ve scrapbooked. I mean, I could only find about four photos of our cars from the last twenty years! Then it hit me. Look at what story you want to tell. That began with a question.

“What memories are centered around our cars?”

We bring babies and groceries home in them, travel on family road trips, go out on dates, and to church on Sunday, and hop in them to start our lives together after the wedding with streamers flailing and cans rattling! After I found the 1950 photo of my Grandma and Papa, holding my Mom, I realized I could tell the story of our family cars over the last 66 years! OF course you don’t need to span that broad of a timeframe. Brainstorm all the memories associated with your vehicles, and see how your story unfolds.

I really loved the mod feel of the 1950 photo, so I went with a 1950s inspired color scheme. The Starshine “Juno” paper had the perfect motif! The repeating diamonds on the left side of the layout utilize the tone on tone patterns from Shimelle’s lines. Love the subtle effect!

To keep the layout clean, I wanted to house all six color photos in the glassine bag with the journaling. I hand cut random size tags from the True Stories 6×6 pad. The crochet thread allows you to easily pull the tags out of the bag to read and view.

Lots of layers were used figuratively and literally, in the layers of time represented, and the tons of paper strips used behind the focal point photo. I also added more layers with True Stories word stickers, die cuts, and an epoxy paper clip from Starshine.

In the end, this page took me a lot longer than usual to create, but it was so worth it! I can’t believe I have never realized how substantial the family vehicle is in our lives! Think about your life and the story you want to tell for future generations, and maybe even find a story you didn’t know was there!

Thank you so much to Shimelle, for coming up with these challenges! If not for this challenge, I would not have this page that I cherish so much, and I am so thankful!l

I would love to see your take on this week’s challenge! Share your link here and happy creating!

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I’ve been doing a bit of organising of files on computer drives. That’s always ridiculously exciting, right? Trying to sort through some of my earliest videos and see how much of that older content is still useful and how much of it was so trend-based it would probably be best ignored today, and one of the earliest Glitter Girl videos made me sigh. Adventure 004 was my first video truly dedicated to layering, and it’s basically the most watched process video I’ve ever made. Episode FOUR! So very early indeed.

But I still love layering. My layers change with time and product but the principles remain the same. I like small angles, a mix of patterns, contrast and harmony in the colours. I love that pulling pieces of pretty paper from my scrap basket feels like bonus use of a product, so I can layer so much onto a page without feeling like it cost the earth, even if that is somewhat creative accounting. I’d love to see and hear what you love about layering too.

This week, I challenge you this week to scrapbook with lots and lots of layers. That’s as simple as challenges come, right? Everything is completely up to you, so you can take your inspiration in any direction you like! To get you started on this week’s challenge, take a look at these examples from contributing designer May Flaum and guest artist Laura Payne.

When it comes to lots of layers on my scrapbook pages, I really like to focus in on details in specific areas. One such example? Taking journaling cards that perhaps aren’t my style, and transforming them into embellished gems ready to top off any scrapbook or pocket page.

These days I’m recovering from a complex wrist injury that has me barely holding a pen and only able to work in small batches of time. Dressing up one or two journaling cards with scraps and layers has been just the ticket.

I started with two travel cards that I knew I’d never use. Old cars were on them, and well that doesn’t fit with anything I do. Not to worry – first some Shimelle ticket tape, then some roll-on stars, and then a few scraps of papers quickly covered the cars up as well as adding some lovely layers. The key to layering for me is to be OK with any early layers being partially, or even fully covered when done. You’ll also want to mix up size, pattern, and color for variety. Once you’ve added a few paper scraps (great way to clean the desk) – add some texture. I like tiny staples and stitching. If bulk is an issue, add drops of mist, stickers, or some sequins. Otherwise grab those wood veneer pieces, buttons, and other embellishments and add that flair!

With the cards finished and waiting, it was quick and easy to turn them into a completed 12×12 page with my next pocket of time and energy. It’s great to remember these cards can look brilliant on a more traditional page as well as in the divided page protector style.
- May

Being mama to a little boy obsessed with his toy cars made the theme of vehicles something i could totally scrap about, and his ever growing collection was something i definitely wanted to document!

My go to process when scrapping is to take several pieces of patterned paper and stack them all up behind my photos. It’s a look I truly love and I knew the papers in Shimelle’s True Stories collection would be the perfect match to the bright colours in my photos. I added a doily and a kraft tag in between to build up the layering and finished off with embellishments and a simple title created on my computer and cut out.
- Laura

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: Laura Payne loves her little family, anything crafty, and copious amounts of tea. You can find more from Laura on Instagram.

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Just in case a weekend of challenges from the contributing designers is not enough to keep your fingers cutting and pasting this week, we have a weekly challenge for you as well! Time to dust off your sewing machine or your needle and thread: this week, I challenge you this week to stitch on your page. Machine or hand, a little or a lot – it’s completely up to you, so you can take your inspiration in any direction you like! A few years ago, Marie Pierre shared a collection of stitching ideas you might find useful for reference, but let’s started on this week’s challenge with a look at these examples from contributing designer Heather Leopard and guest artist Joanne Walton-Calvert.

There’s something about stitching that pulls me in every. single. time. I absolutely HAVE to include it on all my pages. While I love the look of a hand stitched layout, I don’t do it on the regular because it’s quite time consuming. I save those for binge watching tv or road trips (when I’m a passenger). My go to stitching technique is to use a sewing machine. What I love about machine stitching is that you can go as minimal or detailed as you wish in a fraction of the time so while it does add a little more time to your creative process, the results are worth it, in my opinion. It just adds that extra finished detail that bonds the entire page together.

For this layout, I wanted to mimic the circular inner tube float in my photo so using my Silhouette software, I created a cut file and cut circles in half but with a rounded cut in the semi part of the circle. You can download my free cut file here. Then I pieced them together like a quilt and stitched over them on both the inside and outside of the perimeter. Circles are not my favorite to machine stitch but never fear, it’s really hard to see if you don’t make the perfect circle and you can cover little mistakes with an embellishment or two.
- Heather

I made this layout with an arty photo my daughter took when we were whale watching in Reykjavik at Easter. I love how Fiona has gotten interested in photography recently and wanted to document this. I like using sewing on my layouts as it adds texture – hand sewing is very therapeutic and can be prepared so that I can do it while watching tv with my family in the evenings. It is also a frugal way to make my supplies go further!

I like mixing my new supplies which inspire me, with older supplies and collections. I only have a very small amount of the True Stories and Starshine collections left so I have used them here with My Mind’s Eye By the Sea brads, Pinkfresh Felicity letters, and October Afternoon letters. The little grey envelope that holds my journaling is so, so old, bought from Two Peas on clearance, the embroidery floss is from various manufacturers and Bazzil card stock. I also detail cut the globes which is an economical way to make my embellishments.

For hand sewing I use a mix of old fashioned stencils and simple free hand shapes, just pricking the paper first with my piercing tool. For machine sewing I use a children’s sewing machine bought in post Christmas sales for £5 – I don’t worry about making it too neat and often go over it several times for effect.
- Joanne

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: Joanne Walton-Calvert loves spending time with her family (including two cats), travel, and cooking. You can find more from Joanne on Instagram.

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To bring our weekend to the full team, we have one more new project from Leigh Ann Odynski, and then it’s my turn! Next weekend, while the challenges are still open, you’ll see my take on all the fun. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves: time for Leigh Ann to show you how she took her inspiration from Meghann and made it her own!

I love Meghann’s clean, detailed style, and was inspired by the repetition of circular elements on her page! When using an inspiration piece, I like to note my initial reactions and what I love about it, or what catches my eye. I continue on to start my page without looking at the inspiration piece again, and this way my mind can focus on creating a new page, or piece of art with its own story.

Of course, with this page from Meghann, the circle-based design is such an eye-catcher. My own style focuses on adding texture to the background in many instances. With this in mind, I started by punching a circle in the middle of copy paper. Spreading texture paste in dots masked by the circle allowed me to repeat what I love about Meghann’s layout: the movement and rhythm created by the different colors and patterns of the circles on her page. I love the interest she created, and chose many different colors and patterns for my paper circles as well.

Next I like to look at my page and see if my imagination can come up with any new way to add another layer to the page. While daydreaming, I came up with the idea of using thin strips of white card stock to resemble an embroidery hoop. Think old school quilling strips, glued at the end in different sizes. I cut varying lengths of the white card stock to 1/16th of an inch (about the thickness of wood veneer embellishments) and hand stitched the “hoops” to the page with crochet thread.

Then I used a circular photo like Meghann did, and placed my title across the bottom of it since it and the background card stock are white.

I hope you are inspired to look at inspiration pages in a new light. You can use any element or idea from the page that inspires you, and recreate one in your own style. Even pages that aren’t your style , can be inspiring when broken down into elements used to create the feeling of design. Shape, color, pattern, texture, line, and space are all elements you can take from any scrapbook page to create your own design. Have fun and enjoy the process!

If you put Leigh Ann’s inspiration to work for you on any project between now and the 10th of August, please share it here. We’d love to see what you make!

This weekend is brought to you by The 20 Project – a brand new online class with 20 new process videos. Class starts Wednesday, so now is the perfect time to sign up!

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_Next up in our weekend of inspiration, Heather Leopard takes her inspiration from this page created by Laureen Wagener and shared via Scrapbook Like a Superhero!

I’m a huge fan on Laureen’s work. She’s a woman after my own heart – mixing and matching paper patterns in fun and unique ways. I was particularly drawn to this layout of hers because of the quilt-like look and the geometric intricacies of the page. I also love that she created it all on a diagonal. As much as I would have loved to copy this layout exactly as it is because it’s perfection, I had to make it unique to me.

I started by designing a similar look in my Silhouette software. I kept with the diagonal feel but to make it my own, I chose to make smaller boxes to give it a zoomed out look and instead of piecing together triangles to form the squares, I kept the squares as whole pieces.

I chose to use 5 different colors with at least 5 – 7 different patterns within the color scheme. To cut these, I grouped the boxes together and cut multiples of each pattern in each color scheme. You can download my cut file here. Repeat for each color scheme until you have lots of little piles of patterns for each color.

Next I used the internal offset feature, set to .79 to create smaller boxes. You can download the file I created with the internal offset images here. After all, there’s no need for us both to do all the work!

Once I removed the outside larger boxes, I used my sketch pen to draw a template on my cardstock. This made it easy peasy to know exactly where to place each square. I certainly didn’t want my lines to get off and not match up halfway through the project. I went to town, adhering the squares on the cardstock with just a slight dab of liquid adhesive. I didn’t want to add too much since I was going to sew over it.

Next, I really liked how Laureen stitched 3 rows over each full square so I chose to do the same. It was quite the task for all these little boxes but I LOVE the end result! I added layers behind my single photo, a sparkly title at an angle and a little cluster of embellishments in the corner to call this layout done. Actually, I still need to add the journaling, which I plan to do in the open diagonal space right below my photo.

Thanks Laureen for the incredible inspiration. I can’t wait to see what you create next!

Hopefully this has inspired you as well. If you download and use the cut files I created, please share them here, on the Scrapbook like a Superhero Facebook page or on Instagram and tag me. I’d love to see what you create!

If you put Heather’s inspiration to work for you on any project between now and the 10th of August, please share it here. We’d love to see what you make!

This weekend is brought to you by The 20 Project – a brand new online class with 20 new process videos. Class starts Wednesday, so now is the perfect time to sign up!

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