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

Thank you so much for the amazing response to Christmas Magic! I am so, so excited to see it arrive in stores this month and to see your projects come to life with this paper version of my childhood Christmas memories! I am really quite speechless reading your comments. Thank you times infinity!

Here’s my first page with this collection on my actual desk! The only things I added were a pinked circle punch, some Amy Tangerine washi tape, gold Color Shine mist, and a brown precision pen and ink pad. Everything else is Christmas Magic!

But it’s also time to open reservations for Christmas in a Box 2015! (That’s last year’s box in the picture! All new kit coming for 2015, of course.)

If you’re new to Christmas in a Box, you can have a look at the 2014 box to get an idea of how much it includes: papers, stickers, embellishments, custom stamps (in fact, this year there are two sheets to the stamp set) all designed to be used throughout December, but also be versatile at other times of the year, so many of the papers will include a non-seasonal b-side, for example, and the stamps have a variety of holiday phrases and more general motifs for documenting life. This year’s box will contain a noticeable amount of the Christmas Magic collection, but will also include elements from a range of other releases that I’ve chosen to coordinate. The kit does not include an album, as Journal Your Christmas participants have long embraced a variety of different formats for their finished projects and I embrace that variety and creative freedom. (I will also say it does not include the paper chains die set. I’m really excited about those dies, but I don’t think everyone who usually orders the kit necessarily has a die cutter, and it would really reduce the amount of other fun stuff in the box!)

There are three reservation options: a box to a UK address, a box to an address anywhere else, and just the stamps.

If you’re in the UK, you can reserve a kit that will be packed on my very own hands and sent to your door. It’s a £5 deposit with a balance of £35 due at the time of shipping, with the shipping aim for these to arrive with you to be crafting on the first of November. (This is significantly earlier than 2014, and I’ve made sure some things are already in place to make sure everything moves promptly!) The total £40 price includes the postage. You can simply pay £5 now to guarantee your kit, then the £35 balance will be due when the kit is ready to ship to you. If you choose not to pay the remaining balance for your kit, the £5 will not be refunded and you will not receive the kit, but that’s all: no further action will be taken.

If you’re elsewhere in the world, I have a way for you to get the same kit that will ship from the US instead so we don’t just zig-zag boxes all over the world. Rather than clicking to pay to reserve your kit, I need you to send me an email with your name and your zip code (for the US) or your town and country (rest of the world), and I will reply to you directly with the rest of the info you will need to collect your deposit and balance.

For both of the above options, your kit will be reserved ten days from the first invoice to pay the balance. I’ll email at least two more reminders before the tenth day. On day eleven, I’m going to go ahead and list those boxes for sale at the full price. If there is some extenuating circumstance for you around the time of the balance being due, I’m hoping ten days is enough time for you to at least get in touch, and that way I don’t need to build my own Christmas tree out of unclaimed boxes or anything else a little crazy. If you don’t feel that time frame is fair, don’t reserve a kit. You can always make your own kit by shopping at your favourite retailer. I’m hoping that seems pretty sensible and fair.

If you just want the stamps, you don’t need to pay a deposit but you can reserve a set by sending me an email with your name and shipping address. (Please note, that is a different email address to the kit option above, so be sure to click the one you want.) This year’s stamps will be two 4×6 sheets of high quality, made in the UK clear material to be used on an acrylic block – the same manufacturing process as last year but with two sheets and all new designs. Last year these sold out far more quickly than I expected, so I’m adding this reservation now in hopes there will be more happiness at receiving your stamps than sadness at missing out. Plus they will ship faster with the addresses all ready to go. Yay!

Reservations for all three options will remain open until the 24th of September. There will also be a number of kits and stamps available for purchase without a reservation, but that number will be very small.

You don’t need to participate in Journal your Christmas to purchase the kit, and the kit is not required to participate in Journal your Christmas. It’s just for fun, and it can be a great way to treat yourself to a lovely mix of brand new products for Christmas crafting when the calendar is extra busy with holiday celebration leaving you little time to shop. In case it’s not obvious, Journal your Christmas will run again this year. It had a big refresh last year and will have a few smaller updates this year, and you can sign up at any time and have access to all the materials from previous years. (Rest assured, all previous participants are still welcome to join in at no extra cost.)

I think that’s everything! Any questions, please feel free to leave a comment and I will email you a response.

Comment [44]

After what feels like an eternity of staying quiet about it, I’m delighted to shout from the rooftops about something I’ve been working on this year: a brand new paper craft collection for Christmas 2015! It’s called Christmas Magic and ships to retailers this month. This is my third collection with American Crafts, and I’m so excited to be using this along with some other favourite products for my 2015 Christmas journal and Journal your Christmas class videos (more about that at the end of this post) but for right now, I just want to share it with you and offer you a chance to win some of it for free while we’re at it!

There are three sets of Thickers: Fitzgerald in red glitter, Eclair in black foam, and a new design called Starlight that features the numbers 1 to 31 (plus some star accents) with gold foil detail on cream chipboard.

I’m so excited to put this to use all over the place this December: it’s a set of four dies that create paper chains to decorate your tree, your fireplace, your classroom, your office computer, your presents, your dog… whatever will sit still long enough is fair game, I think!

I wouldn’t blame you for sticking a tinsel bow on everything either. I probably need a whole extra pack just to stick on members of my family at various moments throughout the season. Of course.

Some tried and true embellishments: rub-ons that include quite a few small phrases perfect for small format albums, pocket pages, and Christmas cards as well as the finishing details for larger projects like 12×12 pages, wooden buttons with epoxy designs in the centre, and enamel ‘dots’ with holly leaves.

And no shortage of stickers, for sure. Choose from a 6×12 sheet of cork stickers with white, red, and green designs or the 4×8 sticker sheet with words and phrases on one side and an alphabet on the other, or…

…chipboard stickers in two styles – either with lots of dimension and layers of chipboard or just a teensy bit of dimension in a single layer of chipboard, both with foil details to finish.

And of course, there is paper. Pattern paper as we know it and some special papers too, including things like gold foil on vellum. Prefer to see the collection on video? Well I can help with that. I even broke out the gold glitter and navy blue French manicure! (I think I’m saving the red and gold for nearer to December. I don’t want to peak too early, after all.)

As mentioned in the video, this collection will of course play a part in something I do every December: Journal your Christmas. I’ll be using a mix of this collection and other elements in my own journal and in the Christmas in a Box kit, which you can reserve from tomorrow should you wish. We’ll talk all about that tomorrow, when I’ll also be sharing my first Christmas Magic process video! I hope you’ll stop by to take a look.

For now, if you leave a comment on both this post and this one on the American Crafts blog, you’ll be entered to win a Christmas Magic prize pack! Which piece do you hope to find by the time your Christmas tree is up this year?

Comment [324]

Today, please welcome Jamie Leija, a fellow scrapbooker in love with seeing the world and scrapbooking it with a globe motif or two. But of course it’s best when we can get even more from our supplies and not need to book a holiday just to have an excuse to use a new stamp (though I won’t blame you if you do!) so I’m delighted that Jamie has come up with five new projects to share that all use globes and aren’t about travel at all. Stay right where you are and be justified in that globe stamp anyway! Take it away, Jamie.

I’m a traveller. Therefore, I’m addicted to travel motifs. My favourites are geotags, compasses and lately globes. The Shimelle collection features some really great globes. But I didn’t want to use them on only my travel pages. Instead, I want to show you how versatile they can be! From your everyday and ordinary, to the most special people in your life, globes are a great alternative to the stars, hearts and geometrics of this world (pun intended).

I turned to my love of quotes and sentiments to act as starting points for these projects. I found quotes about the world, earth and even distance to use as my inspiration for each project.

Light up the World
I love this sentiment. Just about everyone you love can light up your world. My nephew definitely lights up mine. Pairing the globe stamp and this fantastic Lemon & Ginger
(lightbulb) patterned paper was a no brainer once I settled on this title. Also, the stamp itself reads See the World but it was simple to print a bit of text and paste over top of the “See the…” portion of the sentiment.

See the World as an Adventure
Inherently, I think globes imply adventure and the unknown. Isn’t life itself a grand adventure with a myriad of unknowns. I can’t think of a better icon to help convey that message. Also, here’s a killer combo to consider: Shimelle’s stamps paired with Hero Arts Ombre ink pads! I love love love how the stamped globe turned out.

Change the World
The world is a tough place. And I personally need reminders that you can’t let it get you down. This quote completely resonated with me when I found it. It’s a great one to use for a simple picture of a lovely smile. An equally awesome quote to consider: “be the change you want to see in the world”. Pair a globe with that sentiment and you’re golden!

However Near or Far
The great thing about the globe metal die from Shimelle’s first collection is that it’s the perfect size for your standard A2 card. I think globes are a perfectly lovely icon to include in a card to a friend far away. And sending notes to friends is one of my favorite pastimes. This one is zooming off to NYC as this is posted.

Ends of the Earth
Have you ever spread your arms as far apart as they go and told someone “this is how much I love you?” A globe paired with the sentiment “I love you to the ends of the earth” is the greeting card equivalent. For this card, I had fun making my own patterned background using the phrase stamp, some ink and Shimelle’s pens..

I had so many more ideas for projects with globes, all using a quote or sentiment as a starting point. Here are a five others you could consider for your next globe project:

“You colour my world” – Awesome for a person, a pet, or even a thing
“The world is brighter because of you” – Make this tongue in cheek and feature a non-living item or stick with the traditional a document someone you love
“It’s me and you against the world” – Easily used for a page about a relationship, romantic or platonic, I think it would still apply
“Embrace your journey” – Not all journey’s are travel related, so focus on the what and the how that got you to where you are today
“Watch with glittering eyes, the whole world around you” – I love this Roald Dahl quote. I think it would be completely awesome for a baby page!

I hope you’ll look at globes with eyes anew, and consider them for more than just your travel pages.

Jamie Leija (said Lay-ha) is a native Texan who loves to travel and scrapbook. She’s lived in London, Thailand, and Spain and has travelled to so many other places. In Jamie’s mind, traveling and scrapbooking go hand in hand. She loves that one hobby supports the other and that scrapbooking also lets her relive and share all of those fabulous travel moments. Jamie has been scrapbooking for the past seventeen years and has been published in Scrapbook Inspirations Idea Book, Scrapbook Trends, CARDS, and Create publications. She is currently on the creative teams for Scrapbook Circle and Simple Scrapper.. You can see more of her work on her blog, Instagram or YouTube.

Comment [6]

Oh, 12×12 scrapbook pages! How I love thee! So much so that I made another straight away. This feels like a massive victory.

This time it’s a bit further from my comfort zone but hopefully not so far that it doesn’t look like my work. That was my aim, anyway! The difference is I just had one teeny, tiny photograph to scrapbook, but I still wanted it in my album that has 12×12 pages rather than in a smaller format like pocket pages, Project Life, mini book, or planner. I love 12×12. But I just had this tiny photo from my day out with Barbara and her daughter while they were in London, from a selfie taken with her phone and printed on the spot with tiny little printer that makes photo stickers – the Polaroid Zip with Zink ink. It’s very cute and fits in her handbag!

Again I’m working with the Mind the Scrap September kit, which they sent me to have some fun. (Check this post for another video and page, plus shopping details for the items in the kit.) I just added some red acrylic paint and some mint green mist for my finishing touches. I love it when something goes to plan like using that London map paper and managing to get the actual location for our day still showing on the page. Moments of small scrapping happiness are important, right?

I hope this still looks like my style! That was my aim, at any rate. And it makes me smile, which is always my aim these days. Happy pages for happy days is my creative mood at the moment!

Oh little corner of just a smidgen of embellishment. I was really tempted to add lots and lots more here and I held back. Whenever I placed more there just to look, it felt like that corner ended up heavier than the actual photo, so I opted to keep it ridiculously simple. I cannot begin to explain how difficult that was. I’m putting it in the album right now so I don’t go change my mind and ruin it all. not that I am prone to doing that or anything.

What have you tried lately that’s just a little out of your comfort zone? I’d love to hear – or see!

AND speaking of see… I’d love to see you IN PERSON! Next Friday (the 18th of September), join me in London at the Canary Wharf Spiegeltent for a lunchtime mini book workshop for just £6. Book your ticket here. Or if London doesn’t work for you, perhaps Barcelona is better? I’ll be teaching at Somos Scrap on Halloween weekend, along with Amy Tan of Amy Tangerine and Liz Kartchner of Dear Lizzy. ¡Estoy emocionado!

Comment [10]

In the last few years, it often seems all the shop announcements in the scrapbooking world have a sad tale, so I am very happy to change that up and introduce a new kid on the block! Mind the Scrap is a new scrapbooking kit club based here in the UK. Their debut kit was last month and in their second kit, the letter option is none other than the foam Fitzgerald Thickers from my True Stories collection, which I was very happy to learn. So much so that I put together a little extra for the first forty-five September kits sold, but I’m getting ahead of myself here.

This video includes two parts – the first five minutes is an unboxing of the September Mind the Scrap kit, and starting at 5:10, there is an As it Happens process video of this travel scrapbook page coming together.

I took that airport photo with just my phone and I smiled a lot when it came up on the screen like that silhouette with the passport visible. Porto airport is so light and lovely, even if the pilots’ strike made our travel plans a little… interesting. I didn’t have my own passport until I was nineteen, and I still randomly get Wonder Boy’s passport out of the drawer just to marvel in its cuteness for a moment. Even baby passport photos are funny!

If you’re here in the UK (or possibly nearby!), then it’s easy for you to find this entire kit all ready for you at Mind the Scrap. For those shopping in the US or elsewhere, you can find some elements of the kit in other shops, though some of the kit is exclusive. Look for Crate Paper Poolside (sb.com // blue moon), Pink Paislee Atlas (sb.com // blue moon), and Imaginisce Happy Traveler (sb.com) collections, plus the Fitzgerald Thickers (sb.com // blue moon) from True Stories!

Thank you so much to Mind the Scrap for including my Thickers in their kit and for sending me a kit to try!

Comment [7]

It’s September and I’m sharing my Easter scrapbook pages. This is completely fine and normal, right? Just goes to show I really do still love to create with whatever photos and stories inspire me of a particular moment rather than try to get caught up or stick to a calendar.

It’s not really the Easter theme that made me want to share this anyway: it’s just how quickly something can come together with one of those simple page formats we can use time and time again and always get a slightly different look by just having different supplies, different photos, and a different story. This page doesn’t look all that different to something I shared all the way back in 2011:

Except in this case, it’s just the three photos and the journaling card, no extra interactive section and no customising page protectors, so it came together super quickly.

I need to come back and write a proper update on what I’ve learned from my month of doing a bit of Project Life each day, but this was a full page I could finish in about twenty minutes, and that made me very happy indeed.

To keep to that twenty minute time frame, I was really going with the supplies that grabbed my eye first and not stopping to consider a second option. The supplies include Pebbles background paper, Elle’s Studio journaling card, flair badges from American Crafts, Evalicious, and Studio Calico, three different Thickers alphabets from American Crafts, tapes from KI Memories (text), Bella Blvd (dots), and American Crafts (glitter), large scallop border punch from EK Success, plus the True Stories sticker book and the 6×6 paper from the original Shimelle collection, both from AC.

If you have a favourite simple format you return to often, please share! We all have days we long for a finished page in twenty minutes, right?

Comment [14]

Today I’m delighted to welcome May Flaum to share how she’s been inspired to get scrapbooking with the True Stories collection. May is hilarious and has an above-average appreciation of Zoolander, and this along with her fabulous crafting and teaching skills, make her one of my favourite people. I wish she lived much closer than the zillion miles away of reality. But at least today we can be found here in the same place, in some way or another. I hope you enjoy her video!

I was inspired by this layout and really was struck by the simple design for two landscape oriented 4×6 photos – something I rarely do! I was also struck with the challenge of using a lot of patterned paper. I tend to be a mostly cardstock girl so I was excited to get in touch with my patterned side and play.

The vellum paper (BlueMoon // SB.com) was perfect for this layout, and I had an absolute blast mixing and matching new favorites with a few classic supplies. I was able to be inspired by Shimelle’s layout and get that lovely paper used while staying true to my own style. To me, being able to try new things and incorporate fresh ideas while staying true to what feels like you is crafty nirvana.

Other supplies for this page include wood veneer borders, vellum tags, wooden buttons, and sticker book from the True Stories collection (BlueMoon // SB.com), black glitter Thickers, plus wood veneer hearts, buttons, sequins, and kraft cardstock. (Shopping through these affiliate links adds no cost to your order but supports this site and makes guests like May possible. Thanks!)

How long has it been since you made a page with two 4×6 photos? May and I want to see! Share a link to something new or an old favourite with this photo arrangement in the comments or tag us on Twitter or Instagram. Happy scrapping!

May Flaum is a lifelong crafter that makes her home with her two daughters and husband in California. She doesn’t believe her scrapbooks can have too much stitching, sequins, or kraft cardstock and is never found without a great pair of scissors. From scrapbook layouts to mixed media creations, when not traveling she can be found spending time in her studio blogging, creating, and teaching on-line classes. For more information about her classes and read her blog visit her website or follow her on Instagram

Comment [17]

In this latest round of asking some of my favourite scrapbookers to share their work with you, I tried to put something that was in my mind into their thought process: almost the entire time that I’ve been scrapping less, I’ve been feeling inspired more. Perhaps we just replace one creative thought with another in the same space in our mind, so where I used to make at least a layout a day in one form or another and then found myself trying desperately to make one a week, all those other days there was some small part of my mind that was thinking about making stuff. I would catch a glimpse of a layout I’d made years ago or pass a previous guest project when reading through new comments and I’d find I had a new idea in my mind despite not finding the time to bring it to fruition. As I’ve found myself starting to improve on this and do a little something creative every day (albeit some days more and some days less), I’m delving into all those thoughts and really enjoying the creative process. I think I need to just write about where I am with my personal creative process lately, but I digress. What I really hoped was that some of my favourite scrappers would also find inspiration in the archives here and find something that brought renewed energy to their creative process, so when I got in touch I offered a few different ideas for posts they might contribute, and something inspired by the archives was just one of those options. It turned out to be the most popular option amongst the guests and now I have one slight problem: I am inspired by all their inspired by posts! I’ll work on turning that from frustration into some gloriously fun cutting and pasting, I think. I hope you find them inspiring too, and I’m pretty sure today’s guest will inspire much of the fun: she’s one of the only people I know who could tell me her middle name was actually ‘Superfun’ and I would believe her. Please welcome… Amy Tan!

When I saw this layout – I immediately knew I wanted to scraplift it. Not only do I love the idea of clustering embellishments, but the appeal of using both old and new products for me is strong right now. I seem to hold onto things I love instead of using them up. Since we’re both designers collaborating with American Crafts, I thought it would be fun to use both our products and show how easy it is to mix the old with the new. For even more of a fresh take, I decided to work right into my notebook instead of doing separate scrapbook pages for this event. Check out the whole process in this video:

You can find Amy’s newest collection, Finders Keepers, at Blue Moon Scrapbooking and Scrapbook.com. (Shopping through these affiliate links adds no cost to your order but supports this site and makes guests like Amy possible. Thanks!)

And thanks so much to Amy! We’d love to see any projects you have made that combine products from our collections, so please share by leaving a link or tagging us on Instagram. Or if it’s just in that inspiration bank in your mind, tell us which collections you’d love to work with together or what other designs you’d bring to your crafting table. May you find some quality cutting and sticking time soon!

Amy Tangerine has always had a fresh outlook on life. Growing up in Chicago, she wallpapered her room with fashion magazines and dreamed of a life of visual creativity. By the time she was 23, she had founded the popular and award-winning handcrafted t-shirt line Amy Tangerine, featured in hundreds of retail outlets around the world, including Bloomingdales, Neiman Marcus and Barneys New York. But it wasn’t until 2007 that Amy discovered her true passion: scrapbooking. What started as a slice-of-life hobby blossomed into a full-time, fulfilling business venture that includes signature collections with American Crafts, her own book, celebrity events, consulting services, and teaching workshops all over the world. Most of all, she loves helping others tap into their creative sides. When she’s not at home in Los Angeles with two mischievous Jack Russell Terriers, her long-time partner, JC, and their adorable son, Jack, she is traveling, finding great places to eat, and doing her best to enjoy every moment. See more of her work on her blog, Instagram and YouTube

Comment [10]