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

It’s the tenth of the month, which means two things: the preparation notes are now ready for my monthly scrapbooking challenge at UKScrappers, and it’s time for 10 Things: a blogging project filled with lists of anything, as long as there are ten things i the list. And with that, I bring you Ten signs the Olympics are coming to Londontown.

1. There are giant Olympic rings hanging from Tower Bridge. Huge. Can’t miss ‘em. There is a set at St Pancras international too, if you’re doing any channel crossing by train. Perhaps more impressive, the biggest set of Olympic rings ever has been mown into the grass at Richmond Park so they are visible from the air. I have a flight from Heathrow this Saturday, so I’m hoping for a window seat and a peek for the full effect.

2. Boris Johnson’s voice can now be heard on the loudspeaker of many train and tube stations. The first time I heard this at my local station was ridiculously early last Saturday morning and it nearly made me jump out of my skin, as all the other announcements are done by a robot voice rather than a recording of an actual person. Now I get a little nervous with the reminder that my usually quiet little station is an official Olympic route stop, and will likely be absolutely packed to the brim. (Locals, if you’re coming to Blackheath, be advised there are no ticket barriers on our station, and if you don’t remember to touch in and out on Oyster, you’ll be fined. We have all learnt this the hard way.)

3. We have Olympic-themed bunting in the village and some flags on the heath. In the bright colours of this year’s branding – pink, purple, orange and turquoise. It went up a week or so after the Jubilee and it clearly has the Olympic and Paralympic logos alongside the 2012 design (of which I am so not a fan, but no one really asked me). I was standing at the road crossing when a lady looked up and remarked, ‘Oh, it’s nice they finally put something up for the Jubilee.’ Proof that some of the London population are applying the denial rule to all things Olympic this summer.

4. Everything that normally happens in a London summer is still happening, just on a much bigger scale. This past weekend, I watched some performances as part of the Big Dance, which happens every summer. Except this year it was everywhere! Circus tents at the Royal Naval College! At St Pancras Station! City Hall! (Actually, this is on-going at the moment and it’s not just in London, so have a look here for their full programme.) Speaking to a friend with an interest in independent film-making, she reported there have been so many more opportunities to collaborate or take a class as people get excited about how the city will change for these few months. So I’m thinking the same is happening across so many topics.

5. The tourist groups are already bigger than usual. I’m not sure any of us can imagine what this is going to be like during the games themselves. Our local park is a pretty big tourist attraction anyway (hey, who doesn’t want to stand in both the eastern and western hemispheres AT THE SAME TIME I ask you?) but in the days before the park closed, the tourist groups ballooned in size. The same is in full effect in the West End and on the South Bank. I’m used to seeing tour groups of twenty or so, with a leader holding a random flag or umbrella to guide them, but in the past week I’ve seen multiple groups that are in the fifty to a hundred size. They move more slowly and take up so much more room. Yesterday I ran into such a group in a stairwell and I was of course going the opposite direction. I can’t say it was the most pleasant situation of all time really.

6. The park is closed. We have known this was coming for a very long time, but it doesn’t make it any less sad. Much of the park has been closed for some time now as the equestrian arena, stabling and security is constructed, but now it is completely closed, and that goes for the Royal Observatory and the Planetarium too, which I know sounds like a random thing to lose from your everyday life, but we are actually members there so it’s more everyday than you might think. (Everyday but clearly not every day, yes?) On the flip side, the National Maritime Museum is not closed and has been recently kitted out with a swish new wing. I highly recommend the current special exhibition on the Royal River: it includes actual musical notebooks from Purcell and Handel, scrapbooks of royals from the early days of civilian photography, and some amazing revelations in the long tradition of trinkets made to commemorate coronations and royal marriages. Plus a full history of the Thames and many amazing paintings of its various incarnations (including the frozen Thames turned into a street carnival).

7. There are now little pink signs on tube maps that indicate which lines you need to get to the different event sites. Actually quite handy for not going to an event too, as this is a time when I’m sure I will be taking the longer route if getting from A to B means I can avoid the traffic of those going to an event.

8. Our Olympic tickets arrived! We have a set of cheap seats for round one of Men’s Basketball, and I also have a ticket to go be an audience stand-in for a day of testing things in the stadium before the games actually open, which sounds like it could be quite the mysterious adventure.

9. I have been to no fewer than three official interviews to verify my identity and good intentions so I can be trusted to guide tourists as a London Ambassador (that uniform is rather amazing, I tell you) and be part of another rather large event during games time (still can’t tell you about that part). Relieved to say I have passed all three security interviews and now been granted all sorts of large photo ID cards to hang around my neck, a pin that indicates I can speak a tiny bit of Spanish, and one particularly stylish trilby hat.

10. People are either EXCITED!!!! or grumpy. I wanted to say there is not much in between, but that would be wrong. Londoners do things in between. It is not a city of extreme emotion. We do not talk to strangers here and we do not make eye contact. It takes a while to understand that it’s not a rude thing – it’s a case of I don’t know you and I don’t want to intrude in your space/mind/life. In many cases, anyway. (There are rude people here of course. There are rude people everywhere, just like there are amazingly kind people everywhere. Thank goodness.) So I think it is merely more visible that people are EXCITED!!!!! or grumpy, because any sort of emotion on show is pretty radical here. But the EXCITED!!!!! people? They make me exceptionally giddy.

By the way, I do have some scrapbooking projects up my sleeve for games time. And I’m mostly concerned at how slow the internet will be with all the extra online streaming of live footage. I will keep reminding myself of dial-up in the countryside circa 1994 to get through it all, and that should keep me in good perspective!

Have ten things you want to share with the world? Blog it and then link it up here! Ten things, no matter what they are, just as long as they are ten!

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I can’t tell you how many times I got confused over how add-on three was called Four Square, but that’s where I’m up to with this video series for Studio Calico. Using this add-on and the main kit, Elmwood Park, I decided to pretty much ignore the patterns on the papers and think purely in terms of colour. This was a bit of a twist on how I normally scrapbook, but I really enjoyed the process of not worrying about whether things went with letters or pie charts or butterflies or hearts or anything else. Sometimes things can be all about colour if that’s the strongest part of a particular memory.

I’m afraid there are no more of those pie chart stamps since this kit is sold out, but you can find many of the items from Four Square on this shopping list if there’s something you love!

And yes, if you caught the date, that was part of Christmas day not so long ago. Such an amazing day that there is no shortage of scrapbook pages about it and yet I still haven’t written down everything about that day.

My goodness, I love scrapbooking.

xlovesx

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I’ve started this week drawn to red and black, so I’ve pulled out some always lovely red and black patterns from Jenni Bowlin and added a little splash of yellow from the Studio Calico Heyday collection.

I started by masking and misting that red patterned background, and I covered up what I didn’t like and left what I did like on show (the polka dots at the top left, misted in Pinstripe Mister Huey spray). Then I just started at the bottom of the page and piled toward the top – three border strips, one large block and a contrasting 6×6 paper on top of the stack. Everything is edged in a dark brown, to be a bit less harsh than black ink.

And now for a little tangent: I get a great many questions about why I don’t include more photos per page, and the most direct answer is just because I don’t like it. I like my photos at 4×6, and for the most part I like one to three of them per 4×6 page. I have plenty of exceptions to that, but that size is what works best for me. I have two connotations with page designs that really focus on including lots of images: my eyes can’t take them all in with so many images per page, which makes me feel a bit uneasy (even with significantly less embellishment than usual) and it reminds me of the sort of scrapbooking that involved a triangle of paper in the corner and competing for how many pages you could complete at a crop. I know that is fun for some scrappers – I’ve seen them relish it! It is not fun for me. It is stressful and foreign and uncomfortable for me. Just like ink droplets might make you twitch or covering up most of a layer of patterned paper might make you shout at me through your computer screen, too many photos on a page can just make my head spin because it’s not what I love. And I’m not going to make things I don’t love for the sake of a blog post or a video – so I’m afraid you’re stuck with a hefty dose of pages featuring one to three 4×6 prints! Since I print pretty much everything at 4×6, I have had a few commenters follow up the multi-photo discussion with the idea of cropping those 4×6 pictures. I rarely do, and today I tried it just to see if it would work. It didn’t, so this works perfectly to explain.

I knew I wanted to use that landscape 4×6 print with the smiling girls, but I also wanted to include some other photos from this same festival parade in Kyoto. They were all 4×6 landscape prints and there was no cute way to feature all three at full size with this starting point, so I needed to change something. I tried cropping those two images, and cut them so they were not only smaller, but now a portrait orientation, taller than they are wide. Especially with the top photo, it seems like this is a sensible solution because she’s the only person in focus in the picture, and the landscape image has lots of ‘wasted’ space to either side of her face. The cropped version is a disaster to me: losing that calming space to either side of her made the image harsh and awkward. It doesn’t look natural or fluid, and in both pictures it makes the people look somewhat out of proportion. These cropped images were not going to make me happy in the slightest, so I went back to the original files and printed them in their horizontal style with the original cropping of the image, but just at a smaller size. Immediately the images appeared calmer, more natural and gave a more honest depiction of the memory in my mind.

End of tangent, I promise.

Here’s the finished version, with those two photos printed in their original orientation but at 2×3 inches instead of 4×6, and I’m much happier with that. I built the embellishment at the top right first, then replicated many of those layers over to the left, but also added a felt bow clip for dimension and texture and a little butterfly to keep it from being too boxy with all those squares and rectangles. The bottom right corner came last and it’s far more minimal, with the hexagon numbers for the date and a little punched heart, which is allowed both because I really do love Japan and because it was our honeymoon. As if you need permission to use a heart punch. Heart punches are always allowed in my world.

Other supplies include Jenni Bowlin stickers, Dear Lizzy and Heidi Swapp letter stickers, and My Mind’s Eye washi tape.

And a few favourite pages from the last starting point, which created all sorts of multi-photo pages, by the way. For a closer look at these pages, check out the posts from Kelly, Jacky, Alison and Katja.

If you give this starting point a try, I’d love for you to share your work – you might find your layout in the favourites next time!

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This weekend, one commenter will win a strikingly beautiful picture print from Black Baroque.

Alexandra from Black Baroque creates glorious prints on vintage book paper. The designs in her store are so wide and varied that you are sure to find something you adore! Alexandra gave us some insight into what inspires her to create her beautiful work.

“We use gorgeous antique book pages from 1883-1890 for our art prints. The pages are two and three column pages with borders. The pages were printed in the 1800’s by running the page through first for the text, then back again through the printer for the beautiful borders. My home is filled with antique furniture and all sorts of eclectic treasures. But the two things I collect are rare antique books and chandeliers. I have a thing for bling and books. Miniature, gold leafed paged, 1 -2 inch books are my favorite and very hard to find. I have been collecting for years”

To enter, just leave a comment on this post, letting us know what your favourite book is, the story you could read over and over and never tire of.

Entries close at midnight Thursday UK time and the winner will be posted Friday evening, so be sure to check back to see if it’s your lucky day!

Good luck!

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Congratulations to Nora, who wins her choice of print from Restyle.

Nora, please email me (shimelle at gmail dot com) with your address.

There’s a new giveaway every Friday night, so check back next week for another chance to win just by leaving a comment.

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Next up in my mission to use every bit of all the Studio Calico kits this month came in the form of add-on two: Twisty Slide. There’s a red and turquoise vibe going on here, and that’s a colour combination I always love. I made this page with a combination of this add-on and the main kit, Elmwood Park, with a single photo The Boy snapped on our first wedding anniversary, then used this page to document the lovely day we had in the sunshine, wandering around the beautiful city centre of Bath. Here’s a little look at how it all came together.

If you missed grabbing this kit at Studio Calico, you can find many of the elements here. Those items are starting to sell out there too this week, so if there is something you fancy but it’s out of stock, you can always click that ‘request and notify’ button so you’ll get an email as soon as it’s back on the shelf.

I love the colours in this kit and it’s rare that I have to really get up the nerve to cut through all the papers straight away. Usually that doesn’t bother me at all, but all of these are so pretty I wanted to use them all for full page backgrounds! Um… I may have ordered an extra sheet of more than one of them so I can do just that another day.

I may have a small problem when it comes to paper, I realise.

Thanks so much for watching, and there’s more to come soon!
xlovesx

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This week Glitter Girl can be found under a giant pile of layered embellishments, with pop dots stuck to her fingers, face and hair! She answered this question about adding depth to the embellishment on scrapbook pages and then used it as an excuse to add more than a little embellishment to a new layout – the title page of an album filled with pictures from the Harry Potter film studio tour.

All the supplies for this project can be found here – just scroll down to the bottom of the page to find the shopping section. That includes both heights of pop dots as mentioned in the video. I regularly use two brands so I can have two different levels of things that are raised up off the page. A pack lasts quite a long while, and they aren’t very expensive to start, so if you’re looking to add dimension to flat embellishments like stickers and die-cuts, then they will definitely be your new best friend.

Aside from that, there are plenty of things you’re likely to already have on hand that are great for adding depth. Buttons, brads, chipboard, fabric, thread and badges are all things that add depth instantly. Three-dimensional layered stickers and bold letter stickers like Thickers add depth easily since all you have to do is peel and stick. But don’t ignore the background! If you really want to great depth, you need to build something flat first, so look at stamp designs you can use for many themes and don’t be afraid to cover up much of the stamped design or a paper element. By adding that extra detail to the flat background, your raised elements will create even more depth.

This isn’t a Glitter Girl layout, but I thought this was as good a time to share it as any! My Harry Potter album has just three layouts at the moment – the ‘Welcome to Hogwarts’ title page, the ’5 girls 1 enchanted car’ page here and this one with us knocking on the Dursleys’ door on Privet Drive. The layering on this one is different but follows the same principles – build up the flat layers first (in this case it’s with ink splatters and washi tape), then build up with various dimensional items (papers on pop-dots, dimensional stickers, Thickers letters, badges and brads) and don’t be afraid to make sure everything is overlapping and close together. I think that is probably the thing that tends to go wrong with layering from time to time – for fear of covering up the things we like, the embellishments get spread too far apart and then they don’t read as one united element but rather lots of different things. If your layers aren’t making you as happy as you would like, try pushing them closer together and see if that’s the solution. (Supplies for this page are all by American Crafts – find them here.)

This week, Glitter Girl challenges you to build depth in the embellishment of your project, then share the results in the gallery! You can also leave a link in the comments here if you like.

Onward, covered in glitter, my dear scrapbookers!

The Adventures of Glitter Girl is a weekly series on Two Peas in a Bucket, and goes live every Wednesday. I’ll share each adventure here shortly after that. I hope you enjoy her quests for crafting happiness, and if you ever have a scrapbooking dilemma yourself, you can always call her to action on the message board.

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In addition to the main kit of scrapbooking goodness that’s available on subscription each month at Studio Calico, there are four different add-on kits that go on sale on reveal day. Getting to scrap with all four of them was pure luxury! So today’s video includes one page from start to finish (mostly) using the main kit (Elmwood Park) and the first add-on, Capture the Flag. Take a look at the kits here to get an idea of where I started.

Also… I say this is mostly start to finish. After many grumpy looks at my computer screen, I had to admit defeat with one part of the video that wouldn’t play no matter what. Of course it was the bit of video that showed the embellishment (and the title). Please forgive me. The goal of the using up everything in all five kits meant I couldn’t go back and film it again with additional supplies! I promise it’s not difficult embellishment – what you see is what you get with cute little die-cuts strung along a bit of twine, with the safety pins in the BasicGrey embellishment pack.

While the add-on kit is sold out, you can find some of the items here, all in one place to help if you missed out on the kit at Studio Calico.

I’ve been scrapping the photos from Luang Prabang in Laos so slowly. It was my most favourite place on our adventure and scrapping it lets me relive it a little. Even though I have hundreds of prints from this town, I’m taking my time so I don’t rush to the end of them! These photos are at the top of a big hill in the centre of town, with a beautiful view in every direction, including a river either side. There’s a very quiet temple at the top too. And ladies who catch and sell little birds in tiny cages so you can set them free at the top and they repeat the entire process. But that’s another story entirely.

xlovesx

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I did warn you there was quite a lot going on around this time of year: new collection sneak peeks, kit scrapping videos and today also marks the blog hop to support UKScrappers and the sponsors who provide plenty of scrapping fun and inspiration here in the UK!

Did you know I post a monthly page tutorial at UKScrappers? It’s called and now for something completely different because every month we try something new – but always relatively simple, because the layout is always twenty steps from start to finish.

On the tenth of the month, I post the supplies including the photo requirements, so you can choose what you want to use and print your photographs.

Then on the twentieth of the month, I post the twenty step-by-step photos and instructions so you can give the same idea a try with your own supplies and images. There’s always room to adapt the ideas to your own style in case you don’t scrapbook just like me.

The most recent edition gives steps to help build layers of embellishment from die-cuts. You can find that here.

You can upload your work to the special gallery at UKScrappers just for this project. You can find others’ work there too – it’s here.

Everyone is welcome to participate, even if you don’t live in the UK, and there are six tutorials waiting for you should you like to jump in now. You can find them all here. There are six more to come as it’s a year-long project for 2012, and all entirely free.

Your next stop on the hop is Sir Stampalot from Peterborough. Keep hopping to see all the different projects on offer. And there are prizes to be won! Two ways to win here: I’ll give one prize (a shimelle.com class of your choice for yourself and a friend) to one person who comments here by the end of Thursday, UK time. There are also prizes to be won by commenting on all the participating blogs in the hop then reporting in here on UKScrappers to say you did so! Do be sure to leave your UKS membership name in your comment if you are entering for those prizes. Please be aware that to leave a comment here, you must write your comment and hit the preview button first – once you have previewed, the post button will work!

And do bookmark the monthly scrapbook page tutorials at UKScrappers if you they seem useful for your crafting!

Thanks for visiting!

xlovesx

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