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

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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This July, I’m delighted to be the special guest of Studio Calico, the scrapbooking kit club. I had the very fun job of creating with their July kits, including the main kit Elmwood Park and the four add-on kits to complement. And oh goodness, did I make quite a bit! You can see my gallery here.

In all, I finished twenty-one projects from their July kits! (Sixteen are shown in the gallery.) And as a little bonus, this week I have a series of five videos to share with you, then a few special things to come at the end of the week. In the first video, I’m working with just the main kit, to create a jubilee-themed page. This photo was one of my favourites of all the jubilee fun – it’s the window display at a local vintage shop.

The Elmwood Park kit already sold out, but you can take a look at previous kits at Studio Calico to see if subscribing is a good option for you. The kit is a mix of supplies available elsewhere and exclusive products only available in the kit, but you could still use the video series with your own stash if you like. Plus tomorrow I’ll link up the supplies that are available for individual purchase should that be more helpful.

I hope you enjoy the video series this week, and thanks Studio Calico for inviting me to have so much fun with all that paper goodness!

xlovesx

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It’s not long now till the summer CHA trade show, where this year’s autumn, winter and Christmas lines debut to retailers, and with that comes a few sneak peeks at what we can expect to see in stores throughout the rest of the year. As a big fan of her first two collections, I’m very excited to see the new autumn collection by Amy Tangerine for American Crafts, and the name has me hooked already: Ready Set Go! Bring on the globes and arrows and catchy travel/life phrases!

Here’s a little look at the Remarks sticker sheet for Ready Set Go, and you can get an idea for the colours of this new collection. Reds and warm yellows, with pops of blue and pink, making me think it will be quite versatile for scrapping photos of boys or girls and possibly even more importantly, it will look fabulous with kraft cardstock. That little ‘real life’ camera sticker kills me – love it!

Today you can hop around a few scrapping blogs to get a look at this new collection, piece by piece… and you might even win something. Once you hop through all the sneak peeks, you can enter at both Amy’s blog and the American Crafts blog for two chances to win the full line of Ready Set Go scrapbooking goodness. Your next stop on the hop is the lovely Kelly Purkey so go see what she has to share today!

And while you’re here, what new things are you hoping to see from your favourite scrapbooking brands? I’ll be attending the show and bringing you my tour of all the booths and new products, so you can mark your calendar if you like! CHA starts on the seventeenth of this month!

xlovesx

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This weekend, one commenter will win a print of their choosing from Restyle.

Restyle prints are designed by Jan Skácelík, a graphic designer, photographer and music composer from Olomouc, Czech Republic.

Jan’s work is inspired by beautiful and iconic mid-century styling. He explains, “I love everything about design and especially vintage 50’s & 60’s Scandinavian patterns, found in catherineholm enamelware. Stig Lindberg, Marianne Westman, Eames, and Danish modern furniture are also big ‘go to’ inspiration points for me”.

And a special bonus for shimelle.com readers! Jan is also offering 15% off his prints to all customers using the code “ILOVERESTYLE” when ordering.

To enter, just leave a comment on this post describing your favourite era of design.

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 Sandy G, who wins the stunning handbag from LuckyCann.

Sandy, 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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This week Glitter Girl posts her first double page layout! This week’s adventure is about extending single page sketches to double page layouts, something being discussed here on the general scrapbooking message board. Her adventure takes her through the creation of a two page layout with four 4×6 photos, starting with this single page sketch meant for two photos.

You can find a full list of supplies here. If you’re looking for additional ways to include more photos over a two page spread, you might find 4×6 Photo Love useful too – especially November.

If you’re thinking kits are a strange choice of embellishment for photos of a bridge, fair enough (though there are map prints in the kite design, so there is at least one tiny bit of travel theme, I promise). There’s an interesting discussion brewing on that topic here, if you have an opinion either way on whether all embellishments should hold relevant symbolism or whether vaguer connections or total randomness are fair enough on your pages.

This week Glitter Girl challenges you to create a double page using any single page sketch, then share the results in the gallery! To get you started with sketches, you might try the two sketch resources at Two Peas – Stretch your Sketch by Jen Gallacher or Super Sketches by Kelly Purkey. You can also find plenty of ideas in sketch of the week or you’re welcome to use a sketch from any other source too. – and share it in the Two Peas 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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Last spring I shared my workshop for getting the most out of a collection pack with the crowd at True Scrap 3 – which is always great fun and a sort of online scrapbooking convention with so many different classes and ideas to take in. I know the whole shebang is a rather big purchase and not everyone’s style, so if you really fancied just a few classes, then now is the time for you! All the True Scrap 3 classes are now available individually.

My workshop, The Perfect Collection, is all about taking one collection pack and using it until it’s all gone – and I walk you through my process for making a full album from a collection pack. The video is just shy of forty minutes, plus there is a PDF with cutting guide diagrams and pictures of how those pieces of paper became the finished scrapbook pages. Other workshops available cover all sorts of topics, from embellishment and page design to writing, photography, creativity, stamping, symbolism, Project Life, digital and hybrid crafting and mixed media art techniques. You can sign up for any number of classes you like.

There are two ways to sign up for my True Scrap 3 class, The Perfect Collection. You can purchase it here at the True Scrap site. This includes quick access to the class and allows you to pick out additional classes from other teachers at the event. Or you can purchase it directly from me using the button below. This method only works for my class, gives you access within twenty-four hours from purchase and is handy if you want to add this class to your account at shimelle.com with other classes you have taken here. The price is the same at both sites, so you can simply pick the option that is best for you. From now until the 7th of July, individual classes from True Scrap 3 are $9.99. After that they will remain available, but the price will go up to $12.95. (That’s in US dollars. To give you an estimate in British pounds, that’s £6.40 today, increasing to £8.30 on the 8th of July. The payment will automatically exchange the currency for you at the rate of exchange for the time of your purchase, so it may change slightly of course.)

_{(Clicking this button will only let you purchase this class and it will be added to your shimelle.com account within twenty-four hours. If you would like quicker access or to shop for multiple classes, please use this link to shop at True Scrap.)}

In other news, American Crafts just published a tutorial of my minibook using 4×6 photos and the new Shoreline collection. Find it here.

xlovesx

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Tonight I’m doing something a little different than the usual papercraftyness – I’m speaking at the London Bloggers Meet-Up as they present a panel on blog photography. A big hello to anyone who has popped over here as a result of that – thanks so much for visiting.

Before you leave, there are a few things that might be of photography interest amongst all the scrapbooks and cupcakes here on my blog. Camera School is a series of posts on becoming one with your camera, in a non-technical-manual sort of way. Travel Photography for Scrapbookers is actually a bit useful for non-scrapbookers too, if you fancy some fancier holiday snaps this summer. This post walks you through my favourite post-processing system, RadLab. Or some other specific posts, like my crazy love for shallow depth of field, my thoughts on Instagram, TTV photography for trying something that combines a digital camera and a vintage camera, a q&a on my photo style or some notes on Hipstamatic (which admittedly has scrapbooking in the post but non-scrapbookers have my permission to skim past the crafty stuff if you must).

If there’s anything else I can help with, you can find me on Twitter or you can email me. Huzzah for all things London and bloggish, so do get in touch!

xlovesx

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This weekend, I am really excited to be able to offer a handmade bag from Lucky Cann. The beautiful ‘Aster’ bag comes in stylish teal and is brilliantly functional, with a myriad of pockets and compartments. Perfect for containing all your notebooks and treasures, just don’t forget where your mobile phone is!

Ann from Lucky Cann describes her bags as “designed for women who lead a busy, on the go and diverse lifestyle.” She was inspired to launch Luckycann to fill a gap in the market after many
shopping missions: “I couldn’t find bags to meet my needs as a designer,
wife and mom of two young, active children. My bags are stylish, elegant, durable, functional and washable.”

To enter, just leave a comment on this post describing the most unusual thing you have found in your handbag!

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 Anne-Liesse, who wins a place on Lisa Truesdell’s new class Divide and Conquer. We will be in contact with you with your prize details.

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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