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

Hello Monday! How about a new starting point for a scrapbook page this week? This week I could wait no longer to cut into my sheet of that multi-coloured chevron paper and some other goodies from the Magpie collection from Jenni Bowlin Studio.

This starting point includes a multi-coloured patterned paper cut to 4.5×11.5 inches, a single-coloured patterned paper cut to 7×11.5 inches, a border strip about 1×12 and a punched border just below that. Then a group of layers made from a 4×4 square of patterned paper, a journaling card and two labels, the smallest on pop dots for a bit of dimension.

Here’s my finished page, with one of those older photos that doesn’t have any additional pictures for a multi-photo page. Complete coincidence that the print was the same height as the two cards to its right, as I didn’t have this photo in mind when I made the starting point… maybe a sign that I work with the same sizes so often that they just fall together naturally? Who knows.

Most of what I added was more Jenni Bowlin: doily flowers, hodge-podge and quilted stickers, letter stickers and the new butterfly punch. Plus an old favourite Fontwerks stamp set for the numbers and a MME stamp set for a couple tiny additions.

Now it’s your turn!

If you want to join in this week, recreate this starting point with any supplies you like, then complete the page in your own style. Upload it to your blog or a gallery and leave a link at the bottom of this post to share your work.

Last week’s layouts were particularly gorgeous, I must say! So difficult to pick, but these are six I found noteworthy. Do take a closer look and leave them some comment love or add them to your bookmarks! Clockwise from top left, they are from Kelly, Soaphousemama, Nancy, Kelly (who cleverly made a gift bag!), Helen and Katherine.

<sub>Two quick closing notes for today:
1. If you’re a big starting points fan, consider joining us for True Scrap. See this post for details of an exclusive starting points video series available with this online event.</sub>

_{2. If you’ve been thinking of picking up some brand new scrapping goodies, the deal of the day is a particularly good one today for stocking up on papers and embellishments at 60% off, while they last.}

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On the tenth of the month, a bunch of us share ten things. Any ten things. All different kinds of ten things. And you’re welcome to join us.

For March, I’m discovering just how cold an old building can be, even when it doesn’t feel old on the inside. (Our new flat is a modern conversion of a school opened in the early 1800s.) All that cold is making me turn on the oven more and more, so about a ten things devoted to things I like to bake!

1. Pumpkin pie. Preferably from an actual pumpkin. I actually stick pretty close to Martha’s Recipe, but using fresh pumpkin always needs more spices, I find.

2. Pumpkin cupcakes. Let’s just get my pumpkin obsession out in the open from the start, okay? I could eat pumpkin every day and never get bored. Pumpkin-filled pasta is also one of my favourite things, but I don’t really tend to bake that, so it doesn’t make this list. Though a pumpkin lasagna could be baked and that sounds amazing. But I’ll leave it at just pie and cupcakes for this list.

3. Things that are exceedingly chocolatey. Like these cupcakes. And “this really simple cake”: , which I make whenever we stay with strangers (in a hostel or a shared house/chalet, etc) because it takes few ingredients and no equipment but always disappears in moments.

4. Rhubarb crumble. Seriously, rhubarb is fabulous, and I love how it makes the house smell when it’s in the oven. I don’t use a recipe for crumble because rhubarb really varies in sweetness so I taste as I go (which is half the fun) but this recipe is a good starting point if you need one.

5. Long Winters Cupcakes. Spiced apple cake and named after a favourite band, then baked for the band when they came to town, a story I never tire of telling. But seriously, music fandom aside, spiced apple cake is such a great mid-afternoon food in a cold house. If I’m just making it for home, I bake it in a loaf tin.

6. Alicia’s bread. Which she calls ‘Ann’s bread’ and I wonder if Ann attributes it to someone else? Speaking of a loaf tin – this is an actual bread that I bake as a loaf just for us or as gifts, or as rolls (in a cupcake tin) for a meal with company. It’s a yeast bread but it’s easy and fast and the end result is crazily rich and a bit sweet. If you manage to leave it a day without eating it, it makes a French toast that will blow your mind. You know… if you like fancy French toast, anyway.

7. Things involving Oreos. Like these. Because though I go through long stages of eating exceptionally healthy food, Oreos are the one weakness that bring me back. I cannot resist an Oreo. It’s ridiculous really. One day there will be an Oreo intervention. And it will fail.

8. Root Vegetable Pizza. Because it is made of pretty much all of my favourite things. Like sometimes I even add wedges of pumpkin. (Okay, maybe there will be a pumpkin intervention. IT TOO WILL FAIL.)

9. Crazy omelettes-turned-frittatas-or-something. Not quite quiche, but not made in a frying pan. The sort of thing you make from the random things in your fridge that somehow will work together, plus eggs and a pie dish. In our house, this often involves Jarlsberg, not unlike this.

10. Lately, a million things with mushrooms. I fall in and out of love with mushrooms, so I shall not have an impending intervention. But lately, mushrooms are on my good list, and pretty much any dish. Well… not cupcakes. But everything else.

So! What ten things will you share this month?

PS: I haven’t figured out the new oven enough to make macarons. Need to get brave soon though! I have promised someone I will.

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This week one lucky reader will win a place on Jen Gallacher’s new scrapbook stamper workshop.

Learn to stamp on your layouts! Join Garden Girl Jen Gallacher for this self-paced, comprehensive course focusing on the following five stamp design styles: open, solid, alphabet, sentiment, and background stamps. Download the helpful 62 page “Scrapbook Stamper’s Workbook” which includes five instructional chapters, 50 stamping tutorials, and 50 brand new page samples with complete supply lists and step-by-step instructions. Five helpful chapter videos are also included which walk you through each of the 50 stamping tutorials. The workbook and videos are designed to work hand-in-hand, helping you become more comfortable with stamping on your scrapbook pages. This class is perfect for you, whether you’re a cardmaker looking to make the transition to scrapbooking or you’re a scrapbooker wanting to learn more about stamping techniques in a scrapbook setting.

The content of this workshop will be available immediately upon purchase. The lessons are available for you to work at your own pace and upon purchase can be accessed in the “Workshops” section at Two Peas in a Bucket. A private message board forum is also available to ask questions for Jen and to connect with other participants. Enjoy!

And…you don’t need to wait to see if you’re the winner before you sign up! If the winner has already purchased the workshop, you can choose to take a refund or gift the class to a friend, so go ahead and get started with your stamping!

Please leave your Two Peas username in your comment. (If you don’t have one, you will need to open a Two Peas account – totally free – to access the workshop.)

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 Jennie, who wins the sampler pack of pretties from My Little Bit Of Whimsy.

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

And – now it’s time for..

Randomly selected from all the comments, tweets, pins and shares of the CHA Winter 2012 coverage here on the blog, we have lots of prizes! Ten winners of $10 Gift Certificates to Two Peas in a Bucket and one grand prize winner of a $100 Gift Certificate to Two Peas.

Ten winners of $10
Ann Caldwell
Margie Visnick
Sigrun Campbell
Nelli Chamings
Julie Weis
Latharia
Sannika
Ruth Tacoma
Kathy R.
Torry

Grand prize winner of $100

Winners, please email me (shimelle at gmail dot com) to claim your prize, which will be sent to you by email.

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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_{Class content ©twopeasinabucket.com.}

This week Glitter Girl tackles the Tricky Transparency, after a member of the Two Peas community posted that she was flustered with what to do with all these clear supplies she had collected.

The basic trick with transparencies comes in how to write or stamp on them and how to attach them – but once you catch those tricks, you are good to go! For writing, you’ll need a permanent pen that can write on that surface, like an American Crafts Slick Writer or a Sharpie. For stamping, Staz-On ink is your friend for working with the acetate material – and have the cleaner on hand, as if you slip while stamping on the transparency, you can remove the Staz-On and try again once the transparency is dry.

As for attaching, you need something that won’t show through – so you can use your regular adhesive only if you’re going to cover it up with another layer on top. But other options will hold it in place without that worry: staples, brads, stitches, paperclips and washi tape are all easy answers. Or use it with pockets, like a 4×6 transparency over a photo or index card in a divided page protector… or possibly on the 12×12 scale too, as Glitter Girl discovered this week.

And if you pop over to this adventure at Two Peas, you can scroll down to see all sorts of transparent products for your stash, including some special offers like discounts on Hambly overlays and more. (And check the new stuff while you’re there – BasicGrey, Lawn Fawn, Hero Arts, Jenni Bowlin Studio and October Afternoon are among the new things this week!)

This 12×12 transparency sheet can be cut into separate frames for six different pages, of course, but I liked the idea of giving it a try as a 12×12 sheet and making it act a bit like a divided page protector. This is my January-in-Review layout for 2012, with five photos plucked from my library and an Elle’s Studio index card to write a bit more about what isn’t in the pictures. (By the way, I’m loving the happy accident of the photo at the middle-left. I had an email to say I could go stand in a queue at a certain place and certain time and perhaps have a free ticket to see a play that night – but I wouldn’t know what it would be or what my chances were. But I could make it, so I queued up and snapped that picture with my phone while I was waiting. I was early enough in the queue to get a ticket, and I drew a free ticket to Legally Blonde the Musical, so definitely an interesting day all told!

This version is a bit more like the majority of my pages, but includes two transparency elements: one 4×6 frame and a strip from a 12×12 Hambly overlay. But the 4×6 frame can still work as a separate element rather than over the obvious 4×6 photo. In this case, I had two Instax shots, so it was never going to work as a frame for those, but I loved how the design looked on kraft cardstock so just went from there. In my album, this page is opposite the only other bicycle picture we snapped, which I printed at the full page width, and I love how the two extremes work together across the double page. In supplies, the only thing they have in common is the kraft cardstock and the small doily stamp.

This week Glitter Girl challenges you to use a transparency in your work and share it! If you would like to share a link in the comments here too, that would be fabulous!

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. She’s currently looking for a topic for next week. What should it be?

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Getting back into the swing of starting points, I thought I’d go with one of my favourite ways to get pasting: four quadrants of patterned paper on a 12×12 cardstock background. In fact, we started all the starting points fun with a similar look way back when, but there is one little difference here to change it up – and of course it looks different with every paper combination you choose.

So in this case, you’ll need four squares of patterned paper about 5.75 or 5.5 inches (depending on how much frame you want around the edge) and three kinds of ribbon or trim… or do you? You could replace the three ribbons with border stickers, paper strips, punched pieces or journaling bars, perhaps!

I used plenty of the new Dear Lizzy Neapolitan collection and some Amy Tangerine die-cuts for this page, with a funny old photo that has been in my photo files for years. Like fourteen years. All because it has some stranger’s fingerprint in the shot. It’s the only photo I have from this day and we passed the camera to some random passerby and when I developed the film (remember that experience?), this is what I found with our single photo. Well, at first I was quite annoyed but I have mellowed. Now I am far happier to have an image at all rather than to have nothing, and I figured that random stranger is now part of our story, with his fingertip immortalised in my scrapbook.

Here are four favourites from the last time we played the starting point game! Clockwise from top left, they are from Kate, Soaphousemama, Louise and Valerie.

Now it’s your turn… what will you do with four squares and three lines?

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Now seems as good a time as any to do a little round-up of all sorts of bits and pieces in my corner of the world.

The Hitchhiker’s Guide
Loving getting to know scrapbooking hitchhikers from all over the world (so far, all from this planet). The message board there has so many great conversations going on – we’re talking about choosing supplies, page design, journaling, getting comfortable with your own handwriting, how to include lots of photos – all sorts of good stuff. Thanks to everyone who has stuck out their thumb and jumped on board!

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Scrapbooking is self-paced (with permanent access to all the materials) and will continue to be available, so it’s there any time you fancy. But the special offer of the bonus video on paper layering expires this week – on Thursday the 8th. You can find details on that here.

True Scrap
True Scrap is a two day online event, and next month marks its third incarnation. I’ll be teaching along with fourteen other instructors, with everything organised into an online convention format – so it’s much like booking a scrapbooking weekend at a big event, except it’s right there in your own home on the computer screen, and you get permanent access to all the classes in case you want to go back or you can’t watch everything live.

Each workshop is presented in a video format followed by a chat session where you can ask anything you would like and the instructor is there to respond. This time around I’m teaching a little something called The Perfect Collection. It’s all about taking a collection pack (or a stack of papers and a few stickers from your favourite collection) and using it right down to the last scrap to create a bunch of layouts you’ll love. It includes a set of printable diagrams for cutting your papers and notes on how to adapt and reinterpret those for different paper combinations, then in the video workshop I’ll take you through making a whole stack of layouts, including how to make the ideas work with your preferred style and your photo needs. You can use this method to create an entire album from start to finish or all these pages could be entirely different topics spread throughout all your albums, with that collection appearing here and there.

If you fancy a look at what you get with True Scrap, you might want to pick one or more individual workshops from the two previous events, so you can see what this style is all about. For the first True Scrap, my workshop was Creative Stash Diving, with my answer for boosting your productivity and using your papers rather than saving them for a special day that inevitably never comes. Then last autumn I taught Go with the Flow, featuring my system for adding meaning to an album through continuity, journaling and design – but it’s also useful for just plain finishing an album that has sat in your unfinished category for too long. Both workshops are available individually, along with others from teachers like Jennifer McGuire, Nichol Magouirk, Tracey Clark, Noell Hyman, May Flaum, Lisa Dickinson, Kristina Werner and more. Picking whatever strikes your fancy from those thirty a la carte workshops can act like a preview to the big event in the works for April.

If you do fancy the big event, it’s on the 20th and 21st of April, but there are two things to keep in mind: registration is cheaper if you sign up before the end of March, otherwise the price goes up another twenty dollars in April. So March is a better deal. AND if you decide to sign up and do so through my link, I have a pack of extras for you! Those who sign up for True Scrap 3 (the full event) through my link also receive:
…an exclusive video extension to the Starting Points series. Over this set of videos, I’ll take you through six brand new scrapbook pages from three starting points, so you can see just how varied one page starter can be. This series of videos is only available in this offer.
…a bonus PDF printable with a dozen page sketches, perfect for taking to a crop or scrapping at home. This is also exclusive to this offer and not available elsewhere.
…a class pass to your choice of either Pretty Paper Party, True Stories, Learn Something New or Love your Pictures, Love your Pages. That means you can take your pick of paper and design tricks, journaling inspiration, a month long album class or a photography project! Depending on what you pick, that’s up to a $24/£18 value. (And if you have taken all of those classes, you can gift it to a friend and be their favourite person!)
…a bonus $5 to spend at your choice of Two Peas in a Bucket, Amazon or Starbucks. (And if you’re not in the US, that can be your currency at the Amazon or Starbucks for your country if you prefer!) Just for fun.

So if you sign up from here, you’ll get the whole event (including fifteen video workshops, five project make and takes and a key-note interview with Becky Higgins) plus an extra video series, a set of scrapping sketches, an entire online class and $5 to spend somewhere fun. Which is, in general, a great big pack of scrapbooking wonderment.

Sign up for True Scrap 3 here and email me (shimelle at gmail dot com) a copy of your receipt to claim your bonus pack. Those extras will be sent on the 22nd of April, just after True Scrap!

CHA prizes
Remember at the beginning of all the CHA posts, I said I had a big batch of prizes to giveaway once they were all posted? It’s true! Except it’s taken me ages to get everything posted! Well, those are almost entirely done now so Monday evening look for a summary list that will take you through to all the different CHA posts, and entering for the prizes will continue until this Thursday with winners announced this Friday! (As a little reminder, there are ten $10 gift certificates and one $100 (!!!) gift certificate to Two Peas to be won, and every comment on a CHA post is an entry plus every share of those posts via Pinterest, Twitter or Facebook!)

Pinterest
Oh, Pinterest, you are such a hot topic right now. I’m going to say it right now: you can pin absolutely anything from my blog any time and I am totally cool with it. I’ve read the articles from those who have pulled their site or their artwork from Pinterest. I’m aware of the terms and conditions. I also believe I can make my own decision in this matter and to me, I believe in sharing my work or I wouldn’t put it on my website in the first place. I have great respect for Pinterest doing what much of the internet didn’t (crediting the original source – easily!) and I don’t care for one second if they add links that allow them to make a commission from things pinned from shopping sites. I’m still pro-Pinterest, despite all the criticism and I believe in the work they are doing to try to make everyone as happy as can be, knowing it’s pretty darn impossible to get everyone to see eye-to-eye on any particular subject. I think that’s enough from me on this subject, but I just wanted to put it out there that I am totally okay with my work being pinned, and I take every pin as a big compliment!

Return to something more normal
I had a few weeks of scrapbooking to an insane degree while I worked on those big projects. I’ve had a few days off to collect my thoughts. I’ve had my first day of Olympic tourist-wrangling training from the Mayor’s office. So my schedule has been a bit different recently, but writing this on a Sunday evening, I am looking at a very normal week ahead. Here that means things like I have a Starting Point post and Sketch of the Week video ready to go! It feels pretty amazing, really. So I hope you enjoy! I mentioned on Twitter at the weekend that it felt like it might be a good time to schedule a crop weekend and consensus seems to agree, so I’ll see when that can happen soon! (But not too soon!)

As for all things Olympic, so much has happened recently. The gate to our local park has been demolished and will be moved to accomodate the vehicles that need to get in to build the equestrian arena. A giant view screen will be placed on the heath right outside our house, and according to the diagrams that have been published we should actually be able to see it from our living room window. (Non-olympically, there was a Bollywood movie filmed there this week and they covered the heath in fake snow!) And I’m doing two Olympic projects: one I can talk about that is probably rather boring to read about here (helping tourists, essentially) and one I can’t talk about that is way more exciting (I think so, anyway). If you want my advice on transport during the games, I have now been fully briefed and my advice is merely one word: WALK. It is quite possible that you could walk from the tower to the West End along the Thames path in less time than you will be able to get from a Central line train to the ground at Bank station. And I’ve done that walk: it’s quite lovely really (the walk along the Thames, not the better part of an hour navigating the tunnels at Bank). So let’s cross our fingers for great weather, wear your most comfortable shoes and walk anywhere if at all physically possible. It’s a much nicer way to see the city anyway!

Has that been enough randomness for a Sunday evening? What’s happening in your world? Let’s share the random, shall we?

Have a beautiful week ahead!

xlovesx

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This weekend, one commenter will win a bumper sampler pack of these fabulous whimsies from My Little Bit Of Whimsy.

Stephanie Hart started scrapbooking and crafting in 2008. She loves getting lost in the process, hands full of paint and ink, and how one creative thought builds on another so naturally. She tells her family, ‘‘it’s like arts and crafts in my basement EVERY night!’‘ Eventually, she began making her own buttons and embellishments out of polymer clay and My Little Bit of Whimsy was born. It began with one little mushroom button and she hasn’t looked back. She loves sculpting her little whimsical critters for people all over the world!

To enter, just leave a comment on this post describing your favourite whimsy from the prize pack.

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 Julie, who wins a class pass to The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Scrapbooking

Congratulations Julie, please email me (shimelle at gmail dot com) with your Two Peas username.

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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Quick reminder: today is the last day to enter to win a free pass to my new workshop, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Scrapbooking! Click here for the post where you can enter. Thanks!

This week Glitter Girl was quite excited to see a discussion about photos from the seventies, eighties and nineties on the message board, and the adventure of the Vintage Photo Dilemma was born. This week’s adventure includes a look through some pages including older photos, a breakdown of how to look for papers that complement the warmer film tones of older colour photos and of course, a scrapbook page (complete with photos from 1986) right from beginning to end. The page construction in this week’s video might also be useful for you if you have a page on any theme with more writing that you have room for or want to show.

Come along for this scrapbooking adventure, won’t you?

Supplies to note this week include the Country Picnic collection from Pebbles (that’s what I used for the papers), journaling cards from Elle’s Studio, wood veneer pennants from Studio Calico and Glitter Tape from American Crafts. Oh, glitter tape. Or glitter ribbon. I’m not completely sure which name is the official name, but what I do know is that it sparkles like lots of glitter but with absolutely no mess. Which is cool. The first few colours are available now with lots more to come. And the large scallop border punch I love is back in stock too. All the supplies are listed here so you can add them right to your bucket if you see anything you need would like.

Scrapping the Eighties is something I’ve discussed in a different format before – we recorded an entire episode of the Paperclipping Roundtable about just that, last November. You can find that here if you like. You can also find more photos of the Early Years album featured in the video here, though of course I have added more pages since that post. But quite a lot of it you can see there.

By the way, just to put things into perspective, I have more photos from that parade in 1986 and one of them includes the local full-service petrol station in the background. Gasoline was sixty-six cents per gallon that week – and that was with someone else pumping it for you! Last I checked, the price at our nearest pump equates to something like $8.45 a gallon, which goes a long way to explaining both why petrol is not sold by the gallon in this country and why we do not own a car! Anyway, little things like that in the background of older photos always remind me of how the stories of our lives have so many layers and things hiding in the back of snapshots help all that come to life. I love getting a fabulously framed shot but I love just clicking without too much regard too, because otherwise the background might not be there. Even in these three images there are some posters for businesses in the background that sent me down memory lane, and I ended up searching for one online to see if it was still around, and sure enough Kansas City Costume is still in business – since 1925, except now with a website, Twitter account and a Facebook page.

This week, Glitter Girl challenges you to scrap one or more photos from the pre-digital era, especially the seventies, eighties or nineties. Then share the results in the gallery! Don’t forget to tick the box for the Glitter Girl challenge in step four of the uploading process. Feel free to share a link here too – you can leave one in the comments if you want to share.

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. She’s currently looking for a topic for next week. What should it be?

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