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

Earlier this week I recorded a new episode of the Paperclipping Roundtable, a weekly scrapbooking podcast hosted by Noell Hyman and Nancy Nally, and produced by Noell’s mister, Izzy. I snapped a picture just as we were finishing up this week so you can see what it looks like behind the scenes for me. I’ve been on the show five times and each time has been in a different location – which has been a total coincidence – but my set-up is pretty similar each time. We’re told the topic of the show a day or so in advance, and I start brainstorming bits and pieces and I stick them on the wall. The wall is always how I do my best planning – each of my classes and special albums and books and magazine issues I’ve worked on? All of them lived on a wall of notes at some point in time. In this case, the blinds ended up the best place. Some of those notes were discussed on the show and others didn’t really fit in naturally – but better too many possibilities than going blank while we’re recording, right? Back in the days when I had to host some radio hours as part of an exam, I always had quite a bit of criticism for not having a good radio voice, but I never lost marks for dead air!

The rest of the set-up includes more post-it notes and a pen to write as we go – sometimes someone says something I want to come back to and I don’t want to forget it as the conversation continues. We record the show online, and this time I tweeted right before we started recording then I left Twitter automatically refreshing in the background so I could see the replies. Then there are the necessities: water and a microphone! (And yes, water tastes better in glasses from the release of The Great Muppet Caper. I am sad there are no commemorative glasses for the new Muppet movie, actually!)

The Paperclipping Roundtable Episode 103 – Too Precious to Scrapbook by Paperclipping Roundtable

I was super excited to be joined by Wilna Furstenberg for this episode, and the topic of discussion came from that feeling we get when we build up important photos to be so very important that they are almost too precious to scrapbook – that idea that photos from key moments in life need to be scrapbooked perfectly and until then, not at all. You can listen online or via iTunes to hear the discussion around the table.

In general, my advice in this situation is always something is greater than nothing. If you’re scared to scrapbook a really important day, would you prefer your scrapbooks be left without that event entirely? Or would it be better to give it a shot and see what you can do, and if that means you go back later and work on that subject more, then so be it. But if you never start, it will never be there. Simple as that. So something is always great than nothing.

Other things that might help:
Try a warm-up session. If time allows, try scrapping something less intimidating first, then use that confidence to move onto the more precious photos. Just like warming up your muscles in a work out – except it’s your creativity in this case. (If I go a week without scrapbooking, I honestly feel something I describe as ‘forgetting how to scrapbook’. It just means things aren’t running as smoothly under my fingers as usual. That first page or two after a break helps me warm up and then I’m off and running again.)

Remember you can go back. You can always go back. You can add, subtract, rework. Your scrapbooks are your memoirs and you are the editor. If you decide a page doesn’t have enough detail or writing or perspective, you can go back and add whatever it needs whenever you fancy. I go back through my older pages often and add in more writing and sometimes more photos… and I take things out or change things around. I don’t consider the pages themselves to be so precious once they are finished that they can’t be changed.

Be thankful for digital images. These days, you either took the photos with a digital camera or you can create a digital back up by scanning or photographing your one-of-a-kind photos or scanning your negative collection. With that in mind, why would we ever be scared? If we decide we don’t like how the page is going, we can print a new copy and start again – as many times as we like. No longer do we have to worry about ruining a photo. Everything will be okay!

I hope you enjoy the episode! You can find more discussion about this episode here on the Paperclipping blog.

xlovesx

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This week the lucky winner of the Friday giveaway will receive access to the Hitchhiker’s Guide to Scrapbooking class, hosted at Two Peas in a Bucket, and also the bonus video Layering for Hitchhikers, which is free for those who sign up through shimelle.com by the 8th of March. Find more details on Layering for Hitchhikers here.

The Hitchhikers guide to scrapbooking is a class designed to steer you in the right direction when you get into a scrapping slump, when you are drowning in a sea of scrapbook supplies and a plethora of photos, and are wishing things just came together easily. Over five chapters, forty-two brand new scrapbook pages and easy-to-follow advice on choosing supplies, designing pages, embellishing your work and writing your memories.

To enter, just leave a comment on this post describing what you do when you get into a scrapbooking slump.

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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This week we have TWO winners!

Congratulations to ‘Jenny’ who wins the gift certificate for Two Peas and congratulations to ‘Tape’ who wins the basic grey collection pac

Jenny, Tape, 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 takes on an adventure in picking a pack of patterned paper – something currently being discussed on the message board here at Two Peas in a Bucket. Her adventure takes her through a thoughts on choosing a less-than-obvious colour scheme from photos, picking the patterned papers and embellishments, then creating a page from start to finish.

Come along for the adventure, won’t you?

By the way, the notebook paper stamp I mention in the video is this one, and you can find all the other supplies here. (It appears Glitter Girl sometimes leaves the most important supplies off the list. Last week she forgot to list the chipboard pennants. Silly Glitter Girl!)

This week, Glitter Girl challenges you to pick a pack of patterned paper and put it to work! Then share the results in the gallery! Don’t forget to tick thebox for the Glitter Girl challenge in step four of the uploading process.

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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One day you’re happily crafting along and the next a bulldozer arrives on your doorstep, ready to build a by-pass straight through your creativity. Wouldn’t it be useful to have some sort of guide for moments like these? A reference manual ready to snap you out of a creative slump and help you pick up those pieces of paper with ease and style?

Enter The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Scrapbooking.

Over five chapters, the guide covers ways to pick papers, formulas for getting started (and looking like you totally know what you’re doing even if you feel you haven’t a clue), sketches and ways to adapt them, ways to take inspiration from your favourite pages and how to embrace and develop your very own personal style.

This is a little something different to my usual workshops. There is no set schedule and you won’t receive daily emails or feel you need to keep up (not that you really have to follow a schedule with any of my projects). Instead, the guide has been prepared much like a book – but a book plus a great deal more. As soon as you sign up you can access all the materials – in any order you fancy and at any pace you like. The workshop won’t disappear. It will remain available so you can sign up now or later (though do keep reading for a reason you might want to sign up soon).

But I said there was more than just a book, right? That extra stuff includes a video to accompany each chapter. In each video, there’s a review of all the layouts in that chapter and one layout shown and discussed from beginning to end. The book also has an easy-to-print reference section with colour combinations, starting points and sketches, ready to get you scrapping in seconds. Plus there is the interactive part: the forum.

On the class forum, you’ll already find a fun challenge and a few in-depth discussions, and this will continue throughout the year. Have a question? Ask away. Pick up a challenge if you don’t know where to start or just need a little motivation to make the most of your crafting time. Or join in any conversation you find. Right now we’re already discussing theme papers and how you usually choose papers for your layouts, for example. And all that has happened in just two days. I’m definitely excited to keep talking scrapping on the class forum, and I have a whole calendar filled with little extras that pop up there – challenges, writing prompts, maybe even some photography fun and special days in the bag.

Now I did say this class was a little different and that includes a different location. Rather than my own class forum, the guide is hosted at Two Peas in a Bucket, and everything can be viewed just like a layout in the gallery. There is even a new feature they have added for our private forum so you can easily attach pictures and share them just with other participants – perfect for days when you want a second opinion on a layout you haven’t finished, because you won’t have to show it to the whole world via the main gallery.

(By the way, don’t worry: my own classes aren’t going away. I’m just adding this self-paced option to the line up, and Two Peas have a great set up for that. I’ll still be teaching scheduled classes via shimelle.com. In case you were wondering.)

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Scrapbooking includes 42 brand new scrapbook pages – including both single and double layouts. There are plenty of 4×6 photos, with a few other sizes thrown in here and there. The guide gave me the chance to take all the things I really love when I’m scrapping – starting points, paper combinations, sketches, 4×6 photos, layering – and combine them into a single project with everything in the same place. So that might explain why I’ve been a bit absent with scrapping here on the blog: I’ve truly been scrapping like never before. And if I’m allowed to say this, this is my favourite group of layouts I have ever put together for a class. I hope you love them even half as much as I do!

So in summary, that’s five chapters with forty-two brand new examples, five in-depth videos, an easy-to-print reference section and a private forum with challenges and chat. All available as soon as you sign up, with permanent access. And it’s $25, by the way.

Now yes, you can sign up any time you like, but what about a little extra incentive to sign up now? Happy to oblige! If you sign up now, via this link, you can also receive an exclusive extra video called Layering for Hitchhikers. It’s a closer look at layering techniques, with new pages that are not included in the guide. To receive this video, you must sign up by following a link from shimelle.com, no later than the 8th of March 2012. Then forward your Two Peas receipt, including the order number and date of purchase to me by email. (You can delete the rest of the info if you like – I don’t need your mailing address or anything else that might on there – just the order number and date.) The video will sent to you via email on the 9th of March. (If you already signed up, you may very well qualify already! Go ahead and forward the receipt. I’ll let you know if your order isn’t on my list and otherwise, look forward to that bonus on the 9th.). So yep, that’s a free exclusive additional video for you, but once the 8th of March is gone, so is your chance. Don’t forget!

I think that pretty much covers it! Don’t panic: just join in and enjoy plenty of ways to be a froody scrapbooker, cropping at home, with friends or when visiting Magrathea!

ETA: The same comment is coming up several times below and I’m guessing I just rambled too much and you missed something! If you already signed up before you saw this post, go ahead and forward your receipt. I’ve made that bold above now! :)

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A little digest of news from the Garden Girls – on the twenty-second of the month, we bring you Gardeners’ Digest, a blog-hop style wrap up of our favourite projects and products at Two Peas in a Bucket. If you’ve just arrived from Shannon’s blog, then hello hello! (And if you’re just starting here, you can following it around, of course!)

First a little look at something you’ll find shortly at Two Peas – a peek at what’s coming up in this week’s glittery adventure! You don’t have to wait long to see that adventure though – it will be live for you later today.

(Random aside: yesterday I had a missed call on my phone from a number I didn’t recognise, so I Googled the number and it came up as the London Mayor’s office. Intrigued, I asked for theories on Twitter and Facebook. My very favourite was the suggestion that the mayor is creating a butterfly symbol to shine into the London sky in times of need. Oh goodness that sounds like a lot of responsibility!)

This month I have found my jaw dropping at the layouts from one particular Garden Girl: Wilna is on fire this month! She is so inspired by hearts and the lovey-dovey themes of February and her gallery is filled with such beautiful work, including this new coffee cup album and several 12×12 pages. I love every single thing she is making right now. Definitely one for your bookmarks.

Since our last digest, I have to admit I have received not one but TWO boxes from Two Peas! As the new releases roll in they sell out quickly so I end up ordering more often to make sure someone else doesn’t pinch what I want in my albums. (Selfish, I know!) My orders have included letter sticker collections from Prima, plenty of the new Dear Lizzy Neapolitan collection, Rhonna Farrer’s new line with My Mind’s Eye called Follow your Heart, plus papers and a few embellishments from the Country Picnic collection by Pebbles. Since last month Two Peas has also added a bunch of printable designs, especially for journaling cards. I’m particularly loving these from Polka Dot Pixel. Love that splash of bright colour!

Two things for you:
First, leave a comment on this post to be entered to win a $10 gift certificate to Two Peas. Easy! Enter before the end of Thursday and the winner will be posted on Friday.
Second, your next stop on the way is Wendy Sue. Go, go, go!

Gardeners’ Digest is a monthly update from the Garden Girls, the design team at Two Peas in a Bucket. To keep up with the Garden Girls throughout the month, check out the garden gallery, find us on Twitter or subscribe to all our blogs with just a couple clicks.

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Today for the giveaway we have a BasicGrey Picadilly Collection pack. Picadilly is a symphony of sweet American coziness and down-home country-fresh flavors in lemonade yellow, cherry red, cornflower blue and new grass green.

The pack Includes 18 sheets of 12“x12” double-sided papers, one sheet coordinating alphabet stickers and one sheet coordinating element stickers worth $21.99. You can find the BasicGrey Picadilly collection here at Two Peas in a Bucket.

To enter, just leave a comment on this post describing your perfect picnic: who would be there, or what would you take with you?

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 Amelia, who wins PRIZE from Oh My.

Amelia, 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 takes on the challenge of the chipboard – something currently being discussed on the message board here at Two Peas in a Bucket. Her adventure takes her through a quick look at chipboard product options, several different ways to embellish raw chipboard and a scrapbook page using those altered chipboard pieces and the brand new Dear Lizzy Neapolitan collection from American Crafts.

Come along for the adventure, won’t you?

If you click through to the project page and scroll down, you’ll find plenty of ideas for supplies, including some special sale items.

For more chipboard ideas, check out two more videos from the Two Peas channel:
the chipboard episode from Shannon Tidwell’s Products you Love series
and Jamie Sorenson’s altering ideas for chipboard embellishments in the Tricks & Treats series.

This week, Glitter Girl challenges you to put some chipboard to work then share the results! Create something to share with the Two Peas community and in your project description, tell us how you got creative with chipboard. Be sure to click the challenge box when you upload a picture to the gallery. You can also leave a link here in the comments to share what you have made.

Join us every Wednesday for the Adventures of Glitter Girl, helping the world one crafting dilemma at a time. Each week Glitter Girl joins Two Peas via video to solve a problem posted on the message boards. Don’t miss out as she shares project tutorials, product comparisons and technique tips throughout the year.

BONUS CHALLENGE: If you’re a fan of the new Dear Lizzy line and already have some in your hands, don’t just admire it – get scrapping! Five lucky crafters will win a happy prize pack of American Crafts goodies! To enter, create a project with the new Dear Lizzy Neapolitan collection and upload it to the gallery, being sure to give it at least five relevant tags and three related products, then tick the box for the Dear Lizzy Project Challenge in step four. (You’re welcome to tick the box for the Glitter Girl challenge too if you’ve used both Dear Lizzy and chipboard!)

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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This weekend, one commenter will two cute brooches from from OH MY illustration and crafts.

Kayleigh O’Mara is an illustrator and crafter who has a wonderfully distinctive style. Her jewellery is funky, modern and feature foxes to rain clouds, from typewriters to Jammie Dodgers. Something for everyone!

To enter, just leave a comment on this post describing when you last took a polaroid picture or typed a letter.

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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And the winner of last weeks giveaway is…..

Congratulations to Angi who wins the cards from Little Black Heart

Angi, 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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