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

So what’s all this about? This is the January project for And Now for Something Completely Different, a year-long project I’m leading at UKScrappers. Prep notes are always posted on the tenth of the month and the project is always posted on the twentieth… at 10:20am… with twenty steps from start to finish, and a few new things to try along the way.

If you take on this project (feel free to make it your own) and upload your layout to the UKScrappers gallery by the end of the month, you’ll be in the running for some lovely surprises along the way! (I’ve added a share widget here too, but it will be projects uploaded to the UKS gallery that are eligible. Sharing here is just for fun.)

Anyone can join in – you do not need to be based in the UK to join the forum. Join in the discussion here. You’ll find my additional notes on the project there too, so worth a look before you give it a go.

I hope you enjoy this month’s twenty steps from start to finish!

xlovesx

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In this week’s adventure, Glitter Girl tackles creative block, an issue currently being discussed here on the General Scrapbooking message board at Two Peas. Her adventure takes her through the reasons why creative block occurs, how to find inspiration here at Two Peas and how scraplifting can become a useful step in the creative process.

To create the layout in this week’s video, Glitter Girl selected six layouts posted at Two Peas and took one piece of inspiration from each. The product choice of the Peachy Keen collection was inspired by Say Cheese by hyperstarre, the white cardstock and splash of ink was inspired by Hello Lazy Mornings by 4Shanna, the garland of buttons and mixed paper elements was inspired by Lookalike by Jen Chapin, the title came from BrianaJ’s Time Flies layout, Wilna inspired the photo strip with a mix of colour and black & white images with her page Ten and Chasing the Morning Sunshine by MaryGrace inspired the final touch of lace to complete the page.

_{Click here for supplies – and a bunch of them are on sale, by the way.}

I wouldn’t normally make such a prescriptive list of inspiration points, and would rather take just one element perhaps. But this was such a fun page to create and the more detailed challenge created by all those elements made it come together quickly. I love the look of the finished page and how it looks different than any of those original pages. Proof that creative block can be crushed when we need it to be!

This week Glitter Girl challenges you to take inspiration from something you have found at Two Peas in a Bucket. Create something to share with the Two Peas community and in your project description, tell us about how you found inspiration there. 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!

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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All of the two trees thank you cards have been written, addressed and posted, so it’s time for something new with Saying Thanks. This time it’s not two trees but three hearts!

American Crafts sent me their new punch system to give it a try, and this project is the first thing I’ve created with it. You can see how these border punches work in the video, even if you want to skip the rest of the card. (But you know, it would be awesome if you watched the card too. Just sayin’.)

For these cards I used the Pebbles With Love papers, American Crafts thank you stamp and border punch system, Hero Arts woodgrain stamp, and white mist along with baker’s twine, rickrack, brads, and a heart punch.

Thank you for reading and watching. Always.

xlovesx

PS: New Glitter Girl video is on Two Peas now, and will be live here tomorrow.

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If I could only scrapbook with the supplies from one collection this year, it would be the Amy Tangerine collection. (Admittedly, I might cry first. Because I really, really like mixing collections. But since this is an imaginary restriction, I’m going to try to keep the tears and tantrums to a minimum.) I love the colours – rich turquoise, ripe raspberry pink, avocado green – and the motifs are inspiring without being sickly sweet. Cameras, maps, handwritten affirmations. All things that rate highly in my book.

So it is with great anticipation that I look forward to Amy’s new release for American Crafts: Sketchbook.

Think an updated, summery colour palette and a bit more freedom in the designs. With the tag line Splash some color on life (which you know I want to respell, but I’ll cope for today), this line promises an artsy twist, but still easy to craft with, no matter what your style, just like the American Crafts tradition. Sounds good to me. My intention is to use the two collections together, so I’m especially interested to see how they coordinate.

But really I don’t know all that much more than you do at this point! Today you can hop through ten different blogs to get a peek at the new Sketchbook collection, and my contribution is this canvas camera sticker. Yep, I think I can find a spot for that in my albums!

To continue on the journey, head over to Jennifer McGuire for the next look. Once you’ve made the full circle, be sure to visit the American Crafts blog, for the chance to win the full Sketchbook collection. A pretty fabulous reward for a bit of crafty blog reading!

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By the way… I will be covering Winter CHA right here on the blog – that’s the big craft trade show where all the new collections (like this) debut. The show opens on the twenty-ninth of January, and I’ll be blogging one brand at a time, so you can come right onto the show floor with me, except you can stay on the sofa and avoid paying nine dollars for a cheese sandwich in a convention centre. Sound like a deal? Awesome.

xlovesx

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This weekend, one commenter will win two hand carved rubber stamps from Skull and Cross Buns. The fabulous bunting and the cute heart topped Cupcake stamp, each unique and beautiful.

Emily Fox is the designer and creator of “Skull and Cross Buns” Stamps. Residing in idyllic Devon she is inspired by her love of Skulls and cakes. “I come from a really creative family too, my mum is a fantastic textile artist and cake maker and my aunt makes jewellery and greeting cards. My two children love to stamp too, I’m always being pestered to carve them something new, which is great but my sofa is starting to look like a stamp brochure – Ooops!”

You can see more of Emily on her blog and in her Etsy and Folksy

To enter, just leave a comment on this post describing what you love about the uniqueness of handmade.

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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The winner for last Friday’s giveaway of a place on Lain’s Layout a Day class is Jane! Jane please email me (shimelle at gmail dot com) with your details.

Have a fabulous weekend!

xlovesx

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Welcome to the very first day of Saying Thanks, my personal mission to make, write and send a great deal of thank you cards to start the year! This first tutorial is for a very simple card, and I’ll be honest: I like many of my cards very simple! I think it takes a certain kind of recipient to really appreciate a card that takes a very long time to create, and most people appreciate something that is simple yet handmade. And there is absolutely no reason why simple can’t be beautiful, as most of good design reminds us in branding, stationery and all other sorts of things. So I’m starting simple.

I’m also starting with an idea of not being wasteful. Not collecting stamps without using them. I ordered some Christmas stamps that didn’t arrive until a few days after Christmas, so they won’t be useful for Christmas cards until next year. But they can still be useful for scrapbooking Christmas photos, of course, and I believe they are appropriate for thank you cards sent regarding Christmas things, like saying thank you for a Christmas gift or to the hostess of a Christmas party. So I’m going with it, even though it’s January. Christmas stamps, you will not sit in my drawer uninked for a year! You will start stamping now!

For these cards I used this Hero Arts stamp (currently on sale), this Technique Tuesday sentiments stamp set, this Hero Arts background stamp (not sure where that one might still be in stock), Jenni Bowlin for Ranger inks, American Crafts pigment ink (in brown sugar on kraft cardstock for a very subtle pattern) and a bit of Distress Ink too. The star stickers are by Studio Calico.

Plus, with a simple card you can always dress it up. Add stickers. Add pop-dots for dimension. ADD GLITTER.

You know you want to. (I just used a glue pen and dotted it about the stars, then sprinkled the glitter over the top. Seriously an under-sixty-seconds technique for all that sparkle.)

Do you have a big stamp like this that could work for a simple thank you card? If you make something similar, please share – we would love to see what you make! And thank you for stopping by!

(Why yes, that does mean there are more thank you card videos on the way! I hope you enjoy.)

Thank you for reading and watching. Always.

xlovesx

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In her second adventure, Glitter Girl tackles the mists of magnitude, an issue currently being discussed here on the General Scrapbooking message board at Two Peas.

This adventure takes her through the differences in various mist and spray product lines, including which white sprays show up on black cardstock, and on to create two scrapbook pages with an assortment of misting techniques.

_{Click here for supplies.}
On this page, the obvious ideas of spraying the background and splattering bigger drops of ink, but also my favourite thing about cream coloured mist, which is painting a white-based sticker cream to match another collection. In this case, that means BasicGrey stickers (which are printed on white) can match with October Afternoon stickers (printed on cream) and act as if they always existed in harmony. This minor concept makes me happier than I can explain.

_{Click here for supplies. Oh, and that smile sticker is incorrectly identified in the video. It’s by KI Memories, not Doodlebug. You can find it here and Glitter Girl apologises for the error.}
And a second page this week, to demonstrate how white mist can be particularly useful with patterned papers, and because I’m not ready to put that snowflake punch away with the Christmas decorations!

Any more ideas for mists you would like to share? Please do! Glitter Girl would love to hear from you in the comments. And she challenges you to share a layout or a project with your favourite brand of mist in the gallery this week.

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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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 January, I’m sharing my ten favourite scrapbook pages from 2011. At the bottom of this post, link up your own ten things on absolutely any topic you fancy, and click around to see other lists of ten!

And my ten pages… in order of when they were made, I do believe.
1. He is only somewhat mad, designed for Jenni Bowlin Studio and Ella Publishing. When we arrived home, the first few pages I made felt completely strange, like paper and glue was a foreign concept. This was the page that marked my turning point. Making this made me think happy things about crafting again. (See full page here.)

2. Overnight Train, with a giant photo that still makes me nervous, having later found out The Boy snapped it by hanging out the side of the train. Designed for the garden at Two Peas, and one of my most popular pages there this year, but I like it more than the most popular. Go figure.

3. San Telmo, one of just two scrapbook pages I’ve completed about the South American part of our trip. Designed for Kelly Purkey’s Sketchbook class, and based on one of her sketches.

4. Travel Well, a page designed for the garden at Two Peas, which ended up naming an episode of the Paperclipping Roundtable, when we got to talk about scrapbooking travel. Orange and turquoise: who knew?

5. Seaside Hike, a scrapbook page with a bunch of mists and my favourite product from 2011: Foldies! Designed for Two Peas as a community challenge.

6. Siem Reap, based on the sketch challenge I set the participants in the ScrapFactor competition, and one of the very first videos I posted here. Love the layers and circles and just the sheer number of ways you can use this sort of design with different supplies. Plus Cambodia. Sigh.

7. On Stage, a layout and a half, with a rather special photo and lots of writing. Pages with that combination make me very happy indeed. (More details here.)

8. Rock & Roll Romance, a funny little layout in that I really like it but no one else seems to think much of it. Maybe it’s because it’s a double page. Maybe it’s because no one but us thinks it’s funny that we crashed a concert to get a wedding picture. That’s okay. It has a special place in my heart even if no one else loves this layout.

9. Inspiration Found, from a day of crafting with an absolute mess of stuff on my desk and just layering until I couldn’t layer any more. I love it, and in the end it was one of the pages I sent to American Crafts for consideration and they must have liked it too. Good times. (Full page here).

10. Goodbye Australia, a page to close one volume of our travel albums, and featured in a prompt of Pretty Paper Party, an online class. (Though the class has finished its live run, it is available to be taken at your own pace at any time.)

Runner-up layouts include this project (my most-viewed project ever at Two Peas), any of the pages made for the scrapbooking with girl power post and the giant rose layout tutorial I made for the JBS newsletter.

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