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

_{This post includes affiliate links to scrapbook.com, where I bought my supplies for this page.}

The August Best of Both World kit includes two different patterned papers that can break down into squares of about 2×2 inches: this PinkFresh rainbow grid and this Simple Stories Kate & Ash cut apart. Grabbing more of that trusty (ha! more like treacherous!) white cardstock, I combined most of my left over squares from the two papers to create this page documenting the day we drew an ocean of fish on the playground pavement.

The journaling on this page goes around the outside edge of the page, and documents a bit about ‘how’ we go to the playground in 2020 – how we go when it’s quiet and leave when it’s too busy, that we can leave without question when either of us feels overwhelmed, understanding that all children – even your friends – may not want to play right now in the ways they have before. Or they just might! Those sorts of things are important to me in documenting this time in our lives. I’m not making full pages dedicated entirely to how life has changed, but instead using my happy photos to celebrate the good times while recording the differences in a way that helps me stay uplifted. Remember your scrapbooking process can be as therapeutic as you want it to be, so find the things that make it just right for you.

For links to the supplies and indeed all about this first month of Best of Both Worlds scrapbooking kits – including how you are totally welcome to play along with the supplies you already have in your stash – please see this post.

If you make a page inspired by this project and share it online, please tag me @shimelle and add the hashtag #shimelleBOBW so we can all share ideas together!

_{This post includes affiliate links to scrapbook.com, where I bought my supplies for this page.}

We’ve used the Oh Snap Catherine Pooler stamps with tiny pieces of patterned paper, but what about them just on their own, with ink and white cardstock? Plus I have just one piece of the ‘pie’ left from my Field Trip die-cut punch outs… and I’d really like plenty of room left to tell a very specific story about one 4×6 photo. Hmmm…

This page was created during a Facebook Live session, so prepare for the off-topic banter.

If you like how this stamped background came out and you’re also a lover of more colourful pages, this one might spark some ideas for you! That’s a much less limited colour palette!

For links to all the supplies in this month of Best of Both Worlds scrapbooking kits – or ideas for making a similar kit from your existing stash – please see this post.

If you make a page inspired by this project and share it online, please tag me @shimelle and add the hashtag #shimelleBOBW so we can all share ideas together!

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A spectrum of patterned paper squares, and plenty of stickers left in my kit stash? Sounds like it’s time for some scrapbook rainbows! Today I’m scrapbooking three 4×6 photos, from our lockdown dressing up adventures – this time in honour of Newsies.

One of the things I wanted to include in this video is how some times my ideas don’t quite work and I make a change midway through. I always find I am happier with the end result if I go ahead and change whatever is bothering me rather than carry on. Every so often, I go through my old pages and remove those that don’t speak to me and don’t tell a story I want preserved, and while I don’t remove many, it is almost always the ones where something wasn’t quite right in the middle of making the page but I kept going… and years later, still all I see is the thing I didn’t like! As a result, I now try to be more accepting of changing my plans even if I’m halfway through making a page.

For links to the supplies and indeed all about this first month of Best of Both Worlds scrapbooking kits – including how you are totally welcome to play along with the supplies you already have in your stash – please see this post.

If you make a page inspired by this project and share it online, please tag me @shimelle and add the hashtag #shimelleBOBW so we can all share ideas together! If you love scrapbooking with a rainbow of colours, you might also enjoy the #scrapbookrainbows gallery!

_{This post includes affiliate links to scrapbook.com, where I bought my supplies for this page.}

What to do with that bold rainbow paper from Pinkfresh Studio… this was a question I had from the beginning! I knew I wanted it to be something that really made the rainbow special, but I didn’t order two sheets so I had to get it right the first time. In a move that shocked even me, I ended up needing to put it all on white cardstock – something that definitely crept into my pages this month way more than usual!

This page was made in a Facebook Live session, so it’s a chatty video today.

Abandoning the quick handcutting of the title in the video was the right call – I had drawn it out about twice as big as I needed and it’s more of a quiet and patient activity rather than one that has enough pace to watch in real time. For more about handcut titles, I would really suggest checking out this post from Kirsty Smith who has been sharing more about how she creates her beautiful title work.

For links to the supplies and indeed all about this first month of Best of Both Worlds scrapbooking kits – including how you are totally welcome to play along with the supplies you already have in your stash – please see this post.

If you make a page inspired by this project and share it online, please tag me @shimelle and add the hashtag #shimelleBOBW so we can all share ideas together!

The Vicki Boutin paper with a rainbow of stars may be my very favourite piece in this month’s kit, and I’m determined to use every tiny piece. I saved a strip with all the reds to use as a border for a half and half composition today, and paired it with the turquoise textured background and Field Trip specialty die-cut paper!

For links to all the supplies and indeed all about this first month of Best of Both Worlds scrapbooking kit, take a look at this post. You can also shop your stash for similar products to make your own kit from what you already have on hand.

These photos are from the first real bit of leaving our neighbourhood exploring that we did post lockdown – an afternoon at Didcot Railway Centre, which was open by appointment, with limited numbers. It felt safe and we were never crammed in. Indoor elements were limited to one household per room at a time and indoor staff all wore face coverings (as did we when we were inside) and there was lots of obvious cleaning and plenty of hand washing stations. A successful day and, most importantly, a very exuberant boy so happy to be on AN ADVENTURE again!

If you make a page inspired by this project and share it online, please tag me @shimelle and add the hashtag #shimelleBOBW so we can all share ideas together!

Next up with my August 2020 Best of Both Worlds kit: something with a custom title that is NOT cut with a Silhouette or other die cutter! For this project, I revisited a technique I used often many, many years ago: reversing and printing a title on the computer, then cutting it out with scissors. I used this font to mimic the title of the Friends television series to match photos from Friends Fest. I’ve scrapbooked several photos of this day trip already, but that BFFs piece on the Simple Stories cut-apart paper just shouted for my Friends-themed photos!

This page was inspired by a Pagemaps sketch in the Summer 2020 issue of Scrapbook and Cards Today magazine, but changed a bit because I wanted to add a 4×6 portrait photo into the mix of the small squares in a grid.

By the way, if you’re not already subscribed to my YouTube channel, that click means so much to me! Head over here and click subscribe. Thanks!

For the supplies and indeed all about this first month of Best of Both Worlds scrapbooking kits – including how you are totally welcome to play along with the supplies you already have in your stash – please check out this post.

If you make a page inspired by this project and share it online, please tag me @shimelle and add the hashtag #shimelleBOBW so we can all share ideas together!

When I scrapped my last marshmallow themed page, someone helpfully informed me there is such a thing as MARSHMALLOW DAY so I am all on board and it’s time for more marshmallow scrapbooking. This is again all from my August 2020 product picks (see the complete kit list in this post) and today I’m unwrapping that specialty die-cut paper from my Field Trip collection!

This video cuts off rudely, because in a shocking new development of this phenomenon called summer, my phone decided it was too hot and turned itself off until it reached a safe temperature! So I grabbed an ice block so we could have a part two. (Add that to the list of things I never thought I would do and yet they seem completely fine and normal in the year 2020.)

And completely cheesy title included, there we have part two!

Now that die-cut paper is designed to give you way more than just one layout. You can use some or all of the interior pieces together, plus there’s then the whole background frame that you can back with whatever colours and patterns you like. This is just the first take on that paper, but you’ll be seeing a lot more of it right here in the coming days.

For the supplies and indeed all about this first month of Best of Both Worlds scrapbooking kits – including how you are totally welcome to play along with the supplies you already have in your stash – please check out this post.

If you make a page inspired by this project and share it online, please tag me @shimelle and add the hashtag #shimelleBOBW so we can all share ideas together!

I promised YouTube videos as well as Facebook Live – especially for those of you who don’t do chit-chat and would much rather have something direct and on topic – and here we are! No chit-chat outside scrapbooking. With one exception: there is a lot of backtalk from the local crow population. I don’t know – you try your best to be professional, and a bunch of really clever, really loud birds just have other ideas.

Today’s YouTube video is all about using the stamp set in the August kit, stamping on a variety of patterned papers and cutting out the shapes to create a uniquely patterned background. You can use any stamp motif you like for this technique, but it makes things easier if you choose a shape that will be easy to cut out with scissors or you could use a stamp set along with a matching set of dies. As the stamping only requires a small space, this technique is great for scraps of papers you love and want to use to the very last inch.

For the supplies and indeed all about this first month of Best of Both Worlds scrapbooking kits – including how you are totally welcome to play along with the supplies you already have in your stash – please check out this post.

If you make a page inspired by this project and share it online, please tag me @shimelle and add the hashtag #shimelleBOBW so we can all share ideas together!