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

Don’t worry, I don’t even put my pumpkins out until October so I’m definitely not rushing into Christmas around here, but I do have one thing that needs to come before the season arrives every year, and that’s supplies for Christmas Journal season! This year I have a shopping list and a set of stamps. The stamps are only available here, but the shopping list is the same format I use for my monthly scrapbooking. You can use it as a literal shopping list and add one of everything to your cart and have a full set of supplies to follow along with me as closely as you’d like, you can take it to your local store if you have one and go shopping there, or you can choose similar items from your existing collection of supplies to make your own kit from the stash you’ve bought over the years. All strategies and styles welcome! Journal your Christmas is a project that encourages all styles and making things work for you, so you can follow me step by step if you want or you can go entirely out on your own and both are equally welcome.

First up, the stamps. These will be open for preorders for one week – this closes next Wednesday the 2nd of October so they can be on their way to you in time for Christmas crafting! This year’s designs have plenty of circles which are all separate stamps, plus a separate topper that lets you turn any of the circles into an ornament. There is a mix of handwritten words and a clean retro font that I’m excited to add to the supplies on this year’s shopping list!

It’s a single sheet of stamps this year and there is one difference to ordering for 2024. In previous years, the price has included worldwide shipping. But there is now a much bigger difference in postage cost for domestic and overseas mail, so there are two options. Stamps with UK shipping for £13, or stamps with worldwide shipping for $18. The stamps about 4×6 inches or A6 format, made here in the UK from high quality photo polymer, and sent directly from me to you. Please make sure your shipping address is complete and correct and if you spot a mistake or are planning to move before December, drop me an email with those details.

£13 UK ADDRESS ONLY (pounds sterling)

$18 WORLDWIDE SHIPPING (US dollars)

Then there are the other supplies I’ll be using this December! This is what you’ll see me use in my videos throughout the Journal your Christmas online class. If you are ordering through these affiliate links (thank you!) don’t forget to check the coupons page. Today there is 9 to 11 percent off your order depending on the total with code SMILE, plus a free stencil to add to your cart. Below the list you’ll find my chat through everything that’s here and why, so you can make the choices that will work best for your style. There are just a couple items still marked as Coming Soon so I’ve placed my order today and will add those once they arrive – I’ve clicked the notify button in hopes I can be quick enough!

I love the number element of my Christmas journals so I started there first to get a feel for the style I plan to create this year, and the red stencil numbers mixed with my stamp numbers are putting me in a retro but fresh vibe that I think will be really fun to create. I’m using a colour palette of traditional red and green plus turquoise, and I do have winter (but not a lot of snow) at Christmas time, so some of my supplies are winter themed. Leave those off if your Christmas is far more tropical! Always pick the things that will work for your stories – that’s why I post a shopping list rather than a specific kit.

I’ve created Christmas journals in a range of sizes – 8×8, 9×9, 12×12, 6×12, and 6×8. I’ve stuck with 6×8 for many years now because it’s a beautiful balance for me in terms of room to write, room for photos, and just enough space to embellish in a way that brings me joy in a shorter time frame than a 12×12 page. This year I’m using a red velvet 6×8 ring binder. I’ve used the same brand in pink previously. While I wish there was an album out this year that had the same supersized binder rings as the album I used last year (designed by Paige Evans), sadly they are all smaller this time around. I know I can make this size work because I have before, but I also know I shouldn’t aim to use heaps of dimensional embellishments as I like to include plenty of pages in my journal and it’s best when it will still close.

I then start with a stack of 6×8 paper pads. I’m going with three 6×8 collection pads that are patterned and artwork based, one that is just tonal polka dots in colours I will use alongside, one in woodgrains, and one pack of plain journaling line papers. I’ve listed two tonal sets here because you might prefer the darker or brighter shades. I will be using the brighter option. Then I add in a few 12×12 sheets that I’ll cut down to smaller sizes, including some woodgrains and cut apart designs for quick pockets or embellishments.

I use my Christmas journal to journal, so I lean heavily into products that help me write down those stories. That means there are several sets of letter stickers in my basket. You might prefer letter stamps or another title product to stickers, but letter stickers are my bread and butter!

Next I pick packs of embellishments and I don’t tend to go for the fanciest kinds because then I find I spend a lot on that pack and never use it! Instead I go for what I know I will use without fear, and that’s die cut packs and sticker books. I’ve put a couple of packs of Christmas florals in for me this year but there are more shapes in those same collections if Christmas flower isn’t a concept that works for you.

Nothing looks done to me until it has enamel dots and gold mist, and you might totally disagree with that one! No problem. I have lined up my reds, greens, turquoises, and gold for this final step.

Along side my stamp set and all of the above supplies for this year, I keep things to my basics really. I’ll have black dye ink plus my Distress Oxide inks in reds, greens, and blue-greens, a set of basic letter stamps, a stamping block, some simple punches like a circle and a border, and probably a roll or two of twine to put through the tops of tags. I haven’t listed those on the shopping list but if you’re just getting started and would like advice, just shout and I can help with that!

Speaking of just getting started – if you’re new to scrapbooking or you’re new to this project and you just want a really simple and affordable way to make a Christmas journal with a kit that allows you to add your photos and writing to tell everything, then this set in either red or green is your answer. It includes an album with lots of page protectors, a journaling pen, and a set of Christmas themed journal and accent cards. You can follow the writing prompts in Journal your Christmas with this and not worry about the embellishment at all! Just the writing and the photos and then drop the odd title card into a pocket here or three. And this kit is actually a bargain because the same album without all the kit and pen stuff is the same price? So might as well go for it! This is totally a way to scrapbook with limited time and budget and don’t let anyone (including me) running away with our embellishments and stamping make you feel like it’s not proper scrapbooking. It most definitely is and it will get your stories told in a book you can hold and bring out every year. It’s a brilliant plan really! Find that here in red or green.

That’s everything to get you through until our class starts as usual on the first of December! Have a wonderful autumn or spring until then and I’ll see you when it’s properly time to talk all things Christmassy!

Last year I talked about an album mindset class and it took a while for me to find a system that was really working for how I could share this ongoing process on a monthly basis. Well, halfway through 2024 and I am happy to say it’s been rolling along relatively well so it’s time I talk about it a bit more!

This Year’s Story begins with a starter class. It discusses my album philosophy, how I organise and plan for the photos I’ve taken, how everything gets filed into albums, and what my real goals are when I’m building a scrapbook, one story at a time. Remember, I’m really big on the ‘book’ element of ‘scrapbook’! I love creating individual pages, but I find it even more exciting to turn the pages of a book and see our stories develop with time! So if that sounds like something you’d enjoy learning, you can join the starter class to see all the philosophy behind it and see two months of stories in action: one from 2023 and one from 2024.

JUST the This Year’s Story Starter Class – no additional months

$22 USD

Now if that sounds perfectly up your alley and you’re ready to just dive in, you can sign up for the starter class and the full year of 2024 updates – so if you signed up now, you’d already have the stories from January to May 2024 there, and you’d see June’s stories in videos throughout this month and so on for the rest of the year. Each month I tell current stories in my regular YouTube livestreams, then I fill in all the gaps and complete storytelling over the next month, so on YouTube I scrapbooked June stories in June. In class, I’ll scrap the rest of my June stories throughout July. Which means the 2024 membership will actually include January 2025, when I’m completing the December 2024 stories. Got it? If you love that whole idea and want to jump into the full ‘members only’ content for all of 2024, you can go ahead and sign up all in one go with nothing extra to add later.

BUNDLE This Year’s Story Starter Class AND Full 2024 Membership – all months

$75.00 USD

But you might not want a full year and that’s absolutely fine too! Once you have taken the starter class, you can add on additional months individually and access just the videos for that month. Please make sure this is WITH a starter class membership. It needs the starter class to get the most of the individual months, and I’m not offering the months without the starter. (Think of it like the starter class is the main kit and the months are the add on options!)

INDIVIDUAL MONTHS – Be sure to take the Starter Class first!

What month would you like? (February – December 2024)

$15 USD per month – January 2024 is included in the Starter Class, so select your month from February to December. Repeat the process for additional months.

The additional content is all shown in video – some prerecorded and some live-streamed, but the livestream content in my classes is not informal chitchat like our random rubbish chats on YouTube! I do answer questions from the live audience but we keep things on track to both the storytelling (so topics that come up on the pages I’m making or you’re making) and the crafty elements like design, products, and techniques.

Like my other classes, registrations are processed by a real human (me) rather than being automatic, so you should have access within 48 hours. If you don’t, please drop me an email! ALSO, if you are having trouble accessing the class forum (for any of my classes) and would like some help, the lovely Alice has returned to help me keep on top of this and you can contact her directly! Click here to email Alice about your forum username or password.

Thanks so much to everyone who has stayed with this class since the early days! If you joined way back when and haven’t signed in lately, you might find there are lots of videos for you to watch, so do have a look.

Comment

We’ll talk about this in more detail in today’s livestream on YouTube!

A reminder of #advertising: all these products are linked with affiliate links. Thanks so much for your support!

Albums

I love the 6×8 format for this project and have stuck with it happily for many years, so these are all 6×8 recommendations. Of course you can choose another size if you like!

I’m using that first album from Paige’s Sugarplum Wishes collection. It has the widest spine of any of the 6×8 albums I’ve found! It comes with some page protectors but you will need more – the Vicki Boutin page protectors listed third there also fit Paige’s binder without punching new holes. Other brands will require punching holes. Vicki’s album also adds in some papers for the page protectors (Paige’s album does not) so if you opt for Vicki’s Christmas binder, you can decrease the number of papers you add. You probably won’t, because decreasing the number of papers in a scrapper’s shopping is just torture. But you can, if you so wish.

The remaining 6×8 albums here will fit the Simple Stories and Scrapbookcom page protectors listed. SS and SBcom albums and page protectors are totally compatible and I have used both together in the past. (Be careful if ordering off list that the Simple Stories Snap Flip Book is different! Those are not compatible with the ring binders.) I haven’t seen the Echo Park / Carta Bella albums in person but I believe they fit the SS and SBcom protectors. If I find this to be inaccurate, I will come back and update!

At the end of this list, there is also a kit option with album, page protectors, and pocket cards for a ready to go, quick to create option that can be your entire purchase and then just add photos and writing to document your memories. If you have tried in previous years to make something fancy and given up by day four, TRY THIS OPTION. It counts and it will feel good to get to the end and have everything documented that you want to document! Stop overdoing it in December and take the route that can make it quick and easy. You can always go back to giving fancy a try another time.

Patterned Paper

Just like you don’t need all of those albums, you don’t need all of these papers! Hear me out on the method to my madness in helping you curate the supplies that will bring you joy in your crafting.

First of all: do you have a winter Christmas or not? Decide now if you want things like snowflakes and snowmen in your album and choose your supplies to suit. Just ignore any of the collections that are wintry if you have a tropical Christmas and the snowflakes make no sense to you.

Second: what kind of Christmas colours do you want to work with this year? I prefer the bright and colourful Christmas rainbow, so I’ve listed those options first. I’m going with the picks at the beginning of this list. But I respect the traditional green and red options, so those are here too. And in the middle, there are some papers that take the traditional red and green but also add a little something extra, like some pink or baby blue.

Once you have evaluated your decision on snow or no snow AND your preferred colour palette, pick two or three 6×8 paper pads and you will be good to go! 6×6 papers work well too (the Doodlebug option only comes in 6×6 or 12×12, for example) as lots of the pages are 3×4 and 4×6 pockets, so you only need the full 6×8 page for the full size page protector. You can also go with individual 12×12 sheets rather than a paper pad, of course. I’ve also added a few cut apart papers to this list and I liked the idea of adding some Christmas florals in but I didn’t want a full kit of those papers, so I just added them individually here.

At the end of this list I have also included some papers from my Main Character Energy collection that are certainly not Christmas papers but have at least one side that will work really well in my Christmas scrapping. Bonus that if you don’t use them up in December, they will be a-okay to keep using throughout the calendar.

Embellishments

Once you have picked your papers with your weather and colours in mind, then go to this list to choose some embellishments to suit. One pack of die cuts, one or two sticker books or sticker sheets, some confetti elements (enamel dots, tiny puffy stickers, or gems), and some lettering will give you lots of options. There’s also a little section in the middle of embellishments that are just something different – wooden stickers and paperclips with charms. May or may not be your cup of tea!

Mixed Media

Basics if you want to add ink! You can skip these entirely if you don’t. Number and letter stamps can help with custom titles and dates if you’re not a fan of letter stickers. Distress Oxides are my favourite inks and these are the colours I use at Christmas. Plus some things like stencils and sparkles that you can use over and over in your stash.

Any questions, come ask them in the YouTube comments and we can chat it through!

Hey hey there Christmas fans! This year’s edition of the Journal your Christmas stamps are now available for preorder, which will remain open for two weeks – until Wednesday the 19th of July. I only get a very small number of extras, so if you would like a set please place a preorder. Any extras would be available in late October or early November.

This year’s vibe is a multitude of words you can mix and match to fit the stories you tell over the holidays and then throughout the rest of the year. For example, I have long wished for a stamp that says ‘core memory’ to go with my writing on plenty of pages. With each word as its own stamp, I can caption something in my Christmas journal with ‘core Christmas memory’ or even ‘here is my core Christmas memory’ but I’ll still have the ‘core memory’ option to use on non-Christmas pages. The words are there for a Home Alone reference – don’t mess with kids at Christmas – but they aren’t all stuck together to be just that sentiment. ‘Merry Mess’ might also be apt or ‘kids at Christmas’ might be a very useful caption. And then you can mix with your own stickers or letter stamps to add any words missing, so you could end up with ‘Don’t mess with Texas’ by adding in one extra word if that’s the story you need to tell!

The set is two 4×6 inch sheets of stamps, purchased as one bundle for $34 USD, including postage to anywhere in the world. The stamps are high quality photo polymer, made in the UK, and packed and posted by me here in London to you, wherever you are. (If you’re in Germany and want a set, send me an email at shimelle@gmail.com because that’s the only country that has been a real challenge with delivery for some reason!)

Please keep in mind the stamps may be in slightly different places on the sheets – I work with the stamp manufacturer to make the best use of the space and not leave any gaps so sometimes we just need to rearrange a bit.

If you have any questions, please send me an email (shimelle@gmail.com) any time. Keep that in mind if you move house between now and October, when your stamps will be on their way to you.

Welcome to the complete list of online classes available at shimelle.com! Please note that class registrations are processed by an actual person (me!) and you should immediately receive a Paypal payment receipt email upon making a purchase. This will be followed by your class registration email within 48 hours. If it’s your first class purchase, you’ll also receive your login details to access your classes. If you have any questions or don’t seem to have received your welcome email, please do not hesitate to send me an email.

If you have some classes already and would like to check your class list, you can sign into the class forum here. If you don’t remember your username and/or password, email me so I can fix that for you.

Self-Paced Classes:
These classes can all be taken in a self-paced format at any time. There is no time limit on accessing the class materials, and they can be found on a private forum once you sign up and log into the class site. It can take up to 48 hours to receive access to your new class, but it is often quicker than that. (It is not automated, and if you think something is wrong, please email me!)

Use What You Buy is a scrapbooking class concept that’s built off of my Best of Both Worlds kits. These kits are monthly shopping lists, but with a bit of a twist. I encourage scrappers to buy only what they want or need, and then dig into their stash for the rest. The idea here is to use what we actually have, and not hang onto things. Yes, that piece of paper is incredibly pretty, but wouldn’t it look so much better in a layout than tucked away in a cupboard somewhere?

Use What You Buy is the next step on from this. In this class, the focus is on using stash building items from the BOBW kits, like stencils, stamps, and inks that should be used time and again, or with stand out items that might have been intimidating like specialty papers or themed embellishments. With this class, I’m going through one category of stash at a time. Each has four instruction-focused videos (around 22 minutes long), with four specific and versatile techniques you can experiment with. Don’t have the specific item I’m using? Not to worry – these are supposed to be jumping off points to encourage you to use what you buy, even if it’s a different paper or stamp or stencil than what I bought!

There are currently three live and one upcoming Use What You Buy classes, and more will appear throughout 2023. They are each $5 in the first month that they are available and then $10 any time later.

Scrap a Rainbow! Step into a world of colour: Scrap a Rainbow dives into each familiar shade, one at a time, as we head through the spectrum plus pink for good measure. There is a balance of ideas for each colour – first on its own, and then in several combinations. We use ink pads throughout to demonstrate colour combinations, but you don’t need to be an inky crafter to pull these colour combinations together with paper, stickers, and other supplies. This course includes videos pre-recorded edited and live (now a replay) videos. Click here for more information on scrapbooking a rainbow. Scrap a Rainbow also includes two short bridging classes that link the larger online workshops I offer, so there is one already available about quadrant design to link to Half and Half, and there will be another short class included in early 2023 that links the colour-based info to the next big workshop! Click here to read more about Scrap a Rainbow!

Quadrants and Colour is a bridging class that is included with both Scrap a Rainbow and Half and Half: it’s all about page designs using four 6×6 quadrants on a 12×12 page. (A ‘bridging class’ is a short workshop that connects one theme of lessons to the next, that’s all! I like it as a warm up for the next big project.)

Half and Half is a page design class entirely based on the idea of starting your page with two 6×12 inch boxes of patterned paper: half one pattern and half another pattern. It sounds like something that would make every page look the same, but it doesn’t, and it’s a great way to get more from your patterned paper purchases and to create depth and layering if you feel your pages could do with a bit of something ‘more’ but you haven’t been able to put your finger on what exactly. Half and Half also includes the Quadrants and Colour bridging class. Click here to read more about the Half & Half page composition class.

Start With a Sketch does exactly what you expect: every lesson starts with a page sketch. The great thing about a scrapbook page sketch is that it can be interpreted (and reinterpreted) so many ways. I’ll take you through fifteen scrapbook page sketches, and create three interpretations of each. We’ll explore classic interpretations, mixed media, story topics, and more. Click here to read more about my sketch-based scrapbook page design class.

Level Up takes four core elements of scrapbooking and shares ways you can take each of them to the next level. We’ll look at photography, page composition, writing, and embellishment, spotting ways we can spend just a little more thought or time and end up with an end result that feels fabulous! This class includes both single and double page layouts, and Q&A sessions in addition to the edited video lessons. Click here to read more about levelling up your scrapbooking!

Behind the Scenes Scrapbooking takes a look at all the stuff that goes into making pages and albums and telling my stories. I share scrapbooking process videos all the time, but this course shows you the thinking and planning that goes on off-camera, from looking through my photos and deciding what to print and scrapbook to selecting the supplies for each page to telling the story in words. Click here to read more about the class that pulls back the camera to go behind the scenes of scrapbooking.

Layer on Layer on Layer covers the topic I am most often asked to explain: paper layering! I love adding more and more without it feeling like the photos are overwhelmed and layering is that perfect balance. With sketches, techniques, and thirty layering process videos, you can fall head over heels with using all those scraps and stickers to create a unique mix of pattern and colour to tell your story. Click here to read more about Layer on Layer on Layer.

Clear the Desk is an earlier version of my use-what-you-buy mantra: eight lessons encouraging you to clear your desk by using the stash you’ve bought and organised and continued to like despite never actually using it to craft! After all: if we use the supplies in our stash, we have room to buy new supplies! And that’s all part of the fun. Click here to read more about Clear the Desk and get ready to use whatever is left on your desk right now!

A Most Magical Scrapbook covers the process of creating an album (actually two volumes, since there are so many pages) to document a long trip to Walt Disney World and Universal Studios Orlando. The videos cover dozens of page process videos (which can easily be adapted to other topics if theme parks aren’t your thing!) and also a look at how I tackled the enormity of all the pictures from the trip and how I planned the album. See more about the class here.

Design Decisions includes 15 extended-length process videos and accompanying PDF guides with sketches to take you through choices you can make while creating a page: design decisions. We look at why certain choices work best in certain situations and how you can develop your own personal style through the decisions you make. Click here to read more about this series of scrapbooking design video tutorials.

The 20 Project was a scrapbooking challenge I set myself: could I create twenty pages, spurred on my twenty challenges I’d stuck in a jar, and could I finish each one in twenty minutes? The twenty process videos (around twenty minutes each) make up this class and allow you to follow along with my own challenges or to create your own list of twenty things you want to try. And of course, this class is just twenty dollars. Click here for further information about this series of scrapbooking challenges.

The Scrapbook Process includes 22 process videos as I work on three specific themed scrapbooks, and I break down the choices in style and storytelling as I scrap in that format. As a result, it goes hand in hand with Cover to Cover (below), but has a definite focus on making individual pages rather than the philosophy angle of the album course. This course can be useful if you’re working on pages for any album, but can give you ideas for organising pages to tell themed stories too. Click here for more information on this scrapbooking video series.

Ready Set Scrapbook is an online video workshop designed to help you stop staring at the paper and start your scrapping engine. In three videos, it covers three quick composition strategies that help me work quickly while making use of the supplies I love (rather than saving them for a rainy day) and still making sure my photos and writing are at the heart of my designs, even though I love my embellishment. I hope you will find it useful in creating pages that are filled with love and made with whatever time you have to scrapbook right now. The examples feature my True Stories collection from American Crafts but the principles can be used with any supplies you like. This class is a much shorter format than most of my workshops and can be a good kickstart if you’ve taken a break from scrapping or just feel you’re looking at a blank page for far too long. Click here for further details about this quick guide to scrapbook page composition.

Inspired By… came from working with some of my favourite scrapbookers to break down how we translate different sources of inspiration into unique scrapbook pages, and we share that process with you through ten videos and an accompanying PDF for reference. Across the ten videos, we take inspiration from the photos we will scrapbook, a patterned paper collection, geometric graphics, party decor, mixed media art, watercolours, commercial illustration, interior design, text art, and an existing scrapbook page. Then we walk through our individual scrapping process from taking that inspiration and turning it into something we love for our albums. It’s inspiration without sacrificing personal style, and we’d love for you to join in the fun. (Two of the ten videos are my own scrapping; the remaining eight are each from a different contributor.) Click here to read more about taking inspiration from other sources and turning it into scrapbook pages you love.

Glitter Girl’s Scrapbooking Survival Guide is taught by scrapbooking superhero alter ego, Glitter Girl, and was originally hosted by Two Peas in a bucket. This class includes 42 layouts, of which 10 are shown in process videos, and the printed content is broken into 5 PDF chapters. Glitter Girl addresses the questions that seem to come up time and time again for staying happy and creative with your scrapbooking. It also includes access to Glitter Girl’s Guide to Stash Stretching, originally an early bird bonus or a separate purchase from Two Peas. This is a separate video focusing on getting more from your papers and supplies. Click here for more details on my sparkly friend’s scrapbooking classes.

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Scrapbooking was originally hosted at Two Peas in a Bucket, an online scrapbooking store that closed in 2014. This class is now accessible on my own site. If you want to scrapbook more efficiently (at home or away), use the paper and embellishments you buy (rather than just collecting them) or get a really intense dose of my scrapbooking style, then this is the workshop you’ll love. It’s a book + video format, broken into five chapters (all printable) and five accompanying videos. Each video reviews the concepts of that chapter plus shows you one layout from that chapter in a start-to-finish process. Don’t panic – just click here to read more about keeping your cool while scrapbooking, anywhere in the galaxy.

Cover to Cover is a philosophy class rather than a layout class, but many of the participants found themselves scrapping more than ever before! If you have pages in stacks or just randomly in an album but you wish you could hand a guest an album with confidence and have them understand and appreciate your work even if they don’t really know about scrapbooking, then this is the class for you. It’s all about putting the book back in scrapbooking. This course includes 25 pdfs, four exclusive video episodes and access to a few videos from other courses that are also relevant to the discussion. Click here for more details on some serious album system stuff!
Paperclipping’s Deep Dive Audio Course on Story-Centred Albums is an audio course that Noell made where the two of us talk albums for hours. It makes a good complement for Cover to Cover and can be found on the Paperclipping site here.

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. This course is a single video 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. Click here for a bit more information on cutting up your collection packs.

Return to the Collection is a follow-up to Perfect Collection and works with a single collection pack but also far more embellishments. The videos of this course cover six layouts made from one paper collection with a focus on more detailed embellishments than the previous collection class. The idea is you would try these concepts with a collection of papers in your own stash rather than feeling tied to the set of papers shown in the examples. Click here for more information on this scrapbooking embellishment video course.

Scrapbook Remix shares the secrets to mixing patterned papers of all kinds and then creating a range of pages with this combinations. We’ll talk colour, pattern, scale, size, technique and more. The class includes both PDF and video prompts: a total of twenty full-colour PDFs and eight videos over four weeks. In each PDF prompt, we start with a different paper collection, then analyse it and remix it with other papers and embellishments to create four or more different looks. The video prompts include a mix theory discussion (showing exactly why some patterns do and do not work well together) and the step-by-step process for creating specific scrapbook pages. Click here for more details on mixing up all the patterned papers on your pages.

Pretty Paper Party is just what you want if you love paper and collect paper but want some new ideas for actually using all that paper to scrapbook and craft. You’ll get project ideas and tutorials from me and a team of special guests, including 25 pdfs and five exclusive videos. Click here for more about all that paper goodness.

True Stories is one of the projects dearest to my heart. It’s all about writing – or journaling – for scrapbookers. All different ways to approach writing, get your message written down and enjoy the creativity of words. I’m joined by guest scrappers and special guest Relly Annett-Baker, who happens to be a writing professional by day and scrapbooker by night. I love this class, and the pages I created for these prompts are still some of my very favourites in terms of both storytelling and design. Click here for more about no-fear word-smithery.

Blogging for Scrapbookers actually has two parts – the original class and the more advanced sequel. We start with the basics of getting a blog set up and making it look how you like then we move on to why blogging can be so useful for scrapbookers and how you can use the two things together. The class content covers all sorts of topics for interesting blog posts for scrapbookers to write from their own perspective, and in the advanced class we look more at growing your readership and even making some money, if that’s the sort of thing you would like to do. The class content can be used with any blog system, so you can blog on your own set-up or Blogger, Typepad, Squarespace, Wordpress or anything else. Ali Edwards featured this class on her blog – thanks Ali! Click here to read more about the original Blogging for Scrapbookers course
and here for details on the follow up class for those who already have a blog up and running.

Love your Pictures, Love your Pages is my answer to scrappers who say they are most inspired to scrapbook their best photos, but are not interested in photo courses that are intimidating, technical, or expensive. I love to scrap those winning shots but I always prefer to enjoy the experience more than think about technical stuff, so I’ve had to adopt some strategies to find a happy medium for me, and that’s what we explore in this class: how to get photos that are so much fun to scrapbook and then lots of ideas for how to scrapbook with those pictures. This is a summer favourite since it’s so much easier to get out and scrapbook when the light is there, the weather is warmer and the days are long. Click here to read more about this the camera + paper experience.

Something from Almost Nothing is all about getting more from the stash we have already acquired, no matter what your personal product of choice may be. We work through a range of products you already have on hand and put them to use in new ways. We’ll step away from just gluing or stitching on a button and build something new. Plus it’s not just buttons we’ll be moving from stash to completed pages; we’ll also put stickers, ribbons, transparencies, papers, page protectors, chipboard and other supplies to work too. You won’t need to have specific supplies to follow along: we’ll focus on what you do have and offer plenty of alternatives along the way. Click here for further details on seeing your scrapbooking stash in a whole new light.

Annual Classes:
These classes run every year and once you join, you are welcome to join in as many years as you would like with no additional fees. Class materials are available year-round and emails are sent when the class is active each year.

Journal your Christmas runs from the 1st of December to the 6th of January every year. It’s something that started small. One year it was just me and my pen and my book, trying to take back Christmas and rediscover my love of the holiday after a few years when Christmas lacked a certain sparkle. The second Christmas, I shared the idea with a small group of crafty friends, just to see if this reclaiming idea was something that made sense outside of my head. It did. And from there, Journal your Christmas became an online class that I shared with the rest of the world. And by ‘rest of the world’, I mean we now have Christmas journallers from more than fifty countries. I make a new book each year and share it in process video form as it comes together in addition to the written prompts. The prompts are changed from time to time, with the latest significant refresh in December 2022. Click here for further details on keeping a Christmas journal.

Share your Christmas runs from the 1st to the 24th of December every year. This class can be taken alongside Journal your Christmas or on its own: it’s an adventure in taking photos, creating short videos, and adding captions to share your Christmas moments with friends and family or with a wider audience through a social media platform like Instagram. There are daily emails with videos or instructions to walk you through a variety of photo and video ideas. If you have been looking for a way to bring meaning and positivity to your social media posts, this is definitely a road map for doing just that. If you follow along, you’ll have a range of photographs, videos, and captions that document what’s most important to you this holiday season. Click here for further details on both Christmas classes.

Learn Something New Every Day runs from the 1st to the 30th of September every year. September is a special kind of second new year: the time of year when we head back to school, set new goals, live up to our shiny new intentions and embrace the idea of doing a little something to make ourselves a little better somehow. Around here, we do that with an online class called Learn Something New Every Day. This online class encourages you to observe the world around you and learn from your daily experiences and surroundings. We work with a small format album to make thirty daily entries, and we adopt a few short cuts and techniques to make those daily entries possible in even the busiest of weeks. Click here for more information about this one-sentence-per-day journaling class. Please be aware I am no longer adding new content to this class, but I still send the emails every September and you are still very welcome to take the class for as many years as you like!

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Leafy scrapbooking is an entire genre I could happily look through for days and days, so I hope you’ll enjoy all the autumnal and leafy goodness of today’s guest post from the lovely Rebecca Moore! -Shimelle

I love scrapbooking – it’s my ‘me time’. I have a busy life with a five year old, so scrapbooking is something I do in the evenings when things are a bit quieter. I love to have lots of dimension and layering on my scrapbook pages. It means I can’t always get as many layouts in an album as I’d like – but it’s my style and it’s what makes me happy so I don’t let that stop me! I recently took my little boy on a walk around a local lake, and we came across an area covered in fallen leaves. They were all dried out and crumpled and I really wanted to replicate this on my layout. I’ve used Simple Stories ‘Hearth and Home’ collection as the colours match my photo really well. I also wanted to draw on the navy in my photo so I’ve pulled in a navy paper from P13’s ‘Soulmate’ collection. I ran these papers through my Silhouette Cameo 4 and cut lots of leaf shapes in various sizes.

I began with a circular photo in the centre of my layout. I added a couple of layers of patterned papers behind it, distressing the edges to bring some texture to the page. I introduced some dimension by adding foam in between these layers. I then layered six tags under my photo in a circluar fashion. I raised the tops of the tags up using foam pads, but I didn’t stick the top tag down – I wanted this tag to include my journalling so I needed it to be moveable. I used my Crop-A-Dile to add some metal eyelets to the tags, and threaded some embroidery floss through in coordinating colours.

Next came the fun part of layering up the leaves. I tried to distribute the sizes and colours evenly and have used foam to bring more dimension to the layout. I’ve also distressed the leaf edges and curled them up slightly to appear more realistic. I really do love how these leaves look arranged around my circular photo. For my title, I’ve used an acrylic perspextive from Bramble Fox because the colour coordinated nicely with my photo. I placed this central on the page, underneath my photo.

I finished the page off by adding a patterned paper border, some ink splatters and a few sequins to bring in a bit of sparkle. I really love how this layout turned out. The leaves are so dimensional and realistic and really do remind me of our walk every time I look at the layout – which makes me happy and brings a smile to my face. And this design could work with any shapes – you don’t have to use leaves – snowflakes or flowers would work just as well.

Rebecca lives in Buckinghamshire, UK, with her husband and five year old son. Scrapbooking since 2017, she mostly scrapbooks photos of her son and shares her work on Instagram and YouTube. She also works on several design teams and enjoys crafting with a wide range of collections.

It’s so close now! One more school day. One list of things left to finish, pack, or let go. Then time for all the magic! And that’s what’s here in this countdown bundle: two classes with different formats and content that happen to fit together in their own lovely way, and will fit with something new I’ll be teaching in the not so far off times to come.

Cover to Cover is my album philosophy class. It features flip throughs of albums and a great deal of discussion of how I go from individual pages and a stack of photographs to an album that truly tells a story and reads like a book. This is my ‘put the book in scrapbook’ class.

Most Magical Scrapbook is my Disney scrapbooking class, but you don’t actually have to be a Disney fan at all to follow along. It takes you through my entire process of scrapbooking a 10 day holiday including Walt Disney World and a day at Universal Studios Orlando. There are about fifty process videos that show all the 12×12 scrapbook pages from start to finish, and just like Cover to Cover suggests, I’m interested in making this a book that tells a story rather than just a box of individual pages, so you’ll see the album build and come together!

These two classes are available individually any time but they would ordinarily cost $55 USD. For the next 24 hours, you can buy the set for for just $28.

If you’ve been considering evaluating how you create your bigger library of scrapbooks rather than just stacks of pages, I will be adding to this discussion in 2023, and I’ll be really suggesting these two classes as preparation, so if you haven’t done them yet this would be a great time to add them to your class library!

THIS OFFER HAS NOW EXPIRED. Sorry!

If you have taken online classes with me before, you can sign into your account at http://www.shimelle.com/forum to see which classes you have taken. All of my classes include permanent access, so you can go back to anything you’ve taken even ten years ago and access all the PDFs and videos. (If you don’t remember your username and/or password, send me an email!) By the way, if you’ve signed up for classes already this week, you should be able to find those when you sign in too.

If you’ve never taken an online class here, welcome! The countdown discounts will be a great time to create a line up of resources to walk you through many aspects of this craft! I don’t offer sales very often, and for the next week, the offers will change every 24 hours. But it’s important to know this is not an automatic, automated purchase. You’ll get a Paypal receipt email pretty much instantly, and then you’ll get an email from me with your login details once I’ve processed your registration. This is usually within 24 hours, and that should certainly be the case from now until next Thursday evening. If you do not hear from me within 48 hours, then something is going astray so please email me and let me know. Thank you!

Whether you’re new or not, if you choose to pay from your Paypal account and the email address you use on Paypal is not where you want me to send your class messages, please email me so I can update that for you. Be sure to include both email addresses in your note so I can link up your payment to the correct address for your class account. Thanks!

The countdown is dwindling and I pulled out the suitcases and started packing things today! But I have another offer – a bundle of two classes from not so far back in the archives this time: The 20 Project and The Scrapbook Process.

The 20 Project is great for getting out of a rut and getting yourself actually making stuff and making stuff relatively quickly! It’s a great exercise if you usually spend two hours wondering if a particular piece of paper should sit at a 90 degree angle or a 91 degree angle. I challenged myself to create 20 scrapbook pages, spurred on my twenty descriptions I’d stuck in a jar, and aimed to finish each one in around 20 minutes. There are 20 videos, each around 20 minutes long, and you can follow the challenges right along with me, either for 20 days or just as and when you need a push!

The Scrapbook Process includes 22 videos and follows the creation of the pages in three different albums. It covers both visual and storytelling style, and you’ll see how a bigger story comes together from all those individual pages. This class can really help you gain confidence in finding your personal style.

Purchased individually, these classes would total $50 USD, but for 24 hours you can grab the bundle for half off: two classes for a total of $25 USD.

THIS OFFER HAS NOW EXPIRED. SORRY!

If you have taken online classes with me before, you can sign into your account at http://www.shimelle.com/forum to see which classes you have taken. All of my classes include permanent access, so you can go back to anything you’ve taken even ten years ago and access all the PDFs and videos. (If you don’t remember your username and/or password, send me an email!) By the way, if you’ve signed up for classes already this week, you should be able to find those when you sign in too.

If you’ve never taken an online class here, welcome! The countdown discounts will be a great time to create a line up of resources to walk you through many aspects of this craft! I don’t offer sales very often, and for the next week, the offers will change every 24 hours. But it’s important to know this is not an automatic, automated purchase. You’ll get a Paypal receipt email pretty much instantly, and then you’ll get an email from me with your login details once I’ve processed your registration. This is usually within 24 hours, and that should certainly be the case from now until next Thursday evening. If you do not hear from me within 48 hours, then something is going astray so please email me and let me know. Thank you!

Whether you’re new or not, if you choose to pay from your Paypal account and the email address you use on Paypal is not where you want me to send your class messages, please email me so I can update that for you. Be sure to include both email addresses in your note so I can link up your payment to the correct address for your class account. Thanks!