If you watch any of my chatty and crafty videos, you’ll hear me say ‘and I help you tell your stories in a creative way’ and most of the time, that means the colours and patterns and placement of papers, the sprinkling of stickers, and the reminder to use that stamp set you bought with the best of intentions yet you seem to be saving as a museum piece. But every once in a while I like to change gears and focus on the actual telling of your story: finding your voice and getting it on paper. It can clear your mind, it can help you remember small details, and it can capture so much about you at any given moment in your timeline. All of that is valuable before we even get to the wider scope of memory keeping: stories that are captured for our loved ones, to become something more, like your grandmother’s handwritten, tomato-stained recipe card you treasure.

This summer, that’s where we’re going and I’d love for you to come along for the ride. It’s eight lessons, each exploring what makes true stories engaging to read. We’ll begin each lesson with a short extract from a published memoir. Together we’ll look at what makes that writing work, so we can see how writing small stories from daily life can be creative, energising, and fun, without feeling any pressure. It’s not a university class: no deadlines, ask as many questions as you like, no grades. (And I’ve taught in a more formal classroom environment, so I know I’m changing that up!)

Although I’m sharing my own scrapbook pages throughout the class, these are writing lessons rather than scrapbooking tutorials. Whether your stories end up on a scrapbook page, in a notebook, an art journal, a diary or somewhere else entirely, the techniques are the same. I won’t be sharing scrapbook process videos but you’ll see some of my pages as I add the writing to the spaces I’ve left during the design process.

Because every memory has a story, and nobody else can tell yours from your point of view.

If you’ve ever looked at a blank journaling card or a blank notebook page and wished the words would come a little more easily, I’d love to have you join us.

Tell Your Story begins this week, with eight live lessons across July and August. During launch week, the class is available for $24, before moving to its full price of $30.

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Once upon a very long time ago, I led a year-long video project called 4×6 Photo Love for an online store, with an update each month, all featuring 4×6 prints. We scrapped one 4×6 photo in January, two in February, all the way up to twelve in December. That project came from an era when I ordered all my photos printed as 4×6 prints and although the supplies were those on the market at the time, the sketches and ideas still work and some are ideas I’ve come back to dozens of times since.

Except now I split my photo sizes, with about half of my prints at the 3×4 size. It’s high time I create a library of page designs for 3×4 photos – a new reference guide with ideas that can be used time and time again over time, with different supplies, different colour schemes, and different stories.

3×4 Photo Love is a much quicker format than once a month, so you won’t have long to wait! This online class has six livestreamed lessons, each making two pages, for a total of twelve pages. The first lesson starts with one 3×4 photo, with a design for a portrait (vertical) photo and a design for a landscape (horizontal) photo. We will carry on through the lessons, adding an additional photo, until our last lesson features six portraits on one page and six landscapes on another. These page designs also shift easily to add more photos if you prefer, so you’ll have plenty of options. You’ll also see exactly how page designs can be adjusted from portraits to landscapes. I won’t be featuring pages that mix the portraits and landscapes but we will stop to talk about that with the designs where it can work easily, and we’ll look at how the pages could work side by side for stories that give you plenty of photos in both directions.

The schedule for the livestreamed lessons is:
Thursday 25 June 1:30pm
Friday 26 June 1:30pm
Thursday 2 July 1:30pm
Friday 3 July 1:30pm
Monday 6 July 10:00am
Tuesday 7 July 6:00pm
All the above are on London time, which is currently British Summer Time.

There is no requirement to watch live – all the lessons will then remain available to watch on your own schedule. With the recent Clear the Desk Live class, many participants said they rescheduled all the lessons to their own times rather than watch live and it still worked really well for them. There is a place to leave questions on the class forum during the live run, so if you have a question but can’t make it to ask in the live chat, you can leave your question there and I’ll be sure to discuss it in the next lesson’s video.

From now until through the 3rd of July, sign up for the opening week price of $15 (US dollars) by clicking here. From the 4th, the price will go to $20 and remain at that price as the standard self-paced option. All my classes remain accessible on your account permanently, so if you are planning to take this but move it to another time of year, you’re very welcome to do so and can sign up with the opening week price then come back to it when you’re ready, if that seems sensible to your scrappy calendar.

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(Use this option to pay by your choice of card or from your Paypal account.)

I process all class registrations by hand – the instant automated email will be your payment receipt. Then the class forum will open on Thursday and you’ll use that to access the class, including the livestreamed lessons. If you have an existing account with the same email address on your payment, the class will be added to that account. If you’re new, you’ll receive an extra email with your login details. If you sign up before class starts but don’t receive access by Thursday midday, please send me an email so I can get that fixed for you. You can also email if you know the email on your payment doesn’t’ match what’s on your account and you’d like your new class on a different account.

If you have trouble accessing your forum account, like you can’t remember your password, you can email Alice to get some help there, but please just remember, we are both humans and not robots. We’re happy to help but sometimes people assume at least one of us is a 24/7 automated response line and I’m afraid neither of us are. But don’t be afraid to email us!

Thanks so much and I can’t wait to see you in class, starting this Thursday!

Happy National Scrapbook Day!

My challenge for you this year is to scrap a photo of yourself! If you make something inspired by htis challenge, share it, and let me know, I’ll send you a bonus video next week to keep your pages going! You can post in our Facebook group, Scrapbook like a Superhero, or on your own social media accounts. Tag me on your post if you can! If you can’t tag or you post on a page gallery, you can email me a link or post in the comments here – whatever works. Be sure to mention in your caption that your page is inspired by Shimelle’s NSD 2026 challenge!

Annnnnnd the new class info! Clear the Desk is from way back in 2018 and it’s still a popular choice here and many of you asked for a sequel. That time is this month – with Clear the Desk Live! It’s 8 new lessons, following the same format as the original class but with different supplies, new ideas, and the option to watch live so you can ask questions as you go if you wish! You do not need to watch live, and all the videos will remain available to you any time after their original live airing. These live sessions are already scheduled so you can see if it will suit your schedule:
Monday 11th of May 5pm
Wednesday 13th of May 1:30pm
Friday 15th of May 2pm
Saturday 16th of May 4pm
Monday 18th of May 11am
Wednesday 20th of May 1:30pm
Friday 22nd of May 2pm
Saturday 23rd of May 4pm
These are UK time – British Summer Time.

If you watch my usual scrappy livestreams on Mondays and Fridays, you’ll know it’s a very chilled crop-like environment where we talk about all sorts of random rubbish. My classes are not the same – each of these livestreams has a lesson plan and we’ll be on topic. You’ll just have the ability to stop and query anything as we go, like we were all together in the same classroom.

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Clear the Desk Live is $15 USD if you sign up by the 10th of May and $20 thereafter. When you purchase the class, you will receive a paypal receipt email immediately. The class forum will open on Saturday the 9th of May, so you will not receive anything in between the receipt and the forum opening email on the 9th. When the forum opens, you’ll see supply suggestions for all of the sessions, should you wish to make a plan on what stash you are going to clear from your desk during the class! Everything is designed to be adaptable to your stash, your style, and your stories!

Thanks so much and happy scrapping!

Hey howdy hey! It’s certainly time for an update here, as I’ve been scrapping away in class and on YouTube and trying to be almost halfway decent at Facebook, and as a result I haven’t said anything here. Let’s finally put that right, shall we? I’m actually just at the beginning of a brand new class so why don’t we start with that?

Just JOY is a six week online scrapbooking class with 20 prerecorded video lessons plus 6 livestream scrapping sessions. We’re focusing on all the happiest things about scrapbooking, from page composition to colour combinations and embellishment techniques, but it’s not a case of just copying what brings me joy. Every lesson is accompanied with a checklist of joy to help you identify the things you love most about this craft.

Click here to see more or click here to jump straight to signing up!

It will be December before you know it, and that means Christmas classes! Journal your Christmas and Share your Christmas both start on the 1st of December as usual! And there’s something new this year if you like to plan and create ahead of time – I see you, team #organised! From Monday the 3rd of November, I’ll be sharing five days of videos preparing pages so you can hit the ground running in December by adding your pictures and writing. It’s five 90 minute videos, designed so you can watch and craft a little each day for a week, save it all up for one weekend of crafting, or slow it down and do a session or two each week of November. I will be using the supplies in the shopping list below, and I’m scrapping in 6×8 as I have for many Christmas journals now. You’re welcome to use any supplies and any album size – the ideas will adapt. It’s worth knowing that as I use page protectors, I don’t need to create all of my pages in the order that they end up appearing in the book. As such, I’ll be creating a library of things that I’ll then choose from as I make my 2025 album in December, so you’ll see a mix of page and pocket sizes in these five days of crafty content, including 6×8, 4×6, 3×4, and 3×8. There are also some shaped pages and folding pages for interactive elements. You can take this class with or without Journal your Christmas, although obviously it will fit well with that project in mind. Ready for December 2025! is $15 USD and starts on the 3rd of November. Click here to sign up!

If you’re scrapping Christmas along with us this year, you are always welcome to use any supplies you like and anything you already have in your stash! Use what you buy, of course! But if you fancy some Christmas scrapbook shopping this year, I’m here for you with that too. Here’s my shopping list (contains affiliate links) and what you’ll see in my Christmas class videos this year. (There’s a Disney Christmas collection out this year that I think is really lovely if you’re having a Christmas park trip or have something Disney themed over December. I’ve added it to the end of the list because obviously not everyone will have a mouse-themed Christmas! So as with everything else, you can pick what you like and leave the rest.)

If you’ve never joined in the fun of Journal your Christmas (the scrapping and writing class) or Share your Christmas (the photo and video class), you can find out about those and sign up right here.

Please note I have not done a new stamp design for Christmas 2025. This saddens me but the variability of tariffs when I’m in the UK and most of you are in the US just makes it too unpredictable this year. I don’t want you to end up paying more than you expected and equally I don’t want to end up with an unexpected bill either. Around the time I needed to open the usual preorder, the situation was changing a great deal. I will hope that next year we have a better understanding of how those agreements will work and if so, I will bring stamps back in 2026! I do have a limited number of stamps from previous years, so email me if you’d like one of those and I’ll talk you through the options.

This Wednesday, the 12th of March, is I LOVE LAYERS day!

I Love Layers is an online scrapbooking class in event style: if you’d like to join in on the day, you can learn and scrap right along with me. If Wednesday doesn’t suit your schedule, you can watch and craft at absolutely any time you like after the day comes to a close.

Layering is my happiest part of crafting, and I have a long form class on this subject, so this is more of a blitz through all the details that can make your layering as eye-catching, creative, and enjoyable as possible! I will be covering:
*Background layering of inks, paints, or patterned papers
*Making your stash lean into layering (without buying new)
*Layers to frame a single photo
*Making layers work with multiple photos
*Layers specifically for journaling
*Clean versus messy layers
*Knowing when to stop

All of the above have pre-recorded content you’ll be able to watch on Wednesday, plus I will scrapbook live so there’s an opportunity for you to layer right along with me in real time and complete a project on the day. (It’s okay to start with the livestream and come back to watch the prerecorded later if that’s better with your time zone. It will make sense in either order.) Participants receive a list to help you gather supplies suitable for the scrap-a-long, so you won’t have to waste time going through every paper and die-cut you own while we’re all crafting together.

I Love Layers is $10 and open for registration now by clicking here!

If you have an existing class pass, I Love Layers is included so you don’t need to do a thing. (You have this and 1 2 Punch coming your way to bring the existing class pass to a close!)

Next up is The One Two Punch!

If you signed up many moons ago for Use Your Punches as a coming soon, you are already signed up for this and do not need to do a thing!

This class grew out of my original Use What You Buy process but once I got started, I had way more things I wanted to share than what fit in the short workshop format. Instead, we now have a class with twenty videos: ten are in real time with minimal speeding up (there are some quicker edits for things like letter stickers and you don’t have to wait for any paint to dry!) so all ten techniques are easy to follow, and ten take those same techniques showing the same idea with different photos and different supplies but this time in a sped up edit of roughly 20 minutes. The class uses quite ordinary punch shapes: circles (plain, pinked, and scalloped), hearts, stars, butterflies, and the like. All the techniques can be used with a variety of shapes, so the first and second video for each idea do not use the same punch. The focus is on shape punches but there are a few times I add in a border punch as an optional extra.

There is one set of videos already there on the class forum when you sign up and then new content starts Friday and moves forward from there! Class will finish right around Easter. I changed the pace on this so no one feels they have to do heaps of pages every week to keep up. So the twenty videos finish mid June instead. Thank you to those who shared their opinions on the pacing of classes. It is impossible to have one pace that is best for everyone but there were many good points made and some will be really useful for other projects later in the year!

One Two Punch is $20 and open for registration by clicking here!

Remember, if you have a current class pass, this is already included, and this brings your pass to a close.

Then a moment to talk about This Year’s Story! Over 2024, I shared absolutely everything I made to go into my family albums for the year in a class called This Year’s Story. It begins with a starter class all about my album philosophy, how I work with my photo library, and all the practical part of keeping scrapbooks that become cherished books. Then every month of 2024 has a series of videos showing how everything comes together – an entire year of process videos including 12×12 pages, 6×12 pages, and pocket pages of assorted sizes. In total, that was four filled D-ring binders and the most detailed documentation of our lives I’ve ever managed! I absolutely love it.

Some of you asked if I would continue this into 2025. Others asked if I would get back to teaching themed classes that were shorter than a year long. So I’m choosing a happy medium! I will be teaching classes that aren’t all year long, and do have a theme, but the pages I make within that class will be all those stories going into my 2025 albums, so you’ll see mostly 12×12 layouts, but also some smaller pages and pocket pages in the mix. I’m going to begin that focus with a deep dive into the papers, stickers, and embellishments I’ve managed to keep for years and years, for a class all about scrapping with old stash! We will mix old with new, I will get all my January and February stories told and into the album. You won’t need the exact same supplies – that’s never how I teach! I want to enable you to use what you have already purchased and make things you love – it’s learning, not just following directions.

I’m still working out the exact number of videos this will be, but it will be a mix of pre-recorded and live-streamed videos, and as always you can watch any live-streamed video as a replay to make it fit your schedule. You never have to be there live – it’s just an option. (And if you are mostly familiar with my ‘random rubbish’ informal YouTube scrappy livestreams, please know my class livestreams are a different agenda and we don’t just do random chat. It’s the on-topic version of me showing up to teach!)

This class, New Pages from Old Stash, is scheduled to start on the 30th of April, and is $20. Registration is open by clicking here. Registration won’t close early so you can wait for more specific details if you would like, of course. But I open it now for those who prefer to sign up now before they forget. Remember, if you had a class pass, this is the first class not covered by that and you will need to sign up for this one! (I’m not going to open a class pass at this time, so please do sign up rather than waiting for a bulk purchase option. Thanks!)