When I reactivated with Creative Memories in early January, I was happy to see some new partnerships with companies such as ProvoCraft and Pixels 2 Pages. I was also pleased to learn more about another partner new to CM - Nancy O'Dell. I didn't know much about Nancy, except that she was an entertainment reporter and had been on one of my favorite reality shows, Dancing with the Stars. I ordered her first book written in conjunction with Creative Memories, "Full of Love", and now that I have read it I have to say there is lots in to love about this book!
I was surprised to learn that Nancy's family has been scrapbooking for four generations and that her mother created 52 albums about Nancy and her family! As a result, Nancy is an avid scrapbooker and creates albums for her own young daughter, stepsons and husband. She also documents the interesting celebrities she has met and interviewed on the red carpet and on her TV show, Entertainment Tonight. It was interesting to read about Nancy's background, her family life, her values and ideals, and to see photos of her growing up.
In the second half of the book, Nancy shares her suggestions for essential tools and techniques as well as the shortcuts she uses as a busy working mom. Finally, more than 60 pages of great layouts finish off the book, along with a username and password to access instructions to exclusive layouts - like the one below - online!
I enjoyed the book more than I thought I would, and I took away some fresh ideas and a new appreciation for a celebrity I knew little about. I would recommend the book to any mom who scrapbooks! I am looking forward to reading Nancy's second book with Creative Memories, "Secret Ingredients", which gives ideas and "recipes" for gifts ideas made from the heart.
Apologies for lack of posts this week...it's been fun, but crazy busy.
Today I am at an all-day crop with 25 lovely ladies who are scrapbooking their hearts out, but I couldn't let the week end without your creative prompt!
Each year I make lots of scrapbook pages based on themes, events and just plain cute photos of my kids. But I also like to create an album of highlights of the events of the past year. I have done these albums with traditional scrapbook pages and digital storybooks, but this year I am using a different type of scrapbook album - a Picfolio - to scrap an entire years worth of photos super fast.
CM's Picfolio Album is basically a photo album made so much more accessible and attractive. Each page has slip-in slots for both landscape and portrait format 4 x 6 photos. CM also makes a wide variety of pre-sized journaling and decorative boxes to slip into the empty slots to spice your pages up and get the album done in record time.
Here is sample of one month from my year-long album - the September page:
I simply chose the photos for each spot, slipped them in and then added some title letters and journaling to two of the pre-decorated Cheerful Photo Accents! It was so fast and easy that it almost felt like I was cheating!
Although I am biased and love the CM products, you can easily adapt this idea to any photo album you have - slip your photos into the spots in any photo-safe album and then cut down some of your patterned paper to fill other spots. Add a premade journaling box or write your journaling on white paper and adhere on top of the patterned paper. It's such a fast and easy way to tell your stories that I hope you try it!
(If you are interested, select colors and styles of Picfolio photo albums are on sale for 40% off! Click here to shop.)
I'll be sure to have more posts for you next week, so make sure to drop by!
I was working on a layout about how busy my young son is and wanted to include seven pictures. I had trimmed a few down to 4" x 4" and had left the rest as 4" x 6"s. I matted them all onto some Cheerful Storybox photo matts to give some bright pops of color, and arranged them on the page. But even though the photos were cute, it was too..."straight", and by straight, I mean boring! I tried placing some of the photos on an angle to make it a bit more dynamic, but it still was...straight. I knew I needed to break up all those straight lines with some curves.
So, I deliberately chose patterned papers with dots and large circles on them, embellished the page with some circular button elements and cut my title letters on the Cricut with a chunky, curvy font. After a little rearranging, the circle shapes softened all the straight edges of the matted photos and provided some much needed contrast and variety - which are both important elements of design. I don't think the layout is boring anymore and I love how the circles draw the eye throughout the entire two page spread.
So whether you are planning to scrapbook or papercraft this week, remember to balance the straight and the curvy for great results!
I also want to give you another prompt...to SHARE! Remember that I'd love to see how YOU interpret the prompt each week. Post a comment below with a link to see your straight and curvy project!
This year marks the 25th Anniversary of Creative Memories, and although we knew CM would do something big, we didn't think it would be THIS big! They had already announced new products, an awesome new host reward and 20% off all albums. But that wasn't enough.
A couple of days ago they put selected Picfolio Albums on sale for 40% off, and then yesterday all consultants got an email stating that they were offering ALL CREATIVE MEMORIES PRODUCTS AT 25% OFF FOR FIVE DAYS ONLY!
W.O.W.!!!
25% off is substantial in an industry where current products rarely go on sale! Here are a few highlights and great deals:
Top Picks or Featured Products (that are already bundled and discounted!) are also now additional 25% off for even bigger savings...like the Reflections Scrapbook Bundle which includes a coverset, pages, protectors, a full power palette, tape runner and pen is now only $78.75 for a $142.00 value!
Top Pick Scrapbook Bundle - Featuring Reflections
The Nancy O'Dell Hummingbird Collection is another extraordinarily great value - $254.00 worth of beautiful products for only $166.31! Amazing!
Nancy O'Dell Hummingbird Bundle
And this would be a great time to purchase that big ticket item(s) you've been wanting - like the amazing Daisy Wheeled Cart - it regular sells for $199.00, but for 5 days only you can get it for $149.25!
And think ahead to any events you will need gifts for in the upcoming months - the Everyday Display is perfect gift for newlyweds or families with a new baby in the house, the Simply Said Books would be beautiful for Mother's Day and Father's Day, and all the gift items in the digital center such as Calendars, Mugs and Tee-Shirts are also included in this fabulous sale!
So, have a look and either order online on my consultant site, or contact me and I can place your order for you. But don't delay...this whopper of a sale ends on Sunday January 15th 2012 at 11:59 pm!
It's a question that gets asked a lot, probably because sometimes you can tell a lot about a person from their answer. Folks who love fiery reds, yellows and oranges often have warm personalities, and those who love blues and greens are thought to more introspective and reserved. Our color preferences show up in our homes in our paint, furniture and accessory choices, and in our closet in our clothing picks. We are drawn to certain colors and turned off by others.
As scrapbookers and papercrafters, we make very deliberate color choices - selecting papers and embellishments to match the colors in our photos and/or to create a certain moods on our pages. Paper designers know this and strive to stay on top of trends in the color world so the papers you can purchase at any given time will blend with the colors in the world around you!
I personally love blues and greens so it was no surprise that I was instantly in love with Creative Memories Reflections Power Palette and other products. Take a look:
Creative Memories researches upcoming trends and really works at offering products that will fit with our current lifestyles. Take a look at this video to see what I mean:
I was so inspired that I just ordered some of the Reflection line of products and I can't wait to start creating with them, but for now here are a few great ideas from the CM Project Center:
I LOVE THIS LINE! Can't wait to get it, play with it and share it with you!
As far as "Color Inspiration" goes, I'm planning on making it an ongoing feature on my blog to focus on a variety of beautiful color combinations. I've recently started a Pinterest account (which is highly addictive!) and I am loving exploring all the amazing images and creating little collections (called "boards") of visually appealing objects. Today I created a board that focuses on these colors that I love - Blue, Green and Gray and that are so gorgeous together. Visit it here and you may find that you get addicted to Pinterest - and this color combo! - too!
So this begs the question..."What's YOUR favorite color?"
Since I have been re-inspired to scrapbook and work with Creative Memories, I decided that I want to help you be more inspired, too. So I am introducing a new feature to the blog - "52 Creative Prompts for Scrapbookers"!
As the name suggest, I'll be posting some kind of creative prompt for you each and every week this year! That's 52 creative ideas for you to use as jumping off points!
And although the title states that the prompts are for Scrapbookers, there will definitely be inspiration for projects other that just scrapbook pages. After all...we all have so much in the way of cool products that we can't help but be inclined to use it for other things, right?
Prompts may include layouts or sketches for scrapbook pages; journaling prompts; a technique to try; a tool to use; a new product to drool over; a project by another scrapbooker; a theme or title to incorporate; a challenge to use certain products or photos; a design for a card or altered item, etc....you get the idea!
And I've created a new page to keep all 52 prompts nice and neatly organized for easy reference! Just click on the "52" tab above and you'll find a list of all the prompts posted so far. Click on the title of the prompt and you'll be taken to the original blog post for all the details!
I'd love to hear your ideas for prompts...or requests for prompts of a certain type! Feel free to email them to me anytime throughout the year. And if there is enough interest I will exlore creating a link party to each prompt so there will be even more inspiration to share! (OK...I'll just take it one step at a time for now!)
So although it is already January 7th, the first prompt still sqeaks into the first week of the year! Here it is:
Put yourself on the page!
That's right...to start off the new year, document where you are in your life, what you are doing, what you love, what you dream about. You can include photos, memorabilia, journaling...whatever tells the story of you right now!
I made this page about myself a couple of years ago (so, I guess it's time to update and do another!) I created a simple list of all the things "I am" in my life. I added a couple of squares of patterned paper and just three simple paper flower embellishments. It took very little time to create, but it's a priceless snapshot of where and "who" I was at that point in my life. Remember, if you don't include yourself in your scrapbook pages, who will?
When was the last time YOU were in your scrapbook pages?
I hope you had a chance to look at Creative Memories new January/February mini-catalogue I linked to the other day (if not, check it out by clicking here). I promised I'd share a few of MY favorite products and give you a little more info on them so let's get right to it with my top three!
1) Exclusive Cricut Cartridges!
I love that CM has partnered with Cricut to design cartridges that coordinate with the various product lines. The Cheerful Seasons cartridge coordinates with the Cheerful Power Palette; the Reminisce Accents cartridge is a perfect match with the Reminisce collection; the Stork's Delivery cartridge works with both the Fabulous Baby Girl papers AND the Rugged Baby Boy products; the Tis the Season cartridge was designed to match the Holidazzle AND the Noel Christmas product lines, and the Traveller cartridge features versatile images that will work with a variety of travel and vacation themed products.
Now CM is introducing their sixth cartridge, This & That!
It features a variety of images, many drawn from CM punch, digital and power palette designs. You'll find everyday, sports and seasonal icons and FOUR font choices.
And check out the images in more detail and featured on projects with the Reflections line in this short video:
This will be a very useful cartridge and I can't wait to have our Calgary Crops ladies play with it at our next crop on January 21st. I hope you can join us so you can play, too! Get all the details and registration info here or contact me to register.
2) New Paper Designs!
Like most scrapbookers, I am addicted to yummy paper designs and CM has quite few new ones that could feed my addiction.
The Shine Collection is subtle yet luxurious in shades of cool grays and blues, with touches of silver foil. And there are beautiful coordinating albums, die cut papers and embellishment in this collection as well.
The Cake and Candles Addition is perfect for birthdays, but it's bright and cheery colors will work for lots of other events, too. CM has also featured these fun desings on two other products - an Everyday Display Accents and a set of Photo Album Accents.
The newest Nancy O'Dell collection doesn't dissappoint either - it's called LOVE, and I'm sure that you will "love" it! It features a vintage feel with colors that are great for both ladies and gents. The Love line includes the 12 x 12 Paper Additions, an 8 x 8 Album and Album Kit, a Mini Display Accents, and a beautiful Simply Said Book that would be a perfect valentine gift for someone special.
3) New Display Options!
I love my Everyday Display and last year I created my own calendar to feature on it. This year CM came up with a beautiful pre-made 2012 Calendar Display Accents that I will definitely be using!
But I may have to use my Everyday Display to show off the new Welcome to Our Home Display Accentsinstead! This is gorgeous and it's REVERSIBLE so you can change it up throughout the year!
There are so many fantastic items to love and be inspired by! I've just placed an order so I will have a variety of the new products on hand to see at our January 21st all-day crop. Even if you are not able to join us to crop, I hope you can drop by and see the new products and pick up your own mini-catalogue to drool over! (Just contact me and I've give you the times that I'll be available during the day and the address of the hall!)
After seeing some of these items, what is YOUR favorite must-have new item? I'd love to hear your comments!
Happy New Year! I hope you enjoyed ringing in the New Year with friends and family. It was the first year both our boys stayed up until midnight, so it was pretty special.
Now that 2012 is here, I am excited about all that it holds for me personally and professionally, especially about having reactivated as a Creative Memories consultant. As of this morning I am all set up and ready to go (isn't technology wonderful - you can sign up online and start a business in a matter of minutes!) I already introduced you to my new Kit of the Month Club a few days ago, but here are some of the other things I will be sharing with you this year:
"Fifty-Two" - I'll be posting a weekly prompt to get and keep your creativity going in 2012 (Be sure to check back for details in the next few days!)
Crops - my colleagues and I over at Calgary Crops have more fun all-day crops scheduled for you this year, starting with one on January 21st at Montgomery Hall in Calgary!
Weekend Retreats - besides our crops, we can't wait to head back to Canmore for more fun-filled weekend scrapbooking retreats in February and November!
Workshops - I'll be offering specialty themed workshops at my home throughout the year, starting with a Valentines Workshop on February 3rd!
Projects, Ideas and Inspiration - I'll be sharing lots of ideas for traditional and digital scrapbook pages, cards and other papercrafts as often as I can!
Newsletter - Make sure you sign up to receive my free monthly newsletter. Enter your email address on the right hand sidebar to be among the first to know about sales, upcoming events and special offers from CM and Me!
Rewards Club - join the Creative Memories Rewards Club and receive 15% of your purchases back as product credits! You'll also receive a special newsletter and have access to exclusive products each month!
Hostess Specials - because I do a lot of workshops and retreats, it's easy to forget that Creative Memories offers wonderful host rewards for getting friends and family together for a Photo Solutions Party. You can earn free products, 1/2 price product bundles and exclusive thank-you gifts. And CM parties aren't just for scrapbookers...if your friends and family members take pictures, Creative Memories has solutions for organizing, preserving and sharing them! I would be happy to help them with all their photo solution needs, so contact me if you would like to "party"!
So much to share...and since this is Creative Memories 25th anniversary year, I am betting there is so much more to come!
I'm off to familiarize myself with CM's programs and new products, and I'll be back tomorrow to share my favorites with you. But take a peek at this new January February Mini-Catalog to see what YOUR favorites might be!
I am thrilled to be reactivating as a Creative Memories consultant and I am looking forward to sharing new ideas, products and programs with you in the upcoming months.
One program that I am really excited about is my new Kit of the Month Club! Each month I will be creating two 12 x 12 layouts and two everyday card designs featuring one of Creative Memories themed Additions packs, then sharing the step-by-step instructions with you at a free workshop!
Just think - you'll get two layouts and two cards done in only one hour each month! All for only $15.00 per month! How is that for time and money management?! (For complete details on the Kit of the Month, click here.)
As a Kit of the Month member you'll receive:
the featured Creative Memories Additions kit (which includes 4 sheets double sided 12 x 12 paper, 8 double sided photo mats, 1 sheet cardstock stickers and 1 sheet clear title/word stickers)
extra items needed to complete the layouts and cards (including extra cardstock, die cuts, cards and envelopes!)
step-by-step instructions on how to create the layouts and cards!
attendance at the Kit of the Month Workshop at my home where I will walk you through creating your layouts and cards!
Exciting, isn't it?! So let's take a look at our first kit. January's kit will feature Creative Memories Cheerful Winter Addition:
I love the color combination in this Addition - shades of purple, aqua, gray, royal blue and bright green. It's a new take on traditional winter colors, but you'll find it coordinates well with photos from all seasons. Your entire Kit this month will include the Creative Memories "Cheerful Winter" Addition, two extra pieces of 12 x 12 cardstock, two cards with envelopes and nine pre-punched and die-cut pieces. Its a great kit and a great deal!
And here is just a peek at the layouts and cards you'll get to create:
Since this is our inaugural Kit, the workshop will be held on the last Friday of the month - Friday January 27th, 2012 (instead of the second Friday of each month as will be the case in future months). Or, if you are attending our All-Day Crop on January 21st, 2012, I'll be happy to assist you in creating your pages and cards then!
Contact me to join Kit of the Month Club now in time to get this fabulous kit and get your first two layouts and cards of 2012 DONE!
* PS...I just noticed that CM is having a year end sale on December 28th and 29th only! Visit www.creativememories.ca to check it out! Have a great day!
We had a wonderful Christmas with family and friends and I hope you did too! But now that Christmas is over and the year is winding to a close I am ready to share some exciting news with you:
I will be reactivating as a Creative Memories Consultant effective January 2, 2012!
I was a Creative Memories consultant for 4 years and loved it, but I wanted to try my hand at making my own kits and selling a wider variety of scrapbooking products from many different manufacturers. So when I was on maternity leave with my second son I started my Sharing Memories Scrapbooking Business. I really enjoyed it, too, as it gave me a chance to design and create products as well as teach unique classes and organize events. My friend Julie was a CM consultant so I was able to continue to order and use Creative Memories products whenever I needed to. Julie and I joined Carla and Heather to form Calgary Crops and it was great that we had four different lines of scrapbooking and papercrafting products to offer to customers at our crops and retreats.
But then Julie had her third baby this past summer and left CM to focus on her thriving Lia Sophia business instead. Since she left, many of our regular ladies at Calgary Crops have missed having access to CM products and I found myself missing them too! I also realized that I don't have as much time to devote to designing my own product kits and coming up with make and takes etc. since I returned to work full time. So, I have decided to reactivate with CM and let my Sharing Memories Scrapbooking Business go.
This decision has a couple of implications: One - Our Calgary Crops events will now feature the three main direct sales scrapbooking product lines along with all the new tools and ideas that these three great companies come up with! Two - my inventory of Sharing Memories Scrapbooking products will have to be sold off - so get ready for a sale ladies! I will be selling my discontinued products online as well as at upcoming Calgary Crops events until my inventory is gone (more details to come in the next few days!). I will also be changing my blog, although the name will remain the same. I am so excited to share lots of new CM ideas with you in the upcoming year!
So why am I waiting until the New Year to rejoin CM? Well, it is always a great time to start something new, but CM is also celebrating their 25th anniversary in 2012 so they have revamped their consultant kit with brand new products and are having an amazing special - I will be restarting my CM business for only $25.00!
If you are interested in starting a Creative Memories business of your own, you"ll be able to see the full details online at http://www.creativememories.ca/ starting on January 2nd, 2012 but in the meantime I do have a picture of the new consultant kit to share with you:
All this for $25.00? WOW! I think you can tell I am very excited!
As I was figuring out how many more Christmas cards I needed to make, I was looking through my storage box and came across this card I initially made when I was on the Design Team for Christmas Cards All Year Long. I used Creative Memories Sweetheart Punch in an unusual way - to create Candy Canes!
After you punch the hearts, simply snip them in half to create detailed the Candy Canes! I backed them up with some solid cardstock and trimmed around the edges to create the two-color look. Some non-traditional colors, a sweet scallop border and a few rub-ons created a new take on a Christmas theme!
When my husband and I got married I started a "McAllister Family Christmas" Album with the idea that I would add a few pages to it each year to highlight our holiday celebrations (read more about my album here). It has been a wonderful album to create and enjoy. It is always accessible on our album shelf, but I bring it out at Christmas time and place it on the coffee table for everyone to look at. My boys love to flip through it, and I love to see how they have grown and changed over the years. I also think its fun to see how my scrapbooking style has evolved over the years!
At our Calgary Crops scrapbooking retreat last spring, I used our page challenge as a chance to complete a layout about Christmas 2010 for our Christmas Album. Carla supplied the sketch from one of the fabulous CTMH idea books, and I used Creative Memories Cheerful Christmas Addition to complete this two page spread:
The patterned papers, cardstock stickers and clear title/word stickers that came with this CM kit were super cute on their own, so I just added some solid cardstock in coordinating colors, white craft ink to highlight the edges and some bakers twine to complete the layout.
I love using sketches (I call my own sketches "Page Plans") for quick layouts as well as the basis for more decorative pages. You can do as much or as little as you want to the layout and you know it will be beautiful.
Our current family Christmas Album is getting pretty full, so I think I might be ready for a new one. I am debating between these two beauties:
I am leaning towards the Noel Album as it is a little more traditional and would coordinate with our previous family Christmas album, but I can't deny the appeal of the cool blue Holidazzle album. Which would you choose?
I think it's safe to say that if you are a papercrafter you are probably working on Christmas cards right about now! I sat down and created a whole schwack of cards using some multi-purpose Christmas tags I designed, some red and green cardstock and a few small pieces of patterned Christmas paper. They were simple and fast - in fact I made a dozen cards in about half an hour!
Want to make some fast and easy cards too? Well, here ya go!
There are 12 tags on this sheet, two of each of six designs. Simply download the sheet of tags here, print them on some white cardstock, and cut or punch them out with a 3" circle cutter. Then, color them up real quick using your Copics, markers, pencil crayons or watercolor pencils. Heck, even the kids could color these with their crayons to make their own cards! (By the way...I used only a few copics here - E33, E47, G21, G24, Y21 and R27.)
To assemble the cards, I started with standard white invitation sized (4.25 x 5.5") card bases. First I layered on a 4 x 5.25" piece of solid red or green cardstock, then added a piece of 3.75 x 5" patterned paper on top. I punched a 3.5" scallop circle from the same solid color I started with then add one of the colored in tags to top it off. See, I told you it was fast and easy!
For a little variety you could:
vary the background papers
vary the colors of copics or markers you use on the tags
place the scallop and tag in the centre of the card or off to one side for a more asymmetrical look
do some in landscape format (card opening from bottom up) or portrait format (card opening from side)
add a foam square to make the image pop off the surfac
And here's a closer look:
Of course you can use the tags on other Christmas papercrafting projects...punch a hole in them and they would be great as gift tags or blin them up a bit and use as embellishments on a scrapbook page! I would love to see what you do with them, so please feel free to leave a link to a pic of your projects in the comments below!
If you are one of the many scrapbookers that documents the joy of the holidays by creating a December Daily Album a la Ali Edwards, then you may find this little freebie useful. I created this set of date circles to use in my own December Daily Albums a couple of years ago and posted them to my blog way back in November 2009. Since then pictures have been deleted, links have changed and files are no longer active, so I thought I would post them for you again!
There are 31 date circles as well as some seasonal words and icon images. I am no designer, but I created them easily in Creative Memories Storybook Creator Plus (which has awesome designer features and makes anything you make look great).
Download and save these PDF files for free, print them onto some cardstock and cut the circles out (a 1.5 inch circle punch will make fast work of it too.) Make sure you download/save both pages using these links:
Besides using them in a December Daily Album, these little circles would be great for an Advent Calendar project, Holiday Countdown scrapbook page, or you could even use the word and icon circles as gift tags. Feel free to use them however you like, and I'd love it if you shared them with friends.
