Making Memories

Decadent Peanut Butter Pie

Today’s recipe comes from Suzi, MM’s HR manager. This is a favorite at her household, especially around the holiday season. She got this recipe from www.jif.com. If you are a big fan of peanut butter and chocolate, like me, you will love this pie.

Ingredients

• 1 prepared chocolate cookie crust or graham cracker crust
• 1 cup creamy peanut butter
• 8 oz. cream cheese (at room temperature)
• ½ cup sugar
• 4 ½ cups (12 oz. container) of whipped toping, divided
• 1 jar of hot fudge ice cream topping, divided

Drizzle

• 2 Tbs. hot fudge
• 2 Tbs. caramel

Directions

1. In a medium bowl, beat together the peanut butter, cream cheese, and sugar. Gently fold in 3 cups of whipped topping. Spoon mixture into the pie shell. Using a spatula, smooth mixture to edges of pie.
2. Reserving 2 tablespoons of hot fudge, place remaining hot fudge into microwave safe bowl or glass measuring cup. Microwave for 1 minute. Stir. Spread hot fudge over pie to cover the peanut butter layer. Refrigerate until serving time. Just before serving, spread the remaining whipped topping (1 ½ cups), over hot fudge layer, being careful not to mix the two layers.
3. Drizzle with hot fudge and caramel and serve.

What I'm Thankful For Challenge - Fun Stuff

This month we've been working on a month long challenge and we're on our last week. We have spent the last four weeks creating a "Thankful" mini album about all the things we're thankful for in our lives. So far we have an album cover, a family layout, a friend’s layout, and a creativity layout. If you're just stopping by, make sure to go back and check out the previous posts for some great ideas, it's never too late to join in!

For this weeks theme, I wanted to do something fun. I started out with the idea of doing a "thankful for quilty pleasures" type layout. You know about things like chocolate, diet soda, favorite TV shows, gossip magazines, things that just make you happy. I decided to be more specific with my layout and make it about one thing that I have been really thankful for lately. Jeans! Yes, you heard me right. We're starting to get a taste of fall here in California (if you call mid 70's fall!) and it's time to break out the jeans. I love my jeans. I wear them every single day. And there is nothing that makes me feel better about myself than a great fitting pair of jeans. So yes, I'm definitely thankful for my jeans!  

What are you thankful for lately? Something fun.  Something that just makes you feel good or that maybe makes your life easier. Good hair product, a great kitchen tool, a can't-do-without cleaning product, a loaded with extras vehicle? Any of these things can be highlighted on this layout. Something not so serious and typical of a "what I'm thankful for" answer.

I had fun on this layout. One thing I knew I had to use was the metal rims. I love these things! I don't usually add anything to the inside of the tags, I love them just with the rims themselves. I just flatten them using the MM Tag Maker and then add them to my layout. I looped some ribbon through one of the tags and added a chipboard button to hold it closed. I also cut one of the metal rims in half and extended it off the edges of both pages so that it would connect in the middle.

For the second page I finally got around to using some of the clothing tags I've been saving from all my jeans. Every time I buy a new pair of jeans they always have the neatest tags, labels, and chains on them. And I save them all thinking one day I'll use them on a layout. I choose three tags and added them to my page and added just a few embellishments to go with them. 

Instructions:

1. Cut 6" x 9" yellow pattern paper for base of page.
2. Cut a 2" x 4" piece of brown pattern paper and a 6" x 4" piece of orange pattern paper. Mat them together on white cardstock and adhere to left edge of page.
3. Adhere a 4" piece of teal ribbon and adhere between the brown and orange papers.
4. Flatten empty metal rims in tag maker and add to page.
5. Loop a piece of striped ribbon through large metal rim on bottom of page and secure ribbon by threading on a chipboard flower button.
6. Thread chipboard flower buttons on edges of remaining metal rims.
7. Add a 3" x 4 1/2" photo.
8. Paint chipboard letters with sea foam paint and adhere to page overlapping photo.
9. Add journaling strips.

I really hope you have enjoyed this five week challenge, I know I have! I want to thank MM for giving me this challenge and I want to thank all of you for creating along with me. I hope you continue creating pages for this album until it's all full. And remember to share your layouts with us by uploading them to the MM Idea Gallery. Thanks everyone!

Laura Vegas

Clear Creations Idea

Today's idea is an oldie but goodie.  This sample used a popular product from MM called Clear Creations. They are transparent so you can put them over photos, paper, etc. They can be attached with staples, brads, glue dots, just to name a few.

Maggie created this sample using the Clear Creations, mini blossoms, Funky Vintage paper, and Defined stickers.

Decorating Your Home with MM: Advent Wreath

It's hard to believe, but the holidays are upon us.  Making Memories has some wonderful project ideas in a new book especially for this time of year called A Season of Joy.  You definetly want to get your hands on this book.

Today we are going to feature a project from that book.  This Advent Calendar was created by Wendy.

1. Make a list of 24 activities to do before Christmas
2. Print activities on the back of patterned paper
3. Roll ideas into scrolls and tie onto wreath with ribbon
4. Use Tag Maker tool to create a numbered tag for each day
5. Add shimmer stickers to each tag
6. Tie one number onto each scroll
7. Remove one scroll every day of December until Christmas

Supplies: Tag Maker and small round rims, shimmer alphabet stickers (silver, red, and green), MM Kids paper (Kate), holiday papers (Stitched Stripe, Holly, Poinsettia, and Lauren Tweed), and hoiday trims: Making Memories

What's Shipping in November?

The following items are headed to your local scrapbooking stores.  Check them out.

Embellishment Jars Medium
Having an organized workspace can make all the difference in the world, and here to help you are empty storage jars in sets of 4 medium jars.  Now you can stow away all your embellishments and still be able to see what you have. 

Shaped Pebble Brads
Looks can be deceiving.  To the untrained eye a pretty little epoxy-covered sticker, to the trained a fully functioning brad.  Get the best of both with Shaped Pebble Brads.  Available in 3 shapes, 2 color families each.

Shimmer Brad Value Packs
Attaching has never been so easy or so glamorous.  Add that little somethin’ somethin’ to any project using shimmer brads.  Medium circle brads available in black and white or polo club.  Star brads available in springtime or in bloom.

Cracker Toffee

Megan Hinckley, from customer service, has a reputation around MM as being a fantastic cook.  She is the one that we all flock to when we have a company party because her dishes are always the best. Today she is sharing a family favorite recipe with us.

One of the

Hinckley family’s favorite treats around this time of year is Cracker Toffee.  My family is originally from England, so every year around Christmas, my grandmother and aunts host a traditional English dinner with roast, potatoes, Yorkshire pudding (yum!!), and our version of English toffee-Cracker Toffee.  It has the great taste of toffee without being rock hard, and is complete with a sweet nutty-chocolate flavor.  The recipe is easy and takes less than 30 minutes to prepare.  We hope you enjoy a taste of our family's tradition!

Ingredients

• 1+ sleeves of saltine crackers (also known as soda crackers)
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup (2 cubes) butter (or margarine)
• 12 oz package of chocolate chips
• Chopped nuts (walnuts, pecans, or almonds all work wonderfully)

1. *For best results follow the directions exactly*Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees.  Prepare a 10"x15" cookie sheet or jelly roll pan by lining it with foil and spraying it with cooking spray. 
2. Line the cookie sheet with a single layer of saltine crackers (you may need to break a few in half so the entire bottom is covered).
3. Bring brown sugar and butter to a boil in a saucepan.  Boil for 2 minutes.  Pour hot mixture over crackers and spread until crackers are covered. 
4. Bake for 5 minutes in a pre-heated oven (400 degrees F.).  Remove from oven and carefully press down any crackers that have bubbled up. 
5. Sprinkle chocolate chips on top and let pan sit until chocolate has mostly melted.  Use knife to spread chocolate around.  Sprinkle with chopped nuts.  Cool in fridge.
6. When completely cool, break into pieces and store in air-tight container. 
7. Enjoy!!

What I'm Thankful For Challenge - Creativity

This month we're working on a month long challenge and I hope you have all been enjoying it so far. We are creating a "Thankful" mini album about all the things we're thankful for in our lives. We've already created our album cover and a few pages to go inside.

This weeks theme is creativity. I'm pretty sure you are all thankful for your creativity. I know I am. I do have some family and friends that don't fully understand my passion for scrapbooking - they think I'm crazy for spending my time playing with paper and glue. But creativity is so much a part of my life! It's my creative outlet, something just for me. I feel so much happier when I have a little time to just play and create each day. And that is why I'm so thankful for my creativity.  I can't imagine what I would do without it.

 

I have two main obsessions when it comes to my scrapbook supplies. Buttons ... I have nine huge jars of them on my shelves! And chipboard ... I have more alphabets than I know what to do with (because you'll never know when you need an extra letter) and all the shapes I can wish for. So how cool was it that MM came out with chipboard buttons! These buttons are so much fun to use and I just loved the idea of lining them all up across my layout. I usually go the safe route and tie a little thread through the holes. But I wanted to add a little something extra to a few of the buttons. So on the bigger buttons I choose to add some silver. A few mini brads on a couple of the buttons ... and a bead chain with a little tag through the other. 

Instructions:

1. Cut a 6" x 9" piece of pink pattern paper to use as base of page.
2. Cut a 3 1/2" x 8" piece of yellow pattern paper and a 2" x 8" piece of striped pattern paper. Mat them together on white cardstock and round the bottom corners. Adhere to top edge of page.
3. Arrange chipboard buttons all the way across where the two pattern papers meet, but do not adhere yet.
4. For the smaller round and flower buttons, thread the centers with floss or thread. Tie some on the back of the button and some on the front.
5. For the larger buttons add mini brads to a few of the centers. For one button, add a chain cut down to size and add a small white word tag to the chain.
6. Once the buttons are all ready, adhere to page. Use pop-dots on a few for extra dimension.
7. For title of page, use clear alphabet letters.
8. Adhere a 2 1/2" x 5" photo and add journaling strips.

Make sure to share your layouts by uploading them to the MM idea gallery. Can't wait to see what you create! And I'll see you next Thursday when we create our last "thankful for" challenge layout. I promise ... it'll be a fun one!

Laura Vegas

Great Idea for Noteworthy

This great idea come from Jamie Harper.  I loved the way she used the Noteworthy product.

 

By the way, don't you love the sock monkey!

Thanksgiving Table Setting

Thanksgiving is this Thursday.  Can you believe it?  Here is a quick idea for a Thanksgiving Table Setting.

Items Needed:

• Kraft Paper
• Cardstock
• Rub-on Alphabets (Circus, Providence)
• Crystal Brads
• Card envelope

Instructions:

Placemat

1. Trim 2 12” x 12” pieces of Kraft paper in half (diagonally).  You will have 4 triangles.
2. Create frame by slightly overlapping 4 triangles of paper.
3. Add crystal brad at each point of inside diamond to hold in place.  Glue pieces down if desired.
4. Use rub-ons to create a title “thankful” on monarch paper. Mount title behind placemat.

Favor Box

1. Download a bag template (or use a die-cut) from any site on the internet.
2. Trim a piece of multi stripe paper and wrap around box.
3. Add crystal brad and rub-ons for names.

Utensil Holder and Napkin Holder

1. Wrap a piece of ribbon around envelope and tuck flap under right side of placemat, leaving room for utensils.
2. Trim a 9” x 9” piece of monarch cardstock.
3. Wrap cardstock (like an ice cream cone) to create napkin holder.
4. Bend bottom of cone and fasten with a brad.
5. Glue the back flap of cone.
6. Trip top of cone to create even edge.
7. Use rub-ons to create monogram.

Noteworthy Samples

I LOVE MM's Noteworthy collection! I realize that I'm a bit biased, but it's fabulous. It's so easy to scrapbook with because it's classic yet sophisticated.

Today I thought it would be fun to show a little Noteworthy Eye Candy!

If you have created some projects using the Noteworthy collection, we would love to see.  Upload your ideas to the MM Idea Gallery.

Lots of Winners!

Today we have lots of winners.  I hope you are one of them.  By the way, thank you to everyone who shared what they are thankful for.  We broke a record with the number of comments that we received.  We are thankful for that, so we are going to give another prize. We are giving nine prizes instead of eight.  Check out the names and click on the links below to see if you are the winner. 

Here are the winners:

Season of Joy Book:

• Leslie Moore
• Michelle
• Pip Prosser
• Karen

Margie's pink parcel loaded with pink product:

• Debee Campos

Package loaded with new product:

• Erin Taylor
• Janna
• Tricia B.
• Jill

Email me if you are one of the winners so I can mail your prize to you.  jweston@makingmemories.com

Pecan Bars

 

Today's recipe comes from Tess. Tess is Making Memories art director.

When I was young, my family used to drive down to my Grandmother’s house in Alabama every Christmas. Visiting my grandmother meant lots of amazing southern food. I try not to eat quite as decadently these days. Then, everything was full of ham, Crisco, butter, Jello and other gooey stuff that is delicious, but may not be as healthy eating as I like. Luckily, I have found ways to make some of the southern foods my grandmother made in a way that makes them just a little bit healthier. So, instead of pecan pie, I make these pecan bars, which still taste amazing but don’t make me feel quite as guilty.

• Crust:

1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour

1/3 cup packed light brown sugar

¼ cup pecans, toasted and chopped coarse (see below)

1 tsp salt

¼ tsp baking powder

6 tbsp cold unsalted butter, cut into ½ inch pieces

• Pecan Filling:

½ cup packed light brown sugar

1/3 cup light corn syrup

4 tbsp unsalted butter, melted

1 tbsp bourbon or dark rum

2 tsp vanilla extract

½ tsp salt

1 large egg, lightly beaten

2 cups pecans, toasted and chopped coarse (see below)

Crust Directions:

• Heat oven to 350 with rack in the middle
• Spray a 9” square baking pan with non-stick cooking spray
• Place two sheets of parchment paper in pan so each edge of pan has a fold over it
• Spray sheets with non-stick spray

• Place flour, brown sugar, pecans, salt and baking powder in a Cuisinart
• Process until mixture is like coarse cornmeal (about 5, 1 second pulses)
• Add butter and pulse until mixture is like sand (about 8, 1 second pulses)
• Pat mixture evenly into prepared pan and bake until crust is light brown and springs to touch (about 20 minutes)

Pecan Filling Directions:

• While crust bakes, whisk together brown sugar, corn syrup, melted butter, bourbon,
• vanilla and salt in a medium bowl until just combined
• Add egg and whisk until incorporated

• Pour filling on top of hot crust and sprinkle pecans evenly over top
• Bake until top is brown and cracks start to form on the surface (22-25 minutes)
• Rotate pan halfway through baking process
• Cool on wire rack for 1 hour
• Remove from pan by pulling up parchment and transfer to cutting board
• Cut into bars and serve

***Toast all pecans on a rimmed baking sheet in a 350 oven until fragrant (about 8 minutes) stir once while roasting

What I'm Grateful For Challenge - Friends

This month we're working on a month long challenge. We're creating a "Thankful" mini album about all the things we're thankful for in our lives. I hope you're all playing along with us. We've already completed our album cover and our first layout and today we'll work on our second theme.

This week’s theme is being thankful for our friends. What would we do without our friends? I like to think I have a lot of friends. But when it comes down to it I have a small group of "best friends". I think there is something special about each of our friends. I know I have friends that I share more with, that I complain to more, that I go have fun with, that I email with, and that I talk on the phone with. Different friends are there for different things and events in my life. I wanted to highlight a few of my "here" friends the ones that are here in my city and around every day.

One thing I don't have is photos of my friends. But that doesn't mean I can't scrapbook about our friendships. I love all the clear tags from the Funky Vintage collection and I thought this would be a great page to use lots of them on. After creating the base of my page from pattern paper (and a little white cardstock to make all the colors pop) I lined up an entire row of clear tags going across the page. Once I had them arranged I adhered them down. I used mini glue dots to adhere them. I just love the look of silver with the Funky Vintage collection so I added silver brads to each tag. Then I simply added each of my friends names to the tags.

For the second page I created a pocket page. Simply repeat the base of the pattern paper and ribbon from the first page but only apply adhesive to the sides and the bottom. That way you have a pocket to which you can add a fun tag for each of your friends. I added a few fun embellishments to the top of each tag and then added a little journaling about each friend to their tag.

Instructions:

1. Cut a 6" x 9" piece of turquoise pattern paper for base of page.
2. Cut a 3" x 9" piece of kraft striped pattern paper and distress edges using MM edge scraper. Mat with white cardstock and adhere to page.
3. Add a 9 inch piece of decorative tape across top of kraft pattern paper.
4. Adhere orange ribbon under decorative tape.
5. Arrange clear tags along page, tucking them just slightly under the kraft paper. Once arranged, peel off backing and adhere down to page
6. Add a silver brad to each tag.
7. Adhere a clear photo corner to bottom right side of page.
8. Adhere a transparency title strip to white cardstock and trim. Adhere to bottom of page.
9. Add typed names of friends randomly on tags.

I look forward to seeing what you create ... you can share your layout by uploading them to the MM Idea Gallery. I'll see you next Thursday when we create a "thankful for creativity" challenge layout!

Laura Vegas

A Day of Giving

Today is a day of giving. As our way of saying thanks to all of our loyal readers, and for the wonderful years we've experienced with you, we're giving away a cornucopias worth of freebies. Tell us what you are most thankful for at this time of the year.  Make sure you post your comments on our blog to participate.

On Friday, we're going to select EIGHT names at random who will win either the new Season of Joy book, a "pink" parcel, or a loaded package of our most popular embellishments.

Start posting now because the prizes are simply delicious. And Happy Thanksgiving!

Inspiration from Joey

Art and architecture is all around us, but unless you live somewhere with buildings over 100 years old, sometimes it's difficult to be inspired by them. For this month's inspiration, I decided to take just the simple geometric shapes of some of the buildings that I see on a weekly basis and incorporate them into a layout.

Here I found a Mexaplex building by my house that has a very appealing and balanced feel. The bottom third is a different color, helping to anchor the three rectangles at the top. This was very easy to use as inspiration for my layout.

Take a look around your area and find buildings and architecture that could be used for your inspiration.

Joey

Our Trip to Clipper Street

Making Memories found its way to British Columbia, Canada and we found some wonderful people there. We scrapped the weekend away at a local scrapbook store called Clipper Street and interacted with people from Coquitlam and Langley.

We made played with products from the Halloween, Christmas, Noteworthy, and Travel collections. We also learned how to use such tools as the Tag Curler and Tag Maker to make some great projects.

Thank you to everyone that we met for showing us such great hospitality. We love coming to your city to hang out at such a great store. Clipper Street Scrapbooking offers an excellent selection of products. Make sure to check it out if you are in the area.

Thanks

Jodi and Gail

 

Apple Crunch Bread

Today's recipe comes from Patty Smith, MM's Sales director.  Patty is a great cook so you will love this recipe.

Ingredients

• 7 TBS unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 large eggs, beaten
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1 cup self-rising flour, sifted
• 2-3 TBS milk
• 1 1/2 cups thickly sliced tart apples

Topping

• 1/2 cup sugar
• 6 1/2 TBS unsalted butter, chilled and diced
• 1 cup all-purpose flour, sifted

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350.  Beat the butter until creamy, add the sugar and beat until light and fluffy.  Gradually, add the eggs and then the vanilla.  Fold in the flour and enough milk to make a soft mixture that just drops from the spoon.  Pour the mixture in a greased and floured loaf pan.  Arrange an even layer of apples on the top.

Topping:  Mix all the ingredients together with your fingertips until the mixture becomes course crumbs.  Sprinkle evenly over the apples and press down slightly. 

Bake for 1 hour until golden.  Let cool until lukewarm, then serve from the pan or cool completely on a wire rack.

What I'm Thankful For Challenge - Family

This month we're working on a month long challenge. We're creating a "Thankful" mini album about all the things we're thankful for in our lives. I hope you're all playing along with us. Last week we created the album cover. And this week we'll create our first page to add to our "Thankful" album.

So this week's theme is family. I think we're all thankful for our families over anything else. I know my family is the most important thing in my life. Sure, my kids and my husband all drive me crazy on a daily basis. But that's what families do, right? As much as they annoy me to no end  They add so much love and laughter to my life. I am so thankful for all that they've brought to my life. So of course my family is going to be the first page in my album.

I want to explain my idea behind this album before we start. I started out with the idea to do single pages. As much as I love the 6" x 9" size of these albums, I decided I wanted to add more photos to a lot of my pages. So I choose to make two-page spreads for each theme. I use my main page to highlight a great photo that really represents what I'm thankful for and that page also gets all the fun embellishments! Then my second page is used for adding smaller photos, photos that give you a little more insight into what I'm thankful for. Those second pages are super simple and really easy to add if you want they're really just pattern paper and photos. But you can also choose to just do the one page. Either way will look great in your album.

I used my Slot Punching Tool. I just love scalloped edges lately. So I used the crescent-shaped slot to make a scalloped border on my floral pattern paper. I found it was helpful to position the top of the crescent right at the top edge of my paper and just go right down that edge, that way they all lined up pretty straight. I also used the large slot punch to create a slot in my definition sticker to thread my ribbon through. I added a fun tag using the Tag Curler to secure the ribbon in place.

So you'll see that I have one strong focal photo on this page. Unfortunately we don't have a family photo of the 4 of us so I decided on a favorite photo I took of my girls last week. Then on the opposite page I added smaller photos of myself, my husband, and more of my two girls. If you had a larger family you could even add a few more pages if you wanted to fit everyone in! I kept my journaling short and sweet and to the point but feel free to add more journaling if you want.

Instructions:

1. Cut brown pattern paper to 6" x 9" to use for base of page.
2. Cut a 3" x 9" strip of turquoise pattern paper and mat with white cardstock. Adhere to page.
3. Using Slot Punching Tool, punch scallops on the top of a 9" wide strip of yellow, floral pattern paper. Adhere to page.
4. Adhere "family" sticker to white cardstock and cut out circle. Using Slot Punching Tool, punch out a large slot for ribbon to go through.
5. Insert pink ribbon through notch in sticker and fold the ribbon over. Add a metal "together" tag using the MM tag curler.
6. Add pop-dots to sticker and adhere sticker and ribbon to page.
7. Add clear scroll to corner of photo and add heart mesh brads.
8. Add a 3 1/2" x 4 1/2" photo to page.
9. Add journaling strips.

Remember to share your layouts with us by uploading them to the MM idea gallery. I'll see you back here next Thursday as we create our "thankful for friends" challenge layout!

Laura Vegas

Joey's studio

We just recently moved into a brand new home this past July so I got to design my scrapbooking studio from scratch! I had a basement room in our old house and insisted that my new space would be upstairs, in the middle of things and out of the cold, dark cave! It was actually a nice room, but I felt very disconnected from the rest of my family.

My new studio is the bonus room above our garage on the 2nd floor along with all my kids' bedrooms. I can see and hear what they are doing, and still enjoy having my own space. The furniture is all from Ikea - gotta love that place! The desk is perfect for stashing a page in progress underneath the glass when something else comes up. I keep my Making Memories precision trimmer right next to me as I work - it is so convenient and accurate.

The two bookcases are perfect for holding 12 x 12” papers. The baskets that nest so nicely inside the squares, hold and hide the other stuff that we as scrapbookers accumulate over time. And I have absolutely fallen in love with the MM plastic storage jars for all my ribbon - they look so happy and cheerful lined up on top of the bookcase.

I sort and store most of my small embellishments like brads, metal tags and clips by color. As with the ribbon, I find that sorting by color helps me use and find these yummy little tidbits for my pages and projects. And since their packaging is clear, I can find exactly what I'm looking for quickly.

I found this nifty document cabinet at Ikea as well and it is perfect for holding things like paper punches, ink pads, scratch pieces of paper, and other stuff I use often. Plus, my sewing machine fits perfectly on top!

My studio is almost complete, but one thing is missing and that is where I need your help. I love inspirational quotes and sayings, and have been struggling to find the perfect one for my studio wall. I will be facing this wall every time I work, so the words I choose to put up must inspire! Share with me your favorite, inspiring quote. It doesn't need to be scrapbooking related either. And if I choose your suggestion, you could win a Making Memories idea book and some other fabulous goodies. I'll post a picture of the quote once it's up and announce the winner! Thanks in advance for your help! 

-Joey

Making Memories Giveaway with Donna Downey

Donna Downey is going to do a Making Memories giveaway on her blog. She is giving away MM's Noteworthy goodies.

Check out her blog for a chance to win.

Good Luck!

Thank You Cards

Making Memories was able to donate some product to a local Utah school recently. We love to be able to support the teachers who use our product in their classes.  As a thank you, we got a pile of cards and an alphabet book from these students. We were very touched with the cards that they sent.  We wanted to share their cards on our blog for everyone else to see.

Lots of Winners!

Today we have lots of winners.

First of all, thank you to everyone who posted comments on how we at MM can improve.  We looked at every comment and are working on implementing some great things in the future.  We have some fun things coming your way but it's too early to share just yet. 

Here are the winners from posting comments on how we can improve.

1. Kelly Crowl
2. Christine Middlecamp
3. Bethany Engstrom

Next, I hope everyone had a Happy Halloween.

I picked a winner to receive MM's Halloween collection.

1. Candi Tardio

If you are a winner, please email me (jweston@makingmemories.com) your address so I can send your prize.  Have a great Friday!

What I'm Grateful For Challenge - Cover

Hey everyone! My name is Laura Vegas and I've been asked to host a month long challenge here on the MM blog. We're going to be creating a mini album about what we're thankful for. We'll start this week by creating the cover of the album and then each Thursday for the next four weeks we'll be creating a layout with different things we're thankful for to go inside our album.

   

So this week we'll start with the cover of the album. We're using a 6" x 9" Flocked Mini Book (I choose the chocolate album) ... the perfect size for a mini album. These albums are gorgeous with the flocked fabric binding and a wide spine that allows plenty of space for bulkier pages. I love to decorate the covers of my mini albums. I like fun designs, but also simple designs.

For this album I choose to simply add a piece of orange pattern paper to the chipboard part of the cover. Then I did what I do to almost every mini album I create, I added three fun ribbons tied around the cover! Never fails to make it look great. For the title of our album ... I used the clear alphabets. These come in such fun colors ... and I just mixed lowercase and uppercase letters and stacked them all within the decoupage frame.

Instructions:

1. Cut orange pattern paper to 6 1/4" x 9 1/4" and then adhere to the cover of the album.
2. Tie 3 pieces of ribbon around album cover, altering the placement of the knot.
3. Back metal frame with white cardstock and then adhere next to ribbons.
4. Choose clear letters for your "thankful" title and adhere to metal frame.
5. Remove brad from center of flower and replace with a chipboard button.
6. Adhere flower and clear tag tied onto one of the ribbons.

Make sure to share your album covers by uploading them to the MM idea gallery. Can't wait to see what you create! And I'll see you next Thursday when we create our "Thankful for Family" challenge layout!

Laura Vegas