Making Memories

What's New in May - Passport Collection

Your favorite scrapbook store will be packed with new Making Memories products this month. Check out the latest products below.

Making Memories Passport Collection

The Passport program includes double-sided and specialty paper, a 12" x 12" 3-ring binder, canvas brads, metal clips, an embellishment suitcase filled with die-cuts, buttons, and printed blossoms, a mini book and page kit, clear stamps, canvas and chipboard alphas, pebble stickers, canvas flowers, label fetti, boarder and tag stickers, well worn and jouranling tags, and trims.

To learn more about the collection and to see project ideas, visit Making Memories website.

Check back again to see what else is shipping this month.

Design Challenge - Month in Review

If you are anything like me you take more pictures than you have time to scrapbook. Sound familiar to anyone? I have been trying to take photos of the "everyday" things that happen in my life so I can remember - the result is lots of photos. Instead of trying to scrapbook all the photos and events separately, I created a little book that allowed me to have a month in review.

   

My challenge to you is to find your favorite photos and create a month in review book or page for yourself. I used the Making Memories 5th Avenue collection for my book.

Here is a closer look.

Keisha

It's Noteworthy Time!

Today we teamed up with Memory Makers Magazine for a giveaway. Check it out here.

Giveaway Day

Today we are doing a giveaway. Details will come shortly.

Stay tuned.

VBlogger - Sophia Allison

Today's guest designer, Sophia Allison, joins us from Durban, South Africa. She created a beautiful page that she adhered to acrylic. Sophia used Making Memories Noteworthy collection for this project.

Take a look.

If you would like to be featured as a VBlogger, email your submission to jweston@makingmemories.com

Memorial Day Break

Today we are out of the office for the Memorial Day Holiday.  If you are off also, we hope you enjoy your day.  Check back tomorrow for everyday inspirational ideas.

What's Shipping in May - Clear Stamps and Tools

Making Memories is shipping clear stamps at the end of this month. The clear stamps are made to use with Making Memories acrylic blocks. The acrylic blocks comes in two sizes (large 3" x 6" and small 3" x 3"). The clear stamps cling to the block with no adhesive making stamping a breeze.

The clear stamps come in the following styles: card making, flowers, journaling, ornaments, mixed alpha, classic mixed alpha, and travel. Each stamp package contains a clear folder that fits perfectly in the clear stamp binder.

Also look for your favorite Making Memories tools sold separately. The tweezers, craft knife, and paper piercer/stylus have been updated and repacked just for you.

To learn more about these products, visit Making Memories website.

Wilna Picked a Winner

Congrats to Paola Norman who the winner of a Making Memories Baby Love book.

Paola make sure to email Wilna (wilna71@gmail.com) so she can send your prize.

What's Shipping in May - Albums and Stickers

Making Memories canvas albums are shipping to a store near you at the end of this month. These 3-ring corduroy albums come with a label holder which is great for storage and organization. They include a protective cover and 10 sheet protectors. They are available in 12" x 12" and 8" x 8". Look for black, brown, green, red, beige, blue, pink and sea foam.

Also look for new Making Memories stickers including mini shimmer alphas, felt alphas, and my personal favorite puffy alphas. These stickers come in lots of different colors. You won't have a hard time finding the perfect color for your projects.

For more information about Making Memories new corduroy albums and stickers, visit Making Memories' website.

Design Challenge with Paper

This week I have a very interesting challenge for you with a technique that I haven't used very much myself. It's very simple though... printing your pictures on the patterned paper!   First of all, I positioned the pictures I want to print. I use Photoshop Elements, but any photo editing software will allow you to open a blank document the size of your paper (I used a 12x12 page - but I know most people only have a 8.5x11 printers). Now copy your picture to the page and position it where you want to print it. Remember that you can use a 12x12 paper just cut it to 8.5x11 so it will go through the printer. After you print the picture on the paper you can design your page so that a trim or a border cover the cut.

I just thought it would give an interesting twist on a page if the pictures were printed out on patterned paper. As you can see on my page, the girls have fishnet faces! :  ) I used Making Memories new Noteworthy papers, trims and embellishments. The pink paper is from Making Memories Garden Party collection.

Next you can use some Making Memories Magnetic stamps to stamp some words. I thought it would be cool just to see how many WORDS I can use and therefore the page is titled: "Words." I cheated a little on this page because I stamped the words on a page and scanned it into my computer and super imposed it on the photo. The good news is that you don't have to have Photoshop skills to get this look on your page.

So, after all this talk, my challenge to you is to create a page by printing your picture on the patterned paper.  Oh and surprise! I will be giving away a BABY LOVE book today... just leave a comment. If you want to participate in the challenge, link your page in the comment section.

To learn more about the products that I used on my page, visit Making Memories website.

Wilna

Three Designer Challenge - Shawna

This is the last of the three designer challenges. Today we are excited to feature Shawna. Shawna used Making Memories new Noteworthy collection on her page.

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For my layout I used my favorite way to scrap. Technically the layout is still 8.5" x 11". When I do my "off the page" layouts, I make sure they will still fit in my albums.

 

For this page I cut one of the circle die-cuts and two strips from Making Memories Noteworthy patterned papers. I pieced them together and measured to make sure they were still 8.5" x 11". I added my picture and the Noteworthy trims along the side. After doing this, I added some Noteworthy die-cuts. I using some pop dots to give them a little extra detail. I also added a Noteworthy die-cut behind to show green through the die-cut paper. Last I added the Noteworthy Shimmer alpha sticker for my title.

Thanks Shawna for sharing your talents with us.

Three Designer Challenge - Davinie

Today we are featuring Davinie. She used the same Making Memories Noteworthy products to create her own project.

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I often struggle with wanting to use both the A and B side of a piece of patterned paper.  This was the case with the double-sided striped paper from the Delaney collection.  I wanted to use the stripes as the background, but I also wanted to use a little bit of the pink on the reverse side.  I thought both sides complimented the colors in my photos so well.  What I ended up doing was trimming two 1 inch stripes from the right side of the striped paper.  I then layered the flower die-cut circle and the double-sided ledger circle over the space I trimmed out so that you can’t see the space.  I used those two strips of pink paper on either side of the ledger circle paper, B side. 

Because of the design on my layout, the orange strip covered some of the flower detail on the circle die-cut paper.  To showcase it I simply trimmed the flowers from the paper on the lower right and layered it over the top.  I added some orange glittered die-cut flowers on part of the floral pattern to add more glitter to the layout, which complimented the glittered alphas that I used. In addition I trimmed a tip of a flower on the upper part of the circle, and tucked the orange and pink strip underneath it.

After adhering my photos, trims, title, and cutout work, I finished off the layout with some hand stitching around the strip.  I just love the finished look that hand-stitching gives to a scrapbook layout.

Thanks for taking a peek!  Davinie

Three Designer Challenge - Vanessa

For the next three days we are going to feature the work of three talented designers. Today we are featuring Vanessa. They were given the same product, Making Memories new Noteworthy collection, and asked to create a project.

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I love this new Making Memories Noteworthy collection because it's perfect for a girlie layout! The vibrant colors and bright glitter accents add a touch of whimsy to my layout. I wanted it to be simple but visually appealing, with some added texture and layering. That's why I overlapped the ribbons and some colorful die cut accents on the page. I also printed my photo black and white to make it more eye-catching and this also makes the elements on the page all stand out. This is a beautiful shot of my little cousin and I love how the overall layout is clean and balanced.

   

Steps to create the layout:

1. Use the Noteworthy Delaney Stripe paper as the base for the layout.
2. Adhere a 4x6" photo onto the orange side of the Ledger Circle paper and trim the paper down to approx. 4 1/4 x 12".
3. Hand cut the left and right sides of the paper so that it fits within the Die Cut Circle paper and distress the edges.
4. Adhere Die Cut Circle paper to Delaney Stripe paper, add alpha stickers for title and ribbon (I overlapped two different ribbons for added texture).
5. Cut out the word "{Note} worthy" from one of the patterned papers and adhere to photo with a die cut flower.
6. Embellish with more die cut flowers, a journaling block and photo corner (I used Pop Up Glue Dots to make some of the accents stand out more).
7. Punch a couple of butterflies using your scraps of paper and adhere those to the layout.

Thanks Vanessa for sharing your talents with us.

WINNER, WINNER, WINNER

Let's start out Friday on the right foot by awarding some winners. Congrats to the following people who will be receiving a huge supply of Making Memories new Noteworthy collection.

• Emily (Justem)
• Pam Bennett
• Alli

If you are a winner, please email (jweston@makingmemories.com) me so I can send out your prize.

Congrats to the winners. Continue to check out this blog for more prizes, winners, and fun!

Design Challenge - Magazine Inspiration

Inspiration is everywhere. I am always on the lookout for things to inspire my scrapbook pages. Whether it be for color, design, or photography, you can be sure that I'll find inspiration about everywhere I go.

It can come from a color palette on my son's shirt.  It can be seen on a billboard as I'm driving on the highway.  I even love finding inspiration on food packaging!  Among all places to find inspiration, I think that magazine ads are the most common source.  Every day I seem to be flipping through some sort of magazine, and they are packed with interesting advertisements and article layouts that inspire any creative mind.

A few days ago as I was going through the latest issue of Real Simple magazine, this advertisement caught my eye.  I love how simple it seemed, and how it still had a lot of potential to dress up.  I saw the rectangles as photos and patterned paper, and I really liked how the title was split into two areas of the page.

   

While planning out my layout, I knew I wanted to use papers with subtle patterns.  This would enable me to embellish my layout without making it appear to be too busy.  I wanted to maintain the simplicity of the original magazine advertisement, but I also wanted to add embellishments so I kept the background and patterned papers simple.  This kept the focus on my photographs, which is always very important to me while creating scrapbook pages.

Today my challenge for you is to browse any magazine and search for inspiration.  Print ads are usually wonderfully designed and bursting with layout ideas.  Table of contents and article layouts are also inspiring because you usually have all important elements of scrapbook pages there - a title, journaling and photos.  Using magazines for inspiration is wonderful because it quickens your creativity process and allows you to complete more pages in a shorter amount of time.

Start challenge for you is to browse any magazine and search for inspiration.  Print ads are usually wonderfully designed and bursting with layout ideas.  Table of contents and article layouts are also inspiring because you usually have all important elements of scrapbook pages there - a title, journaling and photos.  Using magazines for inspiration is wonderful because it quickens your creativity process and allows you to complete more pages in a shorter amount of you. Enjoy!

Jill Godon

Guest Designers

We have received a lot of feedback from everyone regarding our guest designer feature. We have listened. We decided that we will continue to feature scrapbookers like you on our blog. The purpose of this is to give deserving scrapbookers a chance to show off their work to the rest of the world.

I do want to reiterate that Making Memories does not affiliate, compensate or sponsor the guest designers that are featured on the blog. We are simply using our blog as a forum to feature scrapbookers and their work.

If you want the chance to shine on our blog, leave a comment with a link to your blog so we can see your work.

Thank you to everyone for all the support that you give us. We sincerely appreciate you!!!

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As a bonus for today, here is a great project using Making Memories 5th Avenue program. We used trims and a grommet to accent this page. To do this, flatten the back of the grommet and thread your ribbon through. We tied the lose end by tying a bow.

Check out our idea gallery for more ideas.

Hey Nice Diggs!

Yes, we're catching up to our tech-savvy readers at last, and now offer options on our blog asking you to Digg us, or save a posting to del.icio.us, Facebook, or to add us to your StumbleUpon favorites. (By the way, if you don't Stumble yet, you've got to give it a try. So Addicting!

If none of this makes sense to you (as it didn't to me at first), please watch this video that explains the social bookmarking and sharing phenomenon.

And then, please take a moment to capitalize on these offerings. We're tying in a fantastic prize with your participation. So visit our blog after you've used one of our bookmarking links, and tell us what you did. We'll select three participants at random to receive the new Noteworthy collection. Consider it our way to thank you for digging us!

Winners will be announced on our blog on Friday, May 16th.

Want to Win a Scrapbooking Cruise Getaway?

Crafter's Home is getting underway with their first major group promotional event - a Scrapbooking Cruise Getaway. AND in July they are going to follow this up with a Disney Family Vacation - and the fun will just keep coming.

If you are interested in all the rules and where to enter, click here.

If you win, I want to come with you!!

Layout by Leah

Hi everyone, it's Leah! It's been awhile since I posted so I thought I'd show you a page that I made yesterday using photos from a recent trip. In March, I went to South Africa and taught classes as part of scrapbook road show organized by Scrap Shack Designs. I had a great time and the country was so beautiful, but I am just now starting to scrapbook some of the photos that were taken. This page was made using the Fifth Avenue papers, trims and colorboard stickers - I love this collection! Have you made a page using Fifth Avenue? Post your page in the gallery and link it here in the comments. I would love to see it!

I also made the flowers on the page using the Slice and the Basic Shapes card. This little machine is so cool! Once the flowers were cut, I did a quick machine stitch around the edges using black thread.

 

Before I go, I wanted to give you a couple tips today. Are you a frugal scrapbooker? I like to think that I am. I try to save my scraps of paper and leftover embellishments. I save my large scraps of paper in hanging folders but for smaller pieces I use Ziploc bags. For my long strips of scrap paper, I put those in a Ziploc bag too but to keep those a bit more organized, I used my sewing machine to stitch columns in the bag. For the scrapbook page I made yesterday, I layered a few of these strips of scrap paper.

 

I also like saving my scraps of ribbon and I usually save pieces as small as 5" which I can tie onto a longer piece of ribbon stapled onto my page, like I did for this page. If I really love the ribbon - like this black gingham ribbon in the picture with the jar - I'll save pieces as small as 2" which I can fold and staple on a page. For storing small scraps of ribbon, I use the Making Memories embellishment jar because the wide mouth and shallow jar makes it easy to grab the scrap that I need.

Well, that's it for now - have a great weekend and enjoy Mother's Day! If you have time, drop by my blog and say "hi". And if you're looking for something fun to watch plus scrapbook related, I also have some silly scrapbook videos there. Also, if you want more information about the products I used on my page or the Slice, visit Making Memories website.

Leah

Design Challenge - Eight Photos

Our challenge for today has to do with lots of photos - eight photos to be exact. I love doing layouts with just one or two photos. But once in a while, it's nice to put a lot of photos on a layout. Whether it's to make your photo pile a little smaller. Or to make your layout more meaningful or tell a story more effectively. There are lots of times a layout just calls for lots of photos.

I created this layout using the New Noteworthy collection. I love the bright colors and fun embellishments. I wanted to use the scalloped circle from the journaling notebook, but I felt like I needed a bit more color. So I used tracing paper to trace right inside the scalloped edge of the paper, and then used that to cut out the turquoise pattern paper to fit inside. This added just the right amount of color I was looking for! I also used a small strip of the turquoise pattern paper that was left over from another project. I had cut it using my scalloped scissors and couldn't bear to throw it away. I love when I can use bits and pieces from other projects!

 

So get out those photos and take the challenge - eight photos, that's all you need. And when you're done, make sure you share it with us by posting a link to your blog.

To learn more about the new Noteworthy program visit Making Memories website.

Laura Vegas

One trick that I use when using lots of photos on a layout is to crop the photos all to the same size and then arrange them into groups or line them up. The eight photos I choose to use really didn't match or go together. They were all taken at different times in different places. Once I cropped each one down, it eliminated any excess background clutter and clashing colors. Each photo was cropped 2.25 x 3.5 inches. After I matted two at a time on white cardstock. This same effect can be in Photoshop or a similar photo editing program by making collages and then printing them as one piece.

Great Spring Idea

What do you love most about spring? Besides the nice weather, I love seeing flowers start to appear. Walking outside and seeing flowers wherever I go, makes me happy. We have a local annual tulip festival that I attend so I can savor all the beautiful flowers.

Here is a great idea from Andrea Wiebe to help you enjoy beautiful flowers inside your home. Andrea took an empty can and covered it with paper, she used Making Memories Garden Party and 5th Avenue paper collections. She then decorated it with buttons and ribbon. This is a great project for you to create with your kids. They will have a blast creating their own little project.

 

For more project inspiration, visit Making Memories idea gallery.

Photo Swap

A great way to get inspired is to swap photos with a friend and scrap a layout for them. Sometimes just having a fresh face laying in front of you is enough to get your creative juices going. We challenged Wendy Anderson and Laura Vegas to a photo swap and this is what they came up with. They both used the New Noteworthy program by Making Memories.

This is what Wendy created for Laura:

 

This is what Laura created for Wendy:

 

 

Your challenge today is to team up with a friend and swap photo. You'll be amazed at how fun and inspiring it is.

For more inspiration check out the idea gallery on Making Memories website.

As most of our fine readers know, when you multi-task, details can fall through the cracks.  The task of running and maintaining this blog belongs to two people at Making Memories, both of whom also handle many other activities within the company … and also at home.    Translated: we do not have the opportunity to conduct background checks on all of our guest participants – something that has obviously come back to haunt us in an embarrassing and startling way.

Please let us state outright: under no circumstances do we condone any illegal activities.  Had we been aware that last week’s guest designer had a criminal background, we obviously would not have featured her work.  If we could turn back time, we certainly would; unfortunately, we posted her submission based on the timing of its arrival, the nature of its design, and absolutely nothing more.  Our mistake.

We started inviting guest designers to our blog at the request of our readers.  In the multiple surveys we have hosted, in an effort to find out what you wanted to read, the response overwhelmingly favored putting the spotlight on other designers who rarely get acknowledged for their talent.    Our trusting nature, however, has proven flawed – it opens us up to submissions from people who do not deserve the spotlight. However, we do not have the resources or often the ability to conduct background checks on each participant.

We like to think that ours can be a forum where others’ work can shine. However, we can not imply that we sponsor them, or that they work for us, or that we are affiliated.  We just knew that we had a venue to share with others. Deep in our hearts, we would still rather operate as trusting people and feature submissions that we receive; sadly, however, until we can find a way to conduct said checks, we will likely have to discontinue that practice.

In the meantime, please know that the reason we were not able to address this problem over the weekend came from personal circumstances:  one of us has been out of town (and away from a computer) on vacation. The other one of us was celebrating her two children’s birthdays and had not been online – and instead hosting back-to-back events for an eight- and an eleven- year old.

Please do not let our oversight reflect on the entire company. We are sincerely sorry to have disappointed any of you.  We so enjoy working on this blog and hope that you will give us the opportunity to earn back your trust.  We also would sincerely appreciate any suggestions and insight, as always, as to how we could improve this site to make it more enjoyable for you to read.

Thank you for all of your time and understanding.  We are here to answer any questions you may have. 

Sincerely,

Jenny Weston and Kelly Mooney

Inspiration From Joey

 

I've noticed that flowers are a huge inspiration in the scrapbooking industry. You see papers, ribbons, stamps, and embellishments in every shape, color, and form. Flowers are happy and pleasing and extremely universal because they can be used all the time.

Making Memories has an incredible variety and assortment of flowers so this month's challenge focuses on them. I wanted to create something that did not use paper - just fabulous embellishments from several different programs.

My page is very simple here, with a line of colorful, layered flowers. Sometimes, that is all you need, a punch of color to make your page your own.

Joey

To see Making Memories collection of blossoms, visit our website.

Guest Designer - Joscelyne Cutchens

Today we are happy to have Joscelyne Cutchens as our guest designer. She joins us from the beautiful island of Honolulu, Hawaii.

This is how she created the page, "I used a ruler and paper piercing tool to pierce every other hole in a tic-tac-toe grid, leaving a space on the bottom-right side where the glitter chipboard bracket would create the line.   Since I had this picture of me with a black and white polka dot shirt, I chose two black and white polka dot paper flowers (5^th avenue blossoms and buttons) to create a visual triangle, with my picture being the third side.  I stitched the buttons with embroidery floss onto the flowers and used glue dots to adhere them to the page and then sewed the grid on to the paper with pink embroidery floss."

I used my computer to create my journaling. The font I used was “1942 Report.” I wanted the other pictures on the layout to be cohesive and not battle for attention, so I converted the three supporting pictures to black and white and printed them to fit the grid.  For the small pictures I printed them at 1” x 2” and trimmed them to look like Polaroid’s."

Make sure to check out Joscelyne's blog for more sample ideas.

Design Challenge - Music Lyrics

Music.  It can stir emotions that are deep down inside us.  It can make us laugh.  It can make us cry.  It can make us remember things we thought we’d forgotten.  It can transport us to a different time.  The influence music can have on our emotions is amazing. 

This morning I was listening to one of my favorite Pandora stations when I heard the song “Miracle” by Celine Dion.  As soon as I heard it, the image of each of my little babies came into my mind and I knew I had to create a scrapbook page.  This was one of those pages that actually came together pretty quickly – I know it’s fairly simple – but it’s exactly what I wanted.  The words are perfect – except that I have four little miracles, instead of just one. J 

I used lots of Noteworthy product on this page –  paper, chipboard letter stickers, flowers, trims, journaling book pages, and buttons.  Of course, I had to do a bit of machine stitching, and the buttons are stitched on by hand.  The lyrics are printed directly onto my background and the title is an older sticker from the Defined line.

So now, I challenge YOU to create a page that includes lyrics.  You don’t have to include the whole song as I did – it can be one line or even just a title…just include song lyrics somehow.  If you take my challenge, leave a comment and a link to your page – I’d love to see what you come up with!

To see more inspiring ideas visit Making Memories website.

Wendy