Upcoming Changes for Creative Memories

Here is an excerpt from an email that I sent out last week in regards to upcoming changes for Creative Memories...

It's been an interesting summer for Creative Memories... Some of you may be aware that they recently announced that they have filed for Chapter 11 and propose to redirect the company's focus. The message is that there is a smaller market for traditional scrapbook supplies because people have less time to spend on album making and the market is already quite saturated. CM will revamp their offerings to include products that will encourage quick album completion. We expect to see a completely new product line in the Fall. While I'm excited about this new direction (which I believe will include an "app" of some sort related to photo sharing), there are some implications for the current product line...

Supplies that are currently offered will be sold until the inventory is depleted; many popular items are being sold "while supplies last." If you have albums that you need to finish, please be sure to see if there's anything you'll need to order in July since it won't be available after that. Check your inventories of pages, page protectors, tape runner, etc. to be sure that you have enough to finish any incomplete projects. July 8-31 is the last chance order period for these items. If you are in need of anything, please let me know by next week Monday, July 15 as I'll be placing an order then. Please note that your items may take several weeks to come in as CM is getting swamped with orders right now.

Heads up for digital customers: CM is working hard to find a way for Storybook Creator to be supported in their new world. According to a recent Facebook post, "The new company simply can’t bring digital forward in its current condition. The new company will include digital; it will just be starting with a new foundation." This makes me quite nervous, as I rely heavily on SBC, but I am patiently waiting to see what is revealed in the Fall first. On another note, all purchased product credits must be redeemed by August 21, regardless if you have a later expiration date. Don't waste your credit!

Change is hard, but I look forward to what will be unveiled this fall... Stay tuned for updates.  Thank you for your continued support!

Spring Clearance Sale Extended

It’s out with the old and in with the new as CM is clearing some shelf space for new products. Look for more products and bigger savings right now! All products available while supplies last. Prices good through 10 p.m. (CT) on April 1.

Spring Organizing

'Tis the season to clean and organize, as I was tired of looking at my out-of-date file folder (which didn't hold 12x12 papers) and my messy packs of cardstock...

Luckily, I came across the 12x12 Reflections File Mate that I purchased from Creative Memories a while back.  This find sparked my motivation to organize my papers, as it is so much prettier than my old and boring black one!

Once I sorted through all my papers and sorted/discarded my scraps, I pulled out the P-touch labeling machine.  This is definitely a required tool when you're on an organizing mission.

I like to organize my papers by colors, so I began typing labels for "reds," "oranges," "yellows," and so forth.  I decided to forgo the white tabs that you insert into the file tab and just place the P-touch label on top.  So simple!  I felt so much better once all my cardstock packs and loose papers had a home. It was definitely a successful night of organizing.

CM Party Project

For the past couple of months, Creative Memories has been selling "Party Project" kits.  Once you purchase the kit of "ingredients," you can follow the instruction sheet given to complete a quick and easy album/display/card set.  The January/February Party Project, "P.S. I Love You," featured a set of 24 note cards and postcards.  Tackling this project was the perfect way to unwind on a Friday night.  Here are my kit components...

Also included was a silver metallic pen (not shown above).

Following the instruction sheet was a breeze! Everything was included in the kit, even adhesive foam squares, which means I didn't even have to take out my tape runner.  Each card was simply designed, using a combination of epoxy stickers, die cuts, and title stickers.

I love the gems that this kit came with!

The folded cards were so easy to complete as they were all preprinted.

So I kept rolling along, and it took me about an hour and a half to complete all 24 note cards.  At $35, this was a great value.  All the note cards came with envelopes, and I had leftover foam squares and epoxy/gem stickers to use on other projects.  Although most of these cards were themed around Valentines Day, some of them can be used for other greetings as well.  It was definitely a successful evening of crafting!

Awesome Album Sale

It's back!  Creative Memories is kicking off 2013 with another album sale. From now until January 21, save 20% on traditional albums and pages, PicFolios, Quick Albums, and hardcover Storybooks (or product credits).  And if you place an order before January 8, you'll save 30%. This will be the best sale of 2013, so take advantage of it now!

Happy New Year!

Many blessings to you and your family as you welcomed in 2013... May the new year be filled with blessings, adventures, and new ways to inspire you! 

I was recently inspired by a Christmas gift from a friend.  She and I both love stationery items; she had shared how she recently explored products on Paper-Source.com. On the site, they have a tutorial for making your own envelopes in various sizes with liners.  This allows you to create an envelope from any paper you may have on hand, including printed, vellum, or even washi paper.  On Christmas, I was so excited when I received the templates for creating custom envelopes, along with some gorgeous paper!  This would be the perfect New Year's Eve project...

My auntie and I got to work right away after dinner.  We started by choosing our envelope size (A2 = 5.5"x4.25") and paper.  We decided to go with Creative Memories' 12x12 platinum shimmer paper.  Lovely!  CM's tool kit came in handy for this project as the precision scissors were sharp and easy to maneuver around our outline.  The embossing tool also worked out perfectly to help us score the folds for the envelope flaps.

 

After we cut out the liner from beautiful piece of vellum, we used our favorite tape runner with frosted segments to adhere the liner in the envelope.  Then after carefully folding at the creases, it was time to adhere the envelope's flaps together... our envelope started to take shape!

 

 

 

Overall, I was quite pleased with our handiwork, even though we had to do the cuts by free hand.  It was great to combine the templates from another company with the paper and tools of Creative Memories.  I can't wait to make more! 

 

 

 



End of Summer Sale

So excited for another CM sale!  Nearly everything is on sale, ranging from 10-40% off.  Just in time to start thinking about gift giving for Christmas.  (Yes, I really do start making my list now!)  Click here to check out all the wonderful items on sale, from now until August 27.

Birthday Bash

Creative Memories is celebrating its birthday this month, too! Save 25% on the Top 25 Picks.  The savings lasts for 25 days, from July 1 to 25.

Products on sale include essentials like the Custom Cutting System, 12" Rotary Trimmer, and the new Tape Runner.  The Reflections Power Palette, Storybook Creator 4.0 (yay!), and 12x12 & 8x8 Hardcover Storybook product credits are also on sale. Order your favorite items directly on my website... I'm enjoying this year of sales from Creative Memories!

Just Can't Wait Sale

This is the year for sales from Creative Memories!  From June 12-25, enjoy 25% off the following products:

• Albums
• Quick Albums
• PicFolio® Albums
• Hardcover StoryBooks
• Hardcover Personalized StoryBooks and product credits
• You Create It Custom Albums and product credits
• StoryBook options for additional pages and lay-flat pages

Summer is the perfect time to get started on your next project! Yay!

Celebration Sale!

Since 1995, CM has been celebrating National Scrapbook Day with exclusive products and fun workshop ideas.  This year, they are offering another great sale!

The traditional and digital deals include...
25% off select album pages and protectors
35% off 12x12 Cardstock (excluding Decorative Cardstock)
35% off digital artwork downloads
25% off trimming and tearing tools
15% off additional pages for Hardcover StoryBooks and lay-flat page upgrades
15% off Page Prints and Custom Album Pages as well as their corresponding product credits (10-packs)

Check out CM's Go Digital Facebook Page for a "virtual scrap" and to get inspired by the amazing layouts participants are posting.  Happy scrappin'!

New May Products

I love when my CM order arrives because it's just like Christmas morning! Yesterday I was especially excited because I had ordered a few of the new May products.  You can always preview pictures of the product, but it's never the same as holding the actual item in your hand.


So in my box was the new Stamper System... This is the first time CM is doing anything stamp related, so I'm curious to try it out. Right now this bundle of 4 sets/inks is on sale for $81 ($98 value).

I also purchased the two new 6x6 stack packs (Achievements and Be Young), Just Because Card Set (can't wait to try this out for an upcoming workshop with the Stamper System), and the Color Vibe 12x12 stack pack.  Love these new, colorful products!

But what I was most excited about in my box was the new Tool Kit.  The "Fantastic 5" of scrapbooking tools includes a multi-purpose tool, dual tip embossing tool, reverse tweezers, precision scissors, and an embossing mat. Tucked away in this adorable box, I think this would make a great gift for any crafter! ($25)

Love the cover design with some familiar CM shapes!

Here are the lovely tools inside!

CM has been launching new products about every other month, so check back later in June for another preview!

Celebration Sale!

In celebration of its 25th anniversary, CM has several amazing sales this month.  Be sure to watch the dates so you don't miss any of these great offers.  Any order placed online on my website should be completed by midnight CST in order to receive the sale price.  If there was anything you ever wanted from CM, this would be a perfect time to purchase it!

5 days only

January 11-15

25% off almost everything!

digital customers, purchase your product credits now
(excludes digital artwork downloads)

25 days of savings

January 2-26

20% off select albums and Storybooks

(coversets, PicFolios, 12x12 Quick Kits, scrapbook pages, and page protectors are included in this deal)
40% off non-expandable PicFolio albums

Swapping Recipe Cards

As I've admitted in my previous post, cooking is not one of my hobbies.  But after yesterday's workshop, I am so thrilled to have a new batch of recipes!  Bliss' idea for a digital/traditional recipe card swap worked out wonderfully.  Everyone worked hard to decorate their recipe cards... then we were rewarded when it was time to swap!

Bliss starts the swapping...

Take one and pass it down...

20 new, beautiful recipes - digital and traditional.

Tina and Lorraine showing off their recipes and Reflections PicFolio.

Finishing Up Projects

Whoa!  It's been another long break from bloggin'.  August and September were busy months at KCS, but I managed to finish two main projects.  Jodi's Bridal Shower album was completed thanks to the quick and easy 8x8 I Thee Wed Kit.  Sorry, no pictures because they were accidently erased from my camera.  Bummer!

Nikki's Graduation Album was my next big project, as I compiled nearly 50 or so messages (thank you Storybox journal boxes!) with pictures from her grad party.  This would celebrate her high school graduation and send her off to college with well wishes from all her friends and family... my favorite type of album to put together!  I kept it simple by using the primary colors of the Cheerful Power Palette.

Here's the setup at Nikki's grad party.

Gotta always have directions!

Sometimes the hardest part about these projects is getting people to participate. 
Kids are usually up for the challenge tho'.

Once I got all the pictures from Nikki's family, it was a bit of a puzzle to pull together colors and match picture to message into a cohesive layout.

But the end product is always rewarding.  Congratulations, Nikki!

Catching up

Wow, it's been a while since I last blogged!  It's been a crazy summer.  I'm excited about several projects that I have coming up... I'll be creating a bridal shower album for my friend Jodi. That will be a quick 8x8 album.  And, I've got a massive graduation party album to put together for Nikki, who will be leaving for college in a month.  Ideas and visions have been dancing around in my head for months, so I'm excited to see them start materializing!  More details and pictures to follow...

We did some pretty cool projects this summer during our Sunday Workshops. We used the Cheerful Zoo Additions to create kids cards in June, and in July, we used the Earthly Serenity Additions for Sympathy Cards.  Check out the instructions sheets for ideas or if you're interested in a kit.

My biggest accomplishment this month has been completing my Holy Land digital album.  When I returned from the trip in October of 2008, I had all these grand ideas of putting the album together with everyone's pictures, incorporating quotes and stories, and using excerpts from my journal.  I wanted to publish the "group book" for everyone.  Ha!  It's been almost 3 years, and the only reason I was able to finish is because my product credit that I purchased in January was about the expire.  For the majority of this week, I felt like I was back in college trying to finish a long term project or paper.  I was up until 3 am on Thursday, but I was quite pleased with the end result.  Thankfully, everything uploaded properly, and the 100 page book is ordered!  Don't ask me how much it cost...

This is the cover.  The new "What a View" digital kit was the perfect choice!

For these more seriously themed pages, the "Basic Black" layouts
showcased Ron Chock's amazing pictures.

One of my favorite pages!

Rough and Rugged Projects

So I finally got down to business to create our May cards (the week of our workshop).  Creativity loves a little procrastination sometimes... You can check out my cards under the "Instruction Sheets" tab.

Bliss did a great job with her cards!  We actually had some of the same ideas, and I was glad she was able to execute the techniques that I had wanted to but didn't get a chance with my cards. We found that for these "guy" cards, we had to alter some of our embellishments.  For example, instead of using ribbon, Bliss used twine.  No hearts and flowers allowed for these cards!

Love the use of the twine, brads, and a button!

This was a fun card to make.  Open it up and...

..this guy pops out at you! 

Happy Easter and April Projects...

Blessings to everyone on this Resurrection Sunday!  May Jesus' triumph over the grave become a reality in your life... and give you HOPE. He is Risen, indeed!  It's been a busy Easter weekend, but I promised myself that I would catch up with a post to share the projects we completed during our April workshop.

Bliss again did a fantastic job finding creative cards for us to mimic. Our first card is a preview for May's "Rugged Boys" workshop.  She originally created her card as a Boys' Day card, but I turned mine into a Father's Day card.  She played off of the CM "Boyfriends" samples to create our personalized guy using the tag maker punch.

No hair on this guy because it's supposed to be my dad. Lol!

This next project is a perfect fit for the Fabulous paper flowers that we used in this kit. 

A potted plant card... but where do you write?

Pull up the flowers to reveal a journaling card, where you can
compose a thoughtful message. So cute!

This next project took the most time to put together, but the finished product is worth the effort. The accordion card measures 5x5 inches and contains 3 pages (or six sides) to add pictures, embellishments, or messages.  It would be a nice gift for a bridal party or a perfect group card for any event!

A view of the accordion card from the front... all tied up.

A view from above when the card is opened up and stretched. 
I kept my card plain since I don't know who I would give it to.

The added cardstock gives the card a unique crisscross effect when opened.

Thanks for reading... hope to see you at our May workshop.  Gonna go look for inspiration now!

Paper Album Saves the Day!

One of the greatest products Creative Memories makes are paper albums.  {Paper Album = 6.5x6.5 album with coordinating papers, photo mats, epoxy stickers, die cuts, and title stickers = gift in minutes.}

It's perfect for the novice scrapper or someone who is overwhelmed by staring at 15 pages in a 12x12 album.  My challenge for this particular paper album was to incorporate thank you notes from 34 fourth grade students.  Because this album came with 12 photo mats in 4 different colors, I decided to cut them in quarters, so I ended up with 36 mini pieces of paper.  (I know you're wondering about my math... I didn't use one of the colors because it was brown and too dark for the kids to write on.)  I've learned from my many communal album experiences that it's best to give everyone individual pieces to write on, for the following reasons...

1. the back can be used in case mistakes are made

2. giving someone a defined area to work with is always best

3. one person is not "holding up" the album as others painfully wait for their turn to write in it

So here's how the project evolved... 

I used the "Spice of Life" Paper Album. 

Here are the notes from the 4th graders!
How in the world to arrange them in the album?

I slowly get inspired to try different layouts, mixing and matching pictures and notes...
Don't laugh at my workspace on the floor.

I was quite pleased with the finished product!  I hope the Aunty and Uncle that are on the receiving end enjoy the notes from the kids as well as the pictures of their time with them.