Personalized Stationery

I've been tossing around the idea for a while now to create personalized stationery sets as birthday gifts for my high school friends.  (I was originally inspired by this CM blog post.)  I loved the look of the samples from the blog, so I decided to also use the Be Mine Valentine Digital Kit on Storybook Creator.  I played around with the different 12x12 papers and some cute embellishments to create this set for Malia...

I sent them away for printing and then placed a set of 10 (with envelopes) in an acetate box.  It adds that "store bought" finishing touch.

So happy to finally execute a fun and practical idea.  I'm thinking of taking special orders for the Christmas season... stay tuned!

More Paper Album Fun

Once again, CM's paper albums came to the rescue... I quickly put together an "aloha" album for a friend from Sunday School that would be leaving for deployment.  Thanks to email, I was able to gather everyone's messages and print them out.  Even though I didn't have a lot of pictures to include, I was able to scatter quotes from the book we had been studying.

I'm also helping a friend put together an album for her grandparents.  It was fun to teach her the process of organizing papers, laying out pages, and editing her photo selection.  Next week, we'll work on putting everything together and adding the finishing touches to the pages.  I love how album making can bring people together to learn new skills!

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!

June Workshop Update

We enjoyed a productive afternoon of crafting our favors and "little gifts." Part of the fun of our workshop sessions is sharing ideas and learning from each other... Today we had a guest demonstrator, Brenda! She showed us how to make this adorable little scrapbook wallet using cardstock and the new "Color Vibe" stack pack.

Brenda is our super resourceful librarian. 
She learned this project from Ben Franklin's "Joy of Crafting" and adapted it.

You can add photos or journaling to each section. 
The middle block can also be utilized as a pocket... a gift card will fit perfectly inside of it!

Round out the corners and tie it up with some ribbon to hold the wallet closed. 
So lovely!

June Workshop: Little Gifts

"Little Gifts"

Sunday, June 10 from 1 to 4 pm

Nishida residence in Aiea

Kit Cost: $15
RSVP by June 6

bring your tape runner!

For this month's workshop, we'll be creating an assortment of favors that you can use for your next get-together or celebration.  Here's a quick glance at the projects that I'll be creating for you...

Tote Bag

Doesn't it look like a miniature version of beach bag?  Thank you, Brenda, for sharing this quick and easy project with us... I used it to hold snacks for my friend's baby shower favors last year.

Tea Bag/Card Holder

Thank you, Shereen, for teaching this fun favor that works perfectly for tea parties! 

Corner Bookmark

I saw this project on the CM blog a while ago, and I'm excited to try it out.  Along with being used as bookmark, I'm sure you could also slip in a tea bag or a small package of candy in its pocket. 

Designing for Ellie

For the past two months, I had the honor of helping my friend Marissa with some of the details of her daughter's 1st birthday party.  {Happy Birthday, Ellie!} I was tasked with designing Ellie's invitation around the theme of gardens and ladybugs, using purples and pinks as my color palette.  Thanks to the Cheerful Spring Additions (and a super cute photo of her), I was able to easily create Ellie's invitation in Storybook Creator...

I also created a simple "logo" for her party...

I punched it out using a CM circle punch and then layered it on scalloped circle and a flower cut using the Cricut 2.  Marissa affixed them to the candy kabob favors for the finishing touch...

 

We had tons of fun celebrating Ellie today!  I was glad that I could contribute to this special event using the power of Storybook Creator. 

The Great Journaling Adventure

Yes, it's the dreaded j-word in scrapbooking... journaling.  It tends to strike fear in those new to the craft, but journaling is the most important part of album making.  I, of course, love to put it off until the bitter end.  This can be a little challenging when you're working with pictures from 8 year ago... Such was the case I as I began my great journaling adventure, chronicling my year in Japan: Part I in a massive 12x12 album.

To help with motivation and to get me psyched for the task ahead, I treated myself to the new dual tip CM pens. I love the fresh new colors and the stylish case!

One of the challenges of journaling is that it can be a long process... It takes me time to not only remember and compose the basic facts from my pictures, but I also like to add interesting tidbits and fun facts.  My memory doesn't always serve me correctly, so I am constantly looking up places and people to ensure correct spelling.  My workspace will often look something like this...

A little scary, huh?  I can assure you that the finished product is always worth the effort!  Here are some of my completed pages from this album.

For most of my pages, I don't caption/journal for each photo.  I've been finding that it's faster to write a summary on a Storybox journaling box, one of the most practical items that CM makes!  So here's a peek of a journaling box up close from my "SEL HI English Camp" page...   

Hope this inspires you to start working on all of your journaling projects!  My favorite part of the album making process is slipping on the page protector after all the writing is done... Who doesn't love a finished page?  Now it's on to Japan: Part II...