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 Monday, February 04, 2008
Black & White Photography
Monday, February 04, 2008 1:36:47 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00) I'm back with a few more photos to share.   On Saturday, I played around a bit with the black and white mode on my camera. (Can you tell that my cat Mia is a diva and isn't camera shy?) To keep my camera steady, I set it on the bed (where Mia was sprawled out, enjoying the afternoon sunshine). Later, I softened the images using these Photoshop tricks from MM Books Associate Editor Kristin Boys. For more on black and white photography, click here to try a black and white technique from Assistant Editor GinaMarie Reda. Share your own favorite black and white snapshots, here. And don't forget to spend some time in our NEW photography forum. Post your burning photography questions. Discuss cameras, equipment and photo-editing software. Or, share some of your latest snapshots. Happy picture-taking, Katie
Monday, February 04, 2008 1:36:47 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00) 
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Get Inspired: Valentine's Day Cards
Monday, February 04, 2008 11:31:10 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00) At our recent brainstorming session, the MM team did a little card crafting. On this gloomy Monday morning, I'm here to share a few fun photos:  Here's Assistant Editor GinaMarie Reda showing off one of her cute card creations. (Note the Starbucks cup to the left of the photo. GinaMarie and I made a Starbucks stop on the way to our brainstorm session because, let's face it, brainstorming and crafting aren't complete without a latte (in my case) or a chai (in GM's case).  I made this card for my sister, using cardstock and Cosmo Cricket's "Hey Sugar" line. I liked the playful "For Your Eyes Only" sticker. I felt it was perfect for a card for my fun-loving little sister.  I love the glittery flowers Art Director Christy Miller added to this sweet card.  Here's a peek at one of Managing Editor Patty Craft's cards. Can you see the pearl accents? Patty's our resident "bling" lover. I love how she placed the delicate pearl accents in the centers of a few flowers.  Executive Editor Beth Williams is an amazingly quick crafter. As I tinkered with one card, she was able to make multiple incredibly cute creations! I love the sweet simplicity of her "Me + You" card. Get more inspiration for Valentine's Day cards here, here, here and here. Are you working on any Valentine's Day-inspired projects? Share your own creations in the forum. Wishing you a lovely day, Katie
Monday, February 04, 2008 11:31:10 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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Friday, February 01, 2008
Tell Me More ...
Friday, February 01, 2008 12:00:43 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)  Greetings from the home office, and happy Friday!
Earlier this week we asked you if you felt your interests were being served in the pages of MM and online. We got some great responses in the forum and I want to share a couple here. submitted by kelleyisland: After reading Patty's post, it got me to thinking about my own situation...active grandmother with three grandchildren. Most of my scrapbooking focuses on my grandchildren, which gives me
infinite pleasure, and MM is full of inspiration in that
category, but I think I'm going to start doing more about myself and my
husband. So, MM, here's another demographic you might want to think about...Empty Nesters.
submitted by coffeeaddict: There is a slowly-growing trend towards encouraging scrapbookers to do
LO's of themselves and I think it's refreshing! We all wear so many
hats in our lives, and every one is worthy of some attention in our
layouts. Whether spouses or children ever come into the equation,
someone, someday will be intrigued by how we lived and what we were
like. I'd hate for my children or grandchildren to look back at my work
and not see what a full, fun, challenging and satisfying life I really
had, beyond being a mom.
We'd still like to hear from more of you. Come to the forum and tell us what you love about the magazine, or what's missing that would make your scrapbooking time more meaningful. Peace and love, Patty
Friday, February 01, 2008 12:00:43 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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Thursday, January 31, 2008
Join Us and Oprah!
Thursday, January 31, 2008 3:26:14 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00) Last week your MM editors met and brainstormed fresh and fun ideas to keep you inspired. We can’t tell you all the details yet, but watch for more online opportunities coming soon. And if you’re not already signed up for our weekly e-newsletter, click here to register. Next week we want your opinion about a new online opportunity that’s designed just for you! And you won't be able to participate in the survey if you're not signed up for the e-news. Speaking of inspiration, our team is excited to join Oprah’s Book Club in reading A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose by Eckhart Tolle. Part of what we talked about last week is staying true to the MM purpose to create a community of ideas and inspiration, and we think this opportunity has arrived at exactly the right moment. Serendipity in action! Join us—and yeah, Oprah, too—in this online class opportunity to realize your full potential. Come to the forum where we’ll be talking about the book. Peace and love, Patty, Beth, Christy, GinaMarie and Katie 
Thursday, January 31, 2008 3:26:14 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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Tips for Using the New Wild Sorbet Kit
Thursday, January 31, 2008 12:17:51 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)  Have you downloaded the new FREE Wild Sorbet kit by Michelle Coleman? If not, you can download it here. I’ve had so much fun playing with this kit because the beautiful, bright colors remind me of spring, which I hope will be here in a month … or two … or possibly three, since I do live in Ohio. I kept things pretty simple because I didn’t want to take away from the gorgeous background paper. I also wanted to showcase my sister’s pictures without a lot of distraction. I created the white flowers and notebook paper in Photoshop Elements using parts of the Wild Sorbet kit. See below for how-to instructions. White Flowers:- To create the white flowers, open the background paper and use your magic wand tool to select one of the flowers.
- Hit the move button and move the flower onto the layout as a separate layer.
- Select the layer and go to Enhance>Adjust color>Adjust hue saturation.
- Hit the colorize button and take away the color making the flower white.
- To make the flower stand out, I duplicated the flower bud layer so it appeared heavier on the page.
- Use a thin brush to draw the lines of the stems.
Notebook paper:- Open a coordinating background paper from the kit.
- Choose a small section and move it onto the layout as a new layer.
- Select the eraser tool and choose the block eraser.
- Erase blocks on the paper in a straight line down the edge.
- Make the block eraser brush smaller and erase a line from the edge of the paper to the erased hole to make it look like notebook paper has been torn from a pad of paper.
What have you done with your FREE Wild Sorbet kit? Post your layouts in the forum here, and get great ideas from other scrapbookers! Create something. Inspire everyone. GinaMarie
Digital Scrapbooking | techniques
Thursday, January 31, 2008 12:17:51 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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Wednesday, January 30, 2008
What Do Your Purse "Guts" Say About You?
Wednesday, January 30, 2008 2:23:55 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00) As I was lugging a big bottle of spring water in my purse this afternoon, I got to wondering what other women carry around in their purse and what it says about them. So, I decided to do a quick purse dump to see what the "guts" reveal
about me. I'll show you mine if you show me yours!  Band-Aids? Check (tucked into wallet pocket). Advil? Check (in little black and white case). Phone charged? Check (charging next to the purse dump out of view). Swiss Army knife? Check (attached to my key ring). Gum? Check (and a little overboard at that, as I opened an 8-pack and placed them all in my purse). Slight obsession with black and white? Um, well, yes. Except for the chip clip (left over from last week's Memory Makers' brainstorming session/food fest), the blob of green gum in cellophane (front left, from Mei-Lin, who considers me her personal garbage collector) and a few stray quarters, my purse reflects that I'm streamlined, buttoned-up, organized (OK, I'll just say it — anal) and ready for just about anything. I could save the world with the contents in my purse! I think I may make a layout about this. Now that I've shown you mine, show me yours! I'm curious to see what you're carrying around ... and what you think it reveals about you! Best, Beth
Wednesday, January 30, 2008 2:23:55 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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Tuesday, January 29, 2008
FREE Digital Kit
Tuesday, January 29, 2008 4:39:04 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00) I had a chance to play a bit with this fantastic kit (see below) and I can't wait to create another layout. The Wild Sorbet kit is chock full of inspiring papers and elements. (There's so much more I want to use!) I especially like the digital frames, even though they didn't work for this particular page. Get a frame tutorial from Michelle, here. For this page, I took design inspiration from Master '08 Caroline Ikeji.
 Supplies: Acrylic heart, star (Wild Sorbet Kit, Michelle Coleman) Flourishes, stitches (Embrace Life Kit, Sande Krieger) Handstamped Alpha (Michelle Coleman, littledreamerdesigns.com) After you've had a chance to play with this kit, post your creations in the forum. We can't wait to see what you come up with! —Katie
Digital Scrapbooking
Tuesday, January 29, 2008 4:39:04 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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New Photography Forum
Tuesday, January 29, 2008 11:54:28 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00) We've got a new home on our site for photography questions and answers. Stop by the forum and check out our Photography thread. Enjoy! (P.S. I'll check back in later today to provide the link to the free digital kit I mentioned last week.) Here's a preview:  —Katie
Tuesday, January 29, 2008 11:54:28 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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Monday, January 28, 2008
Happy Monday!
Monday, January 28, 2008 3:33:52 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)  Team Memory Makers got together last Friday for a creative day. We met at my place to brainstorm new ideas and find ways to serve you, our reader, better. As you can see, Maizie (one of my dogs) was exhausted from having company all day! Be sure to come back and visit the blog this week as the editors give you an inside look at our brainstorming session. There are some exciting things coming your way! Have a wonderful week. Christy
Monday, January 28, 2008 3:33:52 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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Thursday, January 24, 2008
Give Your Black-and-White Photos a Punch
Thursday, January 24, 2008 12:38:30 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)  This past weekend I ventured back to my hometown for a friend’s wedding. I was anxious to try out my newly acquired tripod, a gift from my photojournalist dad, so I carted it to the wedding. I never thought I was going to be one of those people who brought their tripods to weddings, but I’m so glad I did! Besides a few jokes from friends, everyone enjoyed playing with my camera, plus I was able to get a sweet shot of my sister and her boyfriend. Without the tripod, this shot would have been blurry. I loved this picture of the two of them, but I wasn’t fond of the background. To eliminate some distraction, I created two layers and erased the black and white layer so the color below would come through. This is a simple trick and easy to do in Photoshop Elements. Here’s how:• I created a duplicate layer of the picture and then went to Enhance>Adjust Color>Adjust Hue/Saturation> • I clicked the colorize button and adjusted the saturation to eliminate all color. It makes it appear to be black and white. • I then made sure  I was on the black and white layer, and with my eraser tool, deleted the black and white so the color came through underneath. As you can see in the before and after shots, the black and white background puts the focus on the happy couple. Do you have any photo tips to share? Click here to share your digital tips and tricks in the forum.Create something. Inspire everyone. GinaMarie
photography
Thursday, January 24, 2008 12:38:30 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Mad for Magazines
Wednesday, January 23, 2008 1:44:30 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00) Hi, my name is Beth, and I'm a magazine junkie. My addiction started back in elementary school, with Ranger Rick, random Teen Beats and Archie comic books, and escalated to full-blown love in middle school with the Scholastic Book Club's Dynamite (Remember that?! Most of you, not so much, eh?) and a subscription to Teen magazine, followed by subscriptions (in no particular order and by no means comprehensive at ALL) to Seventeen, Glamour, Mademoiselle, Victoria (I'm so glad it's back!), Weight Watchers, Real Simple, Mode, Parents, Parenting, Time, Sports Illustrated, Cottage Living, Country Home, Country Living, More, In Style, Oprah, Romantic Homes, Body and Soul ... well, you get the picture. I have a bit of a problem. But, there's something so wonderful about coming home to find that a new world has been delivered straight to my mailbox, full of whatever it does best—whether it's providing fashion, beauty, inspiration, news, tips, gossip or advice. My husband said to me last night when sorting through the mail, "Well,
it looks like you hit the mother lode. You got three girly magazines
today." Pure nirvana. I only got a chance to skim through them
yesterday, but tonight I'm going to curl up and indulge my addiction.
What brings delight to your days? Make time to fit it into your schedule this week!  Best, Beth
Wednesday, January 23, 2008 1:44:30 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Visit the Cafe Press Store
Tuesday, January 22, 2008 1:49:45 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
Tuesday, January 22, 2008 1:49:45 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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