Scroll to the bottom of this post for today's giveaway info. In meantime, check out my layout!

With all the wedding photos I have, it was natural to choose to make a page related to 601 Great Scrapbook Ideas Chapter 2 (Hard to Forget). I wanted to include the gorgeous photos that my photographer friend Jennifer Disney took at the wedding, and also incorporate the fabric from the table runners we used at the reception. (And how apropos that today is my one-month anniversary!)

I compiled all the photos in Photoshop and printed them out on one sheet. Creating the rest of the layout was a bit of trial and error.  I started by using a piece of the table runner fabric as my “patterned paper.”  But when I added the photos to the fabric background my eyes were about to explode from too much to look at. So I started over.  I decided plain cardstock would best allow for the photos shine.  But I still wanted to include the fabric.  After several failed creative attempts, I ended up gluing pieces of fabric to Heidi Swapp ghost letters and cutting it out with my tiny sewing scissors.  I’m pretty happy with the end result. The journaling says (thanks to Eileen for the idea!):

Five hydrangea bouquets
Four blue silk ties
Three manzanita trees
Two lives joined together
One heart

Kristin



ABOUT TODAY’S BOOK GIVEAWAY: Click here to go to the forum for the full details on how to enter. Good luck!

Well, it’s finally here folks…601 Great Scrapbook Ideas is scheduled to arrive in our warehouse this week. It’s been a LOOOONG awaited arrival (for both our staff and the book's hundreds of contributors). To celebrate we’re having 601 Extravaganza all week long. Instead of one book giveaway – we’re having 5. That’s right, 5! We’ll be giving away a copy of the book each day this week. We’ll post Monday’s winner on Tuesday morning, and so on throughout the week, with Friday’s winner being announced Monday morning.

Want to enter? Go to the MM Books forum for giveaway details. (Look for the thread “601 Extravaganza – Day 1”)

Also, check back often for posts of some of our favorite layouts from each chapter.

Get your layouts ready folks - it's time for 601 Extravaganza!!

Eileen

One of the great things about digital cameras, of course, is the ability to click off a ton of sequential photos (and not have to worry about what to keep or what to pitch until later). This past weekend I must have been in a sequential, step-by-step, chronological kind of mood because I created two layouts using this type of photo. I couldn't guarantee that the layouts show the images in the order that they actually occurred, but no one needs to know that part.

The first documents a special day out with my nephew, Adam. At four, he's quite the conversationalist (and a bit animated while he's at it). The second is of my nephew Ivan. The journaling, about how we went to a bison festival and Ivan got $1 from his grandma to pick out four gourds) is hidden behind the dark strip of paper.


Until next time,
Christine

So I have been a designer with Memory Makers books for almost 2 months now and have finally entered the "Great Ocean" that is scrapbooking.
If you would have asked me 3 months ago what scrapbooking was to me, I would have answered "oh its that photo album that my aunt made for me when I was in the first grade." Well I could not have been more wrong.

(Baby Step 1)
As a graphic designer my eye is fixed to the composition of the layout, the use of layers and different forms of mixed media. So when we had our first craft day I was thinking to myself "watch out scrapbook world here I come" It was going to be sooooo easy and my work was going to be so good that the rest of my coworkers were going to carry me out on their shoulders chanting and yelling my name.....  Well lets just say its harder then it looks. My project was a disaster and to this day it has never been seen by anyone but me. I thought that because I was a designer and my eye is trained to see the small details in things it would be easy.  The thing is I found myself having a hard time letting go,  I wanted everything to be perfect and I wanted to be able to move things around like I do on my Trusty Mac.

(Baby Step 2)
So that brings us to Craft day number 2.  I was much more low key this time around but excited to redeem myself. This time I had knew what I was going to do, had done my homework ahead of time with my layout, and had all my different pieces of art. Like the first time I hit some snags with using the glue other elements, but decided to push through the problems and finished the piece.  I was so proud... Then I turned to look at what some of my fellow coworkers were doing, and lets just say mine was not even in the same league. I felt like a second grade art student in a high school art competition.  But as I thought about it, I realized it was not a competition it was about hanging out with my new friends and listening to Halloween music while we all worked on something fun. And just like that I understood what scrapbooking really was,  And like any second grader I was proud to show off my prized piece of work.... To my coworkers....My wife.....My parents... And now to everyone who reads the blog!

So keep an eye out for me as my baby steps start to grow.

Corrie

We've got a lot of perks working here at F+W...one of the coolest being all of the awesome products that get delivered here weekly. A few months back we decided that a "craft time" needed to be established so that we could all take a break from our responsibilites and just play for a little bit. Now, once month, we pack up all our gear and head to a conference room for some free for all craft time. Here's what went down at yesterdays get together:


I made some halloween cards for my nephews (you can kind of see them in the foreground of the left hand photo) and the rest of the team worked on misc. projects including a chipboard album, accordion album and a few layouts. Good times were had by all!

Today, a few of us are participating in a lunchtime knit-along hosted by one of the North Light Craft editors. I'll be attempting my first HAT project...so I'll keep you posted on how that goes.

Interested putting together your own craft/scrapbooking group? Click here for some tips on getting things started!

Eileen

Since I don’t seem to churn out the scrapbook pages quite fast enough, but I love collecting patterned paper, I try to find other uses for the paper besides creating layouts.

Last weekend, faced with rough wood shelves and a lack of shelf paper, I put on my thinking cap to come up with a way to line my closet shelves without making a run to Target. Then I remembered the pack of K&Company’s Amy Butler patterned paper I recently bought (just because it was cute).  Thirty-two double-sided sheets of pattered cardstock—what was I going to do with all that paper? Line my shelves, of course! A paint brush, some Mod Podge and about 10 minutes of time and I had a cute, new, brightly-hued shelf. (I don’t know that my new husband quite appreciated the girly patterns as much as I did...but he’s the one that put me in charge of decorating.) I’ll have to do the underside of the top shelf next weekend.

We all have tons of patterned paper waiting to be used.  What out-of-the-album projects do you do with yours?  Leave a comment and let me know! I always appreciate fresh ideas. Also check out these off-the-page holiday projects. 

Kristin