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 Thursday, January 31, 2008
Pleased to Meet You
I’m humbled and excited to have the opportunity to introduce myself as the new Managing Editor of Memory Makers Books. I’ve been serving as the Managing Editor of our sister imprint, North Light Craft, for almost two years now, and I look forward to broadening the scope of both my professional and my personal life to include all things scrapbooking.
I’ve always been a creative person fond of making handmade gifts for friends and family, but I was never a devoted practitioner of any particular craft before joining the North Light team. When I found myself surrounded by so many talented coworkers and authors on a regular basis, it didn’t take long for their enthusiasm for craft to be contagious. I started dabbling a bit in things I hadn’t tried in a while—card making, collage, etc. But soon I was inspired to try something new: knitting. I had always marveled at how a ball of yarn could be magically transformed into a beautiful garment. Now I was ready to learn firsthand how it was done.
A close friend of mine had just found out she was expecting her first child, and I decided a hand-knit baby blanket would be my perfect first project. A coworker helped me create a concept to make the undertaking truly a crash course in Knitting 101: I’d make a patchwork blanket, with each square being a different pattern for me to learn. Then I’d knit a border, and learn to crochet seam everything together.
It took me several months of diligent knitting to complete the project. I knit squares by my fireplace in the late winter months. I knit them on the beach in the early summer months. I knit them on road trips. I knit them on airplanes. By the time my blanket was complete, it had traveled with me from Ohio to New York, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Florida. It was truly a labor of love—and I was hooked.
I have since knit several other projects—less
slowly, more advanced and with technically better results. But that
first blanket, knit with so much constant encouragement, support and
troubleshooting from my experienced coworkers, will always be my
favorite. Now, joining the Memory Makers staff, I can’t wait to see
what I’ll learn from my team members, our authors and, perhaps most of
all, from you, our readers. I’m already so inspired by all of the
contributors’ beautiful scrapbook pages we’re lucky enough to have
temporary custody of here in the office! I look forward to getting to
know you all better in the coming months.
Happy Thursday,
Jessica
1/31/2008 2:34:02 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00) 
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Give Your Photos a Romantic Glow
A photographer friend recently taught me her trick for giving photos a nice sepia tone, and I’ve been wanting to try out this technique on some of my wedding photos. When I think sepia, I think soft and romantic, so what better time than Valentine’s for putting this technique to use. Here’s what I did, using Photoshop Elements 3.   Before After1. Open your photo. Go to Enhance>Color>Adjust Hue/Saturation. 2. Click on the Colorize box. Then adjust the Hue slider to the left, making sure not to make the color too red or too yellow (see Figure 1) I adjusted the Hue to 24. Adjust the Saturation and Lightness as needed. Click OK.   Figure 1 Figure 2
3. Go to Layer>Duplicate Layer. Make sure the new layer is selected and click on the drop-down menu that says Normal. Change it to Soft Light (see figure 2). Adjust the opacity as desired. I did about 50%. 4. You can stop at this point, but I always soften my photos with a little blur. To do so, go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian blur and adjust the pixels just a tad (I did .3). Go to Layer>Flatten Image, save your work and you’re done! Want more photo tips and tricks? Check out MM magazine editor GinaMarie’s recent post about adding selective color to photos. Visit the forum’s new photography thread to ask questions and share ideas about photography. And don’t forget about Paper + Pixels, which teaches all kinds of digital techniques. Check out the books blog next week for more photo tips and tricks. Kristin Original photo courtesy Jennifer Disney Photography
1/31/2008 11:04:18 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Wired - part 2
When Kristin mentioned wanting to experiment with wire, I knew I had to get in on the fun. I am a fidgety person, always twiddling something around my finger, so when I picked up a piece of wire, my first instinct was to wrap it around any object in arms reach. The lucky object nearby: a stylus. I started by wrapping the wire around the stylus a few times (see image at right). Then I carefully lifted the coiled piece off the stylus and pulled the ends to separate the coils slightly. The words were created in a very freehand manner. I made the “be” first, making sure to leave plenty of extra wire after the “e”. Then I took a separate piece of wire and spelled out “mine”, again, making sure to leave plenty of wire at the beginning and end of the word (for adding extra coils!). I combined the two words together by twisting their ends into the heart shape. The hard part actually came when I tried putting my wire creation onto paper. It just didn’t POP like I wanted it to. I decided to paint the wire white (using acrylic paint), which helped a lot, and then added some strips of cardstock to the background to give the card a little kick. Finally, I attached the wire element using strips of Therm O Web Zips. All in all, it was a fun new material that I'm excited about adding to my craft supplies! For more fun wire ideas, check out projects in Scraptastic!, Collage Lost & Found and Bead on a Wire. Warning: Also like Kristin, I found this to be highly addictive. The projects are actually quite quick, but you may find it hard to step away from the craft table! Eileen
1/30/2008 10:03:14 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Wired
In my spare time at work, I have the pleasure of proofreading some of the very cool North Light Craft books. The new book (due out in May) by collage artist Giuseppina Cirincione inspired me to try out using wire in my paper crafting. (Check out her previous book, Collage Lost and Found here.) Let me tell you: working with wire is addictive! It’s easy to work with, requires few tools and little training, you can mold it into any shape you like, and it adds such a unique twist to paper projects. Plus, with thin, light-weight gauges (like the 26-gauge I used here) it’s the perfect addition to greeting cards and album layouts.  Since it’s never too early to start making valentines, I made a couple of cards for the upcoming holiday using wire to add embellishment. First on my list was a card for my husband, one that required some not-so-girlie elements. I used an olive green as my base and added wire to create a miniature photo holder to hold my love bird icons. Withh a holiday that just calls for such girliness as pink and hearts, I also took the opportunity to make a more feminine card. Here, I used the wire to make jump rings to act as a binding for the card. Have you ever used wire in your scrapping? What about other unique materials? Share your ideas here! And look for more great Valentine’s Day projects right here on our blog. Kristin Addition to this post: To make the jump rings, simply wrap wire around a pen (or whatever object will create the size of circle you'll need) a few times. Slide the coiled wire off the pen and cut through the lenghth of wire so that you end up with several individual rings. I also used a pen to create the circles in my mini photo holder.
1/29/2008 10:07:01 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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Thursday, January 24, 2008
Mini Album Fun
 Back in October, I picked up a Maya Road chipboard binder book (4’’x4’’), planning to dive into my first mini album project. I got off to a great start, adding different patterned paper during a Memory Makers team craft day. And then my craft space at home got messy…and you know how that goes. Since the new year also brought a clean desk, I finally finished the mini album, and I’m really pleased with the results. I love that it reminds my husband and I of the highlights of our honeymoon trip, and since I’ll display it in the living room, others can catch a glimpse of the trip, too.  Mini albums are great for showing off both your photos and your talent. (Here's a sneak peek: look for more great ideas for displaying your talent in Show It Off!, due out in March.) This mini album was also a great way to use up scraps. Since every page is different, I was able to use small squares of lots of different paper, miscellaneous stickers and rub ons, and all my various bracket stickers. My favorite part of the album are the two transparent pages I added to hold memorabilia from the trip:  For more mini album fun, check out these other Memory Makers blog posts: here, here and here.And what about you: Do you have any projects you’re getting ready to complete? Share them here! Kristin
1/24/2008 12:02:56 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Cozy!
  My crafting project for this past weekend was to create a cozy for my ipod (it was getting knocked around a bit too much in my purse). It really couldn’t have been any easier. I just crocheted a strip the width of my ipod and stopped when it was long enough for the pocket and the flap. Then I used the yarn to stitch up the sides, and tied a ribbon for the closure. Ta da! As I have mentioned before, scrapbooking is but one of my creative outlets. Crochet, and quilting, and other papercrafts are on the list as well. That’s why I’m super excited about a new craft web site that F+W is launching at the end of the month. It’s a community for all crafters—including scrapbookers—where you can post your latest creations, talk with other crafters, get free patterns and how-tos and a lot, lot more. I’ll let you know when the site is up and ready to explore, but in the meantime, what other crafts, besides scrapbooking, do you enjoy? Until next time, Christine
1/23/2008 9:17:12 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Ask the Masters
Our first Ask the Masters book came out in 2006 and focused on scrapbook solutions for a multitude of topics including journaling, photography and overall design. In 2007, our second installment arrived, uncovering many of the Masters secrets for getting the most out of their scrapbook supplies (see some of our inspired projects here, here and here). Now, we couldn’t just leave you hanging…so we’ve got a 3rd installment to the Ask the Masters series in the works, and this time, we’re drilling the Masters about their tips, tricks and oh so cool solutions for organization! As I’ve mentioned in some earlier posts, I’m kind of an organizing nut. However, I’m quickly realizing that even I have some stuff to learn in this department. We’ve only just begun to receive work from the Masters, and already I’ve been inspired to go home and make some tweaks in my workspace at home! Unfortunately, it’s still too early to leak any sneak peaks (the book isn’t scheduled to hit shelves until this fall)…but the good news is you can always check in with the current Masters at their blog!! And, no fear, as the book release date approaches we’ll be sure to keep you posted! Eileen
1/22/2008 9:34:20 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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Friday, January 18, 2008
Photo-a-Day Layouts
 With all the buzz about digi/hybrid scrapping this week – I thought I’d share a related post from MM Master (and digi scrapper) Tracie Radtke. Tracie wrote about a super simple digital template for logging all those “photo a day” shots so many of you are trying to capture this year (see photo). So cool – it made me want to start the challenge myself...even if I am a few weeks late getting started. Check out Tracie's entire post here.
1/18/2008 2:42:41 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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Winner - Paper + Pixels
Congrats to Jenifer C. - you've won a copy of the newest Memory Makers book PAPER + PIXELS!! Thanks to everyone who left us a comment :)
1/18/2008 2:15:55 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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Thursday, January 17, 2008
Paper + Pixels Rocks my world!!!
As everyone whose familiar with this blog knows, we're giving away a free Paper + Pixels book this week. Of course, I had to jump on the band wagon, joining my team members in creating a scrapbook layout inspired by this book :) It was really hard not too. I pulled the format of the layout from a digital kit template and used a couple of brushes included in the Paper + Pixels kit. There are a TON of cool things in this book and the digital kits that come with it. You should definitely check it out! My little girl is ALMOST 6 months old now (hard to believe), and I've JUST gotten around to creating a page utilizing her 3 month photos. This was a quick, easy layout to create...so it is very appealing to the "time deprived" scrapbookers. Enjoy, Kelly 
1/17/2008 4:32:06 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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Paper + Pixels inpsired
As one of the Designers of Paper+Pixels, I thought I would give the digital scrapbooking thing a try. As a designer this was so much easier for me to experiment and try different layouts without having to do 15 different versions first.
I used all the elements from the CD in Paper+Pixels and made a funny time line of the first night of my vacation that I took with my wife and some friends of ours.
I used the layers technique and some of the brushes to give it the grunge effect. after I finished the layout, I printed it out, tore the edges, placed the layout on another piece of paper, added in the location and date along with who went by hand.
(there is not a lot of journaling on this... i think the pictures speak for themselves.)
Want to know more about Paper + Pixels and its authors, May Flaum and Audrey Neal?
Check out their interview in the MM forum!
And visit Christine’s post by noon this Friday to enter to win a free copy of the book.
1/17/2008 2:51:56 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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Inspired by Paper + Pixels
 As the editor of Paper + Pixels I had the opportunity to read (and reread) the entire book, soaking up all the great—and simple!—digital techniques. I consider myself pretty computer savvy, but I was pleased to discover several techniques in both Word and Photoshop Elements that I had never used before. Two of my favorite new techniques include loading and using digital brushes and adding overlays to photos. (This layout of Audrey’s from the book includes a digital brush she made multi-colored.) And it’s been said before, but it’s worth repeating: Many of the digital effects in the book can be achieved using Word and you don’t have to be a digital whiz to re-create the looks.  I love the style and variety of all the exclusive digital kits that come with the book. I had a hard time deciding which to use for my hybrid layout! (I ended up choosing a digital paper, brackets and tag from the Seriously Pink kit by Poppy Andrews). This layout about my recent switch to my married name is truly a hybrid one—I created a page that combines similar amounts of digital and traditional elements. All the digital techniques I used are taught in Paper + Pixels, and I used both Word and Photoshop, just to show it can be done. I started the layout by creating the photo, using Photoshop to blend two separate images. Then I resized and adjusted the color of the digital paper before layering the photo over it. Then I printed the paper and photo as one page. Finally, I resized and changed the color of the brackets and date tag (from green to pink) in Word and printed them out. (The journaling reads: I feel like I’ve lost myself a little. But it’s exciting to share Paul’s name. I’m sure the feeling of not knowing who I am will pass. In the meantime, call me Kristin B.) Want to know more about Paper + Pixels and its authors, May Flaum and Audrey Neal? Check out their interview in the MM forum! And visit Christine’s post by noon this Friday to enter to win a free copy of the book. Happy hybrid scrapping! Kristin
1/17/2008 8:14:04 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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