February Blog Hop

Wow - I cannot believe it's been a year since the Creative Life Scrapbooking team (formerly known as the CM Content Contributors) did a February blog hop, but such is life and time does move on doesn't it? Love is in the air and I LOVE the new products I am going to be featuring today - I hope you will too! Today I will show off pages I made using the newest tools from Creative Memories, a few "unexpected" ways to use the new Mi Amour and Cake My Day CM paper packs, and the fastest way to get your favorite photos into your hands from the Forever phone app. As always, I enjoy your comments so let me know what you think and once you have finished with my blog, be sure to check out all of the other posts (links are listed at the bottom.) Let's crop!

Button, Button, Who Has the Button? 

It is so so fun playing with new cutting tools, and Creative Memories continues to come up with new standalone cartridges such as the new Embossed Trio Button Punch and the Garden Vine Paper Punch. With some pink cardstock and the precious Soiree paper pack I was able to make this eye-catching but simple page to celebrate a precious little girl - I called it "Cute as a Button!" I used the Border Maker System's Button Chain cartridge down the side to finish it off, and the letters came from the "Storybook" Cricut cartridge.  CM's Mini Tape Runner refill cartridges really come in handy with delicate letters such as these.

Buttons and polka dots, it doesn't get much sweeter than that!

Creative Memories' Embossed Trio Button punch is a fun stand-alone tool that can be used to create pretty designs such as this one. 

Creative Memories continues to add to its line of cartridges for its Border Maker System 

Another new favorite tool of mine is the Garden Vine Border Paper Punch. I love how it works its way up the side of this page here like a true climbing vine, perfect for pictures of a Bed and Breakfast in Maine and a bit of splurge on myself during an anniversary trip (yes, I found a Crabtree and Evelyn store!) 

Creative Memories' Garden Vine Punch was perfect for these Primrose Inn pictures!

Mi Amour and Cake My Day Used in the Most Unexpected Ways

Creative Memories outdid itself with the gorgeous Cake My Day and Mi Amour collections. They are available digitally as well! 

At first glance, the Cake My Day collection looked decidedly fun and feminine with its bright pinks and yellows, and Mi Amour looked very much like something one would choose for Valentine's Day and anniversary pages with its rich reds and blacks. As the Mom of two little boys I love the challenge of finding a way to use paper packs in unexpected ways, and I was able to come up with a few good ones I think! :) 

Look closely in Cake My Day - do those darker pages remind you of tracks? PERFECT! We just held the Cub Scouts' Annual Pinewood Derby Races! With a little help from the Chevron cartridge  I have begun to lay out the beginnings of some cute race pages. Again, I will be VERY grateful for the mini tape runner refill! 

Cake My Day paper for Pinewood Derby - who would've thought it?

I also could not help but notice the very distinct HOUNDSTOOTH paper in the Mi Amour paper pack. As a graduate of the University of Alabama, my first thought was that this paper pack would make some BEAUTIFUL Crimson Tide pages! 

Roll Tide! Red cardstock, a homemade football and the Mi Amour paper and stickers are all you need to make your Alabama pages come to life!

And I CERTAINLY don't want to leave out the DIGITAL versions of CM's art kits! It is VERY exciting for those of us who also like to scrapbook digitally to have the ability to purchase and download DIGITAL VERSIONS of Creative Memories' papers, mats, letters and other embellishments. This digital paper from Mi Amour truly looked like something from "another dimension", perfect for our most recent ride on the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror! I used Forever's Artisan software to make this page - I used a "fractured" mat for the photos and, believe it or not, Creative Memories' "Christmas Past" digital embellishments to give it an "antique look" in the corners! Christmas embellishments on a Tower of Terror page? You bet!

Photo Developing Comes to Forever! 

Do you have the free Forever photo app yet? If not then now is a great time to check it out! The most recent version of the app offers the ability to print your photos at your closest Walgreen's store. I was very excited to have these Pinewood Derby pictures in my hands on Sunday morning (the race was Friday night!) I had uploaded pictures from my phone and my camera into my Forever account after the event and created a "Pinewood Derby" album - it took a few clicks on my Smartphone late Saturday night to pick out my favorites, and by Sunday morning I had an email from Walgreen's to let me know my pictures were waiting on me. Talk about fast!

Thanks to the new "print" feature on my Forever app, these pictures were in my hands within hours of ordering them

I am happy with the quality of the images and there are definitely times when I don't want to wait for my pictures to arrive in the mail. I love what Forever offers and this feature is definitely just one more reason for me to want to share Forever with the world!

I hope you have been inspired to celebrate your memories and remember to leave a comment and let me know how I can help you! I love to encourage others to do something meaningful and safe with their photos, no matter where they are in their journey (no idea where to start or a seasoned scrapbooking/digital pro!) Creative Memories and Forever both have something for everyone so if you haven't already, be sure to check them out today.

Thanks for reading my blog and now it's time to head to the next stop on this blog hop which is Sarah Fitzgerald's blog, ClickWriteShare!


Stop 1 D Brimsley's Blog
Stop 2 CropwithStef
Stop 3 Fran Smitherman's Celebrating Your Beautiful Life
Stop 4 Sarah Fitzgerald's Click Write Share
Stop 5 Julie'sCMBlog
Stop 6 Noreen Smith's Organized and Creative Mom
Stop 7 KarynCrops