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

Valentine Blog Hop Stop Number 6!

I love Valentine's Day! The colors are gorgeous and the sentiments are warm (plus you can always make pretty scrapbook pages about holidays!) Whether you love Valentine's Day or you hate it, love is something to celebrate, and it can come in many forms. Just to be a bit different, I will focus here on pages that have nothing to do with romance so we can "think outside of the box" with the CM Group's new Watercolor Love collection. Love for a child or a pet, love of a holiday, love of life, love of travel, love of your grandparents, love of a hobby that fills your soul - it's all a part of our life and should be celebrated. Celebrate with me and this beautiful new CM Watercolor Love paper and embellishments collection!

1.) Love of a child!

The floral paper looks gorgeous with black and white prints - this is actually one of my favorite baby pictures of myself (and the reason I chose to have hydrangeas in my wedding!) What black and white photos do you have that could be used with this paper pack?

What do these circles look like to you? They looked like cake pops to me, so I actually cut a few out to make some homemade cake pops to help tell the story here. Being an older brother is tough and sometimes it's hard to share Mom and Dad's attention. Little C had been having a rough week so I made the spontaneous decision to pick him up after school while his brother had another engagement and take him to Starbucks for some "one on one time." I love this memory, and the Watercolor Love paper combined with CM's brown cardstock look really sharp together! The hearts on the journal box are actually "scraps" from the new Heart Chain Border Maker cartridge - aren't they the cutest?  

2.) Love of a holiday or of a time of year!

I have my own "girly" tree in the dining room, full of pink Victorian bows and ballet dancers - it is my pride and joy and a leftover from my "single days" before my house was outnumbered by fellas! I thought the red plaid paper combined with the new Heart Chain cartridge worked well together. Who knew you could highlight Christmas pictures with Valentine's paper? :) 

3.) Love of a time of year

I am excited about our new Year in Review stickers and embellishments, and I used those here to make a nice "almost summertime" page with lemon and watermelon slices cut using our recently-introduced circle patterns. It is so nice to have such great tools at our disposal. Brotherly love and the beginning of summer, all in one page with our lovely new paper and our cardstock.

4.) Love of your pets! 

Before the children, our pets are our babies (and in many cases they still are!) Tom and Socks actually got a mention at our wedding  (a funny surprise to us and something we will always remember.) They deserve scrapbook pages of their own (actually, I think they deserve entire SCRAPBOOKS, don't you agree?) The pink Watercolor Love paper and border strips are nicely offset by the green punch at the bottom (reminiscent of grass to highlight the pictures of Tom and Socks outside.)

5.) Love of a hobby!

Okay, I cheated here - this isn't Watercolor Love (but it does feature CM's "Shades of Pastel" cardstock, our new Music Notes Border Maker Cartridge, and a title cut from the new Fresh Picks collection's Slide In Pack!) Before my husband, before my children, my love was and still is ballet. Our dreams and our hobbies are what makes us who we are, and love is a state of mind. And I love these black and white photos!

What do you love? Document it and keep celebrating that wonderful life of yours!  

There's still  one more stop in this blog hop but if you are loving what you are seeing so far then plan on tuning into Facebook and joining the Creative Memories Virtual Crop on Saturday, February 6, 2016 where we will be giving out even more ideas (and prizes!) For more great ideas today please hop on over to Noreen's blog for the final stop of today's Valentine Blog Hop (and I have included the links to the other blogs below in case you started here with mine and want to see what you may have missed!) Hope you've been inspired and as always,  keep scrappin'! Fran

Creative Memories Valentine's Blog Hop Kickoff

Stop 1: Sarah Fitzgerald at ClickWriteShare
Stop 2: Candace Bouldin's Scrappin'JPEGs
Stop 3: Julie Tambrini's CM Blog
Stop 4: Diana Miller Brinsley's DBrinsleysBlogspot
Stop 5: Lisa Graham Brown's Lisa's Workshop
Stop 6: YOU ARE HERE!Fran Smitherman at CelebratingYourBeautifulLife
Stop 7: Noreen Smith's Organized and Creative Mom

Themed Albums Part 3: Holiday Albums

It's the most wonderful time of the year (in more ways than one!) Family, food and fond memories are in the forefront in December and most of us take more pictures than usual as we celebrate the holidays. Welcome to the third blog post in a series that has been focusing on the concept of a "themed" album! I've expressed my love for this concept in previous posts on Travel albums and Halloween albums, and that love is amplified when it comes to Holiday albums! They are fun, festive, and best of all you can finish each spread quickly and put them on the shelf with a sense of accomplishment each year!

Ideas for holiday albums are varied - some people love the idea of showing off all of their Christmas cards from family and friends, others like to devote a few pages a year to their favorite photos from the month of December, and some of us can't help but have an entire album devoted to each year's festivities, haha! No matter where you fall in the spectrum of holiday albums, I am hopeful that this blog post will give you some ideas about taking photos this month and how to start your own holiday album tradition.

The Annual Album

I am going to focus here today on the annual album, one that devotes a few pages to each year. So how do you get started on an annual album? Make sure to keep it manageable so as not to become overwhelmed. With three packs of refill pages a Creative Memories 12X12 album holds about 40 pages, or 80 sides, so if you want the album to span 20 years you can allow yourself 4 sides a year. This means you have to choose your very best pictures. Since about 5-6 photos fit on a page on average, you will need to narrow your selection down to about 20 or so best images per year (not easy but if I can do it you can too!) To fit more pictures on a page you can always crop them. If you send out an annual family card it is always good to save one for yourself to include, and of course you always want to make note of the year (I like to use ABC/123 letters to do that.) Here is an example of a layout from my annual Christmas album:

A two page spread in my annual Christmas album

Journaling on the page or in boxes is a great thing to do while the memories are fresh in your mind, and I like to adhere my cards to the page in a way that they can be opened (line them up flush with the edges of the jeeping then slide the page protectors over the open card before you fold the flap down.)

That didn't take any time at all! I am choosing the "blank canvas" route with a red coverset and white refill pages, but if you want to go even faster check out CM's Fast2Fabulous albums - predesigned, preloaded and page protectors are included

Which Pictures to Take?

Before you start to think about what supplies you need, it is important to think about which memories are best to capture in the month. Pictures with Santa and your family card are always great, but there are other things to think of as the month goes on. Be sure not to forget pictures of all the family, not just the children - through the years you will be grateful that you captured the grownups (and so will the kids!). Take pictures or favorite decorations, don't forget pets, and I even like to take a picture of the TV screen when we are watching an annual favorite! Did it snow? Did you buy a real tree? Did you go to the Nutcracker? Did you bake? These are all things that make fantastic pictures for your pages so keep them in mind as the month progresses. No tradition is too little to capture! While the focus is often on children and their spread from Santa, don't forget to capture the adults' gifts too - these memories are special too.

Supplies

To make a holiday album I would recommend the following at a minimum:

* A 12X12 CM coverset  in a festive color (or a holiday Fast2Fabulous Album - see the Christmas Joy below!)
* 3 packs of refill pages (white, natural or Spargo) with the page protectors (or two additional packs if you purchased a Fast22Fabulous album which comes with your first set preloaded)
* A tape runner with a few packs of refills
* A CM dual tipped pen

CM's Christmas Joy Fast2Fabulous album!

Beautiful predesigned pages in this year's Christmas Joy Fast2Fabulous album

If you want to do some enhancements on your pages, Creative Memories has some beautiful paper, stickers and slide in packs that are perfect for the holidays! If you have the Border Maker System, the new Evergreen cartridge makes great borders or decorative tags for gifts!

Fun with the CM Group's Border Making System and the Evergreen cartridge

Love the CM Group's Christmas Joy paper, stickers and slide in pack

An annual holiday album is easy if you just set aside a little bit of time each year to work on it! So in conclusion, take great pictures, save your cards, pick your best 20 photos and take the time to tell your stories. This is a fun and manageable project and one that your family will cherish for years to come. For even more fun ideas don't forget to check out our CM Holiday Blog Hop, happy holidays and as always, keep scrappin! Fran

  

Predesigned page in the CM Group's Christmas Joy Fast2Fabulous album

Halloween Blog Hop Stop #5

Welcome to Stop #5 of our Creative Memories Halloween Blog Hop! 

Isn't Halloween fun? I love being a part of this blog hop with my fellow CM Content Contributors - what a creative group of ladies! Today I am going to share some ideas I came up with a few months back that I hope you will be able to use yourself. My projects are pretty simple if you have the right tools (and I try my best to use scraps so nothing gets wasted!) Today we are going to work on some spooky Halloween faces and a two page layout featuring "Spooky Eyes." Let's get started!

Spooky faces using CM cardstock, the Shape Maker System and scraps from the Border Maker System's Film Strip cartridge  

A fun layout using CM cardstock, jewels from the Floral Embellishment kits, Gold ABC/123 letter stickers, and the fence that comes with the Border Maker System

1. Spooky Skeleton and Spooky Pumpkin

To get started, you will need the Custom Cutting System's mat and the green blade, a tape runner, and the Jumbo Hexagon Pattern. You will also need the Shape Maker System with the Square and the Fancy Circle cartridges and the Border Maker System with the Film Strip Cartridge. For paper I used our Shades of Bright and Shades of Neutral Cardstock packs to get my orange, black and white cardstock (one sheet of each.) Right now Creative Memories also has for a limited time 10 sheet packs of White and Black cardstock (not a bad idea - I know those are two colors I use a lot of!)

The CM custom cutting system, blades, mat and tape runner

                                      

Creative Memories tools: The Border Maker System and the Shape Maker System

"Shades of" cardstock packs and Flower and Jewel Embellishments

One sheet each of black, white and orange cardstock

Begin by using your Green blade to make the smallest hexagon possible with the inside of the Jumbo Hexagon Pattern. Do this with both the Orange (the pumpkin) and the White (skeleton) cardstock.

 Next, take your black sheet of cardstock and make two film strip borders. Save the scraps!

Finally, using the Shape Maker System and the rest of your sheet of black cardstock, make four Fancy Circles and two squares. Cut the squares in half to make triangles.

Assemble the pieces you have cut as follows - the Fancy Circles are the eyes, the triangles are the noses and the cheekbones, and the rectangles that were the scraps from the film strip cartridge border become the mouths. Adhere with your tape runner and voila, you have a Spooky Skeleton and a Spooky Pumpkin!

Spooky faces using CM cardstock, the Shape Maker System and scraps from the Film Strip cartridge (used with the Border Making System)

 2. Spooky Eyes

My second project came from being the mother of two boys. I loved the paper flowers and the jeweled embellishments, but struggled with how I could use them for my pages. After staring at the adhesive jewels I realized they could be used as spooky eyes staring out from the dark and that is what I did to create this fun layout! I used a sheet of grey cardstock from the Shades of Neutral cardstock pack  - the black picket fence from the Border Maker system and the Gold ABC/123 letters as a title added a little something extra!

                                        

I hope you are enjoying all of these fun ideas for your Halloween pages.  Now it's time for you to go see what Diana has brewed up for you at Stop 6 on this Blog Hop, Diana Brinsley's blog. If you started at my blog but want to see the previous Halloween ideas, here are all the links:

Stop 1 ClickWriteShare

Stop 2JuliesCMBlog

Stop 3 Scrappinjpegs

Stop 4 LisasWorkshop

Stop 5  CelebratingYourBeautifulLife <==YOU ARE HERE!!!

Stop 6 Dbrinsleysblog

Stop 7CropwithStef

Enjoy the rest of the blog hop and as always, keep scrappin'! Fran