Summer Scrapbook Ideas You Can Use Now! June Blog Hop Stop Number One

Summer is a great time for taking pictures, and it is also a great time to do something special WITH those pictures! Everything slows down just a little bit in the summertime, and it is so wonderful here in the South to kick off the end of the school year with a family get together to commemorate Memorial Day. Where there is family, there is food, and where there is food there are often photos. That is exactly why I was so excited about the newest collection from Creative Memories appropriately titled Made with Love (oh yeah, and I do sort of have this obsession with gingham!) The collection features beautiful food themed papers, stickers and mats, and it is truly stunning for your scrapbook pages. 

The Creative Memories Made with Love Collection  is perfect for your delicious "foodie" pages

While there are even newer paper packs and sticker sets that just came out this week such as the limited edition Americana and Adventure collections, I was still very excited to work on some recipe pages using "Made with Love." You will see I was fortunate to have a little help from three very special women in my life. I hope I will inspire you to do the same with some of your summer food photos! 

Let's Start with A Very Special Wedding Gift 

When I was engaged to be married, my mother's sister gave me the greatest gift a girl could imagine. It was a collection of recipe cards in the handwriting of my beloved aunts, cousins and grandmothers, and it is irreplaceable. I have naturally scanned them all and stored them in my Forever account in an album called "Recipes" because these are documents I want to keep for generations. I treasure this gift so much and can almost imagine my Nana and my Italian aunts sitting at the table writing them out, and I can practically taste and smell the dishes as I am reading the cards.

Treasured family recipes collected for me by my aunt for a wedding present

My Nana's and my mother's handwriting in one place

Adding Pictures to the Recipe Card Concept

My Mom and my two aunts are such amazing cooks and I always love getting recipes from them, but this Memorial Day I asked a special favor of them. I knew they would be bringing delicious dishes to our get together so I asked them in advance if they would mind if I brought them some Made with Love mats to transcribe their recipes on while we were visiting. They of course said yes, so I brought my camera and made sure to get a picture of them writing down their recipes for me. Seeing who lovingly prepared the dish is just one more element that makes these memories and family treasures even more special. 

"Skinny" sweet potato fries prepared by my Aunt Sherry

An Irish Cream Cake prepared by my own Mom with the recipe written in her handwriting 

A delicious butter bean Greek salad with the recipe written in my Aunt Donna's handwriting (it was a long recipe so I will most likely be using a 4X6 sleeve to include the third card!)

I am so happy with the way this two page spread turned out!

So the next time you are getting together with family or friends, bring your camera and some slide in cards and ask if them if they wouldn't mind taking just a moment to share their recipe with you in their own writing. Do take a picture of the dish as well as the cook!  Preserving memories can happen anywhere at any time ,and they will surely be flattered that you thought of them and want to celebrating their cooking. Can you think of any other way to document family recipes? I'd love to hear from you in the comments below! 

For more ideas on ways you can create scrapbook pages this summer, please enjoy the rest of the "Blog Hop!"

• Stop 1 with Fran Allen Smitherman CelebratingYourBeautifulLife YOU ARE HERE!
• Stop 2  with Sarah Fitzgerald ClickWriteShare
• Stop 3 with Noreen Smith OrganizedandCreativeMom
• Stop 4 with Karyn McDermaid-Rolfe Karyn Crops
• Stop 5 with Lisa Brown Graham Lisa's Workshop
• Stop 6 with Julie Tambrini Julie's CM Blog
• Stop 7 with Stefani Jones CropwithStef

This blog contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated should you make a purchase. Thank you as always for your support of Celebrating Your Beautiful Life and I am always happy to help in any way with your traditional or digital photo preservation projects. 

Mother's Day Blog Hop Stop Number 1

Welcome to the first stop of our Creative Memories Mother's Day Blog Hop! I am excited to celebrate my own mother today in this blog hop and to spend a little time thinking about how honored I am to be a mother myself. I will start you off with some simple ideas for scrapbook pages to honor the special women in your life, and along the way you will also be able to get inspired by some fun card and gift projects the rest of the team has created! 

So blessed by my parents and the love they have for my own family!

I can think of endless pages I could do to honor my own mother - pictures of her taking care of me when I was a baby, pictures of her when SHE was a baby, pictures of her beautiful holiday preparations, pictures of her with my sons. For the sake of time I decided to narrow it down to my gratitude for one specific act of service she has done for me my entire life - the gift of her sewing skills!

Celebrating a Special Talent

Does your own mother have a special talent you hold dear in your heart? My mother is a wonderful seamstress, and with the new Button Chain cartridge and a simple hand-drawn needle, I was able to make a few beautiful pages about the many projects she has created for us. This is just the beginning of many more scrapbook layouts about her sewing creations I am sure! 

Using the Button Chain cartridge, the Shades of Pastel cardstock pack and the Fresh Picks paper pack, I was able to complement the color of the dress she wore to my wedding. She made it herself, as well as my veil and my "money bag" for the reception!

The button chain cartridge came in handy again here, except this time instead of a long border I actually cut out "buttons." I  drew a simple black line to serve as thread connected to a hand-drawn "needle" made with the black and silver fine tip pens.

Borders from the Fresh Picks paper pack looks really pretty with this shade of purple, and I wanted the journaling and the button chain borders to be symmetrical on each side of this layout. 

How Far We've Come

In my twenties, I had no idea what my future would bring. I studied and worked constantly and prayed that one day I would find the right man and have children, but of course you never know what the future is going to hold. I think the 20-year old version of me would be happy to see that my fears were for nothing, and while I have two boys instead of the two girls I originally envisioned, I am one lucky boy mama! 

Sometimes it's good to just step back and think about how far we've come in our lives. What would the 20 year old version of yourself think if she saw you now? Have you ever had dreams that came true? Don't take those things for granted - they deserve a page or two to tell your own story, don't they? 

Used stickers from the Hello Baby Boy collection to create "ruled lines" for journaling! 

While I no longer have "babies", I was pleasantly surprised to see how flexible the new Hello Baby Boy papers and stickers were. I haven't yet purchased the Hello Baby Girl paper pack but I am willing to bet I will because with these pretty color palettes I can see so many uses outside of a baby album!

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I also love how Creative Memories' paper packs have a couple of pages with strips you can cut into borders. I used one of them here to start off my journaling (and you might have noticed in the previous layout I did the same with the Fresh Picks border pages.)

Creative journaling down the side of the page with a border from the Hello Baby Boy paper pack to start it off - "Once Upon a Time" is just one of several cute phrases found in the pack

Mother's Day

Mother's Day is coming up on Sunday, May 8th and even if you don't have any big plans, take a picture of whatever you are doing (even if it is just picking honeysuckle and enjoying the sunshine!) I created this layout for a Creative Titles post for the CM Blog but just in case you didn't see it, the point of it was not to waste good photo backgrounds! 

I created a title out of shapes cut from the excess background space of photos that might have otherwise ended up in the garbage. The grass would be monotonous if each 4X6 picture was included in my layout, but when punched out using the Blossom Punch, it becomes a lot more fun!

Creative Titles using ABC stickers and shapes punched out from photos

Don't waste those backgrounds :) 

If you have cards and special keepsakes, don't forget you can incorporate those into your scrapbooks as well using Creative Memories' Pocket Pages - they are perfect for holding on to these special items!

I love all of these sweet treasures!

Creative Memories offers Large Single Pocket Pages for displaying your special memorabilia

Whether you are thinking of your own mother, contemplating your role as a mother yourself, or celebrating other special women in your life, I truly hope you enjoy this blog hop and that it will inspire you to do something special with your photos. As always feel free to leave comments - I love hearing from you! Here is the complete list of sites to visit on today's blog hop - enjoy! 


Stop #1 - YOUAREHERE! Fran Smitherman's CelebratingYourBeautifulLife
Stop #2 - Noreen Smith's OrganizedandCreativeMom
Stop #3 - Sarah Fitzgerald's ClickWriteShare
Stop #4 - Candace Bouldin's Scrappin JPEGs
Stop #5   JulieTambrini'sJuliesCMBlog
Stop #6 - Diana Miller's DBrinsleysBlog
Stop #7 - LisaGrahamBrown's Lisa'sWorkshop
Stop #8 - Creative Memories' Blog!

Mixing and Matching Paper Packs for Gorgeous Page Designs

When it comes to paper packs, Creative Memories is the top of the line. Their 12X12 paper is double sided and you get 12 different patterns to choose from in each pack. They are a fantastic value, and the only problem you might bump into is having to pick sides (literally!) Whether a paper pack is limited edition due to its seasonal nature (such as the Trick or Treat or Christmas Joy paper packs) or it is simply time to make room for new designs, these wonderful sets come and go so it is never a bad idea to grab a pack or two when you see one you like. Several favorites are on their way out right now so now is a great time to think of fun ways to use the ones you have (and possibly purchase a few more before they are gone!) The cute names such as "Sunshine Getaway", "Strut Your Stuff" and "Trick or Treat" make them fun to talk about but they are even more fun to use, especially when you combine multiple packs in your page layouts. That's what we're going to talk about here in this blog post. Resist the urge to "pigeonhole" a paper pack - you might surprise yourself with new uses for that patriotic or neutral paper that you thought were only good for the Fourth of July or wilderness pages. This is best demonstrated with photographs so let's see what I am talking about.

My first set of page ideas involves the Sunshine Getaway, Bright and Neutral paper packs. They work very nicely together as you can see in these photos:

Who knew that the Bright, Sunshine Getaway and Neutral Paper Packs could be so versatile? They look beautiful when you combine them on your pages.

The CM watercolor palette works well together, no matter what combination you decide to play with!

How about combining the burlap from the Neutral paper pack with some of the beautiful designs in this year's Christmas papers? Perfect for shepherds and the innkeeper's child if you ask me! 

Neutral Paper Pack Meets Christmas Joy!

Nice combination here!

Let's go even further out on a limb. Would you have expected to combine the Be Bold and Flourish paper pack with the Trick or Treat pack? That is what I did here with the bold combination of black polka dots and spider webs. I cut out some of the cute bats, ghosts and pumpkins from other papers from the Halloween pack to add just a little bit of fun to this Halloween page.

Trick or Treat Meets Be Bold and Flourish!

The Trick or Treat sticker set is super cute, but here I simply cut up some of the spooky critters from the paper pack to add to my page as embellishments

The Halloween paper also looks good with the black swirls from the Neutral pack...

Trick or Treat meets Neutral

...and believe it or not, this is the black from the Trick or Treat pack and the red ribbon stickers from this year's Christmas stickers (and holly from this year's Christmas slide in packs.) Halloween and Christmas in perfect harmony!

Halloween paper and Christmas Joy stickers and paper - who knew? 

I'm obviously obsessed because here I am back with the Sunshine Getaway pack! It is gorgeous for its large floral prints, but some of the "b" sides have more muted patterns such as this taupe page with scallops on it. The bolder prints here on this layout actually came from the Bright paper pack. I had fun using my Scallop Place 'n Punch and my Jumbo Hexagon pattern to make this page. 

Sunshine Getaway Meets the Bright Paper Pack Take Two

A two page spread using the Bright and the Sunshine Getaway paper packs

While the Red White and Blue paper pack is no longer available, I am assuming that some of you might still have it and want a fun idea for it. I am also trying to make the very important point that paper packs that you don't think are relevant to you (think Pastel paper pack for someone not having a baby) could have just the pattern you've been waiting for. What do you think of when you think of the Red White and Blue paper pack?

This is probably what you picture when you thought of the Red White and Blue Paper Pack

Bright patriotic  colors right? Stars and stripes? Just for the Fourth, right? Wrong! Turns out the Red White and Blue paper pack had tons of my very favorite pattern in the world - GINGHAM! I love it! Point being...just because it's a Halloween pack and you don't have trick or treaters, or just because it's a Red White and Blue pack and you don't have pictures from your most recent Veteran's Day parade, don't exclude the pack all together. Check it out - see if the patterns might appeal to you for "outside of the box" ideas! Here's one I came up with combining the Be Bold and Flourish pack and the Red, White and Blue paper pack. What do you think?

Would you have ever guessed this lovely soft blue gingham was inside the Red White and Blue paper pack (or that it would look so beautiful when combined with the gorgeous peach tones inside the Be Bold and Flourish paper pack?) 

I hope some of these ideas have appealed to you and that you might be encouraged to look through your own stash of paper packs to come up with interesting and unexpected combinations. Have a wonderful day and until next time, keep scrappin'! Fran

CM's Be Bold and Flourish Paper Pack

CM's Bright Paper Pack

CM's Christmas Joy Paper Pack - Ltd Ed.

CM's Trick or Treat Paper Pack - Ltd. Ed.

CM's Neutral Paper Pack

CM's Sunshine Getaway Paper Pack

Fun New Papers and Tools from the CM Group

 Now that the "cat is out of the bag", so to speak, with the new July products, I can share freely my enthusiasm and joy over the new catalog. While CM is staying true to their promise to keep the product line simple, they have been consistent in adding new things in a measured fashion, and consultants and customers have a lot to work with!

The re-introduction of the Border Making System has been greeted with enthusiasm. The system comes with the picket fence cartridge, and the bubble, film strip and star cartridges have recently been added to the product line as well. I am willing to bet we will see more in the months ahead, but for now take a look at some of the fun designs I have made so far with our new paper packs and these new cartridges:

You don't need Disney stickers to make a nice vacation layout! I made this page with the CM Group's border making system, the film strip cartridge, the star cartridge, the new Corner Rounder, and the Shades of Red and Shades of Bright paper packs

Fellow CM advisor Lisa Graham designed this firecracker using the new film strip and star cartridges - I love a card! The papers used here came from the Red White and Blue paper pack and the Shades of Neutral cardstock pack

I am a sucker for blue gingham (now found in the Red White and Blue paper pack)  and I love the way this unexpected color combination came together. The peachy floral print is from the CM group's new be Bold and Flourish paper pack,.

There are so many possible uses for a bubble maker - beach, babies, and weddings come immediately to mind!

I love bringing unexpected color combinations together and this new shipment made it very easy for me! All you need is the Red White and Blue paper pack, the Be Bold and Flourish paper pack, and the new Shades of Pastel, Bright and Neutral cardstock packs to have borders and mats and backgrounds for days! The cardstock does very well with Cricut machines, and CM's paper is double sided so you are getting two pages in one.

Be Bold and Flourish with the pink from the Shades of Pastel cardstock pack - mothers, daughters, grandmothers, baby girls, the page ideas are endless

Red gingham and the brown from the Shades of neutral paper pack - gingerbread men and warm holiday memories in the making here

The Red White and Blue paper pack has 6 sheets of designer prints and 6 sheets of Tone on Tone prints. 12 sheets of double sided paper for $9.50, gingham and stars,I'm sold!

Be Bold and Flourish is the newest design and it comes in a Fast2Fabulous album, a paper pack and a slide in pack. Also shown are the CM group's new Gold and Black ABC/123s and the newest cartridges for the Border making System, Stars and Film Strip

Cardstock packs come with 5 colors, 2 sheets each. The newest ones are Shades of bright, Shades of Neutral, and Shades of  Pastel.

Check out these tools and papers and more at my website http://www.creativememories.com/user/fransmitherman and as always, keep scrappin'! Fran