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

Themed Albums Part 2: Halloween

Halloween is my favorite holiday! I never miss the opportunity to make the most of it, and the beauty of the season combined with the fun decorations and costumes make for some of the best photos all year. 

While I love all holidays, there seems to be a little more frivolity and a little less work involved in Halloween as there is less pressure to travel, prepare large feasts or to select the perfect gift for people. To add to the fun, Creative Memories has launched some fun new tools, seasonal coversets, cardstock sets, ABC stickers and matching Halloween paper and sticker packs  that make it easy to get inspired to do something special with your favorite spooky memories. Before we get into the subject of themed albums, take a peek for yourself! All are available on my Creative Memories website or that of your favorite consultant.

I am in love with our 12X12 paper packs - not only are they cute and photo safe, but they are also double sided and a great value. With 12 sheets of double sided paper you get 2 of each sheet, or 12 unique designs. The matching "Trick or Treat" stickers add the perfect accent.

Creative Memories scores again with another wonderful paper pack and sticker set. The theme here is "Trick or Treat" and they are available for a limited time. 

Halloween itself is purely fun and low pressure, similar to the themed albums I am talking about in this blog series! 

This is the second in a series of blog posts on themed albums, a type of scrapbook that is near and dear to my heart as the topic is finite and you don't have to mentally change gears as often as you do with a regular "chronological" album. Two of my favorite albums under my coffee table are my Halloween and Christmas albums. I only have to work on them once a year, yet they are a great way to remember gifts,traditions and costumes and which year they took place in. With both I have created a cute start page at the beginning of the album, and then I allow myself about four sides a year in a 12X12 Creative Memories album to tell the story of each year. The hardest part of all of it is narrowing down the stack of photos to about 20 or so a year to pull this off. It takes some restraint (I take enough pictures each Halloween to complete an entire album, haha!) but the end result is worth it!

A fun start page is a great way to begin a themed album

A few favorite photos, the year and some captions are the most important elements of your Halloween pages

Journaling can either take place in a journaling box or right there on the page, but make sure to do it while the memories are still fresh

Cutting out pictures is a great way to add more pictures to a page when you are working with an 8X8 album

It's fun to show pictures of who you are dressing as!

Creative Memories' metallic pens work the best on dark paper

Have you thought about starting a Halloween themed album yourself? It's never to late to do so.  I plan to work on these books until the boys are 18 and I have figured out how many pages I can do each year to accomplish that (4 sides each year for a complete 12X12 Creative Memories album.)  Right now Creative Memories has an adorable 12X12 Halloween coverset for sale - it is limited edition so hurry and get one before it's too late! If you are hungry for more fun ideas then stay tuned for our upcoming "Halloween Page Blog Hop" on October 19th and my next blog post on themed albums will feature the holidays in December. Thanks for reading! Fran

Limited edition Creative Memories 12X12 Halloween coverset - get one while they last!  Don't forget your refill pages, page protectors and the accompanying paper and sticker pack! Click on the CM banner on the right of my blog or shop from your favorite Creative Memories' consultant's website! 

Eggplant is a supper cool color for a Halloween album - I love apple green and purple together so this new coverset is very exciting to me! 

Journaling: The Power of the Pen

"If stories come to you, care for them. And learn to give them away where they are needed. Sometimes a person needs a story more than food to stay alive." Barry Lopez

Our pictures alone often only tell part of the story, and sometimes it's the tiny details that  aren't apparent from the image that will truly bring the memories to life. Journaling can often be the hardest thing to do when making albums, but it is a critical part of page completion  and one that should not be neglected. At the end of the day, it will be the stories and the photos that mean so much to you, not the embellishments and the paper choices you make, so try to at the very least include the who, what, when, where and why on your pages. These are often hard to remember as time passes which is why album making should be a part of your regular weekly regimen (just like exercise or grocery shopping), but if you can't make that work, keeping a journal is another good way to jot down things you worry will slip away. I often find myself accessing my journal to scrapbook because it's the tiny details that can get lost in the days and months that follow!

When making traditional scrapbook albums, I can think of several ways we can add journaling to our pages. I am sure there are many more, but I will talk about the following today:

1.) Titles made with bold tipped pens or ABC sticker letters
2.) Your own handwriting in caption form right on the page
3.) The creation of plain or decorative ruled journal boxes
4.) Full page spreads with nothing but your writing
5. )Print-outs of email messages or Facebook posts
6.) Detailed invitations or photos of venue/event signs

Titles
Let's start with the basics - the title of the page itself. Your handwriting in a bold pen is the easiest way to title a page, but you can also make it a bit more decorative using ABC letters or machine-cut letters on cardstock.

Your Own Handwriting on the Page
You don't need a formal journal box if you don't want one - feel free to write right there on your page. That is what is so great about the CM Group's white, spargo and natural refill pages. They provide a blank surface that you can use however you like to tell your story, and sometimes the easiest thing to do is to simply allow some room on your page to write around your photos themselves. At times I draw ruled lines to keep my handwriting in check, and other times I get creative and snip pieces of cardstock to make decorative shapes to journal on. I always make sure to only use the CM Group's acid-free and bleed resistant pens in my albums.

Journal Boxes
Placing journal boxes next to photos is a favorite method of mine. Some scrapbooking kits come with these or you can make your own using colored paper or cardstock. If your journal space is dark then  metallic silver or gold pens will be the best way to highlight your words.

Full Page Spreads of Writing
Quick captions are the most popular way to journal but sometimes you have a lot to say so a scrapbook page itself might be nothing but your own words. This type of page is pretty rare so don't be intimidated by it - you never know when you might need to do it yourself, however!

Typed Messages
Sometimes you've already told the story in print somewhere (perhaps in an email, on Facebook, or a blog post.) While your own handwriting is the preferred method of journaling as people who love you will love to see it, don't hesitate at times to print those pre-written words out and place them right there on the page! On other occasions I have incorporated page prints created digitally in my traditional albums for a sharp look.

Detailed invitations or photos of venue/event signs

Bring home the menu, save the invitation and take photos of venue signs if you want to be able to share the specifics of a certain event!

There are so many wonderful reasons to journal and so many ways to do it - can you think of any I haven't included here? Please feel free to share your ideas in the comments and as always, keep scrappin'! Fran

Making Time for Scrapbooking

"I don't have time to scrapbook!"

"I will work on my children's photo albums when they go off to college."

"I wish I could find someone that would just make my scrapbooks for me."

"Where do you find the time?"

As a Creative Memories consultant for 13 years, I have heard these phrases more than a few times in my life. I am sure exercise instructors, nutritionists and school program directors in search of volunteers hear similar stories when they are trying to find people to join their programs or take leadership positions in their organizations. The truth of the matter is that life is busy, but whether you are the CEO of a Fortune 500 company or the CEO of your own household, there are ways to prioritize and simplify, and your health and your memories will thank you for it! To find the time to make scrapbooks, you have to make a conscious effort to MAKE the time, and this takes a little bit of planning and goal setting. I would like to talk a little bit about what I mean and I hope that I can help you to shorten your list of excuses and lengthen your list of accomplishments. Whether your goal is to get those pictures off of your phone or camera and into a scrapbook or to make healthier choices with regard to physical activity or items in your grocery cart, I KNOW you can do it!

So, let's take some steps to prioritize and simplify - sounds easy enough. Where do you start?

First, ask yourself if you are overcommitted. Are you shouldering too many responsibilities? Do you feel like you have more to do than there are hours in the day? Do you wish you had more help? Well, join the club. WE ALL DO! While no one's life is identical to that of their neighbor, we really are not that different from one another, and we all have different stressors in our lives. Maybe you have sporting events/practices EVERY NIGHT OF THE WEEK. Maybe it is a 60 hour a week career that keeps you hopping. Maybe it is being a single parent. Life is hard but we MUST make the time for what matters.

When it comes down to priorities, God and my family come first with me, but preserving memories is a close third because I know that I take these pictures for a reason. I want to remember this life, and I want my children to remember all the things we've done together. Even before I had children I treasured my memories because this was MY LIFE!  Picture albums made me happy when I felt sad and made me happier when I felt glad. They are therapeutic in longer lasting ways than a visit to a spa or a shopping excursion could ever be, and it also makes people feel good when you show them their place in your life's story! Photo albums aren't just for the past or the future, they also enhance the PRESENT! Can the laundry wait one more day? Can you simplify dinner plans for the week? Could you sign the kids up for fewer activities and choose instead to have an extra night at home? All of these are MAJOR decisions that you may not be okay with, but I bet if you thought about it you could come up with at least ONE way to simplify.

Jessica N. Turner wrote a book this year entitled The Fringe Hours: Making Time for You.  Chances are, no matter how crazy we think our own lives are, there is some "fringe hour" in our day that we could use in some way or another. Ms. Turner brings a devotional with her to read - she said she often arrives 5 minutes early to an appointment so she can sit in her car and read just a little bit of it. The point is, you don't need large blocks of time to make time for yourself. Similar to the author, I bring a journal and journal cards with me in my purse and from time to time I will write in them during my lunch break, or while waiting for an appointment. While I am not scrapbooking, I am setting myself up TO scrapbook. Activities like these are what I like to call "pre-scrapbooking!" I also have a Forever app on my phone that with a touch of a button I can click on to upload my phone photos. I have done this in the elevator on the way up to my office. It's those minutes to ourselves that we didn't even realize we had. Use your "fringe hours" wisely and you will be surprised.

The second thing to think about is our "guilty pleasures." I am a  nightowl who stays up late because I have a VERY full time job and I desperately need the evenings to get things done, but no matter how efficiently I try to use my "fringe" hours (that is, the tiny slivers of time when I am not at work and my children are sleeping) I still feel very frustrated some days. I try to use my time well, but I always feel as if there is more that I want or need to do. So what happened? Well, we all have our "guilty pleasures." In this case, I am referring to time wasters. We all have them. Ask yourself what is yours? Mine is definitely scrolling through Facebook. I just love it, I have to say it! I love to post my own photos, see other people's photos, read their stories, learn new scrapbooking techniques, communicate with other individuals with Creative Memories businesses such as my own, etc...But I bet if I made a conscious effort to step away from the computer I would get a LOT more done in an evening.

What is your "time waster?" Is it reality TV shows? Watching hour after hour of recorded movies? Magazines? Is there anything you might put away for an hour to instead devote to organizing your pictures, uploading them to a photo developing service, or even starting that album you've always dreamed of?

Let's make a promise that at least one, maybe two, or (gasp!) three nights this week we are going to try to step away from whatever it is that's frittering away our fringe hours. Instead, find a table, grab a stack of photos, a pen, a tape runner, and a Creative Memories Fast2Fabulous album and see what you can accomplish in that hour instead! It works for me! I have two busy boys, a high pressure career, and a thriving scrapbooking business of my own with customers to take care of, but I don't let that get in my way of telling my life's stories with love! Am I completely caught up? No way! But every day I am making progress towards that goal.

Remember those quotes at the beginning of my post? Let's draw a line through those and make this our new motto:

"An ant on the move does more than a dozing ox" - Lao Tzu

Remember scrapbooks don't have to be fancy, they just need to be finished! Your own handwriting and stories are the best because they will mean the most over time, and the sooner the better while the memories are fresh in your mind. Whether you do them on your own at your dining room table or set one day a month aside to attend a workshop with other "scrapbookers" I believe that you can DO THIS!

Hope you will reach out to me or your own Creative Memories consultant to ask for help in finding the tools and the events to help you reach your goals. It's so important and we are here for you!

Preserving the past, but also enhancing the present!

Fun with my customers!

Years of scrapbooks - my pride and joy! 

Memories over the years, always fun to take down and peruse

The Future is Bright with "Forever" In It

What is Forever you might wonder? Only the world's first SECURE PERMANENT PHOTO STORAGE SOLUTION! I am sitting here in my hotel room after attending the inaugural ForeverLive2015 event and I am just brimming with excitement over the future that Glen Meakem, the CEO and Founder of Forever, is bringing to us.

I signed up over a year ago to be a Panstoria affiliate so I could continue to offer my customers our beloved Historian and Artisan software (as well as fantastic digital artwork.) When the company Forever acquired Panstoria I was intrigued to find out what it was they brought to the table. Turns out they bring a LOT!

Forever offers permanent storage plans for your very best photos - you basically own (not rent) a place in the cloud and that is backed up on three servers. Lost or broken Smartphones, fire, floods, car wrecks, burglaries or computer/hard drive crashes are all threats to our photos, but with permanent online cloud storage those fears can be put to rest.  The Forever Guarantee Fund is similar to an endowment or an insurance policy in that its sole existence is to grow over time and to only be used to upgrade  and maintain the servers and the file formats. And instead of paying every year as you do for home, life and auto insurance, you pay up front to own these photos in full resolution for your life plus 100 years. WOW! You can even pass your account on for future generations. Talk about sleeping safer at night.

NO OTHER COMPANY promises the permanence or the privacy that Forever offers. Shutterfly, Facebook, and DropBox want our information to sell to advertisers, plain and simple. There is no assumption of permanence (they can delete your photos if you are not active after a certain period of time) and they can shrink the resolution to make more room on their servers - they could also go away at any time as we saw with Kodak Gallery (I lost some pictures myself there years ago.) They are not promising us ANYTHING. Even disks  deteriorate and hard drives and computers can crash. Knowing that Forever is investing in not only protecting our photos but also in upgrading along with changing technology lets me sleep a LOT better at night.

Forever is my FOREVER home for my best and most valuable photos. They also offer digitization services and they will scan photos, photo albums, even physical objects. Forever has an app so you can sync your photos to your Forever account from your smartphone, and they will also continue to offer Historian, Artisan and digital artwork. And just launched this weekend is Forever Projects, a simple way to make projects right from your PC or Mac!

Can you tell how excited I am?

I would encourage everyone to start their own free Forever account today by going to my Forever website and signing up. Once you set up an account on your PC you can then download the app to your phone so you can access it on the go as well! Free accounts have 3 G of storage (holds about 1000 photos.) If you need more storage I will be happy to help you with creating a permanent account.

Forever is the future and I am so excited to be a part of it! I want you to be a part of it too - this is too good not to share.