Weekly Warm-Up: Spring is in the Air
04/12/2010 at 1:12 pm | Posted in Uncategorized, weekly warm up | Leave a commentTags: Adorn It - Carolee's Creations, CK, CK March/April 2010, Creating Keepsakes, Creating Keepsakes magazine, creativity, giveaway, Lori Fairbanks, March/April 2010, Mou Saha, My Mind's Eye, Sassafras, Scrapbook, scrapbook pages, Scrapbooking, weekly warm up
Good morning! I hope you’re enjoying some beautiful spring weather and have had the opportunity to get out and take some terrific photos of your springtime activities and happenings.
Looking for fun ideas for scrapbooking them? You’ll love our March/April 2010 issue particularly Mou Saha’s “Spring is in the Air” article. She shows you how to use pre-made products like stickers and patterned paper to create seasonal accents like rainbows, kites, and clouds for your spring-themed scrapbook layouts. Here’s a sneak preview of two of the darling pages featured in this article.
I love how Mou used patterned paper featuring clouds as the background for this page, and it’s so clever how she used photo corners to create the kite.
"Let's Fly a Kite" by Mou Saha, as seen in the March/April 2010 issue of Creating Keepsakes
Look how cute the buttons make this rainbow patterned paper. If you want to recreate this look but don’t have this particular patterned paper, don’t fret! Use a circle cutter or a dinner plate to cut concentric circles or rings in several colors of cardstock. Then just ink the edges of each piece, arrange them to look like a rainbow and adhere your buttons.
"You Are My Rainbow" by Mou Saha, as seen in the March/April 2010 issue of Creating Keepsakes
How about some fun products to scrapbook your photos with? Check out the cute bees and flowers on the Bee Happy line from AdornIt – Carolee’s Creations:
Another cute line you won’t want to miss is Quite Contrary from My Mind’s Eye:
And, if you’re feeling spunky, you’ll want to check out this energetic line from Sassafras called Nerdy Bird:
Want to win one a sampling of one of these great spring lines? Leave us a comment by this Friday, April 16, 2010 and let us know what you like to take photos of in the spring. We’ll choose three lucky winners from the comments to win one of these three great lines.
–Lori Fairbanks, editor
You Be The Judge (April 2010)
04/07/2010 at 7:58 am | Posted in General Inspiration, Uncategorized, You Be the Judge | 3 CommentsTags: CK, Club CK, Club CK Idea Galleries, Creating Keepsakes, Creating Keepsakes magazine, Fresh Face, inspiration, Joannie McBride, Layout, reader gallery, Reader Pick, reader poll, Reader's Pick, submissions, You Be the Judge
Happy April! I can’t believe how chilly it still is here in Utah. What I can believe, however, is the unbelievable talent all of our readers have! It’s such a pleasure being able to view your layouts in the Club CK idea galleries. Your layouts are always fun and inspiring, and they always brighten my day when I’m browsing for layouts or looking for inspiration when creating my own projects.
If you haven’t had a chance to check out all of the beautiful layouts in the Club CK gallery, make sure you do! You won’t be disappointed!
Today, I need your help picking the layout in this month’s Readers’ Pick Poll that will be featured in the October 2010 issue of Creating Keepsakes magazine. It’s as easy as going to our You Be the Judge voting page, voting for your favorite, and doing it as many times that you want—there is no limit to how many times you can vote! Check back later this month to see if your favorite layout won.
Joannie McBride, assistant editor
Happy Easter!
04/04/2010 at 8:17 am | Posted in Holidays, Uncategorized | 151 CommentsTags: CK, Creating Keepsakes, Creating Keepsakes magazine, deocrating Easter eggs, Easter, Easter accents, Easter crafts, Easter eggs, Easter layouts, erin lincoln, holiday, holiday layouts, holiday traditions, Holidays, Lara Penrod, Martha Stewart, Susan Weinroth
Happy Easter, and thanks for stopping by the Creating Keepsakes blog today. We hope the day is bringing you at least some semblance of spring weather.
No matter how old my siblings and I get, we still get together every year to color Easter eggs. For some reason this activity has never lost its appeal for us. Maybe because we’re always a bit goofy while we do it.
One of the (many) great things about the March/April issue of Creating Keepsakes, is the article, “The Good, the Fab, and the Spectacular” in which we show you how to take an event you celebrate every year and mix it up to create some spectacular Easter layouts.
I especially like this layout from Susan Weinroth. I love how she created the grass and highlighted her photos within egg-shaped frames.
"Easter Egg Clean-Up” by Susan Weinroth, as seen in the March/April 2010 issue of Creating Keepsakes, page 87.
I also love the various textures Erin Lincoln used for her egg accents on her layout.
“Easter for Grown Ups” by Erin Lincoln, as seen in the March/April 2010 issue of Creating Keepsakes, page 86.
Leave us a comment and let us know how you add “egg-tra” special touches to your Easter layouts. I’ll choose two lucky comments to win this great Easter product from Jillibean Soup. Winners will be chosen on Friday, April 9, 2010.
And if you haven’t actually gotten around to coloring those eggs yet, check out this video from Martha Stewart Living on how to use a fun masking technique to create some pretty amazing eggs. (The video will play on the lower-right side of the screen after a quick ad.)
Happy Easter!
Lara Penrod, managing editor
Special Guest Blogger: Mandy Douglass
04/02/2010 at 8:10 am | Posted in fonts, General Inspiration, guest blogger, Holidays, How-Tos, product, technique, Uncategorized | 5 CommentsTags: American Crafts, CK, Creating Keepsakes, Creating Keepsakes magazine, Dear Lizzy, Easter eggs, eggs, Fiskars Americas, free font, Free Font Friday, gift bag, guest blogger, holiday, how-to, Mandy Douglass, photo tips, photography tips, ribbon, ribbon technique, technique
Hey all my favorite CK Readers! It is me, Mandy Douglass! I don’t know about you, but I am so excited for this upcoming Easter holiday weekend. Now that I have two little boys, it just keeps getting more and more fun each year. I love easter egg hunts, easter baskets, easter bunnies, and those little peeks from the tulips that will soon turn into beautiful flowers.
Last year was the first year my son, Bryson, could start to understand the whole easter egg hunt idea. So today, I thought I would share a photo tip and a ribbon tip with you from this fun new page I created about his first hunt!
The Race is On by Mandy Douglass. Supplies: American Crafts.
Photo Tip:
Bryson was just learning to walk, and he really didn’t have enough balance to pick up eggs, so crawling was his only way to get those funny looking round things! I thought this photo was perfect to use on my layout, because it captures his perspective on the easter egg hunt. There weren’t a lot of kids around to “race” him for the eggs, but the faster he got them, the more excited he was. I challenge all you CK readers to get down in the grass this weekend and get some true perspective photographs!
Ribbon Tip:
Next is a fun tip a friend taught me a while back. I often find it hard to punch through a page or get a knotted ribbon to stay in place without gargantuan amounts of glue! So here are a few steps to show you how to get that cute ribbon knot to stay in place and avoid getting sticky.
First cut a piece of ribbon about 3″ long. Then staple it to the area of the page you would like the ribbon to be.
Then simply tie the knot (I usually only tie one knot and it stays in place).
Then cut off the remaining ribbon.
Simple, huh!
Bonus Gift-Bag Topper Tip:
I decided to use the same technique on some cute treat bags for Easter. (Not only did I get a cute bag out of it, but it also gave me a great excuse to open those Cadbury Mini Eggs that have been staring at me for a week!)
To make the bag topper, I made a simple flap using Sizzix’s scallop square die cut, then I folded it in half. I added some darling egg paper from the Dear Lizzy line by American Crafts and stapled the decorated flap to close the bag and keep the ribbon in place.
Last, I made a cute little tag using a Quickutz oval die, some scallop scissors by Fiskars, and Dear Lizzy Dimensional Sticker. Then knotted it all in place!
Such an easy way to do lots of Easter treat bags.
“Hop” that you all have a great holiday weekend!
Mandy Douglass, CK contributing writer
P.S. Don’t forget to download today’s font as part of Free Font Friday! This weeks’ font is CK Day Dream. Download it today at Creating Keepsakes.
Happy April Fool’s Day!
04/01/2010 at 11:12 am | Posted in Holidays, Uncategorized | 54 CommentsTags: April Fools, Creating Keepsakes, Flock, giveaway, holiday, Holidays, Lara Penrod, scrap, Scrapbook, scrapbook techniques
April Fool’s Day is traditionally marked by committing practical jokes or sending friends, family, or co-workers on fools’ errands. But there’s no jokes or fools’ errands on the CK blog today. Instead, we’re giving you a couple of quick, fun, practical techniques, plus a chance to win a fabulous prize.
To start, did you know that you can mix flock colors to come up with completely new custom-made flock colors? No joke! Watch this great tutorial from Stampendous on how it’s done. (Note: Watching the video will take longer than creating great new colors.)
After you’ve checked out that great technique, take a look at this one. It’s probably the best thing we’ve seen in a long time!
Now, before you go off to create some fantastic layouts using these fun new techniques, leave us a comment about your favorite part of April Fool’s Day, the best joke you’ve ever played, or how you plan to use one of these great techniques. Next Monday, April 5, I’ll randomly pick five readers from the comments we receive to win the book “Snippets: Mostly True Tales from the Lighter Side of Scrapbooking.”
Happy April 1st!
Lara Penrod, managing editor
Latest & Greatest Products: March/April 2010
03/30/2010 at 5:00 am | Posted in Hot Trends, latest & Greatest, product, Uncategorized | 268 CommentsTags: BasicGrey, CK, Claudine Hellmuth Studio, Creating Keepsakes, Creating Keepsakes magazine, EK Success, giveaway, Jillibean Soup, Kim Jackson, latest & Greatest, patterned paper, products, Punches, Ranger Industries, Scrapbook, scrapbook supplies, Scrapbooking, stickers, TaDa Creative Studios
While creating every issue of Creating Keepsakes, we have a blast looking through all of the new scrapbooking products, trying to decide which ones will make our Latest & Greatest column. Of course, we never have enough space for all of the goodies we’d love to share with you. So we’ve decided share a few more of the producs that sparked our imaginations from each issue here on our blog—and we’ll give you the chance to win some of the fabulous products. Let’s get rolling!
Claudine Hellmuth Studios – Ranger Industries
We discovered the amazing line of Claudine Hellmuth Studio products from Ranger Industries at CHA back in January, and shared a couple of videos of sweet Claudine demonstrating just a few of the fun things you can do with her Sticky Back Canvas. You’ll love adding texture and color to your pages with this wonderful, on-trend line of products.
Eggdrop Soup – Jillibean Soup
With Easter right around the corner, our eyes are open for bunnies hopping down the bunny trail. The adorable Eggdrop Soup line from Jillibean Soup is a perfect addition to your stash, whether you’re looking for something to jazz up your Easter pages or a simple, cute new way to add a splash of springtime to your pages.
Double-Sided Edger Punches – EK Success
A sweet daisy chain will add just the right touch of springtime charm to your layouts—and with EK Success’ new Daisy Chain punch, you’ll have a true daisy chain, punched out on both sides. You’ll love this new punch design, as well as the others in the EK Success’ new line.
Green at Heart – BasicGrey
Earth Day is on April 22, and you’ll love adding a touch of “green” to your layouts with BasicGrey’s bright and fabulous new Green at Heart line. Printed on FSC-certified paper with soy-based inks, you can have a wonderful time creating a scrapbooking layout and feel good knowing that your paper is eco-conscious.
Wow, that’s a lot of scrapbooking goodness! How would you like to win some of these products for yourself? (Silly question—of course you would.) In addition to giving away the products above, you’ll also have a chance to win the E-I-E-I-O Collection from TaDa Creative Studios, as seen on page 48 of our March/April 2010 issue.
All you have to do to win one of these outstanding products is leave a comment telling us which of our Latest & Greatest products from the March/April 2010 issue of CK (or from this post) is your favorite and why you love it by Monday, April 5. We’ll draw five random winners (one for each product shown here) on or around April 6 and announce the winners on the giveaways tab located at the top of our blog.
Have a wonderful day!
Kim Jackson, senior editor
Weekly Warm-Up: Incredible (not so edible) eggs using your scrapbooking supplies!
03/29/2010 at 1:25 pm | Posted in General Inspiration, How-Tos, product, Uncategorized, weekly warm up | 11 CommentsTags: CK, Club CK, Club CK idea gallery, Creating Keepsakes, Creating Keepsakes magazine, decorated eggs, Earth Day, Easter, eggs, flocking, flowers, Glitter, glitter glue, Glue Dots, incredible, ink, Joannie McBride, Megan Hoeppner, paper crafting, ribbon, rub-ons, Scrapbook, scrapbook supplies, Scrapbooking, spring, technique, weekly warm up
Wait a minute! Do you realize Easter is less than a week away? Hopefully you’ve got that extra bit of spring in your step and you’re ready for an egg-xtra fun project! Megan Hoeppner and I had a blast using our scrapbooking supplies to decorate these adorable eggs. The possibilities are endless, and the results are super-way-dang (that’s like the ultimate in cuteness)! We opted not to dye our eggs before decorating them, but remember this is your creative time and you can do whatever you want!
Spot-on
These happy polka-dot eggs were easier to create than you might think. Megan first started by placing a glue dot onto her egg. She then dipped the egg into a small pile of flock, used her finger to make sure it was pressed in well to each glue dot, then gently brushed off the excess and repeated the process.
Absolutely Frilling
Ribbon is one of my favorite supplies, and ribbon scraps are perfect for decorating eggs. My orange egg was dyed using spray ink. Once dried, I adhered a large layer of ribbon around it, then a thin sheer ribbon over the top of the large ribbon. For the green and purple egg, I simply used Smooch ink, from Clearsnap, to create my green horizontal lines. Then I placed strips of ribbon in-between the lines. Finally, I tied a bow with the ribbon and adhered that to the top of my egg.
Rubbing me the right way
You can do so much with rub-ons! Megan created this fun spring scene using these yummy rub-ons from Hambly Screen Prints. The grass on Megan’s egg was created by painting small blades with Smooch ink. This same technique would be super cute on an Earth Day project, which just happens to be celebrating it’s 40 anniversary on April 22, 2010.
Speckles of happiness
This egg just makes me smile. When colors like these work so well together, it’s almost like they were two birds of a feather! Megan sprayed the egg with one color and allowed it to dry completely. Then she lightly sprayed the second color. Remember, sometimes less is more. Create a light mist affect by spraying from a distance rather than too closely.
Blooming with color
Oh my gosh! This egg is cuter than cute and definitely sprouting to the occasion. Nothing says spring like bright vibrant flowers. Add a little sparkle and the world couldn’t get any sweeter! Start by applying ink to create your petals. using a small foam square, dip one side into glitter and adhere the other side to the center of your flower. Hippity, hoppity for sure!
The write stuff
Everything’s better when it’s personalized! You can create these one-of-a-kind eggs for yourself and all your flock too. All you need is glitter glue and a little imagination.
I hope these techniques give you at least a dozen of your own incredible ideas. We’d love to see what you come up with. Share your projects with us in the Club CK idea gallery.
Joannie McBride, assistant editor
Special Guest Blogger: 2010 Dream Team Member Jen Jockisch
03/26/2010 at 5:00 am | Posted in fonts, General Inspiration, guest blogger, How-Tos, Uncategorized | 11 CommentsTags: CK Dream Team, Creating Keepsakes, free font, Free Font Friday, Jen Jockisch, Layout, layouts, paper crafting, paper flowers, Scrapbook, Scrapbooking, techniques
Hi everyone! This is Jen Jockisch. I’m a first time contributor to the CK blog, and a member of the Creating Keepsakes 2010 Dream Team. Today I have a really quick and simple technique to share with you that’s fun and easy.
I love to create flowers with patterned paper, and the flowers I’m going to show you today make great embellishments for your scrapbook pages or altered items.
All you will need is a 12″ x 12″ piece of cardstock or patterned paper, a paper trimmer or scissors, a stapler and some foam adhesive (smaller foam tabs are best).
Choose your paper, then cut a strip of paper measuring 1/4″ to 1/2″ wide. Fold either end to meet in the middle, and staple. (If you want a smaller flower, simply cut your strip before you fold, making it shorter than 12″ x 12″)
Repeat this process four times (more or less depending on how many petals you want), and layer all of the pieces together, overlaping in the center. Staple together. It may take a few staples to get your petals situated where you want them.
Place your foam adhesive on the ends of the petals and adhere to your page.
I like to punch a circle from cardstock and place in the center of the flower and add buttons, brads, rhinestones or other embellishments. If you do this, youʼll want to again use foam adhesive on the back of your circle so you don’t flatten the flower.
Finally, add stems to the flowers using ribbon, patterned paper, or other fun trims.
Thanks for reading, everyone, and have a great weekend!
-Jen Jockish
P.S. Don’t forget to download a new font as part of Free Font Friday! This week, download the CK Broad Pen font here!
Reader Pick Poll Winner!
03/25/2010 at 3:44 am | Posted in Uncategorized | 4 CommentsTags: CK, Club CK gallery, Creating Keepsakes, Creating Keepsakes magazine, JanaMorton, Joannie McBride, online gallery, reader gallery, reader pages, reader poll, Reader's Pick, Scrapbook, scrapbook pages, Scrapbooking
Happy Thursday! I wanted to take a few moments this morning to announce the winner of our Readers’ Pick poll this month. A huge congratulations to JanaMorton who received 63 percent of the votes. Her super-cute “Boots On” scrapbook page will be featured in the September 2010 issue of Creating Keepsakes magazine. Thanks to everyone who voted, and thanks to those who share your projects with us in our online project gallery at Club CK. Keep up the great work, and keep submitting. Your layout could be the next one chosen to be a part of the Readers’ Pick poll–and it might even be featured in an upcoming issue of CK magazine! Here’s a sneak peek just for you, our blog readers, of Jana’s winning scrapbook page.
—Joannie McBride, assistant editor
Top ’O the Morning to Ye! And Happy St. Paddy’s Day!
03/17/2010 at 2:15 am | Posted in Holidays, Uncategorized | 267 CommentsTags: CK March/April 2010, Club CK, Creating Keepsakes, Creating Keepsakes blog, Creating Keepsakes magazine, font, giveaway, holiday, holiday layouts, holiday traditions, Holidays, Lara Penrod, luck, lucky, page title, Piradee Talvanna, quote of the day, quotes, recipe, scrapbook pages, St. Patrick's Day, Veer
Happy St. Patrick’s Day! As part of the holiday, enjoy some St. Paddy’s Day fun in many areas.
Fun Holiday Fact
Today’s Fun Irish Fact (courtesy of History.com): “Last year, close to one million people took part in Ireland s St. Patrick’s Festival in Dublin, a multi-day celebration featuring parades, concerts, outdoor theater productions, and fireworks.”
Fun Page Title You Can Download for Free
You can get your green on with this page title featured in the March/April issue of Creating Keepsakes.
Or download the P22 Kilkenny Swash font, which was used to make the title block above, from Veer for only $19.95.
Fun Scrapbook Page Topic
Even if green isn’t your thing, you can still celebrate the holiday. St. Patrick’s Day is associated with luck, so why not create a layout on why you feel lucky today. Maybe you feel lucky because you’ve learned a new skill, have a great education, have recently seen your life in a new light, or have great friends by your side. Whatever the reason, make a plan to capture those lucky feelings, just as Piradee Talvanna did with her “Thank You” layout.
“Thank You” by Piradee Talvanna, as seen in the March/April 2010 issue of Creating Keepsakes, page 41
Fun Luck-Themed Quotes
Speaking of luck, check out Club CK‘s Quote of the Day blog this week for luck-themed quotes you can use on your layouts.
Fun Giveaway
Then try your luck with our great giveaway. Leave a comment on today’s blog post by March 21, 2010, for the chance to be one of five randomly selected lucky winners to receive all of this great St. Patrick’s Day product.
Fun Websites
If you’re in need of even more St. Patrick’s Day fun, check out this website to find a St. Patrick’s Day celebration in your hometown. And for a little Irish fun for the whole family, check out theholidayspot.com.
Fun Recipe
However you spend the day, don’t forget to eat your greens. Here’s a great recipe to get you started.
Corn Beef & Cabbage
1 small can corned beef 1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 large head cabbage 1/8 tsp. pepper
2 Tbs. butter 1/2 cup bread crumbs
2 Tbs. flour 1/4 tsp. celery seeds
1 cup milk
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 1.5-quart casserole dish. Cut cabbage up coarsely, and cook in boiling, salted water until done. Drain. While cabbage is cooking, melt butter in saucepan over low heat, stir in flour until smooth, add milk gradually, and then cool, stirring constantly until sauce is smooth and has thickened. Stir in salt, pepper, and celery seeds. Mix cream sauce and cabbage together, and mix with corned beef. Sprinkle with bread crumbs. Bake 30 minutes.
May your day be touched by a bit of Irish luck, brightened by a song in your heart, and warmed by the smiles of the people you love.
Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
Lara Penrod, managing editor
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