Weekly Warm-Up: Spring is in the Air

04/12/2010 at 1:12 pm | Posted in Uncategorized, weekly warm up | Leave a comment
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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

Weekly Warm-Up: Scrapbook Your Story

04/05/2010 at 5:00 am | Posted in General Inspiration, weekly warm up | 4 Comments
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Take a minute and think about how you’d answer the following questions:     

* What do you do each day?     

* What traditions do you embrace?     

* Which relationships do you treasure?     

* What milestones have you celebrated?     

* What fun things can’t you resist?     

The answers to these various questions are the things that make up who you are. They’re part of your story. In other words, they’re your life!     

     

Sadly, it’s often our lives as scrapbookers that we leave out of our albums, instead dedicating that time to scrapbooking about those around us. Take the kiddos for example. Sure, they’ll love seeing their lives on paper years from now, but it’s your life story that they’ll truly cherish. Trust me on this one.     

So, in the spirit of scrapbooking our own lives, we have a few beautiful pages to share with you, each taken from a section of the mondo Creating Keepsakes “Scrapbook Your Life” idea gallery, which we featured in our March/April 2010 issue.     

The Everyday     

Part of Grace Tolman’s everyday belongs to her position at a local retail store, so she created this cute page. We love how she turned her employee badge into a home for her journaling. Even though so many of us spend a large percentage of life in the workforce, it can be an easy thing to overlook when scrapbooking. Keep your 9-to-5 in mind as you’re scrapbooking your life.     

"My Night Job" by Grace Tolman, as seen in the March/April 2010 issue of Creating Keepsakes, page 63.

Traditions     

Traditions don’t have to be holiday or event based. Scrapbooking a tradition can be as easy as telling the story of a repeat event, big or small, that brings you joy. In Brenda Hurd’s case, this event is making lemonade at Grandma Cole’s—a sweet moment indeed!     

“Lemonade @ Grandma’s” by Brenda Hurd, as seen in the March/April 2010 issue of Creating Keepsakes, page 69.

     

Relationships     

You’re reading this blog post, which means you likely spend at least some of your time online. From that time, have you built relationships with others? Celebrate those e-connections with a scrapbook layout, just as Jing-Jing Nickel did with this happy page.     

“Panda” by Jing-Jing Nickle, as seen in the March/April 2010 issue of Creating Keepsakes, page 72.

     

Milestones

You scrapbook the milestones reached by others in your life, so don’t overlook your own achievements. Whether you scrapbook those smaller, personal milestones (certifying in something, finishing a novel, etc.) or life’s larger moments (weddings, graduation, first home, etc.), milestones are an important piece of any scrapbook. For Ann-Marie Morris, it was her graduation from art school that made its way into a album.     

“Graduation” by Ann-Marie Morris, as seen in the March/April 2010 issue of Creating Keepsakes, page 79.

Fun Times     

How do you spend your fun time? Don’t worry, nobody’s going to judge you here. Even if you call housework “fun,” it counts as an interest worthy of a scrapbook layout. As our reigning “Funnest Scrapbooker Ever,” Terri Davenport certainly knows what fun is. So she created this heeelarious scrapbook layout about a game of Scrabble she played with her youngsters.     

“Ifoon” by Terri Davenport, as seen in the March/April 2010 issue of Creating Keepsakes, page 83.

Inspired yet? Great, because it’s your turn to scrapbook about . . . yes, you guessed it, you! What will your next “me” page be about? We’d love it if you’d share and inspire us with your ideas.

Cheers!
Megan Hoeppner, CK creative editor

Happy April Fool’s Day!

04/01/2010 at 11:12 am | Posted in Holidays, Uncategorized | 54 Comments
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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

Trend Talk: Ruffles

03/31/2010 at 5:00 am | Posted in General Inspiration, Hot Trends | 7 Comments
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-Megan Hoeppner, creative editor, and Lori Fairbanks, editor

Latest & Greatest Products: March/April 2010

03/30/2010 at 5:00 am | Posted in Hot Trends, latest & Greatest, product, Uncategorized | 268 Comments
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Kim JacksonWhile 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 Comments
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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 Comments
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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 Comments
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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

CK & Me: March 2010

03/24/2010 at 6:50 pm | Posted in CK & Me, General Inspiration | 3 Comments
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What is it about Creating Keepsakes magazine that keeps you coming back for more? Is it the incredible creativity of the amazing lineup of scrapbookers we include every issue that has you hooked? Or is the extra motivation to scrapbook you feel after reading an issue? Maybe it’s a combination of these ideas and more. Whatever your answer is, please know that it’s appreciated. We’re overwhelmed by your passion and commitment to both scrapbooking and to CK. And nothing makes us happier than hearing about how an issue has inspired you. In that spirit, let’s check out this month’s CK & Me featured scrapbookers.

This month, we’re switching things up a bit and showing you three fantastic pages from three talented women who were all inspired by the same layout. And that impressive layout is this one by Stephanie Howell, which was featured in CK’s January 2010 “15-Minute Layout” column.

"So Much Fun" by Stephanie Howell, as seen in the January 2010 issue of Creating Keepsakes, page 122.

This page by Amanda Birchler wonderfully illustrates how just about any layout idea can be transferred into a page that meets your unique needs. In this case, Amanda transformed a baby-themed layout into a page about an older child simply by switching out the colors and adding a few funky accents. Beautiful job, Amanda!

Latrice Murphy was instantly drawn to the stacked elements on the side of Stephanie’s page and knew she wanted to try that approach on her design. As her page shows us, you don’t have to stick to the same page sketch when scraplifting. Instead, she turned a single-page layout into this darling two-page spread. Way to work it out, Latrice!

Kelly Holbrook takes yet another approach to Stephanie’s design. In this example, Kelly translated a 12″ x 12″ layout into an 8.5″ x 11″ page.  And, guess what?! She really did complete this page in 15 minutes, which goes to show you it can be done. Well played, Kelly!

Isn’t it awesome to see how three different scrapbookers created three unique pages all from the same inspirational layout! It makes you wonder how many more pages can potentially come from Stephanie’s stunning original. I’m certainly curious.

What about You?
What ideas have you seen in CK recently that you’ve made your own? Tell us about it by e-mailing letters@creatingkeepsakes.com for a chance to be featured on our blog and win a Creating Keepsakes special issue.

Thanks to this month’s talented trio for showing us how truly versatile scrapbooking is. We can’t wait to do it all again next month!

Cheers!
Megan Hoeppner, CK creative editor

Weekly Warm-Up: A Scrapbooker’s Springtime Welcome

03/22/2010 at 1:59 pm | Posted in technique, weekly warm up | 112 Comments
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At last, springtime is upon us. Can I get a “hip hip hooray”? This is the season for new beginnings and colorful moments. Let’s celebrate with a few new and vibrant techniques for creating egg accents, since Easter is also a part of early springtime. If you’ve had a chance to check out the March/April issue of Creating Keepsakes magazine, then you know that we have an entire feature dedicated to this happy topic, complete with a dozen unique ideas (and an additional dozen online). If you haven’t yet seen the issue, consider this your sneak peek. We’re going to crack open the creative carton and take a look at a few of the egg ideas inside.

Egg Technique #1: Create a Center Attraction
Remember those hollow sugar eggs that used to be so popular? Erin Lincoln took that sweet approach to create this paper-pieced cutie. She used dimensional adhesive to give it depth.

"Easter Wishes Egg" by Erin Lincoln, as seen in the March/April 2010 issue of Creating Keepsakes, page 88.

Egg Technique #2: Try It with Chocolate
Okay, so maybe this isn’t a real chocolate egg, but it sure does look like one. Erin Lincoln dry-embossed dark-brown cardstock for a look that’s simply mouthwatering!

"Chocolate Egg" by Erin Lincoln, as seen in the March/April 2010 issue of Creating Keepsakes, page 88.

Egg Technique #3: Tie on Some Texture
On this layout, I colored my eggs with bits of tied yarn. Here’s how to create your own:

1. Cut an egg shape from patterned paper or cardstock.

2. Punch holes throughout the egg.

3. Tie yarn through the holes, and trim the ends for a fuzzy finish.

"Easter '09" by Megan Hoeppner, as seen in the March/April 2010 issue of Creating Keepsakes, page 87.

Free Stuff
Now that you have a few creative ideas for adding spring to your pages, how about some springtime giveaways to celebrate this joyous season? Since spring cleaning is another item that usually comes with spring, we have a few projects we want to clean out of the CK office and send to new homes. The first is the darling egg-accent flip book created by our own Joannie McBride. In it, she’s created a dozen unique eggs, each with a fun texture (like the pom-pom egg shown here). See the full project on the Creating Keepsakes website. What kid wouldn’t love to keep entertained with this tactile treasure?

"Egg Flip Book" by Joannie McBride, as seen in the March/April 2010 online issue of Creating Keepsakes.

And these flowers are looking for a new windowsill on which to rest. I created them for my March/April “Tips & Tricks” column as a way to organize smaller scrapbooking supplies. (Thanks to reader Laura Stoller for the fresh idea!) Whether you use them to decorate your craft space or you disassemble them for parts, I’d love to have this spring bouquet of buttons, brads, and flower accents delivered to you.

"Flower Organization" by Megan Hoeppner, as seen in the March/April 2010 issue of Creating Keepsakes, page 52.

How to Enter
Simply leave a comment on this post and state your favorite aspect of spring. From the comments received on or before Monday, March 29, 2010, we’ll randomly select two winners—one for the book, and one for the flowers. The winners will be posted under our “Giveaways” tab on Thursday, April 1 (no foolin’).

Happy spring!
Megan Hoeppner, CK creative editor

P.S. We’d love to know what you want to see in CK’s 2010 “Top 10 issue”! Leave your ideas here. (Note: You will need to sign in to Club CK to comment. Registration is free.)

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