Making Memories

Design Challenge - Magazine Inspiration

Inspiration is everywhere. I am always on the lookout for things to inspire my scrapbook pages. Whether it be for color, design, or photography, you can be sure that I'll find inspiration about everywhere I go.

It can come from a color palette on my son's shirt.  It can be seen on a billboard as I'm driving on the highway.  I even love finding inspiration on food packaging!  Among all places to find inspiration, I think that magazine ads are the most common source.  Every day I seem to be flipping through some sort of magazine, and they are packed with interesting advertisements and article layouts that inspire any creative mind.

A few days ago as I was going through the latest issue of Real Simple magazine, this advertisement caught my eye.  I love how simple it seemed, and how it still had a lot of potential to dress up.  I saw the rectangles as photos and patterned paper, and I really liked how the title was split into two areas of the page.

   

While planning out my layout, I knew I wanted to use papers with subtle patterns.  This would enable me to embellish my layout without making it appear to be too busy.  I wanted to maintain the simplicity of the original magazine advertisement, but I also wanted to add embellishments so I kept the background and patterned papers simple.  This kept the focus on my photographs, which is always very important to me while creating scrapbook pages.

Today my challenge for you is to browse any magazine and search for inspiration.  Print ads are usually wonderfully designed and bursting with layout ideas.  Table of contents and article layouts are also inspiring because you usually have all important elements of scrapbook pages there - a title, journaling and photos.  Using magazines for inspiration is wonderful because it quickens your creativity process and allows you to complete more pages in a shorter amount of time.

Start challenge for you is to browse any magazine and search for inspiration.  Print ads are usually wonderfully designed and bursting with layout ideas.  Table of contents and article layouts are also inspiring because you usually have all important elements of scrapbook pages there - a title, journaling and photos.  Using magazines for inspiration is wonderful because it quickens your creativity process and allows you to complete more pages in a shorter amount of you. Enjoy!

Jill Godon

Guest Designers

We have received a lot of feedback from everyone regarding our guest designer feature. We have listened. We decided that we will continue to feature scrapbookers like you on our blog. The purpose of this is to give deserving scrapbookers a chance to show off their work to the rest of the world.

I do want to reiterate that Making Memories does not affiliate, compensate or sponsor the guest designers that are featured on the blog. We are simply using our blog as a forum to feature scrapbookers and their work.

If you want the chance to shine on our blog, leave a comment with a link to your blog so we can see your work.

Thank you to everyone for all the support that you give us. We sincerely appreciate you!!!

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As a bonus for today, here is a great project using Making Memories 5th Avenue program. We used trims and a grommet to accent this page. To do this, flatten the back of the grommet and thread your ribbon through. We tied the lose end by tying a bow.

Check out our idea gallery for more ideas.

Hey Nice Diggs!

Yes, we're catching up to our tech-savvy readers at last, and now offer options on our blog asking you to Digg us, or save a posting to del.icio.us, Facebook, or to add us to your StumbleUpon favorites. (By the way, if you don't Stumble yet, you've got to give it a try. So Addicting!

If none of this makes sense to you (as it didn't to me at first), please watch this video that explains the social bookmarking and sharing phenomenon.

And then, please take a moment to capitalize on these offerings. We're tying in a fantastic prize with your participation. So visit our blog after you've used one of our bookmarking links, and tell us what you did. We'll select three participants at random to receive the new Noteworthy collection. Consider it our way to thank you for digging us!

Winners will be announced on our blog on Friday, May 16th.

Want to Win a Scrapbooking Cruise Getaway?

Crafter's Home is getting underway with their first major group promotional event - a Scrapbooking Cruise Getaway. AND in July they are going to follow this up with a Disney Family Vacation - and the fun will just keep coming.

If you are interested in all the rules and where to enter, click here.

If you win, I want to come with you!!

Layout by Leah

Hi everyone, it's Leah! It's been awhile since I posted so I thought I'd show you a page that I made yesterday using photos from a recent trip. In March, I went to South Africa and taught classes as part of scrapbook road show organized by Scrap Shack Designs. I had a great time and the country was so beautiful, but I am just now starting to scrapbook some of the photos that were taken. This page was made using the Fifth Avenue papers, trims and colorboard stickers - I love this collection! Have you made a page using Fifth Avenue? Post your page in the gallery and link it here in the comments. I would love to see it!

I also made the flowers on the page using the Slice and the Basic Shapes card. This little machine is so cool! Once the flowers were cut, I did a quick machine stitch around the edges using black thread.

 

Before I go, I wanted to give you a couple tips today. Are you a frugal scrapbooker? I like to think that I am. I try to save my scraps of paper and leftover embellishments. I save my large scraps of paper in hanging folders but for smaller pieces I use Ziploc bags. For my long strips of scrap paper, I put those in a Ziploc bag too but to keep those a bit more organized, I used my sewing machine to stitch columns in the bag. For the scrapbook page I made yesterday, I layered a few of these strips of scrap paper.

 

I also like saving my scraps of ribbon and I usually save pieces as small as 5" which I can tie onto a longer piece of ribbon stapled onto my page, like I did for this page. If I really love the ribbon - like this black gingham ribbon in the picture with the jar - I'll save pieces as small as 2" which I can fold and staple on a page. For storing small scraps of ribbon, I use the Making Memories embellishment jar because the wide mouth and shallow jar makes it easy to grab the scrap that I need.

Well, that's it for now - have a great weekend and enjoy Mother's Day! If you have time, drop by my blog and say "hi". And if you're looking for something fun to watch plus scrapbook related, I also have some silly scrapbook videos there. Also, if you want more information about the products I used on my page or the Slice, visit Making Memories website.

Leah

Design Challenge - Eight Photos

Our challenge for today has to do with lots of photos - eight photos to be exact. I love doing layouts with just one or two photos. But once in a while, it's nice to put a lot of photos on a layout. Whether it's to make your photo pile a little smaller. Or to make your layout more meaningful or tell a story more effectively. There are lots of times a layout just calls for lots of photos.

I created this layout using the New Noteworthy collection. I love the bright colors and fun embellishments. I wanted to use the scalloped circle from the journaling notebook, but I felt like I needed a bit more color. So I used tracing paper to trace right inside the scalloped edge of the paper, and then used that to cut out the turquoise pattern paper to fit inside. This added just the right amount of color I was looking for! I also used a small strip of the turquoise pattern paper that was left over from another project. I had cut it using my scalloped scissors and couldn't bear to throw it away. I love when I can use bits and pieces from other projects!

 

So get out those photos and take the challenge - eight photos, that's all you need. And when you're done, make sure you share it with us by posting a link to your blog.

To learn more about the new Noteworthy program visit Making Memories website.

Laura Vegas

One trick that I use when using lots of photos on a layout is to crop the photos all to the same size and then arrange them into groups or line them up. The eight photos I choose to use really didn't match or go together. They were all taken at different times in different places. Once I cropped each one down, it eliminated any excess background clutter and clashing colors. Each photo was cropped 2.25 x 3.5 inches. After I matted two at a time on white cardstock. This same effect can be in Photoshop or a similar photo editing program by making collages and then printing them as one piece.

Great Spring Idea

What do you love most about spring? Besides the nice weather, I love seeing flowers start to appear. Walking outside and seeing flowers wherever I go, makes me happy. We have a local annual tulip festival that I attend so I can savor all the beautiful flowers.

Here is a great idea from Andrea Wiebe to help you enjoy beautiful flowers inside your home. Andrea took an empty can and covered it with paper, she used Making Memories Garden Party and 5th Avenue paper collections. She then decorated it with buttons and ribbon. This is a great project for you to create with your kids. They will have a blast creating their own little project.

 

For more project inspiration, visit Making Memories idea gallery.

Photo Swap

A great way to get inspired is to swap photos with a friend and scrap a layout for them. Sometimes just having a fresh face laying in front of you is enough to get your creative juices going. We challenged Wendy Anderson and Laura Vegas to a photo swap and this is what they came up with. They both used the New Noteworthy program by Making Memories.

This is what Wendy created for Laura:

 

This is what Laura created for Wendy:

 

 

Your challenge today is to team up with a friend and swap photo. You'll be amazed at how fun and inspiring it is.

For more inspiration check out the idea gallery on Making Memories website.

As most of our fine readers know, when you multi-task, details can fall through the cracks.  The task of running and maintaining this blog belongs to two people at Making Memories, both of whom also handle many other activities within the company … and also at home.    Translated: we do not have the opportunity to conduct background checks on all of our guest participants – something that has obviously come back to haunt us in an embarrassing and startling way.

Please let us state outright: under no circumstances do we condone any illegal activities.  Had we been aware that last week’s guest designer had a criminal background, we obviously would not have featured her work.  If we could turn back time, we certainly would; unfortunately, we posted her submission based on the timing of its arrival, the nature of its design, and absolutely nothing more.  Our mistake.

We started inviting guest designers to our blog at the request of our readers.  In the multiple surveys we have hosted, in an effort to find out what you wanted to read, the response overwhelmingly favored putting the spotlight on other designers who rarely get acknowledged for their talent.    Our trusting nature, however, has proven flawed – it opens us up to submissions from people who do not deserve the spotlight. However, we do not have the resources or often the ability to conduct background checks on each participant.

We like to think that ours can be a forum where others’ work can shine. However, we can not imply that we sponsor them, or that they work for us, or that we are affiliated.  We just knew that we had a venue to share with others. Deep in our hearts, we would still rather operate as trusting people and feature submissions that we receive; sadly, however, until we can find a way to conduct said checks, we will likely have to discontinue that practice.

In the meantime, please know that the reason we were not able to address this problem over the weekend came from personal circumstances:  one of us has been out of town (and away from a computer) on vacation. The other one of us was celebrating her two children’s birthdays and had not been online – and instead hosting back-to-back events for an eight- and an eleven- year old.

Please do not let our oversight reflect on the entire company. We are sincerely sorry to have disappointed any of you.  We so enjoy working on this blog and hope that you will give us the opportunity to earn back your trust.  We also would sincerely appreciate any suggestions and insight, as always, as to how we could improve this site to make it more enjoyable for you to read.

Thank you for all of your time and understanding.  We are here to answer any questions you may have. 

Sincerely,

Jenny Weston and Kelly Mooney

Inspiration From Joey

 

I've noticed that flowers are a huge inspiration in the scrapbooking industry. You see papers, ribbons, stamps, and embellishments in every shape, color, and form. Flowers are happy and pleasing and extremely universal because they can be used all the time.

Making Memories has an incredible variety and assortment of flowers so this month's challenge focuses on them. I wanted to create something that did not use paper - just fabulous embellishments from several different programs.

My page is very simple here, with a line of colorful, layered flowers. Sometimes, that is all you need, a punch of color to make your page your own.

Joey

To see Making Memories collection of blossoms, visit our website.