Making Memories

Holiday Chipboard Challenge

I love Christmas. I think because it’s the time of year where we take things a little slower, are able to breathe deeper and spend some time lavishing creativity on our friends and family; making Christmas cards, setting up the tree, baking some Christmas cookies, making gifts and of course decorating our houses. These fabulous chipboard shapes from Making Memories inspired me to make a “lighted door hanger”.

How To:

1.  Decorate the chipboard shapes by painting the snowflake gold and the Christmas ball red.

2.  Add some bling by making patterns with white craft glue on the chipboard shapes and sprinkling it with glitter.

3.  Add stickers to chipboard shapes. 

4.  Dry brush and add a little gold paint to the Christmas ball.

I used the Holiday Alphabet Stickers and wrote “JOY”, “peace” and “love” by sticking the alphas on a transparency and cutting it out in a rectangle just around the word.

To assemble the Christmas hanger, I used some gold ribbon and twisted it around the Christmas lights adding some jingle bells I found at Wal-Mart (I used about 10 bells). With an extra piece of ribbon I tied the chipboard and words to it and hanged it over the door.

Upload your projects when you are done so we can all see.

Happy Holidays!

Wilna Furstenberg

   

Winners!

Congratulations to the following people who entered our “Thank You” contest.

The following people will be receiving MM’s new Kraft paper.

Tracy Rizzo

Joanna Campbell

Fabienne Cumunel

Kristy Zavorka

Lisa Moore

Congrats!

What's New in December?

A closer look at items you can find at your local scrapbook retailer in December.

Grommet Tool Kit & Grommets

The fashion world has embraced the oversized bag and the oversized hoops. Now, the crafting world has embraced the oversized eyelet, better known as, the grommet. Get these must-haves in large and small circles or flowers, for use as page accents, book closers, borders, frames and more.  The must have new tool for you and any crafter on your gift list. 

Grommets are available in 6 skus including large and small circles in – pink, orange and red; silver; purple, green and blue; and white.  In addition, flower grommets are available  in both pink and purple; and silver and white packs.

Open Stock Photo Décor

Share your special memories through-out your home with our open stock photo décor products.  Previously available in kits, our photo blocks in 3.5” and 5.5” and our photo flip frame are now available raw and ready for you to add your own creative touch.

The Grommet Tool Kit contains a large and small hole punch, and a large and small setting tool in our signature storage tin. 

In addition, each kit contains 12 colorful grommets to get you started in style. 

Giving to Others

The holiday season is now upon us.  It's a great time to think about the ones that we love the most.  It's also a great time to give to those who may be less fortunate than us or those who may need a little extra love.  Here are some easy ways to give to others at this time of year. 

-Donate food to local food pantries or help serve food at a homeless shelter

-Donate to a toy drive for children

-Give financially to organizations that help others

-Take time to give blood

For more information about specific events that are happening at a local level, check out your community websites. 

If anything else, remember the meaning of the season:  share a smile with strangers, let cars in front of you on the freeway, tip generously, and spread kindness where ever you can. Everyone deserves to have a reason to celebrate and you may be the one that helps to accomplish that for someone else. 

If you have other ideas on how to help, post a comment so we can all see.

Need some great gift ideas for the holidays?

Do you need some great gift ideas for the holidays or something to send to your significant other as a hint for yourself?  Back in September we asked you what you wanted.  We've tallied up your answers to create MM's top 10 list of great gifts ideas for this holiday season.  Take a look.  You can order these products online or you can find a local retailer in your area.  Look for the Tag Maker Punch and Grommet Tool in your local store in December.  The big day will be here quicker than you know it, so don’t wait to long.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!  We hope you are able to spend some time with the people that you love the most.

A typical day in the life of Maggie

Ever wonder what a “typical” day is in the life of a scrapbook designer?  Well here is a sneak peak into the life of Maggie. 

It was kind of hard for me to say what a typical day is for me because every day is usually a little different. With three little boys, we are definitely busy around here and you have to be ready for anything. I do find that we all work better on a schedule though so we try to stick to this as much as possible!!

6:45 am - wake up and get ready for the gym

7 - gym

8 am - check email and have breakfast

8:30 am - get the kids ready and pick up the house

9 am - get myself ready

10 am - computer time or scrapbooking

11 am - lunch and play with the boys

11:50 am - take the two older boys to school

12:15 pm - put the little one down for his nap

12:30 pm - scrapbooking or laundry/cleaning

3 pm - the boys get home from school

3:30 pm - snacks, homework, play

5 pm - start preparing dinner and pick up the house again

6 pm - eat dinner

7pm - bathe the kids, read stories and tuck them in

8 pm - stop and breathe!! hang out with Brian

10pm - lights out!

 

Thank You

Hopefully you get a chance to take some time to think about all the things you are thankful for during this Thanksgiving season.  One thing that we are thankful for among many is all of YOU.  There would be no reason to have a blog if we didn’t have people like all of you to read it, so with that being said, THANK YOU!!!  Thank you for continuing to come back to take a look at the blog, thank you for all of your feedback and comments, thank you for participating in our Thursday challenges and thank you for your enthusiasm.  We can’t begin to tell you how happy and excited that makes us.  To show our appreciation for all of you, we are going to do a giveaway.  We are going to give away our new Kraft paper to 5 lucky winners.  Enter by posting a comment and telling us five things that you are thankful for.  Winners will be announced Wednesday, November 29th. 

Thanks again!

Making Memories

Winners of Favorite Traditions

Congratulations to Etta, Lauren Shaw, Marguerita, Diana and Jordan.  They will be receiving MM’s new Wall Text. 

We though we would share their favorite traditions.

• Ever since I was very young, my family's Thanksgiving tradition is to sit down after the big meal and watch the movie WHITE CHRISTMAS. This tradition officially kicks off the Christmas season and really gets us into the holiday spirit. I'm pretty sure my mom and I can quote every word in the entire movie. Of course, the men in the family pretend not to like this tradition, but we know they are just pretending!! - Etta
• Our ancestors bought property at a beach in South Africa long time ago and to this day the houses are all still in our extended family. Every year we all go down to the beach houses and celebrate Christmas there. My favorite tradition is going to church for Midnight mass with our family where we take up four full rows in church, and then on Christmas day to gather together almost 4 generations of families to prepare, cook and eventually celebrate Christmas together! - Lauren Shaw
• My favorite holiday of the year is coming up on December 5th: Sinterklaas! It's a Dutch tradition like your Santa but different. It's all about fun. We drew tickets with each others names on them and have to make them a 'surprise' with a gift inside and a poem/rhyme on the outside. This year I have my dad as my victim and he wants a memory stick (I guess we can all guess what I will make him: a stick and paint it and then use my MM foam stamps to stamp Memory on it. Of course the real gift will be hidden somewhere on it too). I love the fun, the preparations, the candy (perpenoten), the smell of the jute sack which holds all the gifts and the children’s songs and excitement! - Marguerita
• Three years ago a family in our community lost their father at the age of 30 to a rare cancer. The children at the time were only 4 and 7. The mother struggles financially and won't accept any form of charity.  So every Christmas season I get together with a handful other Moms and we go shopping for them. We buy them clothes, toys, books, gift certificates for Safeway, Khols, Mervyns, and the local theater, and a few little things for the Mom. On Christmas Eve we make a full Christmas dinner and hire a Santa to bring it and the gifts to them. All of our kids are in on as well and have never told. This will be our third year and she has no clue who's doing it  - it's so much fun) The fact that we can put a smile on their faces on Christmas is such an incredible feeling.  I urge everyone to try it. Even though it's a new tradition it's totally my favorite. - Diana
• My favorite Christmas memory is walking into my grandparent’s home Christmas morning and the smell of fresh scones. My grandma's scones are the best, and with her homemade raspberry jelly, it was something the whole family waited for every year. Grandma and grandpa would always be wearing an apron, with flour on it. As grandpa served us our eggs, he would ask "how fresh are these eggs" and after over 20 years of this question, you would reply "so fresh the chick laid them on my plate". Now this will be the second Christmas without my grandparents, but we still make my grandmas recipe of her homemade scones, and you will here a few times "how fresh are these eggs?" I hope that that question, and the taste of Christmas scones are in my family forever! - Jordan

Congratulations to those who won.  I sent you an email, so let me know your address so I can send your prize.

Apple Pie (Double Crust or Crumb Topped)

This yummy recipe comes from Becky.  Becky is Kevin’s wife (MM’s art director).  She’s known around the office as a great baker. She makes wedding cakes and every desert that you can think of.  We LOVE when Kevin brings treats to the office.  Becky said “This apple pie recipe is a sure favorite for anyone who tries it.  We always make this pie at Thanksgiving and Christmas.  This is the only fruit pie my husband will eat.  I come from a large family (9 kids) and my mom would always make 6-10 pies depending on who came to Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner.  The apple pies would always be the first to disappear.  This recipe is from an old version of the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook.  When my mom bought a new Better Homes and Gardens cookbook about 20 years ago, she was disappointed to find that the apple pie recipe had been changes to one with less sugar and no fat.  We prefer the more fattening, sugar-filled version.  If it makes you feel better, just remember it is a FRUIT pie.”

6-7 tart apples

3/4 –1 cup sugar (Mom suggests 1 cup)

2 Tablespoons flour

1/2 – 1 tsp cinnamon (Mom suggests 1 tsp)

dash nutmeg

dash salt

2 T butter (She would put in more like 4 T of butter)

1-2 pre-made pie shells (my favorite are the folded kind in the refrigerator section)

Cut the apples, place in a pot, just cover with water and boil them for a few minutes until they are slightly soft.  Drain and cool.  Mix the sugar, flour, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt in a large bowl.  Add the cooled apples to the mixture and stir until completely coated.  Pour mixture into prepared pie shell and put the 2nd pie shell over the top.  Crimp the edges and make sure to cut a few steam holes into the pie top.  Make a design, use a cookie cutter – whatever.  To give the crust a little sparkle, sprinkle sugar on the top crust.

For the crumb top

When I use the crumb top I only add 1/2 to 3/4 a cup of sugar into the apple mixture (depending on the sweetness of the apples) because the topping is so much sugar.

1/2 cup flour

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

2 Tablespoons butter

Combine flour and brown sugar.  Cut in butter till mixture resembles coarse crumbs; sprinkle over filling.  Cover edge with foil.  Bake in a 375 degree oven for 25 minutes.  Remove foil and bake 20 or 25 minutes until top is golden and fruit is tender. 

Don’t forget the fresh whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.