Making Memories

We have a winner......

Thank you to all who posted a comment on 6/12 letting us know about your favorite fonts. 

Congratulations to Latharia.  She will soon be enjoying a slew of MM stickers, foam stamps and rub-ons.

To everyone else, have a wonderful weekend.

Design Challenge - What Inspires You?

Today our Thursday designer challenge comes to us all the way from Spain from Liana.  Liana’s challenge today is to create a page about something that inspires you.  This could include anything from the photos you have, your history, landscapes, people in your life that have had a special influence on you, just to name a few.  We all are inspired in different ways, so figure out what it is that you are inspired by and document that.  Share what inspires you by posting your creation on the MM website.

Liana was kind enough to share two layouts with us about a special someone that inspires her.

Tara Whitney's doing a Funky Vintage Giveaway

Most of you are familiar with Tara Whitney, if you are not, you should be.  Her skills in photography are absolutely stunning. Today Tara is hosting a MM giveaway.  The prize is $150 worth of the MM Funky Vintage line that just started shipping this month. 

Head on over to her blog and post a comment about your favorite MM product and while you are there take a look at her fabulous work. 

What a great day this is going to be!

What Are Your Favorite Fonts?

And what sites do you use to download your latest typography discoveries?

Tell us about the lettering that inspires you by posting a comment on our blog and we'll reward one lucky winner with a HUGE collection of some of our favorite type-based goods including Rub-Ons, Foam Stamps, and a supercalifragilisticexpialidocious collection of alphabet stickers!

Share your great finds today on our blog and keep your fingers crossed. You might just be the lucky winner!  The lucky winner will be announced on Friday, June 15th.

Wendy Shares Her Design Process

When I was asked to share a little bit about my “design process,” I didn’t really know how to start. It seems that usually I’m working on a project that’s an assignment – which means I have certain products or a certain theme that I need to use, and that’s where it all begins.  However, I decided to approach this little assignment by sharing the process I go through when I’m creating a scrapbook page “just for me,” with no assignment, no guidelines, no rules.  Here’s the rundown:

1.  First of all, I begin by choosing a subject – sometimes, especially if I’m scrapbooking an even, I begin with a photo, but oftentimes (and my most favorite type of layout) I begin with the journaling or idea I want to share.  It’s not hard to do this because I have a little notebook where I jot down little things the kids do or say that I want to scrapbook about sometime.

2.  Next, I choose the photos I want to use.  And I pull out a bunch of product that I may potentially use – I ALWAYS pull out way more than I will ever use on one page, but this way I have a lot of options staring right at me. 

3.  Usually, but not always, I pull out my little inspiration notebook where I have little ideas jotted down.  Mostly, my notebook is filled with sketches of layouts.   A sketch gives me a starting point, and I start to lay things out according to the sketch, but usually, my finished product looks nothing like the sketch I started with – It’s just something I use as a “jumping off” point. 

4.  I begin laying things out – and have a pretty good idea of where I want everything to be BEFORE I attach anything. 

5.  It seems I can’t do anything without using my sewing machine, so next I’ll add a little bit of stitching here and there. 

6.  Now, I’ll get everything attached and write my journaling.  I really like handwriting my journaling, but if I have a lot to say, I’ll type it and print it out before attaching everything. 

I love that there is no “cut & dry” way to scrapbook.  What works for me might not work for you, and that doesn’t make either of us right or wrong.  Scrapbooking is all about recording events and ideas and feelings – the fact that it’s so much fun is just icing on the cake!!

Wendy Sue Anderson

And The Winner Is………

COURTNEY DELAURA!  She was one of the many that guesses what product was featured in the Pottery Barn catalog.  It was our white velvet stickers.  Courtney will be receiving not only the velvet stickers but the Simply Fabulous collection that goes with those stickers.  Courtney, email me at blog@makingmemories.com with your address.

If you didn’t win today, no worries.  Check back on Tuesday for another chance at a great prize.

Old Product New Use Challenge - Blossoms

I know that when paper flowers first came out we all went crazy and bought a jillion of them! Right?? I know that I have them in every size and color of the rainbow!! It's a good thing that they are still cute and fun to use because I don't think I will ever run out!! And I do find that I still use

them a lot, but I usually just stick them on with a brad or a button in the center. My challenge this week is to pull out your blossoms and find a new way to use them. Think outside of the box and try something different with them that you haven't done before. Let's make them fresh and new again!!

For my layout, I used the large and regular sized blossoms and I altered them. First I used foam stamps and silver paint to stamp flourishes on them and then I traced over the flourishes with a black marker to make the design stand out a little more. Then I rubbed a little more silver paint around the edges of each blossom to finish them off.  To attach them I still used brads and buttons but I clustered a lot of crystal brads in the centers of the largest blossoms to create a more dramatic effect. Try this technique or come up with your own - just have fun and be creative! Be sure to load your pages onto the MM gallery so that we can all see what you did!!

Maggie

Can you spot the MM product?

I don't know if you have seen your recent Pottery Barn catalog, but if you look closely you will notice some MM product used as a prop.  Can you spot it?  Look closely and take a guess by posting your comment.  We will pick a winner to win the product shown along with some other goodies.  We will post the winner on Friday, June 8th.

Look closely!

Poster Profile - Tracy Wyldman

Today we are playing the “getting to know you game” with Tracy Wyldman.  Tracy lives in South West of Sydney in NSW Australia with her husband Roberts of almost 17 years and her three gorgeous children (Lauren, age 16 and twins Alastair and Felicity, age 7) and let’s not forget to mention her two dogs, three cats, two ducks and 25 chickens.  Tracy is a true craft-a-holic.  You name a craft and I guarantee she has tried it.  Apart from scrapbooking, she enjoys photography (she has a Canon EOS 400D) patchwork, X-Stitch and knitting.  On a nice sunny afternoon, you would typically see her cruising along on her Yamaha XVS 650.  What a true champ. 

Tracy started scrapbooking 4 ½ years ago.  She saw and ad in a magazine for a free beginners classes, so she couldn’t help but give it a try.  After one class, she was hooked and now scrapbooking is part of her daily life in one way or another.  It should be no surprise that her favorite subjects to scrapbook are her three adorable children. 

Tracy’s all time favorite project was a scrap journal that she designed for Tarisota Collections, were she is a design team member.  This month-by-month journal is a place for her to record scrapbooking achievements, jot down different ideas and sketches, make the never ending to-do lists, record events, etc.  This is one thing that helps her stay on top of everything in her life.

Tracy admits that it’s pretty easy for her to make a horrid mess when she scrapbooks, so if she had to offer one bit of advice, it would be to clean up after each project.  This little piece of advice helps keep yourself organized without having it become too overwhelming.  In regards to projects, she admits that she hates to part with the things that she has made, but last year she did finally give something away.  Tracy made an album for her twins teacher (it was her first year of teaching).  She took individual photos of each of the kids and had each of them do a drawing, photos from book week, sports carnivals and excursions were also included plus a few photos of the teacher herself.  Tracy handmade the album and filled it with treasures she had collected for her, then decorated a box to hold everything in.  The teacher was so touched to receive such a wonderful gift, the album that she cried and said it will become a treasured possession.  Here are some other projects from Tracy. 

      

MM's New Travel Collection

Whether you’re a road warrior or a frequent flyer, our Travel collection is just for you. Relive your journeys with double-sided papers, stickers, albums, page kits, dimensional embellishments and more. Get out there and see the world!

Check out these page samples using our newest travel collection. 

General Travel Program

Tropical Travel Program