Making Memories

Music Designer Challenge - Week Three

There is never a shortage of music with literally tens of thousands of songs out there. And, with MP3's and instant Internet access, we can acquire and download whatever we want, whenever we want. I think there is such a huge resource with music because most of us like it. We like how it makes us feel, or the memories it invokes. I have a friend who can instantly remember exactly where she was and the actual year when certain songs come on the radio. We have a connection with music and for quite a few of us; it partly defines who we are.

The challenge for the last two weeks focused on a literal incorporation - taking something directly from the song and using it in our projects. For this weeks music challenge, I thought I'd focus on pure inspiration. There are songs out there that just make us happy... or sad, or whatever. They do not necessarily have a deep meaning, but we make a connection with them anyway - based purely on the sound. My inspiration song for the "Playful Princess" layout is like that. It's "Who Let You Go?" by The Killers from their Sawdust CD. The words don't necessarily fit the theme of my page, but the music itself does. The rhythm and slower beat mimic these cute girls jumping on the trampoline and there is a playfulness in the instruments that makes me smile. Every once in awhile, a word will pop out of the lyrics that matches with my page and to me, it just works.

So, can you find one? Locate a song that inspires with the music and sound itself - not necessarily because of the lyrics, but because of how it makes you feel.

This week is also education week and I've incorporated a fun use for scrapbook shimmer. I LOVE bling. Making Memories' shimmer is perfect for adding some extra "gems" to the layout. I first applied a crystal glaze to large, flat brads and sprinkled the shimmer directly on it (on the flower brads as well). Making Memories has fabulous glitter brads, but like I said - I love bling and those are always the first to go. This is just an easy way to make your own. Also, I use the blades of scissors to hold the brad upright so the glaze dries flat - keeping everything clean and non-sticky.

 

Another fun way to use the Making Memories shimmer is to enhance existing papers. I dabbed little drops of glaze around the circles of the new Making Memories Paperie paper and sprinkled shimmer on them. A little goes a long way and so I randomly selected a few to enhance - adding just enough glimmer here and there. I also used this same idea on the journaling block. I love how each little 'bead' looks like a sparkling gemstone. This layout uses Making Memories Paperie paper (in rouge), 5th avenue, and Cheeky shimmer stickers.

Joey

Check back tomorrow to learn more about Making Memories' Slice.

Education Week - Clear Stamps

My assignment was to use Making Memories' clear stamps to create a page.  Since Halloween is just around the corner, I decided to pull out some of the new Making Memories' Spellbound product, including the coordinating stamps.  As soon as I saw the little spider stamp, I remembered these fun cupcakes my neighbor brought over to us last year. 

I wanted to make some cute little spider accent pieces, so I used StazOn ink and stamped spiders onto some of the buttons (from Making Memories Spellbound Embellishment Box). 

While they were drying, I used the mini letter stamps and started writing my journaling on the background paper.  Making Memories' puffy letter stickers have spiderwebs too...so I worked those into my page.  I love that everything works together to created a fun and spooky stamped spider page!

Wendy

Check back tomorrow to see how Joey uses Making Memories' shimmer.

Education Week - Grommets

Having only girls white, black and pink is one of my favorite color combinations. For this page, I used Making Memories big grommets. The ones that I had was all assorted colors and in creating this page I just wanted plain white. So, I took out some white spray paint and in five minutes, I had nine white grommets. Next I used some of Making Memories glitter clear flowers and using a fine point scissors, cut out  a one inch circle in the middle for the grommet to fit in. I did this nine times.

 

I cut my pictures out in one inch circles and adhered it to the back of the flower grommet with some magic tape.

The white part of the page is watercolor paper on which I painted with pink watercolor paint. I made sure to splash the brush a little just for those happy watercolor drops! Then I used foam squares to adhere the grommet flowers to the page. I also stitched the white part of the page to Making Memories black 5th Avenue Patterned paper.

Please show me the pages you make with grommets!
Smiles and love
Wilna
x

Check back tomorrow to see Wendy's great idea using Making Memories' clear stamps.

Education Week - Specialty Paints

This week is education week. The kids are back in school and now it is your turn to brush up on your scrapbooking skills. Making Memories is here to help! All week our designers are going to create projects using our most popular tools. They will show you new ways to incorporate these tools on your scrapbook projects. Today we are learning about Making Memories specialty paints.

I absolutely love Making Memories’ special effects paints so I wanted to show you some fun and unique ways to use them. I am a big fan of anything that is shiny and sparkly and I love to add a little of that on my scrapbook layouts whenever I can.

First I wanted to stamp a subtle pattern on my background but I also wanted it to be shiny and a little sparkly so I chose Making Memories’ rose pearl glaze. I love how it catches the light and has just a bit of that sparkly sheen to it. I used one of the Making Memories clear stamps and
a paint brush to apply a thin coat of paint to the stamp. Then I just created a random pattern on the right edge of my background paper (I use Making Memories Noteworthy paper). I made sure to apply a new coat of paint to the stamp each time I stamped it.

Next I used the specialty glaze in gold and painted it on my chipboard flourish shape. Once it was dry I added another coat, this time using the specialty glaze clear gloss to add more shine.

I wanted to add some interest to my Making Memories blossoms so I used the specialty glaze in silver and gold and another clear stamp. Again I painted the glaze onto the stamp and then pressed it right onto the flowers to create the image. You can also see that I used the silver and gold and some more clear stamps to stamp the images that are right next to my photo.

Finally I wanted to use the clear bracket shape but I wanted it to be purple to fit with my color scheme. I could have painted the front of it but then you would not be able to see the pattern that is in the shape. So, instead I painted the back of it using the specialty glaze amethyst. This changed the color of the bracket from white to purple but it still allows the pattern to show through.

I finished off my page with a few more touches of glitz – Making Memories’ rhinestones and buttons, added my journaling and I was done. It seems like a lot of steps but all of these techniques are really pretty easy. Once you have chosen your clear stamps and the specialty glazes you want to use, it all comes together fairly quickly. It is just a matter of having the right tools and making them work for you to take your layouts to the next level.

I hope you enjoy trying these techniques on your own layouts!

Maggie

Making sure to check back tomorrow so Wilna can show you some great ideas using Making Memories grommets.

Three Winners

We have three winners. The following people will receive the Paperie Collection from Making Memories:

Christine Villacarlos
Cheryl Sue
Stine H Maansen

If you are a winner, email me (jweston@makingmemories.com) your address so we can send your prize! What a great way to start a Friday.

Stay tuned for details about what this new surprise might be.

Music Designer Challenge – Week Two

Well, here we are at the second week of our music designer challenge. Last week we focused on using a title for inspiration and creating a new layout using the title from a song - as is. This week, we are going to use the lyrics as journaling.

One of my favorite things about all kinds of music is how it is interpreted. The song is written with the musical artist's feelings and creativity at heart, but it is open to our own personal views. Someone might find a certain song particularly romantic where the artist never intended it to be so. "Every Breath You Take" by The Police is a perfect example of that; Sting wrote the song with a stalking theme in mind but it is "our song" to many couples. This is what I love - it does not really matter what the original meaning was, just what it means to you.

On my "It's Summertime" layout, I actually had a difficult time deciding on the song to use. The photo holds so many different thoughts for me that lyrics from three different songs could have been just as effective. I went with a song from The Flaming Lips, also titled "It's Summertime" because everything about the picture fits the song. It WAS Summertime when I took the photo and my daughter was a little sad at the time. That is the emotion that is most reflected in the lyrics and even in the melody. It even helped inspire the colors and size of the layout. Had the lyrics been longer, I'd have opted for a 12" x 12" page.

So - find a song that speaks to you. A song where you can use the lyrics as your journaling and have fun with another new page this week! This layout was created using Making Memories' new Paperie collection (in poolside), Making Memories' Noteworthy collection (in Delaney), and Making Memories felt alphabet stickers.

Also, in case you are curious - here are the other two songs I had in mind: The Girl With The Loneliest Eyes; by House Of Love - and Invincible; by Muse.

Joey

What do Jennifer Pebbles, Laura Vegas, Wendy Bretz, and Stephanie Ackerman have in common? Well, for starters, they are the latest additions to the ever- expanding Making Memories Design team. The other thing they have in common? It's a secret!

Yes, Making Memories is at it again. We're in the development phase of yet another exciting project, and before we let on to what it is, we want to hear your guesses. Post your guess to our blog and we'll select three people at random who will receive a bundle of our new Paperie collection, which starts shipping to stores this month. PLUS, they will be the first on the list to receive this yet-to-be revealed creation. Hmmm. Whatever could it be?

Guest Designer Monica Ferri

Today we are excited to have Monica Ferri as our guest designer. A few weeks ago Monica sent me an email of a layout she created using Making Memories' Noteworthy die-cuts.  I love how she used the die-cuts as an element on her page and wanted to share. 

This is how she did it.

1. Select a group of Making Memories' die-cuts and embellishments that you want to use and lay them out across the space you have to work with.  I used Making Memories' Noteworthy collection.

2. On this project, I interspersed a lot of pink, brown, and blue embellishments across the page and tried to spread out the variety of shapes and colors. When you do this, keep layering until you see a balance across the page and adhere your pieces to the page.

3. I also wanted to use larger shapes on my layout so I punched out some circles of Noteworthy patterned paper and embellished them with shimmer brads and dimensional glitter stickers.

Thanks Monica for sharing your layout with us.

Photo Tip from Wilna

For most of us that love to scrapbook, one of the main things is to share our albums with family and friends. The fact that my family lives in England and In South Africa, makes that a little difficult! One way that I love to share my scrapbooks are online with online albums and also on my blog. One thing that I have realized through the years is that scanning a page is not really an option for me anymore. Because we work 3D, the embellishments  is a problem when you scan plus the fact that the color is never jest the same. So, a few years back I started to take pictures of my pages. One thing that's a real comfort to my heart is that all my pages are on a digital format and are posted online so that should anything happens to my actual scrapbooks, the effect will not be as devastating.
Today I want to share with you a few tips on how to take pictures of your pages in a few easy steps.

1. I bought this $5-00 easel at Michael's and use it to place my pages on. As a back, I have a piece to cardboard just to keep the page upright.

2. Find a good light source. As you can see in this picture, I place the little table in front of the big window. This will let the colors look as true as possible. Natural light is by far the best light source for taking pictures of your projects.

3. Now you can take the picture. A few tips here: I always set my camera's picture size smaller. Because most of the pictures will be posted online, you don't need huge files. I also take one or two pictures as sometimes one might be out of focus.

4. Open Your photo editing software. I use Photoshop Elements 6 which you can download for a trial month. You can also use online photo editing sites like Photobucket and the Scrapblog. Once your picture is open, you can straighten and crop it to a square size. I always use 5x5. If your colors are not the same as your page, you can run levels and adjust the brightness a little. I seldom change the colors itself.

If your page is filled with detail and you want to show it, do a close up of the page at an angle. That way you can show the 3D effect at it's best.'

Please ask me Questions if you want to know more or even if you have some suggestions that might work better. I still love to learn new tips and tricks!!
Happy picture taking!
Love
Wilna

Guest Designer - Laura Barefoot

How many times have you rushed to a party or were in need of a card for a gift and had none? Handmade cards mean so much to when you give them away. Today's guest designer, Laura Barefoot, is going to share some of her tips to making beautiful handmade cards.

I absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE everything in the Animal Crackers collection, but especially the little die-cut animals and glittered paper.  How do they make it stick like that?!  I feel like I have a NASA invention in my studio.  It's so nice when I don't have to worry about the glitter getting all over the place and eventually not being on my project at all.  I can't tell you how many times I've gone to work looking like I've just been visited by a swarm of little fairies.  That's not exactly apart of the Army uniform.  Uncle Sam isn't exactly a glitter-lovin' dude, you know.

Here are some easy steps to create this card.

1. Cut glitter dot paper to 4 1/4" x 11." Score and fold to create a card.

TIP: Not all cards have to open from the side!

2. Cut a piece of orange polka dot paper to 3 3/4" x 4 3/4" and scallop punch the short end. Mat on a dark brown piece of cardstock and trim. Adhere this piece to the front of the card.

3. Cut a piece of stripe paper to 1 3/4" x 4 1/4" and mat on dark brown cardstock. Tie a piece of ribbon to the lower half of this piece and adhere to the front of the card as shown.

4. Cut a piece of light pink paper to 2 1/2" x 3" and mat on dark brown cardstock.

5. Using a piercing template and a paper piercer, create a boarder around the pink piece of paper. Apply to the front of the card using a dimensional adhesive (such as Making Memories' Sticky Squares).

6. Attach die-cut elephant to the center of pink block using a dimensional adhesive.

7. Attach self-adhesive gemstones to the front of the card.

8. Step back and admire your work.

As a bonus, here are two more card ideas.