New Month, New Products!

My Favorite thing about being a creative memories consultant is that I get a sneak peek at new products before they are available! The spring release is usually a big one, and this spring is no different.










One of the hottest items released is the new Stork's Delivery Cricut cartridge. There are some very cute images on this cartridge, plus two fonts! What a great Value at only $55! Exclusively through your Creative Memories consultant!















Another cool product this March is the Paper Edger, which roughs up the edges of papers to give a nice distressed look to your project. It will work great with the new Rugged Power Palette. I love the look of this Palette, which is replacing the Discover Power Paletter. I like the dark colors and that it just looks so, well, Rugged! AND this month it is on sale for just $49.95, what a great deal! There are some great details in the paper embellishments, and they will be so versatile!





Okay, that's all I'm going to post right now, but be sure to visit www.creativememories.com, and browse the new products. If you decide to place an order, contact your consultant, or if you need one, I will gladly help you out!

Until next time,
Vanessa

Recent Project

Okay, so my most recent project is finishing up my holiday gifts for my kids' teachers at daycare. I'll post a couple of pics of it, but since I have pictures of other people's kids in it, I don't feel like I am free to post the whole thing. This is the first page, and my son's page. I am hoping to finish a similar book for my daughters class soon. Life has kept me on my toes lately! This project was done in Storybook Creator 3.0 Plus, and uses a variety of the digital artwork that is available. The First page uses art from the Discover "Cute as a bug" addition. Finley's page is from the Simple Start CD, which is pre-designed pages and click and fill pages.

I am horrible about posting!

So three months ago I said I was going to post weekly, and obviously, I have not been doing that. This year I am going to try harder to post as close to weekly as possible. One of my new years resolutions is to get into the studio and scrapbook more, and hopefully that will give me something to post more frequently.

Today I just have a quick project to post. It is our 2010 Christmas card. I'm really proud of it for a few reasons. First of all, I think it is adorable. I used a pre-designed page in Storybook Creator 3.0 Plus for the front of the card. To streamline things, I had our yearly letter printed on the inside. Then, on the back of the card, which is normally just wasted space, I put a picture of each of the kids. But the thing I am most proud of is that this year I actually MAILED my holiday cards. Having the pictures and letter already done made it so much easier to get the cards ready, and them being so cute made me more motivated to actually get them in the mail.

Anyway, here are the pictures of the cards:

Front

Inside

Back

I had the cards printed through the Creative Memories digital center, and I must say, I love how they turned out! The cards are a nice heavy weight and come in 10 or 20 packs with your choice of many envelope colors.

I hope you enjoyed looking!
Until next time - Vanessa

Memory Make Up Monday

So I am going to have a goal to scrapbook one page every Monday that I should have done a long time ago. This week I did a simple page with a picture from my son's 18 month photo shoot, (which was at more like 20 months I think...) I feel like there will be a second page to this spread with the rest of the pictures (or at least a few more) from the session.


For my background I used Cheerful School Additions Paper #4

For my photo mat I created a rectangle, colored it orange, applied the "torn" alpha gradient, then stretched the rectangle to distort the edge. Then, I made a copy of the rectangle, changed the size to be about 1/2" larger than the orange mat, then mirrored it about the vertical axis, and aligned it vertically and horizontally with the orange mat. I applied a slight 3-d edge to both mats.

I inserted a photo box to fit the mat.

Foe the stripe, I created a long thin rectangle the same orange, applied the "torn" alpha gradient, a 3-d edge, then offset it on the page so it looks like a painted stripe.

On the 18, I used the Best Buds fancy alpha. I used the magic wand to select the edges of the 1 and 8, made a copy of them, then applied a red color to the main 18 shape, then realigned and flattened the outline and the red layer together. I then applied a "carpet" surface to the 18, amplified to about 3.5.

Then I added my son's name in the font Goudy Stout, flattened it, and stretched it to fit in the orange area. Then I added the word "months" and "Christmas 2008" in Gill Sans Ultra Bold, and added to the layout.

Hope you enjoy the layout!

Until next time - Vanessa

Open House

With November comes the start of the holiday season. And with that, comes the annual Quad Cities area consultant Open House. This year 's event promises to be a great one.

We will be giving away:
Kodak Easy Share Digital Camera,
1 TB External Hard Drive,
Digital Video Camera!!!
There will be a Gift Buffet (FREE stuff for you!!)
Hint: Bring 3 or more new, grown-up friends for MORE FREE GIFTS, more chances to win and $10 off your purchase!!
Ideas, displays, cash & carry, kid's area, great giveaways, you can't miss it!!
VIP entry from 5-6.
Contact me with a $30 pre-order by Nov. 9th and you can come early too! There are other perks for VIPs besides early entry :)

Wow, it is almost November already!?!

When did that happen? School and work (and of course the kids!) are keeping me super busy! I have been making cards left and right using the new Reminisce Power Palette, it is great for fall themed weddings. I love the new flower shapes in the Reminisce line. I have also been giving the Everyday display board all dressed up for wedding gifts. And you know what? They turn out so pretty it seems a shame to wrap then up, so I don't! I put the wedding invitation, some coordinating paper, a picture or two of the couple, a copy of the program and a few paper flowers on the board. Super easy! Then, I make a coordinating card to go with it, and use a couple of the little clothespins to attach it to the clothesline.

In other news, I have made an online wish list form (it is off to the right there), if there is anything you have been eyeing, fill that out, let me know what it is you are interested in, and a few people who you typically exchange gifts with, and I will make sure those people are aware of what it is you would like this holiday season.

Until next time (and hopefully sooner than last time...)- Vanessa

My little loves!

I used the curved custom cutter tool around the kids & chair, made a copy of the shaded area, did the same around just the kids. Then I used the rubberstamp tool with blended color stamp selected of background layer, tinted it blue, aligned with the matching layer, adjusted opacity so the background showed through.
Then I added discover youth overlay5, apply 2 color gradient with blue and orange, rotated the overlay 37 degrees. Repeated rubber stamp with kids in chair layer, inverted color, selected purple color, hit apply, then I changed opacity, aligned with matching layer, added a heavy shadow to upper left. Added heavy shadow to upper left of kids layer. Then I added a blue frame from the Discover Power Palette, made it slightly opaque, align around heads, adjust size, made into a rubberstamp, tinted that brown, change opacity, offset from blue. Then I added a quote to finish it off. photo by Giraffe Photo

Enjoy!

Vanessa