CM Virtual Digital NSD

Creative Memories Go Digital is a FB page.  It is run by Creative Memories headquarters.  This past weekend they ran a Virtual National Scrapbook Day event - THERE WAS A LOT THERE!  There were some great lessons, a bunch of challenges, and more digital embellishment FREEBIES than you can imagine.  If you visit the FB page, all of the these lessons, tutorials and events will still be there for some time.  Make sure to visit.  Although I have watched all the lessons, I am just starting to work my way through them.  Since I'm currently creating a digital album of my son's years in high school, I am taking advantage of these lessons and putting them into practice right away, page by page.

Last night I played with a technique for making folded flowers.  One page has a few typos because it was WAY later than I had planned to be up digitally scrapbooking.  I will correct the typos - no worries.  However, I thought I'd share my two folded flowers pages.  Give them a try and see what you can come up with.

I'll be posting any pages I make from my Virtual NSD lessons.  Happy Digi Scrapping!

Pages made with Digital Embellishment Borders

It's one thing to make a bunch of really cool digital borders - but then, you have to use them on a page and get it printed or make a storybook so that it can be enjoyed by everyone!

Here are two pages that I made using the digital embellishment border technique.

Happy Digi Scrapping!

Challenge 54

Over on the Pixels2Pages website, I was inspired by Challenge 54, a P2P2DO by talented pixie Kim Mannino.  These borders remind me so much of traditional scrapbooking but I didn't have to get out a single tool or tape runner to make them!

These are fast and fun and a sure bet for prettying up your pages!

Happy Digi Scrapping!

Digital Embellishment Borders

This is a new kind of digital border I invented using Creative Memories Storybook Creator PLUS.

I have a FREE handout about how to make these cute borders.  If you are a public follower of my blog, you can contact me here and I'll send it to you by email. 

Happy Digi Border Scrapping!

Spring Summer Borders Do It Digital

This week on the Pixels2Pages website, a P2P2Do was mentioned about making borders for your digital pages.  I love this idea!  I thought I'd give it a go.  I want to make some basic borders following their examples, but I thought I'd see if I could re-create the borders I'd made traditionally in the digital style.  I started with the watermelon bunting.

Although I could have created circles of green, white, red, etc.. I used a watermelon slice from a Creative Memories package, already created.  This made the border come together faster, but it would have been quite possible and even pretty easy to create the digital watermelon slices they same way I did it with tools traditionally.

I think I'm going to give my hand at some more borders.

Happy Digi Scrapping!

Borders on the Brain - DigiStyle

Okay - digital borders have got my number!  I just found a really fun way to make digital borders.  It's fast and easy and will add a sensational look to your page.

Digital borders work great when you have a lot of photos on your page and you don't have a lot of room for digital paper and embellishments. 

I've created several digital embellishment borders below.

To make a digital embellishment border, pull up a blank page.  I used a 12X12.  Select the CONTENT tab in Storybook Creator Plus 3.0.  The select the Embellishment tab.  From the drop down menu, pick a digital additions pack or a digital themed kit.

Select individual embellishments and line them up vertically.  I dragged one corner and made each one substantially smaller though I didn't make them all the same size.  I used the "bigger" ones first and spaced them out somewhat evenly.  I filled in with the "smaller" or more decorative embellishments.  You may need to rotate your embellishment to get it to fit well with the ones around it.  You may also wish to use the "order" command to direct which embellishments will show up on top of others.  Play around with it until you get it the way you like.

Once it looks good to you visually, hold down the shift button and choose each embellishment in the border until they are all selected.  Then, flatten them together.  Once they are flattened, I added a 3D edge to mine.  I used the settings, amount 80, softness 0, width 10 to get the look I liked.

I left my borders in their original colors though you could change the color of your borders or add a colorwash or even turn them black and white.  The sky is the limit for embellishment borders.

In the above borders I used these Creative Memories digital packages to create my borders:

Cheerful Zoo, Cheerful Summer, Spring Digital Appreciation, Classic Celebration and Primary Fourth of July.

Give 'em a try!  Happy Digi Scrapping.

Summer Borders Digital - DONE

Did them all digital - it was fun.  Try it.  Create some traditional borders or go back to some traditional borders you loved from long ago and try to recreate them for use on a digital page!

Don't forget - to enter you need to do TWO things!

I've received some questions about the contest.

You must take TWO actions to be entered to win.  ONE - follow my blog publicly and TWO - post a comment after the blog post about the contest.

Happy Scrapping!  Sher

BLOG GIVEAWAY - my first ever contest

Well, today is the day I will reveal how to enter my FIRST EVER BLOG GIVEAWAY! This post will give the details about entering the FREE contest, will show photos of your prize and will detail each border with instructions on how to make it.  Keep reading.

I’m giving away 4 Spring Borders and 4 Summer Borders to ONE lucky winner!  In order to enter the contest, you MUST do the following:

1.     Be a public follower of my blog (click the follow button in the left side of my blog page)
2.     Leave a comment on this post as to why you’d like to win these borders

If you are interested in other types of crafts, you can also follow my other blog, Fly the Coop Crafts.  The link is www.flythecoopcrafts.blogspot.com. If you publicly follow that blog, I will enter an additional chance for you in the spring/summer border contest. If you do choose for follow Fly the Coop Crafts, make sure to notify me by comment or email so I know to add you to the contest. 

If your comment about why you want to win is fantastic, I’ll enter ANOTHER chance in the contest for you. (total of 3 chances are possible)

If you need assistance following or commenting, please contact me and I’ll help you.  I can be contacted by email at cmsher@gmail.com.

Here are the photos of the borders (in groups):

4 spring borders

4 summer borders

How I will pick the winner.  I will enter all public followers who make a comment into a drawing bucket along with any additional chances they have earned.  When my public followers reach 100 people, I’ll draw the winning name.  The contest will end on May 30^th. 

If I don’t have 100 followers by that date, I’ll have to start a new contest.  I must have 100 followers by May 30^th to give away the borders.

How I will get the borders to the winner.  I will put the borders in the US Postal mail and send them at my own cost.  I will offer to send the borders to an international winner – contest participants do NOT have to be from USA.

BONUS:  If I reach the 100 followers by May 15^th, I will also give the winner the flower journaling box.   I will not pick a winner BEFORE May 15^th even if I exceed the 100 follower requirement.

BONUS! flower journaling box

HELP:  If you wish to ASSURE that I get enough followers to have the drawing, encourage your friends, customers, fellow scrapbookers, etc… to follow and enter.

What if you don’t win and you’d like to make the borders yourself? No problem.  Individual photos of the borders are posted below along with basic instructions.  If you are a Creative Memories consultant and would like a copy of a handout to share with your customers or downline, I will send that to you by email – you will need to request it from me by email at cmsher@gmail.com  I may also post that on the network forum.

Credits – Please be respectful. If you plan to post my borders and/or instructions on your own blog or web page, please link to my blog and give credit to me.  I think sharing and copying is an awesome thing.  I’m happy to inspire others.  Just please be respectful and give credit whenever using a photo or blog post from my blog.

What next?  Well… if this contest goes smoothly, you’d better believe I’ll want to run another contest and I already have some really fun ideas for additional borders that I can’t wait to make!

Notes about my borders.  Several of them were inspired by the creative designers at the CreativeMemories project center.  Please visit the project center for additional designs and inspirations in both digital AND traditional scrapbooking.  Also, all of my borders were made using Creative Memories tools, paper, embellishments and adhesives.  In my instructions, I have not used the correct names for the Creative Memories papers as I made these borders using my Creative Memories paper scraps -  several of the papers I used are now retired products.  Please feel free to substitute other papers as necessary.

If you don’t currently have a Creative Memories consultant serving you and you’d like to purchase products and tools, you can visit my website at www.mycmsite.com/sjenkins and click the SHOP tab to make a purchase.  If you already have a consultant, please go to your consultant’s website to make any product purchases.

Below are the borders and basic instructions (most you can figure out how to make just by looking at them but I have included some measurements that I used if you wish to be more exact).

1. Flower Brownie

•            Border strip: 12” X 1.25” (white)
•             Flowers: Friendship Maker (brown) – 15 each
•             Flower Centers:  Bubble Maker mixed sizes; variety of orange papers
•             Tips:  easiest to put dot of pen adhesive on flower not on flower center
•             Inspiration: Brownie Girl Scouts

2. Cottage Flower Border

•            Border strip:  12” X 1.25” (light green)
•             Flowers: Friendship Maker (pink) -7 each
•             Flower Centers – Pink and Green Dual Tip Pens, round tip
•             Flower Vine – Pink Round Tip Pen, Green Fine tip pen
•             Tips – every other flower is attached with the foam squares

 

3. Kite Border (inspired by cM project center) - picture is sideways

•            Border Strip:  12” X 1.25” (white)       
• Kite Squares: 1” (4 for each kite, 1 each of 4 colors)
•            Kite Background:  2.25” X 2.25” square (black) cut with Postage Stamp Rotary Blade
•             Kite String: Black Round Tip Pen
•             Kite String Flowers: Friendship Maker, use kite colors (total of 5)
•             Tips:  Next time I’d make the Kite Background 2X2 instead

4. Hummingbird Border (inspired by cM project center)

•            Border Strip: 12” X 2.25” light blue
•             Inner Border Strip:  12” X 1.25” pale yellow, cut with postage stamp rotary blade
•             Center Border Strip: 12” X .5” light green, cut with postage stamp rotary blade
•             Hummingbirds: 3 dark purple, 3 light purple (facing different directions)
•             Flowers: Friendship Maker (orange), 5 each
•            Flower Centers: hole punch, generic brand, yellow paper
•             Tips: For hummingbirds, consider bird direction if using printed paper

 

5. Watermelon Bunting

•            Border Strip:  12” X 2” gold
•             Water Melon Rind: 1.5” circles, 4 each, green, cut in half with scissors
•             Water Melon Inside Rind: 1.25” circles, 4 each, white, cut in half
•             Water Melon Flesh: 1” circles, 1 orange, 1 pink, 2 red, cut each in half
•             Assemble Watermelon slice by lining circles up on cut edge
•             Watermelon Seeds: Fine tip black pen
•             Title: Red ABC letters (retired), all caps
•             Adhere the watermelon slices to yellow background angling first 2 and last 2 upwards
•             Tips: Use current letters in Black or use White letters and outline with red fine tip pen

6. Flag Bunting (inspired by project center)

•             Cut six 2” X3” rectangles, 2 orange, 2 blue, 2 red
•             Draw a dot at the 1” mark of the 2” side
•             Lineup the corner of one corner and the dot on the cut line
•             Make diagonal cut with postage stamp blade of rotary trimmer
•             Make a second cut lining up a corner with the dot
•             Border: 12” X .5” black (mine is cut short accidentally)
•            Flag Décor: Miscellaneous stickers (cheerful summer stickers would work well)
•             Detail flag borders with stitches using black fine tip pen
•             Adhere flags to black border, curving the first and last flag upwards

           

7. Sand Dollars and Starfish Border (inspired by project center)

•             Background Border: 12” X 2”, light blue
•             Sand: 12” X 1” light brown (I used printed paper and hand ripped for white edge)
•             Attach sand to background
•             Use the petal punch to cut 4 petal punches on white paper
•             Cut a circle around each punched petal
•             Add dots and center flower design with brown fine tip pen
•             Starfish: I used tropical punch in 2 orange papers, also use star on galaxy maker
•             Tuck 2 sand dollars under sand paper
•             Mount remaining sand dollars and star fish as desired

8. Whales (inspired by project center)

•            Background Border: 12” X 3” white, cut one side with wavy rotary blade
•             Background Accent: 12” X .5” gold, cut one side with wavy rotary blade
•             Attach accent background behind background border with tape runner
•             Waves: 1.5” circles, 5 each, dark turquoise, cut in half with scissors
•             Whale Head: 2” custom cutting system circle, patterned blue paper
•             Whale Body: 2” oval ccs, same paper as head
•             Whale Tail: 2” ccs circle, same paper as head, use ccs circle to cut a bite out
•             Attach Waves to white border background, overlapping
•             Assemble whale and tuck behind waves, attach with tape runner
• Slightly lift whale head and punch 2 snow maker spouts (turn paper over to change directions of spout water)
•             Add whale eyes and spout with black fine tip pen
•             Add wave splashes with blue round tip pen
•             Tips:  This was the hardest of all the borders

HINT HINT...

I will be having my first ever BLOG GIVEAWAY.  I will post the details about it on Monday, May 9th.  However, I wanted to give you a little sneak peak.  Stay tuned.  Happy Scrapping!

The Tennis Page and Phantom Letters

Here is the tennis page I made with my Storybook Creator PLUS 3.0 software package.

One of the techniques I used was "phantom letters."  To create the phantom letters, I create a title (this time I used Fancy Text with the simple alpha set).  The simple alpha set places the letters too close together, so I ungrouped the word and separated the letters a bit.  Then I re-grouped them and flattened them.  I made the letters the same color as the background paper.  I also added a black glow and a heavy shadow.

Another technique I used was the page border.  The RED rectangle is actually a background.  I used the red paper from the Cheerful Digital Power Palette and changed the hue of the red to match the boys hats in the photo.  I then used the ADD TO PAGE option to add a large square of yellow paper - also from the Cheerful PP.  I selected the yellow paper, went to the CUT AND FILL ribbon and cut a "rectangle" which I formatted to a square shape and re-sized to cover all but the very edge of the yellow paper.  I chose the "erase the shaded area" option and cut the big square from the yellow paper, leaving only the yellow border.

The tennis ball border is something I created.  If you look back one post on my blog, you'll find a FREE png file that you can use.  To add the tennis ball border to your storybook content, click on the border, select "save picture as" and save it to the folder where you store your digital png files or your user content. 

If you need additional assistance with any of these techniques, don't hesitate to ask.  You can share this post with friend, you can comment on the blog if you like it, you can become a follower of my blog or recommend my blog to friends.  THANKS - and Happy Scrapping!

Tennis Anyone?

Just working on some digital pages for my son's graduation album.  I got to the tennis pages and decided to create a tennis border.

If you are using Storybook Creator Plus software, you can use this border as an embellishment for one of your pages.

ENJOY!

Categorical Albums: tricks & tips

I've been so addicted to digital that I was worried I'd forgotten how to do traditional scrapbooking - not really, but it kinda felt that way.

With my son graduating this year, I was determined to get all of his unfinished traditional albums completed.

I re-discovered the fun of traditional scrapbooking.

Here is a list of 6 little tips I came up with:

1. Four square  - a great way to use up 2 very plain pieces of 12X12 paper, easy and repeatable.

Cut two colors of 12X12 paper in half length-wise with cM Rotary trimmer with straight blade.

 Cut those rectangles in half so that you have 8-6X6 squares

Alternate the squares in a checkerboard style across a double page spread. 

If the papers don't match up exactly in the middle, cover with a photo to disguise.

2. Use Big Diecuts to make original 12X12 paper fit in the center of True 12X12 page

Still have some original sized 12X12, use the big die-cut and center it on a True sized page.

3. REPEAT JOURNAL or JOURNAL PATH (an idea I stole from SBC+)

Repeat Journal a phrase around the outside of a page  - can be done around a big die cut can also be done around the outside of any page or any photo.  The right hand page has the journaling in all green and the left side page in all red.  Another option would be to alternate pen colors on every repeat.

4.  Create "THRU THE YEARS" page spreads

In this 4th of July double page spread I didn't have photos from every year.  This is where categorical albums can bring stress-free scrapbooking.  Just add the photos you do have and identify the year dates of any that you know.

This categorical beach spread shows my son on the beach over a variety of years - it's really cool to be able to see the age progression over the years.

5.  Silly can be super

When your kids act silly in photos - save them.  One of my boys makes a silly face in every family photo and we have to retake them over and over.  Years later, looking back at them, they made a great photo montage.  The photos above were taken by siblings... sometimes a photo thru the eyes of a brother or sister can be priceless.

6.  Back side is Better - a cure for less-loved printed paper

These white photo mats are actually the back side of the old printed paper that was only printed on one side.  I had a bunch of old storybox papers and some of the printed sides were designs that I didn't particularly care for - but, turn them over and they become beautiful bright white photo mats.

As a consultant I have a lot of older paper and embellishment products.  I'm always determined to use up my supplies - there are loads of ways to go about it that also help you to complete your pages - FAST!

Happy Scrapping!

Graduation Album Plan

My oldest son (second child) will graduate from high school in June of this year.  When my daughter graduated from high school I had an entire room of albums displayed for our guests to peruse.  I want to offer the same thing at my son's graduation.  BUT... I am way behind.  I need a plan.  Often, I find that if you make a plan for the albums you need to complete and then take a look at it on paper, it's not quite as daunting as it seems when the tasks only exist inside your head.  So... I got down to it and made myself a task list.  I feel like I'm in much better shape that I believed myself to be.  Well, that certainly does count the fact that I just spent most of today and yesterday completing about 50 traditional album page layouts which allowed me to just about complete THREE of the traditional album projects that were looming over me.

Below is the chart I made for myself and how far along I am in completing the tasks - WISH ME LUCK and please, cheer me on.  I'd love to complete all of these album projects to celebrate the full 18 years of his life at this turning point in his life.

Keep posted - the next two posts will cover: Categorical Albums, Traditional Tips and Tricks that relieve album stress.  Happy Scrapping!

Palette Party!

Okay... a word about Power Palettes.



A Power Palette is essentially a traditional album maker's dream kit.  Power Palettes (PPs) use a variety of products (decorative and tonal papers, photo mats, journaling boxes, ABC sets, stickers, titles, ribbons and other embellishments) all in one coordinating color palette.  Once you purchase a PP, you can still be as creative as you wish with your traditional pages - however... your work and your choices are easier.

Select pieces from a PP and they will all coordinate on your page.  There are PPs for both digital and traditional albums.  As always, the cool thing about a digital PP (at the price of about $10) is that you NEVER use up the supplies in a digital package.  The cool thing about traditional PPs in April is that the two newest ones (Rugged and Fabulous) are ON SALE THIS MONTH!  For about $20 off!  That's a huge savings.  Just click the bolded words above to be directed to my website to purchase them.

Some ideas for the Rugged (masculine from babies to grandpas) and Fabulous (from newborns to oldies) are below.  Last year, Creative Memories introduced the Discover and Delight PPs (and a few other cM packages).  Rugged and Fabulous replace those.  It's awesome that CM has found a way to keep the same themes, but update us with new designs.  Who wants to use the same old stuff year after year - right?

I made these cute borders with Delight and Discover.  I'd like to see you put them to use with Rugged and Fabulous.  In advance, I will thank all the people who inspired these page design elements for me.  I was inspired by ideas I found from other consultants and also from the Creative Memories project center.  I'll be doing a future post on digital PPs using a variety of our digital PP kits.  Stay tuned by following my blog (click the follow tab) or adding me to your RSS feed.  Enjoy!

Match Your Wrap with Custom Cards

I'm a Creative Memories consultant.  I've been a consultant for over NINE years!  So it goes without saying that I own a lot of Creative Memories paper and stickers. 
 
Creative Memories (now) comes out with new products every two months - and sometimes more often with digital products.  So it goes without saying that I constantly purchase new stuff.  OF COURSE!

However, paper and stickers and other scrapbook products don't always get USED as fast as I'd like (meaning I'm always behind with my album projects).  Really, I am behind.  Even though I've made TONS of albums for my family and friends - I am not caught up.  At all.  It could be because I take lots of photos or my album ambitions are too high - but basically I think I have the same problem as everyone else.  There just aren't enough hours in the day.

One promise I made to myself a few years ago was that I would only PERSONALLY open a new product if I was A) going to use it myself right away in a project or B) going to create a scrapbook lesson for the purpose of teaching about a specific product.  I have done pretty well at sticking to that promise.  I swear I have.  Even though I get ALL of my products at 30% off as a consultant, even the ones that are on sale - I have stuck to the promise. 

(If I've peaked your interest, yes... you can be a consultant too - just go to my website by following this link and fill out the online form and for a mere $50 you'll have the 30% off privileges too and you can of course earn money selling our fantastic products to your friends and family).

Another promise I made to myself was that I would MAKE ALL OF MY CARDS!  I would stop paying upwards of $4 for a Hallmark (or other) greeting card when I could make more beautiful ones myself.  Besides, once I've used a Power Palette or Additions Pack over and over and over again in my albums, I want to purchase something NEW from Creative Memories so by using up the older paper, I can fill in my supply with new stuff.

Making cards is EASY.  One thing I love to do is to make cards that match my wrapping paper.  Yes you can make your own wrapping paper too.  But often, I end up buying wrapping paper from one of the cute little elementary school kids that comes to my door bearing a Sally Foster or Innisbrook catalog and smiling a sweet little smile at me and telling me about their school fundraiser - who can resist right?

Making cards is also FAST.  I love tools (my Creative Memories supply promise does NOT in any way apply to buying new tools BTW).  Tools don't get used up, can be used again and again and also make the job go more quickly.  I use a lot of tools to make my cards (I'll talk about my favorite card making tools below).

Just the other day I made a birthday card to match the wrapping paper I used for my son's birthday gifts.  Here are some photos of that card with the wrapped gifts.



I'm a real sucker for cards that coordinate with paper but I've never been a big fan of buying matching sets.  I have no explanation for my dislike of purchasing matching sets.

For my sister, I added a piece of wrapping paper to a re-gifted gift bag and made a card to match both the gift bag and the purse I sewed for her on her birthday.

Here are some cards to make that would look cute with these hand sewn gifts I made for my 3 year old nephew a few years ago.


These cards and instructions for how to make them can all be found at the Creative Memories project center (a wonderful resource for using Creative Memories products to make cards, album pages and MORE).

Don't worry if you aren't a traditional scrapbooker - believe me, the many ways to make DIGITAL scrapbook cards are simply endless!  Using the Creative Memories Storybook Creator PLUS 3.0, you can make basically ANY size custom card you wish AND you can print these custom cards on your home printer or have them printed at a photo developer - the Creative Memories Digital Photo Center is one you may want to try.

Here are some samples of DIGITAL cards:

        

There is really no end to the types of cards and the purposes for creating a card: invitation cards, announcement cards, wedding cards, anniversary cards, holiday cards, etc... Take a look at the specialty card options at the digital center by following this highlighted link.

Oh, and just in case you are in the market for Mother's Day cards, there is a sale going on the entire month of April on digital Mother's Day cards.  Click Digital Mother's Day Card Sale for more info.

PLEASE!  Consider posting your cards and your comments and card inspirations you've had or made.

Some of my favorite TOOLS for card making are:

The 12" Rotary Trimmer (especially the scoring blade) 

The Creative Memories Shape Makers

Creative Memories Card Stock 

The Creative Memories Tape Runner 

Foam Squares by Creative Memories 

cM Doodling Templates  

and finally - the Dual Tip PENS!