Final Santa's Workshop: Wed, Nov 28, 1-6pm

Hello, Memory Bound friends! 

I don't know about you, but it's beginning to look a little more like Christmas at my house each day! Three things are helping me get into the holiday spirit this weekend: 

1) Thanksgiving 2012 is over and ready to be scrapbooked!

2) Our Christmas tree is up and decorated!

3) It's COLD outside! 

Today is a great day to put on a Christmas movie you've watched 100 times before (may I suggest my favorite Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer?) and get to work on those holiday cards and gifts! 

 

 In that same spirit, I hope you can join me for our FINAL Santa's Workshop this coming Wednesday, November 28, 1-6pm. Each week in November, we've been CRAFTING LIKE SANTA'S ELVES! Who knows...if Hermie the Elf had come to one of our workshops, he might have become a card maker instead of a dentist! :)

At our final workshop, I'll introduce you to the We Are Memory Keepers TAB PUNCH, a great little tool for creating tabs for all your papercrafting projects and a must-have for those of you who like to make mini-albums! For only $2, you'll make a holiday gift card holder using the tab punch and lots of other fun techniques.

I hope to see you on Wednesday afternoon! Meanwhile, happy crafting!

Janet

Get Crafty at our Santa's Workshops!

Hello, Memory Bound friends! 
Well, it's certainly beginning to feel more like Christmas outside today! If you ask me, it's a perfect day to start your holiday crafting. Put on a Christmas movie (like my favorite Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer) and get to work on those holiday cards and gifts!

At Memory Bound, the Christmas season is already upon us! I hope you'll join me to CRAFT LIKE AN ELF in our Wednesday Santa's Workshops in November! Each Wednesday afternoon, I'll be introducing you to a different tool and, for only $1-2 each time, you'll make a holiday card using lots of fun techniques.  

Thanks to everyone who stopped by last week for our first Santa's Workshop! We had a great time using the Mini-8 Punch. In fact, here's a photo of us! :)

 This Wednesday, November 14, 1-6pm, I'll introduce you to one of my favorite tools, the Sizzix Stamp and Die sets. These sets allows you to stamp and cut around the image perfectly. We'll also do some dry embossing and use Copic Markers to color Rudolph's outfit! You can read more about these great stamp and die sets in this blog post.

 Plan now to channel your inner elf and stop by next Wednesday afternoon for our Santa's Workshop! I'm excited to show you how our great tools make it fun and easy to
 CRAFT LIKE AN ELF!

Janet   
 

Learn Artistic Techniques with Heather!

Hello, Memory Bound friends! 
I saw this quote recently and was reminded how hard it can be to try something new. We often stick to what we know because it's safe and certain -- and miss out on a lot of fun! Have you ever wanted to try a new product or technique but told yourself, "I could never do that!"? I certainly have!

If you'd like to start "coloring outside the lines" more often, we've got some great opportunities next week for you to do just that. Plan to join local artist Heather Kindt for her classes and Meet the Artist trunk show! 

All you need is curiosity -- not artistic skills! -- to learn the trendy new techniques that are taking over the craft world. In her next Curious Crafter class, Make Sense of Sprays, Heather will teach you the difference between all the wonderful sprays on the market -- the ones you may have been afraid to try! Give us a call to register.

Make Sense of Sprays

Tuesday, November 13, 6-7:30pm

Instructor: Heather Kindt  / Fee: $12

Skill Level:  Any

Bring Basic Class Kit, previously gessoed pages from Gesso-U-Know class (or request pages to be provided), and any sprays including Colorwash, Dylusions, Perfect Pearls, Tattered Angels, Mr. Huey, Maya Road or others. There are so many spray inks! Learn all about how they are different from each other and make beautiful pages for your artsy reference book.


 Meet the Artist - November 17

Heather is this month's featured artist in our "Meet the Artist" events scheduled for Saturday, November 17. Heather is excited to bring mixed media art to Memory Bound. She recently published an article in Somerset’s Art Journaling magazine.

Trunk Show 9-10am -- Stop by to see Heather's projects and chat with her informally about any questions you may have.

Christmas Shadowbox Treasure Class - 10:30am-1:30pm 

Don't miss this wonderful class in which you'll use a host of fun techniques to make a beautiful home decor piece for the holidays. Give us a call to register!

Christmas Shadowbox Treasure 

Saturday, November 17, 10:30am-1:30pm

Instructor: Heather Kindt

Fee: $39 / Skill Level: Intermediate-Advanced

Bring Basic Class Kit, Vintage Photo Distress Ink pad + blending tool, Mod Podge (matte), medium size paintbrush, hole punch, and distressing tools.

This fun mixed media project is an album, a shadow box, and home décor in one. We’ll use 2 canvases and the charming colors of “All is Bright” paper line by My Mind’s Eye. This project will easily become one of your Christmas treasures that you decorate with year after year.

 We hope you'll take full advantage of the opportunities at Memory Bound to "color outside the lines"! Life is more fun with messy fingers! :)

Janet

Craft Like an Elf in our Santa's Workshops!

 Hello, Memory Bound friends!  
Christmas is now in full gear at Memory Bound! I hope you had a chance to visit our Crafty Christmas Open House over the past few days. If not, the open house is still set up TODAY, Sunday, November 4, so drop in 12pm-5pm to get tons of creative ideas for your holiday crafting!

 Now that the holiday season is upon us, it's time for me to pull out one of my all-time favorite movies, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. I can watch this movie over and over and never tire of it! I adore Clarice with her beautiful eyes and cute little bow...

 ...but I've always loved the elves who manage to put together all kinds of toys while they sing, dance, and play in a band. When I was a little girl, I loved arts and crafts and was fascinated that the elves could transform gray, generic-looking materials into the colorful and beautiful toys which I found under the tree on Christmas morning!

In November, we invite you to CRAFT LIKE AN ELF in our Santa's Workshops! Each Wednesday afternoon, I'll be introducing you to a different tool and, for only $1-2 each time, you'll make a holiday card using lots of fun techniques.

Our first workshop on Wednesday, November 7, 1-6pm, will feature the new WRMK Mini-8 punch. Just like the popular Lucky 8 punch but smaller, this tool is perfect for making cards and small mats for scrapbook pages.

 

On Wednesday, November 14, 1-6pm, I'll introduce you to one of my favorite tools, the Sizzix Stamp and Die sets. These sets allows you to stamp and cut around the image perfectly. 

On Wednesday, November 21, 1-6pm, take a break from your Thanksgiving preparations and come learn about the super-fun Stamping Gear! This innovative and easy-to-use tool allows you to stamp in a circle to create all kinds of artistic designs.

We'll wrap up our Santa's Workshops on Wednesday, November 28, 1-6pm, by learning about the WRMK tab punch. This great tool is perfect for making tabs for mini-books and scrapbook pages -- and it comes with plastic sleeves to adhere the tabs to the page. We'll use the tab punch to make a unique gift-card holder!


I hope you'll channel your inner elf and join me on Wednesday afternoons in November! I can't promise any singing or dancing, but I can promise you'll have fun learning about the latest and greatest tools!
Janet

An Inspirational Weekend, by Betsy

Hello, Memory Bound friends! 

Today's post is brought to you by Betsy, one of our very talented staff members. Betsy and a group of Memory Bound gals took a road trip to Scrapfest in Minneapolis last weekend to take some classes and bring back some great ideas to share with our customers. Betsy was kind enough to take photos of along the way and prepare this narrative of her very fun and inspirational weekend! I'm sure you'll enjoy "riding along" on Betsy's road trip! Thanks so much, Betsy! :)

Janet

 

Scrapfest 2012 

Betsy Knoblock Grabinski, Memory Bound Staff Member and Paper Crafter  

I’ve been paper crafting for as long as I can remember. I recently found a couple of trip books I made about family vacations from my childhood and can officially say I was 10 years old when I caught the bug. After three years working at Memory Bound and seeing all the amazing events there are for crafters like me, I was super-excited to have the opportunity to go to Scrapfest 2012 at the Mall of America in Minneapolis this past weekend. 

We had a group from Memory Bound go to classes on Sunday, but I decided to make a weekend out of it and registered for events on Saturday as well. I had no idea what I was in for, but with classes taught by Teresa Collins, Tim Holtz and many other crafting rock stars, how could I go wrong? 

I registered for 6 classes on Saturday. In the morning, my classes included an album from Simple Stories using their Summer Fresh line, a Christmas mini-book with paper by Echo Park and was taught by web guru Jessica Sprague, and a card/layout class with Jillibean Soup’s Macho Nacho line. Classes are 45 minutes long and most of the projects really need 2-3 hours to complete, so things go super-fast and I realized quickly that most of the projects wouldn’t be finished when the class ended.

Simple Stories Summer Fresh Album class mass of supplies – I hit the ground running with this fast-paced class.

Oh yeah, and the one-and-only Tim Holtz was there!

  My cousin Sarah joined me Saturday afternoon, which included two classes taught by Teresa Collins and one by the designers at Graphic 45/Canvas Corp. One of the really cool things about this event is getting to interact with the product designers. Teresa Collins talked about how she got started scrapbooking (her mother’s unexpected passing) and what inspires her paper designs (her background in interior design influences a lot of what she creates).

Jessica Sprague, who also has some fabulous online classes, instructed a class for a Christmas mini album with paper she designed herself – Echo Park’s Verry Merry line.

 

I actually got a couple of things completed in this class! Jill Yegerlehner, the “Big Bean” of Jillibean Soup taught this class of two cards and layout of her Macho Nacho line.

Teresa Collins teaching a mini album class using her Vintage Finds line.

 Doesn’t her paper look a lot like a vintage wallpaper book?

Me and the glamorous Teresa Collins.

This was one of the large classes taught in the rotunda in the middle of the mall with shoppers watching from above and the constant smell of Cinnabon in the air.

The class, taught by Graphic 45 and Canvas Corp, was a printer’s tray using their Trousseau paper line and materials like burlap and washi tape were used for details.

This is my cousin Sarah and I with our “finished” projects – just need to add the photos of our grandparents and we plan on giving them to our moms for Christmas.

On Sunday, I took three classes. The first was presented by one of favorite companies October Afternoon, whose home office is in Apple Valley, MN just 20 minutes from the mall.

We used October Afternoon’s Woodland Park line to create this mini-book called “The Story of my Life.”

My next class was by We R Memory Keepers with an emphasis on several new tools including the Lucky 8 Punch and the Sew Stamper. The instructor was the actual designer of the Lucky 8 Punch series, which she talked about having the idea for in the middle of the night. She even holds several patents through her innovative work with the company. 


Demonstration of the Lucky 8 Punch from We R Memory Keepers:

My last class was a card class with the ladies of Jillibean Soup – Jill Yegerlehner, Jenifer Harkin (who lives in Des Moines!), me and Kimber McGray.

After jam-packed days of paper-crafting madness, I took a little break before heading home – a yummy brownie and soda at the cozy (and quiet) Nordstrom Café.

I hope you enjoyed your ride with me to Scrapfest 2012. If I go next year, I will:

1)  Bring my rollie cart. My bag got heavy before noon on Saturday.
2)  Pack a snack and a bottle of water. With that many classes, there wasn’t much time to eat.
3) Come up a day early and do make & takes. The lines were long and I couldn’t fit them in the schedule. 
 4) Be ready to be inspired!! I knew I would learn some stuff, but I had no idea how inspiring the people who create the products we use are. And they love to share their ideas, their challenges and their inspirations with us.

* * * * *
 Note from Janet:

Some of Betsy's completed projects are posted at Memory Bound! Be sure to take a look at them the next time you're in the store.

 

Layout from the We R Memory Keeper's class:

Love all the details!

 

Several adorable cards from the Jillibean class:
  

Next Up: Valentine's Day!

 May this Valentine’s Day be filled with love, understanding, and contentment as you journey through life with those you hold dear.

 I love the sentiment expressed by this quote. Life is enriched by those who travel with us on life's journey. What better time than Valentine's Day to tell them how much they mean to us!


At Memory Bound, we love Valentine's Day and everything it represents. And we have everything you need to share the holiday with those you love.

The store is filled with all kinds of products for your Valentine's Day projects. I've never seen so many wonderful products for this holiday! Take a look at just a few of the goodies I saw at Memory Bound a couple of days ago -- too many to share in a single blog post!

This display includes a variety of papers, embellishments, punches, and stamps which will make your holiday crafting a breeze.

And on this end cap you'll find the latest lines by Echo Park and We R Memory Keepers: Yours Truly and Love Struck. I'm using the adorable Love Struck line for my February mini-album class.

We also have all kinds of card samples to inspire your Valentine's Day crafting.

In addition to all the products you'll find at Memory Bound, we have several Valentine-themed events and activities over the next few weeks:

* January 9 -- Diana's Scrappin' Kidz class features an adorable Valentine Portfolio project just for kids!

* January 26 and 31 -- Katie will be teaching a fabulous Valentine Copic Card class.

* February 3 -- I'll be teaching a mini-album class featuring the new WRMK Love Struck line.

* Wednesday Make-N-Takes in January -- We'll be making adorable Valentines each week featuring a new technique.

 * February 4 -- We'll have a special Valentine Bag Topper Make-N-Take.

See the calendar for more details on all of these events and watch for more details throughout the month on our blog!

Happy Valentine's Day crafting!
Janet

BLOOM IN JUNE

This is your last chance to take part in our Make-N-Takes for June!

Join us on FRIDAY JUNE 24, 1 - 6PM. We will be using the Big Shot and Tim Holtz Alterations dies to make 3 rosettes to adorn this tag. Add some inking, stamping, and ribbon to complete your project. Take this opportunity to try some new tools to help with all your paper crafting projects. Materials fee: $2.

Hope to see you on Friday!

BLOOM IN JUNE

Gather your friends and head to Memory Bound for our Make-N-Takes every Friday in June. We will cultivate a garden of paper blooms you won't want to miss!

Our next make-n-take will be FRIDAY - JUNE 17, 1 - 6PM. Back by popular demand - it's the paper rose! And you won't believe how it's made. For a summer feel, we added layered butterflies.
Materials fee: $2.

THANK YOU, LINDA CAIN!

Linda is helping RaNae with her project.

A big THANK YOU to Linda Cain for teaching at Memory Bound this weekend. Linda and her husband drove from Morton, IL to spend the weekend teaching 3 awesome, incredible classes for us. Here are a couple of the comments our customers made:

* Linda was a fountain of information on all techniques.
* She knows so much and was so helpful. Come back to Ankeny soon!
* She's great...wonderful sense of humor!

I think Linda had a great time too judging from the amount of customers that gave her a hug when she was packing up her things to head home. Lots of friendships were made at Memory Bound this weekend.

To learn more about Linda and her design work, you can visit her blog at http://cain81art.blogspot.com/

BLOOM IN JUNE

We got rave reviews from our Bloom in June make-n-take last week. Don't miss your chance to learn some new techniques and have fun!

Plan to stop by our next make-n-take on FRIDAY - JUNE 10, 1 - 6PM! Scallop circles, brads, and Perfect Pearls Mist go from flat to fun with this flower tag. It's so easy to make dimensional flowers! Materials fee: $2.

BLOOM IN JUNE

Cultivate a garden of paper blooms when you stop by Memory Bound every Friday in June for our Make-N-Takes!

FRIDAY - JUNE 3, 1 - 6PM  We will teach you the little secrets to creating these adorable blossoms with scalloped circles and a little misting!  These dimensional flowers added to the slpattered and stamped tag make it a perfect addition to any gift or card.   Materials fee:  $2.

The Scrapbookers Bill of Rights

I just found this in my stash and thought you might all like to read it also!

THE SCRAPBOOKER'S BILL OF RIGHTS

A Scrapbooker is entrusted with documenting and safely preserving family photos in an album to be treasured by future generations. Creating a Scrapbook is an honorable and important task. As a Scrapbooker, you are entitled (but not limited) to the following rights:

YOU have the right to take as long as you want to complete one album page. This may be five minutes or two weeks.

YOU have the right to purchase a certain scrapbook item for no other reason than because 1) you like it; 2) you think it's cute; 3) you'll never find it again, or 4) you know you'll use it someday.

YOU have the right to a workspace of your own. This may be the basement, your college student's old bedroom, or the kitchen table. It's yours.

YOU have the right to scrapbook when inspiration strikes -- whether the dishes are done or not.

YOU have the right to request peaceful, kid-free, stress-less scrap time -- guilt free.

YOU have the right to create pages that reflect and celebrate the spirit of the one person who is usually NOT in the photograph: You.

YOU have the right to put whatever you want on your album page. This includes, but is not limited to: patterned papers, die-cuts, stickers and Punch-Outs. You may place as many or as few photos per page as you deem appropriate.

YOU have the right to do nothing more than snack and socialize at a 6-hour cropping party.

YOU have the right to value your personal scrapbooking style to be as important as your photographs. You are creating a treasure -- and part of that treasure is you.

YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO CREATE YOUR OWN LEGACY, ONE PAGE AT A TIME.

Copyright 2000 Hot Off The Press, Inc.