Staff Project & Class: Pat's Las Vegas & Family Albums

 One of the many treats of working at Memory Bound is being inspired by all of our staff members' beautiful projects! In this post, I'm going to share with you Pat's latest project: A "flip and fold" album of a recent family trip to Las Vegas. Pat made this wonderful album as a gift, and I'm so glad I got to see it before she gave it away!

  As you can see, this album opens up and has several tabs for photos, yet it folds flat for storage. It's perfect for highlighting favorite pictures!

 

 Pat based her Las Vegas album on a project she created for her upcoming Family Album class pictured below. Join Pat in her class, and you'll make a wonderful keepsake album to give as a gift or keep for yourself! And just like Pat, you can use the concepts you learn in class to make additional albums in any theme or for any occasion.

Thanks, Pat, for sharing your beautiful projects with us! I hope you'll join Pat for her upcoming Family Album class. Check out the details below, then give us a call at (515) 965-1102 to register!

Janet

 

 Family Album

Sunday, September 23, 12:30-3:30pm

Instructor: Pat Ferin

Fee: $20 / Skill Level: Any

Bring Basic Class Kit plus Vintage Photo Distress Ink, blending tool, splat mat, large glue stick, and 1/4" Scor-Tape.   

Join us to create an 8”x8” family treasure using the Simple Stories Generations papers & more to embellish our flip and fold book. This unique book stands up to display your favorite family photos or folds into a mini-book. Don't miss this fun class!

Friends Crop at Memory Bound!

 There is no better way to beat this crazy Iowa heat than to gather your friends to crop at Memory Bound! That's just what this group of cropping buddies did recently. Jill, Janis, RaNae, and Diana had a great time chatting and working!

As you can see, these ladies brought plenty of supplies!

 

So much that they had to designate another table as an overflow area! LOL

 These ladies are very productive! Diana, who works at Memory Bound, is always working on scrapbooking her grandkids' activities and life on the farm. Here she is working on a layout about one of their newly born calves.

RaNae had just finished a wonderful mini-album with photos of her family's trip to Hawaii. I love how she added one large chipboard page to the back of the album so she could include an oversized photo.

So pretty!

 RaNae was also working on a decorated clipboard, inspired by an article she saw in Scrapbooks, Etc.

Janis whipped up a handful of cards using bits of this and that! Adorable! 

And Jill was finishing up a couple of awesome projects she's making for classes she will be teaching at Memory Bound! This particular project is for her Hidden Secrets Christmas Album on July 20. Click here for the details!

  

As you can see, these ladies had a great time spending the day together! If you'd like crop in our workroom, just give us a call to be sure we have space available on the day you'd like to come. It's FREE, and we can set up a tab so that you can pay for your purchases when you leave. It's convenient, relaxing, and FUN! 

So plan now to beat the summer heat, share time with friends, AND get some scrapbooking done. It doesn't get any better than that!

Janet

Staff Project: Jean's 60th Anniversary Projects

Today I'm excited to share with you some beautiful projects created by our staff member Jean for her parents' recent 60th anniversary. Jean worked very hard to make this event special for all who attended. I know you'll be inspired by her creations!

Jean made a lovely anniversary card. I love the way she used her embossing folders to create an elegant effect. Gems and dots of pink Liquid Pearls add just the right touch of shine.

Jean also made treat bag favors for the event. She started with one of the clear plastic bags available at Memory Bound and added a bag topper made from a 3" circle of black cardstock, a 2.5" scalloped circle, and a 2" pink circle. She embossed "love" onto the pink circle and traced the letters with the Clear Star Gelly Roll pen. Although it's difficult to see in the photo, the pen added just the right touch of sparkle!

Jean also made a wonderful tribute album for her parents. I wish you could all see this album in person, because it is truly stunning! I love how Jean copied some of the wedding cards her parents received when they married 60 years ago and used them on the pages of her album. She incorporated photos from "then" and "now" by placing them behind the copied cards.

This album opens up to create a standing display. What a beautiful tribute to her parents -- and what a wonderful centerpiece for the party! I love projects which are both beautiful and practical.

Jean's album was based on the one used in Maggie's recent Circle Explosion Book class. You can see that this is a very versatile album design, suitable for any event or occasion. If you would like to make this type of album, we have instructions available for purchase at Memory Bound so you can create one from scratch using your own cardstock. We also have kits by Pinecone Press which include instructions and materials.

Thanks, Jean, for sharing your amazing projects with us!

Janet

Staff Project: Katie's Heritage Albums

 I recently had the privilege of looking through a HUGE project completed by our very talented staff member, Katie. A couple of years ago, Katie received boxes of old photos from her mom and decided she wanted to make a heritage album. Last week, Katie presented her mom with not one but two beautiful albums detailing her family's history. Katie has created a true family heirloom -- a real treasure!

Katie used the We R Memory Keepers 3-ring binders to house her pages. The binders are very practical and sturdy, and they make it easy to move/add pages. You can read more about the binders in this post.

 This is one of the opening pages of Katie's project, which begins with the Shane family tree. She mainly used Bo Bunny's vintage Double Dot paper and the Simple Stories Documented line for her albums.

 One of the first things I noticed about Katie's albums is how beautifully she combined modern with traditional elements. When we think of making a heritage album, we often assume we need to stick with traditional, old-fashioned elements -- but that is not the case. In the photos below, you can see how Katie mixed contemporary fonts and design elements (such as the banner) with her heritage photos. This gives Katie's heritage album a fresh, stylish look.

 Simple designs and embellishments keep the emphasis on the photos and story.

As Katie created the albums, she was really documenting her family's story. She used a few pre-made papers...

...and created additional family trees using Microsoft Word.

WRMK makes divided page protectors and smaller protectors which fit right into their binders, making it easy to mix pages to match your content. As you can see in these photos, Katie made good use of the divided page protectors in her project. I love how the 4x4 square page protectors work with the small photos.

Katie found some stories in the box of photos she received from her mom. Years ago, her mom took the time to type the details behind a particular set of photos. What a treasure to be able to include this information in the album!  Katie researched and wrote down as many additional details as she could find to fill in the rest of the albums. Journaling truly makes the photos come alive for future generations.

This is Katie's favorite photo of her dear grandma who passed away a few years ago. Now Katie's children will be able to learn about her (and many other ancestors) through the pages of these albums.

Click on the collage to enlarge.

To be sure, the prospect of making a heritage album can be daunting. But you can see from Katie's albums that the finished project is well worth the effort! Tools such as the WRMK binders and divided page protectors, as well as vintage-look paper lines, make this type of project much, much easier to tackle. If you've been thinking about making a heritage album, stop in and let us help you get started. You, too, can create an heirloom which will be cherished by your family for years to come!

Thanks, Katie, for sharing your beautiful work with us. You're inspiring us to get started on our own heritage albums!

Janet 

Girls with Glue Scrapbooking Retreat

 

Beat the heat with a scrapbooking retreat! 

Girls with Glue is hosting a 3-day scrapbooking retreat at the Best Western in Ankeny, July 27-29. Each cropper gets an 8-foot table and a chance to win door prizes, including Memory Bound gift cards! Plus, Memory Bound customers can save $5 OFF the cost of registration when they enter code GGNMB by June 30. 

Girls with Glue was started by Memory Bound customer (and former staff member) Mollie Deem to organize scrapbooking retreats and events. Click HERE to visit Girls with Glue and learn more about the upcoming retreat! 

Be one of the first 20 people to register for the crop and receive a FREE $5 Memory Bound gift card at check-in! Registration opens at 8am on June 1. Click HERE to register for the retreat.

Here's to a fun and productive crop!

Janet

A bit of scrapbooking humor!

Oh, the pressure! :) It's true...families of scrapbookers know that anything they do might end up in the scrapbook!

Have a great day!
Janet

Our 2012 Scrapping Resolutions: Update!

Back in January, many of our Memory Bound staff members created Scrapping Resolutions for 2012 (read the post HERE). Now it's May...and I thought I'd do a quick check to see what kind of progress we're all making! Needless to say, life sort of got in the way for many of us (myself included!), so we haven't all made the kind of progress we'd hoped to by this point in the year. But we still have high hopes for productivity...and 6.5 more months left in the year!

A few of us, however, have been SUPER productive! Mindy hasn't had time to work on her resolutions, but she did complete an adorable Christmas mini-album with photos and stories from throughout the month of December 2011. That's a BIG accomplishment! Mindy should add this to her list of 2012 Resolutions...and immediately check it off as DONE! :)

Tess wanted me to report that she has mysteriously disappeared and hasn't been heard from since that original post! LOL The truth is that she has changed her resolution to make a Disney album and is now working on birthday albums for her kids. Go, Tess, GO! :)  

Kellie's big resolution for 2012 is to keep a monthly junk binder album of things that happen throughout the year. She did this back in 2010 and really enjoys looking back at the movies and restaurants they went to, what they did for holidays, news stories, trips, etc. "It's a great way to journal a year in your life," she says. 

Kellie is doing very well on her goal! She writes: "I have a junk binder/journal going that I made with Simple Stories' (one of my favorite companies) Year-o-Graphy collection. It’s 6x9, ring-bound, and has a tab for each month. January & February are done and I’m working on March. I’ve included photos, a card from my sister-in-law, brochures, & business cards; and covered things like going to dinner, CHA with Dawn, shopping, Bunko night, and a visit to Bass Pro Shops. Let’s hope I can keep it up!" Kellie is off to a great start on her resolution!

Diana had several goals for 2012: 

* My daughter and I need to get my granddaughter's books done for graduation! 

* I want to once again purge and reorganize my SB room. (I noticed my cardstock is all out of color order!)  

* I want to do some serious scrapbooking of all things.

* I also want to come up with some really fun kids' class ideas and maybe some other class ideas, too.  

Diana retired from her nursing job in December, so we all knew she'd have PLENTY of time to accomplish all of this...and we were right! Diana accomplished a TON in a short amount of time and reports that she is LOVING retirement!

Diana's BIG, BIG accomplishment was finishing all of her granddaughter Paige's albums in time for graduation. But Diana went above and beyond that by creating all the decorations and photo displays for Paige's open house. Those of you who attended Memory Bound's Graduation Open House were lucky to see just a few of Diana's beautiful creations! I'd say she EXCEEDED that goal!

Diana continues to do a great job with the Scrappin' Kidz classes, coming up with fun projects each month for this growing group.  

She hasn't completely tackled her scrapbook room organization, but she did have her little granddaughters put her cardstock back in order--somewhat. :) 

Scrapbooking other topics -- She has all of her pictures ready to go!

Congratulations to these ladies on a job well done. You're inspiring us all with your productivity! Here's hoping it rubs off on the rest of us as we work toward finishing our resolutions for 2012! 

How about YOU? What are your goals for 2012?

Janet