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

Sneak Peek: Crafty Christmas Open House!

 Hello, Memory Bound friends! 
I want to be sure that everyone knows about the wonderful holiday event we have coming up at Memory Bound this weekend: Our Crafty Christmas Open House! Stop by anytime on Friday, November 2, 9am-9pm or Saturday, November 3, 9am-5pm, to plan your holiday crafting! In this post, I'll give you a sneak peek of just a few things you'll see!

The Memory Bound elves have been busy setting up for the Open House all week. I stopped by on Thursday afternoon and was amazed at all the beautiful projects gathered in one spot! You'll find over 100 samples of projects made by the very talented Memory Bound elves -- and the materials to make them. We also have many kits for cards, mini-albums, Advent calendars and more which will make your holiday crafting a breeze.

 We have holiday class kits available for sale, including kits for our current Christmas Card Extravaganza which include all the materials for 20 beautifully detailed Christmas cards.

 

We have lots of paper mache pieces which are easy to decorate with paper or paint. These snowflakes make wonderful hanging decorations!

And these Santa boots would look adorable on your hearth with a bit of greenery tucked inside.
 

We have many examples of home decor pieces for your own holiday decorating or gift-giving. Maggie made this beautiful piece based on an idea she saw at the trade show last summer. You'll find all the materials you need to make your own right next to Maggie's project. How easy is that? And this is just one of many fantastic ideas!

Diane made garlands for the tree using one of the fonts from our Accu Cut die cut center. She cut her letters from chipboard, colored them with ink, applied Glossy Accents, then sprinkled them with Diamond Dust. The end result is a garland that looks like sparkly sugar. You must see this in person!

  Did you know that Memory Bound has popcorn? We have all different flavors!

The Memory Bound elves have made all kinds of Advent Calendars to share with you! Diana made this adorable calendar from a muffin tin pan. This is just one of the cute ideas you'll see for counting down the days until Christmas! 

As you can see, you'll want to make Memory Bound your first stop for inspiration this holiday season! We hope to see you all at our Crafty Christmas Open House on Friday and Saturday, November 2 and 3!
Janet

Upcoming Class: Scoring Board Paper Crafts

Hello, Memory Bound friends! 
At Memory Bound, we're all excited about the holiday season! In many of our classes, you'll create projects that would make perfect holiday gifts. Pat's next class is a great example of this. In her Scoring Board Paper Crafts class, you'll make several wonderful projects that you can easily replicate for multiple people on your holiday list!

Pat's projects are created with the Martha Stewart Scoring Board, a super-handy tool which allows you to make flawless, crisp lines in seconds on invitations, envelopes, gift boxes, and other items. Pat will show you the basics of this indispensable tool, and soon you'll be using it like a pro! In fact, I'm sure that it will become one of your favorite paper-crafting tools. Imagine being able to create gift boxes, containers, and much more for holidays, birthdays, and any special occasion!

Get the details on Pat's class below, then give us a call at (515) 965-1102 to register! 
Janet

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Scoring Board Paper Crafts

Tuesday, November 6, 5:30-7:30pm

Instructor:  Pat Ferin  

Fee: $18 / Skill Level: Any
Bring Basic Class Kit, Scor-Tape, and Martha Stewart Scoring Board.

Pat designed new projects with the scoring board that she’d love to show you! Using Handmade Holidays from Simple Stories, create a mini scrapbook purse that holds an accordion album, a notecard box with 6 notecards, and a folded book perfect for gift cards or wallet photos!

Upcoming Class: Creative Christmas Album

 Hello, Memory Bound friends! 

In today's post, we'd like to share some photos and information about a wonderful class coming up next weekend -- Jill Peer's Creative Christmas Album. Jill is one of those people who is always making something beautiful -- just for the sake of creativity! Her special passion is making mini-albums from scratch -- binder, binding, and all! Jill is a member of our Girls' Night Out group and we all look forward to seeing her inspiring projects each month. 

In Jill's Creative Christmas Album class, you'll have the opportunity to learn her practical tips and tricks for making mini-albums from scratch and filling them with all kinds of tags, tabs and pockets. You'll make a beautiful Christmas album which will be perfect to give as a gift or fill with your own Christmas memories. Get the details below, then call us at (515) 965-1102 to register!

Janet

Creative Christmas Album

Sunday, November 4, 12:15-4:15pm
Instructor: Jill Peer / Fee: $32
Skill Level: Intermediate to Advanced
Bring Basic Class Kit, 1/4" double-sided tape, favorite Distress Ink pad + blending tool, liquid adhesive, scoring board, pop dots, splat mat, X-Acto knife, corner rounder, border punch of your choice, bone folder, and ruler.
This mixed media album is sure to leave you inspired to create many more masterpieces. You’ll layer, tear, punch, ink, spray & repeat your way through this album. Jill will fill you in on all her secrets to creating your own chipboard covers for these spectacular mini albums.

Handmade for the Holidays!

 Hello, Memory Bound friends! 
Each season at Memory Bound brings lots of excitement, but there's something EXTRA fun about crafting for the holidays! We all enjoy making handmade cards and gifts, and we especially love creating unique decor pieces for our homes.

In a recent post, I shared with you some photos of Dawn's "HOME" chipboard letter project. Well, here it is and I assure you that it could not be more beautiful. The little lantern lights up! I also love how Dawn added trees and snow to her project. The trees started out cream-colored, so she tinted them with green. The snow started out very white, so she added a bit of ink to make it creamy to match her papers.

 

 Diane created a home decor piece made from a chipboard box (shown at the bottom of the photo). She completely transformed the box with vintage-tinted photos, papers, and charms.
 

In a recent post, I showed you Heidi's wonderful home decor piece, created from the same chipboard box. The sky's the limit on what you can do with chipboard! It can be customized in any way imaginable for any theme, style, or color scheme.
 

 Many of us have also been busy making banners which can be used for holiday decorating. Diane created this beautiful banner which she used in a recent family photo shoot (the group photo will be used on her Christmas cards). Her banner includes all kinds of textures, including burlap! You'll be able to see Diana's banner along with many, many others, at our upcoming Crafty Christmas Open House.

Stop by Memory Bound to plan your holiday home decor projects! We've got everything you need to create beautiful and meaningful pieces to accent your home this holiday season. We would love to help you get started!

 Happy holiday crafting!
Janet

Scenes from the Latest Staff Crop

 Hello, Memory Bound friends! 
Every once in awhile, the talented ladies at Memory Bound hold a staff crop. In today's post, I'd like to share with you some photos from the latest fun event!

The ladies moved the tables around so that they'd each have plenty of space and could easily talk to each other. This U-shape is great for socializing -- an important component of any crop!

 

Another important component is -- you guessed it -- FOOD! It looks like they had more than enough nourishment to sustain them for a hard day of cropping!

Pat was working on an Christmas tree made from folded rosettes.

She added a 3-D star to the top and a base to the bottom, as well as ribbons and buttons down the sides. This adorable holiday decor piece will be on display at our upcoming Crafty Christmas Open House. You can read more about our open house in this post.

Diana finished up a few Christmas projects and was getting ready to start some serious scrapbooking when I took this photo. As you can see, Diana does not travel lightly! :)

Next to Diana was Tess, who also brought some serious scrapbooking projects, but not as many supplies as Diana! :)

Tess joked that by the end of the day, she might be squeezed out of table space and be scrapping on the floor! LOL

Diane was working on another 8x8 themed album for her youngest grandson, Gavin. She is making a series of albums for each grandchild -- birthday, Christmas, Easter, summer, school, etc. -- with pages for the next 10 years! Her daughter Jill can easily add favorite photos to each year's spread, finishing a keepsake album in no time at all!

  Katie was working on some cards for our Staff Studio, the area of our store where you can purchase a wonderful card made by one of our staff members. You can read more about our Staff Studio in this post.

 

  Here are more of Katie's adorable cards!

Some of the staff took short shifts during the day. After doing some "power embossing" for card kits, Betsy planned to get back to a project she had brought along for the crop.

 

Betsy is an expert in rosettes, having made lots of them for this beautiful Christmas wreath! I love how she placed paper at the back of the wreath, leaving space for the "Merry Christmas" piece. You can see Betsy's great project at the upcoming Crafty Christmas Open House.

At the crop, Betsy was making a similar Thanksgiving/fall-themed wreath.

  Somebody had to hold down the fort for the day, and Gloria was up to the task! Bonnie also filled in for a few hours. Maggie is shown here with the makings of a new Christmas project made from wood blocks. Maggie knows how to use all kinds of power tools!

 

  
Maggie was also working on a project for her upcoming 2013 Calendar class (power tools not required! LOL), scheduled for December 2, 12:30-3pm. Get more information about this fun class in our current newsletter.

 

Bonnie was working on some great pages for her mom's scrapbook, this one of the Freedom Rock. Bonnie brought plenty to work on and was looking forward to a very productive day!

Heidi was putting the finishing touches on a great home decor piece. Would you believe that it started out as a plain chipboard cube? She added family photos and all kinds of Tim Holtz metal pieces to customize her piece. 

Heidi likes to use items with sentimental value in her projects. The lace shown here belonged to Heidi's grandma who recently passed away.

 

Heidi has also used the Tim Holtz metal pieces to create unique and personalized wine glass charms. This one includes tiny photos and a button from her Grandma's button jar.

As you can see, these Memory Bound ladies had a wonderful day cropping together! Our crop room is almost always available for you and your friends so if you'd like to spend a day cropping with us, just give us a call at (515) 965-1102 to make arrangements!
Janet

Upcoming Class: Things I Love Mini-Album

Hello, Memory Bound friends!  

 We have a unique and wonderful class coming up this Sunday, October 28, that you won't want to miss! Bonnie is teaching a Fancy Pants class which is straight from CHA, the big trade show we attended in Chicago back in July. I can vouch for what a great project it is, because Kellie and I took the class at CHA with Bonnie. You'll absolutely love this spiral binder with layers of pattern and texture. It has tons of room for photos and journaling about everything you love!

During the CHA class, Kellie asked the owner how the Fancy Pants company got its name. She told us that when she was a little girl, she liked to work on art projects so her grandma called her Little Miss Fancy Pants. When she decided to start her own company, "Fancy Pants" seemed to be the perfect name.

Don't miss this special opportunity to take a fantastic CHA class! Get the details below, then call us at (515) 965-1102 to sign up!

Janet


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Things I Love Mini-Album

Sunday, October 28, 12:30-3:30pm

Instructor: Bonnie Klein  
Fee: $32 /Skill Level: Any   

Bring Basic Class Kit, Tacky Tape, stapler, pop dots, and glue dots. 
This adorable spiral album project comes directly from a CHA class taught by Fancy Pants Designs! It’s built from a Brag Book and loaded with techniques such as pockets, paper ruffles, and pen stitching. It’s the perfect place to record those things that are special. Bonnie loved it so much that she wanted to share it with you!