Get last minute Halloween ideas at Memory Bound!

If you haven't yet seen our amazing Halloween display, you've got just a few more days to check it out! We've got everything you need to make your Halloween extra spooky and fun this year!

When I was a child, my mom used to make special treat bags to give to neighbors, best friends, and family who stopped by on Beggars' Night. What a great tradition to continue this year! We have several ideas for treat boxes and bags which can be whipped up like magic!

We have wonderful ideas for Halloween decor, cards, and more. Stop in to "get your spook on" before it all disappears!

Janet

Staff Projects: December Journals

Over the past couple of holiday seasons, our talented Memory Bound staff members have been making December Journals. If you haven't heard of this concept, the idea is to create an eclectic little album with pages for each day in December. You make the album in advance and fill it with photos and memorabilia throughout the month of December. By the end of the month, you have a completed album filled with memories!

If you are interested in making a little book like this, now is the time to do it! You can use any album -- any size or format -- as a base. You can choose a coordinating line of paper, or mix and match. Use a variety of page sizes or make them all the same...the choice is yours! A project like this is also a great opportunity to use up those extra little embellishments, bits of ribbon, and other do-dads we all have in our stash!

We've taken photos of the December journals made by our staff members to inspire you to make your own this holiday season. Without a doubt, these beautiful albums are some of our favorite projects and will be treasured keepsakes for years to come! Click on each photo collage to enlarge. 

Enjoy!

Janet

Katie's 2010 December Journal features photos, drawings, and adorable little stories about her boys. Katie is the best storyteller, and her album definitely reflects that!

Diane has her 2011 December Journal all ready to go! She chose a vintage tan and red color scheme throughout her book. She used a Fancy Pants journal for her album and had enough extra pages to make a second one!

Amanda is all ready for her baby's first Christmas this year! I love how she incorporated the Frosty book into her beautiful album.

Pat's 2010 album has pictures of everything she did in December...including a visit to the doctor's office! Pat made her adorable album using our Accu Cut dies and bound it with The Cinch.

Diane very creatively used the cover and pages from an "older" Rudolph book for her 2009 album. (I hesitate to refer to that particular Rudolph book as vintage, since I had that same book as a child! LOL)

Diane's 2010 album incorporates lots of photos of family gatherings. She used a Teresa Collins album as the starting point for her eclectic book.

Diana's beautiful 2011 album is all ready to go! She chose an elegant red and cream theme for this year's book.

Diana's 2010 album is a treasure of fun pictures (I love the dog photos!) and stories. She even incorporated a McDonalds' coffee cup into her album!

This is another type of December album created by Diane as a place for recording gift ideas. She created the album from flash cards and made a page for each family member. She also made pages for recipes and Christmas cards.

After School Class for KIDS Monday!

It's after-school Scrappin' Kidz time with Diana! 

Monday, Sept 12, 4-5pm 

Ages 8+, younger ages with adult or older sibling    Fee: $12

Diana has scheduled a different project each month.  Monday, students make a fun backpack- style mini book. It's the perfect place for first day of school photos and other memories.  She has paper for boys and for girls, so both are welcome. It's a nice creative outlet and stress-free fun after a busy school day!  Call 965-1102 to register

Got fair pics? We can help!

Raise your hand if you went to the Iowa State Fair this year. Okay...now keep your hand up if you took a ton of pictures and need to get them in the scrapbook!

That's what I thought! :) Like you, I always find lots of great photo opportunities at the Iowa State Fair.

I have a fondness for animals.

Especially sweet baby animals!

And I love to go through the Ag building, my favorite place at the state fair. Each year I admire the beautiful vegetable displays. I can't imagine growing something good enough to eat AND beautiful enough to enter into competition!

And of course there's always a "big thing" at the fair. For some folks, this year's big thing was deep fried butter on a stick. This is as close as I got to that concoction!

We had a lot of fun taking pictures of as many of the small cows scattered around the grounds as we could find. This one is "Dairy Potter". :)

I have so many wonderful pictures of the Iowa State Fair and I can't wait to scrapbook them! So I checked out the great assortment of fair products currently at Memory Bound.

We've got wonderful custom die cuts that make easy work of your titles. If you've never looked at our beautiful layered die cut titles, be sure you do so next time you stop in. They are a great value and really enhance your design. (In addition to these fair die cuts, we have them for lots of events, places, and subjects!)

We have a great assortment of livestock embellishments, which will be perfect for all of those sheep and pig portraits I took!

So now's the time for all of us to get started on those state fair layouts. Lucky for us, Memory Bound has everything we need to preserve those precious Iowa State Fair memories!

Janet

Wedding Bells in the Memory Bound Family!

Wedding bells will be ringing next summer for Dawn's daughter, Amanda Johnson!

Amanda is engaged to Sean Hagan. They are planning a July 14, 2012 wedding at the beautiful new Enrichment Center on the DMACC campus in Ankeny. It will be a colorful wedding in shades of coral, pink, and orange with a little bit of yellow!

Amanda and Sean met while swimming for the University of Iowa. Amanda is a pharmacy student at the University of Iowa and will graduate with a Doctor of Pharmacy degree in May, 2014. In addition to her studies, she currently works in the Walgreen's pharmacy. Sean graduated this past spring with a degree in Management Information Systems. He is currently on an internship at All Steel in Muscatine in the IT department.

It’s clear that Amanda and Sean are the perfect match! They are looking forward to a lifetime of happiness. We at Memory Bound wish them all the best!

Congratulations, Amanda & Sean!

Go Fly A Kite!

Yesterday afternoon when I was cleaning out the garage, I took an unexpected side trip down memory lane: I opened up a cupboard and found buckets of pastel sidewalk chalk, colorful sandbox toys, a pair of tiny roller blades, pink flowered knee pads, and two rolls of yellow kite string -- all sweet mementos of my daughter's childhood.

The string reminded me of the times we flew kites when she was a little girl. There is nothing quite like the feel of a kite tugging and swooping at the end of a string! I had just started scrapbooking back then and remember making a page about one of our kite-flying days in her grandparents' backyard.

Speaking of kites, the gals at Memory Bound put up the cutest kite display this past week! The large kites are made from a full sheet of double-sided paper. They added kite "tails" made of twine and tied with matching ribbon and also made a tiny kite for a card. I think the kites would be a super cute decoration for a summer party or even a child's room. And of course, small kites would be a perfect embellishment on a spring or summer scrapbook page!

Instructions for the kites are posted with the display, so you'll be making kites in no time! The idea came from Card Creations Volume 9 ($14.99). It's full of new designs for every occasion and holiday.

Back to that cupboard I was telling you about: It's been a very time since we have used the things I found there, given that our daughter just finished her freshman year in college! But being an overly sentimental mom, I'm not quite ready to part with them yet. So I closed the cupboard and left my memories inside.

Then I took a deep breath and turned my attention to my husband's part of the garage where, I might add, I found PLENTY of things to part with! :)

Janet

Our Favorite Things: Adhesive

Here's a true confession: My kitchen pantry isn't very well-stocked. Every time I need to cook dinner (which is basically every day!), I have to run to the store to buy the ingredients. In fact, I don't think you could make anything (except for maybe Play-Doh) from what you'd find on my shelves. It's not very convenient (and it's actually kind of embarrassing when the check-out guy recognizes me...) to have to run to the grocery store every day, and it's certainly not very efficient!

But believe me, the opposite is true in my crafting area! (You can see where my priorities lie! LOL) Unlike my empty pantry, I keep an ample stock of all the basic supplies I know I'll need every time I work on a project. For me, that includes cardstock, striped paper :), and...ADHESIVE! I make a point NEVER to run out of adhesive. In fact, I buy it almost every time I go to Memory Bound!



These days, crafters are very fortunate to have a wide variety of adhesives from which to choose. In fact, there are so many adhesives -- for so many purposes -- that we all have our favorites! I asked our Memory Bound staff members to tell me which one is their "go to" adhesive and why. Maybe you'll see your favorite on this list or notice a new one to try!

Amanda: I use Tombow for my everyday scrapbooking. It comes out nicely and holds very well, yet if I needed to I could still pull a photo off of my layout without damaging my paper. I use the UHU Glue Stick anytime I am covering something with scrapbook paper. I use Tacky Tape when I am creating a project where I want a very strong hold, such as home decor projects, shadow boxes, and printer trays.

Bonnie: My favorite adhesive is E-Z Runner by Scrapbook Adhesives. I like it because it is easy to use and it sticks well. It is not refillable; just throw away the empty container and start a new one.

Dawn: My favorite is the Glue Glider PRO. I can change to any type of refill just by pulling out the refill and sliding the next one in. With so many types of refills, I have the exact one I need for any type of project. The Glue Glider PRO is designed to be the most comprehensive adhesive in the craft industry. Refills include PermaTac, PermaSquares, HighTac, ExtremeTac, Fabric Bond, Repositionable, and Wall Art.

Diana: My #1 adhesive is the Xyron 150 for everything small. I use Zip Dry glue for all things big. It drys flat without air pockets or waves. I like Glossy Accents for bigger embellishments and Glue Dots or Pop Dots for buttons.

Diane: My favorite adhesive is the Click 'n Stick white mounting squares from 3L. They are inexpensive and always sticky.

Janet (that's me!): My favorite is also the Click 'n Stick (and I'm not just copying Diane!). Actually, after my favorite adhesive was discontinued awhile back, Diane suggested I go back to using the Click 'n Stick. It's easy to use and control -- I use it each time I scrapbook. I also could not live without my Xyron 150 for small items!

Katie: My favorite adhesive is the Therm O Web. It's inexpensive, easy to use, plus it adheres cleanly (without breaks in the adhesive line) and it's easy to refill.

Kellie: I like the Therm O Web tape runner for several reasons. First of all -- it rolls on nicely and sticks great. It's easy to refill with a snap-in cartridge. And it's the best value because you get 50'. The dispenser is only $4.99 and refills are $3.99. Glossy Accents is my favorite liquid adhesive.

Michele: One of my favorites is the Glue Glider PRO. I like it because it holds a large amount of adhesive, so when I am working on a large project, I don't have to stop to reload adhesive as often. It also is very easy to switch between high tac and repositionable adhesive if needed for different projects.

Pat: My favorite is the Tombow Mono Dots Permanent Adhesive. It is super easy to refill and the shape is such that you can always tell which side is up and which side is down. AND best of all, it sticks really well!!

Tess: I like the Thermoweb tape runner. It doesn’t gum up on the dispenser!

I didn't ask these ladies about the contents of their pantries (maybe I SHOULD, huh?), but you can see that their adhesive bins are very well stocked. We each have at least one "go to" adhesive. So how about you? What's your favorite and why? Leave us a comment. We'd love to hear what you think!

Janet