20% Off Everything Coupon for Michaels!

Here's a fantastic coupon from Michaels - your one stop, shop till you drop shop for arts & crafts! It's their Friends & Family coupon and here's a copy for you. Just click and drag onto your desktop, then print away! Valid Sep.30th - Oct 2nd; just in time for all your remaining Halloween purchases and more! (Restrictions apply.) Enjoy!

Yours truly,
Julie :)

Quick & Easy Embellishments!

I design a lot of shapes and images and use these to create quick and easy embellishments for my own scrapbook pages, cards and tags. Images can be imported into a Microsoft Word document, sized then printed onto almost any paper. I also print titles and even personalized paper ribbon. Check out the Projects, Tips & Techniques page for some ideas and I will even share some of my images with you on the Images page. Please note, these are copyrighted images for personal use only.

Here's an additional tip: Print a selection of the Halloween images onto adhesive ink jet transparency paper then adhere to the outside of a glass candle holder, or glass cylinder. They make great table decorations! You can also print onto ink jet fabric then iron onto a T-Shirt or apron! There are so many ways you can be creative! Enjoy! Y'all come back now!

Yours truly,
Julie :)

Newsletter

I am the editor/designer of a new newsletter. It goes "live" today at the Memory Keeping Collection website. Each month I'll be bringing you scrapbooking and papercrafting tips, plus information on any new offerings from Ashton Drake Galleries. You'll also notice that they're having a drawing for a new Cricut. All you have to do is to go to their Facebook page and "like" them to qualify.

I'm also having a drawing for the month of October! It's for a Cricut roller bag with 3 Cricut cartridges! Plus I have two additional sets of 4 cartridges each to give away.

Blog "followers" will be automatically entered, so sign up here, or leave me a comment on why you like to use the Cricut for papercrafting. The winner will be announced on NOVEMBER 1st.

Y'all come back now.............

Yours truly,
Julie :)

ScrapFest - Last Day!

This was such a great event! Thanks to all of you who joined us for MITIs over the past 3 days. Everyone seemed to really enjoy the projects and had a lot of fun! Jean created the projects for Mark Richards, the company who manufactures the Sticker Pearls and Crystals - bling is definitely a girl's best friend whether she's a crafter or not.

Everyone loved the paper we used for the cards. It was donated by Basic Grey, Little Yellow Bicycle and SEI. The SEI, shell glitter paper seemed to be everyone's favorite. Unfortunately, it was a summer shipment and Archiver's quickly sold out. It's possible that it's still available from an online store. I sent SEI a message last night thru Facebook to ask if it's still available and where, so I'll let you know if I hear anything.

It was such a treat to meet everyone - I had a great time. Hopefully I'll get to join you again next year! In the meantime, keep checking back for projects, giveaways, more tips and techniques both here and on Jean's blog, "Just Crafty Me".

Hopefully everyone was able to sample many of the other MITIs around the Mall in spite of the long lines. There were so many great vendors who participated this year including EK Success Brands, Prima, Karen Foster Designs, Graphic 45 (I just LOVE their product line), Doodlebugs, Little Yellow Bicycle, Making Memories and more!

Now here's what's coming up here over the next few weeks:

1) Giveaways • A rolling bag for your Cricut, including 3 Cricut cartridges, plus 2 additional sets of 4 Cricut cartridges each.
2) Newsletter • I'm writing a monthly newsletter at the Memory Keeping Collection website. This will go live on September 23rd. They are also having a drawing for the new Cricut! Check their site for details.
3) Quick & Easy Cardmaking • Make 3 cards from one, 12" x 12" sheet of cardstock!

Over 2,000 MITI projects were made in our booth over the past 3 days! That was quite a crafting marathon. Needless to say Jean, Pat and I are a bit on the tired side, so it's time to kick back and put our feet up. Y'all come back now!

Yours truly,
Julie

ScrapFest!

Wondering why today's post is listed as being posted on Friday, September 17th when it's Saturday, September 18th. Have we crossed into the twilight zone I wonder....... Tomorrow is Sunday, September 19th and I'll be posting a wrap up of the show. Photos and notes from the first 2 days are below. Enjoy! Ya'll come back now............

Yours truly - albeit a bit confusedly,
Julie :)

ScrapFest - Day 2! Saturday, September 18th

900 MITIs yesterday and about 700 today..... how fun! Lots of ladies who stopped by yesterday came back today to make a second project with us. We really had fun... and THAT is the name of the game. We really LOVE what we do and I think everyone enjoyed being creative with us.

We even tried to make waiting in line fun. We showed episodes from the new series of Scrapbook Memories on a laptop - until the battery gave out - shared ideas, tips, techniques and stories and read lots of T-Shirt slogans!

Thanks Archiver's for such a great event! Ya'll come back now.......

Yours truly,
Julie :)

ScrapFest! Friday, September 17th

Today is the first of 3 days of ScrapFest at the Mall of America in Minneapolis, sponsored by Archiver's stores. I hadn't been to ScrapFest for quite a few years, so it was great to see how busy it still is. Hundreds of people lined up around vendor booths for the MITIs and registered for workshops and demos by some of the industry's most popular manufacturers.

The lines snaked up and down the hallways of the Mall of America where the wait for some of the MITIs was up to 90 minutes.

This is a great event for friends who come for a weekend getaway and mothers and daughters who share their love of scrapbooking and crafts.

My friend, and business partner, Jean (Just Crafty Me) plans and designs the MITI projects for Mark Richards, the company responsible for fabulous bling! We provided about 900 MITIs between 9am & 5pm, just today and we still have 2 days to go!

Check back tomorrow for even more updates! Ya'll come back now..........

Yours truly,
Julie :)

Popping Up!

I've been going thru some older projects and scrapbook pages for fun ideas to share. Rather than re-inventing the wheel with new techniques, concepts, etc. I decided that just because we're always on the lookout for something new, it doesn't necessarily mean that what we did in the past isn't a great technique for today's paper crafter. In fact, if you've just started to craft, all the techniques will be new. Granted, these projects will need updating with newer, more trendy papers, but let's not throw out the baby with the bathwater - let's focus on the techniques. Many of the paper crafting techniques we see are being touted as "new", whereas, in fact, many of them have been around, in some cases, for over 100 years. Paper piercing, is a great example. "Pin Pricked" paper samples have been found dating back to the 1800's......!

Here's an example of what I'm talking about. One of the "fun" techniques we explored in the late 90's was "Pop Up" pages. Pop-Up cards have been in a favorite in the UK for a long time. When you opened the card, out popped a bunch of flowers. I remember looking for these cards for my mum, when I was a little girl. They were always so pretty. They're really easy to make - you just need to know the technique then you can make all your projects "pop".

Here's an example of a pop-up page - I thought this would be appropriate for Halloween. This is an 8 1/2" x 11" pop up.

Open it up and voilà - look what pops up!


The little ghost at the top of the grave stone on the left is also a tab, so when you pull it down, even more photos are revealed.

Making pop ups is easy. You just have to remember that the part that pops up has to go across either a fold, or, as in this sample, across two adjoining pages. Here's the basic technique:

1. Cut a rectangle from cardstock, about 8" x 4". It doesn't really matter what size, or color. Fold in half, then fold about 1" up from the bottom. (Fold on the black lines.)

2. Make a small cut from the bottom, up the center fold to where the folded paper intersects.

3. This is your basic platform to which you can glue anything you want to "pop up". It can be much shorter, or you can cut it into a half circle, or a half circle on either side.

4. Fold the bottom flap upwards, then fold the paper in half with the backs facing.

5. Glue across either a fold (for a card), or two pages. The pop up base on the sample below is outlined in green. As you can see, this was just an 8" by 2" rectangle, folded in half lengthways, then again in half.

The only thing you have be careful about is the height of the pieces you glue to the base. They cannot be taller than the distance between the point where the center fold of the base is glued and the bottom of the pages. If the pieces are taller than this, they will stick out at the bottom when it is folded flat.

Enjoy......... y'all come back now!

Yours truly,
Julie :)

Scrapbook Memories DVD Set!

Did you know that Scrapbook Memories is on Facebook? Check it out and become a friend and you will qualify to be part of a random drawing to give away a DVD set of Series 1500! Join us now and tell your friends! Y'all come back now!

Yours truly,

Julie

License to Craft

I really believe that creativity, or the desire to be creative, is inherent in most people. Not everyone, however, is a crafter. Creativity comes in many different guises. My mum, for example, didn't think she was creative, but she made the most beautifully decorated cakes and sewed the prettiest dresses for me when I was a little girl. Creativity can be expressed in many different ways: Decorative painting, cake decorating, etc are pretty obvious, but how about things like cooking, or even the way you decorate a room, or write a letter. It's the desire to be creative that leads us to try new things and to search out and learn new techniques.

I have, what I consider to be, quite a number of creative outlets. I enjoy photography, decorative painting, jewelry making and all kinds of paper crafts and I'm always on the lookout for new techniques. I love to "play" and come up with my own techniques too, which is a big part of what I do as a designer in the Arts & Crafts industry. I love the challenge of having to come up with projects that I think others will enjoy. This was always a big part of what I did as a presenter on Shop at Home and HSN and the projects I created to feature on Scrapbook Memories. The obvious goal of Shop at Home and HSN is to sell product, but my job was to show cool projects that could be made with the product, so viewers would be inspired to buy. Scrapbook Memories, of course, is educational with a goal of bringing you new products and techniques.

What is YOUR favourite craft? Have you tried anything new lately? I'd love to hear what you like to do to be creative. Y'all come back now!

Yours truly,

Julie :)

Reality of Life

I haven't posted for a while, but there are times when everyday life takes priority. We had a great trip to the east coast to help my son and his wife move into their new home. I'd forgotten how tiring moving can be, but it's also a lot of fun and I didn't want to miss a minute. Unpacking boxes and re-discovering things that have been languishing in cupboards, drawers and corners of closets is as exciting as unwrapping Christmas presents. I really need to start with my own home. We moved here 7 years ago and there are still boxes I have yet to unpack........ Now I'm inspired to do so as soon as possible. Who knows what treasures I may find. After 36 years of marriage, 2 children and about 8 moves, whatever I discover might be as good as a Willy Wonka chocolate bar.

It's good to step back for a while. It's very easy to get involved in creativity to a point where it becomes overwhelming. There's always so much designers want to do, but never enough hours in the day. Each idea grows into more ideas - it's part of the creative process and the more we try to do, the more creative we become.

Life in the Craft Lane has changed dramatically over the past 5 years. Social networking has taken over to the point where our lives have little room for anything else, but Facebook, blogs and Twitter. Articles and projects which used to be created for books and magazines now appear on our blogs and websites, free to everyone who visits. There's still something comforting, however, about picking up a book or magazine and leafing through the pages while sitting with your feet up to the coffee table a glass of wine, or cup of tea in hand, so I hope they'll still be around for a few more years. Funnily enough, I'm sitting with my feet up, while I write this on my laptop; even computers have evolved where I'm not tied to a desk any more. I still don't have an iPhone though... so I don't Tweet..... can't imagine that anyone would really be interested in what I do on a daily, or hourly basis.

I will tell you what I have planned for tomorrow. I have boxes of projects which I will start to photograph and feature here on a regular basis. The projects may not use the latest and greatest patterned papers, or embellishments, but I've always loved to show ideas, concepts and techniques. Design has never been about the project - only the how to, so, Y'all come back now! You may find some treasures of your own.

Yours truly,

Julie :)

The Digital Age

The editor of an industry newsletter recently asked this question: Do you print all the photos you take? And, where? Home Printer? On-line service? Drug store? It really made me think about how photography has changed over the past 50+ years or so. Kodak has stopped manufacturing some, if not all, 35mm film so the camera that I love is now totally redundant. It's kinda sad. The negatives we used to store always gave me a feeling of total security with the knowledge that, even if I lost a print, I could always have reprints made from negatives. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE my digital cameras - the flexibility, the resolution, the ability to take videos - in HD no less, but, the advantages of digital are also the disadvantages.

In the past I'd probably take a roll of film depending on the occasion, but now I take literally hundreds of photos just to make sure I've got the best shot without having to worry about the cost of developing the film and having prints made. Herein lies the challenge. There are waaaaay too many to print and unless the photo is blurred and there isn't even a tiny part of it that is good enough to crop, I have a hard time hitting the delete button. With editing software, we can save photos that would otherwise hit the trash can and, I for one, have a hard time deciding "which one is best". If my grandchildren are in any of them, they're all fabulous. So, I take lots of photos - I have about 9,000+ in iPhoto right now - and only few of them have been printed. "One of these days" I will go thru them all and print the best of the best, but the longer I wait the more I have to "go thru" and the more overwhelming the task is. It's quite a dilemma and I doubt I'm the only one with this challenge.

So, what's the solution...... Not sure there is one, but I DO know one thing - we have to print the important ones!!! I've said many times on Scrapbook Memories, that our children are growing up to be jpegs!! Digital images are not safe, either on your computer, an external hard drive, on a CD or DVD. Not safe on a CD? Let's just say that I can't play my favorite Beatles' CD any more because there's a tiny scratch on it, no matter how carefully I handled it. Look back at how things have changed over the past 10 years or so. The first digital cameras stored images on a floppy disk. Do you have a floppy disk drive in your computer today? Who's to say that CDs and DVDs won't go the way of the 8-Track. It's scary, isn't it....... We live in a digital age at a time when the younger generation thinks that e-mail is too slow! I wonder what they'll come up with next....

Have a great week! I'm off for some R&R, so I may not post for a few days........ but I'll be back, and I can even say that with an Austrian accent....LOL

Yours truly,
Julie :)