Inspiration Friday!

Due to technical difficulties, Sandy's "home organizer" post scheduled for today will be up sometime next week. So make sure you check back then!!!

So instead I'm (Lacey) going to hijack this post with some Breaking NEWS!!  Well okay it's not urgent, well maybe it kind of is?!?

Wednesday, July 27, 2011 - 2 out of 4 of the NEW Simple Stories lines are now available for purchase in the MemoryWorks Online Shop!  This brings me GREAT excitement!  I love the new lines and the first 2 available are "Happy Days" and "Baby Steps".  Aren't your creative wheels spinning!?!

Happy Days

Simple Stories - Happy Days Collection Kit

The new collections have so many buying possibilities!  Something for everyone...or in my case one of each please!!  One of my favorite additions to the Simple Stories line is these FABULOUS 6x6 paper pads!

Simple Stories - Happy Days 6x6 Paper Pad

Happy Day indeed!!  And don't forget about the FABULOUS coordinating stickers (these come in the collection packs, but are also available separately!  See something for EVERYONE!)

Simple Stories - Happy Day Fundamental Stickers

and... Letter stickers GALORE!!!

Simple Stories - Happy Day Expression Alpha Stickers

Now, lets not forget about this DARLING and sweet "Baby Steps" line.  I personally do not have kids.  My friends and family, keep making more babies!  So I see a lot of projects using this fabulous line in the near future!

Simple Stories: Baby Steps Designer Cardstock

Did you know in addition to the Collection packs you can purchase the pieces from the kit individually?  YES!  The above are the papers from the Collection pack and you can also purchase the signature elements and flash cards on their own!  Perfect if you are not ready to dive into a whole kit, or you need extra pieces to add to your collection kit projects (which is always the case for me!)

Simple Stories - Baby Steps Signature Elements

 Don't forget the sweet extra sticker sheets!  Love these images!

Simple Stories - Baby Steps Fundamental Stickers

There you have it!  Simple Stories - 25 Days of Christmas & Generations will be available around August 22 to purchase through a MemoryWork Consultant!

Get these lines today, contact your MemoryWorks Consultant or find one on our locator! Happy Shopping & Scrapbooking!

Product Wednesday -- Show Your Scrap Space

Well here we are, near the end of July and my last post for the month. I had a blast sharing a little about me this month and I hope you all enjoyed everything and are inspired. This final week I get to share my scrap space. My main room is/was the kitchen. The stove/oven got removed shortly after my back surgery. Then the drain in the sink went and never fixed it so I turned the water off to the sink. I covered the sink with an old cutting board. My mom helped me move the two storage cabinets in where the stove used to be. I emptied out most of my dishes and put scrapbooking supplies in the empty cabinets. I use my kitchen table to scrap on.


When you come into the space, to the left, I have a multi tiered drawers and other single drawers in different sizes. Next to that I have some shelves that I put some of my photo boxes and one shelf is most of my buttons. Around the corner is more shelves with boxes of photos and up on the wall is my cow shelves that hold some of my flowers and ribbon hanging on the towel bar. Next to that I hung a very old toilet paper holder and hunt my BoBunny flowers from it.



Here are some other shots around the room.



I had bought a few years ago a cd holder and two video tape holders for $5 from the Elephant table at the Christmas bazaar in town. I have my Sizzix dies in the video tape holders (on the counter to the left side of the sink) and I have some of my small sets of clear stamps in empty cd cases and have them in the cd holder. I labeled each case and I write down what is in the case and the company and file it under a category (such as "flowers") in an index file box I decorated.



That is my scrap space. If you noticed dishes on the table, I share it with my cat. I moved the dishes up off the floor after my surgery so I could feed him. As I mentioned before, I have another scrap area, sorry no photos (very messing right now;) ). I have a scrap/craft table in the living room for when I want to watch tv as I work. On that table I have my distress inks, ink blender tool carousel, tools and adhesive I use with each project. I also have some supplies (not much) in this room (office/craft room) too. So I hope you enjoyed the tour of my main scrap space and inspired you. Until next time.......................


Happy Scrappin'!

Guest Designer Tuesday - Heidi Hooper

Thank Heidi for all the GREAT inspiration this month. Here is Heidi's final post as the July Guest Designer!!!


Hello All!
I ran across this project at a birthday party!...The girls were using foamie stickers to make their own headbands. So, I decided to try it out with scrapbook paper and ribbon! I bought my headbands at the dollar store...3 for a $1.00! Then I used 20 gauge wire and wrapped it around the headband. I taped the wire to the back of the paper designs. I then tied ribbon around the headband to hide the wire and spice it up! These are so so cute and very easy to make! At my next crop, I am going to give everyone a headband, some scrap paper, and ribbon and see what everyone creates!...

This little "gem" will be mine to wear at crops!...

Happy Scrappin!!!
Heidi Hooper

I also want to share a few more projects Heidi created using the July Express Kit.

Thanks again Heidi for your talents and inspiration!!

Inside Summer 2011 CHA - Chicago!

Hello! Christy Musack & Sheri Feypel - fellow Creative Team Members, here to give you look inside CHA!

Earlier this week we had the opportunity to attend CHA in Chicago as guests of our local scrapbook store.  It was an Amazing experience! 

 The best of the best in Scrapbook Manufactures were represented - including our very own Founders of MemoryWorks - 

Amber and Kevin Crowell!

After consulting on behalf of MemoryWorks for nearly 5 years, we were so thrilled to finally get to meet them!  Both are so warm and friendly - we took advantage of the chance at a quick photo op:

Amber and Kevin were on-site at CHA to showcase Simple Stories and the new upcoming lines.

Here's a look inside the Simple Stories booth:

We got a first hand peek of the new lines:

Top- left to right: Generations, Happy Day

Bottom- left to right: 25 Days of Christmas, Baby Steps

Did you know each of these lines will offer a 6x6 paper pad?  Love those!  All of these lines looked fabulous!  

Which one are you most excited to get ahold of?

As you may know, Simple Stories is teamed up with Unity Stamps for corresponding stamps to their current and upcoming lines.  So...we headed over to Unity and look what we found!

Thanks for letting us take you on this quick tour of Simple Stories at CHA!

&

Creative Friday: Taking Simple Stories one step further...

Hopefully by now most of you have gotten your hands on at least one Simple Stories kit, which looks a little something like this: This innovative system combines cut-apart journaling/title/photo mat cards (all double-sided cardstock!) with 12x12 printed cardstock, stickers, stamps and more! The general idea is to cut apart the cards and use the system's divided page protectors to slip in page elements and/or photos to make a no-fuss, customizable layout. Being the crafting nonconformist that I am, I couldn't leave well enough alone and just stick in the element cards as-is. Of COURSE I had to do something to them :)

Here is an example of a layout I made, using the Simple Stories 100 Days of Summer kit:All I have left to do is to slip some 4x6 photos in the photo sleeves and the layout is done!

Customize it!

Let me take you through the steps I took to customize the pre-printed elements. First I started with this:

I used these Simple Stories/Unity banner stamps from the Life Documented collection (for the record, I adore these stamps and have been using them on almost everything lately!):
The printed circle paper in the 100 Days kit is PERFECT for stamping the banners (as is the cover sheet for the kit - use the little sample prints on the front to stamp on!) in different patterns without using tons of paper.

After stamping several banners, cut them out and punch two small holes in the top of each:

Next weave twine through the holes and flip the whole thing over. Add small pop-dots to the back of each banner piece:

Flip it over and place on the card. The pop-dots will give just enough dimension to show through the page-protectors. I also added an arrow sticker (from the 100 Days included sticker sheet) with more pop-dots:

Here's the finished card, with edges inked, all ready for some journaling:

I used the same technique to make longer banners for the larger card, after sewing on a blue photo mat and adding a few stickers as shown:

Reverse it!

One of the great things about Simple Stories is that EVERY piece of paper is double-sided...and since the pieces can be used with the divided page protectors, it is absolutely possible (and even encouraged!) to use BOTH sides. This is easy to do with just a little planning.

This is the backside of the above photo mat that I sewed on. Obviously, I totally uglified this side of it with my piecemeal handstitching!

Never fear! I covered the entire center of the card with a photo mat (adhered with pop-dots for a little dimension and to protect my photo with a little buffer from the stitching), tied a ribbon around it and added a few stickers:

Hide it!

Another way to get the most from a Simple Stories kit is to use the pockets as hidden journaling slots. You can even add extra photos to the pockets - you know, the photos you want to include with the others but don't necessarily need to scrap? - stick 'em in there! They're kept safe and totally accessible!

Here I added a couple of journaling tags behind the photos. Notice that the ribbon and label are sticking OUT of the pocket. I like to include some sort of "pull" to moveable elements so viewers can easily pull out and look at pieces without digging around in the pockets and possibly breaking things. I also put a label sticking off the side of the journaling block that extends into the photo pocket next to it. Little touches like that are easy to add for more cohesiveness in a divided layout such as this.

Here is the finished layout, all ready for photos. Notice that there is room for four photos, a journaling block and 2 hidden tags for more photos or journaling - all on one 12x12 page. The elements are fully reversible to the page shown above, making this an extrememely economical and fast page to put together.

I can't stress enough how easy the Simple Stories system is to use. As you can see, the included pieces are cute enough to use on their own, without embellishment - if you can use a paper cutter, you can make an album from Simple Stories - you don't even need adhesive if you want to use the elements as-is! Just as easy for the beginner as the expert scrapper, you can create however and whatever you want from the same parts....creativity at its best!

Happy scrappin'...and go get you some Simple Stories :)