Top Ten Reasons to Attend National Scrapbook Day

10. Eight full hours of scrapbooking time, uninterrupted by your kids, the television, or the laundry is invaluable.

9. Be the first to see the new products being released on May 1st.

8. The "Fun and Fabulous" theme guarantees some fabulous goodies waiting for you at your seat!

7. Having more people in the room while you work means you have more people to help you make those important creative decisions (and more people to ooh and ahh over the pictures of your grandson/wedding/kitchen remodel/dog).

6. Three big raffle prizes will be given away, with a bonus in-your-seat raffle at 10:30am.

5. Lunch will consist of Jack Daniels pulled chicken sandwiches, fresh summer fruits, and more deliciousness!

4. The NEW "Fabulous" Power Palette will be on display and available to order.

3. Baby Haley will be in attendance and available if you need an afternoon baby fix.

2. Marianne always has chocolate at her workshops.

1. A room full of women sharing photos, stories, and laughs is a FABULOUS way to spend a Saturday!

Not registered yet? You only have 2 days left to qualify for early registration ($20), and it increases to $25 after that! As of this blog post, I have just 4 seats left, so call up a friend and get yourselves registered!

(If you got here through my scavenger hunt email, then choose your favorite reason to attend, email me at Marianne241@gmail.com, and I'll help you get registered AND leave an extra gift at your seat!)

The Best Shower Gift

I have a favorite shower gift that I've been giving ever since I became a CM consultant, and it's been a huge hit at the showers I've attended! I love it so much, I may have given it to myself when I got married AND when I had a baby...

Introducing the Everyday Display!


It has a 13.5 x 13.5" magnetic board with a ribbon across the front- I call it the clothesline, because it comes with matching clothespins!


You can attach pictures, journal boxes, and memorabilia. For the display in our baby room, I attached a journal box with a note about Baby H's birth, the hat she was given at the hospital, and a couple of die cuts for decoration.


These die cuts came from the Baby Girl Display Accents. Creative Memories releases different display accents a few times each year so you can keep updating your display with a new look!


It hangs on a decorative post with a thick ribbon. If you don't prefer that look, you can tuck it behind and hang it like you would a regular picture frame.


Did I mention that it's magnetic? It comes with 6 matching magnets! I love it because I can throw some photos up there, then take them down to use them in my scrapbook or put them in a frame. It makes it very easy to change the display as often as I want.

Materials:

Everyday Display (in white)
Baby Girl Display Accents

Have a shower to attend? Need an Everyday Display for your own home? Contact me at Marianne241@gmail.com or simply order from my site using the links above!

National Scrapbook Day- Registration Now Open!

	You're invited to my National Scrapbook Day event, where fresh products and inspiring ideas will be in full bloom. Whether you enjoy traditional or digital scrapbooking, here's what's in store for you: Time to work on your photo projects Project ideas and inspiration Hands-on demonstrations Free make 'n' takes Exclusive Fun & Fab products Saturday, May 7th 10:00am-6:00pm I hope you can join in the photo celebration! Bring a friend (who is new to my events) and receive an extra gift! Early registration in the month of April is $20. After April 30th, registration will be $25, so don't wait!
In addition to the above highlights, your registration fee gets you: Lunch and snacks throughout the day Products at your seat Raffle prize opportunities 8 hours of cropping with some fabulous ladies!

To register, email me at Marianne241@gmail.com. I hope to see you there!

Finished Layout: Postcards

Newsflash!

Sometimes, you don't need a fancy layout. Or any layout at all! For this page, I wanted to showcase some postcards that my sister had sent in 2010. She made a New Year's Resolution to send handwritten notes more often, so she sent postcards each month. I saved some of my favorites (including the one featuring her new dog, Olive!), but I realized that they took up an entire 12x12 page.


So I chose a striped paper background that just happened to have similar colors to a couple of the postcards (it's red and yellow, in case you don't see it right away). I didn't need to journal because my sister had explained her New Year's Resolution in the first postcard, which is on the top left of the page. I just slapped them on the background paper and moved on.

Give yourself permission to do this every once in a while! It's quite satisfying!

Finished Layout: West Side Story

Last October, The Husband and I went to SF for yet another Broadway musical. I'm so lucky that he's willing to see these shows with me! I inadvertently dressed in red and black, matching the show poster. What a geek!

All of the materials you see here (aside from the red cardstock) come from the Black and White Power Palette. My favorite part of using this PP is the fact that you can pair it with any color and get a different look every time!


Aren't the paper ribbons fantastic?


Materials:

Black and White Power Palette
Brick (Red) Cardstock

Silpada Party with Creative Memories benefits!

My cousin (Jenni Rahn) is a Silpada Representative, and we're teaming up to offer you a Silpada shopping experience with Creative Memories benefits!

At a Silpada Party, you can celebrate your one-of-a-kind style with unique Sterling Silver Jewelry. Join me for a relaxed party with no formal presentations - just fun with friends! Silpada Jewelry makes it easy to look fabulous... and that's something to celebrate!

This party will be open house style, so stop by anytime to shop, visit, and enjoy a glass of wine. Bring a friend- she'll thank you!

Can't make it? Ask me for a catalog and you can still place an order! Want to have your own party? Talk to Jenni and find out how to earn an average $300-$500 in free jewelry!

Thursday, April 7th

6:30-9:30pm

Marianne's House
(Email for my address)

ALSO!
Sheryl the gold buyer will be there! She pays the highest in the valley... customers will get a check on the spot for their scrap gold...single earrings, 80's gold, old rings, etc..... She will remove stones and takes EVERYTHING! Just bring it ALL with you and she will evaluate it.

BONUS CREATIVE MEMORIES PERKS!

Every person who attends this event will have the opportunity to register early for my National Scrapbook Day workshop on May 14th. VIP registration is only $10, which is half the normal fee. You'll also receive an exclusive Creative Memories gift when you register at the party. Don't miss out!

Please RSVP for our Silpada party by April 1st by emailing Marianne241@gmail.com

Finished Layout: Christmas Bump!

I love this layout, mainly because it was simple and used my favorite color combination: purple and teal! I used products from last year's Open House customer gifts- aren't they beautiful? If you've never been to my Open House in December, make a mental note right now... there are free gifts for all who attend, and they're fabulous!



These die cuts (there were other words to use: Peace, Love, Faith, and Joy) were adhered using foam squares to make them pop off the page.



And just look at that bump!!

Tuesday's Cool Tools: Page Planner Templates

In my last post, I featured two layouts that I created using the new Creative Memories Page Planner (if you view that post, I'm referring to the last 2 spreads).



The Page Planner is a great tool that features 4 different templates, all of which can be turned in four different directions. It would seem logical that this would equal 16 different layouts to choose from, but there is also an Idea Book that comes with them, showing many different ways in which they can be used (in addition to the most obvious)!

Sometimes it's nice to let others do the thinking and planning for us. This allows us to skip ahead to the fun part: working with our photos, patterns, and colors!

To see the Page Planner in action, view this video... then hop over to my website to check it out and order!

Finished Layouts: Jewel Power Palette

My favorite Power Palette to date has definitely been Jewel. The aptly-named theme is filled with jewel tones that (in my opinion) bring out the best color in my photos, and most closely match my preferred scrapbooking style and "mood" of my pages.

Since the Jewel Power Palette has been discontinued, I did my best to use it up in my 2010 album, which I just completed yesterday (whooooo-hoooo!). Here are some of the layouts that I completed with it:

(It's my photo that's crooked, not the layout!)

Added to the Jewel Power Palette are:
Brown ribbon from the Simply Beautiful Decorative Set (yes, items can be purchased individually- you don't have to order an entire Power Palette!)
ABC Stickers in Swirly White


I went with non-traditional colors for this Halloween layout, inspired by the Christmas layouts that my friend Noey did recently in non-traditional colors. I'm not a fan of Halloween orange and black, and these light jewel tones fit our costumes better anyway!

Added to the Jewel Power Palette are:
ABC Stickers in Sophisticate Brown

(Again, it's the photo that's crooked- not my layout! I can't seem to line up that right side when I shoot...)

I'm highlighting the title here to show that when you run out of a letter on the letter sticker page that you're using, simply use another color! I was out of lowercase g, so I used white for g and y.

Added to the Jewel Power Palette are:
ABC Stickers in Sophisticate Brown and White
Tags punched with the Tag Maker
Squares punched with the Square Maker
Journal box taken from a very, very old CM design (Vintage, maybe?)




Everything here was from the Jewel Power Palette, including those cute ABC Stickers. Each Power Palette has its own set of ABCs, did you know that? Click here to view them all. I'm partial to our Swirly, Simple, and Sophisticate ABC stickers, but occasionally I branch out and use the ones that come with the Power Palettes. I definitely think these worked on this page!

To view all of our current Power Palettes (including the brand-new ones!), click here.

As usual, visit my website or contact me to order!

Persona = Personalization!

In my last post, I mentioned that I do all of my album cover personalization through Persona Imprinting, a division of Creative Memories. I highly recommend this, whether you have one photo album on the shelf or 100!

This is what my shelf looks like with some of my "annual" albums lined up:


My "annual" albums are my standard, chronological albums with all of the events in our lives. I started labeling them "annual" because I began them after graduating college, when I was starting out on my own (as a single woman... without a job...) and it wasn't yet appropriate to call them my "family" albums.


Since I married Scott in 2008, I decided that maybe it would be nice to transition from simply calling each album "Annual" to calling them "Walters Family Annual" instead. This album is the Plumberry coverset that I used for our 2010 album.


Even though I use different colors for each year, I tie them all together by choosing the same design when I order personalization from Persona Imprinting: it's called "Seasons" and has an icon for each of the four seasons. I think it's appropriate for a year-round, annual family album!


Finally, I do the same thing on the spine of each album. This is even more important to me than the cover, because I like to know what I'm looking at when my albums are lined up on the shelf. I have the same "Seasons" image at the top, and this time I stuck with "Annual" and the year at the bottom of the spine, so it would match the rest of the albums on the shelf (and because it's shorter).




The above album is the one that I just started, which will chronicle each year that I teach at my current middle school. I posted about this album earlier this week, and I'm so happy with how the imprinting looks on the Picfolio albums!

If this is something you think you'd like to start doing, contact me at Marianne241@gmail.com and I'll help you get started!

Finished Layout(s): 8th Grade

I have a traditional 12x12 album of my 6 years of elementary teaching, and I'm very proud of that album. It has every student that I taught in those years, and it's something that I really treasure.

When I chose to change positions and teach 8th grade at Lawson Middle School, I knew I would need a new album. For this one, I decided to switch to a Picfolio Milestones album, just for a change in format. I admit that I had been trying to think of a project to do in a Milestones album, and this one seemed to fit the bill.

Title Page
Excuse the awful picture quality here- the plastic sleeves are thicker than a typical page protector, and I hadn't quite managed yet to get my camera to adjust.

On each page, I had a particular theme, usually related to the school event from which the pictures were taken. Using the Picfolio Album Kits, it was easy to coordinate colors and mat some of the photos (but not all of them- that's not necessary). The best thing about Picfolio? No cropping necessary if you're not in the mood to crop... just slide them in!

All of the pages above were Picfolio Multi-Pocket Pages, but this last one is a Picfolio Large-Pocket Page. It allows you to store the larger items that belong in the album... in this case, I kept cards and letters from my students, as well as some of the large sports photos from the teams that I coached.

And the titles? As usual, I used my ABC stickers by Creative Memories. They're a must!

Finally.... the cover!


I personalize all of my covers through Creative Memories Persona Imprinting, which is the division of our company that does the fantastic cover and spine embossing. More details on this in my next post, so stay tuned....

Page of the Week: LOVE

Created by Hilde Janbroers for the CM Project Center

For materials and step-by-step directions, click here

Happy Valentine's Day!

Finished Layout: Muir Woods

After finding out I was pregnant, The Husband and I decided to spend the rest of the summer and nice weather doing some outdoorsy things that we had been wanting to do for a while.



The first thing we did was head to Muir Woods for a hike over Labor Day weekend. We both love seeing the Redwoods of CA and neither of us had been to Muir Woods (at least, not since our baby-in-a-backpack days, which was definitely how I spent my first few hikes in CA!).



In addition to the hike, we wanted to visit the Muir Woods Cafe, where (rumor has it), the grilled cheese and tomato soup had been featured on the Food Network's "The Best Thing I Ever Ate."



After a brisk hike, we headed back to the cafe for lunch. I'll admit that the grilled cheese and tomato soup were goooood, and just what we needed after a nice little workout!

Materials used:

Jewel Power Palette (for paper, photo mats, title stickers and ABC stickers)

The Jewel Power Palette has been discontinued this year, but you can see all the available Power Palettes here.

Finished Layout: Run San Ramon

Last year, I finally convinced The Husband to start running, and guess what happened? He liked it! He decided to train for his very first 5k race, and the 4th of July "Run San Ramon" race was the perfect event, since it's in his hometown.

Materials:
Cardstock in red, white, and deep blue
Stars punched out with the Embossed Star Maker
Borders trimmed with the 12 inch Rotary Trimmer using the Wavy blade and Small Wavy blade
Swirly white ABC stickers

Finished Layout: Andrea's Dresses

One of my favorite memories from planning my wedding was the dress shopping! I was thrilled when my good friend, Andrea, asked me to be a bridesmaid in her wedding, and I realized that this would be the first time I would get to experience the wedding planning process since my own wedding!



I don't know how obvious it is at first glance, but those are all different dresses in those pictures... Andrea knew she wanted a strapless gown, and she was able to try on a lot of gorgeous ones!



I was finally able to put some of my Vellum Expressions to use- the ones highlighted in these two pictures are discontinued (Expressions of Her), but there are so many great ones, and they can add a lot to a layout. This page was so much fun to create!

Materials:

Simply Beautiful Tone-On-Tone Paper
Swirly White ABC Stickers
Simply Beautiful Paper Flowers
Vellum Expressions- Of Her

Follow Up: Making Scrapbooks for Others

Several months ago, I posted about a project that two friends and I did, involving some basic scrapbooking for young mothers in Sao Paulo, Brazil. I'm happy to report that we have some feedback! And it's good!

Click here for "ohmygoodness really, thank you thank you"

Finished Layout: Valentine's Day

OK, so I realize that Valentine's Day is quickly approaching, and I promise you that I'm not a full year behind in my scrapbooking. I also realize that if I were a year or more behind, it would not be a problem, seeing as many of my customers and scrapbooking friends are working on projects with pictures that are several (or many) years old. But I digress.

Valentine's Day is my favorite holiday, and it's unfortunate that it has been reduced to being called a "Hallmark holiday" or that single women think that they have to boycott it. I've always celebrated Valentine's Day, regardless of my relationship status. It's a great time to show the people you love that, well, you love them!


Scott and I, early in our relationship, decided to ditch the idea of trying to go out on Valentine's Day, and created our own tradition at home. Each year, we cook a nice meal together and watch an old, romantic movie that neither of us have seen (preferably a classic, but we might eventually venture into the nostalgic 80's romantic comedies, we'll see).

In 2010, we actually made it out of the house to see a matinee of the movie "Valentine's Day," because we (i.e. *I*) couldn't resist. Then we bought a copy of "My Fair Lady" and made a great dinner of chicken pot pie with homemade fondue for dessert. It was wonderful!


And the real reason I'm just getting around to posting this layout? I don't like the journaling I did on this one. I tried something new, didn't love it. But I VERY rarely (if ever) re-do a layout once it's done, so I'm leaving it. I love the papers on this one, it's just the journaling that bugs me. *shrug*

Materials used:

Seriously old Creative Memories paper (honestly, don't even ask)
Swirly Brown ABC Stickers