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By Linda Auclair
Create this hoot of a project just in time for Halloween! Linda shows us how to use some of the Spook Xing Papers and bare elements chipboard letters in a unique way to fashion this adorable owl hanging decoration!
Click here for instructions on how to make this quick and easy project!
I don’t know about you, but as much as I look forward to the holidays, I’m also a little stressed out finding time for all of the activities, not to mention the constant outflow of cash!
Why not use your crafting skills to make some thoughtful, personalized gifts this season that can be completed quickly and won’t break the bank. Creative Imaginations’ Magazine Transparencies are the perfect solution.
You can simply sandwich the transparency with a portrait and frame it. Or take the layered magazine cover, scan it and use the new photo jpeg to resize and create other easy and meaningful gifts. Try sizing the Baby cover to fit on CI’s Marcelina Brag Book Cover. Or, how fun would it be to “mail” a variety of magazine covers inside CI’s Sydney Mini Mailbox.
So don’t sweat the holidays, make creative gifts in a snap and enjoy more time with your family instead of at the mall.
-Mallory
One of Creative Imaginations’ artist, Marah Johnson will be featured in a webisode airing on www.scrapbooklifestyle.com on MONDAY, October 15. She will be showing us how she adorns one of our Creative Imagination purses. Here she shares more on where she draws her creative inspiration:
From as far back as I can remember, I have been outside the box. I am sure it had a lot to do with my parents’ way of life. During my younger years, we were hippies. My parents embraced the hippie culture and lifestyle. My mother made art and sold it to feed & cloth us; my father followed the crops, picked fruits, and worked the fields to make money. When I was a bit older, my mother taught art classes and my dad was a woodworker. He built furniture and cabinetry to put himself through college while I was in middle school. Back then I was none to happy about how we lived...
Kids can be mean. I was picked on quite a bit for my lack of a wardrobe and strange lunches, the fact that I knew nothing about music, TV or movies... Now I see it as an adventure.
My adventure cultivated my creativity, and imagination. Since I had nearly no toys as a child...I had to play make believe. Things I found outside became just about anything I wanted them to be. I remember playing for hours down by a creek we lived near. I made fairy villages out of rocks, moss, and bark. I pretended that the water bugs were my pets. Books were my best friends... sometimes they still are. I got lost in every book I could get my hands on, especially biographies - I too wanted to be someone, some day. I would have never guessed in a million years what that meant or what I would actually be doing. I never would have thought that my most valuable assests are my imagination, creativity and ability to adapt to anything.
It is funny how much our life experiences really do have a direct effect on who we are and how we do things, and even what we choose to do. I travel a lot now to teach, and for tradeshows. During my travels I am often asked questions that I think many people are curious about.
Q: What do you say to people who might think they are not that creative?
I believe every one is creative in their own way...it could be cooking, gardening, music, dancing, singing. I think the key is to find what you are passionate about and nurture it. Finally, I think if we are not so hard on ourselves, our creativity will shine through.
Q: What things do you do to become inspired when you feel you are experiencing a creative block?
WOW!....I don't feel a creative block that often. I am always thinking up something to make or do. However the problem is, what I am thinking about may not pertain to what I am supposed to be doing. My biggest problem is staying focused on the task at hand. I am often afraid if I don't immediately do what is in my head, I might forget to try it later....clear as mud? That is not to say I don't look elsewhere for inspiration, I do. Daily. My most common source of inspiration comes from design blogs. There are so many out there, these are just a few I visit.
An Indian Summer
Poppy Talk
Design Spotter
Decor 8
Q: You gave such great tips on taking candid photographs in your last scrapbooklifestyle.com webisode, do you have any tips on taking interesting photographs of the environment/landscape around us?
I certainly don't have any photography tips in the technichal sense, but I do think that recording our surroundings are extremely important. That is why I rarely crop my photos, years later i am sure my kids and I will love looking back at pieces and parts of our home, or glimpses into our neighborhoods. I do try and incorporate our surroundings as often as possible...I think those photos are more about creating a feel, than a pretty picture.
Q: How often do you scrapbook?
Not so much anymore...I don't seem to have the time. Between work (I really do get paid to play but I don't want that to get around) and my girls busy lives, I don't have much time to create layouts. But I do jot notes, and take lots of pictures....someday my life will slow down. Right?
Q: What do you enjoy besides crafting?
I love to cook, not bake. My baking abilities stink, but my cooking is not so bad. My girls have have a varied palate which is fun. I
think I have one of the few households where pizza and hamburgers do not have a big fan club. I think I have one of the few second graders who cry for broccoli (she loves the stuff). The girls and I love to search for cool new recipes to try, then critique them during dinner, talking about what we would change and how to improve on them. Kennedy my oldest, is becoming a pretty darn good cook herself, I love that!
On a side note I recently read a book called The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls. I saw so much of myself in Jeanette Walls. Her tenacity and will to make change is truly inspiring.
Q: How did you get started in this industry?
A: I was driving in the car one night thinking about a layout I was working on and about how I could get the look of a rubber stamped image on my layout without the rubber stamp and that’s when the lightbulb went off…TRANSPARENCIES. Transparencies weren’t a product that was currently in the scrapbooking industry, but I had a feeling that it was a good idea. The only problem was that I didn’t know anyone in the scrapbooking industry. But then I remembered a 20 second conversation I had a few weeks earlier. Someone had introduced me to Karen Burniston who worked with Creative Imaginations and since she was the closest thing that I had to a scrapbooking “connection”, I figured out how to email her and she put me in touch with the President of Creative Imaginations (who thankfully, thought that transparencies were a good idea too).
Q: Which products from your current lines are the most
popular?
A:
I think that my Cream & Black Collection is probably the one that I hear the most excitement about. And maybe that’s because it seems to work with just about any layout. So I just keep adding to the line…and adding to the line…and I’m not going to quit adding to the line until someone says “O.K. Karen, enough cream & black already”!
Q: What are some of the unique selling points of your products?
A: I try really hard to make the line feel classic. To make it feel like it is something that will never go out of style.
Q: How do you monitor trends in the industry?
A: I watch for trends to some degree, but to be quite honest, if I followed the trends, I don’t think that my line would have that “classic” feel that I’m going for.
Q: How do you select color schemes for new products?
A: I just choose whatever colors I seem to be using on my own layouts the most.
Q: What is the creative process behind the names for each collection?
A: It’s usually whatever my art director thinks of!
Q: When inspiration strikes what is the first thing you do to begin developing a new product?
A: I’m a big note taker, so I always have a binder full of ideas and inspiration. And then I just sit on my ideas for awhile and let them bounce around in my head. Once I have a pretty good idea of how I want things to look, I head to the computer.
Q: How do you introduce new product lines and/or new items to the consumer?
A: I usually post new stuff on my weblog.
Q: What has been the most rewarding aspect of becoming a product designer for Creative Imaginations?
A: Coming from a scrapbookers point of view, it’s just cool that when I’m scrapbooking, I can say “I wish I there was a product like this…” and then I can make it happen.
Q: What plans do you have for the year ahead?
A: Just hoping that some good ideas will strike me!
Q: How did you get started in this industry?
A: I started working with Creative Imaginations as a consultant, while I had my store in northern California. I shared industry trends, and worked on sourcing and product development. We soon discovered that my background in graphic design and marketing was a good fit for product design.
Q: Which products from your current lines are the most
popular?
A:
Creative Café, Studio Basics101 and the Magic Collection.
Q: What are some of the unique selling points of your products?
A: My style is definitely “mainstream cute”, and I try to incorporate that style into the trends I see in the market. My products are usually theme-based, and targeted for the “everyday” Mom that is scrapbooking or paper crafting with her kids and family.
Q: How do you monitor trends in the industry?
A: Tradeshows, blogs and networking.
Q: How do you select color schemes for new products?
A: Research, past sales history and color trends.
Q: What is the creative process
behind the names for each
collection?
A: This would take WAY too long to explain. Sometimes there are literally 20 revisions before I find a name I feel represents the products I am designing!
Q: When inspiration strikes what is the first thing you do to begin developing a new product?
A:
I start with sketches and brainstorm on paper then I work with my art director at CI to develop a cohesive product assortment.
Q: How do you introduce new product lines and/or new items to the consumer?
A: As a designer, I’ve been relatively “undercover”, until the launch of Creative Café with Danelle Johnson, so I haven’t marketed my other lines directly to the consumer. With Creative Café, we are using blogs, email marketing, consumer advertising, etc.. to present a cohesive message, and integrated marketing.
Q: What has been the most rewarding aspect of becoming a product designer for Creative Imaginations?
A: Meeting so many great people from all over the country, and the world!
Q: What plans do you have for the year ahead?
A: Danelle and I trying to find a balance in our lives, working on Creative Café, as well as our other brands! There just aren’t enough hours in the day! ☺
