Creative Imaginations Blog

Spotlight - Holland!

Recently we noticed a wonderful project uploaded to our gallery from one of our international consumers!  Her name is Mireille and she lives north of Holland by the sea with her husband, daughter Amber and son, Noah.

We are delighted to feature the work of Mireille - be sure to check out her gallery HERE.  This is what Mireille shared with us about her journey and love of scrapbooking.

When I was young I spent a great deal of time with my Grandma and her love of crafting; quilting, needlepoint, knitting, card making and crocheting were instilled in me from a young age.  I especially loved making cards, needlepoint and knitting as a child.   As a teen, I traveled a great deal with my Aunt.  She took me on several trips to the city in Paris and London.  During our trips, she educated me about the culture and we collected lots of memorabila and wrote stories about our adventures.  When we arrived home from one of our trips, she bought me an photo album and together we put all of the photos.  She showed me how to add the small trinkets we collected into our album.  There is a page of the Eiffel tower with our entrance tickets, a folded napkin from the restaurant, a flower that was growing below the tower, and story about the architect who built the tower.  We placed these items into our photo album.  My Aunt taught me to "tell my adventures through my art" so my family and friends would enjoy both my photos and items i have collected during my travels.

I was "officially" introduced to scrapbooking as we know it now in the beginning of 2005.  A shared some photos with a co-worker of my daugher, Amber and she shared photos of her son. She carefully took out a cute mini-album from her purse.  It was sooo beautiful.  I had never seen so many gorgeous patterned papers and embellishments.  She spent time sharing her love of scrapbooking and I was hooked!  I am often asked when I started scrapbooking and remember that trip with my Aunt way back in 1986 who instilled the love of sharing my memories with my family and friends.  It is where my love of this hobby all began.

More recently, I have been published in both Holland and America.  I love sharing my work and I am thrilled to teach at local events. You can see more of Mireille's work on her Blog.

Noah's Growth Chart

Supplies:

• Bare Elements Ethan Growth Chart
• Narratives Honeydew Collection - patterned papers, ribbons, quotes
• Bazzill Cardstock
• Stamps
• ink, paint
• Flowers
• Date stickers

Where in the World - France!

Art Warehouse has several collections to scrapbook your favorite travel destinations.   This collection is available in stores now.  See more destinations by Art Warehouse here. 

Layout created by design team member, Stayce Dewid.

Where in the World....Alaska!

Creative Imaginations has so many destinations available to scrapbook your favorite trip.  Next stop?  Alaska by Barb Tourtillotte.

Alaska project created by design team member, Tammy Gray using the Bare Elements Bare Elements Lori Train Case.

Where in the World? England!

orrIf you are looking for travel papers, Creative Imaginations has the destination for your next trip!  Art Warehouse offers a several different travel destinations to choose from.  First stop - England!

Layout created by Contributing dt member, Stayce Dewid

Watch this Video to See How to Protect Your Precious Projects!

Spray CI SuperSeal on all your photos, scrapbooking, papercrafting and mixed-media projects to protect them from:

• UV Rays
• Moisture & Water
• Dust

Dries in only TWO minutes or less to the touch.  You may spray it safely on all your inkjet prints, rub-ons, chalk and more.  It is also a green (ozone friendly) product and is acid free.

Once you start to SuperSeal...you'll always want to SuperSeal!

CONTACT YOUR LOCAL CRAFT STORE AND TELL THEM:            I want my CI SuperSeal!

 

Creative Imaginations Super Seal!

National Scrapbook Day!

Make a reservation at your local Creative Cafe store for May 3rd, to make this National Scrapbooking Day Never Forget this....journal!  A simple inspirational project will give you a place to instantly remember all the little things that might otherwise be forgotten, Check our Store locator for the Creative Cafe store near you!  Be sure to call ahead and reserve your spot!

Remember to take the time on National Scrapbook Day to think about what you never want to forget and celebrate the day by making sure your write it down!

And don't forget that to enter our "Be Green" contest and you could be a winner of a $100 gift package from Creative Imaginations! For more information Click here!

Be Green Contest!

May 3rd is National Scrapbooking Day! To help celebrate and elevate the purpose of this day, Creative Imaginations will be holding a GREEN NATIONAL SCRAPBOOKING DAY CONTEST for you, our customers. We were very proud to unveil at CHA Winter 08 that all our newly printed domestic papers will be Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified. In a nutshell, anyone buying our papers is helping keep our protected forests healthy for generations to come! For our Green National Scrapbooking Day Contest, we want to see your scrapbook layouts or other dimensional memory art using CI papers and other items they might normally recycle or throw away. Whether it is a flattened tin can covered in scrapbook paper, or a layout embellished with bottle caps… want to see your Green scrapbook projects!  Read More...Click Here!

Two winners will be selected (one for most interesting recycled item used, and one for the overall best designed project). Each winner will be granted a $100 gift prize package from Creative Imaginations. And for all winners the projects will be featured on our Creative Imaginations Blog!

CONTEST RULES You must create a project exclusively using Creative Imaginations products with other recyclable items.  You must post your projects (2 maximum per person) in our GALLERY for Green National Scrapbook Day Contest.  The Creative Imaginations products must be listed, email address, as well as the store from which they were purchased. The contest starts April 15th and closes at 12:00 am, May 4.  Contest winners will be selected and notified no later than May 23. Contest packages will be sent to the customers directly.  

Our design team has taken up the challenge with a few samples of their own.  This first project was created by design team member, Linda Auclair using the new collection by Teri Martin called Mother Earth, which arrives in stores next month.  Here is what Linda Auclair had to say:

"Our team was issued a challenge to create a project that used "recycled" items.  I chose plastic package from some Easter candy, the packaging from a set of Marah Johson Ecletic-Ka Brads, the backing from some Art Warehouse tags as well as another package from some pretty typography to go along with Teri Martin's Mother Earth collection of papers and stickers.  The text inside my mini album includes some information about Creative Imaginations decision to go "green" and some easy tips for green crafting.

• Use product made with recycled materials and patronize manufacturers who product product in a responsible way.
• Don't throw away those scraps - swap with a friend.  One scrapper's trash is another scrapper's treasure.
• Utilize packaging that would otherwise be discarded.  Often as much designing goes into the packaging as the product it holds.  Punch it, paint it, use it as is.
• Found objects and scraps of vintage items can make a beautiful and meaningful addition to your scrapbook pages.  Save old buttons, bits of fabric, labels and the like and incorporate into your projects.
• "Junk" mail can be useful - use envelopes as background paper or pockets for journaling tags.

The second project was created by design team member, Patty Lennon using Renae Lingren's Aubrey Collection of papers and embellishments.   Here is what Patty had to say:

A few years ago a new kind of disposable food storage container came onto the market.   They were small plastic boxes each with their own lid, designed to store food, be microwavable and then disposable.  I liked these so I bought several packages.  Recently, I discovered that the lunch meat my family likes is now packaged for sale in these exact same containers.  Pretty cool because now I don't have to purchase the empty ones.  Typically I buy two of these packages of sandwich meat each week, and I keep these containers for food storage.  My collection of these containers is starting to get out of control.  I have more of them than I know what to do with.  When Creative Imaginations asked us to come up with a project using their product and a recyclable item, the choice was obvious.  I wanted to make something out of these little plastic boxes.  There are so many things that can be made out of them. 

With it looking more like Spring each day, I decided to make little planters out of my plastic containers to start some flower seedlings.  I am going to get them started in the house and when the days get a bit warmer they will be ready to transfer outside.  I think they make a nice addition to my desk until it is time to move them outside.

Ahoy Matey! There be Pirates ahead!

Renae Lingren's pirate line is available in stores now! 

 

This adorable project was created by Design Team member, Linda Auclair.   Linda combined Renae Lindgren's Pirate collection with Bare Elements Latynn Door Hanger.

Announcing our newest design team member Jennifer Davis!

Creative Imaginations is proud to announce our newest design team member, Jennifer Davis.

Hi there! I'm Jen Davis and I reside in Northern Wisconsin with my husband of over 5 years and our three year old daughter Zoey.  For so long it seems I was in search of something that would fulfill me creatively as well as provide me with a voice regarding my life as a stay-at-home-mom, wife, daughter, friend and women in this world.  Through scrapbooking, I have found just that.  A way to share stories, memories, life's milestones as well as an opportunity to grow creatively and artistically as an individual.  I love that scrapbooking can really be whatever I need it to be at any given time.  It can act as a tool to aide me in a time when i am growing as a person, it can provide an opportunity for artistic play or it can simply be a way to record events in my life that I want to be sure to share with generations to come.  When younger, I would always sort my papers and pencils and was constantly re-organizing them {to the point of exhausting my parents!} it's nice to know that perhaps it wasn't such an oddity {as they had thought at the time} as now {some twenty + years later} I continue to do the same thing, but now it is with all my patterned papers and other scrapbooking goodies!  At least now I have a legitimate excuse {I think!} to run my hands over all my papers and sort and organize them whenever I see fit!

I am so honored and excited to be a part of the Creative Imaginations team of designers and I am really looking forward to what is to come for all of us!

Jennifer created two beautiful layouts and a card using the new release by Christine Adolph called, Felicity.  Look for this beautiful line in stores now or view the entire line here.  Check out more of Jen Davis' work in the Creative Imaginations Gallery and her Blog.