Creative Imaginations Blog

National Scrapbook Week!

National Scrapbook Day was first created by the National Scrapbooking Association as a way to celebrate and promote the art and craft of Scrapbooking!  It is celebrated on the first Saturday each May. Since 1994 scrapbookers all over the country celebrate their passion for Scrapbooking on this day! Did you know that there are even online groups petitioning the US Government to make National Scrapbook Day a federal holiday? 

Here are our top ten scrapbooking activities for this day!

1. Attend a day or weekend crop at your local scrapbook store!  There is nothing better and more motivating than to scrapbook with friends!  Can’t attend an event at your local store, why not join an online Scrapbook Day Crop!
2. Learn a new technique or sign up for a class at your local scrapbook store or turn to the internet for some fun challenges!  Learning a new technique is easy online, just visit your favorite search engine and type in what you would like to learn about!
3. Join a online newsletter {link to our newsletter - bottom right hand corner} or visit your favorite blogs for inspiration {Creative Imaginations blog} or our Artist's or Design Team blogs {Link to blogs - see list along right hand side}.  There are literally thousands of blogs and online newsletters to help get you started!
4. Teach a non-scrapper your favorite hobby!  Invite at least one friend or family member over {have them bring their photos} and let them use your supplies to create some fun layouts.  Before long you will have a new scrapbook buddy!
5. Spend time creating a special layout, papercraft item or card for your Mom for Mother's Day, or mother-in-law, or grandmother.  They will be delighted and you'll have a finished gift for her special day!
6. Feeling like you are in a inspiration rut!  Check out our Design Team gallery for some new inspiration!
7. How about submitting your layouts or papercrafting projects to your favorite magazine. 
8. Organize!! Is your scrapbooking room cluttered? Spend some time organizing and decluttering.  Donate some of your supplies to a local school, women's shelter, nursing home or children's hospital!
9. Try something different, like stamping on your layout, adding buttons or wire.  How about using something recycled or non-scrapbook related in your album?
10. Go shopping! No scrapper can resist buying some new goodies! Creative Imaginations has teamed up with stores for National Scrapbook day!  Stop by or visit an online store to redeem "Beanie Bucks" that entitle you to 50% off selected Creative Imaginations products!  Some participating stores will be offering additional promotions.   Click here to find a local participating store near you!

Be sure to check back here daily for some inspiration, challenges and contests!

Happy Earth Day!

Earth Day was first conceived by Sen. Gaylord Nelson in the early 1960s. Nelson worried that environmental issues were not being addressed in the political arena. In his conservation efforts, Nelson organized a nationwide grassroots demonstration in the spring of 1970, to further promote conservation involvement and awareness. Support for and interest in the activity was immense and the 1970 demonstration became the first official Earth Day. The first Earth Day helped inspire the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the passage of the Clean Air, Clean Water, and Endangered Species acts. Each year, April 22 marks the celebration of Earth Day, which is now observed around the world.  

Fun Facts About Earth Day

• Earth Day Networks estimates that 500 million people from 4,500 organizations in 180 countries will participate in Earth Day events during the month of April.

• Earth Day is big with schools. On many school calendars, it is the third most activity-inspiring holiday, after Christmas and Halloween.

• Companies have even gotten into Earth Day. Last year, office supply store Staples introduced office paper made entirely without new trees.

Did You Know?

• In 1995 over 200 of the world landfills were full.

• Each person throws away approximately four pounds of garbage every day.

• The garbage in a landfill stays for a for about 30 years.   

• One bus carries as many people as 40 cars!

• More than 1/3 of all energy is used by people at home

• Most families throw away about 88 pounds of plastic every year

• We each use about 12,000 gallons of water every year

• 1/3 of all water is used to flush the toilet.

• The 500 million automobiles on earth burn an average of 2 gallons of fuel a day.

• Each gallon of fuel releases 20 pounds of carbon dioxide into the air.

• Approximately 5 million tons of oil produced in the world each ear ends up in the ocean.

• The energy we save when we recycle one glass bottle is enough to light a traditional light bulb for four hours

• For every 2000 pounds of paper (1 ton) recycled, we save 7,000 gallons of water free from chemicals.

• Recycled paper requires 64% less energy than making paper from virgin wood pulp, and can save many trees

• Every ton of paper that is recycled saves 17 trees

Looking for a paper to create a project for Earth day? Take a peek at Teri Martin's Mother Earth Collection

 

We at Creative Imaginations learned from "Earth Care 101" and have taken action...

We are now printing all our domestic paper products on FSC {Forest Stewardship Council} certified paper using soy inks.

We have installed energy efficient, motion-sensing lights in our offices and warehouse.

We recycle all our used cardboard packaging material -- an estimated 10 tons annually.

We utilize ARC employees to weekly collect and recycle office paper.

We hope that you will do share in being environmentally friendly. Not just today but everyday.

More Magic!

The thing I love most about the Creative Imaginations' Magic collection is that it's so versatile! The color palette of the black, red and yellow can be used for so many different projects. This adorable countdown calendar was created by Chrys Queen Rose to help her children visualize the days until their trip! Chrys used buttons, stickers, brads and patterned papers that all coordinate together.   See more of Chrys' work by visiting her blog.

 

 

 

Design team member, Patty Lennon created the above gift bag and journaling notebook recently as a gift for a friend 

We have created a broad selection of different kinds of products to make a unique collection.  Brads, epoxy stickers, foil paper and most recently tons of glitter have been our latest product types. This is a display from one of our favorite stores, that includes most of the collection! You can see more of the Magic collection here.

 

It's always fun to work on things that you have a passion for! I'm lucky that Magic, Fairytale and Creative Cafe are all part of my passion for graphic design and keeping up with my memories! - Alison

**Fairytale Glitter Paper Winners**
Congratulations to RobinWade and Cheryl Yelverton,the winners of our set of Fairytale glitter papers! We will be contacting both of you for your mailing address!

Creative Cafe

Danelle Johnson and I met while both working as licensed artists with Creative Imaginations. We soon realized that our skills, backgrounds and strengths were the perfect combination to launch a brand together. Danelle's cutting edge design and passion for education, combined with my experience in marketing and past as a scrapbook store owner, were the perfect combination. 

 

In the fall of 2006, we merged our philosophies, experiences, and talents into one dynamic brand concept, Creative Cafe. In the Summer of 2007 Creative Cafe was launched at CHA Summer. 

 

Working with a partner to design products, is especially challenging when Danelle lives in Kansas and I live in Northern California.  We work very well together sharing bits and pieces of our designs in one art file on the computer. We send the file back and forth via the internet, continuously changing our designs. We write comments in different colors, so we can keep track of our changes.

 

These designs are part of a Creative Cafe journaling pad we just did for our latest release. I love the bright fun colors and "office" look to the designs. These are going to be a big hit for one of Danelle's favorite product types, mini books! When we finally see a prototype of the finished product it's always VERY exciting! 

 

 

 

Balancing work has always been challenge for me, but even more so... now that I have a two year old running around! Danelle and I are both working moms and love to find product types that help people like us, remember their memories. One of our favorite products are the Creative Cafe spiral journals. These journals provide me a quick and easy way to keep up with my photos, and provide me plenty of space to journal. The beauty of Creative Cafe is that the color palette is so versatile. I love adding the colored shipping tags, stickers, buttons to my journal because it's FAST and EASY! 

Fairytale!

Working on the Fairytale collection was really fun for all of us! Our first step was to create a color palette for each princess. We usually think of all pinks and yellows for a princess theme, but after doing research on hundreds of photos, we wanted to make sure all of our products would coordinate correctly. 

 

Our next step was to combine the fonts and small images we had conceptualized, to create the beginning of papers and patterns. For each princess we drew coordinating pieces of art that represented the story of each princess. That meant reading each fairytale too! 

 

Next we added the color from each palette, and layered the art, to design each of the patterned papers. Working with my art director, Carol O'Leary, we decided to apply glitter to the ENTIRE sheet of patterned paper, rather than just certain parts of the paper. This would give us the "WOW!" factor we were looking for, and adds tons of sparkle and bling! 

 

It was also important to us that these collections could be used for other themes. The colors and generic graphics make that possible like the swimming page below. 

 

We were very excited about how this collection turned out, and we are already busy working on more products to go with this line too! If you have any ideas for us, please post them here. We'll send one random winner, a prize package of two of each of the glitter papers from the Fairytale collection! Good Luck! 

Creating the Magic Collection

The Magic Collection is always fun to work on, and this time we decided to produce it with tons of glitter!

When starting to design a collection, I always create my color palette and style sheet first. This consists of the exact colors we are going to use, the typefaces or fonts, and the kind of effects we might add to our products... this time TONS of GLITTER!

 

Then we create a few simple icons and conceptualize what product types we think consumers will use most. Usually this is a mix of papers, stickers, embellishments and an album. Working with an art director at CI, we come up with the right mix of products and artwork that go together!

 

 

Our most recent Magic collection combines some new product types we hadn't done before that turned really well... my favorite is the Magic chipboard book! The chipboard pages are ALREADY black and white, so it's fast, easy and quick to decorate. The tabs also provide a great place to stamp or use rub-ons to separate your album into different sections.

 

Stickers, buttons and ribbon make the perfect embellishments to add texture and color. We also designed a matching transparency for the collection, and used it to create extra pages, and a mini pocket for memorabilia!

 

 

Our design team has also been busy creating some fun projects with the magic collection.

 

 

Autograph book using the Magic Collection and BE Marcelina Brad Book.  

 

Layout and Autograph book designed by Jennifer Davis.   Check back tomorrow for some additional projects using the Magic Collection and more insight on the behind the artist thoughts and inspiration!

 

A week with Artist, Alison Wong

I am excited to share how I create my designs and look forward to hearing your thoughts on them as we go through the week.  My journey began back in 1996 when I started scrapbooking with my best friend from high school, Laurie Patraitis-Carroll.  We were thrilled to find a hobby that let our creativity flow around our corporate jobs and demanding lifestyles.

In 1998, I left my corporate career and opened a scrapbook store in Lodi, CA.  I soon LOVED everything about paper, embellishments and photos! I quickly became a big fan of Creative Imaginations and met Jack Behlmer, CI's president. 

 

My graphic design background and love of drawing soon translated into a relationship with Creative Imaginations as a licensed artist. My work can be seen featured in several brands within the Creative Imaginations family: the Signature Collection, Studio Basics 101 and most recently Creative Cafe (with fellow CI designer, Danelle Johnson).

 

 

I have always been inspired by anything cute, with great colors, and fun graphics. {like the little stuffed slice of bread and doll}  My style of art reflects this passion, with bold bright colors with clean and simple graphics.

Spring Creative Cafe!

These gorgeous projects were designed using Creative Cafe Spirit collection.   Create any or all of these beautiful projects at your local scrapbooking store!

 

 

Happy Easter

Easter is one of my favorite holidays. For our family it is a celebration of the religous event that surrounds the days and weeks leading up to Easter.  My children look forward to the festivities of the season and I look forward to taking lots of photos.  The colors and patterns of the new Samantha Walker Cotton Tail collection provide a perfect backdrop for all things Spring!

 

 

Above book created by design team member, Stayce Dewid.

Product used:

17079 Bare Elements Diya Ring Book

Samantha Walker Cotton Tail collection

18454 Creative Cafe Apricot Chipboard alpha

21145 Samantha Walker hot pink dot diecut paper

Creative Cafe Flower buttons

Creative Cafe white tags

Easter Week!

Okay so maybe I am a bit obsessed with useless knowledge regarding statistics and food.  It is clear that my love of those little marshmallow peeps and jelly beans have stirred my curiousity and created a rather interesting plethoria of information.  For instance, did you know 90 million chocolate Easter bunnies are made each year? Or the world's largest jelly bean weighs over 6,000 pounds?  I even found a recipe to make my own marshmallow peeps! 

Check out these fun facts to find out what part of a chocolate bunny gets eaten first and just how many marshmallow Peeps get consumed each year.

• When taking a bite into a chocolate bunny, 76% of Americans prefer to bite off the ears first. 5% eat the feet first and 4% eat the tail first.

• During the Easter season, Americans buy more than 700 million Peeps - making Peeps the most popular non-chocolate Easter candy.

• Adults prefer milk chocolate (65%) over dark chocolate (27%).

• 86% would prefer having chocolate bunnies instead of a live rabbit.

• Each day throughout the year, 5 million marshmallow chicks and bunnies are produced in preparation for Easter.

• 16 billion jelly beans are made specifically for Easter which is enough to fill a plastic egg the size of a 9-story building.

• Kids prefer red jelly beans and 75% are willing to do extra chores for more Easter candy.

• 57% of kids get up super early on Easter to see what the Easter bunny has brought them.

• 80% of parents carry on the tradition of the Easter bunny by preparing a surprise Easter basket filled with goodies for their children and 90% of adults hope for their own Easter treat.

• The first chocolate eggs were made in Germany in the 19th century and remain one of the most popular Easter candies today.

• Solid chocolate bunnies are favored, followed closely by hollow chocolate bunnies, marshmallow filled bunnies, and other Easter bunny candy.

• In the old days pretzels were associated with Easter because the twists of the pretzel were thought to resemble arms crossing in prayer.

• The exchange of eggs for Easter dates back to a springtime custom older than Easter itself in which eggs were given as a symbol of rebirth in many cultures

• The Easter egg roll on the White House lawn has been a tradition since 1878.

• After Halloween, Easter is the biggest candy consuming holiday.

Whatever your plans for this coming Easter holiday are, creating a favorite keepsake, card or layout is easy with all the spring products available at Creative Imaginations. 

 

 

Hippity Hoppity Easter Cards

Created by design team member, Jen Davis

Product used:

Hippity Hoppity Paper

Hippity Hoppity Epoxy Stickers 

Hippity Hoppity Jumbo Stickers 

Bazzill Cardstock 

 

 

Happy Easter Card

Created by design team member, Patty Lennon

Product used:

Renae Lindgren Easter Stripe paper

Narratives white lined scallop paper 

Pink Cardstock

White Cardstock

Corner Rounder

Lace Punch