Creative Friday: I love...

This is the perfect time of year to reflect on those in our lives or even things in our lives that we love and make us the person we are. I created the mini album below capturing people and things in my life that I love and who make me, ME! I used Pink Paislee's Cupid Theme Set, Brads, Stamps, Punchouts and Letters.

Click here to check out the entire album!
Hug the ones you love and embrace the things you love to do!

Simple Stories... What do I do with it?

You have ordered or are thinking of ordering Simple Stories Life Documented kit; but as you look at it over and over again you think to yourself, "What do I do with it?" or "What will it look like once I'm finished, how will it all come together?" I am going to show you some wonderful finished pages using the Simple Stories Life Documented kit. There are so many ways to use this wonderful kit and hopefully this will give you some ideas on what you can do with it for your own albums! *All pages are courtesy of Lacey Igo - TeamWorks Team Leader and MemoryWorks Consultant*

This is the title page as you can see you can add any embellishment you want.

These are some additional pages from Lacey's Album.

You can add more pictures or less. The divided page protectors make it easy to divide your paper, embellishment and your pictures on each page. It also allows you to make each page unique.

I hope that these layout pictures have given you some idea on how you can use the Simple Stories Life Documented kit to create your own album. If you have any questions about the kit or any of MemoryWorks products please feel free to contact your consultant and if you don't have one, check out Find a Consultant on our website. Thank you for stopping by and hope you have a scraptacular day!!

Jeanne Hall

MemoryWorks Social Media Specialist

Trend Essentials & Favorite Tools

Just in time for Valentine's Day MemoryWorks has released their Trend Essentials with many products geared toward this holiday. I recently received Pink Paislee's Cupid Theme set and was very excited to play with it and see where the creativity took me. The papers included in the set are so versatile that you can create a contemporary project or go for a more vintage look.



I decided to make a vintage Valentine's Day Card using two of my favorite tools from the MemoryWorks catalog - the Ink Blending Tool by Ranger and the Basic Grey Precision File Set.



I just recently discovered both of these tools and they have quickly become two of my most used tools.

After cutting the cardstock that would be used to create my card, I took one of the larger files and filed the edges of the smaller red patterned piece to create a distressed look. Don't worry if you rip the paper while you are filing, it just adds to the distressed look! I ripped the paper in a couple of places while filing but you can't even tell in the finished product.

I then used the Ink Blending Tool I inked around the edges of the paper using a brown ink to create an antique look. The great thing about this tool is that you have greater control over where your ink ends up. Before I discovered this little gem I would use the ink pads and never got as good of a result as I get with the Ink Blending Tool!

I also inked the edges of the lighter piece of cardstock using a red ink to create a softer look and create a sense of unity. This piece will be placed behind the red patterned cardstock.

I am very pleased with how the card turned out and am going to have a very hard time parting with it.

The "Happy Valentines Day" piece was cut from the Postcards page from the set. I cut a frame around the words and used the flip side of the paper to outline it. All of the paper in this set is double sided giving you a lot more versatility.

Don't ever be afraid to experiment with new tools or techniques, you never know when you might just find something that you love that also makes your life a lot easier in the process!

Happy scrapping!

Kinsey Lee

MemoryWorks Social Media Specialist

as promised...downloadable PDF for "Life Is Sweet With You" Mini Album

as promised, click link below to download a full-color PDF of pics + Memory Works supply list to get started making your own mini album using Simple Stories.

click here

as a BONUS, here are a few close up pics of the Simple Stories mini album project:

Creative Friday....Simple Stories - Mini Book "Life Is Sweet With You"

It's never been easier to document a year of your life! Life Documented, the first collection in our Simple Stories series, allows you to create, capture, document and share a years worth of memories like never before. Life Documented encompasses classic basics with bold, beautifully designed elements featuring a refreshing, inspiring color pallette of deep reds, browns, taupes, with vibrant greens, oranges and blues, mingled with milky creams and white. Soooooo adaptable for the upcoming Valentine's Day!!!

With shabby-chic, aged-office, vintage-distress appeal, this functional - yet oh-so-stylish - kit is the perfect solution for sharing your life's most important moments in a simple, yet meaningful way. It's not just a kit. It's YOUR story....simplified.

What I truly LOVED about this kit is the versatility to take this kit and push outside the boundaries with a twist into my favorite creation....mini books!  I stepped it out-of-the-box from 12x12 album format to make a 4x4 mini album.

You will need the following from the Simple Stories line to create this cute mini book, titled "Life Is Sweet With You":

WeR Memory Keepers: 12x12 Page Protectors Multi-Pack 10 pack

(note:  I used the 1 sheet - 9-4X4 page protector sheet and cut apart for individual 4x4 sizes to fit into the 4x4 size album)

Simple Stories: Prism - Coordinating Cardstock Pack

MemoryWorks: Simple Stories - Life Documented Kit

here are a few pics from the 4x4 mini album...

the 4x4 elements included with the Life Documented kit are the perfect size for this mini. 

also the elements (i.e. Life In...) are great for accenting with ZVA bling, Making Memories Tiny Alphas (dates) & Basic Grey chipboard alphas.

also the downloadable elements that you receive with kit are the perfect elements to jazz up you mini pages.  on this mini i used several that fit the them of the album.  (i.e. valentine's day, lucky, love).

one of my favoriteeeeeeeee pieces of the kit are the 4x6 transparencies.  i cut several of the 4x6 transparencies to size 4x4 to fit in this album.

i also love the great inspirational quotes on many pieces of the elements. 

i will post tomorrow a full-color PDF of pics that you can download here on the website complete with all pics from this mini album.

Memory Works Special Projects Creative Team Member

SIMPLE STORIES IS HERE!!

Today is the day we have all been waiting for! Simple Stories "Life Documented" is finally available for purchase through your MemoryWorks consultant! I have had a couple days to work with a Simple Stories kit and am thoroughly impressed! This system is high quality, beautifully designed, easy to use and quick to put together -- and considering just putting together one 2 page layout allowed me scrapbook SIXTEEN photos in one layout...with minimal adhesive...my only question is..."Where have you been all my life??!"

Let me take you through the process of putting together a Simple Stories layout. First, you have to sort photos!

Next, cut apart all of the Simple Stories elements:

Then, start laying out the pieces (hopefully your scrap area looks a little more organized than mine!):
Did you put the wrong photo on the wrong page? I did, I messed up and had photos from the wrong month! Not to worry, though - it was SUPER easy to just pull out the incorrect photos and elements and replace them! No UnDu, no careful peeling and moving...just pull it out and set aside for another page!

After all your elements are laid out, you can stop there and insert them into your page protectors and you're DONE:
Or, you can add a few more embellishments first:
These pockets are so versatile...and so accessible...that pulling an entire layout apart to get to a small mini-album, pocket or tag is completely obsolete! You can just reach into an individual pocket and pull-out what you need - simple!
In no time at all, you're left with a beautiful layout:
And soon you'll have an entire album completed...your "Life Documented".