Creative Memories, Anyone?

[sandragonfly]

hi!!

with a doubt (except for mommyof3cats) and wondering if anyone more here on this site are doing them? (creative memories is one of scrapbook club names) I'd like to know more about them before I join one around here -- share your experiences..how fun they are? have you got what you want? etc.. and plus: share if you have any pictures of your pages! I'd just like to see some examples...thanks!

[*LabLoverKEB*]

Hello!

My mother does creative memories! She is a CM Consultant. My mother and I LOVE IT! it sooo much fun! It can be expensive, but it's worth it! Much better than storing your pictures in an old shoebox, in a drawer, and in a box. And you'll always find yourself looking at your albums, like me and my sister.

I do albums for my Sadie girl, who is in my siggy below.... I don't have any examples of my pages, sorry! Good luck, and HAVE FUN!

[dukedogsmom]

It's very expensive but very addictive. My CM person is also a teacher and once a month on a Friday, they have cropping parties after school. It's a lot of fun! I've only gotten to go to a few but hope to go to more.

[chrangharris]

I'm a HUGE scrapbooker! I love creative memories stuff but it is expensive. I use stuff from all different brands depending on price, style, and what I'm doing! I'll post some pictures of pages in a few minutes!

[chrangharris]

Here are just a few of my favorite pages. I have about 8 albums!

This is my absoulute favorite. It is a two-page spread. I took tons of pictures of Misha's different body parts and then converted them to black and white. I take all of my own pictures!







As you can see, I do very simple pages! I take so many pictures that I need to keep my pages simple in order to have time to get it all done!

[anna_66]

I've been to a party before and it was really fun! I do love scrapbooking!

[sirrahbed]

My DIL, Chris posted above and I know she has been to Creative Memories parties and always says that she has a good time. She has showed me some products and a few techniques to get started so I will show some of my *beginner* pages. I think the products are expensive but very good quality. I am pretty cheap so I shop at Wal-Mart

The pictures that are cut into shapes are done using a special template and I think they look pretty neat! The papers and and stickers are WalMart. I also have bought some papers and things at JoAnn Fabric. The Creative Memories classes are very inexpensive and would be great to learn techniques and get ideas. Chris says that things like scissors and edge cutters would probably be best to go ahead and spend more for the quality.





I am also working on a book of my daughter Missy (sirrahsim's) pregnancy and baby Tyler.

OK, there are my few pages - how about more of you posting? I would love to see what others have done.

[AlleyCat]

I do like CM very much, but I do find it is time-consuming -- at least for me. I have done 3 albums (one is still a work-in-progress - my furkid album) and the other two were of my two honeymoons. I really jazzed up the honeymoon ones (sorry I can't take any pixs right now as they're already packed - I move in one week!) One great thing about the CM albums is the pages also come in colors other than white. One of my honeymoon trips was out to New England in October so I used a fall/halloweeny theme (without being spooky) and used black pages instead of white, the effect turned out awesome! Remind me in a couple of weeks to take some photos.

[sandragonfly]

hey there!!

thank you for the posts and especially photos of photos.. (I get insane looking at this word "photo...photo...photo..." so addictive too!)

anywayoo, they look great! yeah I heard it's so expensive! well the main reason I hesitated joining is because I know nobody who loves scrapbooking as much as I do!! *pouts* also...not much of animals die-cuts/stickers, etc seen in CM stock...am I right?

at least all of my photos (from 200...no, 1999!) are all in order and (NOT in some shoeboxes) being packed...but have not been seen. hard decision to what to use or where to start!! *groans* I just want to find an (cheap maybe?) album that contains photos forever without damaging, yellowing them.

chris... what's the 'others' you tried? is CM still the best?

and deb, had no idea you're related to chris! did I read right that wal-mart has acid-free papers too? sorry I haven't even started any CM here so no pictures but I can take a few of my crap scrapbook I made aaaaages ago! lol. only if you want..

mommyof3, I'll remind you, absolutely. black pages is way cool. I plan to use black pages so to give a well-contrast for my several black fuzzied-beauties!

thanks again...I'll be back!

[chrangharris]

Gina- I've been scrapbooking for about 6 years now. I started out with just a few basic supplies- a good pair of scissors, some papers and stickers. Once I realized this was something I LOVED and will be doing a lot of, I started expanding my gear and spending some more money on better quality items that can last- a good paper trimmer, great scissors, circle/oval cutter, corner rounder, etc. (the stuff that can be used over and over again)

I use the Westrim brand albums. They look a lot like CM's. They are a 12x12 straphinge like CM. They cost around $20-25 dollars for the album. Refills are about $12 for 20 pages and then page protectors are around $9 (I'm pretty sure those prices are correct). They just came out with some more colored refill pages. I've never had a problem with Westrim but I don't know how it will do LONG term. So far, no yellowing or aging but like I said I've only been doing it for 6 years.

I get supplies from all over- Walmart, Target, Michael's Jo-Anns and specialty scrapbook stores. Michael's and my specialty scrapbook store sell the Westrim. Michael's does 40% or 50% off coupons and that is when I'll get the bigger ticket items- I also watch Michael's sales because they can have some good ones. I love CM's stuff- especially their organizers. I do like to go and look at all different stores and have a variety of things/brands in my albums.

The main thing to look for is Acid AND Lingin free. If you are not sure if the item you are using is both, don't let it touch the pictures. As an extra safety precaution, you can also mount the questionalbe item on some paper.

If we go somewhere, I'll get some of the brochures and use them in my albums also.

A lot of specialty scrapbook stores has space to scrapbook and will even have crops were a bunch of people get together to scrapbook. The fees are normally very reasonable and it is a lot of fun to talk to fellow scrapbookers- you make some friends and get to look others albums for more ideas! Around here, we have tons of specialty scrapbook stores (mostly mom and pop type places). I just went and checked them out and I quickly found my favorite store!

[sirrahbed]

gina - yes Chris is married to my oldest son (I like to say Daughter-In-Love) as "law" sounds yuck and their Misha is one of my grandchildren.

Like I said, I am thrifty (OK, CHEAP) and buy most everything from JoAnn and Wal-Mart and yes they have lignin/acid free papers, acid free stickers, etc. I bought a 12x12 album with 10 page protectors for $5 at JoAnn - it was half price but even at $10 - I can handle that. The downside is that they only come in about 5-6 colors but oh well.

I don't know what I am posting here for because I do most of my scrapbooking in my head and have only done 6 pages - but I have lots of supplies and ideas and good intentions

[AlleyCat]

Originally posted by sirrahbed
I don't know what I am posting here for because I do most of my scrapbooking in my head and have only done 6 pages - but I have lots of supplies and ideas and good intentions

Hey, 6 pages is great - you have to start somewhere! I am like you too in that I do purchase a lot of my acid free/linguin paper at stores OTHER than through CM because Walmart, Joann is so much cheaper. So Gina, you can always do a combination of CM supplies and other supplies to save money, as long as they're acid-free/linguin free.

BTW, anyone, what is linguin free? I have always searched for this when purchasng products, but I have no idea what that means! I do understand the acid-free part though.

[sirrahbed]

Originally posted by MommyOf3cats
BTW, anyone, what is linguin free? I have always searched for this when purchasng products, but I have no idea what that means! I do understand the acid-free part though.

I wondered this too and found this site for definitions

What’s Lignin?
Lignin is the natural bonding element which holds wood fibers together. Newsprint contains lignin—you’ll notice how brittle and yellowed a newspaper becomes after just a few days. Like acid, lignin can be removed during processing to make scrapbooking paper safe.

If you want to include newspaper articles or announcements in your memory album, photocopy them onto acid-free, lignin-free paper. Copy onto an off-white paper that resembles newsprint for an authentic look.

[sandragonfly]

good morning/evening!

"I don't know anybody who loves scrapbooking as much as I do to go with!!" is what I meant..

LIGNIN!! thank you! as posting my previous, I couldn't spell it right! I looked into dictionary for "lu...." that explains I didn't find! "lIGnin".

chris, 6 years is long! and beginning can be so awkward..icky. I know I said I stored all my photos but been scrapbooking on and off since 1998...so say...that's almost seven years then threw some of them away because didn't liked my ideas after I thought I liked them! ( ) but,...just knew about acid/lignin until last year! so I checked my four ol'albums recently and they still appear as fresh as the days I made them...hope that continues, yikes. oh, and corner rounder is my favorite part!!! you couldn't forget that supply, right? mountings/proctections sometimes can be hard for me sometimes because of reflection. but I can't complain and yes, CM's organizers' the main reason I thought of CM. and second, I've went to one CM party with one of my friend, and it was so much fun gathering!

deb, I see now! I remember I saw two Mishas but didn't realized it was the same one! heh...thrifty woman! haven't went to one for long time! hey, look at me...zero pages! six is what I need to do! two or three would be a start for me.

mommyof3, ..true, I could find goodies from Michael's and few other stores others mentioned while I could find some (expensive, maybe) good acid/lignin album/pages.

hey, just wondered this, how do or can you test a page if it's acid/or/lignin free?

everybody, just took some pictures of my old album to share! but need a computer to load them up...be back!

[chrangharris]

Gina- to bad you don't live closer- we could get together to scrapbook! I have no idea how to test to see if something is acid/lignin free!

I have a dining room with a great big long table in it (Sirrahbed's hubby made it for us- it's gorgeous!) I keep my scrapbooking stuff out and whenever I get a few extra moments, I work on a page. I stay caught up that way. If company is coming over, I'll clean it up. It works great for me!

I do like going back to my first albums and see how much my pages have changed! They have definitely improved over the years. My style has changed to- the type of papers, colors and stickers I use- it's neat to see how my tastes have changed!