Category: Creative Memories

Photo of the Day – Paris Daisy

On By patriciamanhireIn Art, Cardmaking, Close to My Heart, Creative Memories, Photography, ScrapbookingLeave a comment

My photo of the day. These Paris Daisies are amazing. They have self seeded in my garden and have given such great colour and lots of inspiration for my photography.
I will also take the opportunity to update what is happening with Creative Memories and Close to My Heart as I have noticed that people are searching for answers about CM products in NZ. Brian O’Callaghan was on Facebook on Friday night (he was the MD of CM and is involved with setting up CTMH in Australasia) and stated that they are looking into trying to continue with getting the pages and protectors here, but there are no promises that they are able to procure them for our market.  There are issues with patents and copyrights with CM USA.  There are lots of products on Trade Me, but do be very careful as there are some price gougers out there asking for $150 or more for one set of pages and protectors.

I have no more information as yet regarding the launch of CTMH in New Zealand.  I am hoping to know more later in the week and will keep you posted here.  Their range of products look exciting and I can’t wait to see what is released Down Under.  I am particularly excited that there is lots of card making products.  I am busy making lots of cards for our shop and it will be great having a new range of products to play with.  So it is still a matter of watching this space…

I hope you are all having a safe and happy weekend.

Patricia

Wow – Great News

On By patriciamanhireIn Cardmaking, Close to My Heart, Crafts, Creative Memories, Digital Art, Photography, Scrapbooking2 Comments

Hello there

I have just received news that Creative Memories Australia and New Zealand has been bought out by Close to My Heart to  start their Australasian business.  I wasn’t really sure about Plan B, but I have had a look at the catalogue from America and it is amazing.  I love the fact that there is plenty of scope for my stamping and card making as well as for scrapbooking.  There is a lot more decorative products, plus there is also digital products as well.  It is also in a good financial position as well, which is very critical after what we have been through over the last few weeks. I still have a lot of questions about the structure and set up but I will now definitely be looking at this very closely.

So watch this space…

Happy Crafting

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RIP Creative Memories Australia and New Zealand.

On By patriciamanhireIn Crafts, Creative Memories2 Comments

Hello there.

Today the doors shut on Creative Memories Australia and New Zealand.  This is a very sad day as they have been a very good company to work with and I will miss the fabulous tools, albums and decorative elements.  I have also met some lovely people in the process of  building my business and it has kept me going through all the health challenges over the last 18 months.  However, I guess it is a sign of the times and we just have to keep positive and move on.

However, all is not lost as there is to be a major announcement either at the end of today or tomorrow so I will keep you posted.

I am still working on the Art and Craft Collective and will keep you posted on the progress.   I can’t wait to open the shop and have my cards and photos for sale in it along with some amazing crafts from some incredible people here in the Hutt Valley.  But there is a lot of logistics to cover first and it is a crash course in small business administration which is very useful indeed.

As you can see I have changed the header on my page and have now renamed it my Creative Corner.  I will now post all the different crafty creations that I get up to over the next few months/years…

Happy Crafting

Patricia

 

 

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More scrapbook layouts

On By patriciamanhireIn Art, Cardmaking, Children, Crafts, Creative Memories, Pets, Photography, ScrapbookingLeave a comment

Hello there

It is sooo good getting my computer back!  But there is still a lot to do with tidying up all my photos and trying to remember all my passwords to go back onto various websites.  I think I will be busy over the next few weeks.  I am so pleased that I had backed up onto an external hard drive, although I did lose a couple of digital kits but it is no big deal fortunately.

As I said yesterday I have been working on James’ album and he is now up to 9 months old and soon I will be doing his first birthday.  I am still trying to make my resources stretch and have kept up with lots of photos per page and linking the album with accents such as the border maker twinkle chain and picket fence cartridges as well as the same colours throughout.  It is not taking long to get through these photos and I should have his first year album completed very soon which will be good.

Here are a few of the layouts:Best Friends layout James and the cat Family layout Family layout Family time layout Life is Good layout

 

The materials I have used here are:

Creative Memories Card Stock – Cloud

Creative Memories Card Stock – Green Metallic

Creative Memories Card Stock – Brown Cardstock

Creative Memories Border Maker – Twinkle Chain and Picket Fence cartridges

Creative Memories Rugged stickers

Creative Memories Rugged Paper Ribbon

Creative Memories Rugged Photo Mats

Creative Memories Rugged Tags

Creative Memories Rugged Title stickers

Creative Memories  Enchanted Epoxy stickers

Creative Memories Decorative Pack – sorry I have forgotten the name of this.

Creative Memories Rotary Trimmer

Creative Memories Personal Trimmer

Phew what a list, especially as it did not take very long to do and did not seem to use a lot of materials.

I have also been making a lot of cards so please take the time to check out my crafty creations.

Have a good day everyone and stay calm and keep scrapping.

Patricia

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Rainy daisy

On By patriciamanhireIn Art, Creative Memories, Digital Art, Photography2 Comments

My photo of the day for the people in Oklahoma who are facing yet more tornadoes. I think the people in Oklahoma are incredibly brave to deal with these forces of nature. I am not sure if I could do it.  We get southerly storms here but they are nothing compared to the twisters.
My computer is now up and running again after being without for a week. I have had to get windows re installed and I am now faced with the mammoth task of transferring my photos back into Memory Manager. Fortunately I was able to activate the both my Memory Manager and StoryBook Creator before the cut off time midnight last night. I will now look at using Picasa to store my photos as well so if this problem happens again I won’t lose my photos and it will be a good back up for Memory Manager. There is now no Digital Centre from Creative Memories and I suppose that at some stage I may have to look at Photoshop or Lightbox in the future as well.  However, people can still get their photobooks and other digital products printed until midnight 3rd June.  There is to be a meeting on Tuesday in Australia so it will be interesting to see what the outcome will be for Creative Memories Australia and New Zealand.  This is such as shame as the products (especially the albums and pages) are really good quality and I have done a lot of pages for my children’s albums.  It has been so easy to use coordinated products that last a long time.
While I have had no computer for the last week I have been busy with doing cards and scrapbooking and when I get the photos sorted out then I will upload them on here. So watch this space…
I hope you all have a good weekend.
Patricia

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Stretching resources – a 12 photo scrapbook layout

On By patriciamanhireIn Babies, Children, Crafts, Creative Memories, Photography, Scrapbooking5 Comments

Hi there

Thank you to all for all the support that I have received over the last few days since we received our sad news.  I am unable to add much more at this stage except to say that we have some incredibly good deals going at the moment.  These are up on my website at this point in time, so if you would like anything please feel free to contact me.  I don’t know how long these deals will keep so you will need to get in quick.   I would like to think that there will  be some positive resolution to our current difficulties and that we will still be able to access the wonderful Creative Memories Products in the future.  I have also been very heartened with all the support from the other consultants and the way we are all helping each other to get products to all our customers.

Following on my post the other day here is a layout that I did last year on my daughter’s photo album.  This page has 12 photos in it and I have trimmed off all the excess that I didn’t need and the end result is quite pleasing.  Plus I was able to use a lot of photos, which saved on pages and resources, and I got through a lot of photos in one hit!  There is no embellishments on this page, except for me writing down the names of all the people that attended my daughter’s Christening so many years ago.  This highlights the fact that we do not need to add all the embellishments to create an effective page.  Memory keeping is about writing down our memories so our children and grandchildren can look back and understand what was going on.  The embellishments are the decorative element and really should be secondary to what the photos are about.  Less is more!  And when times get tough we just have to get back to the basics to help our supplies stretch further.

12 Photo page layout

So keep on scrapping your stash

Patricia

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Saving resources – The Many Faces of James’ Double Page Layout

On By patriciamanhireIn Babies, Children, Crafts, Creative Memories, Photography, Scrapbooking3 Comments

Hello there

Because of what is happening with Creative Memories Australia and New Zealand I thought it was timely to look at how we can make our limited resources stretch a bit further.  The great thing with the CM albums is that you don’t need a lot of papers and embellishments to make a great page.  Personally I like to try to get as many photos on my pages as possible mainly to save on products, but it also helps reduce the weight and size of my albums.  Some of the albums with lots of pages can get really heavy!  Also using lots of photos can help to get an album completed more quickly as well.  So there are lots of benefits to be had in being more creative with photos.

With this double page layout I have used 11 photos as well as a journalling paper.  I had an eclectic mix of photos of James and they did not really fit in with any particular theme so decided to put them all together using my page planner (which unfortunately is no longer available) to help with sizing and placing.  To keep with the overall theme of the album I have just placed a strip of cloud cardstock and white twinkle chain strip to tie the layout in with the rest of the album.

The Many Faces of James' Double Page Layout The Many Faces of James' Layout The Many Faces of James' Layout

 

Another way to say on products is to use the page protectors on every second page so as to make them go further (thank you Grace Green for that piece of advice).  The photos are still going to have some protection from the plastic sleeves.

Products used:

Creative Memories Cardstock – Cloud

Creative Memories Cardstock – White

Creative Memories Rugged Story Mats

Creative Memories Border Maker – Twinkle Chain Cartridge

Creative Memories Rotary Trimmer

Creative Memories Tape Runner

Creative Memories Precision Point Glue Pen

Creative Memories Black Journalling Pen

So keep calm and keep scrapping

Patricia

 

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Creative Memories update

On By patriciamanhireIn Art, Crafts, Creative Memories, Digital Art, Photography, Scrapbooking5 Comments

Hi there

Just updating you on progress on Creative Memories Australia and New Zealand.  There has been a very positive meeting today in Sydney with the appointment of different administrators and the formation of a Creditors Committee to help represent the interests of Creative Memories Consultants and their Very Special Customers.  The indications coming out of this meeting are positive and here are some of the outcomes so far:

The following can be claimed for:

VIP – Annual Subscription – Unused Portion
Digital Vouchers – Claim the balance you were not able to use. Example: For a customer with $100 voucher – Use the $25 on an order and submit claim for other $75.

(Please contact me for further details)

Complete and UPLOAD STORYBOOKS you are working on!

Feel free to join us on a virtual crop every Friday night – click on this link  https://www.facebook.com/groups/113744225467835/

This is great for new ideas, motivation  and sharing.

Don’t forget we still have lots of products in the warehouse including tools, albums, paper packs, stickers, embellishments and accents and the consultants are all sharing their products so if there is anything you would particularly want please contact me and I can put the message out to the other consultants to see if they have it.

So keep positive, stay calm and keep scrapping.

Patricia

 

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Happy Mother’s Day

On By patriciamanhireIn Art, Babies, Cardmaking, Children, Creative Memories, Digital Art, Greetings2 Comments

Today is Mother’s Day and it is a chance to reflect on how important mothers are in our world today.  They provide unconditional love and support to their children and are the glue that holds families together.

I have created this card for all the mothers in the world.  I have used the 2013 Anniversary Digital Kit and used the colour coordination feature to change the colours from blue/green to my favourite pink.  I hope you enjoy my offering.

Happy Mother's Day

 

Happy Mother’s Day

Patricia

Rugged family time

On By patriciamanhireIn Art, Babies, Children, Creative Memories, Photography, Scrapbooking6 Comments

Welcome

Regardless of what is happening with Creative Memories I still have my son’s album to complete.  This double page layout is special as it shows my husband and I spending some special time with James.  James cried a lot as a baby and often my husband, Matthew was the only one who could settle him which helped me a lot, and gave me some time out.  On the whole though he was a good baby and was so cute!

Double page layout Father and son layout Growing up - Rugged layout

 

Products used:

Creative Memories Rugged Photo mats

Creative Memories Decorative papers (sorry I have forgotten the name of it)

Creative Memories Cardstock – Metallic green

Creative Memories Cardstock – Cloud

Creative Memories Custom Cutting System – circles

Creative Memories  ABC Monograms Swirly – Black

Creative Memories Rugged Title Stickers

Creative Memories Rotary Trimmer – straight and deckle edge blades

Creative Memories Tape runner

Creative Memories Epoxy stickers – Enchanted

Happy scrapping

Patricia

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