My Mind's Eye Blog

Thanking our heroes

Whether you call the United States, Canada or somewhere else home, there are heroes among you.

Heroes who put their lives on the line to protect your way of life or give a better way of life to someone else.

Heroes who CHOOSE to serve.  Heroes who choose us over their own lives.

Whether you call today Veteran's Day or Remembrance Day the meaning is the same: to honor the heroes who have died throughout every war or conflict and to acknowledge those still fighting.

Take the time today to think about the meaning behind the holiday. 

1. Thank those you know for their sacrifice. 
2. Create a layout documenting the feelings you have about this holiday or honoring the service of someone close to you
3. Create a card to send to someone who is currently serving.  There are many places you can send cards to.  Here are just a few (be sure to read over the requirements before designing):

www.operationwritehome.org

www.opwritehomecanada.blogspot.com

www.soldiersangels.org

www.anysoldier.com

www.trevlac.biz/Chosen_Soldier.htm

www.uk4u.org

Anam: "My layout is of Fay taking her place (& waving at me) in her school colour guard for Remembrance Day services on Monday."

Featured Collection: Be*Loved

Kim designed this beautiful card expressing her gratitude for our safety.  Kim blogged more about Veteran's Day here.

Feature Collections: Life Stories, Ooh La La, The Merry Days of Christmas

Tiffani: "I don't know anyone closely that is currently serving in the military but love the idea of being able to support our troops by donating cards.
I plans to send this one along with a few more."

  

Featured Collection: Life Stories

Trisha: "I couldn't get my Grandma our of my head when thinking about this post.  She was a nurse in WWII and although she did not work front line
shooting, she DID care for those injured and was just as important as the soldiers so I felt it important to pay tribute to her and others like her :)"

 

Featured Collection:  Life Stories

Amber: "I'm grateful everyday for the sacrifice of those who are currently serving and those who have served in the past.  My grandpa served as a Marine in WWII and was wounded twice.  He is now in his late 80's and has just recently started sharing bits and pieces of that time in his life.  I have never heard him talk about battles, it is still too painful to speak of."

(I have already shared this layout, but couldn't not include it today.)

  

Featured Collections: Life Stories, Abbey Road, The Merry Days of Christmas, Laundry Line stamps (card) and Andrea Victoria (layout)

Today, WE thank all the heroes among us.

Blog Challenge #5: November Sketch

Happy Monday!

Would you like to win three of your favorite My Mind's Eye Collections?  All you need to do is share your talent with us by entering our Blog Challenge that starts today.

Your challenge is to create a layout (or other project, your choice) using this sketch from Anam Stubbington as your creative spring-board. You can change use it as-is, flip it, whatever you'd like as long as we can still recognize the sketch (We you know what to do with a sketch).

The rules: Use ANY My Mind’s Eye products (current or past) you’d like as long as your project has at least 80% My Mind’s Eye products.

The deadline: Email your project to amber@mymindseye.com (with Blog Challenge 5 as your subject) or add a link in a comment on this post by Thursday, November 19, 2009 (midnight, MST).

(For tips on how to best photograph your entry, click here)

The PRIZE: Our lucky winner will be featured in a blog post and receive one of everything from three collections of their choice!  We will also award an honorable mention winner with one collection of their choice!

Everyone is a winner!  We are grateful to everyone who will participate in this challenge.  We will put every entry in a photo album here on the blog.  By submitting, you are giving My Mind’s Eye permission to include your entry.

We asked three of our talented designers, Kim Hughes, Anam Stubbington and Amber Packer to give you a few ideas to help get your creative juices going. 

Best Buds

 

Featured Collection: Abbey Road, BOO! to You, Breaking Free, Merry Days of Christmas, Ooh La La, Be Loved, The Spider's Web

Designer: Kim Hughes, guest designer

 

First

Featured Collection: Life Stories

Designer: Anam Stubbington

 

Professional Leaf Jumper

Featured Collection: Life Stories and Laundry Line rub-ons

Designer: Amber Packer

Didn’t they do a fantastic job!

We’d like to thank Anam for designing such a fabulous sketch for our challenge.

________________________________________________________________________

The response to our Guest Designer, Kim Hughes has been fabulous!  Thank you for welcoming her so warmly.

We'd like to announce the winner of Kim's Favorite collections (Ooh La La and Breaking Free):  Brenda Lubrant!

Congratulations, Kim. Thank you for sharing some of your projects with us. I love your color combinations that you used. Good job!!

Posted by: Brenda Lubrant | November 02, 2009 at 09:42 PM

A friendly welcome

Last year we made a renovation to our home and I am just now getting around to hanging things on the walls.  I have wanted to make a new welcome sign for a long time now and when I saw the new Life Stories papers I new just what I wanted to make.  These are such great papers!  I like them all, but I have to say my favorites are the blues and greens. 

To make this wall hanging, I cut strips of several of the papers and adhered them with mod podge to a 11 x 14 canvas.  Next I drew a tree shape and cut it out.  I used my favorite Fiskars punch to make the leaves. (I creased them and inked the edges to give them more dimension.) I cut the title with my QuicKutz Silhouette. 

 
 
I can't wait to get this hung up in my entryway!

True Happiness

What does happiness mean to you?  What makes you happy?

Family, friends, food to eat, a warm home?

I believe happiness is a choice.  A way of life.  I choose to be happy.

I love the beautiful colors and rich patterns in the Ooh La La for Him collection.  They make me smile!

I wanted to create a fun project that will help remind me at a glance how truly blessed I am, something that will remind me to be happy. 

I came up with the idea to use a 7 1/2" x 30" wood board as the base for a storyboard.  I painted the front, back and sides of the wood board with acrylic paint and antiqued it with a stain.  I also cut shapes from the Ooh La La paper using dies from QuicKutz.  It was a simple project.

Download True Happiness Instructions and watch the video demo.

  

 

Photo Credit: Rebecca Matheson Photography

Designer: Amber Packer

Featured Collection: Ooh La La for Him

Wishing you much happiness today and always!

November Guest Designer: Kim Hughes!

Hello.  My name is Kim Hughes and I recently moved to Arizona with my family.  I am originally from upstate NY and have lived in Maryland, Las Vegas, Utah and Oregon and nope we're not a military family...just adventurous!  I am a proud Mom to Mitchell and Alayna and our Doxy named Moxy. 

I have been artistic all of my life (I have the dent on my finger to prove it).  I found scrapbooking about 10 years ago but I didn't become serious about it until 2004, when my daughter entered Kindergarten, when I had guilt free scrap time.  At that time I ventured into the publishing world and boy has it been a fabulously fun ride!  I feel so fortunate to have found a hobby that has become a career.

  

  

I am over the moon about being the November Guest Designer for My Mind's Eye.  I am always captivated with each and every release and could easily create with My Mind's Eye on every single project.  Scrapbooking and card making is my passion and I can't imagine my life without it.  I love the challenge of creating new and unique designs.  Products inspire me and serve as a starting point for most of my creations, so the fact that I am in love with everything My Mind's Eye, makes my job so much easier.  Some of my favorite collections are: Ooh La La, Breaking Free, Bohemia and Star Bright, Just Dreamy...of course if I could have one of everything for eternity, I'd be fully content.

If you would like to learn more about me or see more of my work, you can visit my blog at http://paperhugs.typepad.com/paper_hugs/

Thank you My Mind’s Eye for including me in something so wonderful.

Would you like to win a few of Kim's Favorite My Mind's Eye Collections?  Leave a comment on this post and we will announce our winner next week.

Spooky Decor Winners!

Dawn Gallop

and Gretchen McElveen

Email amber@mymindseye.com to claim your prize!

BOO! To You!

We hope we didn't scare you!  *wink*

We are excited to spend time tomorrow with our families and friends.  Holidays are best when spent with others.

As you spend this weekend making memories, take lots of pictures! 

Halloween picture tip:  To get great pictures of children in their Halloween Costume, take them a day or two before (or even after) Halloween.  The children will be excited to be in their costumes and "get in character" for pictures when they are not in a hurry to move on to trick or treating.  Focus on getting the "mood" pictures the night of Halloween.  This allows everyone to enjoy the picture taking experience and you, as the photographer, will not be frustrated with children who are just TOO excited to hold still for pictures!

We would like to share some fun layout ideas from our Design Team that will help you when it comes time to scrap your memories!  Our designers have even given you instructions for most of the layouts!

Beth Proudfoot

Featured Collection: BOO! to You

Download Halloween Layout

  

Trisha Ladouceur

Featured Collection: BOO! to You

Download Boo Monster cluster layout instructions

 

Anam Stubbington

Featured Collection: The Spider's Web

Download Instructions: Art Layout and 3 Layout
  

Tiffani Smith

Featured Collection: BOO! To You

Amber Packer

Featured Collection:  The Spider's Web

How To Be a ... Layout

 

We hope your weekend is so good it's SCARY!

Your friends at My Mind's Eye

Come play at the Scrapper's Playground

 

Scrapper's Playground and the Park is just over two years old. We are a full service Scrapbook Store featuring classes and crops in our spacious Scrapper's Park (separate store 2 doors down that is a dedicated class/crop room).  We cater to every level of scrapper and stamper. We carry a full range of supplies to meet everyone's creative needs and with a fun, friendly and very knowledgeable staff we are truly a playground for scrappers and stampers alike.

 

Scrapper's Playground is located at:

 

785D Deer Park Ave, North Babylon, NY‎ 11703

 

(631) 539-9888‎

 

http://scrappersplayground.blogspot.com/

 

Scrapper's Playground offers a fabulous selection of My Mind's Eye products!

 

  

From left to right in photo: Sue, KC and Renee
 
Speaking of a good time, our own KC Burningham will be at the Scrapper's Playground November 13 & 14, 2009.  Join in the fun!

 

Crop with KC.....Friday Nov 13th.....6:00 to 11:00 PM.....$15

3 Layout Class.....Saturday Nov 14th.....10:00 AM to 12:00 PM.....$23

5 Holiday Card Class.....Saturday Nov 14th.....1:00 to 3:00 PM.....$12

 

While you are there, check out this fabulous Advent Calendar designed by Dee at Scrapper's Playground.  Dee is teaching this class on November 22.  The cost is $35.

 

 

From left to right: Dee (Advent Calendar Designer) and Renee

  
If you are in the area, be sure to visit KC at Scrapper's Playground on November 13 & 14.
 

Challenge #4: Ad Inspiration Winners!

Do you know how much fun it was to see these entries!? 

The Ads our entrants picked tell a little about each one of them.

And, again, you've outdone yourself!

So ...

Do you

Want to see

Who our WINNERS are?

The winner of Challenge #4: Ad Inspiration is:

Deanna Misner!

Deanna had this to say about her layout and the Ad she chose.:  "I really liked the Ad because it used a lot of little pieces, and that seems to be all that I have of my MME collection, so it was perfect for me!"

Our Honorable Mention winner is:

Sarah de Guzman

Sarah says: "I liked how the swirls created a feeling of movement across the page. I wanted to incorporate that into a layout, so I used brads, My Mind's Eye stickers, and ruffled My Mind's Eye patterned paper to get that effect."

Great job, ladies!

We need you both to email: amber@mymindseye.com with your mailing information and the collections you'd like to receive for your prize.  Deanna, we need your three favorites and Sarah, we need your favorite collection.,

Thanks again to all who participated.  Take a look in our Challenge 4: Ad Inspiration Photo Album to see every fabulous entry!

_____________________________________________________________

Meghann is the winner of our Halloween Collections! 

Great job Margie & Susan. I used to journal around shapes too, Margie, so I really liked how you used that web! Love the texture on your layout, Susan!

Posted by: Meghann | October 20, 2009 at 04:30 AM

Party 2009!

We are very lucky that here in Canada, people love Hallow'een and have parties! One of our awesome friends throws an fantastic kids party each year and its always so much fun. So I made this little album as a thank you for the work & energy she puts in. It is made with blank photo spaces so she can just add 6x4 photos to it.

It is made with the "BOO! to you" collection and is full of fun little details.

 

You could easily replace the papers with other collections such as "Colorful Christmas" and have the perfect gift that is easy and quick to make to Celebrate Christmas. 

Click here for the Downloadable Instructions.