Just for Fun - Wendy Sue Anderson

Friend of KOTM, Wendy Sue Anderson shared some fun projects she made with the Just for Fun kit. Be sure to connect with Wendy on her blog.

Clearly Just for Fun

Ana shares some quick tips for working with the clear album and transperency sheets in the KOTM-Just for Fun.

Just for Fun - More ideas!

WOW is all we could say while checking out the great work from all of you with our latest kit! We just had to start sharing some of these great entries with you!

Charlene Woods

"I loved this kit as soon as I saw it! I just adopted two boys (2 and
3 years old) and have one teenage daughter, and two other boys (8 and 9).
My nine year old has Down Syndrome and the two boys we adopted have speech
problems, and learning disabilities. So, when I saw the quirky titles and
stickers (loud, leave it all behind, embrace the chaos) I just had to have
it! The only thing I added out of my own stash was the
yellow,flocked,flowery material (used as pockets in two locations). I
incorporated an envelope or pocket on every monthly page and intend to use them
for journaling prompts on note cards as they occur! Any flat memorabilia
can be kept in the envelopes as well.

You might get a chuckle out
of the fact that I assembled the WHOLE BOOK, and then realized all the
transparencies had protective plastic on them! So, I have actually
assembled my book TWICE!! OOOh me!!! "

Thanks for sharing~ And keep those ideas coming!

Project 365 - Getting the Shot

Check out Ana Cabrera's tips and projects for Project 365

"If you are anything like me... the biggest obstacle I have with keeping up my picture a day is remembering to bring my camera with me. Sure, I can get a last moment shot at home.. but there are plenty of moments out in the world that I want to capture.

So I started by creating this super simple reminder. I hang it on the door leading to the garage, that way... I can remember to grab my camera amidst all the chaos my three daughters can create trying to get out the door.



It took 2 min. I mounted the "Project 365" card onto a scrap piece of cardstock and used letter stickers from my stash. A little twine from the kitchen, and now I almost never leave without my camera!

The other issue I have is remembering all the little details from my week. I can hardly remember what I did 20 minutes ago! So made this little holder for my journaling cards. I just tuck it into my camera bag and I journal right in the moment. I also used one to create a little minibook of my "mama". She is a little camera shy, so I don't have nearly the pictures I should. This little book however holds some of her funny sayings, pearls of wisdom, and quirky quotes that we have come to love.


Making it is VERY easy.
I used a transparency sheet from the "Just for Fun" kit - but you could use patterned paper or cardstock of course.

Simply cut out your material using this pattern. Fold at the center lines, and close with brads, ribbon, decorative tape.. etc.

Now you have a cute little holder to tuck in some of those extra journaling cards and tri-folds





Finally... don't forget those CAMERA PHONE pics! When all else fails.. I always have my trusty camera phone. The images have gotten way better, but they will still print out itty bitty. Try printing them out as a contact sheet and cutting out your favorites from the week. "

Show Us Your Creations and WIN!

We, meaning CK Media staff and other KOTMers, what you’ve done with your Just for Fun kit. Send us pictures (coconutgoddess@ckmedia.com) of what you’ve made and we’ll pick our favorites to feature on the KOTM Blog to show everyone what fun things you can create with this kit- Just for Fun.

Also, we’ll pick one grand prize winner that will get to pick any product they want that’s for sale in our scrapbooking store and we’ll feature their kit creation in an upcoming e-newsletter. How fun is that?!?!?!

It’s Friday, so get started on your kit and let’s have some fun with it!

Just for Fun - Tips and Techniques

There are so many fun components in our latest KOTM -Just for Fun. There are literally dozens of projects that you can create with this kit alone! And when you add a few items from your stash, you make it truly your own.

Our very own Ana Cabrera is using the clear album sheets as inserts into her full-sized album.

She used letter stickers and "bling" from her stash to create this fun layout.

We loved the detail she added by adhering just a few pieces of bling to the patterned paper.

Ana also created this card with the strip that she cut off one edge when she created the layout.

Order "Just for Fun" today and be sure to come back soon for more projects and techniques using this kit. And don't forget, we are always looking for fun and inspiring ways to use KOTM, drop us a ling and you may find your work featured right here on the KOTM Blog!

Materials not from the kit: Tiny Alphas, Puffy letter stickers (Making Memories) Adhesive rhinestones

And the winner is. . .

Please email acabrera@ckmedia.com with you name and address and we will get this kit out to you right away. We can't wait to see what you will do with it!

If you were one who entered but didn't win, check back soon for another chance to win Just for Fun. And don't forget, you can order the kit here.

NEWSFLASH!!!

The April KOTM- Just for Fun is NOW SHIPPING! No need to wait!

Place your order today.

Coming Soon! Just for Fun

This is no April Fool's day joke... the next kit "Just for Fun" will be available April 1st. This kit is PACKED with everything you need to make a very cool clear album and countless other projects.

And we want YOUR help! Join us all week for creative inspiration with projects and techniques using "Just for Fun". Leave a comment and be entered to win a kit of your very own! The winner will be chosen this Friday. We will even post the winner's finished projects right here.

To enter, leave a comment each day this week. One comment per day. The more you visit... the better your chances for winning! See you tomorrow! (For details and to see the kit upclose, you can check it out here.)

Project 365 kits that were pre-ordered are now shipping!

We owe you an apology for failing to provide updates on the status of Project 365. We know that you have been patiently waiting for an update regarding the status of your Project 365 kit. Our last message projected the pre-ordered kits to ship in mid-February and it was based on the best information we had available at that time. Since then, we experienced additional unforeseen issues in the procurement and shipping of merchandise—which caused more unexpected delays. We made the decision to wait to communicate any new message until we had definitive answers. Unfortunately, that decision made our customers feel even more misinformed. We regret this, and apologize for not communicating more frequently throughout the process.

We are now able to communicate the news you’ve been waiting for. The Project 365 Kits are at our warehouse and we will begin processing and fulfilling the pre-orders today.

As we process the orders, it is important to know that if you have placed a pre-order for the Project 365 Kit, your credit card will be charged and an e-mail confirmation with your tracking number will be sent to you. During the next couple of weeks as we process these orders, we expect that call volumes will be higher than usual, as we complete your transactions. If you have not received your e-mail confirmation by March 13, please contact our customer service department.

Creating Keepsakes Product Customer Service

800-453-1173

720-374-3628 (International)

Monday-Friday 7:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. MST (GMT-7)

Email creatingkeepsakescs@holdenmss.com

We have read all your comments and concerns, and know of your disappointments regarding the process of this kit launch. We know that this e-mail will only reiterate to you the degree of our mistakes. We more than appreciate your continued support, especially during the tough times that we are facing. Stay tuned for our next kit coming this spring.

Thank you,
The KOTM Team

pages and tips: nichol magouirk

Today we bring you pages and tips from the very talented Nichol Magouirk! Nichol never ceases to amaze us with her creativity and Project 365 is no exception. Take particular notice of what she did with the third spread. She mixed up her journaling cards and photos into the different spaces. Very cool! And be sure to check out her blog, because she will be sharing some more 365 pages very soon.

Thanks for giving us a peek at what you're doing Nichol!

Here's what Nichol has to say:

I guess I'd say that I "borrow" photos (like the movie poster) from online (never other people's photos unless you get permission first). Also, I carry my portable little Canon Powershot with me EVERYWHERE. So much easier than my big Canon SLR. I don't miss photos this way. And finally, take a look around and capture things other than just the super cute things your family may be doing. I have photos of food, flowers I received, a big mess in my studio, etc. All those little things really make up who we are. :)

I did blur out my flight itinerary. :)

Sorry about the crummy scanning job, cut off some of the bottom of the journaling cards.

Saturday's journaling card is one of those longer ones because I had a lot to write about. I wasn't quite sure how often I would use those but I can see they will come in handy every once in awhile when I'm long winded. ha!

I worked on trying to get some photos of me this week (which I hate, but did anyway). :)

I also switched up the design a bit and put some photos down in the smaller pockets and journaling up in the larger ones. I like a little variety. ;) Oh, and I included some memorabilia this week, too. Our ticket stubs from the movie. I'm gonna try and do that for all movies we see this year, a nice way to remember all those films we go to. :)

pages and tips: laura vegas

We have the privilege of hearing from Laura Vegas today. She's sharing some tips and some of her Project 365 pages that she's created. She's done a wonderful job at capturing so much of every-day life. Laura is a fabulous designer and we're excited to have her share her wisdom in the wonderful world of 365.

Thanks Laura!

here's some of my pages and explanations that I've posted on my own blog:

week one. i chose to start my album on january 1st ... so there are only 3 days to this first week. i'm starting on the front side of the first page protector ... which is perfect for the three days. and then i'll add a regular sized page protector to the front of the album later ... and make my own title page.

week two. these were really hard to get a picture of. those white things on the bottom of the picture ... those are my toes. i had the album laying on one of the stairs. and i was balancing on another stair ... and on my tippy-toes trying to get the whole album in the shot. yes, i'm on the short side.

week three. as you might have noticed ... i did add a few brads to the first week or two. not sure if i'm going to do that to the other pages. for now, probably not. i don't want to get halfway in and have the album bulk up too much. i think it's going to be good just with the 52 weeks of photos. but i might go back and add a few things ... never know.

week four. i also decided to use the black "day" stickers on the photos ... and the clear circle stickers on the journaling cards. i punched small circles from the extra pattern paper sheets that came in the kit ... using my 5/8" punch that i had. the stickers are a tad bit larger than that ... but it's the only punch i had. then i just drew a rough circle around those stickers.

week five. feel like i should make a few more comments ... but i think it's all pretty self-explanitory. lol!

here's my two tips:
i keep telling people NOT to stress about taking a photo EVERY single day ... and that it's ok to skip here and there. for the first few weeks, i was really good about getting a photo every day. but my last two weeks, i wasn't quite so good about it. but i didn't stress or worry about it. i just took my camera out at the end of the week, walked around the house, and snapped all my photos at once. it doesn't make the album any less meaningful or change the idea behind the album. i'm still documenting our lives and all the little things that have gone on during the week.

the other has to do with staying organized and completing my album. i take my photos during the week. and then every saturday, i upload and order my photos from costco. so i'm only working on the album once a week. i add all the photos and fill out the journaling cards. and it only takes about 15 minutes to do. i also have been uploading my photos for the week to my blog (every saturday), along with more detailed journaling than i might write in the album. just another spot to keep them together and be able to look back on.

No February KOTM

We're sorry to announce that we are postponing the next release of Kit of the Month because we are still in the midst of correcting the fulfillment issues of Project 365. We want to make sure that everything is back to normal before embarking on another kit, so we won’t be offering a KOTM during the month of February.

Stay tuned to this blog and the Kit of the Month site for more information as it becomes available (and maybe even sneak peeks of the next kit!).

Thank you for your understanding.

The KOTM Team

photo tip: go vertical!

Today's tip is from Kerri Bradford. Here's what she has to say:

I’m doing my Project 365 based on a week at a time. This means I can have a photo for every day of the week or if there’s an important event, such as the example I’m sharing in my tip today, I can do that whole event on the two-page spread for that week.

The important event I wanted to capture this last week was my son receiving his LDS mission call. I wanted to include this photo of just him reading the letter informing him of where he was going to serve (which is Washington DC, French speaking), but it was a vertical photo.

No worries. It can work...vertically even!

Here’s what I chose to do. I used Photoshop (or you can use Elements or another photo editing software) to crop the photo size to 6" x 8". Then, I cropped and saved a copy of the top half of the photo as a 6" x 4" and did the same for the bottom half . . . giving me two separate photos that can combine to make one, as shown in the layout example here.

Imagine these photos are contained in the four photo pockets from the kit. Please forgive me for doing this as an example instead of using live product, I’m on “backorder” too. ;) But you get the idea. You’re not limited to strictly 6" x 4" photos. Mix it up, have some fun, and throw in a little variety!

photo tip: get YOU in the photo

Before sharing the photo tip for today, we wanted to answer your questions about seeing more Project 365 pages here on the KOTM blog. Well, that’s a tricky one since we didn’t get hardly any samples in-house due to the sell-out. It’s not that we don’t want to share, it’s that we only had a couple kits to spread around as opposed to what we’ve been able to do in the past. So as the couple artists that have them make their pages available to us, we’ll for sure be sharing them here!

Also, many of you are asking questions about whether or not you actually have a kit, whether credit/debit cards have been credited/charged, etc. Unfortunately, there’s nothing our team can do as far as checking orders for your customer service questions. The most direct route in finding an answer regarding your order is to call or e-mail the fulfillment partner (see contact info two posts below)...and we realize that hasn’t been easy either. There are CK Media people working fervently on trying to correct the customer service and quality assurance issues (empty boxes???) for both past orders as well as hopefully eliminating any future problems.

As for creating a full digital version of Project 365, it is something we are still thinking about, but nothing has been determined at this point. We have had a free partial download available for a couple weeks though. You can find out more about it in this post here.

So now let's continue on with sharing Project 365 tips and ideas here on the blog. Here’s one from Loni Stevens:

Okay, so I know this isn't the first time you've heard this, and I'm sure it won't be the last, but I think it's worth mentioning one more time, at least from me.

Make sure to include photos of YOU in this project!

Don't be afraid to ask someone else to take charge of the camera so you can be in the picture. Or, if nobody else is around, set up the tripod or place your camera onto something stable and use the self-timer, or do the good ol' outstretched arm method! That always works. Whatever it takes to get yourself from behind the camera, right? Another fun gadget I ran across recently through my friend Viv that I thought was pretty cool is the XShot. You attach your camera to a pole, one person holds on to it, and extends the camera far enough out so several people can be included in the shot. If you happen to get the pole in the photo, you can always crop it out like I've shown below.

Whatever your method, make sure to get yourself in the photo! :)

BEFORE

AFTER

And here's the XShot in action (photo from the XShot website)

photo tip: include text on your photo

Use your photo editing software to include pertinent details on your photo. Not only does it provide the obvious information, but it adds a whole other graphic element to the photo. This is also a great option for those of you doing your own version of Project 365.


You could also try typing your journaling along one side of the photo by either typing directly over the image itself or by creating a small rectangle box along the side to type your text over. If you are using Photoshop or Elements, make sure you create the rectangle box in a separate layer so you can change the Opacity (found on your Layers palette) to give it a translucent appearance, if desired.


[tip by kerri bradford]

we are here

We are reading your questions and concerns, however, nothing has changed over the past couple weeks.

1. We are still checking into whether or not we can do a reprint. There’s so much more involved in the process than just “reprinting it.” There are no immediate plans, but that can change in the future. We just don’t know yet.

2. Any customer service issues still need to be handled by our fulfillment partner:
E-mail: CreatingKeepsakesCS@Holdenmss.com
Domestic calls: 800.453.1173
International calls: 720.374.3628
[Phone line hours are 7:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. MST, M-F]

3. We are monitoring this board and making sure that concerns, especially regarding the fulfillment side, are being forwarded on to those that need to know.

4. Still continue to check out Becky’s blog for all her ideas and tips using Project 365. Since this is her kit and she had begun promotion on it before the KOTM blog was in place, we wanted her to continue to be that source of inspiration and information on 365. We’ll still continue to share tips or pages, however, we thought it best to keep most of the information in one spot vs. going back and forth...with this kit, in particular.

Please know that we are here and we are listening.

project 365 photo tip

Did your Inauguration invitation get lost in the mail? Didn't get that front row VIP seat next to Magic Johnson, Dustin Hoffman and Oprah for the perfect photo op of this momentous occasion? Forgot to even take a picture of the television? Try looking on the internet for images from the day to use for your "Tuesday photo." There are many great photos out there!

This photo was just way too cute!

a couple more pages from maggie holmes

Here's a little more of 365 from Maggie Holmes. Maggie's approach for 365 is on the life of her kids, what they do, and how they will change throughout the entire year. A fun perspective for sure! And, on top of it all, Maggie is an amazing photographer!

Thanks for creating these wonderful pages Maggie!

We want to help you do Project 365!

The KOTM team has been working with Becky Higgins to create a solution for those who want to participate in Project 365. Our solution? We're providing a handful of the Project 365 components in downloadable files! Now you, your friend, your mom, your daughter...whoever... can join the 365 fun right now.

Here's what Becky has to say:

Click here for the downloadable file.

When you click on that link, you'll notice that a file is immediately downloading onto your computer. When you open the folder (called "Project 365"), you will notice a folder of JPGs and a folder with a PDF in it. There are some title page (and ending page) cards, some "week of" cards, some journaling cards, and a couple designer cards (to use as a background when you have smaller memorabilia on some days, instead of a photo). This certainly isn't everything from the kit, but it is definitely enough to help you do Project 365. You'll need to get some 4" x 6" divided page protectors, a 12" x 12" binder, and you're good to go. See the post just below this one for resources.

I realize that everyone has different levels of being tech-saavy, so I'll explain this as clearly as possible so as to not scare anyone away. : )

[ PDF ]

When you open the PDF, you'll notice 7 pages for you to print. For best results, print on a color laser jet printer. Don't have one? Try your local copy shop. When you go to print, the most important thing is to notice that you have the option to change the scale of what you're printing. It's probably set on some default setting right now, like "fit to page" or "shrink to printable area" or something along those lines. You don't want any of these. CLICK ON "NONE". Then print, cut, and use! Of course you'll only need one print-out of the title blocks. Since you'll want several of the "week of" cards and the journaling blocks, just print those specific pages however many times you want. Once you cut everything to the appropriate size (4" x 6"), these will slip right into any 4" x 6" photo album or page protectors (see previous post for people's recommendations on where to find these).

[ JPG ]

For those of you who are a little bit more digital-saavy, and you have some photo-editing software (such as Adobe Photoshop), you're going to love these JPGs. First of all you can print the title cards just as they are. You'll have photo-quality cards and you'll be saving your own ink (printer ink is expensive!). As for the "week of" and journaling cards, simply open the file you want to use in Photoshop, add your text (whatever font & size you want), save it as a JPG, and print it just as you would print any other picture that's a JPG!

Where to print? Most photo-printing services (such as Shutterfly, Snapfish, Scrapbook Pictures, and Costco) will mail your prints right to you. Here's one of the journaling cards, so you can see what to expect, and then a sample of journaling that I did on one of the JPGs:



So you would print this out and then stick it in one of the 4" x 6" slots on the same page as those 2 days' worth of photos. Make sense? Plus -- you could also just print out the JPG journaling blocks as photos, and use a photo-safe pen to handwrite your journaling (instead of typing it in Photoshop).

If you have questions about these downloads, please leave a comment here. If you have alternative suggestions for Project 365, please leave them in the Comments of the LAST post [on Becky's blog here] so that those looking for ideas will see yours there.

If you want to read Becky's complete post on this, you can do so here.

One other note. Because this KOTM blog is new and Becky had done so much preparatory work before Project 365 was even released, we wanted the KOTM blog to be a supplement to all the wonderful things Becky had to say and contribute--she truly is an inspiration! While the KOTM team will continue to share ideas on all the kits here, we thought it best to keep the bulk of the Project 365 information in one place--Becky's blog.

Please note: This is not a "digital" version. You can use it digitally or you can print them directly onto cardstock and use them that way.