Santa Baby!

Just wanted to spread a little holiday cheer on this wonderful week before Christmas! So have you filled out your Memory Mania wish list yet? Better get crackin! Time is slipping away!

Isn't this picture just screaming to be scrapped?! I can't wait to throw it down with a little BasicGrey Fruitcake and a big 'ol title that says "Santa Baby!"

Hope you and your families have a wonderful holiday season! Don't drink too much egg nog.

TROUBLE LOGGING IN TO BLOG

Just as we got everyone fired up & posting like crazy to the BLOG, blogger changed the system configuration. Sigh. But that's OK, its easy to get into the new system-click on comments to post a comment, then skip down to the bottom where is says "No Google Account? Sign up here"; it will ask for your email address, username & password, you can use the same information to be online again in no time. Another tip because this confused me, with google your google username is your email address then your password. THEN each time you visit the blog, you will sign in in the upper right corner before it allows any posts-using your email address as user name. Sorry for the inconvenience, we love hearing from you so sign up for a google user name and you will be ready to BLOG.

Camp Crop a Lot Tshirts, Sweatpants & Sweatshirt

Hey Scrappers,
We finally received a sample of the Camp Crop a Lot Apparel!!! It is so cute, we can't wait to get the orders in. As you know we are only taking pre-orders since we can never guess on sizes needed, so if you want a shirt and/or pants, please order by this Friday. I don't think the color showed up too well in the picture, its a brown tshirt with sage brown & pink ($19.99); the flannel pants match perfect with pink/brown ($32.00); there is also a sweatshirt ($32) or a hoodie for ($38); the shirt is displayed in the store along with the pants-there is one of each size pants in the store that you can try on if you wish, they are pretty true to size. If you already ordered a tshirt & would like to change that to a sweatshirt, that is fine, just call the store to pay the difference & let us know that you are CHANGING a previous order. Don't forget we must have all orders in by this Friday (12/15)

Ode to Joy

As promised, here is my Christmas creation using the new Basic Grey papers and tags. The papers are mounted on a 36 X 48 canvas using Art Accentz Tacky Tape, Making Memories Chipboard letters and shapes, and lots of glitter, sparkles, beads, and Dimensional Magic Glue. Everyone in the house loves the canvas. The girls and I are even going to do some mini art pieces by just using one piece of Basic Grey paper, adding sparkle, and then framing the paper in a 12 x 12 frame. If you have any questions about how to do this, feel free to leave a comment. Also, don't forget to suggest a costume for me and Becky! You only have one more day. I can't tell you how much fun this project was to complete. I hope I have inspired you to try a little Christmas decor of your own.
Jody

TRADITIONS

I just love traditions and this weekend we celebrated one of our favorite traditions-a wonderful night out to eat with friends. Before the craziness of Christmas is in full swing, we spend a wonderful night with our closest friends at a special restaurant. This year we chose Houmas House. The food was awesome, the grounds were beautiful, the conversation was rowdy, the toast was sweet, and it was truly a wonderful, memorable night. I am truly so blessed to have these wonderful people in my life, they bring so much joy to my life. On another note, the scrappers that we are, we couldn't possibly leave without crossing the ropes to take a picture on this winding staircase, sshh, don't tell the waiter. I can't wait to scrap these pictures to add to my Christmas album. I am NOW in the Christmas spirit and ready to finish my shopping today. Do you have a Christmas book & is it up to date (ha ha). Believe it or not, mine is (I have 6 volumes of Christmas) and I can't wait to display it on the coffee table at this time of year. What traditions do you treasure, don't forget to scrap them?

MAGNOLIAS

Oops, I forgot to tell you about the new My Mind's Eye Magnolia Paper Line-Natalie says its the BOMB and Melissa says its totally radical, greatest paper ever created. The papers have matching rub-ons and die cuts that just jump out at you.

Sleigh Bells Ring, are you listening

Sleigh Bells Ring, are you listening, BasicGrey is here and its glistening . . . we've got dasher, and popcorn, peppermint stick and so many more all in the form of BasicGray Papers. And you should smell what's cooking at Memory Mania. . . fruitcake, gingerbread, pine, Just kidding, its the new Fruitcake line--It is awesome and Jody was waiting at the box with open arms. I'll let her share her COOL idea using the new FRUITCAKE. It won't last long, so hurry in, must see it.

FUN! Fun! FUN!!!!

Thank you for coming out tonight, it was great to see & visit each of you. We know how busy everyone is and appreciate you taking the time to visit with us. Thanks Natalie for an awesome demonstration of the CRICUT-who wouldn't want one after seeing all of the cool things you did. Michelle, thanks for showing all of us how to BLOG and check out the gallery. And of course, thanks to Melissa & Jade for passing out the goodies, door prizes & wish list. And Jody, thanks for your never ending spirit-check out her cool Christmas outfit using scrapbook supplies. Special thanks to LeBlanc's Payless Supermarket for the awesome wine, cheese & brownies--stop by Payless to check out their awesome selection of wine & cheese for your next party. If you couldn't make it tonight, I hope you'll stop in later this week for an awesome demo by Natalie.

CCL CONTEST!!!!!

Memory Mania Teachers Becky and Jody are sponsoring a contest for the next Camp Crop A Lot. Since their first CCL together in 2002, they have been wearing costumes for every Friday night crop, and this time it is up to our Memory Mania customers to decide what costumes the girls will wear. You have one week to submit your best costume idea to this blog in the comment section below. Be creative! In the past, the girls have dressed as their favorite scrapbook products (Basic Grey Paper, Doodlebugs), holiday event (Christmas Morning) and things ( Disney characters, LSU Fanatics). They are not afraid to make a scene, so the more outrageous your suggestion is, the better! If you will be attending CCL and your costume idea is selected, you will get a "booby prize" compliments of Becky and Jody hand delivered to your table on Friday night. If you won't be with us for CCL, you can still suggest a costume, but you will not be eligible for the "booby prize." Sorry, the girls do not make house calls. Below is a photo gallery of some of Becky and Jody's favorite costumes. Please enter as many times as you wish until December 12th. Good Luck!

NEW Rolling Tote

WOW, I just couldn't stand it, I have to show you the NEWEST bag on the market. I just love it, its bigger than the Scrappack tote that I own but still has my favorite features-the inside is wide open space with dividers, I like the storage pockets on the side-great storage spot for my chipboard alpha, etc. The best part is the front accordian spaces - great for holding lots of oops projects, i just unzip & the accordian folds out for me to pick my next OOPS'd layout; I'm so excited for Susan, she will be the first to own this awesome bag-it is hot off the boat-Check it out & let me know what you think.

NEW Gallery

Hey Girls,
Sorry I haven't been blogging much this week but I have been deep into trying to get our gallery up & running so that you can load pics of your layouts so we can scraplift them or see great uses for tools & supplies we already own or have on our wish list. One tip, start saving your layout pics in a low resolution, so far my pics are mega memory. More on this Monday. Have an awesome weekend.

BELATED THANKS

Just realized this didn't post on Friday morning and it was so sweet LOL as I was all caught up in the moment very late on Thanksgiving night;

Things I'm thankful for :

• the cutest husband & boys in the entire world (OK, its my opinion, but i'm sticking to it)
• 2 of the best families in the world (yea, I know, but i'm sticking to this one too)
• some of the best friends in the world that bring out the best in me(sorry, sticking to this one too)
• all of the wonderful traditions-listening to music at the Bullions (for the last 27 years) is so much fun & you get lots of blackmail material too - LOL;
• being on earth long enough to watch the kids grow up (go from running around the yard playing tag, to standing under the carport dancing to the tunes of the talented Bullion family)
• so thankful that my parents are alive to hug on Thanksgiving day
• so thankful that Natalie is working today and I can take the day after thanksgiving off-first time in 8 years: sorry Nat:(
• so thankful for so many of you that have stuck by us as we grew from Tanger Mall room (500 square feet) to our Prairieville store that we are growing out of
• SO VERY THANKFUL for the many employees & teachers of Memory Mania. They work their buns off on a regular basis, always smiling and loving that we're spreading the passion of scrapbooking & putting up with my crazy new ideas!
• DVR-did anyone tape Gray's Anatomy? I can't believe I missed it tonight!!!

Happy Thanksgiving & HUGS to everyone!!!!!

DRAWING FOR A FREE CLASS

Thanks for your enthusiasm & response to the free card kit! We also want to motivate you to wrap your gifts creatively too. We will hold 2 drawings for Michelle's awesome Holiday Extravaganza Workshop- register to win a spot in this class, Dec 9th 9am-noon $30 value; You will be entered into the drawing with each $30 purchase. This is a blog only special-so tell the MM staff to enter you into this drawing when you make your purchase.

FREE CARD KIT

Memory Mania wants to motivate YOU to get your Christmas Cards created early. We are offering FREE card kit ($20 value) with any $50 purchase this week only. expires 12/1/06 I hope this is a exciting start to your week. Happy Holidays.

HAPPY PLACE TAKE ME AWAY

OK Girls, the newsletter is checked off the list; the MMU curriculum is checked off the list; there is a little paper on my desk, but scrapbook room take me away!!!!! Here are the pictures of my room. Please share your ideas to help me & others get organized. Thanks Michelle & Shannon for sharing your tips. That craft desk is awesome-wish I had seen it earlier. Yes, mom brought me the shelves a few weeks back-they are awesome. My desk is Making Memories drawers with a countertop from Lowe's. Don't be shy, share your pictures of your room.

All Wrapped Up in a Neat Little Kit!

Wouldn't you love it if someone else took the guess work out of matching papers and emelishments? Wouldn't it be great if you could get all your goodies coordinated and packaged up in a neat little kit every month? Well consider your wish granted! In case you didn't know it, we are offering the same wonderful kits our Memory Masters use every month to you now. All you have to do is sign up and we will do the rest. Call or come by the store for details. Below is a picture of the last Masters Kit. This is an example of the wonderful selection of products that you would get month after month. Call now to get in on the next one!

My Scrap Room

Now as you have read below, Tammy is looking for advice on organizing her scrap space. Although I'm not the most organized person in the world...I do try. Here is my attempt at organizing my scrap room. In this picture you can see I have tons of little plastic baskets that I use to store my chipboard letters, inks, adhesives, etc in. I try to keep my paper in my Cropper Hopper and my stamps in my Mimi Organizer but they tend to stay laying around in piles on my table!















You can see more pictures of my cluttered scrap room by clicking here.

MY HAPPY PLACE

Good morning scrappers,
I had to share this with you because I'm so excited (sorry students from 6 pages in 60 minutes class , I've already bored you with this story)--i FINALLY got something that I've been waiting 10 years for . . . A scrapbook room. I just love it, it truly is a happy place, Allison was here for 20 minutes yesterday & dreaming of new layouts to be done. Now I just have to get in there to scrap, so far the only thing it has been used for is to prep for class LOL. Hopefully after we lay to rest the newsletter & MMU curriculum, oops-and that mound of paperwork on my desk, I will be making a b-line for that green room. For you lucky girls that have been having a scrapbooking room, PLEASE share some organizational tips with me so my room can be just perfect. I may just love being organized as much as the scrappin' LOL, but don't tell anyone. Ok , hit me with your best scrapbook room tips and this way everyone can read & learn from the comments.

The box queen!

Poor Nat has been swamped the past couple of days!!! We didn't know if we'd ever see her smiling face again after putting boxes and boxes of new stuff in the system.
Let's see, we have new Rub-ons coming out of our ears (they are colored titles from Reminisce) and Elvis has definitely entered the building. The new EK Elvis line makes me want to think of a reason to do an Elvis page. Perhaps a "You ain't nothing but a hound dog" page with Owen??? I know, its an obsession! But I already found a reason that a 23 year old without kids needed some of the new Sesame Street line. :)

Next semester of MMU

We are developing the new curriculum for MMU this week. Is there any class that you would love to see offered? Please post & let us know, we will need any comments by Friday. We would love to hear what your thoughts are.

What is your favorite scrapbooking tool?

My new favorite tool (CHIRP, CHIRP) is the Cricut. I love the shadow effects, the slot options and the many different sizes of font that I can get. This little machines is well worth the money and more.

Christmas Card Kit

Have you seen the Tapestry Christmas Card Kit? It is so cool, it comes with 20 cards, envelopes & everything (paper, brads, etc, ink & stamp) to create 20 cards for less than $20 & there is a $5 off coupon this week. Has anyone used it yet?

CRICUT -the coolest-chirp chip machine EVER

OMG-I love this new machine. It is incredible what you can do with 1 cartridge. I'm so glad to have it. I can't wait to learn everything that Natalie knows about it-since she is always playing with my machine, she knows more than I do about it. But watch out girl, I'm taking it for the weekend of scrappin' , I'll try to learn a few things to teach her. My newest discovery is dial 2" circle for the perfect mat of circle whale of a punch; I recreated Jody's photography layout printing titles on cardstock, punched with WOP circle, then watched the cricut cut 8 perfect mat circles for me-soooo cool.

Danielle said:This machine is so wonderful that it turned a serious QK gal like me into a convert. Like a professional KitchenAid mixer, you turn on this baby, set it, and walk away to do something else. It does all the hard work of cutting for you. It cuts from 1 inch all the way to 5 1/2. Whether it be alphabets, numbers, or the numerous shapes and extra options that this machine offers. No more buying unused letters or running out of e's with this. There is bound to be something for everyone. And if I could recommend one that I think is a must have for the gift giving season, it would be the Bags, Tags, and Boxes cartridge. There are so many options for giving treats and gift cards and such with this product. If you like making treat bags or unique gift holders for friends and family, this cartridge is a must for you.

Layout Blueprints - waiting on more . . .

Well, we SOLD OUT of our first 2 shipment of this wonderful idea book, and we are waiting on 3rd shipment!! Here's a book review from Memory Mania instructor Danielle Gaudet to let you know just how awesome it is:
Danielle: This new book is just amazing!!! For under $18.00, you get a 108 page SPIRAL BOUND book with double page sketches and layout ideas for each. This book is organized by number of photos - blueprints for layouts with 3-4 photos...up to blueprints for layouts with 10 or more photos! Plus there are sketches for 12x12 and 8 1/2 x 11. I was only able to do a quick flip through, but this book is awesome. If you love sketches, then this book is for you!The book includes 55 new "blueprints" (Becky Higgins fans might call the "sketches"), and 124 different scrapbookers have created layouts based on the blueprints, for a total of OVER 200 total layout ideas!!!This book is so popular, they are creating book 2 as we speak and our very own, Michelle Sanders, will be featured in book 2-stay tuned.

Ally said: This book is just as good as everyone said it was! It's turning out to be my NEW "Sketches" book!!

Holiday Workshop

If you were one of the lucky ones in the summer Freestyle workshop & you begged for more . . . this is for you. Do you dread wrapping all those Christmas gifts this year? You know the presentation is half the gift-Right? Well get in the Christmas spirit - In this 3 hour workshop you will complete Christmas tags, funky gift boxes and bags and more. We will also show you how to use masking, painting and distressing in your holiday gift wrapping! This workshop promises to spark your creativity and get you in the mood for gift wrapping this holiday season! Get ready for creativity, fun, snacks and PRIZES, PRIZES, PRIZES!
Instructor: Michelle Sanders

Welcome!

Welcome to our new blog. Since 1999 we have been providing all of your scrapbooking needs in Louisiana. Here you can check on the latest and greatest that is going on here at Memory Mania. We will be posting information about Memory Mania University, Camp Crop A Lot, Classes and new products, so stay tuned!