Imagination Project Blog

Let's get ready to rock! This week we'll be looking at fun uses for Playlist, my first collection with Circus Rose. Today's fun mini book comes from design team member, Ursula Page.

On Monday's blog entry, Ginger talked about her inspiration for creating the Gin-X: As You Wish collection. Ginger was driven to develop embellishments that allow you to record some details of yourself or a loved one. Things that don't seem to be that important day to day, but something that you'd love to remember and know in the future.

Ginger and all of our artists spend a lot of time developing their lines and all the embellishments that go with them. But, sometimes in our catalogs and even on our webpages, we're pressed for space and rushed in time that we don't always get to show the loving care in each of the designs created.

So, on some Fridays, we'll take a little time to take a closer look at some of our products. Today we're going to take a closer look at Gin-X As You Wish: All About Me Journaling Squares.

As the title suggests, these are primarily journaling squares with a few quotes and labels and labels mixed in.

I've chosen a few of the journaling squares to focus on, to show you something that you might miss if you look at them too quickly.












Why I Am So Cool. This is the sticker that I've been waiting for! Check, check, check, and check! Now, all I have to do is start scrapbooking so I can use this sticker!












Pretty deep, eh? I bet you didn't think that your cardstock stickers could inspire you to think! Recording thoughts like this are interesting because years from now, what defines you might be totally different!













And lastly, some simple stats. Sometimes the little facts are the things that we'd love to know but easily get lost through time. Little facts can be important too- like purse size. I actually didn't know that purses come in different sizes. Yes, I am a guy.

We'll be posting more of these product highlights as we go through are different collections!

Posted by Morris

Buy this sticker and more on our online store!

As always, scrapbooking supplies don't just belong in you layouts, the elements in the As You Wish collection make them perfect for cards and other paper crafts.

This card is from Design Team member Terri Davenport. Terri said, "The curve in the As You Wish patterned paper was a quick and easy accent for this card. After adhering it to the card, I accented it by hand stitching with embroidery floss." Supply List: Chocolate Coating, Kissing Book, R.O.U.S., Inconceivable, All About Me Jumbles, Kellerman Type Brown, embroidery floss.

The rich reds, blues, and browns also make for great home decor items. This jewelry holder was made from an altered 8x10 frame with a covered cork board base. And the coaster jumbles were easily turned into custom push pins with a little diamond glaze.

Supply List:
Chocolate Coating, Head Jiggle, R.O.U.S., Kissing Book, All About Me Jumbles, Dark Brown Liquid Chalk Ink Pad, Diamond Glaze, Unfinished Wood Frame, Thumbtacks, Brown Paint.

Posted by Kayla

See As You Wish and more on our online store!

This fun layout comes to us from one of our Canadian Design Team members and 2007 CK HOF Honorable Mention, Michelle Engel. Michelle said, "With papers all named from the movie The Princess Bride AND it being my favourite movie... I was instantly inspired to create a layout about myself that mirrored the same sense of fun that the movie has."

supplies: Inconceivable, Head Jiggle, Kissing Book, R.O.U.S., Chocolate Coating, Loose leaf Ledger Ivory, All About Me Jumbles and Rings of Approval by Imagination Project, non IP product includes Bazzill Basics cardstock and flower, Making Memories ribbon, Fancy Pants chipboard swirl, staples and a button.

Posted by Kayla

Ordering is easy on our online store!

Today's cute little mini album comes from Design Team member Erin Sweeney. Erin said, "When I looked at the All About Me Label stickers I realized I could do a whole All About Me album, there are that many stickers. I decided to do a mini-album highlighting 4 random things about me right now. The All About Me Journaling & Quotes Squares were perfect for the short journaling I wanted to do. And they go so well with the As You Wish line of papers. For accents I used some of the Coaster Stars - again, a perfect complement to the papers. This was so fun to do, I might do one for my husband and daughter as well! It's great a way to capture someone's personality right now. Because the stickers are slick, try your pen/marker out on the margins first to make sure it'll work. On my third try, a Pilot Permaball pen worked."

Supply List: Super Steno Ivory, Head Jiggle, Chocolate Coating, Kissing Book, Cliffs of Insanity, R.O.U.S, All About Me Journaling & Quotes Squares, All About Me Labels & Alphas, Andrew Black, Red Coaster Stars, & Blue Coaster Stars.

Posted by Kayla

As You Wish is available in our online store!

This week we are showcasing the new Gin-X line As You Wish. Ginger said, "I wanted to create a line that inspired people to do a book about themselves. I've always thought it was such a great idea to scrap about yourself because I lost my father at 18 and quite frankly I don't know a lot about him. I know the superficial things but I never really knew all of his favorites, etc. So - I wanted to design a line that made it easy to create a book about yourself - that's where As You Wish comes in. (Can you name the movie???)"

We've got a sneak peek of another one of Ginger's classes today. This is her "Just Me" board book that she will be teaching at the Cord Camera in Macedonia, OH on this Saturday. She integrated the As You Wish collection with the Ivory pieces from the Office Supplied collection as well as lots of different coaster shapes and letters and art tape. Click here for the class schedule.








Posted by Kayla

Find "As You Wish" at our online store!

We will be shipping out our second release from CHA Winter in the next few weeks, so in celebration of that we thought we'd provide a project (with step by step instructions) that mixes our Totally Dated collection with the new Fashionista pieces from Circus Rose.

The class we designed is a perpetual calendar frame that can be used over and over by switching out the calendar grid. It combines the usefulness of a traditional calendar, in that notes and dates can be written directly on the calendar with the convenience of not having to create a separate layout for each month. The result is chic and girly and lots of fun.

Supplies Used:
Monthly Glance Ivory - Office Supplied by Project Essentials
Single Girl - Fashionista by Circus Rose
Diva Dots - Fashionista by Circus Rose
Biased Stripe - Fashionista by Circus Rose
Chic Polka Dot - Fashionista by Circus Rose
Molly Perfect Pink Coasters - Gin-X
Oda Mae Black Rub-ons - Gin-X
Fashionable Jumbles - Fashionista by Circus Rose
She Wears Pink Rub-ons - Gin-X

Non IP Product:
Unfinished 12x12 Wood Frame
Pretty Pink Cardstock - WorldWin
Dark Brown Liquid Chalk Ink - Color Box
Brown Paint
Pop Dots
Repositionable Adhesive

Instructions:
1.) Paint the edges of the wood frame and set aside to dry.
2.) Measure the sides of the frame (this specific frame is 2-5/8”) and cut two pieces of the Biased Stripe and two pieces of the Diva Dots to the correct dimensions.
3.) Ink all of the pieces and adhere the Diva Dots pieces to the top and bottom panels of the frame, and the Biased Stripe pieces to the right and left panels of the frame.
4.) Cut four squares that match the dimensions of your frame out of the Chic Polka Dot, ink, and adhere to the four corners of the frame.
5.) Set the frame aside and use a craft knife to cut out the silhouette from the Single Girl paper.
6.) Ink the silhouette and use a pen to draw on a shirt, then draw random lines to act as a guide for the text.
7.) Fill in the shirt with a quote or other journaling, we used “Friendship is just a word, but my girls give it meaning.” – Unknown
8.) Use various elements of the She Wears Pink Rub-ons to decorate the pant legs and sleeves of the silhouette.
9.) Adhere the embellished silhouette to the left panel of the frame allowing it to overlap into the open space.
10.) Punch out all of the Fashionable Jumbles, ink, and begin adhering to the inside edge of the frame, starting at the head of the silhouette and working your way around, popping up every other jumble with a pop dot.
11.) Set the frame aside as it is now complete.
12.) Take the Monthly Glance Ivory and trim off the bottom row of squares and the open space at the top, ink, and adhere to the bottom of the pink cardstock leaving an equal amount of space around the corners.
13.) Use the Oda Mae Rub-ons to fill in the days of the week and number off the days of the month.
14.) Cut a 3”x12” strip of Biased Stripe and adhere to the top of the pink cardstock, leaving a ¼” between the Monthly Glance Ivory and the Biased Stripe.
15.) Cut a 2 ½” x 11 ½” strip of Chic Polka Dot and center on the strip of Biased Stripe.
16.) Punch out the Molly Perfect Pink coaster letters, ink, and adhere with temporary or repositionable adhesive to the center of the title block.
17.) Keep the rest of the letters so they can be switched out every month.

Posted by Kayla

IP Online Store, the hip place to shop

This beautiful page comes from Design Team member Mary MacAskill.

Mary said, "I finished this layout in less than two hours. That is HUGE for me since I am a SLLLOOOWWW scrapper. I am crediting the "Calendar Counts" stickers for sparking an awesome idea. I don't know how many times I have recited my due date for people. Too many. But this was definitely a fun way to capture the question(s) I get asked AT LEAST once a day."

Supplies include:
Pink cardstock, White cardstock, Office Supplied Cool Columns Pink, Coaster Heart - Fire, Calendar Counts Sticker - White, Silver Mini-brads

Directions:
1. Print title and journaling on white cardstock, leaving space for a 4" x 6" vertical photo and the "Calendar Counts" sticker. Trim to approximately 8" x 8" and stitch a border with white thread.
2. Cut number strip from "Office Supplied Cool Columns Pink" and attach to left side of 4" x 6" photo. Attach to layout.
3. Cut date from "Calendar Counts" sticker and mount on a coaster heart.
4. Attach "Calendar Counts" sticker to layout and layer heart over missing date.
5. Add a mini-brad to either side of the title and white 8" x 8" cardstock to a pink cardstock background.

Posted by Kayla

Buy, buy, buy at the IP store!

Today we decided to throw in an extra treat, not only are we showing a lovely page from Mary MacAskill, but we thought we give a sneak peek into one of the three classes Ginger will be teaching up at the Cord Camera in Macedonia, OH on April 28th.

This Year in Review album uses papers from the Project Essentials Office Supplied and Chloe's Closet's Singin' in the Rain collections as well as the Calendar Counts stickers and lots of coasters.

Posted by Kayla

Need IP? Go shopping!

Another fun way to integrate the mini months into your pages is to use them to mark a specific date or holiday and then integrate them into the background.

I loved being able to integrate the Office Supplied and Totally Dated products in with some older product. And by using the black pieces from the collection they served their purpose without grabbing all of the attention like the white would have on this page. To scallop the circle and edges of a few of the papers I removed the guard from my corner rounder and lined up each punch. It takes a while but it's worth the effort!

Supply List:
IP Product: Circus Rose Punk Polka Dot, Project Essentials Mini Months Black, Cool Columns Black, Golden Delicious, Donner Diamonds, Save the Date White, Various Coaster Rings. Non IP Product: Cardstock: Bazzill, Patterned Paper & Stickers: KI Memories, Die Cut Letters: Cricut, Brads & Flowers: Queen & Co, Silk Flower: Heidi Swapp.

Posted by Kayla

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Today's stunning layout come to us from design team member Shelley Anderson. I love the way she integrated black and white papers from several different collections and then popped them out with the green accents.

Shelley said, "I just placed the patterned papers in a visual triangle. I am such a huge lover of black and white, both in scrapbooking and clothing...but due to my cat's green eyes i opted to matt the photo in green, add the journaling in a green marker and embellish the page a bit further by placing the green and black gingham ribbon on photo turns in a visual triangle. The black and white papers worked perfectly with the fur on our cat named Boots!

I enjoyed mixing from the various lines...it all came together easily. For the journaling list of 10 things, that block was cut out of a piece of the patterned paper(circus rose)... very easy!

I inked the outside of the white Bazzill and I also inked the small alpha B so that it matched the blacks in the patterned papers.

Supply List:
"A DAY IN THE LIFE"

Great Grid Black, Punk Polka Dot, Penmanship Practice Black, My Top Ten, Mixed Dates White, Calendar Corners B/W, Andrew Black: Imagination Project. Cardstock: Bazzill, ink: StazOn, large photo turns: 7 gypsies, bookplate: Basic Grey, brads & button: Making Memories, ribbon, & floss: Pebbles, adhesive ribbon: DCWV, green marker: Pitt artist pen by Faber-Castell.

Posted by Kayla

Buy Imagination Project products online.

Today Brittany Laakkonen created a layout that used the calendar paper in a very unique way. I love the way she added all of the extra doodles to make an otherwise basic paper fun and girly.

Brittany said, "I really wanted to make a layout about me being seventeen and how my year is going. The calendar paper from Project Essentials was just perfect for this layout. Inspired by the calendar paper, I used rub-on numbers in the empty calender spaces to count up from 1 to 17 to reinforce my "Seventeen" theme."

Supplies:
IP Product: Monthly Glance White, R.O.U.S., Fun Flowers-Totally Red, Andrew-Signature Red, Oda Mae Black rub-ons. Other: sticker letters: Memory Makers, gem ring: Heidi Swapp for Advantus, pen: Zig, ink: Tim Holtz Distress Ink, rub-ons: BasicGrey, other: button. Photos by Sharon Laakkonen.

Posted by Kayla

What a fun week! We've seen how a single sheet of coasters can make these fabulous little mini books and got five different artist's interpretations on how to put them together.

The Super Stenos pictured today are ones I have turned into class projects. If you teach scrapbooking, they are one of the greatest formats you can dream up! Your base is a $3 album, and you can teach so many techniques on it & create something absolutely everyone will want to keep & cherish. I love that this is an album you can do in a sitting. It really makes me feel like I've accomplished a lot each time I do one.

So here's this week's creative challenge: Go find a staggered tag set (a Super Steno if you can get one) and build a mini album out of it. If you can't find a set of our staggered tags, get five of the same tag and cut them to different lengths and work with those. We would love to see your Super Stenos or Staggered Tag books, so please post a link here to what you create. Be sure to come back next week where we'll be totally dating ourselves again exploring fun with calendar pieces!

Featured supplies: Black Super Steno Staggered Tag Books, StarStruck Red Coaster Stars, Red Coaster Flowers, Cotton Art Tape, Casual Day Jumbles, ribbons, binder clip, notebook rings. Posted by Emily

Buy Project Essential Steno Books- online through Shopatron!
It's not always easy to find our products- we're working hard to get more and more retailers to carry our products. If you can't find our products in your local scrapbook store, trying buying them here on Shopatron. What is Shopatron? Shopatron is a system that connects your order to a network of stores that carry our product. The orders come through our site, but the closest retailer that has the items in stock has the opportunity to get this order and ship it directly to you. It's a way for us to have online sales but to help the local retail store at the same time. Any scrapbook store can join the network!

I really get a kick out of the variation of looks that our design team created with their Super Steno assignments this week. They all had a different "tone" and told very different stories using very different materials.

Today's beautiful ivory Super Steno is from Chrys Queen Rose. I really love her choice of wire-edged ribbon to bind the book.

Chrys said, "At first I was intimidated by all the lines in this mini album but then I pulled out a new favorite collection of mine "As you Wish", and started tearing bits of the paper and covered parts of the album with it. Then it became easy...I just placed a few of my favorite pictures from my boys first trip to Disneyland in 2005 that I hadn't scrapped yet and added some jumbles (another favorite) and a bit of journaling. It all came together really quickly....now I'm ready and anxious to work on the other color steno books!!!"

Supplies used:
Super Steno Book ivory, Gin-X All about me jumbles, Gin-X As you wish papers : R.O.U.S, Cliffs of Insanity, Head Jiggle, Chocolate Coating and Kissing book.
Posted by Emily

Today's Kickin' Super Steno was created by our own Barb Hogan. She made it to celebrate the friendships she has made through taekwondo and to talk about the bond that has grown between her and her daughter from training together.

Barb admitted she's not typically a mini book person but said, "I do like how the coaster book is staggered, letting goodies peek out from the bottom of the stack. I have about a bazillion taekwondo pics and don't know what to do with them all. Also, the license plates on my car are "TKD CHIX" so that's where I got the title for the front of the book. I love adding some doodles to the book, they make the project "more me"."

I think she did an amazing job. I love the super-dark edges and the torn pieces of matching office papers she used on the backs of the pages. I also like the playfulness of it and that it stays simple with just a few colors to keep the photos the "star" of the show.

Supply list: Project Essentials Super Steno White Coaster book, Project Essentials white grid paper, GinX Coaster Stars in blue, and Project Essentials Mixed Date white coaster circles, GinX Brown Rubons, Oda Mae and Chochkie, Brown Sharpie, Ribbon and Ric-Rac. The rings are plastic rings from a stack of CDs that she bought. Barb cut them and covered them with ribbon.
Posted by Emily

Today Diane DiTullio created a black Super Steno album with an art theme. I love how the pictures and her story are the stars of this little book.

Diane said: "This was such a fun project and I loved working with the staggered coasters. I recently took photos of my son's first time painting and I loved the idea of using splashes of color in the artwork against the black and white coasters. For impact, I used some larger photos to cover an entire page of the album. Because of the petite size of the album, I used a minimal amount of embellishments so that photos weren't overpowered. I used a few stars and buttons throughout to remain consistent."

Supplies Used:Coasters: Black Super Steno Staggered Tags, StarStruck Beaming Blue, StarStruck Red Carpet Red, All About Me Jumbles, Andrew Raw Alphas, Patterned Paper: As You Wish Collection (R.O.U.S) Project Essentials Office Supplied Collection (great grid black).
Posted by Emily

Welcome to the week of the Super Steno! These coaster sheets have been selling like hotcakes & we wanted to share some of our ideas on what you can do with them.

Super Steno Coasters are a sheet of staggered tags that are prepunched and designed to stack into a mini album that can be bound with ribbon or rings. They are preprinted with designs from our Office Supplied collection to make it easy to add journaling or to caption your photos.

Today Erin Sweeney created a pink Super Steno to share on the blog. I love her fun journaling on the cut out strips!

Erin said, "This was such a easy project to put together! If you're like me, you're constantly "behind" in scrapbooking, never having enough time to get it all done. That's what's so great about the Super Steno Books! Since they are pre-printed, all I had to do was add some pictures, journaling and embellishments. Great time-saver! This is perfect as a little brag book for yourself or as a gift. For me, it's the perfect mini-album for capturing our daughter at my husband's season opener."

This week we've been exploring Totally Dated and new ways to add dated elements to your layouts.

Today we're focusing on Calendar Corners, another fun element from our Totally Dated collection. These little coaster corners put a new twist on a familiar product. Now you can add the date to a photo or layout with a predated photo corner.

Vicki Boutin is one of our design team members from up in Canada and she created today's project. Vicki says, "The Calendar Corners are so much fun and very versatile! I decided to shake it up a bit and use them to create an arrow on this super quick and cute card!"

I love the arrow idea. So whether you add a date or point it out experiment with Calendar Corners. They come in black & white or ivory & brown and with their clean graphic fonts they're bound to match everything you're working on!

Supplies used: Paper- Great Grid Pink, Great White Grid/Coasters- Calendar Corners Brown and Ivory/Rub ons- Oda Mae White/brads/brown cardstock.
Posted by Emily

Since we're showing you all of the awesome things you can do with Totally Dated line we thought we'd give some of it away. One lucky person will receive one of each Totally Dated paper and an assortment of coordinating embellishments.


To enter, simply post your first name and last initial and the city you're entering from in the comments section of this post. Example - I would be Kayla W. from Cincinnati, Ohio.

I'll announce a winner Friday! Don't forget to check back to claim your prize!!!!!

P.S. - We'll be sending out our consumer newsletter on 16th, so make sure you sign up, you never know what you might miss if you don't!

Posted by Kayla

Today's "totally dated" layout was created by another of our talented design team members, Michelle Engel.

She used the Save the Date coasters to mark her son's birthday. I love the simplicity and playfulness of it and I like what a strong impact the small, bright pictures have on the page.

Michelle says her inspiration was "Looking at the months of the year in the save the date coasters I couldn't help but start singing a skipping song I skipped to as a child! Apples, peaches, pears and plums...tell me when your birthday comes! And then I had to do a birthday layout with these awesome coasters...of course! :) I love love love circles so the circles of the save the date coasters inspired me to use more yummy circles...the rings of approval were the perfect match! This layout really came together easily...and the product made that happen!"

Supplies: Bazzill basics cardstock, IP great grid paper white, rings of approval, save the date coasters, Andrew black alpha coasters, Sammy (red) rubons, Batik Regular (computer font).
Posted by Emily

This week we are going to be focusing on our new Totally Dated collection from Project Essentials. Especially on the fact that calendar products can be used on more than just traditional calendars. Today's layout is by design team member Ursula Page.

Ursula said, "As soon as I saw the paper with the 4 mini-months on it, I KNEW that I had to use one of these month pages for Harper’s baby book. This month was a very busy month for Harper when it came to milestones and having a blank calendar page made it super easy to document each and every thing and I loved how I could coordinate it with the page by coloring in part of the calendar with markers. I also plan to use these mini-month pages for all the months in our family where we are so busy that journaling at all is just impossible."

Supply List: Mini Months White, Great Grid Black, Great Grid Pink, My Top Ten, Calendar Corners B/W, Molly Perfect Pink, Fun Flowers Lively Green, Andrew Lots of Green, Rings of Approval, Oda Mae Pink Rub-ons, Cardstock: Worldwin, Ribbon: May Arts, Brads: Autumn Leaves, Pens: Uniball Signo and Marvy.

Posted by Kayla