Marvelous March

Welcome to my March 2012 Newsletter. Spring is right around the corner and the world is starting to look fresh and new again. March is a natural time to savor life, to celebrate hope and renew your commitment to faith and family. It’s also the perfect time to surround loved ones with the Heritage Makers products they love; and this issue of my newsletter is packed full of them.  Check out our birthday ideas. See ways to fill your home with products that lift and inspire, such as Easter table decorations and other Spring projects.  Look into the many creative ways you can use post-bound albums and scrap pages.  They’re our featured product this month and an additional 10% off your already low Club HM prices! Do you need some help with your projects? Attend my monthly digi-crop on Saturday March 24, 2012 from 10 am - 10 pm (come and go or come and stay) and get face-to-face help! Let me help you make something meaningful. Email me your RSVP to Rebecca@OurPhotoStories.com and I will send you my address. At this time of new beginnings, I invite you to consider a fresh start for your own life by becoming a Heritage Makers consultant on my growing team. It could be just the direction you need to lift your life and bless your family. As a consultant you’d be pursuing an emotionally and financially rewarding business opportunity, while saving even more money on products you already love. And I commit to be there with you as you learn and grow. If bringing meaningful HM moments to your circle of family and friends sounds appealing, contact me today at Rebecca@OurPhotoStories.com.

Click here for a fun Easter project

Click here for more Spring projects

Click here for the March specials!

Click here for the Club HM  Challenge

Click here to preview the new art.

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Want to make your journaling look more professional, easier to read and give your layouts the right "feel?" Read our Tips & Tricks on typography here. Every year, you and your loved ones celebrate birthdays. Why not design gifts and greetings that will be cherished for years to come? Read more here. It's time to "spring clean" your JPGs and declutter your photo guilt. Our new Spring Fling workshop makes it fun for everyone to learn the latest solutions to save and store photos. Find out how here. Money may not grow on trees but it is in full bloom for many Heritage Makers consultants who are growing a rewarding business. Would you like to bloom more room in your monthly budget? Learn how here.  Inspirations Online Classes Spring is in the Air Thu, Mar 8, 2012 7:00 PM MST Register here Perfect Wedding Thu, Mar 22, 2011 7:00 PM MST Register here Upcoming Themes & Specials March: Post Bound & Scrap Pages 12x12 Post Bound Albums and 12x12 Scrap Pages (save 10%) April: Canvases All sizes (save 10%) May: 7x5 Storybooks (save 10%) Notice: Website maintenance Mar 17 10:00 pm MST to Mar 18 2:00 am MST Click here to start a project now. http://studio.heritagemakers.com/getStarted/ Go to my web site at http://www.OurPhotoStories.com or contact me via email at Rebecca@OurPhotoStories.com to learn more about Heritage Makers products.

A Business in Bloom

Spring is full of promise with blooms and rebirth in nature as our outside environment greens and grows as the weather turns warmer and spring rains wash the winter gray away.

For those same reasons, spring is a prime time to consider your own personal growth, especially when it comes to finding a fulfilling and meaningful career that offers a comfortable balance with family life as well as income that can truly impact your monthly budget.

Becoming a Heritage Makers Personal Publishing Consultant offers you an unlimited future filled with rewards of personal growth, enrichment, leadership development and income potential that can change your life.

The Heritage Makers business is blooming all across the U.S. and Canada, especially after we just wrapped up our company training events called Regionals in numerous locations to help consultants in those areas grow their businesses.

Do you want to be a part of something that’s growing and blooming into something beautiful? For only $50, you can become a Heritage Makers Consultant. It’s your choice on how to grow and bloom your business from there. Choose to be a hobbyist who publishes your own projects for free. Or participate as a part-timer who works to get an extra income boost that covers a car payment or funds vacation plans.

However, if you follow our proven business success plan with built-in training and sponsor support, you will be a Business Builder who achieves life-changing earnings, makes lifelong friendships, and significantly benefits the lives of your loved ones and many others.

How will you choose to bloom this spring?

Click here to start a project now. http://studio.heritagemakers.com/getStarted/

Go to my web site at http://www.OurPhotoStories.com or contact me via email at Rebecca@OurPhotoStories.com to learn more about becoming a Heritage Makers consultant.

Spring Fling Fun

As winter wanes, spring blooms, and so does our optimism and our plans to tackle new projects. Often dubbed “spring cleaning,” these new chores are intended to help us ditch the winter blues and blahs for the bright colors and flowering hope of spring. We tend to tackle projects that help us let go of the old clutter in order to achieve a brighter, lighter feel…from closets to cupboards and even the JPGs on our computers and cameras.

As your Heritage Makers Personal Publishing Consultant, I have the tools and solutions you need to make it easier to sort, organize, save and share your best photos. I’m happy to help you “spring clean” your digital photos, and can even arrange for scanning those piles of pre-digital prints.

This spring at Heritage Makers, we’ve begun offering a new format for our in-home parties that we call workshops. These fun, fast-paced events teach you and your friends how to save your most precious photos and memories. We use our Idea Book as the basis for our interactive presentation. Plus, you get to keep a copy of the Idea Book, complete with all your notes and flagged “favorites.” 

Spring cleaning is more fun with friends so schedule a Spring Fling workshop with me to earn FREE publishing points for your own projects thanks to our generous host rewards. On average, hosts get $100 worth of free publishing just for enjoying a fun hour of learning and laughing with your friends and family. Best of all, everyone there will learn the latest techniques for photo storage, organizing, archiving and preserving.

You know you want to “spring clean” those JPGs on your computer and your friends probably have the same “photo problem” you do. Host a new Idea Book workshop this spring to offer Heritage Makers as the best solution for capturing and preserving your priceless photos and stories.

Contact me via email at Rebecca@OurPhotoStories.com to schedule your Spring Fling Workshop today! 

Birthday Magic

When it comes to planning a party or giving a gift that will be treasured forever, nothing beats the wide range of possibilities that Heritage Makers products offer. Let’s take a glimpse at the kind of party décor, invites, gifts and greetings available for your loved one’s special day.

Party Collections

Check out the Template Gallery and you’ll find many matching birthday projects like this art-themed collection from Karilyn Pieratt. It includes an “Art Party Invitation,” template 77921 and an “Art Party Thank You,” template 77922, both 4 x 8 photo cards; along with “Art Party Tags & Banners,” made from playing cards, template 77924; and an “Art Party Placemat” made from a 12 x 12 scrap page, template 77925. The perfect projects for your creative child, the names and the birthday number can be changed easily. UV coat the scrap page placemats to add color to your table or use the personal placemats as crafting mats for protection from art supply glue and paint. The idea for matched birthday collections is one easily borrowed for any theme of your choice. At check-out, simply choose UV coating to turn any scrap page into waterproof, wipe-able placemats to add color to your table or use them as crafting mats to keep your table safe from art supply glue and paint.

The Template Gallery also contains several “over the hill” collections that include a crafty paper "cake" and matching greeting cards for both men and women. Instructions for the cake are included in the template, which is also available in versions for 50 and 60th birthdays. Shown here, and all by Lynda Angelastro, are “40th Cake, Plate & Cupcake Décor” template 53348 from an 18 x 24 poster, “40th Birthday Female” template 53351 and “40th Birthday Male” template 53350, both 7 x 5 greeting cards.

Favorite Themes

Whether your birthday theme involves a circus, princess, robots, dinosaurs, a theme-park mouse or a hungry caterpillar; there are invitations and matching décor for many kinds of birthday bashes. Use the single word search in the Template Gallery to find your child’s favorites. The three 7 x 5 invitation examples shown here are Lynda Angelastro’s “Circus Party Invite,” template 47701; Brittany Bezanson's template 80711, "Hungry Caterpillar Invite" and Susan Torres' template 34417 "Minnie Mouse." Our huge art collection makes finding or designing just the right look and feel for your next party a breeze.

Storybooks

When you’re looking for a really special birthday gift, there is nothing like a Heritage Makers storybook. At any age, a storybook is a personal present that will be cherished for many years after this one!

Along with all the gag gifts, milestone birthday are always a good time to present a loved one with a meaningful storybook. “Down Memory Lane,” an 11.5 x 8.5 storybook, template 52543 was made for just such an occasion and takes a chronological look at the life of a living family member. With room for lots of photos along with room for an identifying caption under each set of pictures, it’s a gift book that will always be treasured.

For a teen birthday gift, interview your recipient and make a time capsule. “Time Capsule: Teen Girl” by Heidi Jackson, an 8 x 8 storybook, template 64607 is just one of four designed for elementary and teen boys and girls.

For a gift that brings grins from ear to ear, make a birthday book for and about your pre-schooler. At just the right stage to love being the star of the show, your child will treasure your loving gift. Kari Pieratt’s “Before You Were Five,” template 63739 fits the bill perfectly for this age group.

One of the nicest birthday gifts you can make for a niece, nephew, grandchild or friend’s child is a book celebrating baby’s first year. Shown here is “Baby Boy's 1st Year” a 12 x 12 storybook by Lynda Angelastro template 62683. Also available in a girl version, template 62660, these are books that parents will treasure today and children will treasure tomorrow.

As the Birthdays Roll Around

Be known as the hostess with the mostest and the friend and family member who gives clever, custom gifts that can’t be purchased at any price.

Click here to start a project now. http://studio.heritagemakers.com/getStarted/

Go to my web site at http://www.OurPhotoStories.com or contact me via email at Rebecca@OurPhotoStories.com to learn more about Heritage Makers products.

Tips and Tricks - Type Handling

If you’ve ever looked at a beautifully designed page and thought how professional it appeared, chances are that good type handling was a big part of the layout’s success. Here are three type tricks to help improve the look of your pages and projects.

Justified Type and Period Spacing

One of the easiest ways to improve the look of your type is to use justified type very sparingly. Reserve it for wide columns of text. White space holes will appear in your type if you use full justification for narrow columns. And if you DO use justified type, be sure to put only one space at the end of each sentence. Two spaces will make the white space holes or rivers even more noticeable.

Line Spacing

Another easy improvement to your journaling or storybook text is to give your lines extra space between them. We may comment that it is “cramped” or “crowded,” and we know it is less attractive than text with “room to breathe” even though we may have no formal design training.

Room around the Edges

While you’re giving your lines room to breathe, think about your block of type as a shape and add some room around the edges. Just as a picture looks better in a matted frame, type looks better if it is matted appropriately as well.

More Resources

To see what good type looks like, check out the text in high end magazines and see how it has been handled. You can also download the recorded class video for April 22, 2010 “Type Tips & Tricks” hosted by Lynda Angelastro. And remember, if the type is not happy and comfortable, your readers won’t be either!

Download class video here.

Click here to start a project now. http://studio.heritagemakers.com/getStarted/

Go to my web site at http://www.OurPhotoStories.com or contact me via email at Rebecca@OurPhotoStories.com to learn more about Heritage Makers products.

March New Studio Art

Check out this month’s eclectic bundle of art. It includes faith-focused symbols, Easter bunnies and spring offerings along with weddings, space motifs and winter sports!

Our first two collections “Journal Graph Cards” and “A Spring Day: Papers,” are in coordinating colors and come from Sahlin Studio of the Lily Pad. These pastel collections work together beautifully for any project on any topic at any time of year.

As spring approaches, fluffy bunnies and faith-focused symbols are often what you search for in our art offerings. This month we’ve added a little of both. “Spring Bunnies” from Digital Crea is a light-hearted spring collection with five adorable bunnies, spring elements and papers all in a riot of fun colors. Perfect for Easter basket or bucket decorations, documenting the egg hunt or the day’s new clothes, you’ll return to this cute collection again and again. And if you want to make spring pages with a more faith-focused perspective, we’ve added “Collection of Crosses” by Shanna Vineyard to give you more choice in meaningful Christian accents. This wide variety of crosses goes from ornate to dainty styling and will be the perfect accent for all your special occasion pages.

March and April are notorious for wet weather in many areas, so one of our March art offerings is the whimsical “When Skies Are Gray” collection from the Sweet Shoppe. With its umbrellas, clouds and rain boots; it’s the perfect collection for rain puddle or weather-related projects or pages.

Joining collections designed for younger family members this month, and also from the Sweet Shoppe, is our “Space Cadet” kit. The perfect collection for out-of-this-world birthday cards, invitations, pages or projects; this cleanly styled offering is sure to please any aspiring astronaut or space-crazy kid.

Wedding season is not far away and so this month we’ve added the absolutely exquisite collection “Champagne Romance” by Becca. With a full shimmery silver alphabet, wonderful word art and gorgeous white and off-white accents, this will be a collection you’ll want to use to celebrate the new couple or to feature historic wedding photos.

A surprising collection also joins our March offering this year, but one that's long overdue. Many of you live in colder climates where winter sports are a big part of everyday life right up through April. We recently discovered we were lacking in art for skis, snowboards and other winter sports gear, but "Fronstbite" will come to the rescue! With snow gear from hats to skis, you’ll now be able to do justice to those fabulous photos of your family outings on the mountains!

Growing the Perfect Art Collection for You

Let us know what YOU need and we’ll start searching for it. We’re committed to providing all our Club HM members with the art they need for the projects they want to create. With access to hundreds upon hundreds of beautifully designed collections coming to Club HM members FREE each month, Club HM is a storybooker’s or digital scrapbooker’s dream come true. We buy it, tag it, store it and keep it organized at no cost to you. You can access it from anywhere. You have incredible choices in art topics and styles and those choices grow every month. With Heritage Makers art at your fingertips, your family can be celebrated every day of the year.

Click here to start a project now. http://studio.heritagemakers.com/getStarted/

Go to my web site at http://www.OurPhotoStories.com or contact me via email at Rebecca@OurPhotoStories.com to learn more about Heritage Makers products.