Memory Works: New Simple Stories Kit … It’s “ele.ment.ary”

I told you HERE that MEMORY WORKS was giving sneak peeks of their new line on the SIMPLE STORIES BLOG last week. Did you check it out?!?! It’s pretty dang cool =)

My suspicions were right: It’s a school days kit and it’s called “ele.ment.ary.” {Forgive me now, but I may refer to it as “elementary” now and then … hee}. All of the sneak peeks were awesome and I really enjoyed going to the SS blog each day to see which cool new element would be released {or would that be “ele.ment”? ha}.

The folks at Memory Works home office did such a good job of describing the entire kit, the separate pieces, and how they can be used, that I’m going to copy some text from their blog (it will be in italics) and put the pictures of the entire line in one post for easy reference.

*** NOTE: AS SOON AS I CONFIRM PRICING WITH MEMORY WORKS HOME OFFICE, I WILL BE TAKING PRE-ORDERS ON THE ele.ment.ary LINE.

THE ANTICIPATED RELEASE IS MID-AUGUST.

MORE DETAILS TO FOLLOW. ***

Okay, here we go!

Our consultants and customers fell in love with our signature Life Documented kit, the introduction to our fabulous Simple Stories system. MemoryWorks has liberated scrapbookers everywhere with our simple and refreshing approach to scrapbooking. We’ve got you hooked on simple scrapbooking in a whole new way…are your ready for more?

It’s all ele.ment.ary!

We are beyond thrilled (and just a little giddy) to introduce our next collection in our Simple Stories series…ele.ment.ary! Our ele.ment.ary collection is all about scrapbooking school memories in a totally stylish, fun, and simple way…and it REALLY is as easy as ABC!

There are loads of school memories…and loads of school photos – after all school is a major event in nearly everyone’s life, spanning 12 years (or more) of an entire lifetime. That’s a lot of photos and a lot of memories. What better way to document all those school memories and photos than with our easy, simple, functional, efficient, and totally stylish system and school kit.

If you liked Life Documented….then you will LOVE ele.ment.ary!

Our new ele.ment.ary kit will include everything you need to create an entire album of school memories – Pre-school through 12th grade! We designed this kit to be as versatile and functional as possible…so whether you want to document a few favorite back to school memories or want to a complete and entire album highlighting each school year pre-school through graduation…this kit does it all!

Just like our signature Life Documented kit, the core of the new ele.ment.ary kit collection includes beautifully designed (and totally functional) innovative cut-apart element pieces in a variety of sizes, including 4×6 cards, 6×8 mats, 4×4 blocks, 6×12 page elements, 2×12 borders and 4×12 titles. Element pieces are printed on full size 12×12 double-sided cardstock sheets…and it’s as simple as trimming the pre-designed element pieces to size to create the individual element pieces.

Our Simple Stories elements are designed to insert into coordinating divided page protector sleeves, along with your 4×6 photos, for quick and easy scrapbooking. Completed album pages fit securely into coordinating 3-ring albums*, showcasing your memories in a simple, yet beautiful way!

*As with the Simple Stories “Life Documented” line, you’ll be able to purchase D-ring LEATHER or LINEN albums and regular and divided PAGE PROTECTORS by We R Memory Keepers to go with the “ele.ment.ary” line.

Guess what? These super cool, super ingenious 4×6 journaling cards included in our new Simple Stories ele.ment.ary school kit includes each and every school year, pre-school through 12th grade! How cool is that….we’ve created the perfect system to simply and easily scrapbook years of school memories! You’ll notice that the front side of the school year journaling cards feature the school year, with basic journaling prompts such as name, school, year, teacher and a few notes of the year. This allows you to easily include basic journaling for each school year, slip the card in a 4×6 divided page protector pocket, and add any number of photos for that year as you’d like.

Here are the other amazing elements that are so unique to our ele.ment.ary kit! Just like the 4×6 journaling cards, these elements also play a key role in the Simple Stories family. Perfect for trimming and tucking into all of the fun divided page pockets…4×4 quote cards, 6×8 photo mats, 6×12 page elements, 2×12 borders and 4×12 titles. Seriously so SIMPLE to share your story with these fun and totally functional elements! We LOVE the colors, designs, icons, images…can you just see how amazing your school albums and projects are going to be?

Don’t you just love the journaling page…remember the front side makes a great cover page for your album (if you’re choosing to use the kit for an album-type project) and the backside is the PERFECT area to add bits of information and journaling. We’ve kept the journaling prompts very general so you can use a journaling page for each year….or just one journaling page for the entire album!

This cardstock is high-quality, seriously thick paper that you can use to create full page layouts, customize your own elements, altered projects….the possibilities are endless!

Okay, here’s the remaining contents included in the kit.

…just like in our last Life Documented kit the transparancies are great for overlaying over 4×6 photos in the divided page protectors….but this time they’re in COLOR!!!!! How great is that….vivd, bright, vibrant colors to coordinate perfectly with all of the components of the kit. They are amazing…and look beautiful over any photo….colored, sepia, b/w! What’s even better is we’ve added the extra bonus of colored transparancies, but the retail price will remain the same as our Life Documented kit so there’s major value there!!

The Journaling Jots are Add-Ons and are … DOUBLE-SIDED with fun icons and phrases on the front side with blank journaling spots on the back side so it gives you the best of both options! How ingenious and super-cool is that! In fact, you’ll want to purchase 2 packs just so you can use all of the front side designs and the backsides too.

This is how the sticker sheet looks, but the letters look thicker here than they really are …

This is what the letters look like once they’re pulled off the sticker sheet … they are narrower.

Yay– we have extra stickers!! I wanted to add an extra alphabet in addition to the sticker sheet included in the kit…we love that it pops with color. The colors on our sample look extra bold – that’s just extra coloring around the die lines…but this alphabet is very sleek and is sure to be one of your favorite letter stickers.

Oops – our mistake :) The mock up image of our Expression Stickers includes a misspelled word “Field Trip”…we inadvertantly uploaded the incorrect image for our sneak peek post. Please rest assure that this HAS BEEN FIXED prior to the printing and spelling will be correct on the actual stickers.Thanks for your understanding :)**

Okay – you asked and we listened. We now offer individual sets of the designer cardstock paper for purchase in addition to the main kit. This was our most requested item…and it makes perfect sense. It’s always handy to have extra sheets of paper for those extra layouts, customized elements, altered projects, etc. This set gives you 8 sheets, 2 of each included in the kit!

Below are just two samples provided by Memory Works {disclaimer: I did NOT design these pages; they’re from the Simple Stories blog}. Anyhoo, it gives you an idea of how great your pages can look with this kit and how easy they are to do … There are more photos and ideas on the Simple Stories blog.

Please check out the SIMPLE STORIES BLOG all this week as they show a new idea every day to help you get the most from this amazing kit. They got a bit of a head start HERE. Also, if you’re a fan of STACY JULIAN and her LIBRARY OF MEMORIES method of scrapbooking, you’ll want to check out that post, too. Memory Works owner Amber shows how she has used Stacy’s “School of Life” method to start an album for her child that will run from Preschool through Senior year, in an easy and manageable way. SIMPLE.

One little tidbit I picked up by reading through all of the Simple Stories blog sneak peeks was this:

… I think you’ll be excited about our FREE downloadable elements (coming soon) that will help you identify school years throughout your album!

Awesome! So glad to hear that, just like with the Life Documented line, ele.ment.ary will include some digital downloads. They’re so great because you can make as many as your heart desires, and cut out or punch them out in whatever size or shape you like.

Here’s what the actual “ele.ment.ary” kit package looks like, and what exactly you get in it:

The kit will sell for $16.99. Any add-ons, albums, or pages will need to be purchased separately.

As I said, as soon as I confirm prices for all the Add-Ons, I will begin taking pre-orders on the “ele.ment.ary” kit, et al. Please watch my blog for news on pre-orders and/or e-mail me and I’ll contact you when pre-orders begin: scrapbookobsession(at)gmail(dot)com.

One last thing from the Simple Stories blog:

We printed only half as many kits as we did with our first Life Documented release – so if you love this collection and don’t want to miss out be sure to snatch it when you can…just in case!

SO!

What do you think of Simple Stories “ele.ment.ary” by Memory Works? Please don’t hesitate to leave a comment or e-mail me with any questions =)