2018, Thanks For the Memories!

The week between Christmas and New Years Day is always a bit of a blur, but I try to slow down and use the time to focus on two things: reflecting on the year before and imagining the year ahead. It's December 30th, and I'm still in reflection mode. 2018 has been a good year. It hasn't been without its challenges - come on, Facebook algorithms! - but it's been good. We've shifted how we do some things, honed our skills and pushed ourselves, tapped some new strengths in our staff, designed and produced some beautiful pagekits, and worked hard to connect with YOU - our fans and customers! 2019 will bring its own challenges and its own goodness, but let's take a look back at some of our favorite releases of 2018!

It's SO hard to narrow down our 2018 releases, but there's no way we could fit all of our favorite kits on here, so we had to try. Here are a few categories with some of our favorite 2018 releases. Head to our website to see all of the other kits we have available - from this year and years past!

Winter Favorites

Who says winter needs to be delicate and white? Not us! This fun layout is bright, cheerful, and has SO many photo mats for all of your outdoor winter fun!

Just LOOK at these darling penguins!! There is so much to love about this page kit - the snowflakes, the colors, the icicles, even the font - but those penguins are my personal favorite!

Birthday Favorites

When I think Birthday, I think Bright, Fun, and PARTAAAAYYYY! This layout is ALL of those things! From that awesome, swirly, triple-layered title to the giant party hats to those fun photo mat overlays, this layout screams Birthday Fun!

I adore this layout. It's bright and fun in a classic way. That cupcake looks good enough to eat and the color blocking in the background makes the layout pop. This layout is perfect for anyone's birthday celebration!

Party Time is perfect for your birthday celebrations - or any other party! The right page is definitely the gem of the layout. Designed to look like a wrapped present, you can highlight your birthday photos with four photo mats!

I know I'm not supposed to pick favorites, but I confess. Happy Birthday Swirls is definitely my favorite birthday layout from 2018. There's so much I love about them. The colors are fantastic, the flags and swirls make it feel like a party I want to be at, the layout feels whimsical, and I can use both of them for just about everyone in my family. 

 Travel Favorites

Our Travel category was super popular in 2018! To keep up with all of the requests and demand, we put out a number of destination and travel pages - and more to come in 2019!

Texas was a definite customer favorite and we love it too! It's hard to capture all of the beauty and features of a state in a two-page layout - especially a state the size of Texas - but we love these design elements! And, come on!, that armadillo! 💗

California was another fan and personal favorite this year! With the beachy vibes on the left and the bright, famous styles on the right, we've got a winning combination!

You can't get much more San Francisco than this San Francisco layout! Complete with Golden Gate Bridge, delicious seafood and that picture perfect trolley headed up the hill past the row of colored houses - you've got the perfect kit for you San Francisco adventures.

 School & Sports Favorites

2018 was a great year for school, sports, and extra-curriculars! These are a few of our favorites, but check out the rest in our online store. There are too many to post here!

Our Back to School page kit was a big hit in 2018! Great for any age and with 8 built in places for photos and room to add more! This page kit is also perfect for expanding to 3 or 4 pages with its bright colors and many die cuts!

Pinterest is full of ways to document your kiddo's growth through the years. It's so fun to see how much they've grown from year to year. This page kit is perfect for your first day of school and last day of school photos. You could make a whole album using one kit for each year!

We just love the little pencil writing out the title and that little bookworm in the corner. 💗 And that patterned paper is just perfect!

We can't forget about our "big" kids! Send them off to college in style, snap all those move-in photos, and stop time with this great layout.

We had lots of great new sports layouts in 2018! Doesn't this kit just make you want to hit the course? I'm already shining up my irons. This one is available with a female (as pictured) or with a male golfer.

This simple Play Ball layout is great for all of your sluggers! From T-Ball to Baseball & Softball, or any great day enjoying a game at the ball field.

We just love how the photo mats make up the tennis court on this fantastic Tennis layout! Pictured here is our male version, but our female version is also available.

Who can enjoy a football game without a marching band? This layout is great for those halftime shows or all the other great concerts and parades.

Summer Favorites

A definite fan favorite this year, Sun, Surf, & Sandals has all the right things to make you feel like summer.

It's hard to remember what the warm sun feels like when we're in the middle of a Wisconsin winter, but this page kit makes me feel all the sweetness of summer despite the cold.

 Kids Favorites

It's hard for me to describe how much I love the Best Friends kits. I love the colors, the ombre effect on the lower halves, the die cuts. But I probably love these the most because I have hundreds of photos of me and my best girl friends from elementary-college years that I can see on these cute pages!

This page kit was a fan favorite for the year. What a great kit to add to your album or to frame and give as a gift to your favorite grandma and grandpa!

Another personal favorite here. I have a 5 year old who loves space and I definitely love him to the moon and back. This kit is framed and up in his bedroom with photos of him and mommy. I'll always love these kits. 

Halloween & Fall Favorites

There were a lot of great Halloween kits this year, but this one is truly Boo Cute. Those ghosts and that little cat! We love it.

I Love Candy was a major fan favorite this Halloween. We couldn't keep it on the shelf! I can't blame you, it's adorable!

Fall brought a number of new kits, but none as Fall-like as this one! Pumpkin spice lattes, falling leaves, cozy boots? I just want to curl up in a warm blanket and gaze a this gorgeous kit.

This is my personal favorite from the fall season. I love the dark green background and the swirling of the leaves through the page. Absolutely perfect for SO many great fall photos!

Christmas Favorites

This season had an abundance of adorable page kits, but if you had a little addition to your family this Christmas, this page kit takes the cake. 

This Family Christmas kit has just the right amount of festive spirit, but will let your photos shine.

If you've got kids, I guarantee you've got photos for this layout! Each year, the best of the best Christmas cookies are chosen to leave for Santa and our best and brightest carrot is left for the reindeer!

This layout was definitely popular as one of our Down Memory Lane exclusive party kits, and it continued to be popular when released to the public! 

A fan favorite and a personal favorite. I can hear the radio playing my favorite tunes and can feel the warm fire as I snuggle up with my loved one. 

It's been a great year, 2018! 

Thanks for the Memories. 

Hello, 2019! 

October Kit Roundup!

October is one of my favorite months because it's full of my favorite things! Football, Fall colors, Pumpkins, Squash, Apple Cider and gooey treats, mornings on my porch waking up to the crisp weather, and, of course Halloween! October has also been JAM PACKED with new layouts! Before we turn the calendar to the great month of November, let's take a look back at the page kits that joined us in October.

For anyone with their butts in the bleachers on Friday nights cheering the local team, Playing Under the Lights is perfect to capture your team spirit!

Family Fall was a HUGE hit! Its gorgeous, rich colors and the cute pumpkins make this layout perfect for your family photos!

I mean, who doesn't love candy and this bright and fun layout!? I love it so much, I used expanded the layout and added some super fun pattern paper flags in these bright colors. You can find the I Love Candy project and tutorial here.

You'll definitely find me cheering on my favorite football team (GO BADGERS!), but you're nuts if you think I'm missing the BEST part of half time! Let's Make Some Noise celebrates our marching band stars!

I just love our Spooky Spiders page kit. Look at these adorable little creatures! And that title is awesome!

Halloween Party is bright at fun and ready for your costume photos!

This one makes me SO happy. I just want to curl up in a blanket with a good book and a hot cup of tea. Cozy Fall Days is great for those slow, beautiful Fall mornings. 

This might be one of my favorite Halloween kits. Spooky Halloween House is the quintessential Halloween scene, but I just love those spooky eyes peeking out of the house!

Our final kit for October and the Halloween season is Happy Halloween Monsters - SO great photos of your little monsters!

We hope you have a safe and fun Halloween! See you in November!

5 Minute Candy Corn Halloween Decoration

This Fall got away from me. We've been in full-on Fall and Halloween mode at DML, but you wouldn't know it if you looked at my house. Fall brings a host of changes in our family. My husband is a High School Football Referee, so he's MIA until mid-November or beyond - depending on playoff season. So I'm a man down, and I'm still struggling to figure out schedules and get places on time now that Nolan is in 4K. Man, I did not realize how much school takes over your life - even when you're not the one in it! So needless to say, we're two weeks out from Halloween, and all I've managed to do is put some gel clings on the window that I found in the dollar section at Target. And the only ones still up there are the ones we put high enough so our cat couldn't snag and eat them...

It's not the end of the world, I know. Halloween and Fall will be enjoyed whether my decorations match the festivity in my heart. But it's in my bones to make things fun and to create a magical world for my little guy - that magic goes away quickly if you don't feed it, so I remembered a simple candy corn banner I had seen that takes - literally - less than five minutes to assemble and put up, and I got to work. 

In case you're suffering from "It's all coming too fast!" syndrome like I am, here's a quick how-to that might help you get your mojo back. 

Isn't it the cutest?!? I added a few sparkly spiders and voila! Instant Halloween. 

Candy Corn Halloween Banner

First, you'll need to cut your cardstock into 3 sized of circles. You can determine your sizes, but the yellow circle should be the largest, orange should be a medium sized circle, and white should be the smallest. My circles were 4" in diameter (yellow), 3" in diameter (orange), and 2" in diameter (white). Once they are cut, glue them - one circle inside the other as shown below: 

Once your circles have been glued, cut them in half. I used a simple scissors. You could cut them by hand with a scissors or use a paper cutter.

After they have been halved, cut each half in to thirds. I eyeballed the first cut - starting at what looked like the center of the white half and cutting outward to a point on the yellow circle that seemed 1/3 of the way in. I then made my second cut, starting in the center of of the point made by my first cut and cutting out through the orange and yellow sections to create a total of 3 similar pieces from each half circle. 

Cut each half circle into thirds until you have a pile of paper candy corn. 

Next, using a hole punch, put two holes in the yellow section of the triangles. You'll be threading your string through these.

Once all the holes are punched, thread your string through until all the candy corn is on your string. I used black and white striped bakers twine, but any string that will fit through the holes will work. 

I spread out my candy corn to have about a half inch of space between each of them and then hung them up! Easy peasy! Give it a try - and get creative! You could swap traditional colors for something even more unique to you! Happy Crafting!

Happy Halloween!!