Scrappy New Year - Your Own Way!

Happy New Year, scrapbook friends! I have had the BEST time over the holidays with all of my kids home for the first time in four years, plus a new daughter-in-law who’s only been in our family since August!! Hopefully she sticks around after seeing us at our holiday craziest! (Can you believe she had NEVER watched A Muppet Christmas Carol?? We fixed THAT!)

I hope that you too have had many reasons for joy over these past few weeks and are as excited as I am for what 2026 has in store! (I will admit that there are many things from 2025 that I am perfectly happy to see in the rearview mirror!)

I am coming to you early this time because for some odd reason CM is having their first new product launch of the year on a Friday this time. It’s also not too late to join my Jumpstart January layout challenge or to sign up for the Winterfest Staycation Retreat at my studio in Madison.

So read on for all the new products and promos which launch Friday, January 2nd at noon CT, and the January events!

Event Schedule

All events are held at my studio in Madison, Alabama, and drop in shoppers are always welcome during any scheduled event.

To help me ensure that I know who to expect, I do all registrations/crop fee payments via Google Forms, so once you’ve looked at the options please click the link at the bottom of this section to sign up!

Wednesday Day Crops: 10:00 am - 4:00 pm
Wednesday January 7, 14, 21 & 28. No frills, just time to work on your current projects.

January Happy Album Circle: 6:00 - 8:00 pm
Tuesday, January 6 final session of our 2025 group

January Scrap Journal Club: 6:00 - 8:00 pm
Scrap Journal is the new name for Happy Album!
Tuesday, January 20 FIRST session of our 2026 group

Project Recipe Class: 6:00 - 8:00 pm
Tuesday, January 27
Come create two double page layouts using some of CM’s newest collections. I’ll provide the “ingredients” and the directions and we’ll build the layouts together.

If you would like to commit yourself to a full year of the Scrap Journal or Project Recipe Clubs, you can sign up for that on my Clubs registration form and save a little by purchasing the whole year’s events over paying month by month. (Or you can fill out the form if you just want me to send you an email reminder the day before so you can decide if you can come!)

Weekend Crop: January 9 & 10
Friday, noon - 9:00 pm and/or Saturday, 10:00 am to 6:00 pm.

You’re welcome to sign up for both days (and leave your stuff out overnight!) or choose just one of them.

Please sign up on the Google doc linked here:
January Cropping Events

Jumpstart January

Kickstart your 2025 scrapbooking with the Jumpstart January Layout Challenge! I have done this challenge every January for the past four years and it’s a great way to

Every day at 9 am Central during the month of January, I will be posting an inspiration layout or sketch in a dedicated Facebook group. You will have 24 hours to create a layout based on that idea and post a photo of it in the group.

Everyone who completes the daily challenge will be entered to win $10 in CM Credits (to spend on the website). Everyone registered for the challenge (whether you complete any layouts or not!) will be entered to win a weekly prize of $25 in CM Credits.

If you complete all 31 layouts by the end of the month your name will go into a drawing for $100 in CM Credits. For every group of 10 people that complete the challenge I’ll draw for another $100! There will also be a “make-up” challenge for anyone who finishes all 31 layouts by February 15.

Fee for this event is $25 and yes, you DO need to be on Facebook to participate (or have a friend on Facebook who can share the sketches with you and post your layouts!)

Sign up for Jumpstart January here:
2025 Jumpstart January

First annual (I hope!) Winterfest!!

We are trying something new this year since hotel retreats are becoming increasingly unaffordable. I have such a great permanent space that it seems a shame to leave it sitting empty! So we are calling this our Winterfest STAYCATION Retreat!

My goal for this event is that it will be somewhere between NSD/Croptoberfest and a hotel retreat - still with meals (lunch and dinner provided), and a goody bag with exclusive CM items, plus sketch challenges and door prizes!

I currently have only FIVE spots left for each of the Winterfest sessions. I keep thinking I’m going to post about it in my Rocket City Retreats Facebook Group but really want you guys who read my emails to get first dibs. :) If you are coming in from out of town there are several hotels only a couple of miles away so please don’t feel like this is only for my locals - I am really hoping to see my “traveling” retreat friends and for you to get to crop at my studio!

Thursday 3 pm - 8 pm, Friday and Saturday 10 am - 8 pm.
Session One: January 22 - 24
Session Two: January 29 - 31

For details and the registration link please click here:
Winterfest Staycation Retreat

Your Own Way Collection

Introducing Your Own Way — our 2026 year-round collection designed to let you scrapbook all of life’s ordinary moments. This collection will also coordinate with all the Simple Page Kits in 2026, so you can design a whole album to remember your entire year.

This will be available starting FRIDAY at noon - no need to wait till Monday this one time! :)

This is our fullest collection, and designed to be available for the whole year. It includes two paper packs, mats, embellishments, a 6-sheet pack of stickers that feature titles and icons for each year of the month, a 3-sheet pack of stickers with clear titles, a pack of monthly titles, and the Decorative Waves BMC. If you buy the full Buy-it-All Bundle there’s also a coordinating cardstock pack and of course you save 10% off the retail price AND get a printed version of the Project Playbook FREE!

The coordinating 12x12 Album Cover is super cute - a fun confetti design on Navy bookcloth.

Simple Page Kits

Once again, CM is trying to make life easier for scrapbookers (especially NEW scrapbookers!) with the Simple Page Kits. Each kit comes with two pre-printed background pages, a cut-apart page, a sticker sheet and directions on how to assemble them to create a quick and beautiful layout.

There are two ways to purchase the Simple Page Kits this year: you can buy each month’s kit individually for $6, or you can purchase a quarterly bundle of three page kits at a time (the first one is Jan/Feb/Mar) which comes with the coordinating embellishment stickers and is $24.75. NO blue folders this time! If you choose to buy them individually without the bundle you’ll need to do that monthly.

If you would like to be sure to get all the page kits, you can join my Simple Page Kit Club which will also save you $12 off buying the kits individually. That’s also on the 2026 Scrapbook Clubs Sign-Up Page.

But wait, there’s more!

As has become a tradition in January, CM is releasing some limited colors of plain 12x12 Album Covers - including several I know people have been wanting! But these are Limited Edition and will only be available through NOON on January 23, so if you want any of these you might not want to wait.

Left to right in the image above the colors are: Pearl, Lavender Dust, Deep Orchid, Dusted Sage, Sunshine Yellow, Vivid Blue, Bubblegum Pink and Caramel.

Purchase ANY four 12x12 Album Covers (these or any others) and choose one of three exclusive album covers FREE!

Through the Seasons Card Kit

One of the things I am always reminded of at Christmas time is just how fun it is to get a card in the mail, and the Through the Seasons Card Kit would be the perfect way to start a new tradition of sending cards at other times! The CM card kits are so great because all the pieces are precut and labeled on the back so that you just have to match the numbers and letters and follow the instructions sheet. You end up with twelve handmade, layered cards for just $26, and they come in a cute, giftable box!

Custom Spines Promo

Way back in the “olden days” the only way to get a customized spine for your Creative Memories albums was to send in the spine and wait for it to come back through the mail, unless you were lucky enough to know someone who could do it for you in person. It is SO much easier now - just go on the website, choose the spine color and the foil color, then type in the text you want. Usually it’s $10 per spine (which is not bad at all) but a couple of times a year they do this Custom Spine Promo where you can save 33% if you order three or more custom spines. I absolutely love mine - and even better, my FAMILY loves them. I knew that the burgundy albums were from 2004 and the navy ones were from 2005, but THEY didn’t. I find that they pull the albums off the shelves a lot more regularly now (it has been one of my favorite things as the whole family was home!)

If you would like to see how the process works, I have a YouTube video demonstrating it: Custom Spines Tutorial

Gift with Purchase

As if all that wasn’t enough, starting Friday at noon and while supplies last, if you place a $99+ order of some select products, CM will give you this super cute Eternal Blue Craft Tote FREE! (They did not tell us which products would be in the Craft Tote Qualifier section — my guess is that it might be the same thing that were on sale last month??) But be sure to click on the DEALS tab starting Friday at noon to see if some of the items you have on your list will help you earn the tote! Remember that you have to spend $99 in that category to earn it - not the total of your order.

Join my Team!!

Want an easier way to get a cute tote, plus an “I’m Scrappy” ball cap AND a rebate on all your CM purchases this year? I would LOVE to have you be a part of my Creative Memories team — whether as a Business Builder who wants to hold classes and crops or as a Personal Use Advisor who just knows there are a lot of things on her (or his!) shopping list and they would love to save a little money on them!

It’s just $49 a year to be a CM Advisor, which pays for your personal CM website — and you immediately get a $50 shopping credit to spend on your first order, which will also include the cute join gift. Then your commission level (on your own or your friend’s orders through your personal link) starts at 10% and can go clear up to 40% based on your annual sales! I would love to tell you more, and have you join our happy Team Unicorn crew!

How to Order

For more details on the new products launching Monday, plus the link to download the full list of sale items, you can check out the CM landing page here: January 2nd Sneak Peek.

As always, if you are local and would like me to order for you, please fill out my Local Pickup Preorder Form. I know this is a bit “formal” but OH it helps keep me organized! Note that this is a PRE order form and so if you need something after the launch day you can just email me. :)

If you are not local to take advantage of free shipping with local pickup, I would love to gift you a $10 CM Credit to help offset your shipping charges (because I know none of us likes to pay shipping!) Please EMAIL ME (or reply to this email) and say: “I am planning to order” and I will transfer the credit to your account. During 2025 I was able to give these credits to everyone who asked, but as the number of people reading this far in my email has increased, there MAY come a time when I have to limit it to the first ten people, or to limit people to one credit per month. So far I haven’t had to but please know that might be coming. :(

Thank you!

I am looking forward to everything 2026 has in store. I know we have TWO more product launches in January (hopefully one of them will be the Secret Box?) and we are due for a refresh on some of our ongoing collections like baby and wedding, so I’m guessing we will be hearing about those in the next couple of months.

I still have NO IDEA what is happening with the Jumbo Tape Runner! It was expected in November, then they told us December, but here it is the last day of the month and it’s not here yet. Don’t they know scrapbookers need our tape?? :)

Thanks for all your support in 2025. I have loved cropping with you (in person or on zoom or YouTube) and interacting with you on social media. I am so glad that technology has brought us all together and given our scrapbooking family so many new members!

Cheers to 2026 and of course
HAPPY SCRAPBOOKING!!

Nicole Soh
Creative Memories Independent Advisor

www.NicolesScrapbooks.com
www.CreativeMemories.com/user/nicolesoh

#MemoriesMatter