Overheard recently at a national crop: “These Rub-ons are so addictive, they should be considered a controlled substance.” Yes, Rub-ons are addictive – perhaps not quite enough yet to justify support groups – but addictive nonetheless. Just ask anyone who has experienced the instant gratification that comes from applying these small embellishments to just about anything. To borrow a phrase from a snack food: “No one can use just one.”



Fortunately, Rub-ons can be used in many ways and on multiple surfaces. These scrapbooking standards are showing up today on everything from wood, metal, and glass, to fabric and chipboard. Staffers are outfitting laptops with inspiring phrases; kids are personalizing their cell phones with initials. And some of the most creative among us have even figured out how to transform Rub-ons into grown-up versions of temporary tattoos.

With demand growing for even more variety, Making Memories has just launched an expanded collection of the instant art with its new Wordage and Images collections. Just like their names imply, both Wordage and Images are a series of hip, tween- and teen-friendly words and pictures that add a new, realistic spin to family centric layouts. Making Memories designers – many of whom have older children – admit to “borrowing” a number of the new sassy and sometimes edgy phrases from their kids. And the artwork was inspired by everything from school notebook doodles and favorite magazine artwork, to kids’ skateboard and snowboard designs.

“These new Rub-ons are so fabulous,” explains Making Memories Creative Designer Margie Romney-Aslett. “It’s just fun to finally have something that is appropriate for an age group that is really overlooked. It’s so tough to create pages that are as outrageous and hip as our kids are today – especially when most of the material until now has been so ‘cute.’ My kids will disown me if I make another ‘cute’ page. At least now, I look relatively cool to my kids.”

So cool, in fact, that Margie has had a hard time keeping her new Rub-ons in stock at home. “Every time I turn around, my sons have snagged the snowboarding images and put them all over their binders. They’ve applied other designs to their skateboards. I can’t keep them around long enough to even get into their own albums.”

When she does, she will have more than 12 different design themes and word themes for inspiration. And all the new Rub-ons are finished in cutting-edge colors that seamlessly coordinate with the company’s popular cardstock and paint lines.

For more information on Making Memories products, log onto www.makingmemories.com.