back from ca / cha

Hi everyone, I'm back from the show and I must say, I had a fabulous time. It was the first time I ever considered moving to California. (Nah. ha ha. I love Seattle.) We went to Disneyland on Saturday and got caught in a rainstorm and spent a good part of the day wet and cold...I lost my voice and couldn't speak for the rest of the trip! But then the sun came out and it was great weather the rest of the time. This is a photo that was taken on our last day (Meridith, our employee Zena, and myself in the middle)...we had finished up with the show early and went to the beach with some friends. The weather was lovely, I collected sea shells for my kids, and we had lunch on the pier overlooking the ocean. It was a wonderful end to a wonderful trip. I've posted a bunch of our CHA photos on our company blog so make sure to check them out!

heading out...

Hello everyone! Well it has been a busy week, let me tell you. The CHA buzz has definately hit...you will see our products in many of your favorite retail stores very soon! And I am hopping on a plane tonight to go to CHA. So I am signing off for a few days...but we will be updating our company blog from the show so go there for updates! I'll be back soon! Mwhhaaa (kiss kiss.)

wanna neck?

This card cracks me up! It's cute, eh? I'll be giving it to my husband on Valentine's Day (I don't think he's seen it and I'm pretty sure he doesn't read my blog. Too busy fiddling with his computer stuff.) I based this on the LAD Weekly Sketch Challenge that I am hosting this week and I have another card over there on the LAD Company Blog. One of the things I like about this card (other than it cracks me up) is all the stuff I put on there to make it look shabby-chic. I love the shabby-chic look but it can be hard to pull off...if you put too much stuff on there it doesn't work. That pink crochet ribbon is some ribbon we just stocked in our online store, isn't it cool? And then I raided my "brad bowl"... I must have a thousand brads in there just waiting to be used. So I feel good that I'm using my brads!

It's a busy time for me...we are leaving for CHA on Friday and I have a lot of loose-ends to tie up before I go. I am really excited though, it's so much fun to see all my fellow stamping buddies and fellow stamping/crafting company buddies. Going to CHA always makes me proud and thankful that I get to be a part of this amazing industry.

Talk to you soon...start making those Valentines!

play time

I hope you all had fun during our sneak peeks last week! I was able to get together with some of my friends this weekend for a much-needed scrap night. One of my new years resolutions is that I WILL keep up on my scrapbooking this year!



So...I have a few pages to show you! The first page is my son's Kindergarten photograph, and I paired it with our new School Days stamp set. So cute! We've been getting a lot of positive comments from teachers on this new set and that makes me happy. I have several teachers in my family and this will be their next birthday gift.

Here are a few details that I love about this page...



I stamped a line of images from the School Days set, and also the school bus from our new Things That Go set.



This is my favorite little part about this page...the chalkboard. Doesn't it look like the A+++ was really written in chalk? I colored in the background of the chalkboard with a dark grey Copic Marker, and then I stamped the A+++ on it with opaque white ink. It wasn't quite dark enough so I very lightly filled it in with a white gel pen, but left the edges soft (like chalk.) The big chipboard letter "k" stands for Kindergarten, of course!



I also did some really cute pages for my daughter with some new papers and embellishments from October Afternoon. All this stuff was part of a "Kit of the Month" club I belong to at my local scrapbooking store, Hip 2B Square. It's great because the products are always new and beautiful and it helps me keep my goal of scrapbooking more this year! And I always have a lot of really great scraps for cardmaking! (In fact, if you were watching our sneak peeks you may recognize some of this paper from my Tutti Fruity samples...)



I colored the chipboard flower with Copic Markers. It worked beautifully!



Second page in the spread...

feelin' the love...

It's day three of our sneak peeks! The card above features stamps from our new So Much Love set. I love making Valentine's Day cards and this set has so many cutie-patootie images. I used a pink Copic marker to color in my little vase and hearts...I wasn't sure how that would look on Kraft colored cardstock, but it worked great! Versamark ink also works great on Kraft cardstock...this is how I made my squiggle and polka-dots using the border stamps in this set.

FORUM PARTY TONIGHT!!!

Come and hang with us on our company forum tonight, starting at 6:00pm PST. We are going to be giving away some of our beautiful new catalogs, and if you've seen the catalog sneak peeks over on our company form it's a good indicator of how lovely the rest of the catalog is. It's truly a labor of love and something we take great pride in. See you tonight!

any way you slice it...

It's sneak peek day #2 over on our company blog and we're revealing one of my favorite sets from this release, Tutti Fruity. The card above features the "citrus slice" stamps, and I'm going to give you a tip on how to create your citrus slice! Tip: When using the little individual slices inside the circle, line up the top curvy edge of each slice close to the inner circle and just make your way around the slice. How do I know this? Lots of practice using these stamps already. :)



This is a really bright card, but hey, it looks citrus-y, eh? This is also an interactive card! You can push the ribbon to move the slice and reveal the sentiment underneath! The curvy "thanks" sentiment around the edge of the slice is from our Circle Sentiments set (one of my favorite sentiment sets.)

We've also revealed our new baby set which has been a long time coming...I wish I would have owned this set when my baby girl was born, it's just adorable! Make sure to go and see it, and also don't forget to leave a comment on the company blog for a chance to win the new stamps you've been seeing! We will be posting the blog candy winners on Friday morning.

the little floral shop around the corner...

Hi everyone, I hope you are enjoying day one of our Sneak Peeks over on our company blog! I think the best part of new stamp releases for me is all the parts I get to play...stamp company owner, stamp designer, design team member, sneak peek host, and party planner! Ha! It's so much fun, we really look forward to it.



Here's a little card I made featuring the floral shop in our new "Welcome Home" stamp set. I wanted to include one little store in this set...who knows, maybe we'll make a whole set of stores down the road (Main Street?) I used papers from our French Floral paper pack in the background.

Lots of our Design Team girls are posting sneak peeks today as well, so make sure to visit their blogs...

birthday cupcake

This is my cupcake choice this year, the Coconut Bunny from Cupcake Royale. I can hardly wait....

stuff

There is some stuff I need to mention...

1) I noticed that Joslyn is giving away some awesome blog candy, so if you haven't left a comment on her blog do it before Monday! I wouldn't mind winning too but I'm her friend so I'm probably disqualified. ;)

2) In case you missed our newsletter or company blog, our Winter Release schedule has been posted! It's starting on Tuesday!

3) I made seven cards today. All different! Unfortunately I can't show them to you because they are all for next week...ha ha! Are you dying of curiosity? You should be! It's going to be awesome. Most of my samples will go on the company blog but I will have a few here too. Meridith and I tend to "present" samples featuring the stamps we've designed ourselves during our sneak peeks (not always the rule but generally true). I've got lots of cards made with her designs too so they will be posted here. I've had so much fun today!

ttys...