Moving Day!
Today marks the beginning of our new adventures in blog land. Our bags are packed and we are ready to make the final move to our new web site!
Please check out this link and then select the BLOGS link in the grey bar to find new blog posts as well as a whole slew of exciting online features. From card galleries to message boards and exclusive projects to contests our new site is sure to make you feel right at home in no time at all. So grab some munchies, get comfortable, and enjoy pursuing our new electronic digs.
Please note that this site is still in the beta stage for the next couple of weeks so a few hiccups here and there are inevitable. Please feel free to leave comments or ask question on our old blog as we will be checking it periodically to ensure all of your online needs are being met.
Hospitably yours,
Brandy
Here we are, packed and super excited to be moving to our new site. Thumbs up girlies!
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Hello, Friend!
Cath Edvalson is on vacation this week…somewhere far, far away from the confines of her homelife, her worklife, and – theoretically, at least – far away from stress. Of all people, she is so deserving of a wonderful week away.
Although she’s fully into the first few days of her vacation, leave it to Cath to take the time to send me a note welcoming me to my new role that began just yesterday – Editor in Chief of Paper Crafts magazine.
Right now, right this moment, I get to introduce myself to all of you, a passionate and creative audience of paper crafters. I will be following in the footsteps of Stacy Croninger – a beloved Editor in Chief who has moved into a new position – and shepherding a team of amazing women who work together to bring you issue after issue of a magazine jam-packed with tools, techniques and trends.
And Cath’s thoughtful note brought to the surface, once again, the feeling I’ve had since I first met the Paper Crafts team a year ago.
It’s got to be linked to a UCLA study on friendship among women that revealed how we bond over a surge of brain chemicals that help us alleviate stress. While men have a well developed fight-or-flight mechanism that dates back to the hunt-kill-eat days, the surge of oxytocin produced by women causes quite a different response. We are driven to seek other women and just hang out, which in turn produces more of this magical hormone.
I am so excited as I look to the future, realizing I will meet and bond with so many wonderful women over our common love of paper crafting. My oxytocin is overflowing!
By connecting through this blog – did you know that one out of every ten women is blogging these days? – we have the opportunity to nurture an online community for this sisterhood of paper crafters. We’ll celebrate victories, share ideas, and connect with one another through galleries, message boards, and card swaps.
As paper crafters, we share, show, help, teach and grow. But, most of all, we support each other as we create the individual expressions of ourselves – our art – and continue to bring into the fold more and more women who want to be part of this exquisitely personal way of greeting the world.
Wow. I am so lucky. And so happy to be here!
--Jennifer
Calling All Stampers!
On July 31, Susan and I had the opportunity to attend Stampin’ Up!’s annual demonstrator convention. Our stampy friends invited us to join them and 6,000 of their very ecstatic demonstrators for their general session at the Salt Palace convention center.
Our contacts at Stampin’ Up! greeted us at the door and we were ushered into one very large arena. There were thousands of women in here. All of them clapping, laughing, gabbing, and yes, even swapping. (Susan and I were on the elevator with three women who all had baskets full of their handmade creations just waiting to be shared!)
After a rousing performance by Stampin’ Up!’s own choir (yes, they have their own choir!), their CEO and founder Shelli Gardner walked out on stage to a thunderous applause. Stampin’ Up! is turning 20 this year, so needless to say, everyone there was very excited. After a warm welcome to all of her demonstrators and guests, Shelli spent the next 45 minutes going over the company’s mission statement, long term goals, and introduced several product releases. Two of them are Shelli’s own line of products called Shelli’s Signature Collection and a new home décor line called Décor Elements. The latter features self-adhesive vinyl designs that go on just about every surface. Gorgeous!
After some amazing project demonstrations by the creative big-wigs, they honored those demonstrators who have been selling product for 5, 10, 15, and 20 years. After the massive procession across the stage, Susan and I decided it was time for us leave (despite popular belief, we actually do have deadlines!). As a parting gift, our stampy friends handed us a cute tote with their new catalog and several stamp sets inside.
Our gracious Susan, not being an avid stamper (yet!), has decided to give her tote and stamp sets away to one lucky blog winner. Isn’t she nice? If you want to be this winner, please leave a comment with your name and e-mail address telling me your favorite stamping tip or technique. I’ll announce the winner on Friday, August 15.
Happy Stamping!
Kelly
One of these cute totes could be yours!
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I Love Cupcakes
I love cupcakes. I really, really love cupcakes, in fact you probably could call it a passion of mine. I actually like to eat cupcakes (of course!), but what I really love to do is to bake, decorate and create yummy masterpieces. I like to make tiny cupcakes and jumbo cupcakes. I like to experiment with the batter and create fun colors, flavors and textures. I like to play with the icing and embellishments to make a dessert that is very appealing and irresistible.
Last Saturday, I was assigned to bring dessert to a large family barbecue. I quickly decided that cupcakes would be my choice. Since paper crafting is also a passion of mine, I wanted to combine the two somehow. As I brainstormed, I realized I could make some fun cupcake wraps using cardstock, stamps, punches and patterned paper, I could wrap a big ribbon around each cupcake, or I could even make a fun box or container for the cupcakes. I decided however the most practical thing for a casual barbecue would be to make some quick decorative picks to go in the top of each cupcake. I debated using family photos, stickers or pre-made embellishments at the top of toothpicks but finally decided on using a flower and circle punch. I simply punched the shapes, attached them to a toothpick using a glue dot, and then tied on a tiny piece of ribbon. The picks were quick and easy to make, economical and a great way to use up cardstock scraps.
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Announcing the 2008 Gallery Idol
Back in June, Paper Crafts began open auditions for our second Gallery Idol challenge. Based on Fox’s hit TV show American Idol, our version had readers submitting themed projects every week in hopes of becoming the grand prize winner. After ten weeks of fierce, but friendly competition, the Paper Crafts online community voted Nancy Cienfuegos of Orlando, Florida the 2008 Gallery Idol winner!
Since many of you have seen and voted for Nancy’s winning cards, we thought we’d get to know her a little bit better with some questions on how long she’s been paper crafting, if she’s ever been published before, and what she enjoyed most about this experience.
1. Full name: Nancy Cienfuegos
2. Hometown: Orlando, Florida (next to Mickey Mouse). I’m originally from a little country called El Salvador in Central America (My first language is Spanish so pardon my English!). I’ve been in the States since 1999, working in the graphic design industry. Now I’m a work-at-home mom with a home-based business, a hubby, and a funny four-year-old son.
3. How long have you been paper crafting? About two years now.
4. Prior to Gallery Idol, have you ever been published before? I’ve never been published before, but I thought this was a GREAT opportunity!
5. What did you enjoy most about the Gallery Idol experience? Well... doing what I like the most – CREATING. As a graphic designer I’ve been trained to think, conceptualize, create, and execute, but as a paper crafter I've learned to put my heart into everything I do. Challenges like this really raise my adrenaline and make my creative juices flow like crazy. I love them (even if I haven’t slept for a month!)! Getting my whole family involved in this was also great. Not only did they gave me feedback, but they cheered me up, and the best part was we all became closer. Finally the response from all my friends when I pleaded for their votes; (even people I haven’t talked to in years!) even they responded, so I won all my old friends back, and made some new friends within the Paper Crafts community. This was a POSITIVE, GREAT EXPERIENCE, and as I told the ladies in the contest, I was really honored to be competing with such tremendously talented people. Thank you so much for this experience!
Congratulations, Nancy!
~Kelly (and the rest of the Paper Crafts staff)
P.S. Stay tuned for September’s gallery challenge. We’ll announce the new theme on Sept. 2!
A Lifetime of Love
Fifty years ago this Saturday, my parents Ed and Corrine Opel, were married on a hot and humid day at Redford Lutheran Church in Detroit, MI. The wedding was far from the extravagant affairs that are held these days. There were only two attendants and two ushers. My dad wore a suit and my mom wore a tea-length dress. The flowers were from the garden and the cake was made by Grandma Hillis. Legend has it that the cake was a little unstable because of the heat that day and seemed to lean to one side!
My parents can only imagine what the next fifty years will bring!
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Hail to the Chief
I’ve avoided writing this until I absolutely had to. I’ve been pushing it away, farther and farther away from my to-do list until it couldn’t be postponed any longer.
Our beloved Editor-in-Chief, Stacy Croninger, has stepped down to pursue a career with CK Media’s events team. She is now in charge of all the Creating Keepsakes Conventions that CK Media holds all across the nation throughout the year. And while it was a tough decision for her to make, she is excited to be doing something new with a whole different set of challenges.
Stacy is one-of-a-kind. She’s a paper crafting enthusiast who has been devoted to Paper Crafts magazine, our team, and to you, her Stacy-lovin’ fans. She’s brought an enthusiasm to paper crafting that has been unparalleled by any other. She has a way of reaching out to the designers and manufacturers who support us in our industry, and she has a way of making you feel welcome into our world of Paper Crafts, and indeed, into her life of fishing and her beloved basset hounds and her pure joy for the connections that paper crafting brings to all who share it.
We are going to miss her, terribly. And we know that you are going to miss her as well. For me, personally, I’m going to miss collaborating with her, shooting off my hair-brained ideas and, together with her feedback, honing an idea until it is polished and focused. I will miss her Laffy Taffy jokes, her way of making us laugh in our meetings, and the way she makes me feel secure on the days when that’s a challenge. I will also miss teasing her about her manicured nails and her Sharpie, but she’s just on the other side of the building, and I know that we will always be good friends.
Here’s what some of the rest of us will miss about Stacy:
Brandy: Stacy can make this clicking sound with her tongue that is really cool. She is also full of great project and magazine ideas, a fabulous friend, and the ultimate Paper Crafts cheerleader. I’ll miss all of these things, but mostly the tongue clicking. :)
Brenda: I value Stacy’s patience and her listening ear that always comes with kind words of advice. I always appreciated that she would listen to my suggestions and ideas. But I will really miss the fact that she always had chocolate and tissue ready when needed!
Kelly: I will definitely miss Stacy’s enthusiasm for Paper Crafts and all of its many parts. We could be in a three-hour meeting and she had an ability to lighten the mood by bringing in music, treats, photos of her dogs, etc. Our “Chief” was PC’s biggest cheerleader and could always be counted on to rally her troops. I will probably lose weight now that she’s no longer around to supply us with “meeting treats” (aka Double Stuffed Oreos and Dove Chocolates), but I can say one thing for certain – meetings will never be the same.
Stacy showing her zany side in a meeting. We will miss that fo sho!
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Summer CHA Favorites
A few weeks ago I had the amazing privilege to attend CHA Summer in Chicago! This was one whirlwind trip across the states and back and all I can say is simply “wow!” There were so many yummy goodies…from glittered lace cardstock to moustache rub-ons. I mean talk about different ends of the paper crafting spectrum! There was something for everyone and so much to look forward to. I thought I would share with you a few of my favorites….
Is this paper crafting candy or what? I love these cute little tubes of glitter from Pink Paislee!
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Magnificent Mini Albums
One of the many reasons why I adore these bite sized paper projects is because they can usually be completed in a snap. I love to craft, but I don’t enjoy spending all of my time slaving over an elaborate project. As many of you might know, Paper Crafts, Simple Scrapbooks, Creating Keepsakes, and Digital Scrapbooking magazines are all owned by the same company. We all work side-by-side, and we’re constantly admiring one another’s work. Well, today I am the one going gaga over Simple Scrapbook’s latest’s special issue,
Mini Albums in an Evening. This issue is packed with great mini albums that can be completed in…you guessed it, one night! I liked this issue so much that I asked the Simple gals if I could give away two copies on this blog. Luckily, they agreed. Leave me a comment (don’t forget your email addy) telling me what you love about mini albums. I’ll randomly select two winners on Thursday, August 7.
~Brandy
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August, 2008
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