My Sunshine

This is the latest page I created with our Whirls and Swirls collection. For those of you who haven't seen it, It's a great distressed design in browns, tans, and black that lends itself to an antiqued or western themed layout. I had these adorable pictures of my son, Owen. We traveled to Nashville last Spring for one of our retail shows. My husband and him came along to help me. He even helped me work the make and take.
My husband left the building for 20 minutes and came back with this hat. Owen was so good about wearing it. But that was almost a year ago. You know, before he was old enough to really develop an opinion about things. I don't know if we could get him to humor us like this again. Good thing I have these photos!

Flower Making Kit

Here it is.... Finally! These flowers are the latest addition to our class schedule and soon to be product line. We have plans to start carrying them at all the shows and events we'll be attending. Our first classes will begin May 9-10 in New Jersey. We'll then teach them again June 5-7 in Arlington, TX and June 20-21 in Chantilly, VA. We're still awaiting word on the remainder of the CK shows and if space is available we will be offering the class with them as well, starting with Valley Forge in August.
I have to tell you, I've already made dozens of them to give as gifts and thank yous. They have worked out beautifully every time. Make sure you come to see us if we're in your area. Or better yet, sign up for the class. I promise, It'll be so worth it.

New Accordion Album and Flower Making Classes

Hey everyone, it's official. We can now tell you all that we will be offering our two new classes at select shows throughout the year. We held a test class this weekend and with the help of a few close friends,we worked it out. The AllStar accordion Album is made with our new AllStar Paper Collection, made from our F.S.C. certified Paper Series. The Flower making class was lengthy but so worth it. We ended up with a three flower bouquet that any one would be flattered to receive. I'll post those pictures as soon as I get them. Believe it or not, I did not have a camera with me and Jessica's camera battery was dead. I had planned on having my camera. I even emptied all my photos onto my mac... but I forgot it on my desk. Smart huh? Well It seems I've been having a lot of those days lately. Lets hope it gets better.
Check back for those photos, It'll be worth it.

Portland CKC

Here I am, home from Portland. What a beautiful city and what wonderful people. Everyone is so kind and welcoming. We had a terrific first time show. This CKC was the first time we taught our classes that we have scheduled for this year and I am happy to say that they were fabulous. We were able to finish the kit class in under an hour. So that gave everyone some extra time to add their own personal touches to their project. The double layout class went well too. On the first day we were unable to finish but came oh so close. I rearranged the timing of them for the second day and everything worked out much better. So... Thank you ladies. I appreciate the warm welcome and patience. I am so happy that it was with you that I was able to practice for the rest of our year. Most everyone was delighted to hear that we include extra paper for each of those layouts for them to take home and create a second page if they choose. Hope we get a few pics e mailed to us. We always love to see what you're doing.

While in Portland I was able to checkout EZlasers new pages. They're hot people. Teresa's been working her tail off and it is so worth it. You can check them out at ezlaserdesigns.com
I was also able to visit with my cousin Melissa and her son Kaden who live about an hour away.
Melissa and her parents moved out to Oregon from NY about 30 years ago (gosh, I feel so old)
We don't get to see each other often so I was so excited to have the chance and time to see them.
Kaden (4 years old) took my kit class and Melissa who scraps a different way (if you know what I mean) was able to pick up the class easy and created the kit along with all of our more seasoned croppers. She did an awesome (and yes, I just said -awesome) job.

Now it's back to the old grind stone. We're hoping to add to our class list and expand on many new projects. For all of you who have seen the flowers we have created with our recycled paper, keep looking...... those classes and kits may be just around the corner.