JEANINE'S BITS AND PIECES

CHA PHOTOS

Back from CHA and have some fun photos to share!

I am looking at these photos and, even though I have now officially lost 15 pounds on nutrisystem (WOO HOO), I look like a cow in my fat clothes (esp the ones on Jen's blog and the KV blog). Sigh. Jen always tells me to wear fitted clothes (which I didn't do - do you always buy clothes that are too big? I always have). I have my big clothes on that, as she so kindly puts it, makes me look like i am wearing a tent. Sigh. LOL. She is right of course, but I feel like i need to hide my big body you know?

ANYWAY, enough about my confidence issues!! LOL!! Here we go!

This is a photo of Jen and I in the Orphan Works booth. We were playing with my xshot portable tripod.

What is funny is i would set the timer for 2 seconds, pull out the xshot, and the photo would snap. Well here is what happens when I forget to set the timer and snap the photo early!!! Boy we look mean in this photo!!!

Next up are some photos of the CHA Designer Showcase we did Saturday. We had a bunch of new designs, cards, products, etc and had some good meetings (wink)!!

And I even did a PAPER LAYOUT with our new Sawyer collection! I did it digitally first and then did all the fun paper stuff. I ripped, wrinkled, crumpled and inked. It was fun!

Next we headed on over to Tapestry by CR Gibson (one of our licensing/manufacturing partners) to go see our newest releases! They were busy taking orders from retailers but we snapped some photos!

The boxed kit with Calista's photo is from the "Fancy Free" collection and will be available at Archiver's stores nationwide as well as independent retailers. It comes with fun scrapbook, papers, elements, etc.

The chipboard suitcase/board books kit is our "Franklin" collection with some revisions. It is called the "Traveling Suitcase". It is a travel-themed kit that will also be available at Archiver's by the end of August and independent retailers across the US/Canada.

If you are a retailer and interested in ordering either kit, please contact Tapestry by CR Gibson here and just tell them you are interested in the Kristy Valshan kits.

We also met up with our friends and licensing partner Scrapblog. It was great meeting Rebecca in person! We are really excited to have been invited to join Anna Griffin, Rhonna Farrer, Cosmo Cricket and others to be premium content providers on the Scrapblog site. Look for our free themes to be released over the next couple weeks (right Rebecca? LOL)!

We were so fortunate to chat with many scrapbookers, artists, and crafters from all over. We got to go to lunch with Robin, Melinda, Connie, and Oriana (see photo on Jen's blog), hang out with artist friends Brenda Pinnick (loved her new sizzix dies) and Vicki Schreiner (who has a whole new line coming out at Cracker Barrell stores), wave hello to artists as they did their classes and make and takes (Jill McKay, Claudine Hellmuth, Margot Potter), see fellow digiscrappers (Amy Teets of Dream Street Papers, Amanda Dykan of Design Originals, Kristi McFadden and Cindy Wyckoff of Scrapbook Dimentsion Magazine, etc) and have fun! Sorry if I left anyone out!

Speaking of people, Jen and I got to sit down and to a make and take with Crafty Chica! She has an incredible new product line and beautiful glitters, and is just so pleasant to talk to! We made some fabulous sparkly earrings and she mixed some glitter for us to take home!! How fun is that?!?

One of the WEIRDEST (and coolest) things to happen was when Jen and I were walking the show and I could swear I was hearing my name (but not the usual voices, lol). I turned around to see my good friend from college, Lisa Dorsey! I have not seen her since 1993! 15 years later she recognizes me at CHA (which is amazing in itself) and I got to hear about her, Greg and her girls! So great!

Other highlights of the week were breaking my diet with Jen (she FORCED me to go get chocolate cake at 10pm at night and get Portillo's 4 times!! really!!), spending time with Jen's family, and making friends with the neighborhood skunk. Ask her about our new product line too!

Speaking of Jen...

 Ain't she cute?

Blog makeover! Opinions please!

Well, I was getting really tired of my blog. Being cheap (lol) i only was doing the basic typepad plan, but decided to upgrade. I looked at blogger (again, being cheap!) but I am totally horrible with html. I plopped a banner up, Jen and I had a good laugh at how bad it looked, and then ran back to typepad. Blogger looks like a great option if you know how to tweak code, but alas, I stay very far away from html!

So what do you think? Easy to read? Hard to read? Too much?

I am hoping by pretty-ing it up it will make me want to post more... wishful thinking!

The banner was made from a carpet runner mock up using a new Kristy Valshan collection (not sure if this collection will be "released" on the site or not due to potential licensing opportunities), and the font used for "Bits & Pieces" is by Darcy Baldwin (it is my own handwriting made into a font - I highly recommend her!! I love the font and used it for Christmas cards, envelopes, journaling on scrapbook pages, etc - Jen used it to address her own cards this year too! LOL!).

That's it for now - Jeff and kids home from grocery store so off to put the groceries away. Have a happy Saturday and thanks for your comments!

Important!! Do you post family photos on your blog or scrapbook pages in galleries?

If so, you really need to be aware of this new law. If you design and/or are an artist, then your creations are also at risk.

To very quickly and easily write a letter to your congressman/congresswoman about Orphan Works and how it will affect you, please go here:  http://tinyurl.com/3wbtbz.

If you would like some additional information, you can look at my previous post below or visit IP Attorney Tammy Browning-Smith's blog here. Tammy is KV's attorney and is fabulous!

My artist friend Brenda (a designer for Sizzix, HUGE on QVC, etc) has great information on her blog about Orphan Works as does the lovely, talented, and awesome enough to be on the Martha Stewart Show Claudine Hellmuth (scroll down after the adorable picture of Mabel). Their blogs are fun and inspiring so be sure to check them out often!

Thanks so much for reading this and have a good weekend!

QOTW - Viewing/Organizing Adobe Presets?

How do you all organize and view your presets? Like brushes, shapes, etc.?

I am going bonkers trying to figure out an effective way to organize (spring cleaning bug I guess). Does ACDSEE have a trick that allows you to see/tag them?? I have ACDSEE 9 (LOVE IT BTW - go grab it if you don't have it!!)...

I would prefer not spend a lot of money (lol - obviously right?) but really think it would be a good idea. Unless adobe CS3 has a way to do this and I am just missing it - yes, yes i can be an airhead sometimes. That, and I have a rather large nose so seeing past the end of it isn't always easy! LOLOL!

Anyone want to share tips? THANKS! :)

FREE at Shutterfly!

Aside from all the freebies at the KV Blog, don't forget Jen and I are featured at SHUTTERFLY this week! We designed a ton of freebies just for them so visit Shutterfly throughout the week to download the coordinating creations! Here is just a taste:

And here is a layout I did with one of the KV Blog free QPs using the Calista Collection:

Even though we designed Calista with Spring in mind, I really thought it went well with Calista's jacket and the orange pumpkin...

Have a great Thursday!

Free, free and more FREE GIFTS!

Whoa. So we went a little crazy. Um, yeah.

The timing of all this is a little insane, but if you go and check out the Kristy Valshan blog you can grab yourself some freebies and coupons... THEN head over to Scrapbook Etc Magazine if you haven't already and get that free QP the ladies made using our kit... THEN head over to Shutterfly EVERY DAY this week to get even more stuff! Crazy, crazy stuff going on!

Hope you LOVE the new collections in the store too - Calista Collection and Jessica's Garden Collection. Perfect for Spring!! :)

CHA!

Well, day after tomorrow Jen and I are off to CHA! Sorry about the lack of posts - we have been prepping for our booth. Jen has done an incredible job getting stuff ready... five million trips to the printers, fed ex, etc. I can't believe it is finally almost here! We leave for California early on Friday, and will prep the booth in the afternoon with the union. We have a couple meetings Saturday and then the show starts Sunday! Woo hoo!

If you are heading out to the show please stop by and say hello. We (under our company name, Kristy Valshan Inc. Licensing and Design Studio) are in booth #2991 in front of CK Media and diagonal from Epson in the licensing section. We would love to meet you!

Here is a sneak peek (special thanks to Melinda Staley for her RAK DigiCraft templates) - the first two items are cards/envelopes and then a few bookmarks (I have like 20 bookmarks and tons of cards but this is just a taste!):
 

 

Speaking of Melinda, you should see the awesome hybrid projects she did for our booth! All sorts of goodies! Jen did some great stuff too, like journals and address books and fun fabric projects. I stuck to the easy things - bookmarks, cards, etc. but also went a little mod podge crazy and did a recipe card holder, a file box, a small travel suitcase thing, etc. all decoupage-y. My stuff looks pretty shoddy compared to the other two so don't look too close! LOL!

One thing i would like to mention is how much I LOVE martha stewart glitter. Jen and i saw it last year at CHA when they unveiled the Martha line of scrap stuff (from EK Success). Now for the record i am not a true Martha maniac but her glitter rocks. Really. I used it for the recipe card box, a Christmas trinket box, the holiday cards... I don't know what it is about it but it is so super sparkly and bright and it "foils" really well - boy do I sound silly. LOL. All this over glitter - i guess I am getting a little delirious here! Hello?!! Where did Jeanine go?!?!? the one that Jen affectionately (?) calls the crappy crafter? Hmmmmm....

Anyway, see you at CHA!

Oh we are SO EXCITED!

Shameless plug alert!!

KV products have hit the stores! Run out to Archiver's and grab one (or both) of the newest KV "traditional" scrapbooking kit releases to coordinate your digital pages with! You can read more about it and see some goofy photos taken at the store here on the KV blog.

Each kit includes an album, scrapbook paper, coordinating diecuts and stickers, and alphas. We were also able to design the packaging, so you can see my kids on the back of the 8x8 set and Jen's girls on the 12x12! It was so cool to show the kids in the store...

Thanks for reading this!

Enabler Alert!!

My friend Nick over at GreenSneakers.com (sister company to Scrapwow) is consolidating one of the warehouses and has put together an amazing offer. You can grab THREE of the amazing kits formerly sold on QVC (a gift bag making kit, a box making kit, and a frame making kit) for only $9.97 plus shipping and handling (this is a savings of $39.97 off their regular prices). THIS OFFER ENDS FRIDAY. If you visit the following link, you can see short videos of how the kits work as well as details on the kit contents.

http://greensneakers.com/bagboxframe33.asp

I went and bought mine yesterday, even though I already had the gift bag making kit! LOL - it is such a good deal even for the 2 I didn't have!

I am such the enabler aren't I? :)

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Here are the details: