A Great February!!

(layout by Keisha)

An awesome Papercrafting Kit with a pretty Robin's Egg Blue, Ivory and Red color scheme.

A very sweet Field Journal Project Kit (I really enjoyed putting this one together) and you get a very, very cool vintage watch crystal with it's original label still on it. I used it as a little shaker box on the cover. I've been wrong before, but I think these are gonna go fast. . .

And, another great Add-On with some cool vintage items including a vintage pattern from the 40's - 60's with great graphics (been collecting only the "good" ones for a while now, waiting until I had enough)!

Everything will be on sale tonight, January 31st at midnight central time!

And. . . for anyone looking for a good deal, the Donna Downey Prima Aprons and the 7gypsies Memo Holders will both be half off. Trying to make room for some new goodies!

Repurpose, Rethink, Reinvent . . .

Have you heard my big news? Big Picture Classes has invited me to teach my 12 week on-line course again this year beginning on March 31st, 2011! I am so excited to be doing this again - I will talk in more detail about it later next week, but you can find out some information here. Registration opens on February 3rd!

If you love old "junk" and want to know how to use it in all of your creative endeavors, you will want to come along for the ride!!

Some quick peeks . . .

before I'm off to CHA! Warning - photos taken at night in bad light. ughh!

Love the new Label Acrylic Stamp. You really need to have two of them -one you can cut up into individual labels and one you can keep together as is (I used it here to create this grid with my Seed Packet Ranger Pad). Also new here . . . a piece of my new Coredination's paper (I have several new things coming with them - shipping beginning of March) and the Blue Ribbon Embellishment.

Our new little Chipboard Die Cut Book Pieces - the Die Cut Journaling Card Book pages we released in October fit perfectly inside. Also here are our new Flag Banner Stickers (love these)!

Two little (EASY!) projects with the Tart Tins - magnets and a tiered stand (with some help from the Vintage Spools) to hold all of my little bits and baubles.

Stay tuned as I have a couple of posts set for while I'm away.

Have a great rest of the week. After another 2 inches of snow last night I'm looking forward to the sunny west coast (just not the traffic)!

Old Store Displays. . .

I have had a fascination with old store displays for as long as I can remember. Most likely it began with my search for creative storage solutions for all of my bits and baubles. Over the years I have accumulated quite a collection, large and small.

The Bowlin family farm was primarily sustained by their tobacco crops, as were many family farms in that part of Virginia (and where I grew up in Southern Maryland). It is part of our heritage and I have become equally obsessed with collecting tobacco memorabilia, particularly boxes and tins with great graphics.

So this piece was extra special to me. It is an early metal tobacco display. The top flips up and held two cigar boxes (I'm assuming customers flipped up the top and pulled out a cigar). I've had it sitting empty for the past month but plan to fill it up with our new goodies when I get back from show!

I'm hoping to get a few projects done for the booth tomorrow and will share them the rest of this week (hoping the inspiration fairy visits me tonight)!

SWF . . .

Seeking SM (with no bias towards race, color or breed).

Someone who enjoys long walks in the park, chicken legs and socks (especially clean ones right out of the dryer).

Must be willing to overlook my extra toes.

(Happy weekend)!

Treasure Hunt. . .

I found this photo I never posted from October with some treasures I found at the mile long yard sale in Watertown (recognize the extra large lotto cards)????

I am missing the "hunt". December is a very slow estate sale/auction month. January begins to pick back up, but only a bit. It is Flea Market weekend but alas, it is snowing AGAIN! Kid's are out of school, again. I don't feel like I've seen the sun in weeks. I think a little tear is forming as I type . . . (just kidding)!

Going to check the weather now - hoping the sun comes out tomorrow and melts it all!

Does this winter seem a little brutal, or is it just me (at least for us southerners')??

A HUGE mid-month release. . .

Coming tomorrow, January 15th!!

Check the Inspiration Blog for specific details but you won't want to miss this one!

I spy with my little eye. . .

. . . a few new JBS products for CHA! Bookmark the Inspiration Blog - Doris is going to begin our official sneak peeks on Monday (it will be slow and painful but worth the wait each day)!

I am taking a little blog break while we are at GiftMart. Wish us luck in getting through the 1" of ice that they say still sits on the city streets!

Thanks for the comments on the Place cards!

A little "Gift" preview . . .

As I briefly mentioned, we decided this past fall to take the plunge and attend the Atlanta Gift Market. It begins this weekend and runs through mid next week.

Sometimes I think we must be crazy. Two big shows in one month? And to top it off, we have a brand new booth and the largest CHA release ever, including new double sided heavy stock papers (yes, I caved. Those who know me well know that I prefer a thinner paper, but alas, I am in the minority and I have to listen to my customers! We are still running the mini papers on thinner stock - perfect for rosette making, decoupage, etc.)

While we are taking mostly products to Gift that exist in our line already (but only those that make a good crossover into stationary, gift giving or package embellishment) we did create a couple of things specifically for this market, such as one of the Bingo Placecard sets you see above (this is the "Whimsy" set). They are scored at the top and fold over like a "t-pee". The label looks like one of our stickers but it is actually built into the artwork. They come 6 to a pack. We have this set, a "Classic" set that just says "Guest" and a Xmas and Thanksgiving set.

And speaking of Atlanta, they got hit with a snowstorm, worse than what we got here (we got about 2-3"). We are still hoping to make it out on Wednesday. You just never know what January is going to bring you in the South! It could be snow or it could be 60 degrees. Mother nature always keeps us guessing.

More peeks coming soon!

The weekend has begun. . .

This is the favorite weekend pastime around here - XBox. They got the new Kinect for Christmas so at least they are getting some exercise while playing now. I like that concept.

Trying to finish up some package decoration and tag samples for the GiftMart this weekend. Promise to share lots next week.

Happy weekend!

Those unsightly, modern gaming systems. . .

Although I haven't quite mastered the art of hiding the systems themselves and all of their wires, I have come up with some creative ways to hide some of the accessories like this here ammunition basket (or at least that is what I was told it was).

It was a basket, it was old, and it had numbers on it - that's all I needed to know!

What happened to wooden toy trains and blocks?

Anyone else have some creative storage ideas to share??

All that remains . . .

But first there was this. . . (and yes, that is baby Hugh Hefner in the photo)

The chaos of the season is over. My decorations are all down, the pine needles have been swept up and the returns have been made. Time to organize, purge, . . . and diet!

We are getting ready at a feverish pace for CHA at the end of the month. And because we didn't already have enough to do we decided to also attend for the first time the Atlanta Gift Mart beginning in about 10 days! We are taking a few items from our current line that would cross over well for package embellishment, simple card stand-ins, etc. (plus a couple of products specifically for the gift and stationary market). I will give a little peek later this week.

Our CHA release is our biggest ever with many exciting new products (and a brand new booth too)! I have so much to share in the coming weeks!!