Creating Keepsakes Convention

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P. Kelly Smith

Welcome to Freebie Friday! Is everyone ready for Father’s Day this weekend? I mailed off my care package to my dad this week. Like most dads, he’s always saying, “Don’t spend your money on me. I don’t need a thing.” So I went the economical route and sent him some homemade jam and his favorite pancake mix. I even tucked in a homemade card. I loved creating a card with him specifically in mind.

Speaking of cards from the heart, our Top 15 blew me away with their interpretations of our “Masculine Garage” theme. It was so fun to read their e-mails last weekend as they were brainstorming ideas. I know many of them raided their husband’s and dad’s toolboxes in search of the perfect “manly” supplies. I have a hunch these husbands and dads will be receiving some extra special cards this Father’s Day!

It was a close race, but these 10 gals received the most votes in our masculine-themed card challenge. Here they are in alphabetical order:

Finalist #1 – Karen Baker:

Finalist #2 – Lynn Ghahary:

Finalist #3 – Courtney Kelley:

Finalist #4 – Belinda Chang Langer:

Finalist #5 – Regina Mangum:

Finalist #6 – Kryssi Ng:

Finalist #7 – Sarah Martina Parker:

Finalist #8 – Shemaine Smith:

Finalist #9 – Shanna Vineyard:

Finalist #10 – Vera Yates:

Which means we must say goodbye to Valerie Mangan, Winter Sims, Giovana Smith, Angie Tieman and Danielle Wycough. Ladies, thanks so much for your amazing contribution to Gallery Idol 2010. I’ll be contacting you shortly to discuss your prize packages. Best of luck in all your crafty pursuits!

Congratulations, Top 10! By making it this far, you’ve each won a free special issue, a one-year subscription and this fantastic prize package, courtesy of October Afternoon:

Top 10, ready for the next theme? Round 3’s theme is…unique uses of ribbon! Need some inspiration? Turn to the Few of Your Favorite Things feature in our May/June 2010 issue. The deadline for submissions is next Monday, June 21 at 9 a.m. (MDT). All ribbon cards must be posted to our gallery by this time. Voting for Round 3 will begin at noon!

Since it’s Freebie Friday, you know I’ve got some fun goodies! To go along with Gallery Idol’s next theme, I’m giving away an assortment of American Crafts ribbon to three lucky winners! To be entered to win, leave a congratulatory comment for our Top 10 finalists. All comments must be received by midnight (MDT) on Sunday, June 20.

Three winners will take home an assortment of this fun ribbon!

Best of luck, Top 10!
Kelly

P.S. Wanna Be the Paper Crafts Mega Fan of the Week? Take a picture of yourself with your Paper Crafts Magazine at the beach, at the cabin, in the big city, on the farm, at a national monument or park, abroad, or wherever you go! Send the image to sopel@papercraftsmag.comand we’ll post photos of YOU reading your favorite magazine. If your photo is chosen, your picture will appear on the Facebook fan page, and we’ll send you a prize. Click HERE to see where Susan and I were photographed with our Paper Crafts issues!

P.P.S. If you’re attending CKC-Riverside this weekend (June 18-19), make sure you say “hi” to Paper Crafts Go-to Gal Teri Anderson! She’ll be teaching some fun classes you won’t want to miss!

Freebie Friday – Card Creations 8 Week!

May 21, 2010 in Uncategorized

Tags: Card Creations 8 Week, Card Creations: Volume 8, Cath Edvalson, Cosmo Cricket, Creating Keepsakes Convention, Freebie Friday, friendship cards, Melanie Douthit, Michelle Philippi, Moxie Fab World, P. Kelly Smith, Paper Crafts Connection, Paper Crafts Facebook fan page, Paper Crafts magazine, Susan R. Opel

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P. Kelly Smith

Welcome to Freebie Friday! Did you hear the big news? Card Creations, Volume 8 is now on sale!

Back by popular demand, this special issue promises to wow even the most advanced card maker, while offering plenty of designs and techniques that beginners will love, too. And with 273 ideas for every occasion and holiday, each design can be easily adapted for tags, layouts, invitations and more.

Since this fan favorite only comes around once a year, we’re celebrating by throwing a party! Starting on Monday, we hope you’ll join us for Card Creations 8 Week. We’ll begin the party here and then let Cath wrap up the week on her Moxie Fab World blog. Both sites will be spotlighting some amazing cards from this issue, as well as giving away some fabulous prizes.

Between now and May 26, you can get free standard shipping on CC8! Just enter coupon code "CC8FS" at checkout. Click on the magazine image to reserve your copy today!

To give you a sneak peek of what’s in store next week, here’s two cards from the Friendship section of CC8. I don’t know about you, but the older I get, the more I love and appreciate my friends. Through the ups and downs of life, I know I can count on them for advice (solicited or not), moral support and even a little retail therapy (when things get really bad!).

I just love the design and sentiment on Melanie Douthit's You're a Great Friend Card (p. 69).

And there's just something about bunnies and buttons! Love this combination in Michelle Philippi's Best Friend Bunny Card (p. 69).

Ready for today’s giveaway? Since I love the cute little bunny in Michelle’s card, I just have to send him hoppin’ to a few of paper crafting friends. Leave a comment telling me a favorite girlfriend memory. Did you toilet paper the principal’s house? Get your ears pierced together? Meet through Facebook? Leave a comment and I’ll pick three winners to take home some fun chipboard product from Cosmo Cricket’s Nutmeg collection (seen on Michelle’s card above!) and a copy of Card Creations, Volume 8! All comments must be received by midnight (MDT) on Sunday, May 23.

Three lucky people will win this fun prize package!

See ya next week, friends!
Kelly

P.S. This is your last weekend to upload your entries to Gallery Idol! All Thank You cards submissions must be posted by midnight (MDT) on Monday, May 24. We’ll be announcing our Top 20 finalists next Friday!

P.P.S. If you happen to be attending CKC-Buffalo this weekend, make sure you say “hi” to Paper Crafts editor Susan R. Opel. She’s teaching 11 classes you won’t want to miss!

CKC Makes all the Difference – Windy’s Story

March 16, 2010 in Uncategorized

Tags: all occasion cards, Card Creations: Volume 8, CKC-Louisville, CKC-Nashville, Creating Keepsakes Convention, GCD Studios, Go-to Sketches, July/August 2010 issue, March/April 2010 issue, May/June 2010 issue, Moxie Fab World, Paper Crafts Connection, Paper Crafts magazine, Piggy Tales Academy, Susan R. Opel, Windy Robinson

20 comments

Susan R. Opel

Last month while teaching at a Creating Keepsakes Convention in Kentucky, I had the opportunity to meet Windy Robinson, a talented card designer who’s been published in Paper Crafts magazine. She told me an inspiring story about how she became the paper crafter that she is today, and I knew that I wanted to share it with all of you! So, read on for Windy’s story…

Windy’s story: Every year my best crafting buddy and I attend a CKC event. We’ve been fortunate enough to attend CKC-Louisville just two hours from our hometown of Cincinnati for the past two years, but I’ll admit that we’ve gleefully driven 5-6 hours to hit CKC-Nashville. You just can’t beat a weekend of quality crafting time with your girlfriends, abundant new products to buy and new things to learn by taking great classes from the pros.

It’s amazing what can happen in a very short period of time. I say this because it’s hard to believe that it was only a little over a year ago when I made my first card…ever! I entered it in the Paper Crafts Card Contest at CKC-Louisville.

Windy created her You Make Me Smile Card using product she bought at the CKC vendor faire last month.

Prior to making my first card, I was die-hard scrapbooker. I made my first scrapbooks over 12 years ago when I was in college, with magnetic albums and construction paper–yikes! After making that first card and taking a few classes at CKC, I instantly became addicted to card making. This addiction has been one of life’s little surprises for me. I never would have dreamt that I’d be a card maker, but what I hadn’t realized was that card making and scrapbooking naturally go hand in hand.

I began a blog where I shared cards that I’d made from the remnants of my scrapbook pages. Within a few months of sharing my work, seeing others’ inspiring work and playing along with the challenges at Paper Crafts Connection and Moxie Fab World, my card designs started to take over as the inspiration for my scrapbook layouts.

Windy’s classy and elegant style often includes a big dramatic silk ribbon.

As the months progressed, I started developing my style as a designer, submitting my work to Paper Crafts for publication, and building fabulous relationships with paper crafters from all around the world. The end result is that now I am a die-hard card maker (who scrapbooks), and I’ve even been asked to join the design teams for GCD Studios and Piggy Tales Academy!

I love to share and learn, and this wonderful craft enables us all to do that on so many levels. Better yet, I have learned how to define my scrapbook designs, and I’m loving my layouts even more now. The moral of this story is that you can surprise yourself, but only if you give it a shot. So submit, share and most importantly, don’t stop creating!

Windy and I pause for a photo after the Paper Crafts Card Swap at CKC-Louisville.

Thanks for sharing your story, Windy. And to think that it all started because of a fun and crafty weekend with her girlfriends!

Have you ever attended a CKC event? Follow this link and see if there’s one in your neck of the woods. It might well be a weekend you’ll never forget (for all the right reasons!).

Join me in giving Windy some Paper Crafts love!
Susan

P.S. You can see more of Windy’s cards in our current issue, as well as our May/June and July/August issues. Her projects will also be appearing in our upcoming special issues – Go-to Sketches (on sale March 23) and Card Creations, Volume 8.

Groovin' with the Go-to Gals – The Christmas Rush

October 21, 2009 in Uncategorized

Tags: Christmas cards, Creating Keepsakes Convention, Groovin with the Go-to Gals, Hero Arts, Kick Start Christmas, Kim Kesti, Paper Crafts Go-to Gal, Paper Crafts magazine

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Kim Kesti

Okay, I suppose it’s not the official Christmas rush yet, but when October rolls around I usually start getting a little anxious about my Christmas cards. I like to plan them in October, take a Christmas photo and make my cards in November, and mail them out first week in December.

This fall at Creating Keepsakes Convention, Paper Crafts magazine teaches a fun class called Kick Start Christmas. I taught this class recently when convention was held in Glendale, Arizona. It really inspired me to “kick start” my own card plans. And better yet, one of the techniques we teach in our class is how to make Christmas cards with non-holiday paper. I thought that was a really interesting challenge. So, when I got home I decided to try it. I’m really happy with the results.

I grabbed a bunch of black, red and green scraps from my drawer and punched a whole batch of circles. I also choose a few creams for a neutral touch. I inked the edges of all the circles with black; this helped unify all the patterns. I stamped a little folksy bird (a non-holiday stamp) and a simple sentiment (both stamps are from Hero Arts). A bright touch of polka dot ribbon finished this guy off. What a fun, simple and inexpensive card to reproduce!

How are doing on your holiday cards? How about a little more inspiration? I’d like to send one lucky reader the card pictured above plus these previously published cards.

One lucky winner will take home ALL of these cards!

One lucky winner will take home ALL of these festive cards!

Just leave a comment below about your holiday card making adventures and you’ll be entered to win! All comments must be received by midnight (MDT) on Thursday, Oct. 22.

Happy card making!

Kim Kesti,
Paper Crafts Go-to Gal

So Long, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, Adieu

September 3, 2009 in Uncategorized

Tags: Alisa Bangerter, Creating Keepsakes Convention, Founding Paper Crafts Pros, Kim Kesti, Paper Crafts magazine, Piggy Tales, Scrapbook to Cards, Susan Neal, Susan R. Opel, Wendy Johnson

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Susan R. Opel

One of my all time favorite movies is The Sound of Music, especially for the music. I mean how can you not feel all warm inside when the Von Trapps sing “Edelweiss” and “So Long, Farewell”? There’s a comfort in these songs that remind me of the past and happy times.

Today we celebrate one last time our out-going Founding Paper Crafts Pros with a cheery rendition of “So Long, Farewell”. They have been an important part of our magazine, and we wish them the absolute very best as they begin their new paper crafting adventures.

Founding Paper Crafts Pros: Wendy Johnson, Sue Neal, Alisa Bangerter and Kim Kesti.

In case you missed it, Alisa, Susan, and Wendy have all bid an official farewell in three different blog posts here on Paper Crafts Connection. You can read Alisa’s here, Susan’s here, and Wendy’s here.

We certainly don’t expect these ladies to fade out of the picture. You can look forward to seeing more of their creations in our magazine, and we can’t wait to watch where the future takes them. Alisa is working on writing a book, Susan is busy teaching classes and Wendy is embarking on a new venture with Piggy Tales as their education coordinator. And since they love teaching, you just might get the chance to take a class from them at a CKC.

Make sure to leave some love in the form of comments here today for these fabulous ladies. I’ll choose one lucky winner who will receive a copy of Scrapbook to Cards autographed by Alisa, Susan, and Wendy, as well as their partner in paper crafting crime, Kim Kesti. Get those responses in by midnight MDT on Friday, September 4th, and Kelly will announce the winner on Monday!

So long, ladies,
Susan

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