P. Kelly Smith

Welcome to Freebie Friday! I have a confession to make…I’m sort of a walking celebrity encyclopedia. I blame it on my brief stint as an intern for InStyle magazine (many moons ago).

While my duties were limited to transcribing B-actor interviews and fetching my boss’s dry cleaning (among other personal items), I did get to attend one very cool celebrity party. Thus the abnormal fascination begins. And royalty? Don’t even get me started on royalty…in my book, that’s a step up from celebrities. Right?

People.com recently posted an article called Will and Kate: From A to Z and it featured 26 facts about British royalty. It piqued my interest and got me thinking about our own Stamping Royalty – just announced this week! So much so, I thought it would be fun to reveal 26 facts (or secrets!) about this year’s court of royal stampers.

• A is for Amber Daigre who left us in stitches with her Anatomy of a Royalty Win. Favorite revelation of Dr. Amber’s: “I wonder if the entries into the Stamping Royalty Contest have to be STAMPED?” Even though 7 out of her 10 entries were ineligible, three of them did have some stamping. Whew!
• B is for Sue Boyle. Sue’s been away from her computer. Maybe she’s busy promoting her record, I Dreamed A Dream. P.S. Sue, I think it came true!
• C is for Cristina Kowalczyk who’s “over-the-moon-and-all-the-planets excited” that her winning card is just paper, ink and stamps. She said, “I’m usually too modest to say things like this, but I’m really proud about that.”
• D is for Lynn Darda who named her blog From My Bungalow after the 1920′s Craftsman bungalow she crafts in.
• E is for Edmonton, Canada, the home of Sue Boyle. Congrats to fellow Canadians Angela Fehr and Julia Stainton!
• F is for Angela Fehr who shared the happy news with a stranger at the grocery store. Angela responded to her confused look with, ”What? It’s not like I’m actually wearing the tiara. Because it hasn’t come in the mail yet.”

Photo courtesy of Angela Fehr

• G is for Mariana Grigsby, who studied to be a graphic designer in her native Mexico. And Mariana knows her markers! All hail the Queen of Copics!
• H is for Honorable Mention. Yep, in addition to the 15 winners we revealed this week, we also chose five honorable mentions. We’ll reveal their names on Monday and you, the reader, will vote for your favorite!
• I is for Illinois, home to Cristina Kowalczyk and Mariana Grigsby.
• J is for Julia Stainton, who won the 2009 Stamping Royalty Contest with her Once Upon a Time Card (seen below). Welcome back to court, Julia!

Julia Stainton's Once Upon a Time Card

• K is for Kelly Silva who is a self-proclaimed ”accounting nerd by day, crafter by night.” Kelly, with 2,332 entries submitted, what’s the mathematical probability that you would win this contest?
• L is for Karolyn Loncon who masterfully compared winning Stamping Royalty to winning the Masters Golf Tournament (where her husband just happened to be when she told him the good news).
• M is for Mustache, the trendy icon featured in Sarah Jay’s winning card.
• N is for Stephanie Nagel who became royalty yesterday – the same day she gave birth to her baby boy! I wonder if she named him Will or Harry?
• O is for One, the number of cards Angela Fehr and Laura Pryor submitted to this year’s Stamping Royalty contest. Looks like one=won.
• P is for Laura Pryor. This never-been-published designer just started submitting cards a few months back. Looks like luck is on her side…Laura was also one of our three March Gallery Challenge winners this week!
• Q is for Queen Mary Dawn Quirindongo. Poor Mary Dawn broke her ankle right before the royal announcement. She later wrote on her blog, “Even princesses get broken bones, apparently!”
• R is for Royalty. Something all 15 of our winners can now claim to be.
• S is for Shelly Kurth, who said, “This is one of the best early birthday presents ever!”
• T is for Tiara. We can’t wait to see our winners wearing their sparkly tiaras!
• U is for Unity Stamp Co., one of the generous sponsors of our 2011 Stamping Royalty Contest.
• V is for V, the first letter of one of our honorable mentions’ names.
• W is for Laurie Willison, who joins Laura Pryor as one of our March Gallery Challenge winners! Laurie, your card below perfectly sums up the occasion!

Photo courtesy of Laurie Willison

• X is for Xxtraordinary, the only adjective to describe this year’s entries.
• Y is for Yearly, the frequency of the Stamping Royalty Contest.
• Z is for ZZZ’s, otherwise known as sleep, an essential for all royals.

I just happen to have Stampin’ Up’s A to Z background stamp (what else?!) and copies of Stamp It! Cards and Stamp It! Techniques. Leave a comment and I’ll pick two lucky winners to take home this fun prize package. All comments must be received by midnight (MDT) on Sunday, April 17.

Two lucky winners will take home this stamping prize package!

Happy Friday!
Kelly

P.S. Remember to join us on Monday when we reveal our five honorable mentions and voting begins for your favorite card!

P.P.S. It’s time to announce the winner of Teri’s Make Your Own Rainbow post!

Bev E. (April 14, 8:16 a.m.)

Congrats, Bev! I’ll be contacting you shortly to discuss your prizes and get your mailing address. Thanks to all who left comments

P. Kelly Smith

Welcome to Magazine Monday! Our 350 Cards & Gifts Week may be over (read below for our blog hop winners), but we’re excited about some other big news…the winners of our 2011 Stamping Royalty Card Contest! Each day this week, we’ll reveal the three winners from each category. Stay tuned for our second post when we announce the winners of the Birthday category!

Today we’re also spotlighting the winners of our March Gallery Challenge. This baby-themed challenge was all about the cute factor. From sweet giraffes and elephants to fun pinwheels, this is what baby cards are made of.

Let’s meet our final three winners!

Winner #1 – Laurie Willison:

Congratulations, ladies! Each of you has won either a one-year subscription to Paper Crafts magazine or special issue of your choice AND have been added to our exclusive Designer Blog Roll (go check it out!). I’ll be contacting you shortly to discuss your prizes. If you’re interested in seeing all the baby projects from our March Gallery Challenge, please visit our online gallery HERE.

Wanna join the fun? We’re still accepting entries for our wedding-themed April Gallery Challenge! This three-week challenge will run through midnight (MDT) on Monday, April 25. Click HERE to upload your original creations today!

Happy Monday!
Kelly

P.S. It’s time to announce the winners from our 350 Cards & Gifts Week posts!

Behind the Scenes with 350 Cards & Gifts winners:

1. Shawn Wenrich (April 7, 5:26 a.m.)
2. Sandi DeFalco (April 7, 1:15 p.m.)
3. Tanja (April 7, 9:57 a.m.)

350 Cards & Gifts Project Giveaway winner:

Marcella Gawryluk (April 7, 1:31 p.m.)

350 Cards & Gifts Blog Hop winners:

1. Erica Hettwer (April 8, 11:10 a.m.)
2. Mrs. Ham (April 8, 9:36 a.m.)
3. Barbara Axmacher (April 8, 9:25 a.m.)

Congrats, winners! I’ll be contacting you shortly to discuss your prizes and get your mailing addresses. Thanks to all who left comments!

Lesley Langdon's Baby Gift Thank You Card from our March/April issue.

Just a friendly reminder that our March Gallery Challenge ends tonight at midnight (MDT). If you’d like to participate in this baby-themed challenge, please click HERE to upload your projects.

The three winners will be spotlighted right here on Monday, April 11!

Good luck!

~The Paper Crafts Team

Kim Hughes's Dreams Come True Card

There’s still time to upload your baby-themed projects to our March Gallery Challenge! Deadline: Monday, March 28 at midnight (MDT)

Need some inspiration? Check out these baby cards featured on our web site:

• Kim Hughes’s Dreams Come True Card (seen above)
• Teri Anderson’s ABC Baby Card
• Cristina Kowalczyk’s Little One Card

Kim Hughes actually used one of our March/April Simple Sentiments on her cute baby card. If you’d like to participate in our March/April Simple Sentiments Challenge, we’ve got 10 great sentiments to choose from (see link above). All entries must be uploaded by midnight (MDT) on Thursday, March 31. 

~The Paper Crafts Team

P. Kelly Smith

Welcome to Magazine Monday! Today we’re revealing the grand prize winner of our Simple Sentiments Challenge!

We asked our readers to take the Simple Sentiments from the January/February 2011issue, create a brand new project and upload it to our gallery. Our winner picked Kim Hughes’  cute “Mwah” sentiment for her card:

Let’s meet our winner!

Agnieszka Malyszek:

Congratulations, Aga! You have won either a one-year subscription to Paper Crafts magazine or the special issue of your choice. I’ll be contacting you shortly to discuss your prizes. If you’re interested in seeing all the projects from our Simple Sentiments Challenge, please visit our online gallery HERE.

We just launched our March Gallery Challenge! This month we want to see your adorable baby projects. (For inspiration turn to our Designer Challenge: Trendy Color Combos for Baby feature in our March/April 2011 issue.) This three-week challenge will run through midnight (MDT) on Monday, March 28. Three winners will receive either a one-year subscription to Paper Crafts magazine or the special issue of their choice. Click HERE for the details!

Happy Monday!
Kelly

P.S. It’s time to announce the three winners from Jennifer’s An Insider Peek: The Submissions Process post and my National Craft Month post!

Jennifer’s winners:

1. Cathy Weber (March 3, 9:27 a.m.)
2. Ashlee Townsend (March 3, 11:06 a.m.)
3. Brenda Lubrant (March 3, 7:49 p.m.)

My winners:

1. Cindy (March 4, 5:39 p.m.)
2. Charmaine (March 4, 1:52 p.m.)
3. Jaclyn Miller (March 4, 10:04 a.m.)

Congrats, winners! I’ll be contacting you shortly to discuss your prizes and get your mailing addresses. Thanks to all who left comments!

P. Kelly Smith

Welcome to Magazine Monday! Hopefully little traces of spring are popping up in your corner of the world. April is almost here! 

Normally we spotlight our Gallery Challenge winners on the first Monday of the month, but next Monday, April 5, we’re kicking off our highly anticipated Go-To Sketches Week! Expect a ton a fun here, on Moxie Fab World and each of our Go-to Gals’ blogs. 

But before visions of sketches dance through our heads, let’s pay tribute to our three March Gallery Challenge winners. These three ladies reminded us how sweet it is to welcome a new little one or congratulate the happy couple. 

Winner #1 – Agnieszka Malyszek:    

We fell in love with Aga's sweet Onesie Baby Card.

Winner #2 – Nina Brackett:   

And what couple wouldn't love to receive Nina Brackett's Congratulations Card.

Winner #3 – Lynn Miller:   

Lynn Miller's cute Welcome Home Card could double as a baby or wedding card.

Congratulations, ladies! Each of you has won either a one-year subscription to Paper Crafts or the special issue of your choice. I’ll be contacting you shortly to discuss your prizes. If you’re interested in seeing all the baby and wedding-themed projects from the March challenge, please visit our gallery HERE.   

Wanna join the fun and participate in our next challenge? We just launched our Go-to Sketch Challenge last Monday. This two-week challenge will run through midnight (MDT) on Monday, April 5. We’ll also announce the theme for our April Gallery Challenge next Monday, so stay tuned for more details. 

Happy Monday!
Kelly   

P.S. It’s time to announce the winner from Betsy’s Playing Dress Up post, the winner from Susan’s Happy Little Easter Eggs ala Kim Kesti post and the three winners from my Marvelous Markers post! 

Betsy’s winner: 

Carolyn G. (March 24, 6:39 p.m.)  

P. Kelly Smith

Welcome to Magazine Monday! Spring is officially here. In honor of this season of new beginnings, we’ve got something new and exciting to announce to all of our crafty friends. Yep, we’re launching another monthly gallery challenge and this one is all about sketches! 

With our new special issue Go-to Sketches going on sale tomorrow, we just had to take advantage of all the hype. This magazine features 282 projects created from sketches designed by our Paper Crafts Go-to Gals. In fact, each of the six Gals designed 11 sketches, so you have a total of 66 sketches to jumpstart your creativity. 

How Each Challenge Will Work: 

Each month our regular gallery challenge will begin the first Monday of the month and run for two weeks. Those of you who love playing along with this challenge, you’ll still have plenty of time to submit your entries. On the third Monday of the month (just as the regular gallery challenge is ending), we’ll launch our new Go-to Sketch Challenge. Featuring two sketches from those seen in Go-to Sketches, this challenge will run for two weeks and end on the first Monday of each month – right when we begin a regular gallery challenge! 

Since today happens to be the third Monday of the month, we’re just finishing up our March Gallery Challenge. This babies and brides-themed challenge will end at midnight (MDT) tonight, so you still have time to play along. But if you’d like to get a headstart on our new Go-to Sketch Challenge, you’ve come to the right place! Here’s the two sketches you’ll be designing with this month: 

Sketch #1 was designed by Teri Anderson.

Sketch #2 was designed by Maren Benedict.

Inspiration

Super fun, right? If you would like to see what other designers have done with these sketches, turn to p. 9 in Go-to Sketches for interpretations of Teri’s sketch and p. 33 for projects using Maren’s sketch. (If you don’t happen to have your copy yet, skedaddle over to your nearest bookstore. I hear it’s already out on some of the magazine shelves! And it’s going fast!) 

Prizes 

And just like our regular gallery challenge, at the end of two weeks, we’ll be picking three winners who will each receive a free 1-year subscription to Paper Crafts magazine or the special issue of their choice. These winners will also be spotlighted on this blog for all the world to see! 

Happy Monday!
Kelly 

P.S. If you’re ever confused on where to find our monthly challenges, just click on the links to the left of this post. Here you’ll find all the details, such as start/end dates and the theme/sketch inspiration for each month.) 

P.P.S. It’s time to announce the five winners of my March/April I-Spy post: 

1. NLR (March 19, 9:22 a.m.)
2. Jan Metcalf (March 19, 2:11 p.m.)
3. Sara G (March 21 11:12 a.m.)
4. Danielle (March 19, 6:15 a.m.)
5. Darryln (March 20, 1:17 a.m.) 

Congrats, winners! You’ve each won an assortment of tree-themed product featured in the March/April issue! I’ll be contacting you shortly to get your mailing addresses. Thanks to all who played along!

Jennifer Schaerer

We’re a tight-knit team around here, and because of that we all feel like we’ve just had a baby.

Okay, not really.

But ohmygosh…we were so excited when Brandy let us know it was finally our turn to meet Cooper Kaleb Jesperson! Yesterday was the day, so we swung by a local restaurant to grab Brandy’s favorite meal and headed over to her house for lunch.

We were so enthralled with this little man that we almost forgot to eat.

Hi everyone! Meet Cooper!

Do babies get any sweeter than this?

Cooper loves him some Cath time!

Ah, the experience of being a mom to three. Brenda swaddled Cooper and snuggled him right up!

Kelly in a focused moment with Cooper, trying to find the exact right spot for that binky while Brandy takes a break.

Hunger calls, though, and Cooper let us know when he was more than ready for Brandy to be back on duty.

Hey, you're not my mom.

So Brandy, in her deft and impossibly comfortable way, let Cooper join in the lunchtime occasion. And boy, can he ever mow through a bottle!

If someone can be a natural mother, Brandy is it!

Although we would have spent the entire afternoon at Brandy’s house, just admiring her little miracle and getting our Brandy “fix” until she returns to the office, we still had the small matter of a few magazines to produce.

So, we did what tight-knit teams do and grabbed a quick group shot with our new #1 little man.

Cooper and his harem of admirers

I spent the visit at a distance to protect Cooper from my late-season sniffles, but just being with Brandy and absorbing her happiness as a new mom was more than enough for me.

Since it really is the season for babies (and brides, too!), if you’re inspired to join the fun during our Babies and Brides Gallery Challenge, please do!

Basking in the baby bliss,
Jennifer

Cath Edvalson

In the March/April issue of Paper Crafts magazine, we always feature both babies and brides. Springtime is a good time to be thinking about new beginnings and whether it’s a baby just coming into the world or a bride and groom starting their lives together, these events are some of the most important milestones in our lives.

In addition to finding an entire feature on this topic in the magazine (see pages 48-57), we thought you would also enjoy showing off baby and/or bride projects you’ve created yourself.

Join us in our March Gallery Challenge where you can submit cards for brides and grooms, babies, and new moms and dads. But your creativity doesn’t have to stop there! We’d love to also see shower ensembles, décor for the nursery, gift bags and tags, gift card holders and any other non-card projects you’d love to whip up! Click HERE for all the details on how to enter and scroll down for some heartfelt inspiration straight from the pages of the magazine:

This card by Kim Hughes makes me grin from ear-to-ear. What a super cute way to say congrats to the happy couple!

I love the pun in this card, don’t you? Thanks for the cutie-pie chuckle, Angie Hagist!

I love the simplicity of this card by Linda Beeson. Only three quick steps to gorgeous!

The airy lift in this card by Danni Reid is so baby--and so hip! What’s not to love?

We can’t wait to see what you’ve got up your sleeves for this challenge! You’ve got until Monday, March 22!

Yours in celebrating babies and brides,
Cath

P.S. Speaking of babies, the Paper Crafts team gets to meet baby Cooper tomorrow! Stay tuned for this much-anticipated love fest!

P.P.S. It’s time to announce the two winners from Susan’s Tips, Tools, & Technique Trivia post!

1. Anita Young (Winner of the i-top, punches)
2. Lori Beseke (Winner of the glitter package)

Congrats, winners! Susan will be contacting you shortly to get your mailing addresses. Thanks to all who left comments!

P. Kelly Smith

Welcome to Magazine Monday! Is it really March 1st? Already? I swear it was Christmas just a week ago. I guess times flies when you’re having fun…and fun we most definitely had last week! I hope you enjoyed the five glorious days all dedicated to our new special issue Stamp It! Cards. 

I was so inspired after last week’s festivities that I went home and stamped all 12 of my cards for our monthly card group. To put us in the mood for St. Patrick’s Day, the theme was “green”. I loved picking out my favorite green paper and ribbon and then turned to stamping for the sentiment and focal image on my all occasion card. Loved the finished result! 

Fellow card group co-chair (and CK’s creative editor) Megan Hoeppner just posted all of our green cards on her blog. Hop on over to take a look! And while you there, make sure to wish Megan a belated happy birthday. She just turned 29 last Thursday! (And unlike the rest of us, she really is 29!) 

But before March comes in like a lion, let’s bid farewell to February by honoring our February Gallery Challenge winners! These three ladies not only aced our Valentine/Love-themed challenge, but they reminded us that every day is the perfect day to send a “heart”felt greeting. 

Winner #1 – Andrea Vernagus:   

We just loved the way Andrea fashioned the word "Love" out of yarn!

Winner #2 – Julie Masse:  

And the romantic in me absolutely fell in love with Julie's layered Valentine.

Winner #3 – Pat Sergeant:  

By piercing the stamped sentiment, Pat created a beautiful "stitched" focal image.

Congratulations, ladies! Each of you has won either a one-year subscription or the special issue of your choice. I’ll be contacting you shortly to discuss your prizes. If you’re interested in seeing all the Valentine/Love-themed projects from the February challenge, please visit our gallery HERE.  

Wanna join the fun and participate in our next challenge? We just launched our March Gallery Challenge! Since it’s the season of spring and new beginnings, we want to see your projects that are themed “babies” or “brides”. For inspiration, please turn to the ”Thanks & Congrats” feature in our March/April 2010 issue. This three-week challenge will run through midnight (MST) on Monday, March 22. Click HERE for all the details!  

Happy Monday!
Kelly  

P.S. It’s time to announce the winner from Brandy’s Save MONEY and Use Your Stamps post!   

1. Veronica Z. (Feb. 25, 9:33 a.m.)