Susan R. Opel

In the last year, we’ve shared all sorts of crazy Paper Crafts fun with you. If you scroll through the last 12 months of our blog, you’ll see that we work really hard, but we also have lots of good times, too. Having a great job is all well and good, but when you can call your colleagues friends, that’s pretty stinkin’ cool.  

Kelly recently called me the team cheerleader (ooh, I like that title!), so I’ve gathered a synopsis of the silly, mundane and cool things that we’ve done since this blog’s inception.

Can I get a Go! Fight! Win! Paper Crafts? 

This is one of my favorite pictures of the Paper Crafts team.

We’ve had six interns in the last year, and each has brought her own personality to our team. I always loved seeing their blog posts with their impressions of what it’s like to work in our office. I think we’ve turned a few of them into paper crafters. But really, how can they resist? 

Thanks Courtney, Brynn, Lindy, Nicki, Melinda, and Sarie!

You also got the chance to look into our daily lives with meetings, an office tour, photo shoot preparation and us just generally loving each other. We keep busy in our offices and cubicles bringing you the magazine, but we take time to chit-chat sometimes, too. 

Getting the job done, Paper Crafts’s style

But we’re not confined to the office, no siree! We’ve been out in the world together on many occasions. A crew of us visited Disneyland, four of us saw Celine Dion in concert, the whole gang painted plates at a do-it-yourself pottery place, many of us participated in card group and we even had a field trip to the Making Memories office. 

We work and play hard!

As a card making magazine, it probably comes as no surprise that we LOVE to celebrate every little holiday possible. From Halloween (oh, those polygamist brides of Frankenstein!) to St. Patrick’s Day (any reason to dress in a theme) to the Super Bowl (don’t let that Steelers jersey fool you – Go COLTS!). 

Give us a holiday, and we’ll find a way to celebrate!

And what would we do without our friends? We love having visitors stop by, and when they do it’s hugs all around. When are you going to stop by? 

We love to grab a picture when friends stop by.

So what do you want to see in the upcoming months from the Paper Crafts team? I’ve got three new Imaginisce collections and three of our Betty t-shirts to give away to three lucky commenters. Leave a comment by Friday, Feb. 5 at midnight (MST), and you might just win! 

Your Paper Crafts cheerleader,
Susan

P.S. It’s time to announce the winner from Brandy’s A Year of Giving Back post!

Jess (Feb. 2, 8:53 a.m.)

Congrats, Jess! You’ve won two prize packages! One for yourself and one to give to a friend! Kelly will be contacting you shortly to get your mailing address. Thanks to all who left comments!

P. Kelly Smith

Welcome to Freebie Friday! I know it’s been a long, tortuous week for our Top 5 finalists, so I’m not going to make them wait, sweat or twitch any longer. (Belinda, Lizzie, Rae, Shanna and Tessa – are you all sitting down? Good. Now take a deep breath and slowly exhale. Now let’s get on with the results!)

After eight weeks and five rounds of nail-biting competition, you the Paper Crafts online community have chosen the grand prize winner in this third season of Gallery Idol. And she is… (drumroll, please!)

***RAE BARTHEL***

Congratulations, Rae! Your “Make a Wish” card received the most votes in the last and final round, therefore Paper Crafts magazine is proud to name you our 2009 Gallery Idol!

Let’s take a look at the five winning cards that propelled Rae to “Idol” status:

Open Auditions: Make a Wish Card - Birthday Theme

Top 20: Congrats Card - Wedding Theme

Top 15: Sweet Dreams Card - Around the House Theme

Top 10: Wish Big Card - Button Theme

Top 5: Make a Wish Card - Humor Theme

I think this girl has a thing for pink and black! It obviously worked! In addition to the Cosmo Cricket, American Crafts, BasicGrey and K&Company prize packages, Rae will also receive this grand prize from Making Memories:

Many thanks to Making Memories for donating all of this fabulous product!

As the grand prize winner, Rae will also receive these special perks: 

• Winning cards published in the January/February 2010 issue of Paper Crafts
• Name added to the exclusive Paper Crafts designer list
• Free selection of special issues
• Official grand prize winner certificate (our version of the golden ticket)

Prizes aside, a big round of applause goes out to all of the finalists who have stuck with this competition week after week, round after round. Your creativity, passion and dedication to excellence have really made this little contest bigger and better than we could have ever imagined! We hope to see you back next summer for Season 4!

In my very best Ryan Seacrest voice,
Kelly Out

P.S. If you would like to see how Rae reacts to this BIG announcement, make sure you hop on over to her blog. Last week she was “floored, flabbergasted and freaking excited” to have made it into the Top 5. I can’t wait to see what words come out of her mouth this week! (And make sure to check back here on Monday when Rae is our designer spotlight. She hasn’t agreed to this yet, but I’m hoping to twist her arm with that Making Memories Slice!)

P.P.S. I almost forgot today’s giveaway! It is Freebie Friday after all. I hope you enjoyed reading Cath’s farewell post to our art director Stace Hasegawa. Since Stace LOVES the color black and tattoo art like skulls, wings, guitars, etc., today’s giveaway incorporates all of her favorite things! (The only thing missing is Johnny Depp in the flesh!) To be entered to win, leave a comment telling me a few of your favorite things. It can be anything at all. I’ll pick four winners to receive an assortment of metallic papers from Rusty Pickle’s Brass Knuckles collection, as well as black chipboard and stickers from GCD Studios. All comments must be received by midnight (MST) on Sunday, August 2.

Four lucky winners will each take home this black-tastic prize package!

Cath Edvalson

I’m not gonna lie. These are my least favorite kinds of blog posts to write. You know, the ones where I have to talk about a beloved colleague who is moving on? I pretty much dread these.

But Change is the game of life and as Jennifer mentioned in this post, as a result of this Change, we recently lost our beloved Art Director, Stace Hasegawa.

Art Director Extraordinaire Stace Hasegawa

Stace has been the Art Director here at Paper Crafts magazine since its inception. She is one of the most talented people I know in this business and she has established the Paper Crafts “look and feel” that you have come to know and love.

The shots you see in the magazine are all directed by Stace. She determines the concept for how a feature will be shot based on our editorial goals and then she turns it up a notch. She sets up each shot, painstakingly arranging for props, lighting, and how the set will be dressed. She designs all the covers and determines how the magazine will look, how it will be laid out, how it will flow, and how you, the reader, perceive our brand.

She also designs many of the openers for the magazine. Here, the word “painstaking” resurfaces. And though I realize that some of these openers have previously been featured here on Paper Crafts Connection, I wanted to share some of my favorites with you today:

For this opener appearing in our November/December 2008 issue, Stace designed and cross-stitched everything herself. Believe it or not, there is nothing digital about this except the introductory text.

Stace created the set for our Enchanted Forest feature in the September/October 2008 issue from scratch, making all the paper trees herself. It took unspeakable hours of time and unmentionable attention to detail.

I love how Stace used the sky as a backdrop with real branches and real nests for our For the Birds feature in the March/April 2008 issue.

This is, quite possibly, my favorite Stace opener of all time. Hand-painted by the artist herself for our Art of the Tattoo feature in our October 2007 issue, I think Stace loves creating these out-of-the-box openers even more than we enjoy looking at them!

If you know anything at all about Stace, you know that she is known for her passion for all things Halloween. I’ll never forget the first time I met her. She came to a luncheon carrying a purse that she made out of a Jack-o-lantern bucket and a belt. It was May, and I remember thinking, wow, that’s brave…and cool…and wow, she must really like Halloween.

Since Stace carries this Halloween bucket all year round, she's often been at the grocery store or mall and suddenly felt little hands searching the contents of her purse for some candy!

Little did I know, that was really just the beginning, for I soon learned that for Stace, Halloween is a year-long celebration. Which is why this shot is so cool:

We all did cartwheels when we saw that Stace had “suspended” these cards in mid-air!

And while Stace has brought an unbelievable attention to detail, an over-the-top approach to every task she’s given, and a set of standards that raises the bar for all around her, I think, selfishly, what I’m going to miss the most about Stace is the love that she brings to our team. When it’s tough around the office, Stace is there with ice cream bars. She’s the mastermind behind our beautifully handmade Christmas cards, our award-winning Halloween costumes, and our freebies at tradeshows and events. You’ve seen what she does with our birthday signs and cakes! And when there’s a holiday, it seems that she’s always leaving little gifts for us which she thinks are anonymous, but it’s a dead give-away when what she’s left on your desk is so far beyond what anyone else would have done.

She is, in three words, a most excellent friend.

Yes, it’s hard to imagine what life will be like around here without our beloved Stace, but we know that her opportunities outside our folds are innumerable, and we wish her every success.

It’s hard to say good-bye, Stace, but even though we won’t be working together anymore, I know we will always be friends.

Paper Crafts Team, July 2009

Yours in wishing Stace all the best,
Cath