The Winner is...and Again April 1st - Plus Come See Us April 4 & 5!

Hello everyone, Please don’t be too disappointed if you didn’t win this draw as I’m going to do another draw again tomorrow! I originally said Monday, April 1st and the 1st is actually tomorrow on Tuesday, so we will draw another winner tomorrow as well! The winner of todays draw is Jessica from NY. If you haven't entered yet, you can ENTER HERE and say what large, medium and small Clear Art Stamps you would choose.

Jessica’s comment said: “How fun! I would love to win Sweet Kids, Baby Girl, and Mini Memories. I LOVE all the samples shown here! Talk about talent!”
Congratulations Jessica, please send us your mailing address and we will get your stamps sent out to you! Here are the sets Jess won

We LOVED reading the different favorite sets people picked and the wonderful positive comments! You have no idea how much this means to us!!! Each set is like a labor of love and it feels so, so good to know people appreciate the designs and the quality! I'm very blessed to have Cindy our graphic designer and such a fantastic design team as well because they create such incredible samples which inspire people and show so many creative possibilities!

NEW FLASH! I just found out this morning that there is space in the Sewing Craft Show in Abbotsford BC Canada and we will have a double booth there this weekend – April 4 & 5. (I think there are classes on the 3rd). Here is the link and some details www.sewingandcraftsshow.com

I hope a bunch of you can make it to this show as I plan on bringing all sorts of new goodies, clearance items and lots of samples! Here is a photo from the CK Scrapbook Expo we were at in Portland last month just before they opened the doors.

Tomorrow, I will post the next winner! I was given tickets to take my husband to see the Bruce Sprigsteen concert tonight, so I'm doing this a post a bit early.

Here is another great sample from Michele Kovack (on far right) who was our guest designer this month.

Thanks for creating such great samples Michele!

Win Free Stamp Sets and 2008 Shows

The balance of all our new stamps just arrived! To celebrate we are giving away 3 FREE STAMP SETS in your choice of any large, medium and small set! All you have to do is leave a comment here on this blog telling us what Large, Medium and Small stamp sets you would choose (they don’t all have to be the new designs) and be sure to include your email address, or check back on this blog Monday April 1, 2008 anytime after 7 pm (PDT) to see the winners name!

Do you need to pick your favorites? You can see all the stamp sets HERE on Shopatron with descriptions and they now take up 2 pages! Our Clear Art Stamp website may not have the updated images yet.

Check out all these fantastic samples below using a variety of our Clear Art Stamps. They were created by our talented design team which includes Anna Wight, Janel Brown, Linda Duke, Lisa Zappa, Michelle Wooderson, Pam Hooten and Vicki Chrisman! You can get more details on each project in our online gallery and see more great samples that other creative people are starting to post in the gallery as well if you click HERE!







I was making up a schedule for the shows where you can find our products this year and I realized Judy from Scrapyard 329 will have a bunch of our products at the Scrapbook Expo Show in Orlando Florida that started today! If any of you are in Orlando you may be going to the Scrapbook Expo Show tomorrow at the Orange County Convention Center. If you are going, look for our Heartwarming Vintage signs posted in their booth and say hi to Judy.

Scrapbook 329 is taking our products into all the Scrapbook Expo Shows this year and there are 8 more shows left that you can see on the schedule below. We can only make it to a few shows but for every show we are exhibiting at, we are bring everything but the kitchen sink!

Here are links for more show info
Scrapbook Expo Shows http://www.scrapbookexpo.com/
Creating Keepsakes Shows http://www.ckscrapbookevents.com/
Great American Scrapbook Shows http://www.greatamericanscrapbook.com/

2008 Shows You Can Find Our Products At
Mar 28-29, 2008
Scrapbook Expo Show, Orlando, FL
Judy from Scrapyard 329 will be at all the Scrapbook Expo Shows selling our products.

May 17-18
Heirloom Stamp Show, Puyallup, WA
We will exhibiting at this show and bringing everything we have to sell, tons of samples, specials and demos!

June 5-7, 2008
Great American Scrapbook Convention, Arlington TX
We will exhibiting at this show and bringing everything we have to sell, tons of samples, specials and demos!

July 11-12, 2008
Scrapbook Expo Show Show, Duluth, GA
Judy from Scrapyard 329 will be at all the Scrapbook Expo Shows selling our products.

July 18-20, 2008
CHA - Summer Wholesale Show - Not open to the public
Rosemont, IL (Chicago)
If you are a store, please come see us at this show!

Aug 8-9, 2008
Scrapbook Expo Show, Santa Clara, CA
Judy from Scrapyard 329 will be at all the Scrapbook Expo Shows selling our products.

Aug 22-23, 2008
CK Scrapbook Convention, Tulsa, OK
We will exhibiting at this show and bringing everything we have to sell, tons of samples, specials and demos!

Aug 22-23, 2008
Scrapbook Expo Show, St. Charles, IL
Judy from Scrapyard 329 will be at all the Scrapbook Expo Shows selling our products.

Aug 29 & 30, 2008
Scrapbook Expo Show, San Diego, CA
Judy from Scrapyard 329 will be at all the Scrapbook Expo Shows selling our products.

Sep. 12-13, 2008
CK Scrapbook Convention, Phoneix, AZ
We will exhibiting at this show and bringing everything we have to sell, tons of samples, specials and demos!

Sep. 13-14, 2008
Scrapbook Expo Show, Hempstead, NY
Judy from Scrapyard 329 will be at all the Scrapbook Expo Shows selling our products.

Oct 17-18, 2008
Scrapbook Expo Show, Sacramento, CA
Judy from Scrapyard 329 will be at all the Scrapbook Expo Shows selling our products.

Oct 24-25, 2008
Scrapbook Expo Show, Ontario, CA
Judy from Scrapyard 329 will be at all the
Scrapbook Expo Shows selling our products.

Nov. 14-15, 2008
CK Scrapbook Convention, Bellevue, WA
We will exhibiting at this show and bringing everything we have to sell, tons of samples, specials and demos!

Dec 5-6, 2008
Scrapbook Expo Show, Tampa, FL
Judy from Scrapyard 329 will be at all the Scrapbook Expo Shows selling our products.

Bird Stamp Tutorial from Vicki Chrisman

Thanks so much to everyone that sent in wonderful samples and the comments for our free Printable Project, and to the winner Darlene! You can see more details on Joanne's winning card here on her blog! Please NOTE: I said when subscribers would instantly get an email when I posted on the blog but I found yesterday it comes later, oops!

We have been very busy finishing 4 new Image & Journal Booklets but we are sooo close I should be able to post some samples very soon and I honestly feel these will be the BEST WORK we have ever published! The themes 4 will include: Birds & Botanical, Childhood, Homemade and Summer Time and they will be available later in April. Then look for vintage Halloween, Christmas and other titles that will come out later this summer!

Today I want to welcome Vicki Chrisman from our design team who has a tutorial for you using our new Bird Lover Stamp set to build a page, or you could create a border for a card or altered project.

HELLO FROM VICKI, It's no secret I love both the sets of bird stamps. Each one is so easy to build with. Birds, Nest, eggs, branches...you name it. Today, I'm going to share with you, a fun and easy way to use this one" branch stamp" , from the Large Bird Lovers Set to create a border.

Start along the edge of your paper and stamp the branch.

It's easy to build your border, by just alternating the direction of your stamp. Each time you stamp, slightly overlap your previously stamped image. This will give it a more natural looking flow. Remember "real" branches on trees, don't grow perfectly even.. so you can't make a mistake. just have fun!

Here's the really fun part. There is a "SINGLE leaf" stamp in this set also, so you can go back and fill in , where ever you like.

At the bottom, I stamped my nest directly on my paper, like I did the branches. I stamped the birds and eggs on separate paper, used decorative chalks on them, and cut them out, to add even more dimension.
I matted the stamped saying for the title, on papers from the Classic Paper Pad. I inked the edges, and chalked in the rest of my stamped images.

Thank you Vicki for sharing your creative ideas! Anyone can visit Vicki's blog here to see more of her work and lots of inspiring ideas!

These new Bird Lover Stamps are a large set and they are starting to ship to stores now, so ask your favorite retailer for them! Our other bird stamps are a medium set called Bird Notes and the have been one of our top selling stamp sets. We also have Feathered Friends Cotton Scraps, so I guess you could say we are hooked on birds! You can and see many more cool bird samples here in our gallery that our design team has created using our various bird stamps and images!

Click here to visit our Store Locator

Click here to visit our online Shopatron Store

Warm and wonderful wishes!
Sandy

We just picked a winner that used the free images I had posted here on the last blog post but it was very difficult! We had 12 entries from 9 people and we really enjoyed seeing the different ways people got creative. Plus, I have unexpected company for dinner, so I'm 30 min late posting this!

The judges included our graphic designer Cindy, myself, my mother Rachel, my father Russell, my husband Scott and 2 of my daughters Chelsea and Holly, then friends Debi & Ron, and Chelsea's friend Ewin is here from Scotland. There was a bit of arguing and we all agreed it was very tough! The winner of the $30.00 gift certificate is Joanne Allison from England. Joanne entered two different cards in the contest and she used both the angel image and poem on both projects.

On the first card, Joanne cut the angel out and then the little verses to make a poem booklet.

Everyone loved the 3D look, the colors, stamping and the way the image was transformed so it could be used for any occasion.

On Joanne's 2nd card, she also used both the angel image and a part of the poem. We all agreed she did a great gob of bringing them together really well here

Here are two cards that Lori Washburn submitted. We loved the way Lori used our chenille paper, one of our stamps (from Sweet Kids) and the image here and put it together so nicely!

On this card Lori used the angel image with a sentiment sticker from our Spring Joy stickers. I'm not sure who the paper is from. We liked the little pearls she added. We loved these sweet treat toppers that Kathy C. created using the angel image matted on folded cardstock to decorate her Easter goodies. You probably can't see the glitter she added very well, but I bet it looks fabulous on these goodies!

Dru sent in this pretty card using the angel image embellished with a corner punch, ribbon and pearls.

Darlene Pavlick entered 2 great cards and matted the first on this pretty Spring green paper and we loved the flower border she created below.

On this card, we loved the way Darlene cut the egg out off the paper and added the green ribbon to match!

Shawn B. sent in this totally cool tussie mussie by printing the free poem large on paper and rolling it into a cone and adding the angel image, flowers, glitter and ribbon. We thought this would be so pretty to decorate an Easter table - ok - next year!

Jen Unger sent in this lovely card and we liked the way she used both the angel image and the poem reduced in size!

The beautiful card was sent in by Justine Frederick from Italy and we loved the colors and the way she cut the angel from the egg and mounted the egg on foam pop dots for dimension.
Debbie Kaste sent in the adorable wall hanging and we loved the way she layered her papers, the color combo, her scallop edge and embellishments.

Easter Blessings, FREE Printables and News!

Hello,
We have been so busy creating new products, I haven’t been writing my email newsletter and then I realized we have lots of cool ideas on our blog and I’m starting to post great tutorials from our design team and feature guest designers. Plus – each month you will now be able to win prizes and get a free download! All you have to do is SIGN UP HERE ON OUR BLOG (just add your email address in the subscribe box on this right side) to be notified instantly when there is a new posting by email.

Today I’m posting an antique postcard for you and a wonderful poem about the return of Spring you can PRINT FOR FREE! Just put your mouse over the image and click on the left side of your mouse, then when the image is larger, click it with the right side of your mouse and save the postcard and then save the poem to one of your picture files, or on your desktop. Later you can open each of them and print them on paper or cardstock. You can use almost any picture program to size the images to print them smaller or larger in size, depending on what you wish to create.

I'm sorry I didn't think of this idea earlier and have the time to make a sample, but if you create something please email me your sample and I will post some here and draw a winner! You don't need to use the poem. I just wanted to share it because I thought it was so sweet and perfect for Spring. It's from an old book I own from the late 1800's.

Please email your entries to me at: sandy@craftysecrets.com and if you have a blog, please include the link, so I can add it to the photo or scan you send of your project. I will get a panel of judges (Cindy and Nicole here at my home office, my family and anyone else that may be here) to help pick a winner! I will post all the entries this Tuesday evening (March 25).

Also, I would be delighted if you could post your feedback below and let me know if you like this idea or if you have any problems. I'm saying a little prayer it works for everyone as I have lots of old images, sentiments and poems I would love to share with you. Can you please tell me what you would like to see most? Would you like printable project sheets, patterns, helpful tips, challanges and contests, kits, or give me your own ideas!

NEWS FLASH!
You can see our brand new Clear Art Stamp sets here! These large sets recently arrived and are starting to ship to stores in: Bird Lovers, Flourishes and Sweet Kids. In medium sets our ABC Top Hat and Wild Flowers has arrived.

We are committed to giving you the best designs, so our graphic designer Cindy went back and revised and improved these stamp sets: Bugs Life, Book Lovers, Fishing Buds and Seaside. They have been shipped from the USA factory and are due to arrive at our warehouse on March 28. She has done an amzing job on these new stamp sets and now we are madly at work finishing 4 NEW Vintage Image and Journal booklets that will be available later next month!

See some inspiring samples from our March guest designer Michele Kovack including her adorable spring house HERE, and samples in our gallery HERE

See Michelle Wooderson’s tutorial HERE on creating a boxed card set

Get Lisa Zappa's tips Here for creating a ‘mask’ when stamping.

Visit our online gallery HERE to see more fabulous samples from our talented design team!

Sending you Easter Blessings and Spring Wishes!
Sandy

Stationery Box With Cards

Hi, If you are back looking for more Easter Ideas I was going to post, I added them here on Vicki's blog, as her mom just got out of the hospital and she had been staying there and felt bad about not posting on her blog, so I wanted to give her a break.

Today we have a wonderful step by step project by Michelle Wooderson (Mish) from our design team! Michelle loves to give cards as gifts and she created this beautiful set of four cards with a matching stationery gift box. These would be a perfect gift for Mother's Day, a birthday or graduation gift. You can see all four cards below. All the cards were stamped with Palette Hybrid Noir Black ink and colored and airbrushed with Copic Markers. The patterned paper is from the 6 x 12 Earthy Paper Pads. The Sweet Kids Stamp set she used is now available from Shopatron and we've started shipping them to stores! You can click the link HERE to view all the stamp sets. This beautiful card below features the hammock image from the Sweet Kids set and the birds on the branch are from the Cherish set.
This next card below has one of Michelle's new favorite images, the girl with the umbrella, which is from our Sweet Kids stamp set. She is adorable and perfect for coloring!
This cute little fella below says *hello* from behind the fence. The image from the Sweet Kids set and the birds on a branch are from the Cherish stamp set.
This boy below is laying in a field of flowers day dreaming....probably thinking about that cute girl under the umbrella!!
For all of Michelle's card layouts, she used patterned paper sheets from the Earthy paper pad. For each design, she used one sheet....and for the strip across the card, she used the reverse of each sheet. I love how they coordinate so easily.

And here's the gift box below that will hold all four cards. It's a clear stationery box that opens at the end so the cards fit in easily. Michelle used our new Mini Chipboard Frames to create the accent tag with ribbon to adorn the outside of the box.
For the band around around the box, she simply cut a piece of patterned paper from a 6 x 12 sheet which you can adhere with strong adhesive or double stick tape. She used a bone folder to create nice creases so that the folds are crisp.

Using a frame from the Sweet Chips Mini Frames, she then sprayed the white chipboard with Glimmer Mist and let it dry.
When dry, she used a flourish stamp from the Flourishes Stamp set and stamped it directly over the Glimmer Mist.
For the inside of the frame, Michelle created a hand stamped label using the ABC Top Hat Alphabet Stamp set. You can create words on your clear blocks or stamp the letters individually. She loves the clear alphabets because they're so easy to line up.

I want to thank Michelle Wooderson for sharing this fun idea, great photos and her tips. Be sure to let us know what you create! Michelle is always posting cool ideas on her blog which you can see here http://michellewooderson.blogspot.com/ You will also want to check out the other fabulous samples our design is constantly creating and posting in our online gallery here http://www.craftysecrets.com/gallery/index.php

I hope you are all having a great day!

Sandy Redburn

Cute St. Pats and Easter Ideas!

Hi Everyone,

First, please note
A new stamp update is at the end of this post if you are interested.

I thought I would post some cute ideas here for Saint Patricks day and Easter. It's funny how when your kids get older you can lose track of the holidays, or maybe it's because we work so far in advance (I've been working on Summer, Halloween and Christmas products this week) and then realized St. Pats and Easter are almost here!

Michele Kovack is our guest designer this month and I love this St Pats decoration she made using an image from our Joys of Life Booklet. Michele used paper from our Earthy Paper Pad. I love the 4 leaf shamrock she made using 4 little green hearts she punched out

If you already have our Seasonal Booklet and you missed the free Saint Patricks Day 'Tea Bag Card' project last year. you can get the instructions and see 2 tea bag card ideas on our website under free projects here

You can also see the sample of the St. Pats tea bag card Vicki Chrisman made here. You simply make a little pocket to hold a tea bag on the front of a card and it's a fun idea for a friend.

Here is an adorable Easter house Michele Kovack created using our Sweetchips Folding House, papers from our Classic and Pastel Paper Pads. Not only did she use the windows and door, she also decorated one of the birds, plus the other set of chipboard wings (for the 2nd bird) that comes with the house. The cherry blossom tree on the side of the house is from our Spring Cotton Scraps and images are from our Seasonal Booklet. I love that these house can store flat, so you can save them and bring out each year. I hope she adds photos. I love the little embellishents she added.

Look for more Easter ideas next week and Michelle Wooderson's (Mish) stamped card project this Sunday. If you have't seen Lisa Zappa's card project, you should scroll down to the previous post and see the cool cards she made!

NEW STAMP UPDATE: We have been anxiously awaiting the arrival of our new stamp designs and many of them have shipped and will be here by this Monday including more Bird Lovers, Flourishes, Sweet Kids and Story of me. We will then have everything except for the sets that had to be revised which include Bug’s Life, Book Lovers, Fishing Buds and Seaside. We are supposed to get those before the end of the month but I think the new changes will make the wait worthwhile.

Bird Lovers & Sheet Music Flowers!

Hi all! Lisa Z. posting this week with some new samples from the brand new Bird Lover's set. I'm not sure if Sandy mentioned this or not, but the design team will all be taking turns posting samples here on the Crafty Secrets blog each week. You'll get tips and tricks straight from the designers, and hopefully get fresh inspiration to jump start your creativity! Sandy has received shipments of a couple of the new sets (Bird Lovers, Flourishes & Sweet Kids), so I thought I'd post some samples using the new sets that are in stock as we speak. Sandy will be giving updates as new sets arrive.

When I saw the wonderful images of the birds in this set, what came to mind was chirping, music, spring, and the martins that arrive at my family's lake home when the weather starts to warm up. I chose this yellow floral paper from Crafty's "Radiant" paper pad for the background of this bird card because it seemed light and springy to me. I love that the stamps in this set are so interactive...you can stamp any number of different things in the nest by "masking" off the bird or egg images with a post it note, and stamping the nest over the top of the mask.

To create the mask, stamp your images on your white cardstock first, then stamp it onto a post-it note, and cut the image out. Here I'm using the small eggs from this set.

Cut the 2 post-it note eggs out, and place them over the top of your stamped eggs.







Position the nest over the top of the 2 eggs, and stamp over the top of the post-it notes.







Pull off the post-it notes, and your nest now has 2 perfect little eggs in it!! Color them with whatever you are comfortable using; colored pencils, markers, or a waterpen and inks.





I also wanted to add a musical element to this card, so I used my Sizzix flower dies to punch flowers out of some flea-market sheet music that I bought on a junking trip. Keep your eyes peeled for damaged old sheet music at garage and estate sales...it's usually cheap and can add a fun touch to your cards! No sheet music? Crafty's "Radiant" paper pad has 2 pages of music notes to cut out. Or check out Crafty's "Altered Art" set, and stamp your own music!
Look at the great sentiments that come with this set! It looks like the birds are singing up a storm here! I used Copic markers to color in the birds, and then watercolored the sky with an aquapen and sky blue ink.

Make sure to use all the great little elements in this set...the feathers make a great border for inside your cards!




I got tricky with the ribbon on this card....I cut it at the card closure so it looks like it's holding the card shut. I glued it onto the card so that the card opens and without sliding the ribbon off.


Hope you have a wonderful week full of chirping birds!

Lisa