Paper Wishes Blog

It’s been fun sharing my crafting thoughts with you all these past few week…but I’ve decided to move on from the Paper Wishes family. I am leaving you in very capable hands. I’ve spent the last couple of days showing Cristina – the new Marketing gal around and she’s caught on quick! She is looking forward to blogging about what she’s learned and her creative inspirations. ~ Best Wishes, Erin

I would like to thank Erin for all time and effort she has spent with me during the past 3 days. I’ve learned a lot from her and she will be missed by everyone here at Paper Wishes. I wish her all the best in her new endeavors.

I’m so excited, one of the first things I got to do here was create a coupon for Paulette’s Birthday!

It’s Time to Celebrate! For Paulette’s Birthday we are sending out a 20% Off Coupon! 20% off will be taken off the highest priced item! Limited time offer, once your coupon arrives on Wednesday, August 4th you’ll have til August 10th, 2011 to use it! It’s our way of thanking you for being apart of the Paper Wishes Family! Happy Birthday Paulette. Be sure to check your email, however if you haven’t signed up to received our newsletters click here and you’ll be in the know!

Here are a couple of inspirations for Birthday cards!

The office is fairly quiet with many people out of town at the summer Craft and Hobby Association Trade Show (CHA) in Chicago this week or on vacation. It’s kind of exciting that we’re unveiling 84 new Paper Wishes products at the show…everything from holiday offering of new papers, Dazzles™, Papier Tole and stamps to new templates, paper packs and the Color Me™ Silver papers we showcased during the Stamp Camp Week of Webisodes last week.

Since they’re so great, I just can’t wait…I wanted to share sneak peak at some of what’s to come with one of our new product lines “Steampunk” and one of our new paper packs for holiday scrapbooking and card making, “Vintage Christmas”. Both have coordinating Scrapbooking Dazzles™ and Papier Tole, so creating something special will be oh, so easy! These product will be available at the end of August!

Steampunk Paper Pack

Vintage Christmas Paper Pack

Vintage Christmas Card

Putting up a trade show booth can be cumbersome, so I thought it might be interesting to see a before and after of how it happens…

HOTP Booth Before

HOTP Booth After

It’s lots of work, but fun to see the industry react and get excited about new things!

I also wanted to share that we have a winner for the blog sign-up giveaway!  Sharon, from Colorado, will soon be receiving her very own CraftGeek Roll It! It’s a fun tool to use to create unique borders or even draw…and last week, it was in the Paper Wishes top ten! Customer’s are really liking this one…maybe because it’s fun for all ages! Enjoy, Sharon..when you get it, let us know what you think about it by posting a comment on the blog.

I mentioned the upcoming *Stamp Camp* Week of Webisodes last week, and we’ve been so focused on getting everything ready, I still have “stamping” on the brain. That said, I wanted to share a cool technique that the design girls showed me this morning for a *Stamp Camp* project that looked super neat…I almost thought it was our Color Me™ papers at first glance.

Embossing…I have all the supplies tucked away at home, but don’t often get them out when stamping something, but I should because I really love the finished look of an embossed stamp -the texture and focus it gives the image. Ann, one of our talented designers, showed me a large stamped image she’d stamped with VersaMark™ ink and then embossed with clear embossing powder…a product we’ll debut during *Stamp Camp*. The swirls she created totally looked like something you’d see on Color Me™ papers, but she placed them exactly where she wanted them on her card. Perfect for an original design especially when she finished it with some Glimmer Mist! I wish I could show you the finished project, it’s gorgeous, but it’s for the webisode. Well okay, just for those that read the blog…I’ll give you a sneak peek…

Sneak Peek - Stamp Camp Card Project

Here are some designer tips when it comes to embossing:

• The combination of glue stick and heat gun can warp the paper, so do the majority of the embossing before the paper is glued to the project.
• For pretty and easy embossed paper or card edges, use the VersaMark™ ink pad directly to the edge of the surface and even the inside, then emboss for an eye-catching finished look.

Embossed Card Edge

On another note, you want to win the $85 worth of amazing stamp supplies, right?? Then don’t wait…we have a giveaway going right now! See the 6/24 post for details…your submission is due by 7/7!!!

Stamp happy!

I am so excited to announce the launch of our newest sister site Cardmaking101.com! This site is a great resource for people who are new to cardmaking and even those who are experienced and looking for some great cardmaking inspiration.

The site is full of cardmaking tips and techniques like how to create a focal, different card folds and window cards. There are also videos demonstrating cardmaking techniques like:

Covering The Card Front Video

Ideas for the Card Inside Video

The best thing about this new site is that it’s a great tool you can always fall back on, especially if you’re stuck on a card and need a little boost of creativity. There are great ideas for using templates on your cards, some that even the most experienced cardmaker may not know. Also, tips for greeting and sentiments and even good ideas for Christmas cardmaking!

We’re even covering the basics like:

Adhesives Video

Inks Video

Chalking Video

There will be a new card project every month, so check back regularly to see what we’re doing! And, please let me know what you think.

Teresa did something amazing! You may know her from this week’s Cardmaking Week of Webisodes. She has created a shadow effect by using Dazzles™ as a mask. How beautiful!

Card Front

Card Inside

Teresa used the Nature’s Watercolors Paper Pack, Enchanted Moments Scrapbooking Dazzles™ and the Smooch Spritz in Limolicious and Splash.

Nature's Watercolors Paper Pack

Enchanted Moments Scrapbooking Dazzles™

Limolicious Smooch Spritz

Splash Smooch Spritz

So, it’s actually pretty easy! Simply, place your Dazzles™ on a piece of cardstock and spritz with your choice of color. Make sure you have good coverage around the Dazzles™. Then peel the Dazzles™ off the cardstock and place on your Craft Sheet so you can wipe off the ink from the Dazzles™. Let your inked cardstock dry completely. Then, replace the Dazzles™ slightly offset from the masked image to create the shadow effect. Teresa then used the gold Jewel Dazzles™ to accent the Enchanted Dazzles™. Super easy and what an elegant look!

This technique would look beautiful with any of the silver or gold Dazzles™, too! Check out some of these examples that Ann has put together.

Silver Sympathy Dazzles™

Gold Fern Dazzles™

Although the black Dazzles™ have the most dramatic effect, these are simply gorgeous! (Oh, and here’s a sneak peek at 2 new Dazzles™ designs that will be available in September, silver Sympathy Dazzles™ and gold Ferns Dazzles™).

We are always looking for new techniques with our Dazzles™! Let us know if you have come up with something, because we’d love to share it with all our readers!

The Cardmaking Week of Webisodes (WOW) is right around the corner! It doesn’t actually start until Monday May, 16 but I couldn’t wait to get my hands on the goodies Teresa used to create the cards. And I wanted to share with you too!

We’ve decided to try something new for this Cardmaking Week of Webisodes, we’re pre-selling the bundles of cardmaking supplies Teresa has used to create her cards. This way you can play along with Paulette and Ann as they show all of Teresa’s wonderful creations!

Click on each of the images below to order the kit!

Monday: Amazing Folded Cardmaking

Tuesday: Artsy Collage for Cardmaking

Wednesday: Batik & Nature's Watercolors Cardmaking

Thursday: Jewel Cardmaking & 3-D Flowers

Friday: Enchanted & Serendipity Cardmaking

For those of you who don’t know, Teresa Welch is one of our fabulous designers! She used to be the VP here at Hot Off The Press and has since moved away, but she still works closely with us. She has created some of our most popular templates, like 15 Lovely Labels, 25 Hearts and Super Stars.

15 Lovely Labels Template

25 Hearts Template

Super Stars Template

She has also created some of our best selling CD’s and DVD’s. Her newest Teresa’s Amazing Folded Cards is featured in the upcoming Week of Webisodes, but it already has rave reviews! Some of my other favorites of Teresa’s are the Card Greetings & Sentiments CD and Teresa’s Card Sketches CD.

Amazing Folded Cards DVD

Card Sketches CD

Card Greetngs & Sentiments CD

Teresa is also responsible for the Cardmaking Week of Webisodes, Christmas Cardmaking Week of Webisodes (in August) and the First Look Week of Webisodes (in January). I know you’ll love her original designs and great techniques! So come play along!

Let us know what you think of Teresa’s products and webisodes! Leave us a comment!

National Scrapbook Day is this Saturday, May 7! We published our first scrapbooking book, back in 1996. (We didn’t even call them scrapbooks then, we called them memory albums).

Snip Your Snapshots Book

I went into the archives and pulled it out and there’s some great stuff in those first how-to books, like the journaling techniques and some paper piecing ideas. But, one thing I’m glad we don’t do anymore is cutting up our photos! The styles have definitely changed, but all styles have changes in the last 15 years!

Paper Pizazz® was the first line of scrapbooking paper books. Here are some of our first paper books, see what I mean about the styles changing? Our first paper books were all 8 ½”x11” books, we didn’t even come out with 12”x12” until 1998.

Baby Scrapbooking Papers

Christmas Scrapbooking Papers

Wedding Scrapbooking Papers

School Scrapbooing Papers

To celebrate National Scrapbook Day here’s a coupon for 15% off the highest priced item in your cart. Simply use coupon code NSD11 at checkout.

National Scrapbook Day Coupon

Ann, one of our in-house designers and Paulette’s co-host on the webisodes, also put together this fun scrapbook page. Click on the page to below to get the full supply list and complete instructions.

Free Scrapbook Page Design

My favorite thing about this page, besides the new Batik papers and Batik ribbons, is the quote.

A birth certificate shows you were born, a death certificate shows that you died,

a scrapbook shows that you lived.

This fabulous quote Paulette received from one of our customers. Everyone here at the office loved it once they saw it! So much so that we put together a FREE download with the quote and some extra art–just for you! Just click on the link below to download it!

Scrapbook Quote

I would love to know what you are doing for National Scrapbook Day. Just leave me a note in the comments!

Happy National Scrapbook Day! Now, let’s get busy Scrapbooking!

Since Mother’s Day is right around the corner I wanted to show you some really great projects that use our new Sew Sweet Dazzles™ and all sorts of fun sewing embellishments! These are great ideas for Mother’s Day cards and gifts!

Sew Sweet Card

card inside

I really love the border on the Sew Sweet Dazzles™ ; it’s amazing how much it pops when backed with paper, like LeNae did here. And these clothes Hanger Clips are so cute! They’re perfect for attaching a greeting.

wood buttons

Wood buttons

These wood buttons are so versatile! LeNae chalked them here but she used inkpads on the chipboard pieces below, there are so many ways to embellish these blank pieces, you could even use glitter .

Great Gift Idea–Stretched Canvas

Sew Sweet Canvas Collage

A collaged canvas is a great way to use your cardmaking and scrapbooking supplies for gift ideas. Simply ink or paint the canvas then decorate!

I love these Button and Still Sew Cute chipboard pieces from Maya Road. LeNae colored them with Aged Mahogany and Tumbled Glass Distress inks to get a great color that matches the Heritage Papers perfectly! The mini wooden spools are wrapped with Color Infusions thread to give them a touch of sparkle.

These are great ideas for mom, grandma or even your daughter (who may also be a mom).

Let me know what you’ve made for your Mom, leave a comment or upload an image!