Saturday, March 31, 2012

2 Fantastic Giveaways, New Stock, New Samples, Join Our Party April 2!

Hi Everyone,

New All Dolled Up, our fabulous New Paper Doll Stamp Set have arrived and Easter Scraps due this Wed. We also have 2 Fantastic Giveaways by Lucy at the Craftberry Bush Blog and also by DT Member Pam Hooten plus - new inspiring samples and details on our Linky Party this Mon, April 2/12!

Lucy from the Craftberry Bush Blog is hosting a fantastic Giveaway for a $60.00 Crafty Secrets Gift Certificate and details on how she did this adorable Easter box! I wrote about Lucy's blog previously when she created sweet Shabby Tea Party Decor using our Vintage Pattern CD and her wonderful decor ideas & tutorials like her stunning wreath! Lucy will announce a winner April 9/12

DT Member Pam Hooten has a Great Giveaway Gift Pack HERE on her Blog celebrating her 5th Anniversary of her Blog. Pam has been on our Design Team since her blog was just over a month old in 2007and has created 100's of fantastic CS samples you can see in these posts.

You can see more photos of this fabulous Art Journal Pam created on her Blog and be sure to read her story about being set free to color and play. She used our New Stamp Set All Dolled Up stamp set, also lace is from Antique Trims, alpha letters from Top Hat, and Mini Memories Stamp Set.

SL49 All Dolled Up is an adorable 6 x 8" paper doll inspired stamp set with 19 separate stamps! You get a full girl in a slip and Mary Jane shoes, a little fairy outfit with pretty wings, a cute cook apron and mixing bowl, a vintage party dress, little artist outfit with palette & beret, and playmate outfit with art deco pinafore & toys. There is also an extra head so you can have 2 different girls, ballet feet slippers, a tab for paper doll outfits, 2 flowers to create bouquets or a scene, and expressions: 'All Dolled Up', 'What's Cooking Doll?', 'What a Doll' and 'It's Your Day Doll'. The outfits and wings will be fun for stamping on various mediums and paper piecing! Imagine velum wings, fabric dresses, pattern papers - on my!

Look at this super cute idea Marie-alice had to turn the little artist into a painter with our French Mail Set

Check out this beautiful Spring frame by Vicki Chrisman she altered an inexpensive frame with an image from CD # 2!

Our new Eater Scraps will be in stock Wed but Julie Campbell created a couple of adorable cards here on her blog

I will post details tomorrow about our Linky Party this Monday!

Until next time, wishing you joy & creativity

Sandy

Crafty Secrets

Visit Our Online Store
Join Us on Facebook!
This Blog: http://heartwarmingvintage.blogspot.
Our Website: http://www.craftysecrets.com

Toll Free Phone or Fax 1-888 597-8898
Local Phone 604 597-8817

Crafty Secrets Head Office
15430 78 A Ave.,
Surrey, BC V3S 8R4

USA Warehouse
250 H. Street, #436
Blaine,WA 98230

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Fab Stamped Samples, Coloring Tutorial, Your Invited To a Party & More!

Hi Everyone,
I have so many fabulous samples I can't even fit them all in today's post but will share more next time. I also have a link to an excellent coloring tutorial by Diane from Art of Craft Store in NZ. Plus - I want to invite all of you to our New Monthly Crafty Secrets Linky Party where you can add samples here on this blog and be entered to WIN a $50.00 Gift Certificate! They will be the first Monday of each month so please join in Monday April 2/12 and samples can be added all week long. Also see Update at end of post.

I also have photos from the show and planned to post Sunday but life got in the way. My parents live with us and we were at the show Fri & Sat and my mum doesn't drive so she had to call an ambulance for my dad on Sat as he started coughing up a lot of blood. He's out of the hospital now and doing better. I'm taking him for tests this Thurs, so please say a little prayer for him.

I've been wanting to show you this adorable Wonderland teacup DT Leader Vicki Chrisman designed using our Tea With Alice Stamps and Wonderland Tea Scraps. The colors and whimsy make me feel like a giddy child. She even made a ladder! You can get all the details here on Vicki's Blog.

We also have 2 impromptu Guest Designers, Sophie La Fontaine and Marie-alice (aka ladybug1743) who have been emailing me fantastic samples! Look at this fun card Sophie created using our Clear Art Stamps in Tea With Alice, Grand Greetings and Artsy Banner Sets. You can get all the details here in Sophie's Splitcoast Gallery.

Check out this adorable bunny birthday card Sophie created using the rabbit and cake from our Tea With Alice Stamps and you can get the details here in her gallery.

Sophie used our NEW Sing For Joy Stamp Set and the 'friend' sentiment is from Floral Art.
on this very pretty card and I am so in love with this little bird.

Okay, now here are a couple of cards by Sophie's partner in crime Marie-alice. They share sets and stamp together often. Marie used our Birdies stamps and the little bird in the cage is off Birds of Happiness. I love how she suspended the cage over the sheet music.

This is another beautiful card Marie-alice created using our Poppy Flower Stamps and click it on big to see the Stickles on the Dragonfly and flower centers. She hasn't added it to her Splitcoast Gallery yet but I know she uses Newton Watercolors to paint with.

I spotted this pretty card that Beate Johns from Splitcoast created using an image from our Birds & Blossoms Scraps with with the Perfect Layering Tool , a Nestabilities die, ribbon, a tag and stitching. See details here.

I also wanted to show you these wonderful tags that past DT member Melissa Phillips created and I missed last month using 7 stamps from our Queen Bee Set with some Paper Trey stamps. Great warm colors!

Our new DT Member Busy Martha has been busy creating wonderful samples like this sweet card with our New Sing for Joy Stamps

Marilyn (Busy Martha) also came across a great how to coloring video was inspired to use the same coloring technique with our Easter Joy Stamps to make this cute & colorful ticket tag.

I somehow missed Diane's Youtube Video but I highly recommend watching it for sheer inspiration as she speeds up the camera to quickly color all sorts of ticket strips with Tim Holtz Ticket Die and Distress inks, a blender pen and Glossy Accents using Tim Holtz stamps but later our Garden Girls, Glamour Girls, Bird Notes and Wildflowers Stamp Sets! She makes it look so easy and fun and the results are spectacular with 7,228 views and 168 comments. Diane owns the Art of Craft Store in New Zealand and sells a bunch of our products and has a SALE on now for those of you over that way.

Here are a couple of photos from the Creative Stitches & Craft Show we were at on Fri & Sat. We made some wonderful new friends and got to catch up with a bunch of fave regular customers. I also got to meet Elizabeth ( I love rubber ) from Splitcoast and she was so sweet to bring me a bunch of cool cards she's made with our Clear Art Stamps. Past DT Member Marisa Grosson also came to the show and brought me fantastic samples.

We were so lucky to have Thanh and Odessa back again this year to visit and also help us pack up! Scott was thrilled as there was a Canucks hockey game on TV and we were packed up in time for him to watch 2 periods. That's Jessica with Scott below who is coming back to work in our office until classes start in Sept as Denisa landed a really great job.

Okay I have way too much in this post and may have lost a bunch of you by now but I wanted to give a quick update. I need to change the status that says I'm discontinuing our Clear Art Stamps. I was stressed when I announced it and 99% of you said NO, you still want our regular stamps to continue. We obviously don't sell to many digi stampers at the moment so I've set the Digi Stamps aside for a bit to focus on selling off sets that are not great sellers (will post a low & discontinued list next time) and we are working on wrapping up CD # 3, NEW Stamp Designs, some New Surprise Products. Our All Dolled Up Stamps should arrive this week and New Easter Scraps next week!

Until next time, wishing you joy & creativity
Sandy

Crafty Secrets

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Vintage Easter Printables, Show This Weekend, New Samples & Welcome New DT Member!

Hi Everyone,

I have a New 2012 Easter Printable Gift for you and links to all our previous Easter - Spring Printables! Plus - a peek at our new double sided Easter Scraps at the printers now, a coupon for the Abbotsford, BC Show we are at this weekend, some beautiful new samples and I would love for you to Welcome our New DT Member Marilyn aka - Busy Martha!

Here is our New 2012 Easter Printable Gift. Just click on the image with the left side of your mouse until it gets as large as possible and right click it to save to a picture file. You could cut the kids out if you just wanted the pretty church scene.

Here is a pretty Heartwarming Vintage Printable Easter page with singing children and sheet music. Just click on the link to get the actual high res image.

I adore this pretty Easter Angel Printable Postcard we gave away a few years ago. Click on the link to get the high res image.

Here is our sweet April Joy Printable Poem you may have missed that we gave as a gift last year

I'm trying to stay ahead on tasks so I've also included our May Day Heartwarming Vintage Free Printable from a couple of years ago. Just click on the link to get the high res image.

I'm not sure if I should show you our New Easter Scraps yet as they are currently at the printers and we need to still need to check the color proofs tomorrow before they start printing them. I know I said I was trying to discontinue stuff but our Scraps and Clear Stamps are our biggest sellers - so until some company comes along and buys me out (so we can focus on designing new stuff) I need to keep stock and we only have 50 of the old single sided Easter Scraps left and on SALE for $1.99! These NEW Double Sided Easter Scraps will be $3.50 and both sides of this 8 x 19" cardstock sheet turned out adorable! Hopefully in stock in less than 2 weeks!

If you live in the greater Vancouver area I hope you can come see us the Creative Stitches - Sewing Craft Show this Fri - Sat, Mar 23 - 24 at the Abbotsford Tradex Complex! We will have a free gift for you with any purchase over $20.00 and we are bring an amazing amount of goodies in New, Clearance and Old Vintage stuff for our Flea Market Table! I also updated our 2012 Show List on the right side of the blog.

I've been so busy and everything is in 'limbo' as many of you know I want to sell or change the business in some way so I have a more 'normal' life and we can focus on what we love most - creating & designing new products. I have a few companies in mind and will keep you posted. In the meantime I never gave a proper farewell to many of our past DT Ladies but I will post a Design Team Farewell and include some of their coolest projects from last year ASAP! I was able to create a section on the right side of the Blog with Past DT Member Crafty Secrets Galleries with 3 ladies who have a category for our projects, Linda Duke, Heidi Blankenship and Marisa Grosson!

I've also updated the Blog with our Current DT List and I would love for you to Welcome our New Design Team Member Marilyn, aka Busy Martha from Victoria BC. I posted her cute Baseball card last week and the photo below is of Marilyn hiding behind the Recipe Album she created using our Domestic Goddess Scraps.

Here is an ATC Card Marilyn also posted on her blog using one of the cute Campbell's kids from our Kitchen Classics Stamp set.

It was sad to loose so many talented DT Ladies but change encourages growth. I am happy to say Vicki, Pam, Julie are staying - plus Michele Kovack, (one of our DT ladies since 2007)! You have to check out the adorable birdy card she created with our New Sing For Joy Clear Art Stamp Set! You can see more photos and get all the details HERE on Michele's Blog. I love the little pin she made!

We are also going to have Past and New Guest Designers - plus start a Crafty Secrets Linky Party the 1st Monday of each month where you can add any project you've created using our products, add a link to your blog and be entered to win a Gift Certificate! So stay tune for exciting updates.

I also wanted to show you this sweet card that Olga sent me from France using our Babyland Vintage Cuts. You can also see the card on her blog but will need a translator as she is Russian.

Lastly, I wanted to show you a cute egg decorating idea from Lucy at Craftberry Bush and how she used our Queen Bee Stamp Set to stamp on a paper napkin and decoupage it to an egg. Lucy (who also made this beautiful birthday decor using our Vintage CD #1) is also going to be doing a Giveaway for our products next week on her blog!

Imagine the designs, words and colors you could use on eggs, plus if you are using Clear Stamps like ours you can also stamp right on eggs or other curved surfaces - just don't stick the stamp on a block. Vicki just held our book print border stamp in her hand to stamp these eggs.

Until next time, wishing you joy and creativity!

Sandy Redburn

Crafty Secrets

Thursday, March 15, 2012

New Free Vintage 2012 Calendar, Stamping on Curves, Samples, Show Photos & More!

Hi Everyone,

I have some fabulous stuff to share today like our New 2012 Free Printable Calendar below that works with our Calendar Scraps on Sale for $1.50! Now we have 2 Vintage Printable Calendars (see other calendar here) that work for a variety of calendar projects and I have a bunch of great samples. Plus some cool ideas showing how Clear Art Stamps can be bent to stamp, a 2 for 1 Show Coupon, Show photos and a New DT Member and her stamped Baseball card!

Simply left click on the calendar below until it gets huge and right click to save it to a picture file. Please remember our Free Printable Images are for personal use only.

Here's our Seasonal Calendar Creative Scraps, reg $3.50 NOW $1.50! Note: 7 of the months work for 2012 and the large images on the inside are great for cards.The month titles

This calendar was created by Kim Vermette who contacted us to see about the 4 months she needed to update it for 2012. Cindy, our graphic designer just got back from vacation and put together all 12 months. It makes our Calendar Scraps 100% workable so I decided we should give it away as the months also work great on cards

NOTE: Some of these calendar samples are older and I'm unable to find the links.

I hope the photo below gets big when you click it on. Head DT Leader Vicki Chrisman made a calendar using the large images from our Calendar Scraps

I adore this little card card past DT Member Marisa Grosson using the Calendar Scraps

What about this beautiful card by Hedi Blankenship using the Calendar Scraps

Look at this sweet New Years card Linda Duke made with the Calendar Scraps.

This is one of my all time faves due to the cute witches legs Pam stamped (it's a border stamp) using our Halloween Fun Clear Art Stamp Set! The images and calendar are from our Calendar Scraps.

Pam also created this fun birthday card for a girlfriend and added a calender month. You can use a highlighter or gem to mark your friends birthday. Image is from our Girlfriends Scraps.

Melissa Phillips made this super cute Christmas card using the Dec Calendar with our Cooking Stickers

I just love this altered memory board Vicki created using 3 of the monthly calendars, 2 images from our Christmas Image Booklet and assorted ephemera

Vicki also created this very cute and functional desk calendar using the Calendar Scraps

Here are the samples showing how Clear Art Stamps can be stamped freehand to bend and wrap around a curved object like these eggs Vicki stamped with our Artsy Banner set. She explains it all HERE on her Blog and shows a variety of eggs you can try.
You also need to check out Vicki's other Easter Fun Post with great samples!

Then I spotted this great card by Bev (colelady) and how she curved one of the border stamps from our Kitchen Classics Set to create these stamped plates on her place setting card. She also embossed the fork from the cutlery on the set.

Look at this pretty Shabby card Tammy Roberts designed using some old book print to stitch on with our Little Blessings Scraps and some embellishments. You can see more and get the details HERE on Tammy's Blog and see her cool 'Flip card' here as well.

Next weekend (March 23 & 24) we will be selling at the Creative Stitches Show in Abbotsford BC (Canada) and if you are in the area we would love to see you! Here's a 2 for 1 coupon and we will have all kinds of specials

We were at the Victoria Creative Stitches Show last weekend and had so much fun with everyone. Here are some happy shoppers. Too bad there were not more craft vendors at the show

It takes a long time to get the booth all set up because I have so many great samples the DT ladies have sent and I really want people to see as many as possible. It's rewarding to hear all the oohhs & aaahhs!

Marilyn aka 'busymartha' came again this year and helped us at the the show and she was such a great help. Here she is with Scott who loved teasing her. She is super talented and is going to be joining our Design Team! Check our the fantastic card below she made with our Baseball Stamp set!

I really like the colors Marilyn used here with the Play Ball Stamp Set and the way she stamped the tickets to use in the background. Lined paper is off CD # 1, Creating with Vintage Patterns.

Lastly, I know I've mentioned Photofunia before but we have so many new visitors. I wanted to show you these fun photos I made for my daughter Chelsea's boyfriend Anthony. Our dog Otis has been living with them and he is like their baby so I included him in the photos.

They got pasted on the NY Times building with the free software Photofunia has. There are several photo choices and some are animated. I also made him into an astronaut, hockey player, body builder and put his face on money. I also love the videos at Jib Jab.

I almost forgot, the $75.00 winner for our Giveaway on The Shabby Nest was

www.reneweduponadream.blogspot.com and she's beeen notified

Wishing you joy & creativity

Sandy Redburn
Crafty Secrets

Visit Our Online Store
Join Us on Facebook!
This Blog: http://heartwarmingvintage.blogspot/.
Our Website: http://www.craftysecrets.com

Toll Free Phone or Fax 1-888 597-8898
Local Phone 604 597-8817

Crafty Secrets Head Office
15430 78 A Ave.,
Surrey, BC V3S 8R4

USA Warehouse
250 H. Street, #436
Blaine,WA 98230