davebrethauer

Un- Bear - ably Cute!

 

Look at these wonderful, wonderful cards from up north in Alaska! Betty from Stamp Attic in Anchorage sent these emails from one of her customers, Charlene - and they are so well done!

 

Check out this one! She put the gift bear in a sleigh and even cut out individual reindeer! Including the antlers and legs - she gets first prize for cutting and compostion!

 

This one is truly inspired! I couldn't figure out how she got the lady reindeer at first - since the only reindeer image that I have that is facing left is the guitar reindeer. But look at what she did - she cut off the guitar image and then glued on a "dress" to cover things up. Then you have dance partners!

The crystal ball, the stage, the black and white tiled dance floor - this is a card that people would truly remember!

Christmas Break

 

We've been having lots of fun in the snow since the kids got out for their Christmas Break. We travelled to Colorado to visit my grandparents and have been feasting on cakes and pies to our heart's content.

The snow began falling in Seattle before we left - so the kids got used to the cold weather before we left for Grandpa and Grandma's. I wanted to take a picture of them in the morning light - here they are taking a break from throwing snowballs at each other - all bundled up. My sister in law, Kathryn, knitted their hats and the yellow scarf - Emma knitted Cooper's red/brown scarf - and I am so impressed by how durable and well made they are. They will probably have these items to hand down to their kids someday!

Inking About Color

 

Need some ink? I noticed the other day as I was completing a press check that we had quite a collection of ink on the supply shelving. It takes one of these cans of ink to make about 6,000 of our notecards! The ink that we use is an environmentally friendly soy-based ink, which prints beautifully. Since I am so into color in general, we've expanded from three notecard colors when we first began (13 years ago!) to 50 colors in our popular notecard and envelope line.

   

Here's a look at the ink itself - this shade, believe it or not, becomes our pastel shade of Sweet Corn, a very light yellow - but it's concentrated form is definitely orange - just like food coloring!

 

And here's the ink mixer - looks serious doesn't it?!

After looking over the colors we currently stock - I think that we might have room for a few more. We had a warm, yellow-orange color a few years back, called squash, that we are thinking of bringing back - and of course I could always use another green - we only have seven greens, and who doesn't want more green? If you have any requests for colors - now's the time for input! Send me an email with your color suggestions!

Sugardrop and What's in the Box?

 

Ta-dah! We have new stuff!

After 4 serious months we are happy to be officially done with our 2009 launch of new products! First up, the Sugardrop collection - 15 new stamps, a new 6x6 paper collection and (3) 12x12 papers. The 12x12 papers are the best patterns from our 6x6 patterns - in full size sheets! You can view the new papers and stamps on our site.

And (drumroll please) ....

 

Our official What's in the Box program of 2009 will begin arriving in stores January 15. This is our special, no preview release of all the new products we've dreamed up for Memory Box - and the January What's in the Box program is the biggest release of the year. So far we have a dozen or so stores signed up to receive this program - which includes:

(40) new wood mounted rubber stamps

(21) new 12x12 papers

(7) new 6x6 paper packs

(12) new Biscotti patterned papers that coordinate with our notecards and envelopes 

(10) new shades of Jewel stickers

(8) new shades of Pearl stickers

The program is always a hit at the stores that sign up for it, and includes make and takes and goodies as part of the unveiling of new product.

Check out the lists of stores signed up for Sugardrop and What's in the Box - we have them listed on the sidebar of the blog. Don't see your local stamp or scrapbook store listed? Tell them all about it!

Memory Box Tea Party - in Taiwan

Laura, the owner of Created with Love in Taiwan, just forwarded pictures from her Memory Box event in Taiwan, and I wanted to share them with you!

 

On the left is Jia Lin and on the right is Hsin Yi, both of them customers at the store who created Memory Box cards for the display board!

 

Thanks so much, Laura, for sending pictures of your celebration!

We've been going in a bunch of directions around here - our new Sugardrop program that we are relasing for Valentines is getting close to complete - bits and pieces arrive at work each day and we're already packing up orders for it. We also have a ton of new products coming out in Jnauary and I put the finishing touches on those this last Monday.

In other news, we traded in our Honda Odyssey Van for a Ford Hybrid Escape - and love it! We also went to the Nutcracker (performed by the Pacific Northwest Ballet) last Sunday. The kids had been one other time, about 7 years ago when they were quite little and it was interesting talking to them about the experience afterwards. Things sink in slowly for Cooper and then surface randomly later, like this question this morning as he was getting ready for school:

"Do you think it's going to snow?," I asked, after seeing the chilly weather outside.

"Yeah...but there used to be characters who jumped out of the pockets. Why didn't they do that this time?", Cooper responded.

He remembers a scene in the Nutcracker where there was an oversized giant coat, with pockets, and characters (probably kids) were hiding inside the coat and jumping out. For the life of me I can't remember this, but I am losing my memory these days...

Penguins in Taiwan

Penguins in Taiwan?

Penguins in Taiwan!

Yes, we have a store that we sell to in Taiwan called "Created with Love", which is owned by a wonderfully friendly woman named Laura Liu. Laura has been ordering from us for a year - and if there was ever any doubt that penguin stamps might not have global appeal, well here's a few samples to clear up that situation!

One of Laura's customers by the name of Jia-Lin Li created these super fun penguin cards and brought them into the shop. Laura sent pictures to me and I wrote a short note back to Jia-Lin expressing my appreciation for submitting the cards - and using Memory Box stamps. Now, Laura is having Memory Box month in her shop (will it be published in the local papers?) - and has forwarded this note:

I plan to hold a tea party in our store in December for congratulating Jia-Lin who can be recognized by you, the founder and designer of MBox.

I'll post her Memory Box cards to share with all customers.   Also, I'll

make December the month of Memory Box to have a special promotion for MBox products.

Appreciate your recognition which certainly helps Jia-Lin keeping up good work!

And helping Created with Love selling more MBox products too.

Best regards,

Laura Liu

Created With Love

Taipei, Taiwan

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks Jia-Lin for all the beautiful cards - you are a star!

In the Kitchen - with Elsie

We had such a fun Thanksgiving weekend with family and friends that I wanted to share one of our recipes from Cookie Day. My sister in law's mom, Elsie, was visiting from Canada and shared a collection of delicious cookie recipes with us. We made Whipped Shortbread Cookies - a delicate, airy cookie decorated with candied cherries (other options for decorating the cookies could be pieces of organic dark chocolate, Green and Black is my favorite brand, or dried cranberries).

 

Here they are before they go into the oven. Unfortunately, no photos of the baked cookies, because the whole batch was eaten before I had a chance to photograph them. I haven't had a lot of experience with candied cherries before, except in a delicious slice of panetonne, so I was surprised that when cooked they tasted like a little dollop of jam on the top of each cookie. The bright colors were fun - and Christmasy.

Here's the recipe:

WHIPPED SHORTBREAD COOKIES

 

1 CUP BUTTER (do not use margarine) unsalted butter best

1 /2 CUP POWDERED SUGAR

1 1/2 CUPS FLOUR

Cream butter and sugar, add flour and beat for 10 MINUTES.

Drop from small spoon onto cookie sheet.

Decorate with maraschino cherry pieces. Press them in slightly into the top of mound.

Bake at 350 (80F) for about 10 to 15 minutes,until slightly browned.

Makes about 3 dozen depending on size dropped on cookie sheet.

 

 

Elsie brought along an apron that my sister in law, Cathy, had made for Elsie when she was young. This is a close-up of the vintage Christmas card she had sewn into the apron.

 

Howdy Y'all!

We've been busy wrapping up things for 2009, so I've left the video of Impress up for awhile and neglecting updates -sorry! Thanks to everyone who has left comments or emailed us about the video - it was fun to make and I am sure I will be creating videos for all of the stores I visit in the coming year!

In the meantime, I've been wanting to share with you some correspondence from a store that we sell to (but haven't visited yet) - the Stamp Art Shoppe in California. We contributed some giveaways to a special anniversary and Tim Holtz event that Sandy had awhile back (country western themed) and she sent us this wonderful thank you note - complete with bandana tie and faux leatherwork band. The theme was done in such a classy way I wanted to share it with you - and for those of you who have upcoming country western events - get inspired!