What a Great Show

We just finished with the U Stream Show with Laura at Following the Paper Trail and it was amazing !!!

We had over 2000 people signed in at one time and Tim Holtz even popped in to say hello. Laura gave away some amazing prizes including the Vagabond die cutting Machine, and she was even able to do with while Tim was on the chat with us. Barrie and I were able to give away 100 prizes, some big some little but all of them were give with love !!!  We had over 1000 people sign up for the give aways, and we took all the names and put them into random imager and had them pick the number of names that we had prizes for, as that just seemed easier than having 1000 + little pieces of papers in a basket ! We hope you all had as good of time as we did. We are blessed to have so many wonderful customers, that are also our friends too !!! I can not wait to see what happens in the New Year, and if the last year was any indication then we are going to love love love it.

We will post the winners names here on the blog sometime tomorrow and if we do not have your mailing address we will notify you and have you send that to us. Congratulations to all those who won.

A special thank you to Joy, who keeps us going and takes care of so many things all the time. We love you and could not do this with out you !!! You are a true blessing !

Once again, Happy New Year to each of you and my your year be filled with blessings of every shape and size !!! Love to all Carol & Barrie

Are You Ready For Some New Years!!!!!

We are so so so excited for the UStream show tomorrow night and I know there are a ton of you that are too. We are just amazed at the overwhelming response that we have gotten with this and are touched by the notes that some of you have sent to us. We are blessed to be a part of such a wonderful group of Scrappers and we we really want to thank each and every one of you for your love and support. We do this for the love of what we do, and to know that there has been a small difference made in the lives of others by it is truly humbling. We want to wish you all a very happy New Year, and pray that you have an abundance of blessings all year through !!!! See you tomorrow if you can make it and if not, we will wave to you on the recording !!!! Love ya all Carol & Barrie

And The Winner Is

We have a winner for the Zutter Distrezz-it-all as we promised !!! We printed out all your names, added your names again for the extra things per the post and pulled one lucky winner out of the hat (well it was more like a bowl but a hat sounded better). We had 214 pieces of paper to grab from and the one we grabbed is ...... are you ready.... GLORIA WESTERMAN...... Gloria, please send your mailing address out to me at scrapadabadoo@comcast.net. You have 10 days to reply to this post in order to claim your prize and if we do not hear from you then we will draw another name. Thanks everyone for your support and we hope you are all signed up for the New Years Give Aways with Laura at Following The Paper Trail. You only have until 6 pm on Wednesday December 29th to get your name added. !!! Good Luck everyone and we will chat with you on Friday At 7pm Pacific time.

To Give...

This is the time of year for giving. Everyone bustling about...searching for just the right gift for Aunt Jane or cousin Bob. Christmastime has become so commercial over the years and It has become more of a "chore" and an obligation. Over the last four or five years I have really changed my buying habits because of the terrible economic downturn and I am sure it has been the same for many people. We simply don't have the extra money to spend on gifts for everyone...especially those obligatory gifts for relatives we only see once a year and hardly know. You wind up buying something...anything so you aren't empty-handed at the family gathering. Many of us are now making gifts for family and friends. paper crafting has gotten so sophisticated...so intricate...so beautiful ...that giving a handmade gift these days is really something to be cherished. I know Carol made about fifteen or so...little Post-It notebooks for all the girls/ladies in her family. Not only were they absolutely adorable but they were a useful gift that every recipient will cherish and use for a long time. And she is proud to show and give the beautiful things she has made...not bought. In each little notebook was a piece of herself...a little piece of her heart....so much better that a cheese log from the mall.

Every year for the last decade or so I have participated in a program called the "LoKahi Tree"  It is a program sponsored and run by the Salvation Army where you volunteer to make Christmas happen for a family that just can't afford gifts for their children . I have always drawn a family with two kids and I have enjoyed buying all kinds of (useful) gifts for them to open on Christmas morning. Although they mainly need clothes and shoes I would always try to give that one special gift that would make their eyes light up on Christmas morning. The boys usually wanted boogie boards or skateboards and the girls wanted clothes and MP-3 players and download cards.Then for the parents...really the whole family ...I would load them up with groceries so they would have a Holiday Feast. I used to go all out for my elected families and the feeling I would get from doing all this was the most wonderful , warm and deeply fulfilling feeling I have ever experienced. The feeling of making someone else happy...of making someone else's day a little brighter. These last few years have been hard on me and everyone around me and even though I can't afford to do things like I used to I still manage to participate in the "LoKahi Tree" . I have come to the realization that I do this as much for the families as I do for myself. I always find if I am feeling down or sad or overwhelmed...the greatest cure is to reach out and do something nice for someone else.

I hope all of you will take the time to give to others this Holiday Season. As scrappers we are naturally givers ...it is a quality deep within us...So reach out to someone. .. you might really be surprised at the difference such  a small gesture can make in another person's life ...and in yours....After all...to "give" is really to receive....

Have a happy and safe Holiday filled with the Love and Joy of family and good friends  ...

Love to you all ,
Barrie & Carol

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             

Merry Christmas

We just wanted to take a minute and wish you all a very Merry Christmas. We have so enjoyed this past year, growing sharing and getting to know you. We know that 2011 is going to be even more promising, and we owe all we are to you !! Blessings to you and your family this Christmas Season

Carol & Barrie

We are getting Closer !!

We are so close to hitting the 200 followers on our blog and we can not wait to hit that magic number and send one of you a Distezz-it-All !!! We are blessed to be one of your blog buddies and I am going to make it a priority to make sure we do more on the blog in the new year. The last half of this year has been an adjustment period for both Barrie and I. We have teamed up with Following The Paper Trail and in that time our business has exploded and for this we are so very thankful. We are almost transitioned over to having all of the products in one place so that we are able to ship everything in one package, but there are still a few things that Barrie will be sending until her inventory is depleted and we have it all here in Washington. We love being able to send a personal touch with each order. and from the comments we have gotten, you all seem to like it too. We will continue to do that no matter how busy we get. That is who we are and just what we do.

We have also finalized our arrangements for attending CHA in January and we are all so excited. Laura, Barrie And I will be on the hunt for all the great new products that will be there. We will be doing daily updates while we are there, and I do believe that Laura is planning on doing some kind of show from there too. There is always so much to see, make and takes to do, and new companies to discover !! I think I just may go and pack my bags now.

I have been working on a few more Christmas gifts and for my Oldest son I have made him a canvas that has pictures of him and his kids out hiking and fishing. He took them to the place that we always went camping when he and his brother were young. I think he will like it, although it is simple and not too ornate

I used a large canvas, sprayed it with Several of the Perfect Pearls mists (hard to see that) and then inked the edges with Ranger Distress ink, I backed the photos, which are printed out on Bazzill Paper&  inked the edges with distress ink , onto black chipboard to give it some dimension, and then sprayed the chipboard letters with Perfect Pearls mist and inked those edges as well. The Trees are a Sizzix die cut, and they are sprayed with Glimmer Mist and Maya Mist, and then covered with crackle paint.  The stick is one that they brought back from their hike and it is attached using hot melt glue. I think it looks very rustic and fits the pictures too !! 

So, that is another one of my Christmas Projects and I can not wait for him to open it !! 

 We hope you are all doing well and that your taking time to enjoy the magic of the Christmas Season

Blessings to you all

Carol & Barrie

Enjoying Your Notes

We are so happy and amazed at the number of people that have signed up for our New Years Eve Give Away so far. We love reading your comments and know, that each and every one of them have made us smile. We are also seeing that there are a ton of very generous people in our group and we want to thank you for your offers of donating items for the give away, but we have this planned as our way of saying thank you all for your love and support of Following The Paper Trail and Scrapadabadoo. We will try to plan things later in the year that we can take you all up on your wonderful offers. Believe us when we say thank you. We are also only 41 people away from our 200 followers on our blog and I am not sure if some of you know this, but we will be giving one of you a Distrezz-it-All when we hit that magic number. We would also love it if you would add our blinking to your blog, share us with your family and friends and make sure you leave some comments along the way !! There is a post earlier in the year as to how you can get your name added more than once, so look back to August under the title of Our new look and find out how you can get your name in more than once too !!
We are seeing that our new chipboard die cuts are flying out the door so you must be liking them. We have a ton of the sizzix dies available to us, so if there are other shapes you would like to see us do please just let us know. We can do special orders on them as well if you are doing a project and need several of them, just let us know what you want and we will get you a price and the cost of shipping on it.
Are any of you following the Tim Holtz 12 Tags of Christmas again this year. I am always so amazed at his creativity and how he can make things come to life. I never in my life would have used the rickety house into a Christmas project, or used the branches on the tree for the reindeer antlers. Talk about getting me thinking out side of my box.
I have made another Kaiser Craft Box for my Daughter in law for Christmas, and I am thinking that she is going to be so happy. She seems to have a need to touch mine and open the drawers every time she comes over, and so, she will have her own that looks pretty much the same as mine does. I did make the flowers using the Tim Holtz Grunge Rose out of canvas and they turned out wonderfully !!! Here is what it looks like

We have a couple of these drawers left in the store, and they are so fun to make !!

Well it's late and I have a couple of Grand Kids here that will be getting up earlier than I would like them to. So Blessings to you and hope you're all having fun making something special !!

Blessings Carol

Scrap IN the New Year!!!

Now that Thanksgiving has passed we start getting ready for Christmas and saying good-bye to a very grueling 2010. I don't know about the rest of you but I am anxious for a new chapter...a new year...a fresh start. 2010 has been a tough year for me and for Carol and we are looking forward to what this new year has to offer. Things seem to be turning around slowly. Of course it will take a while for the West Coast to feel some relief...but knowing it's coming offers some much needed hope.

On to the good stuff....

Some of you have heard Laura and us talking about having a New Year's Eve Party on the Friday nite show. Well...we are gearing up to scrap the nite away. She may even go three hours ...depending on the attendance....so mark your calendars and grab you paper, tools and snax...and get ready for a wild night!!! We want to give all of you ...our faithful followers a special treat...a night just for you. We have the greatest group of ladies (and a few gents). We are so very grateful for each and every one of you. So ...Laura, Carol and I have been scheming and planning a night full of projects and prizes. There will be tons of give-aways...and these will all be really cool items. Laura will be giving away some of "Laura's Favorite Things"...you know...those items you see sitting on her desk show.. after show...after show. We will be dropping hints... And Carol and I will be giving away lots of your favorite things...like a Pink ATG and some "Timmy stuff" just to mention a few There will be some more hints in the days to come so keep checking here and Laura's blog...(her link is on the sidebar)...to see what some of the other prizes will be and how you will have to enter to participate in drawings.

We were trying to figure a way for everyone to participate in the fun...so we are going to have everybody sign up to put your name on the master list ...just for that night. We will pick names randomly from that list only....so if you don't sign up ...you won't be included. This way you won't need to be on the show to win. You won't need to be on the chat to win. We will include our International ladies (and gents...Steven)Hopefully this way will keep the chat sane that nite...hahaha!!!...and give everyone a chance to win something AWESOME!  There will be full details posted on both blogs sometime this weekend and Laura will talk about it on the show Friday (tomorrow) night...So lets have some FUN!!!!

A little shop talk....the Rosette Ribbon will be back in next week and the G45 Once Upon A Springtime will be in today!! Yipee....You all cleaned us out in 24 hrs!!! I think we set a record!!! Anyway ...we now have plenty...Also...the punches Laura will be using tonight are in the store now.

We need your projects for the Customer Spotlight so send us you pictures so we can feature you in the Newsletter. Also ...if you have a favorite holiday recipe...send it to Carol so she can add that to the Newsletter too. We have some recipes already but we are looking for something really WOW!!! Something everyone will want to make for their holiday guests.

E-Mail them to scrapadabadoo@comcast.net

As I have said before...I don't post often...but when I do it is usually something really good!!!  Check back over the weekend and we will have all the details posted for the drawings...

Nite All,

  Hugs,

    Barrie