{capture the moment}

Gift-Giving 101

After yesterday's post, I have received several inquiries as to what "gift-giving" related books & magazines I own as inspiration.  I thought I would share a list with you here of some of my personal favorites...

I have a everything holiday related by Martha Stewart Living.  The ones I turn to the most are

-Holidays, The Best of Martha Stewart Living.  This is a collection of all the best ideas from past magazine issues and books regarding Thanksgiving & Christmas.  Lot's of ideas for cooking, decorating and gift-giving. 

......................................................................................................
Classic Crafts & Recipes Inspired by the Songs of Christmas.  This book is just awesome.  A lot of packaging ideas for homemade treats, which is right up my alley!

......................................................................................................
Crafts & Keepsakes for the Holidays: Christmas with Martha Stewart Living.  This has loads of crafts in it, especially homemade gifts.

......................................................................................................
Gooseberry Patch: Homemade Gifts from the Heart.  Really, I love all the Gooseberry Patch books.  This one in particular is one of my favorites for inspiring gift ideas, though.

......................................................................................................
Good Gifts from the Home: Oils, Lotions and Other Luxuries.  I got this with the goal to make some of the amazing things described within it's pages.  The directions are very clear and easy to understand.  Nothing seems to over-complicated.

......................................................................................................
Homemade: Delicious Foods to Make and Give.  What I love about this book is that not only does it provide you with yummy recipes, it also has a few ideas on how to package them.

......................................................................................................
A Gift for Giving: Making the Most of the Present.  I ave owned this book for  quite a few years and I love it.  I continually get inspired by it's contents.  Great photography too.

.....................................................................................................
Season of Giving & A Season of Joy, both from Making Memories.  What I like about these particular publications most is that the projects use a lot of paper crafting supplies, so it makes it easy to complete the same ideas in your own space.

So, there you have it!  Just a few of my favorites!  I hope some of these publication might provide you with the motivation to create your own homemade gifts this year!

After...

After a release, I always have a lot of cleaning up and reorganizing to do to prepare for the next month.  I thought it might be kind of fun just to show you a few little shots from around the studio after a release is over...

Here is my work station where I do all my stamping.  To get ready for a release, I always put the new products in this sock organizer box I found at Target.  It has three long nooks that work perfectly for holding the new cardstocks, ribbons, inks and other toys.  Since we were debuting the embossing powders this month, I also had my heat gun and Versamark pad in there.  It made it easy to incorporate all of the new things in my projects, since it was all right there, waiting to be used.  I will be getting a shipment all of NEXT month's things hopefully next week.  The current contents of this box will get filed away into the appropriate locations and the October products will take their place!  Such a fun cycle!  I also keep a stack of inspirational magazines & books close by.  This month I had out several of my favorite "gift-giving" books.  They really helped me to brainstorm all of the gift ideas that I incorporated into my holiday based posts in September.

I have a large area of open counter space next to where I keep my photo studio set up.  This is where I like to set all of my recent projects after completion.  It is kind of nice to just look at everything for a week or so after the release, since I put so much work into everything.  Kind of leaves me with a sense of accomplishment, you know? 

David and I are almost done with our big remodel of the new studio.  Sometime after the cruise I should be able to give you a little tour around the new place.  It is coming together fabulously!  Hope you enjoyed this little peek into my post-release world. 

A few changes...

I will never forget the day that Amy Rysavy agreed to be on our design team.  She was so excited, as was I.  She has been contributing edgy designs to our gallery for about a year and a half now and has been such a valuable member of the team. 

...................................................................................................
Amy is now stepping away from the team to focus on a dream of her own.  Her very own stamp line produced by CC Designs (available for purchase through All That Scraps starting tomorrow).  I am so proud of her for taking the risk that is involved in a venture like this.  It is always a true test of your self-confidence to put your artwork out there and hope other people like it!  She has been sharing sneak peeks of her work on her blog this week, so be sure to stop by and take a look and wish her luck on her new journey.  We will certainly miss her!

.....................................................................................................
Michelle Wooderson has now been promoted to the Senior Team.  She has a fun eclectic style that is all her own that we have thoroughly enjoyed seeing used with our images & products. She is a hard worker who has so much dedication and creativity to share.  We look forward to seeing her contributions in this new capacity.

............................................................................................................
We are adding two new faces to our release team. 

............................................................................................................
Melissa Phillips has been a paper artist that I personally have admired for many years.  The layers, the unexpected combinations, the colors, all of these characteristics of her work are just completely enchanting!  Pair her talent with her super sweet personality and her love of baking, and you have a recipe for a perfect match with Papertrey!  She is featured regularly in several publications and really has a finger on the pulse of the industry along with trends.  I am so looking forward to getting to know her better and seeing her work with our images on a monthly basis!

............................................................................................................
Betsy Veldman is our second addition!  She is AMAZING, and if you are unfamiliar with her work, you just HAVE to check it out!  She plays wonderfully with color & pattern.  Everything she creates seems to almost be emitting rays of sunshine & happiness!  She has a self-professed passion for altering and finding *other* things to do with her paper crafting products, which is evident in the array of projects on her blog and publication features.  I think she'll fit in so nicely with the other girls and I am looking forward to having the opportunity to work with her in this capacity!

.............................................................................................................
Thanks for allowing me to share all of these changes with you as we merge into another release!  Be sure to stop by and welcome the new girls on the block!  Have a great day!

Simple Scrapbooks Sighting

Hey all!  Things have been a bit crazy around here as I prepare for upcoming releases.  I've been in design mode as I put together stamp sets and patterned papers for release in the near future!  I can hardly wait until it all becomes a reality and can be shared with all of you!

Something a little fun to share with you today!  Papertrey has a scrapbook page featured in the new issue of Simple Scrapbooks magazine (Sept/Oct 08, page 36) that I made as a request to demonstrate two-step stamping. 

........................................................................................................
It is a really pretty autumnal page featuring a few of David's photographs and the leaves from Beautiful Blooms.  I love the page and it turned out so pretty in print!  Make sure to check it out!

Picking & Packing

David and I just returned from a weekend in Cincinnati to help Julie & Jane with the huge task of shipping out all of our anniversary release orders!  We have never been there to help right after a release, so to see the whole process in action along with the sheer volume of EVERYTHING that they are dealing with was absolutely fascinating!  I took a few photos so that I could share a bit of the process with you!

Everything starts here with Jane.  She does all the legwork in preparing your order to be packed.  She prints invoices & shipping labels, processes payments and organizes all the paperwork for the pickers.

..........................................................................................................................

The pickers take the paperwork and collect all of the items that you have ordered.  This is the "stamp wall" where most of the stamps are organized in order by item number.  This makes it easy for the pickers to find the set(s) they need easily.

...........................................................................................................................

They also make the decision about which box would suit your order the best.  After they are done with that they set the box filled with merchandise in a stack for the packers.  (This is one of the stacks of shipping boxes that were ordered to have on hand for this release!)

...........................................................................................................................

There were two "packers" in place when we were there.  Here is Julie double-checking the contents of the packages.  Every order is checked twice to make sure there are no errors.

............................................................................................................................

Here is Michelle packing up a box.  She has just finished wrapping everything in tissue and preparing the contents for its journey to its final destination!

............................................................................................................................

David is adding another package to the stack waiting for USPS to pick up.  I was so impressed with their speed!  These stacks are what they had completed packing on Friday alone!  And that doesn't include the UPS stack in the back room!

............................................................................................................................

While I was there I tackled the job of making up the stamp packages.  I really enjoyed the process!  Here are ALL the new stamps, waiting to be packaged!

............................................................................................................................

It all starts with assembling the stamp boxes.

............................................................................................................................

It is easiest to do 150 at a time.

...........................................................................................................................

Then it is time to insert the stamps, CD case and rolled instructions with our new label.

...........................................................................................................................

Finally, it is time to add the box band.  And then when these are done, the process is started all over again.  It seemed almost as if in a matter of minutes a batch I would have just completed would be gone!  I am in awe of how fast they work!  So, I am proud to say that many of you will be getting stamp sets that I personally assembled!  I hope you enjoyed this little peak into the process!  After seeing the progress they have made, you should all be getting your packages very soon!!!