Here it is.........My favorite company...........Maya Roads New CHA release

I got the OK from Caroline at Maya Road to post this.........

Beware it may cause you to drool........................


Lets have a contest, I want to hear what you guys think and what you like the best. So post your review about the new Maya Road product and Sunday I will put everyone's name in a hat and the winner will win something new from this catalog. I am sure the girls at Maya Road would like to hear, maybe I can get them to throw something in for a prize too.

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Maya Road New Winter CHA Product................

I know you guys have been dying to see what they are coming out with. Well I got the catalog yesterday and I can tell you we are getting EVERYTHING!

So stay tuned today I will be posting everything this afternoon, so be ready to drool!

Paris Ladies Post

I created this card using 4 different stamp sets by Crafty Secrets: Journal, Sew Special, French Mail, and Cherubs.

I started by stamping the row of ladies in Timber Brown Stazon ink and watercoloring the entire paper with Creamy Caramel ink. Then I stamped the remaining images in various inks, scraped and inked the HECK out of the edges using various Ranger Distress Inks.

The layer of pink paper below is also by Crafty Secrets, from the Pastel paper pad. It's also lovingly inked with Ranger Distress Inks.

The ribbon, my favorite part, was a gift from my friend Vivian.

Hope you have a beautiful day!
-Anna.

Happy Hour at The Crafty Scrapper

We thought we would share some photos of happy hour. Several people have asked how this works. Every Friday between 6-8pm we hold "Happy Hour", come to the cafe bar and complete a little project. There is a different one each Friday and range between $1-$9. You will receive a punch card for the cafe, after you have completed 12 cafe projects you receive a free cafe night with your punch card. This has been a fun addition to the store and we already have regulars that show up every Friday. If there are extra projects they can be purchased the next day.

This last Friday we had a couple of young girls who enjoyed doing this Valentine project that Crazy Aimee taught !

Sherri taught an adorable Home Wall Hanging this Friday and lots of people showed up for her little creation. While some were waiting to belly up to the bar, they enjoyed sitting in the coffee lounge visiting and drinking coffee.

Come join us for some fun "Happy Hour" projects the crafty girls have come up with. In February we have several awesome page layout we will be doing. All projects are on display at the store or online.

I Have a Little Secret to Share....

Have you ever used dimensional glue to attach something and the glue seeped out the edges or THROUGH the element?

...I think I discovered this trick by accident. BUT, since I have been using this technique, my adhered embellishments look SOOOOOOOO much better.

Instead of attaching a silk or paper flower directly to a project, I glue it to a small piece of cardstock first. It won't take much glue to adhere, so it doesn't seep out. When that is dry, I adhere the cardstock piece to my project using dimensional glue. NO GLUE on the outside of my flowers anymore!

Here is a picture of the flower back right before I glued it to my cute recipe tin so you can see what I mean up close and personal.

If you are dimensional glue challenged like I am....this might work for you too!

Susie

Mixing up a Quick Card

Here is my secret for making a quick (but looks intricate) card.....leftovers. Yup - that's what I said. LEFTOVERS.

Right now I am on an aqua and red kick. So I just opened my drawer of blue scraps and grabbed this paper. Next - the red drawer. Voila. I was ready to go. My paper selections gave me the "plan".

Did I mention that I love everything scalloped these days? Yes - I am addicted to scallops.

Next I grabbed my stamps and inks - added some pop dots and jewels and left over ribbon and my card was done.

Unless my recipient reads this blog, she will never know that her card is made of all things left over. I surmise that leftovers are LEFT OVER from other projects I love....so they are good things to use.

So grab some leftovers. You know you want to.

Susie

Easter product is starting to arrive.........

I know, we just put out all the Valentine collections. But a few customers got a peek of it behind the counter and everyone started begging me to put it out, so its out! What until you see what I have planned for this collection, I will give you one hint.....FABRIC!


Don't forget about Happy Hour, Crazy Aimee will be making this adorable love garland $4

No Frills Crop...and some Digi Scrapping.........

Saturday was a BLAST!
With the new chairs and wireless in the store, everyone felt the change at the Crafty Scrapper. We had some new girls that came in search of a new place to crop since their Recollection store is closing. And another new scrappin' friend from up North in search of finding her "Mojo". I must say it was one of our best crops, we laughed, we ate and some of us even learned how to digi scrap. Yes that would be me! With Brook's help I got all excited and bought a few things from a website and began my journey into the digi world. I think my only problem is going to be mastering my Photoshop CS3 program.


As the night wore on Darlene shared with us how she got her "SEXY" back on the cruise she just went on.

As you can see this group was REALLY in love with the new chairs, I think they were sad when we told them they couldn't take chairs with them!

You girls asked, we finally did it.............

Annette, Betty and I went shopping today for chairs for the crop room. So next time you come crop you can enjoy a comfy chair, they swivel, roll and best of all are comfy for the bottom. And yes we bought enough for both crop rooms so nobody has to fight over them.



After we were done buying the chairs we were off to Leta's house for lunch. Leta is a fabulous cook and hostess. She made the most wonderful chicken salad and a strawberry dessert that was out of this world. The highlight of the visit was seeing Leta's house and many scrapbook rooms, yes I said many. Of course she had her main one, but I think the scrapbook supplies have taken over other spaces in the house. We all know how this goes! Leta is one of the reasons I love this business, I have met so many wonderful people that have become good friends and very dear to me.

THANK YOU LETA FOR A WONDERFUL DAY!

Extra Sweet

Do you ever look back at those photos when your child was little and miss that time? I did this layout for February 22nd Happy Hour, and was sad those times are gone. It was funny though, when I got home my son curled up on the couch with me to read a book and fell a sleep. Theses times are rare at age 6, so I try and cherish them when they happen.



Come by February 22nd between 6-8pm for this Happy Hour, cost is $7 includies all supplies.

Contest............................

I sent out a email the beginning of the week, but wanted to make sure everyone saw this. You don't have much time, and can actually use a previous project you created with Maya Roads product.

GOT MAYA ROAD RAGE?
Winter Birds --Fall '07

Are you passionate about our Maya Road products? Do you have a MR project that you would LOVE to show off to us? Well here is your chance!

The Maya Road Family would love to see your projects? We have decided that we would love to take 15 (yes - 15) of our Maya Road fans' projects to CHA-W in Anaheim!

Read on for more details!
MAYA ROAD LOVER'S GALLERY

We are holding an open call from Friday January 11, 2008 (when we send this newsletter) to Friday January 18th, 2008 (11:59 pm central time) for Maya Road Projects. Show us what you have created with your Maya Road stash.

From all the entries, we will review the projects and pick 15 that we will showcase at our CHA-W booth!

As a thank you - the 15 participants who we select will each receive the following:

1. $75 in Maya Road products (including some of our new CHA-W line)
2. An photo of their project being displayed in our booth (emailed)
3. Additional Maya Road products to cover the cost of shipping the project to us

Q & A

* Why are you all holding this call and why is the deadline so short?
o Our design team will be providing tons of inspiration at the show (especially with our new products) but we wanted to showcase what people outside of Maya Road design team have done with our products. We love consumer inspiration!
o The reason the deadline is only a week is that we want our consumers to show us projects that they have already done. We want to see projects you have made and have had published. We want to see projects you have posted online already or ones that you haven't shared. We do not want you to rush out and create something in this deadline (but if you are up for this challenge, we won't stop you).

* Who can enter the call?
o This is an open call to anyone who has a project to submit to the Maya Road Lover's Gallery.

* How many projects can I submit?
o Please only submit 1 project to this call.

* What kind of projects do you want to see?
o The only thing we do not want to see are layouts. Mini albums, altered projects, off the page thinking projects, we would love to see them all.

* What are the submission details?
o Please submit your project photos to mayaroadcall@mayaroad.com .
o Please limit your total file size to 500k and 4 photos.
o Please provide us with your name, email, address and phone number.

* Does the project have to be unseen or unpublished?
o No, as long as you retain the rights to your project and you can allow us to have the rights to feature the project at CHA-W and in promotional photos, we want to see your projects! Once the project is returned to you, you have the rights back to the project. Even if your project has been featured on the Maya Road Design Team Blog, feel free to submit it!

* When will the decision be made on the 15 projects chosen?
o The decision will be made on or around Monday, January 21st, 2008; the 15 entries we have picked will be contacted shortly thereafter. You will only be contacted if your project is chosen. You will be provided with paperwork to fill out and information on where to send the project.

* What if I have a question?
o Feel free to contact us by email at the mayaroadcall@mayaroad.com we will try to answer all emails within 24 business hours and updates will be posted on the Maya Road Design Team Blog.

We hope you all are as excited about this open call as we are. It is amazing to think what we have done in the last 4 years and we have you to thank for it!

Thank you for sharing in the passion of this hobby and for believing in our products.

Along for the journey,
Caroline and Deborah
Maya Road

More Valentines.........

Here is a quick peek at more Valentines that came in from Making Memories. The whole front of the store looks like one big Valentine....I am loving all the new collections, it has actually gotten me inspired to create. Come by and see what we have, Maybe Baby from Daisy D's, Smitten by Bo Bunny, Love Story by Making Memories, Trinket by Luxe Design, Smitten by K & Company, Love me by Imaginisce and Chocolate Kisses by Rusty Pickle.........................

Also check out these awesome $1 stamps by Imaginise. I totally forgot about ordering them, well actually I forgot I had ordered any of it, the Easter and Valentines. But I am glad I did!

As you can see my blog was hijacked yesterday. I have been dying to make some paper flowers and actually bought these vases in mind for that project. Our Creative Cafe showed some made with felt flowers and placed on a box, the new Luxe screamed FLOWERS for this vase. I was so honored when Emily from Luxe called me and said they were going to feature it on the Luxe Blog, but I was even more honored when she put it on her blog. If you haven't seen this paper and rub-ons, you will LOVE it! Thanks Luxe girls for the awesome Valentines collection, as we say at the Crafty Scrapper "It's HOT"

Woohoo -- I Hijacked the Blog!!!

Hey there. I am adding a post here because there are a few things that Carolyn of the Crafty Scrapper left out of her post below. #1 Caroline of Maya Roads visited all right, she ALSO put a note about her visit on her blog and talked about how much she enjoyed the visit, what she thought of the store, etc. #2 This little cute creation (see pic) was made by Carolyn with a new line of LUXE papers; She has been talking about doing these for a few weeks, but just this week had time to get them done....the additional info that may or may not be known is that this has been posted on the Luxe Designs Blog as a guest contribution AND was put on Emily's blog (head of Luxe). To get to this blog look to the left side on the Luxe Designs Blog, there is a link to Emily's blog. This will be a Friday Night Happy Hour project too!

Good Job Carolyn!! You don't get noticed enough for the creativeness you have!

PS:Carolyn, I hope you don't take my password privileges away

A Day With Maya Roads.............

Caroline, one of the owners of Maya Roads, came to visit today. NO she wouldn't tell me ANYTHING about what they were coming out with at CHA, believe me I tried. We did throw a lot of ideas back and forth, talked about them coming to teach and several other things. One thing about Maya Roads I love, besides the AWESOME product, is how sweet they are, and how they care about the independent stores and are there to help and answer any questions.

Now for some great news.....Caroline and her DT coordinator Lisa, are coming to teach in March. They will be teaching something NEW from the Winter CHA show. She said we will be very surprised and pleased, so keep a look out for the dates, this class will definitely fill fast with so many Maya Road Groupies out there.

Caroline also brought lots of goodies to the store, assorted chipboard crowns, assorted chipboard frames, and a few things we were out of. Most important is the famous heart box and album that were featured on the cover of Creative Keepsake .

We still have the Love Elise Betty product that was used on this box and album. Here's a picture of the one I am working on, I will post finished pictures when I am done.



One last thing before I call it a night........Caroline sent over this picture of some adorable cupcakes she made, don't you just want to eat them? I will definitely be scrap-lifting that idea...Thanks Caroline for a great day!

Fall Family Fun..........

As promised, my fall family acrylic album. This was my first acrylic project, then I became hooked. I used Rusty Pickles French Market collection and My Word Fancy Pants stamps, and of course my wonderful photos from my friend who is a photographer, Marie. Annette brought in the class example for me to peek at, you girls are going to love it and it will get you started on acrylic. She had to tweak a few things and add more, it should be in the store Friday along with times and dates for the class.............its called the "UR acrylic tab album", you will love it!