Call for Entries! 2009 Design Team

Kaleidoscope Cards and Crafts is now accepting applicants for their 2009 Design Team!

Applications are due by December 15, 2009 and must include the following:

- Pictures of 5 paper-craft projects completed by you.
These pieces may include ATCs (Artist Trading Cards), Tags, Cards, Scrapbook Layouts, Altered CD's, Altered Books, or any other paper-crafting project.
- Statement telling us a little about you. Please keep under 250 words.
- Statement telling us why you would like to be part of a design team. Please keep under 250 words.
- Statement telling us what other online paper-crafting communities you are involved with.

Please e-mail your submission to kim@kaleidoscopecardsandcrafts.com.

Please Note: Failure to include and meet all of the above requirements will result in immediate disqualification from consideration.

As a design team member we will:

- Provide you with supplies at the beginning of every month no cost
- Provide you with a coupon code to use on all additional purchases
- Compensate you with 10% commission for every customer you send to Kaleidoscope Cards and Crafts who uses your referral/coupon code
- NOT expect you to be an exclusive design team member. In other words, keep designing for other companies and keep the affiliations you have!

Your responsibility as a design team member will be:

- Post weekly to the Kaleidoscope Cards and Crafts forum
- Post three projects monthly EXCLUSIVELY to the Kaleidoscope Cards and Crafts gallery (by exclusively we mean design team member will not post the projects to any other forum or gallery)
- Develop three projects with "How To" instructions over the course of the year to be posted in the Kaleidoscope Cards and Crafts forum

Please e-mail kim@kaleidoscopecardsandcrafts.com with any questions you may have or to submit your application.

Crafting Music

I LOVE to listen to music when I'm working or crafting. Do I know who I'm listening to? 99% of the time the answer would be a big NO. But I love listening away.

Today I'm sharing my Playlist with you...

I would love for you to share your playlist with us! Please comment on our post and include a link to your Playlist!

Papercakes and their Paper Treats!

Some of you may know that Kaleidoscope Cards and Crafts joined Twitter a few weeks back... if you didn't know, or if you're not a member, visit Twitter and sign up today! Our username is kaleidoscopecnc. Anyway, the rest of this post came to be after we received a new follower earlier this week.

Anytime we receive a new follower we check out who the person is. We like to know who's following us, and if the person or company looks interesting, follow them as well! Paper Cakes made an instant impact when owner Chelsea Ling started following us yesterday. Right away I found her logo adorable and as I browsed from her Twitter profile to her Blog and then on to her Etsy store, I found her product line was just as sweet and sophisticated!

Below are a few pieces Chelsea has for sale in her Paper Cakes Etsy store.

Check out the STUNNING Shabby Chic Christmas Snowflake Ball ornament by Paper Cakes to the left!

How could you possibly pass on having at least one of these on your tree? And why not order extras to give out as presents?

These adorable Gingerbread Christmas ornaments in Dotty Red and Dotty Aqua, also come in Dotty Pink and in a Personalized version.

Although much more refined and sophisticated, these ornaments remind me of the ornaments on my family's tree when I was a child. I would take a Christmas tree covered in these ornaments over a professionally decorated monochromatic tree anyday!

Aren't these Cutesy Christmas Gift Tags GORGEOUS?! Chelsea is obviously quite aware that brown paired with any other color is hot wherever you are. And I just love brown with pink and blue!

Pair these tags with a gift bag from American Crafts and your gift is ready to go!



Many thanks to Chelsea Ling for letting us feature products from her Etsy store Paper Cakes on today's entry!

Would you like to be featured on the Kaleidoscope Cards and Crafts blog or would you like to recommend an artist? Please email your recommendation/request to kim@kaleidoscopecardsandcrafts.com.

Weekend Crop - January 17-18, 2009

I am SO excited to announce that Kaleidoscope Cards and Crafts will be hosting a two-day, all-night crop from 8am, Saturday, January 17 through 6pm, Sunday, January 18!

Here's the info! Click here to go straight to the store!

EVENT INCLUDES:

• Warm and friendly atmosphere provided by:

Hampton Inn and Suites, 7043 Miller Lane, Dayton, Ohio, 45414

• Access to the conference/crop room from 8am Saturday through 6pm Sunday
• Half a table workspace per participant
• $15 Store Credit for Kaleidoscope Cards and Crafts to be redeemed at crop
• Access to a wide variety of scrapbooking tools to play with and test out!
• Lunch and Dinner on Saturday
• Breakfast and Lunch on Sunday
• Snacks and Beverages provided throughout event
  

WHAT TO BRING WITH YOU:

• We will have a selection of supplies for sale, but you are welcome to bring any of your own to use as well.

We will accept cash or credit card for purchases made at the crop.

• A selection of photographs you wish to use, or your digital camera.

We will have a photo printer available for a nominal fee.

• Comfortable shoes or slippers
• Comfortable clothes
• Don't feel like chatting? Bring your Walkman/Discman/MP3 Player!
• Cell phone charger, but please be respectful of other participants and monitor your cell phone usage while in the crop room.
• Camera to remember how much fun you had!

Seats are limited so make your reservation soon!

Please no participants under 12 years of age.

Addition information can be found at Kaleidoscope Cards and Crafts' online store.

Don't Stress! Scrapbook!

As we've all heard before, the holidays can bring much stress to an otherwise calm life. Even if you don't celebrate Christmas, the ever-present mob at the mall and constant drone of Christmas music can put some people over the edge. So why not save your patience for the people who really deserve it (I perfer to use it on my kids) and make scrapbook layouts as presents instead?

Someone close to you just get married? How about a beautiful layout of their special day? Even one photograph scrapbooked beautifully would be a wonderful present if framed and ready to hang on the wall.

The following is the only layout I have done of my wedding... only seven years have gone by...

Shamefully I can't remember who she was, but I was watching a scrapbooking show on the DIY Network 3-4 years ago and saw this FABULOUS technique of folding the paper. I decided to add my own spin and added an eyelet to each fold and a charm in the middle of the bottom. In the end the whole layout probably cost around $10, not bad if you are trying to save money on presents!

Following are a few more layouts I have done that could be used for presents...

For the baseball fan, such as Grand-dad or Uncle Soso - show you and your team at a baseball game! We had a great time at this Yankee's game!

And even if it's not a present for someone else, don't forget to memorialize Baby's First Christmas! We had a heck of a time getting "Thing 1" to give us a smile (he was two months old) but in the end all those photos worked out great for this photo collage!

Once again I used eyelets in the corners, but I alternated between stars and red and green circles.

If you would like to be included in one of our future blog entries, please email images of your projects to kim@kaleidoscopecardsandcrafts.com. You may also post them in the gallery at our forum found at http://www.kaleidoscopecardsandcrafts.com/forum. If we use your image, we will tell the world who made the piece, link to your site if you have one, and give you a $10 credit to http://www.kaleidoscopecardsandcrafts.com. How can you beat that?!?!