PaperCrafter's Corner

Welcome to PaperCrafter's Corner!

Welcome to PaperCrafter's Corner! This is your source for Southern Scrapbook News & Gossip!

We began with a focus on Georgia, but we now cover Alabama and South Carolina as well. We will be expanding our reach into additional Southern states later in 2010.

To get started-- You will find national and area-wide scrapbook "news" headlines listed in reverse chronological order below. Tidbits specific to your state will be posted on your state's main page. Information on local scrapbook stores, events & crops, retreat locations, etc are also linked to your state's page.

We're here to bond over our favorite "sport" and have some fun. Yep, we're a diversion. We're just "infotainment" that keeps you from work, your laundry, or your actual paper crafting projects ... but it's worth it :)

We welcome your suggestions! If you know of an upcoming event that we haven't included or of some local scrappy news, gossip or kudos, be sure to let us know!

Feed subscribers receive notifications of news articles posted on the main PCC page, not updates to informational pages or state-specific info. This means you will want to check your state's pages regularly as well.

PaperCrafter's Corner and Club CK {Giveaways Galore!}

Starting in December 2009, Creating Keepsakes starting teasing us with information about their new Club CK. What was Club CK? Would it replace the magazine? (no) How much would it cost? Would it be worth the cost? So many questions swirled the blogosphere!

Club CK finally launched in early February, but they are celebrating their grand opening for the entire month of March. We at PaperCrafter's Corner are THRILLED to be working directly with CK to help them with their exciting Grand Opening Month!

PaperCrafter's Corner & Club CK 

Giveaways Galore at Club CK -- Including a PaperCrafter's Corner Sidebar Ad!

Starting TODAY over at Club CK, you can enter to win a month of free advertising from PaperCrafter's Corner! PaperCrafter's Corner Contest at Club CK. This is great opportunity for ANYONE wishing to reach our awesome readers. Just think: LSS owners, kit club owners, direct sales consultants (SU, CTMH, CM, etc), scrapbook retreat providers, online scrapbook store owners.... really ANY scrapbook product or service provider who wants to reach the most active paper crafters in the South!

Actually, you should bookmark & visit the contest page of Club CK every day throughout the month of March. Why? Because each day this month, Club CK will be revealing a new giveaway. All contests (including ours) will close on March 31, 2010. So go enter ours as well as the others!

 

Win a Club CK Premium Charter Membership from PaperCrafter's Corner!

Club CK has generous donated TWO of their Club CK Premium Charter Memberships for giveaway through PaperCrafter's Corner! Each Premium Membership Includes:

• Club CK Exclusive Welcome Kit ($16 value)
• Subscription to the new Scrapbooking Tips & Tricks magazine ($23.96 value)
• CK Convention Discounts ($30 value)
• Deals & Discounts from other CK sponspors, including 10% all purchases from Joann
• Free font library & clip art library
• Digital back issues & books

We are holding two separate giveaways for our two donated memberships:

1. Go visit the Club CK PaperCrafter's Corner contest page and leave a comment mentioning PaperCrafter's Corner. Then come back here & leave a comment telling us you did so.... using the same "name" that you used for your comment over at the CK page. We will pick one of you at random to win a Club CK Charter Membership! This portion of OUR contest ends Tuesday night, March 22nd, at midnight eastern.
2. Visit us at the PaperCrafter's Corner info table at the Paper Crafting Extravaganza in Perry, GA this weekend (Mar 12-14, 2010). One winner will be selected from all giveaway entries to win our a Club CK Charter Membership!

Whew! That's a lot of info & a lot of giveaways! You've got some work to do now!

Dear Lizzy from American Crafts: TWO Chances to Win!!! {Giveaway}

One of the most talked-about lines from the recent CHA show was the Dear Lizzy line from American Crafts. Can we all just agree that American Crafts has a homerun with this one? Okay, good. We all agree :)

This line is beautiful. Here is a layout created by Elizabeth Kartchner herself, direct from the the American Crafts blog:

 

That ribbon is amazing! I've been seeing variations of this style embellishment on shoes, sweaters, t-shirts ... and now here it is on a layout! Let's admire it for one more second :)

Okay, moving on: Let's admire these crocheted flowers. Seriously. How does American Crafts manufacture these babies? They look hand-done! Not my problem, I suppose.

I know we would ALL love a chance to play with the Dear Lizzy line. Well, here's your chance! Actually.... here are TWO chances to win a complete Dear Lizzy prize pack direct from American Crafts. The prize packages will include:

• Patterned Paper
• Ribbon
• Rub-ons
• Stickers
• Crocheted Flowers
• And more!

How to Win?

Chance #1:

If you are attending the Paper Crafting Extravaganza in middle Georgia this weekend (Mar 12-14), stop by the PaperCrafter's Corner booth & fill out a giveaway form. We will be doing giveaways throughout the event from a variety of companies. AFTER the event is over, we will do 2 EXTRA giveaways, pulling two names from ALL of the forms we receive throughout the event. One of those will be for this Dear Lizzy Prize Package! (What will the other one be for? Stay tuned ... :)

Chance #2:

Whether you are attending Paper Crafting Extravaganza or not, enter HERE! Just leave a comment below telling us what piece of advice you would ask of Lizzy, if given the opportunity. "Dear Lizzy... How do I...?" Actually, mine might be, "Dear Lizzy, Can I trade places with you for one day?" haha :) Entry for chance #2 is open now through Friday, March 19th at midnight Eastern.

BOTH of the above winners will be announced together during the weekend of March 19th, 2010.

Good luck everyone! I look forward to meeting many of you this weekend ... and to hearing what advice you would ask of Elizabeth Kartchner if given the opportunity :) Who knows? Maybe we'll even get a chance to ask her one or two of your questions?!?

  
  
  

Giveaways EVERY Day in March at Couture Cardstock

Back in November 2009, we let you know about a new cardstock company in town called Couture Cardstock. They are headquartered in Marietta, GA and are providing a premium cardstock at fair prices... which in the wake of Prism's closing, I'm glad to see! Couture Cardstock hit the ground running in November and hasn't slowed down since!

Couture Cardstock has much to be proud of: They boast a top-notch design team providing DAILY inspiration via their blog; They had a terrific showing at their first CHA in January (Pix here); They just won a travel grant designed to help small businesses expand internationally from British Airways (story here)!

Have you tried Couture Cardstock yet? If not, would you like to? We at PaperCrafter's Corner will be doing out own giveaway of Couture Cardstock in the near future. But for now, there are opportunities GALORE over at the CC blog to win some of their cardstock to try!

Couture Cardstock is celebrating National Craft Month in two exciting ways on their blog:

#1:  You could win 291 sheets of Couture Cardstock!

"We are giving it all away! In honor of National Craft Month, we are holding a month long contest in March. The winner will receive 1 of every product in our store.  That’s 291 sheets of cardstock, in every color, weight, and texture you could ever need!  Here’s what you have to do to win: put our blinkie on your blog using the code available int eh sidebar to the right.   Leave us a comment (on this post) with a link to your blog where you posted our blinkie, and you are entered to win!  That’s all there is to it! We will draw one very lucky winner on April 2nd.  (if you already have our blinkie, leave us a comment and tell us that too, you are eligible to win)."

 

#2: EVERY day in March you have a chance to win a Couture Cardstock prize pack.

To celebrate National Craft Month, we are holding a month long contest here at Couture Cardstock, and your participation will determine the size of the prize!  Each day during the month of March, we will be offering a challenge on our blog.  Each day, you have one opportunity win a prize pack by completing that challenge and linking it to that day’s post.   For every challenge entry received, we will add a sheet of cardstock to the prize pack. All entries must be posted by 11:59 pm EST the day of that challenge and the winner for each day will be selected the following morning.  The minimum prize pack will be 10 sheets of your choice, the maximum depends on YOU!!

The details:

1. You may enter each challenge once (only one entry per person per day).
2. Entries must be posted in a gallery or on a personal blog, and must mention Couture Cardstock in the description.
3. You do not need to use Couture Cardstock in your entries, although we encourage you to do so.
4. Each project completed may only be used once.
5. All entries must by posted and linked to the corresponding challenge post by 11:59 pm EST, the day the challenge is posted.
6. The minimum prize pack per day will be 10 sheets of your choice.

As Couture Cardstock is a PaperCrafter's Corner sponsor (thank you!) AND a Southern paper crafting company, we couldn't resist letting you know about this great opportunity to win some of their cardstock & papers! So go visit the Couture Cardstock blog and enter to win!

Have you tried the Couture Cardstock yet? If so, drop us a comment below & let us know what you think! And if you win some cardstock from their March giveaways, we hope you'll come back & let us know about it. Good luck everyone!

 

Hobby Lobby Ad through March 13, 2010

Or see the entire ad on the Hobby Lobby site here, showing all items on sale in add departments.

Related Post: Archivers Coupons good through March 14, 2010.
 

What's the deal with Copics? {And a Double Giveaway!}

Okay, okay, okay. I give up! It's time for me to learn a little about Copics! I've been hearing about Copics for at least a year now, if not longer. But since it was a "marker" and I already have a full set of markers from Stampin Up, I figured, "Who cares about a new marker?"

Sacrilege, I know!

I had a chance to see Copics up-close at the Heirloom Productions Stamp Show last month. I had a chance to try use them while I was working a make-n-take with The Stamping Studio.

Okay, NOT just a marker. But I needed to learn more! Here's a quick overview I grabbed directly from the Copics website:

Copic Markers are the original line of high quality illustrating tools, used for decades by professionals around the world. They are preferred for Architectural design, product rendering, and other forms of Industrial design. They are also popular among the hobby industry for use with models, ceramics and similar projects. We are proud to bring you the highest quality, longest lasting, most versatile markers available anywhere. With over 300 colors, replaceable nibs and ink refills, you will never need to go any further than right here for all your marker needs.

Why choose COPIC?
• Refillable ink and replaceable nibs
• 334 colors
• Guaranteed to not dry out for three years
• Copic Markers are Non-toxic
• Alcohol-based ink dries acid-free
• Our Airbrush System works with COPIC markers
• Guaranteed color consistency

Copic manufactures 4 different types of markers, as well as 4 different types of pens. With all of those choices, I have to admit I'm confused. The two most popular types of Copics are the Copic Sketch Marker (left) and the Copic Marker (right):

 
It's hard to see the difference in these pictures, but the Sketch Marker (left) is oval shaped and comes in 334 colors, each with a medium broad tip and a brush tip. The original Copics Marker (right) is square shaped and comes in 214 colors, each with a medium broad tip and a bullet tip.

Still confused? Yeah, me too. Why don't I let a professional take it from here. Go visit Jennifer McGuire's blog here to see her breakdown of ALL things Copic. Then, you can visit Jennifer's blog here to see a video demonstration of how Copics actually work.... and/or if you prefer a pictorial demonstration (I get impatient with videos), you can visit this link from The Stamping Studio to see a step-by-step lesson in using them.

Whew! Isn't that better?

So, if you weren't familiar with Copics already, now you at least know what everyone is talking about ... and I bet you'll be more inclined to give them a try the next time you have an opportunity :)

In fact, several of the LSS in our coverage area regularly offer Copic classes. I'm sure I'm missing some, but here are a few LSS with upcoming classes:

• Once Upon a Scrapbook in Huntsville, AL
• Scrapbook Mania in Birmingham, AL
• Impressive Ideas in Roswell, GA (Copics class schedule)
• Charleston Scrapbooking in Charleston, SC
• The Stamping Place in West Columbia, SC
• Funkie Munkie Scraps in Greer, SC

Uh oh...That means you may have some new product creeping into your scrap space soon. And I know what THAT means. You'll be needing more STORAGE for those new Copics! Luckily, we can help with that!!

Did you notice the Copic storage solution that Jennifer McGuire was using in her craft space?

 

Those babies are called Color Cubbies and are manufactured by a small company called, Studio 3 Solutions. I saw how much Jennifer loved them and thought that perhaps you might like them too!

Studio 3 Solutions has generously agreed to sponsor two (2) fantastic giveaways of their Color Cubbies!  And we would HATE for those cubbies to start off empty.... so The Stamping Studio in Lincolnton, GA has generously offered to provide 3 new Copic markers to each of our two winners!

First Giveaway

One PaperCrafter's Corner reader will win a Color Cubbie and 3 Copic Markers by commenting below. To enter, tell us: Do you have any Copics? If so, which kind(s) do you prefer? Are they worth all the "buzz" surrounding them? Leave your comment by Wednesday, March 10th at midnight! Winner will be chosen at random.

Second Giveaway

Are you planning on going to the Paper Crafting Extravaganza in Perry, GA next weekend (Mar 12-14)? If so, be sure to stop by the PaperCrafter's Corner info table to say hello .... and to check out a sample of the Color Cubbie we'll be giving away in a drawing at the event! The winner of the drawing will then have the luxury of heading over to The Stamping Studio's booth at PCE to select your 3 brand new Copics in person. How fun is THAT?!

Many thanks to Studio 3 Solutions and to The Stamping Studio for donating such fun, topic-appropriate items for this great giveaway!

Don't we have fun here at PaperCrafter's Corner? If you have scrappy friends who haven't yet joined-in our fun, be sure to send 'em a link to come check us out! (Or send them a note from our facebook fan page to "suggest" they become a fan!)

 

{Ippity} Stamp Set Giveaway: A Winner!

Last week, {Ippity} invited you to vote on your favorite stamp set from their new Winter 2010 collection. We had 115 votes for their 8 new sets! Wow, that's awesome participation, ya'll! (Original contest post here.)

Far & away, your favorite set was: "What Matters Most."

"Regal Greetings" captured 2nd place:

 

There was a tie for 3rd place between "Moon Beam & Heart Strings" and "Music of My Heart." In 5th place was "Love in Return." The last 3 sets weren't even close in number of votes! (I think this is some good market research for Ippity!)

Do you draw any conclusions about the winners? I think it's interesting that "What Matters Most" should win as I know that with the recent weak economy there has been a trend toward "home" with people eating less meals out, taking fewer vacations, etc. Wonder if there is a correlation?

To check out all the stamp sets from the {Ippity} Winter 2010 release, visit the Ippity site here.  

So who was the winner? Our random drawing winner for this giveaway was ...Juliana Swanson! Here was her voting comment:

What a great concept--you have the wheels of my head spinning!!

I am totally torn between the music one and Regal greetings! AARG!!!

Okay, Juliana. You are going to have to make a final decision of which is your absolute fave so that {Ippity} can send you your prize! 

Many thanks to ALL of you who entered to win. This was a fun contest :) And a huge thanks to {Ippity} for their generous donation. We look forward to additional fun with Unity Stamp Company and {Ippity} in the future!

  

News Briefs & Event Announcement Updates

Hi Paper Crafters! Just a quick note to let you know that we've updated several items on the pages for each of our 3 covered states: Alabama, Georgia & South Carolina. If you haven't checked your state's page for events & news lately, don't forget to do so--- I'd hate for you to miss something!

From your state's home page, after catching up on any news, be sure to take a look at the events page to make sure you're up-to-date on those listings too.

Have some scrappy news or gossip to share with your fellow PCC readers? Send it to us! susan@papercrafterscorner.com

Hobby Lobby Coupon & Ad: March 1-6, 2010

Or visit the Hobby Lobby site directly here to see the full ad for items on sale in all Hobby Lobby departments. 

Related Post: Archivers Coupons now through March 4, 2010 

Quick Quotes Private Reserve in Atlanta 2010 {And a Giveaway!}

Have you  heard of the Quick Quotes' annual Private Reserve Educational Extravaganza? I hadn't either until one of you told me about what a fabulous time you'd had at the QQ Private Reserve event in 2009. (Thank you PCC reader, Lisa!)

Each year, Quick Quotes selects 6 different locations throughout the US for their exclusive Private Reserve events. This year, Atlanta, GA is lucky enough to have been selected as one of those locations!

What is Private Reserve?

Private Reserve is an exclusive, education-based, three-day event featuring workshops with fabulous teachers, crops, mini-classes, lunches and ... wait for it .... $30,000 worth of prizes & FREE product given away at each weekend! Wow!

The Atlanta event will be held October 15-17, 2010 at the Hilton Atlanta / Marriott Conference Center. The cost for the event is $299.00 (with a special room rate of $89 available.) If you'd like to attend, be sure to register soon as spaces fill quickly!

Ready to get REALLY excited? Guess what?!? 

ONE lucky PaperCrafter's Corner reader will be selected to attend the Private Reserve Event of their choice destination for FREE! Yes, FREE! Isn't that fantastic? That's $299 tuition! (Hotel not included.)

To enter to win, simply comment below telling us: (1) Have you attended a QQ Private Reserve Event before? (2) Which of the 6 QQ Private Reserve locations would YOU like to attend if you're lucky enough to win? The winner will be chosen at random. Contest closes on Monday night, March 15, 2010.

Are you already a QQ Private Reserve fan? If you've already registered to attend the 2010 QQ Private Reserve event, you can still enter to win. If your name is chosen, you will receive instead a "Buy One Get One Free" offer. In other words, you can bring a friend and split the coast with her -- plus you will receive a $25 gift certificate to use at the event if you win and are already registered!

Many thanks to Quick Quotes for providing us such a fabulous giveaway!

Good luck, PCC Readers! And have fun!

Fabulous, Professional Photography Lessons ---- for Free?!?

I'd sure like to be a better photographer. I see the articles in scrapbook magazines with "easy" tips for better photos, but I just get confused by crazy jargon like "aperture" or "f-stop" and move onto the next article instead.

To compensate for my lousy photography, I take about 800 photos at a time, hoping for just one shot at 7 megapixels that I can later enlarge & crop to be the "money" shot of the event. I then end up with 750 awful shots and 50 usable yet boring shots. (Not to mention how un-fun it is to cull down those 800 shots to a "mere" 50!)

Because none of my shots are absolutely fabulous, I then feel compelled to include 12 pictures on every scrapbook layout so that somehow I can convey what the event or situation really was. At this rate, the "artful" one photo layout will forever elude me.

Wouldn't it be great to get some really good photography lessons? Yeah, sure. But who has time for that? Or the money? And won't they still just throw around a lot of nonsensical jargon that makes my eyes roll into the back of my head?

Well, maybe not!

PaperCrafter's Corner reader Holly Craft of Lawrenceville, GA has been posting some really incredible photos and photography lessons on her blog over the last couple of weeks. Each post includes a theme that focuses on how to train yourself to see great photo opportunities and take advantage of them, rather than on how to use all the fancy settings on your camera.

Each lesson includes simple yet impactful photo examples, and some of them are just breathtaking. What is exciting for me is that she explains WHY the photos are so good....and it rarely has anything to do with a camera setting!

Here are a couple of photos that highlight her lesson on using repetition to make a picture more powerful:

 

Pretty neat, huh? I can tell you that when I was snapping pix to show the unusual Georgia snow a couple of weeks ago, my shots didn't quite turn out like that ;)

Holly's lessons are exciting for me because they show that if I just look for opportunities like these and some of the others she highlights, I might one day take some impactful photos of my own without ever understanding an F-stop!

Thank you, Holly, for your fabulous photo advice. I look forward to continuing my photography classes with you for as long as you're offering them :)

PS: Be sure to visit Holly's blog, Today's Creations, when you have a few extra minutes to spare. I promise you'll be sucked into her lessons and want to spend some time catching up on her last few weeks worth of lessons!

We have a winner! Charleston, SC Scrapbook Retreat from Croptopia Getaways!

 

Last week, we launched one of our most exciting giveaways yet:  A pampered, girlfriends getaway scrapbook retreat from Croptopa Getaways! The winner of this fabulous retreat will enjoy a premiere scrapbooking getaway in Charleston, SC.

To recap, the event features 53 hours of non-stop crafting time, an exhibitor marketplace for all your shopping needs, reserved eating with your friends, generous crop space, delicious buffet meals, overnight guest accomodations, a Croptopia signature goodie bag, raffles, prizes, celebrity class instructors Cara Miller and Jenni Bowlin, and more!

Many thanks to the 87 of you who entered to win. We enjoyed reading about your favorite "low country" or southern foods. Yum!! You made us so hungry! The random winning entry came from Robin Peterson Wilson who said her favorite southern food was:

a mess of collard greens and a big glass of sweet tea, and it's making me hungry too

Congratulations Robin! We'll contact you directly to get you in touch with Croptopia Getaways to claim your prize.

For those of you who entered but didn't win, I hope you will consider organizing a few girlfriends & registering for the event on your own! (More info on the event here.)

Again, many thanks to all who entered. And a huge thank you to Croptopia Getaways for contributing such a generous prize. We had a lot of fun! And we have even more fun giveaways coming SOON to PaperCrafter's Corner... so stay tuned!

Changes at Split Coast Stampers Community

Late last week, Daven at SplitCoastStampers posted an announcement on their website entitled, "Changes at Splitcoast." You can read the announcement here, but essentially SplitCoast has been sold again to a new entity. 

SplitCoast was founded in 2003 and has evolved into a huge online community. They are the #1 stamping community on the web. They were sold 19 months ago to a company called NameMedia. As of December 2009, they have been sold again to a company named Internet Brands.

Apparently after the initial sale, the company originators were still very much involved in the day-to-day of the business. Now, with this sale to Internet Brands, those company founders are saying goodbye.

You can read their goodbyes along with some introductions to the new management at this thread here on the splitcoast forum.

I have never personally been terribly active on Splitcoast so I'm not feeling much of an impact from this announcement.... but I imagine that some of you are very active over there. Have you seen any changes yet? If not, do you anticicipate changes or do you think things will continue as-is to the end user, yourself?

In reading different reactions to this news, I have to say that my biggest shock was in hearing that supposedly, because of the popularity of blogs, now message boards and forums are decreasing in popularity.... (Uh oh, really? Somebody should have told us that before we started our new forum! Haha, I crack myself up. No, our forum isn't meant to BE PaperCrafter's Corner. It's simply a supplement so that you guys can get together IRL more easily.)

Who knows what changes will come to Splitcoast over the coming months? I did enjoy reading an excellent editorial on the SplitCoast sale at Craft Critique from Editor-in-Chief, Sarah Moore. Sarah takes a step back and talks about what has made SplitCoast such a good online community... good points that we at PaperCrafter's Corner have taken to heart :) You can read her article here.

So, what do you think? What are your thoughts on the SplitCoast sale, possible changes at Splitcoast, and the future of online paper crafting communities?