Our Autumn Blessings Free Printable, Linky Party Postponed & News!

Hi Everyone,

There is so much going on here with all our exciting changes I forgot about our Linky Party, so to make up I'm posting the most awesome 2012 Autumn Blessings Printable Gift for you!  It's a combination of 5 different files I sent Cindy, our graphic designer and after she layered and tweaked everything the result was stunning!  The colors turned out perfect for a Thanksgiving card, a framed sign, an iron-on for a pillow or apron.  It's 8.5 x 11" and just over 1 MB so left click to get it as big as possible and right click to save to a photo file.  Personal use only please but feel free to link here and tell your friends

 I'm moving our Linky Party to next Monday, Oct 8/12. so if you create anything cool you should enter it and you could be the random.org $50.00 winner!  I hope all the people who have ordered our Halloween CD and Digital Downloads will think about showing us what they have created and post a sample!  

  Here is Some Other Exciting News!

We will have a new website soon that will automatically bring up links for any digital products purchased and eventually all our products will be available there.

We are going to be introducing a new Design Team.  Vicki Chrisman will still be our Head Designer and I will post details soon

I'm in training for making youtube videos with tutorials that will show you all sorts of creative ideas for using our products. We will also have guests contributing videos so email me if you create youtubevideos, love our products and would like to be a guest.

I've been working on a plan for commercial use of our CD and Digital Images and will be posting details soon on the new website.  Many people create cards and other handmade items to sell and I want to be able to offer that option.

More digital products will be added to our new site as well as Our Etsy Store but eventually I plan to close our Shopatron Store and have our own store on our new website as we will have more creative flexibility.

Watch for NEW items by other vendors like our coming line of T-shirts. greeting cards, posters, fabric and die cutting designs!  

Our Big Sale will continue until all the stock is gone!  There are multiple cases of many of the printed products but some titles of our Clear Art Stamps are starting to sell out.  I mentioned in my last post we had 2 NEW Christmas Sets ready in August but our stamp manufacture has new owners, who moved the plant and service went downhill. Last week a new company contacted me, they have already made drafts, we need to check them and if all is well we will place an order for both set.  I need to find time to contact other stamp companies and see if any would want to sell our Clear Art Stamp Line, or maybe just have only the very best sellers made until our printed products run out.

Wholesale Sale Pricing will be available on our printed products and possibly on the Clear Art Stamps that we have a large amount of stock.  Please contact us for our new Wholesale Order Form.

Lastly I have some samples to share from Michele, Julie and Vicki.  

 Look at these adorable samples 'Treat Holders that Michele Kovack created using our Halloween Digital Kit and her Silhouette Die Cutter! You can get details here on Michele's Blog. If you noticed I mentioned 'Die Cutting Design Files'  above as a new product and yes, they will will with the Silhouette Die Cutter!

Here is a cute card Julie Campbell made using the Halloween Digital Download Kit and you can also check out Julie's pretty Autumn Journal pages.  The Halloween CD is also in stock and shipping now (has same files as download) and include some fun altered photos.

I mentioned Vicki's Fall Festival & Flea Market in my last post but it's this weekend  if you live in Nebraska and it's grown bigger than just her art group now, so there will be a huge variety of hand craftted and shabby vintage items for sale! 

 In the meantime, thanks for your patience and support!  We try and look big but we're just a little 2.5 person office with 1 shipper and my hubby Scott who also helps us out.

Sandy Redburn

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This Blog: http://heartwarmingvintage.blogspot.com
Our Website: http://www.craftysecrets.com
 
Toll Free Phone or Fax 1-888 597-8898
Local Phone 604 597-8817
 
Crafty Secrets Head Office
15430 78 A Ave.,
Surrey, BC V3S 8R4

USA Warehouse
250 H. Street, #436
Blaine,WA 9823

Vintage Halloween CD, Tips & Links, New Samples and Update!

Hi Everyone,





Feedblitz keeps giving me errors and didn't send this to subscribers so I'm trying again.  I think we have too many subscribers for the 'free version'

Our Halloween CD finally arrived and a bunch of orders were sent out Friday! The silk screened superior labels take longer than paper ones but it all turned out amazing!

We send our orders by priority mail and here's the link to the Halloween CD in our Shopatron Store. We've also been selling the Halloween designs in smaller groups in our Etsy Store with papers $7.99, or the 12 templates for $5.99.

Click on the covers to see them jumbo sized and you can also see the preview sheets and samples here in our Shopatron Store.  

If you are wondering why I increased the price(it's $17.99, CD 1, 2 & 3 are $15.99) by $2.00 it's because quality antique seasonal images and are far more costly than buying patterns to create papers, plus the altered witch ladies and children as well as the 12 templates took so much time to design - but they were so worth the effort and hours our graphic designer Cindy van Koll put into it!  Also, Liv from Country Liv's Cottage Art helped wrap things up when Cindy was on vacation and made samples sheets like this with the Templates.

I love all the Templates like the mini Popcorn box which has a funny poem on one side.        
I made cheesey popcorn for my niece and nephew and they loved having their own.

I've been learning Photoshop and helping and we currently working on several projects including an amazing Christmas CD that is making my heart sing!

  

Image Editing Programs

I've had so many people inquiring about the CD's who are new to digital and wondering if they will be able to 'figure it out'.  Yes - if you can open a jpg or png file you can use our CD’s to print the papers and designs for all sorts of projects!  See my list below.

If you have an image editing program you can also easily re-size, crop, color, add text and print our Halloween images and designs on a variety of mediums using several image software programs that are FREE.  Check your computer to see if you already have a built in program you can use such as Paint, Microsoft Office Picture Manager, Windows Photo Gallery and often  printers come with photo editing programs.

Here are Links to the Most Popular FREE Image Editing  Viewing Programs

www.gimp.org  for Windows or Mac

www.photoscape.org

picasa.google.com

www.getpaint.net

pixlr.com

www.faststone.org

www.adobe.com    Adobe offers a free 30 day trial for Adobe Photoshop Elements 10 and for Adobe Premiere Elements.  Both are for the fully functional programs and offer a perfect way to see if you like the software!  

ALSO:  All of our Creating with Vintage CD series have a tutorial by digital expert Patty Deboswski www.thedigitalscrapbookteacher.com who shows step by step how to build and create a layout with multiple layers using Photoshop Elements 10.

Designer Leader Vicki Chrisman was also a huge help whipping up many of the included samples and getting me hi res photos. You can see some more of the samples on Vicki's Blog. Vicki is also putting on a huge Fall Fair & Vintage Flea Market next weekend Oct 5 - 6 at her home in Nebraska with her art group, so if you live in the area you should stop by as it sounds so great I want to go!!!

DT Member Marilyn McIldoon and Darlene Pavlick also made this cute cards 

We also included a sample of DT Member Julie Campbell's Halloween Art Journal and Melissa Bove's fun witch hat. I wish I could show everything!

Look at this adorable stamped card Sophie La Fontaine emailed me.  I just added the watermark as it looked so big when clicked him on but I wanted you to see the cute coloring job Sophie did. She turned our Uncle Sam from the  American Beauty set into a football fan and you can get the details.   Yikes - I just went to Splitcoast to find Sophie's link and spotted a bunch of gorgeous cards by a bunch of ladies you can see here! 

UPDATE:  Everything is sorted out with the little copyright problem I wrote about on my last post and all the items have been removed. 

We are working on a new website to make the digital downloads easy and instant!

SALE: We are starting to sell out and get low on some stamp sets and I will do another blog post and list the status of everything tomorrow.  A new stamp manufacturing company has contacted me about making stamps (my old stamp company was sold) and I'm tempted to have them make our 2 new Christmas sets that we finished last month. I will show you a peek tomorrow and see if you like them. My old stamp company was sold  I've also been given some contacts for other stamp manufactures to see if they want to carry our best sellers.  Material Girl is almost sold out and that is so sad!  But - maybe no company will want our stamps now that I've discounted them so much and will also be offering them digitally.

We still have a large amount of some sets and tons of printed stuff like Stickers, Creative Scraps, Booklets, etc and they are all on SALE. 

PS - I will add the Halloween CD to our Etsy Store tomorrow

Wishing you all joy & creativity

Sandy
 
Visit Our Online Store
Join Us on Facebook!

This Blog: http://heartwarmingvintage.blogspot.com
Our Website: http://www.craftysecrets.com
 
Toll Free Phone or Fax 1-888 597-8898
Local Phone 604 597-8817
 
Crafty Secrets Head Office
15430 78 A Ave.,
Surrey, BC V3S 8R4

USA Warehouse
250 H. Street, #436
Blaine,WA 9823

New Etsy Store, Great Giveaway, CD 3 Arrived, GASC in TX & More!

Hi Everyone,   *** Ooops, I posted the wrong link to our July 3 New Animal Stamp Giveaway in the July 8/12 Monthly Newsletter.  This is the correct link!

I will do 2 Giveaways and draw one on random.org from the correct link and 1 winner from all the people who entered here today (July 8).  Sorry, I didn't notice I had the link from last month and didn't update it.  Both winners can choose 2 large sets and 1 medium or the same amount in any of our products.

I have a great Giveaway and exciting News!  We have a New Etsy Store with a 10% Off Coupon valid until June 2 and as usual all orders include a free gift. We still have our Shopatron Online Store but many have asked for Paypal and Etsy works great for Paypal and for International Orders, as well as some of our new items coming soon.  Simply paste this code in CRAFTYSECRETSNEWETSY  at checkout to get the 10% off in our Etsy Store.  Valid until June 2

 

To celebrate we have a Giveaway for the following items: 

(or pick any $51.95 value in products)

1  CD # 3 Creating With Vintage Typography

1 American Beauty Stamp set - perfect for 4th of July projects

1 Summer Image & Journal Notes Booklet

1 Summer Cotton Scraps

1 Queen Bee Stamp Set 

 Just leave a comment here on this blog post and a random.org winner will be announced early Tues, May 29 when we head off to the GASC - Great American Scrapbook Convention in Arlington, TX.  

CD 3 has arrived and our shipper sent off a huge pile of pre-orders today!  

Vicki Chrisman is coming to the GASC Show again to do demos and make & takes and these fun 4th of July tags will be one of the make & takes using our American Beauty Stamp Set. We are looking forward to seeing old friends and meeting new ones! 

Vicki and I are also teaching this Wood Art Journal Album at the Makeathon on Wed., May 30. using designs from CD 3 with our Art Studio Clear Art Stamp Set

Look at these adorable tags DT Member Pam Hooten made for her granddaughters pre-school grad and you can see the keepsake tin she decorated HERE on Pam's Blog

DT Member Julie Campbell created this special layout of her great grandmother using a frame and paper from CD #2, Creating with Vintage Illustrations.  Julie has such fantastic family stories.    I love how 3D the frame looks! It makes me so happy when things work and that was our hope that the printed frame would still look 3D embossed and it does! 

 Julie has also been busy adding to her journal and I love the way she is adding a funky artistic flair and her hand lettering with doodling.  See more pages here on her Blog.

DT Member Marilyn McIldoon has been busy working on a Bingo card mini album using every color scheme and featuring vintage ladies (not ours).  I love the way she used our French Mail set on her blue card

On this card she used our Down on the Farm Stamp Set to stamp Country Girl, the barn and rooster.  You can see more cards here on Marilyn's Blog

Jan Hennings used CD 3 to create some great new cards including this one and see the others on Jan's Blog and enter her cool giveaway for a Bind it All and O-Wire on June 3.

I'm in love with this beautiful card that Sophie La Fontaine made using our Garden Girls Clear Art Stamp Set. Not only are the colors so pretty but look at how she stamped the entire scene with the tree, fence, water can, spade and sentiment!

We had fun at the stamp show in Puyallup WA last week and and I wanted to take a bunch of photos but my battery died in my camera so I only have a couple from setting up. I had to snap a photo of this card Vicki Chrisman made as I love the way she stamped the Queen Bee  wings on vellum and stuck them up on her card.  Ooops - I meant to link all the products to our New Etsy Store this time and did them all to our Shopatron Store (from habit) and just went back and changed them.  We still need to add Cotton Scraps

We've finished 2 NEW Stamp sets and I'm just waiting for the proofs.  A Large set called Pixie Dust and a medium called Fairy Wishes.  There are several others in the works including the Button Set - so many thanks to all of you for your great suggestions!  My only problem is I want to include everything and there isn't enough space!

Don't forget to leave a comment to be entered into our Giveaway (value over $50.00)

Please tell me what store do you like better Etsy or our Shopatron Store??

Check out our new Etsy Store! 

Wishing you joy & creativity
Sandy Redburn

Check Our Store Locator
Visit Our Online Store
Join Us on Facebook!

This Blog: http://heartwarmingvintage.blogspot.com
Our Website: http://www.craftysecrets.com
Toll Free Phone or Fax 1-888 597-8898
Local Phone 604 597-8817

Crafty Secrets Head Office
15430 78 A Ave.,
Surrey, BC V3S 8R4

USA Warehouse
250 H. Street, #436
Blaine,WA 9823

Shabby Nest $75.00 Giveaway, See Adorable Easter Projects & Sale!

Hi Everyone,  I have a great giveaway to tell you about and a bunch of fabulous Easter samples!

I want to introduce you to Wendy from The Shabby Nest who is hosting a $75.00 Gift Certificate Giveaway for our products and it closes tomorrow night, Tues, Mar 6 at 12 PM.  Just leave a comment on her Blog to be entered to win and good luck!  The samples she showed were made using our Vintage CD's 1 & 2

Wendy has some great home decor ideas and tutorials like this paper wreath made from old book pages or a DIY fabric headboard. Plus she hosts weekly a 'Frugal Friday Linky Party' which is how I first found her site  I mentioned Linky Parties last week because I'm smitten with all of the inspiring projects, crafty techniques and money saving ideas people share - often using inexpensive or recycled items. It may take a little bit of time to see all the samples because there often 500 - 700! 

The weather is lovely here today and I hope it is where ever you live! I have a bunch of adorable Easter & Spring samples to share.  I adore this 12 x 12" Altered Easter Plaque DT Leader Vicki Chrisman created using a $1.00 square glass plate from the Dollar Store - but you have to see how she resized the same image to make 3 other projects!

Vicki used the same image from CD # 2, Creating With Vintage Illustrations and explains how she printed it  in 4 different sizes to CREATE 4 PROJECTS with the 12" x 12" wall plaque above, this cute Easter card below,  and a 8 x 8" framed plaque and mini Brass Bunny Charm you can see all 4 and the details on her Blog.

She used our Happy Easter stamp set on the front (above) and inside of her card (below).

Here is the same Easter Joy Medium size set  Linda Duke  used to stamp these adorable bunny cards below!  You can see the stamp set and more wonderful samples here in the store.

This is an older layout by Vicki but still one of my favorites using paper from our Pastel Paper Pad and Spring Joy Stickers.  We used real vintage fabric to create the paper and the pastel palette is perfect for Spring, Girlie and Baby projects.

Our Easter Scraps are also on Clearance as they are single sided but cute for $1.99 as you can see on this adorable card below and see more cute samples in the store.

Our Homespun Cotton Scraps are on SALE for $3.99 and they are printed on a thick cotton twill that you can easily fray when you pull off the paper backing.

Vicki used her machine to stitch on the Cotton Scraps and and right on the paper (also from our Pastel Paper Pad) on this layout. 

Also, the proofs came back for our NEW Little Doll Clear Art Stamp Set but there were a couple of areas where the lines seemed too skinny, so it needed adjustments but we should have them in stock in a couple of weeks.

Don't forget to leave a comment HERE on Wendy's Blog to be entered to wina $75.00 Gift Crafty Secrets Certificate!

Wishing you joy & creativity

Sandy Redburn

Crafty Secrets

Check Our Store Locator
Visit Our Online Store
Join Us on Facebook!

This Blog: http://heartwarmingvintage.blogspot.com
Our Website: http://www.craftysecrets.com
Toll Free Phone or Fax 1-888 597-8898
Local Phone 604 597-8817

Crafty Secrets Head Office
15430 78 A Ave.,
Surrey, BC V3S 8R4

USA Warehouse
250 H. Street, #436
Blaine,WA 98230

New Christmas Stamps & Giveaway, Halloween, Friendship and France Trip!

Hi Everyone,

We got back from vacation last week but it’s taken me a few days to get back to reality.  I took over 500 photos in France but I will just share a few at the end as I have a bunch of projects to show you and our NEW Christmas stamp set Winter Wishes (update now a ($9.99 Digital Set)

To celebrate, I’m going to give this stamp set away with one of our Christmas Booklets and Christmas Scraps!  Just leave a comment on this post to be entered. A Random.org winner announced this Tues, Oct 11/11.



There are 19 separate stamps on this set with adorable children, snowmen and some great vintage lettering! You can stamp the gift, the pie or the turkey for the 3 children at the bottom to create a Thanksgiving or Christmas card or gift tag. There are 2 snowflakes, swirly lines and holly you can use as accents and a little glitter snow will add some holiday sparkle.

DT member Linda Duke was very sweet to color this sheet of the stamp set to give you some ideas.  You also have to check out the stunning floral cards on her blog she created for a class!



Okay, now for some fun Halloween ideas! Past DT member Lisa Zappa decided to decorate a Halloween tree and created a bunch of fun ornaments to decorate it with.

She used images from our Halloween Creative Scraps and Halloween Image Booklet

Lisa said she just spray painted some old bare branches black she found in her backyard and folded paper to create medallion's, used some glitter and vintage tin cups to add the images.

How about these cute Halloween Cards Elizabeth Droege posted on our Facebook page she made with our Halloween Creative Scraps.

Look at this cute Halloween card Lisa Hensley posted on our website using our Costume Cuties Stamps and tickets from our Halloween Scraps.  You can see more Halloween ideas HERE in our Online Gallery.

I am in LOVE with the 2 shadow boxes that DT Member Jan Hennings revamped and decorated using papers from our CD, images from our Mini Scraps and our new Mini Frames Clear Art Stamp Set.  The details she added are what make them both so special. 

There are great close up photos of both rooms HERE on Jan’s Blog and check out the little books she made using scraps of paper for her 2nd shadow box the ‘reading room’. The angel is from our Cherub stamp set.

I adore this beautiful chipboard album that DT Leader Vicki Chrisman created HERE for a friend and the Friendship Challenge HERE at Splitcoast that Marcy hosted. 
The papers Vicki used from our CD look so pretty and I love the stamping details she added to the inside with our Vintage Labels and Antique Trims Stamp Set (now a digital $9.99 set)

How about this very pretty card that DT Member Pam Hooten designed HERE using the Vintage Labels stamp set and papers from our CD.

Here's an adorable card by DT Member Tammy Roberts using one of my fav images from our Girlfriends Image Booklet.  See details HERE on Tammy’s Blog

I really enjoy reading any of DT Member Julie Cambell's blog posts , especially when she tells a family story like this one HERE Julie scrapped about her great great grandmother Celia's accident as a child.  The image is from our Birds and Blossoms Scraps and the cameo is  from our CD.

• 

This week Lori Lynn hosted a Make it Pink Challenge over at Spiltcoast using any of our products and she created this pretty card below using our Bird Notes Stamps. Lori has all the posting details HERE and see the Gallery HERE.

We had an amazing vacation and I was surprised at how many French Flea Markets and Brocante (second hand) sidewalk sales and stores I found. My carry on suitcase was so crammed with antique books and paper I could barley lift it.   I will do a blog post on French flea markets soon and include a bunch of photos, some links and helpful tips I learned.

The Hop On, Hop Off Bus was a fantastic way to see the city. We hopped off at the Eiffel Tower, had a picnic and hopped on another to see more sights.



I’m still dreaming about the baguette's, chocolate croissants and other yummy pastries.

During our 2nd week we visited different towns on their market days in the Burgundy area we stayed in. You could buy from the butcher, the baker, the cheese maker, soap maker, farmers – all super fresh!

One of our longer day trips (1.5 hr. drive) was to Annecy, this enchanting town close to the Swiss border. The old triangle building use to be a prison. Full of cute restaurants & stores. We ate amazing crepes.

I will have create a photo gallery for the other pics.
Don’t forget to leave a comment on this post to be entered into the GIVEAWAY for our NEW Winter Wishes Clear Art Stamp Set, a Christmas Image & Journal Booklet and our Merry Christmas Creative Scraps!

Wishing you joy and creativity
Sandy Redburn
Crafty Secrets

Visit Our CraftyVintageGirl Store
Please Like Us on Facebook!
This Blog: http://heartwarmingvintage.blogspot.com      
Our Website: http://www.craftysecrets.com     
Toll Free Phone or Fax 1-888 597-8898
Local Phone 604 597-8817


Crafty Secrets Head Office
15430 78 A Ave.,
Surrey, BC V3S 8R4

USA Warehouse
250 H. Street, #436
Blaine,WA 98230