PREPARE YOURSELVES...

for a Monday blog-post to end all Monday blog-posts!

Seriously!

• introducing Veronica
• Halloween inspiration from the S.M.Arties
• miscellaneous ideas from the S.M.Arties
• product updates
• BLOG CHALLENGE WITH PRIZES!

Whew!  Are you ready? Are you set?
GO!!
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Everyone stand up, wherever you are right now, and look EAST!  (Unless you're not in the United States.)  Because 4,823 miles away from Scrap-Mart's warehouse is the sweeter-than-sweet Veronica!


And while I'm fairly sure that she's sound asleep right this second - I'm sure that when she reads this she'll be smiling and waving at all of us!

Veronica has been a QuicKutz/die-cut fanatic for just over a year.  It started when her husband came to the United States on a business trip and returned to Sweden with all kinds of goodies for her (he's a keeper Veronica...a serious keeper!).  She loves that Scrap-Mart always has the latest and greatest dies and prices, and keeps the global mail service hopping between Oklahoma and Sweden.  When we started our design team search, she had no problem jumping in for the challenge!

The first image she sent me was amazing - and inspiring at the exact same time.


This is a bedroom door sign she made for her boys. CUTE CUTE CUTE. I think what blew me away was that she made it completely out of fun-foam. I've never thought of doing that. Making something "kid proof" out of foam, and handing it over to them. Knowing that it wouldn't get torn, curled, bent or stained. Love it! She used QK Tangerine and Tangerine Shadows, and an old favorite...QK Typist. She filled the border of her sign with all kinds of boy-relevant shape...Puzzle...Pail...Drum, and several more.

Here are a few close-ups...the sign, translated into English says "here lives Melker & Viggo".




This project is adorable - and it inspired me to create some "room signs" for our house full of Thanksgiving visitors. Made out of foam they'll be storable and filled with cute dimension! Thanks Veronica!

For her page entry, Veronica sent a cute page using one of the border dies...CUT FROM FELT!  I didn't even know the Rev would cut thru felt!

Translated, this page says "you love to CLIMB!" She used the QK Flower Border, Scallops Border, some Revolution Arrows and the Bosskut Totally Tall alphabet. Cute, cute, cute!

And the final project of Veronica's that I'll share today - is her card entry. I admire people who can grab patterned paper from a variety of companies, lines, and patterns and make them work together. Because I can't. So when I saw this card of hers it made me smile. The translation is "HUGS"...


LOVE the color combinations! She used: QK Nesting Flower, QK Nesting Circle, Revolution Heart, Scalloped Border and Aquarius 4x8 Alphabet. A great example of how a handful of scraps, and some cute dies, make cards easy and do-able!

Over the next several month, we're going to get to know Veronica's work even better - - - and we're going to learn SWEDISH! I can't wait!
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I asked the S.M.Arties if they would start thinking about some fun Halloween ideas.  Because let's face it - it's fast approaching and we can always use new ideas!

Here are some do-able ideas:

Brenda made this cute set of fall-flowers...all from Bosskut Pumpkins! Seriously, she did!


She used the Bosskut Tall Pumpkin the Bosskut Two Pumpkins - but can you see what she used for the center of the tall pumpkin flower? YEP - she did. She used the QK Cookie die as the sunflower center! Awesome. Wouldn't this be great to make up for the seemingly unending list of school events, church festivals and cul-de-sac parties that I...I mean we...have on the calendar. Perfect! Thanks Brenda!

She also suggested this...


she found a cute little pumpkin candle (I've seen them at the dollar store) and just added some Bat Wings and teeth. To make the bat teeth, she cut the bat out of white, snipped off his ears and turned them upside down. Ingenious!

And she was also playing with her new Cuttlebug dies. She sent me this one...


using the new Cuttlebug 3x3 Maple Leaf Combo. Remember, that the Cuttlebug dies are cuttable on your Revolution, you just have to use your GRIDDED STICKY MAT
for both the cutting step and the embossing step. LOVE IT!

(And don't worry, she sent me more, I just have to share the blog space today with the other ladies! LOVE YA BRENDA!)

Veronica sent in this cute pumpkin alteration. Now keep in mind, she lives in Sweden where they DON'T celebrate Halloween and don't have access to lots of pumpkins. I so appreciate her jumping on my pumpkin challenge! She calls it her "Mon-kin".


She just used QK Nesting Circles and Ovals and a couple of big gold brads and had herself a Swedish monkey. (Okay - monkeys don't normally come from Sweden - but you get my point!) CUTE!

One other innovation that came up recently - was from Jenn. It isn't Halloween related, but she just couldn't wait to share it when she discovered it. When the QK Train came out last month, we all mentioned how a train track would have been a perfect die-addition. But alas, no train track. That was when it hit Jenn that she had a train track sitting right in front of her!


She creatively used her new North Pole die! COOL! Do you think QK plans these things? Thanks Jenn - I never would have noticed that if you hadn't have pointed it out!

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PRODUCT UPDATES: lots of emails lately about Spellbinders, Bosskut and QuicKutz. Here is what we know right now:

• Spellbinders NEW dies, from July CHA release, have been pushed back a bit to early November. They have changed their product packaging a bit, and that slowed the release down just a bit. But have no fear - the wait will be worth it!

• Bosskut Peekers are in, and shipping, and flying off the shelves. S.M.Artie Brenda ordered them, back before she was one of us, and has them sitting in front of her even as we speak. I'll ask her nicely for some cute samples to post...with our infamous "quarter-for-size-reference". (thanks Brenda!)

• QK Love machine production has been pushed back a bit. Some improvements, some changes, some tweaks, some modifications all add up to "more time". So we'll be looking for the Love in the first or second quarter of 2009. Knowing QuicKutz, they'll make it well worth our wait!

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And FINALLY - WHEW - a challenge for this week!

I taught an awesome QK Card class in Sacramento this past Friday morning. Great ladies, cute cards, awesome work...and TEARS! Yep, tears from me because of a death of a loved one last Monday morning. I made it through the class just fine, once I collected my emotions. What I realized though - and what I shared with the ladies there - is it takes OH SO LITTLE to send someone a card. A little bit of paper, a little time, a few cents for a stamp and the few fleeting moments to pull it all together. The cost to us, as crafters/moms/wives/women is fairly small, but the benefit to the recipients can be immense! I have the card sitting right here, on my desk, that was SUPPOSED to get mailed out last week. But didn't. And now it's too late. It's going to sit here for a long time, as a reminder, of what I should have done!

So I CHALLENGE ALL OF YOU READERS...to make and send a card this week! To someone. To a friend, a family member, a neighbor, a co-worker, a boss, a long lost acquaintance. To ANYONE. Make it, sign it, mail it. Don't make a big production of it, don't dilly-dally, just get it done. You'll feel so good and just think of how happy it will make the other person!

If you take on my challenge - send me a picture or post me a comment or drop me an email. And tell me. I'll wait until Wednesday night and then I'll pick a winner. I have an extra Santa die that is looking for a new home! Enter as many times as you like. Send me as many quick-card-ideas as you have. (I'll take your word that you mailed em. Scrapbookers don't lie...right?)

So there - I dare you. I've got a few to make right now. A sympathy card being top of my list.

That's all I've got. I think it was enough! I'm working on a video tonight...it's super CUTE!!

PEACE!

- - - Susan