Oh how delinquent I have been on the blog! Thursday, Nov 22 2007

It’s TRUE! I have been a poor, POOR blogger! I see my last update was September 8th, how hideous is THAT!?

 And now I must remedy the situation, surely, even if just for a few moments.

 The reason I’ve been so busy and unable to update the blog recently, well, there are many reasons, so I should pluralize that

 I now carry all 41 colors of SuedePaper, since I last posted there have been 1 or 2 new colors released and I have them all! I have 13 colors in the Vivelle paper, and have now ordered the last remaining 4 colors that I didn’t have before! The additional colors in Vivelle are Beige, Lime, Periwinkle and Navy, and the colors I already have can be seen here:    

https://cynfuldesigns.3dcartstores.com/Vivelle-Paper-85-x-11_c_9.html

You can also see the colors of SuedePaper here:

 https://cynfuldesigns.3dcartstores.com/SuedePaper-85-x-11_c_7.html

 Something else you might have noticed, if you checked out those links, is that I have gotten a website up AND a shopping cart! What an eventful couple of months! If you haven’t checked these things out, you should! And you can do so here:

https://cynfuldesigns.3dcartstores.com

 and here:

www.cynfuldesigns.com

The most recent newsletter is posted here:

http://www.cynfuldesigns.com/page1.html

and I’ve set up forums (wow, I’m realizing, and I post all this, that I have accomplished A LOT in a couple of months!) here:

www.cynfuldesigns.com/forums

 Alrightie! I’ve also added QuicKutz, Ranger and Magenta to the manufacturers Cynful Designs stocks, and you can find the first two already located on the site, and the last one will be added soon, as soon as the order arrives! It was placed 2 weeks ago, so it should be in any day now.

 In addition, embellishments are up for sale on the site, a few here and there, Halloween designs are all that are up at the moment, but more will be added as time allows, I’ve been typing products in as fast as my fingers can add them

 The Halloween class was not repeated, but there may be a class in the works called “Christmas Frosting” and if not, then there may be kits for sale, which I will add to the store as they develop. The class will entail making your “To” and “From” tags for Christmas and will involve SuedePaper, Vivelle Paper, Stickles and Liquid Pearls, as well as buttons and other possible 3d type embellishments and fabrics to make them beautiful and unforgettable. These tags will be so awesome, people will save them as keepsakes!

 I’m also working on a Silhouette document using the things I learned from Julie and Gilbert (you guys ROCK!!) and adding some other little tasty tricks I have fallen into, and one that was taught to me by someone I was showing how to use the Silhouette. I’ve created a Silhouette user’s Forum where people can share tips, ideas, links, etc., and it’s in the forums, the link for which is listed above

 Additionally, I’m checking into possibly adding Jesse James’ “Dress It Up” company to the Cynful Designs’ store. Scrappin Good Times, the best brick and mortar Scrapbook store in Southern California, maybe even in the entire STATE, carries them and they are AWESOME, and I’d love to be able to offer them as well, so we’re checking into that.

Since I last wrote I was given permission by QuicKutz to sell my die labeling system I created specifically for their wonderful dies, though I am only allowed to do so locally and not with any means through the internet, so if you’re reading this and interested, contact me for more information.

 And have you checked out the QuicKutz blog lately? They occasionally post free Silhouette shapes there and there is a Turkey download for free there tonight! Check it out here:

http://quickutz.typepad.com/qk/2007/11/better-late-tha.html

AND if you’ve ever wanted a complete QuicKutz listing of dies and shapes (including Silhouette shapes), you can now see them here (and can filter them with lots of options, Thank you QuicKutz!!)

http://www.quickutz.com/qk2/myqk/checklist.aspx

How awesome is THAT!?

Alrightie then! I have a lot of work to do, I took hours off today in order to attend the 2nd Annual Pre-Thanksgiving sale at my absolute favorite-ist brick and mortar scrapbook store! So… yes, I have to get back to it, but I wanted to update and share Cynful Designs’ progress with you all very quickly first

 Thank you, Gilbert, for commenting and thereby unintentionally reminding me that I have not updated the blog in WAY too long! And thank you and Trish for the link on the Scrappin Good Times Blog, you guys feel like family, and you’re just the BEST!

 Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!

Cindy

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It’s ABOUT time! Update, Update! :D Saturday, Sep 8 2007

Hello!!

Can ya BELIEVE it? I’m finally updating the blog!

Heh
First I’m going to tell you that below I posted things referring to pictures that were SUPPOSED to come up right behind what I said, but they didn’t. I’m working on figuring that out For now, class pictures are in the stream at the left of this entry and you can sort of match them up, maybe, with commentary, til I can get this fixed, as the pictures aren’t posting properly at the moment

Okay!

ANYway! It’s been a little crazy for the past several weeks over here at Cynful Designs, but I’m happy to snatch a chance to post some good news and some fun happenings here now

First things first! I dove in and bought a lot more SuedePaper! I am in LOVE with the SuedePaper, I confess   I am now a proud retailer of SuedePaper in the colors of: Carbon, Snow, Moka, Bordeaux, Forest, Iris, Violet, Cream, Canary, Flame, Smoke, Sage, Apple and Sienna. Lots and lots of beautifully luxurious, soft, textured 8.5 x 11″ SuedePapers!

 Alright, then also I’ve been very busy working on labeling my dies and I’ve come up with, what I think is, an AWESOME system! If you’re curious and you don’t know about it, feel free to drop me a line about it

 THEN for my birthday, an early QVC inspired birthday present… the QuicKutz Silhouette Digital Cutter! Oh, how I’ve been going crazy with that! I took a class at Scrappin Good Times, Juli and Gilbert were wonderful and amazing enough to squeeze me in and I learned lots of good tips and tricks in their Silhouette 101 class. Thanks Guys!!

 Then I’ve been busy downloading dingbat fonts, creating character sheets and a binder for them and cutting all my new shapes and fonts. I purchased a subscription to clipart.com and got some really uber-cool pieces of clipart that the Silhouette EFFORTLESSLY transformed into shapes it could cut. Words can’t express how much I love the Silhouette! I bought the personal Cricut for myself last November, and I could never get into using it. I wasn’t sure I would want the Silhouette, based on that. In fact, I was fairly sure I *didn’t* want it, til recently. Oh, how glad I am that I learned more about it and that it was offered at a great price through QVC! AND that my boyfriend was crazy enough to buy it for me for my Birthday! (Thanks Dan!!)

 Okay, next! I planned and held the first Cynful Designs Halloween class,  of which, if all goes well, I hope for there to be at least two more before the grand day arrives! (Hehe!) It was large enough, and I had people coming from far enough, that I split it into two separate classes.

 We held the first on Sunday, September 2nd, and though it was 105 degrees in Burbank, we managed to have a GREAT time! The class was from Noon until 4pm, and I was kicking myself for it that morning as the weather forecasted another 105 degree high. I took as many precautions as I could beforehand, though, and I dare say we weren’t unbearably uncomfortable thanks to the A/C, some impromptu window coverings, the fan and some nice cool Witch Brew Punch, liberally garnished with Berry Rainbow Sherbet (did you know Sherbet has no second “r” in it? I learn something new every day!).

I made up goody boxes for the class attendees, as this is a very special time of year for me, and I want these particular classes to be the VERY best Cynful Designs has to offer!   They were lovely black boxes with holes cut in the top, covered with clear cello. They are intended for use as cupcake boxes, but not here they weren’t! Each attendee had a goody box comprised of: a mini bone paper punch, a glow in the dark plastic skeleton, Pumpkin Patch Pop Rocks candy, a Candy Corn and a Vampire Face eraser, a hard plastic witch’s hat (in either black or orange), a 4 sided halloween foam stamp, a bottle of Eucalyptus Stickles and a mini vial filled with the non-flat portions of their class kits. They looked like this

There were 5 of us participating for this Sunday class, Sandy, Danielle, Jessica, Renee and I. We played a little trivia game at that Sunday class, as well, and Sandy was the winner! She won a foam stamp set (from Michael’s) and a Monster Pen (from Oriental Trading Company). 

I ordered a meat and cheese tray and a fruit tray for the classes, and set out bowls of candy corn and miniature bite sized candy bars. We had a large bowl of Ruffles with our sandwiches. The deli tray was turkey, roast beef, swiss, provolone and cheddar cheese and it was good! It came with presliced wheat and french bread baguettes. I ordered from a place called Store2Door and I will use them again, undoubtedly! The fruit tray was lovely, and included red and green grapes, cantaloupe, honeydew, pineapple and strawberries. YUM!  

 I also put out caramel apples, to really try and capture the spirit. I figured eating whole caramel apples wouldn’t be easy or clean, with our projects, so I cut up a bunch of Gala apples and set them out with caramel dipping sauce. Here’s a picture of that

The punch was a big hit as well, it was VERY tasty!

It’s not PRETTY, but with Ginger Ale, Concentrated Fruit Punch, a bit of water and a LOT of berry rainbow sherbet, it was WAY yummy

After we’d eaten, I had everyone roll a die. We went in numerical order and people were allowed to pick their card kits out of a little wagon. One card was the winner, but it could not be fathomed by anything you could see on the outside…

But inside Danielle’s chosen card kit, inside the card, was a QuicKutz ghost, stating, “You Win!”, and she won the centerpiece, a copper colored pumpkin shaped tea light holder with a skeleton, a ghost jingle bell and a purple metallic spider all attached

We finished the class before 4pm and had a little time to relax and hang out, and time for another round of Witch’s Brew Punch

Wednesday night we repeated the class for my local participants, Judy, Jackie, Cindy.  We had the rest of the food trays, more caramel apples, more Witch’s Punch, all the good stuff! Jackie won the centerpiece this time This class was also comprised of folks all pretty new to this kind of thing, with none of their own tools, so it went a bit slower, but not too bad, we also finished before the 4 hours was done (and that included about an hour for each class meal, too). This class went much quicker than I thought, these guys are great at this, they catch on quick! I wanted more pictures of this class, but I forgot to ask Dan to come out and take them, there was some excitement that day regarding his new job

If you’re still with me, I have very exciting news to finish up with! Last night, late last night, I faxed in an order for the remaining 25 colors of SuedePaper! This will give me the entire color line in the SuedePaper for your purchasing pleasure!   The new colors include:

Sand, Putty, Antelope, Shammy, Taupe, Platinum, Gray, Charcoal, Peach, Azalea, Pink, Coral, Fuchsia, Tomato, Brick, Mauve, Cobalt, Ocean, Navy, Aquarius, Powder Blue, Baby Blue, Seafoam, Olive and Moss.

And I restocked on Carbon and Snow, of which Snow has sold the most of the papers I have thus far, and of which I use the absolute most of Carbon for the things I create to sell. I love this stuff! I’m also experimenting with their new item, Suede Cardstock, as it is the closest thing to the SuedePaper I can get in the color Orange. It comes in sheets of 20″ x 26″, which is just… odd, lol. So we’ll see how that goes.

And for those of you who might not have heard yet, Stickles lovers rejoice! There are 5 new 2007 colors out and available! The new colors are Cinnamon, Burgundy, Baby Blue, Cotton Candy and Gun Metal. They’re beautiful, as are the rest of them. 2 big addictions of mine, right now. SuedePaper and Stickles!

Okay, so I’m not the best at this whole blog thing on Typepad yet, and so I’m not sure if the pictures loaded right. I’m going to add the rest of them, if I can, here below, pictures of both classes.

 I’ll announce the next classes as soon as I know when they will be. We had a great time and the Halloween classes are going to kick ASS over any of the other classes I have during the year, as it’s my super special time of year. Space is *extremely* limited, as the classes are held right out of my house, so if you’re interested, you will want to let me know quickly when I inform everyone, as I have more people murmuring about wanting to come than I did for the last ones!

Alright, let’s see if I can figure this picture posting thing out…

Class Goody Box Prep -

Table Setting –

In the spirit! A little mood setting –

Sunday Class –

Alright, that’s it! I really hope that worked Tomorrow is a new day with birthday celebration starting, so I best get myself off to bed shortly, here!

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Pirate Composition Book Class – It was a Success! Thursday, Jun 28 2007

I held the first Cynful Designs Class last night, out of my home, and it was a Grand Success! Alright!

 I planned the event to go from 5pm til 9pm, unsure of how long it would take for the class members to complete the book. Renee, who attended, is well versed in aspects of Scrapbooking type projects, but Judy and Jackie haven’t done this type of thing before, although Judy is pretty much a Master when it comes to tole painting and Jackie has lots of experience making Halloween props for our semi-annual parties

 We completed the projects in just 2.5 hours, after socializing for the first half hour and getting settled in. It went so quickly and I was so busy the entire time with my 3 students that I didn’t have time to stop and make the daquiri’s I was planning for our refreshment and enjoyment But we did order our pizza directly following the class and enjoyed a quick viewing of “Rumor Has It”.

Although Renee didn’t get to stay for the entire movie, facing a very long drive home from Burbank to the San Bernadino area, we were able to enjoy a several hours of pre-class Shopping, as she got here mid-morning and we’d planned a full day of shopping and fun before the class, as well

 All in all, it was a lot of fun, and I think we’re going to have to do it again really soon! I’m definitely going to have to make the books themselves less expensive ( I used pretty much all the expensive goodies and hardware for this one), because I didn’t break even on the class and materials, between that and picking up the tab for the pizza and potato munchies… but I’ll get there, eventually. 

 You can check out photos of our class here:    http://tinyurl.com/3ytcdg

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Here we go! My first class, next week! Tuesday, Jun 19 2007

Here we go! I’m going to be holding my first official class next week, here out of my home! On Wednesday, June 27th, from 5pm to 9pm my home will serve as an all girl Composition Book making retreat, replete with a yummy dinner, fantastic movie entertainment in the background, and cold and tasty frozen alcoholic beverages of the daquiri type! We’ll lounge, pamper ourselves and make a super cool composition book ALL at the same time! (Yes we’re THAT fabulous, Lol!)

I’ll be sure to take pictures and post them here for your vicarious enjoyment.

 In addition, I placed an order with 7gypsies last week with several new items from their brand spanking new mid-show ”Calais” release! The items should be arriving any day now (quite possibly tomorrow!) These will make excellent additions to my selective items I’m offering for sale! Eventually, there WILL be a working site where they can be purchased online, but until that time, I have them viewable via photobucket, by request, and can accept Paypal payments or personal checks by mail. 

 The selection, thus far, includes products from two of my VERY favorite companies, 7Gypsies and Rusty Pickle. Drop me a line if you’d like to see what I have for sale, some items are older product lines that are difficult to find or get ahold of

 Have a great Tuesday! 

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Very cool! Monday, Jun 11 2007

A composition book that I altered for Dan to be a Civil War themed notebook was chosen today as Altered Project of the Day! (June 11th) The thread and the link to the project can be seen here:          http://www.scraplovers.com/forum/showthread.php?t=11953

 Very exciting!

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Alas! Not a finalist… this time. Monday, Jun 4 2007

Ugh. It pains me to think of all the money I spent on this contest! I mean, I still have the product, but I’m not making any money at the moment and I could have used the money for now and the product later, when I have more money to spend. I was equating it with a good cause, as I was sure I would work so hard and make something so utterly cool that I could get into the finalist round. Alas. I’m bummed, but it would have been rather incredible if I had made it, as I’ve only been doing this for about 9 months now. I just wish I could have gone on and played further, the next round sounded like a blast. Oh well, on to making things to sell, which is much more practical anyway!

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We’ll know tomorrow (allegedly)! Sunday, Jun 3 2007

After a 32 hour straight mad dash to hit the 2pm deadline (with one quick lunch break, one quick dinner break and a couple of interruptions to fold laundry and put away dishes) … I sent my last fiiles in to Rusty Pickle at 1:55pm pacific time on Friday, June 1. That’s 5 minutes before the 3pm mountain time deadline. WHEW! I had to cut a lot of my planned album out, I had 34 pages planned out and something like 43 pictures to scrap.  I ended up with 20 pages, 2 covers (4 surfaces inside and out) and one file folder interspersed between. There just wasn’t time, though I tried to plan well, the 2 week cold I ended up with really put a crimp in my energy level, and I didn’t make a thing for more days than I care to think about when I had the deadline! But I made it. Mini-Album, Layout and Altered Project all submitted, on time.

So. They say results for the finalists will be posted tomorrow, but I tend to think it may go like the Bind-It-All contest where they are overwhelmed with entries and may need more time to judge. I hope not, I’m dyin to know if I made it as a finalist!  I will know more tomorrow, undoubtedly, even if it’s just that they need more time.

 I really feel confident in my entries, however, I am cconcerned about the 90% Rusty Pickle product they require. I don’t know how much weight different things are allocated. Like… does the area taken up by Rusty Pickle product count for as much as, or more, than say, having like 5 mini brads from different manufacturers? I’m guessing the former, and hoping so. I really did my best to incorporate as much RP product as I could (and as much versatility as I could, using lots of different lines for the mini-album) without sacrificing the overall look of each project.

The mini-album, sadly, is compromised by my lack of time. I didn’t get all the detailed work in that I like. No mats for the photos, barely managed to even distress most things, or format the edges of the photos (distress, round, shape, sand, what-have-you). But I worked very hard on it, and I know that if there was a prize for originality I would win that! I would bet $500 that no one else will be submitting a Pirate Cat mini-album and telling a story throughout it, Lol.

 Maybe I would bet $1000, in fact

Okay. It’s been an exhausting weekend and I’m still trying to finish up a list of the product I used on the mini-album. Have a great night, all!

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Links Friday, May 18 2007

Oh, I found a link today to where my first contest entry and win can be viewed, how exciting!

 http://scrapbooking.com/cgi-bin/Phase_2/archive_designer.pl?author=Cindy%20Nevins

Here’s a link to the Card of the Day thing:

 http://www.scraplovers.com/forum/showthread.php?t=11384

Exciting!

 And finally, here’s a link to the Bind-It-All contest results!

http://www.angelsscrapbookgarden.com/ContestDetails.html

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I’ve won! …. something… ;) Wednesday, May 16 2007

What a great day!  This morning I discovered that a card I posted a scan of last night to the ScrapLovers forum (Mother’s Day card thread) was picked “Card of the Day for 5/16″. How fun!  Later I discovered that my entry into the Bind-It-All contest won a place in the new Idea book they’ll be publishing. Woo Hoo! I didn’t win one of the top three spots, which actually resulted in prizes to the entrants, but I did win a place in the book! It feels a bit like vanity publishing, to not even be receiving a contibutor’s copy for my work, but it seems the scrapbook publishing world pays even less for submissions than horror small press. I didn’t think that could be true of anything, Lol.

 This will make three small things that I’ve entered and placed in, the first being a contest for Halloween projects back in September or October to ScrapbookingMagazine.com for which I won some goodies and had an article just for my project as winner of that contest, exciting! That was just when I’d barely started, too.

 Very exciting. I hope this bodes well for the Rusty Pickle Design Team contest I’ll be entering by June 1st. Also CARDS magazine has a call for Halloween card submissions by June 1st for their October issue. I have to get my act together, cause I KNOW I can make that one. How many people specialize in Halloween cards, after all?

Cindy

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