I knew I could shock you all if I did another video tutorial today. And, since I'm all about the shock factor, here it is.

Just a couple notes:

1. The lettering is really dimensional and I wish it showed better. The tape all twisted up makes it look like a glittery rope of lettering.

2. I added the flower petals cut from an old book that the school library was tossing out. I edged these with some stuff Tim Holtz sent me called Perfect Pearls by Ranger. I love it, but it doesn't really show up in the photo. In real life it's awesome!

3. I can now imagine glitter taping lots of stuff. You could form it into shapes like flowers or hearts or butterflies....... you could trace images on the paper (imagine the stitched lines in the paper I used on the card with glitter taping.

4. This is so much nicer than glue because I can never get a perfect bead and then the glue tends to flatten out a bit as it dries too.

5. Have fun with it!

Hey everyone!  Gym Girl here.  Last week, instead of a sketch, Julie asked you to try something you are afraid of.  You girls & guys must be fearless!  We only had 6 people admit to being intimidated!  Well, who's going to teach me to be brave?  Like Lindsay, I too am afraid of mice.  (Although he did a better job screaming like a 12 year old girl than I ever could!) Unlike Lindsay, my list of things I'm afraid of doesn't stop there!  I'm scared of spiders, bees, bugs, worms, snakes...(anything with more legs or less legs than I have). I'm scared of the water, of heights, of basements....well you get the idea!  That doesn't even begin to cover my crafting fears! (Don't get me started on how afraid I am of sewing machines!) I'm going to assume, just for my own sense of well being, that the rest of you have a fear of admitting your crafting fears.  Because, if there are only 7 of us out there who have crafting fears, that will only add to my insecurities!

Jennifer Hansen said she's unsure of what to do with ribbon. 

Melanie Douthit said, "Who isn't afraid of lime green paint?" (good point!)

 
Grace Tolman overcomes her fear of "Shabby Chic"

mustangkayla said she's afraid of adhering elements as you go.  I have the opposite problem.  When I try to lay everything out first, I always like it better before it's glued than after I move it to put adhesive down.  I'm too OCD.  If it's not exactly (to the millimeter) where it was the first time, I hate the whole LO.  If I just do it as I go, then I go with the flow of the page and don't worry about every angle, inch, or placement.

Erica M.'s fear is where to begin without referring to a sketch.

Well, Ladies.  You have obviously conquered your fears.  Spectacular projects!  Thanks so much for playing along.  Julie said you'd be proud of yourselves when you were done.  How's it feel?  I am going to take on one of my biggest scrapbooking fears next month.  I never think my own photography is good enough. I have an SLR camera that I have no idea how to use. So, I am taking a photography class starting next week.  Wish me luck! 

We had a great time on our whirlwind trip to Edmonton for the Memories Wholesale Retailer event. It was cold, the people were terrific, the food, especially at Earl's was of the charts, and we were exhausted when we flew home bright and early yesterday morning.

The first video is of Todd from My Minds Eye. Julie and I were at the front of the plane, and we could hear something from the back of the plane that sounded like something was caught in the airplanes propeller.

 If you watch the first video and listen closely you will discover, as we did that, what it was.

 I think it might be Todd's 'super power." When we got off of the plane, I caught up with him and asked if he was able to sleep on the plane. He said "no", that he has a tough time sleeping on planes. I said, hmmm.......

The next is Julie. We had to get up at 4:00AM. When I knocked on her door at 4:30 she asked me to not be so chipper in the morning. Our rooms were close to each other and she said she could hear me singing from her room at 4:00AM.

Can anyone tell me if there is something wrong with that?

And the last is Matt from Bo-Bunny. Matt is a little paranoid around me. I have lots of video of Matt from this event. Are you nervous Matt?

 There will be more updates about our event later this week and some fun video.

We would like to thank all of you for the comments of the things to do in your hometown. Our blog readers are better than Trip Adviser! We have a file that we keep all blog comments in and we will be using your ideas if we're ever in your neck of the woods.

 Julie and I decided that if you ever came to Logan, where we live, we would have to take you somewhere like California or Hawaii, especially this time of the year.

Okay, Mustang Kayla turned us on to this project that she found created by Carole Jansons using our Jacks World Collection. Since the Olympics are going on all of the judges here at Cosmo Cricket would give it a perfect score. Soooooooo Sooooooo Cool!

And last.........The winner from last week is............ Jess who recommends we get a fat sandwich from the grease truck. Jess all you have to do is email kristen@cosmocricket.com your address and start chasing those brown trucks with the U P S letters on them.

Have a great day!

It's Friday and by the time you read this we will be in Edmonton, Alberta Canada. Do you remember the song " I've been everywhere man"? Well you might say that we have racked up a whole lot of frequent flyer miles. 

While in Canada we will be there supporting one of our valued distributors, Memories Wholesale.

 Trudy,Garry, Beverly and their team do a really great job and we like them a lot. It will be cold but we have fun meeting the store's from up North.

Below are the winners of the Scrapbook.com challenge for January.

Sorry, were late and by the way we love your work! The first is brought to us from Amanda Kurtz. She did a terrific layout using our Early Bird Collection.

 The next one is from Izzy Anderson. You have to love her first name and her project using Jolly by Golly. That baby has a future in pictures!

People are down right talented. Keep up the good work!

Speaking of challenges, we promised a contest while were gone.

Okay, so when we travel, we often "Google" the things to do (if we have the time) while were there.

 Help us out, if we ever came to your hometown, what should we try to see while were there.

Leave a comment on our blog at www.cosmocricket for a chance to win a Material Girl Paper Crafting Kit, a Garden Variety Paper Crafting Kit, a Joy Ride Paper Crafting Kit, and one each of our 6 new Tiny Type Stickers.

Have a great Friday!

Simply stated.......

I love this project. Why? It's fun........It's creative.........It's Cosmo Cricket! This Material Girl mini album was created by Julie Johnson. Julie is one of our retailers who has a company called paisleyandpolkadots.com, also known as Moments to Memories.

 This is just a sampling of the kit that she is selling.

Is this the coolest?

All I can say is "WOW" and I want one of them.

Material Girl has been one our best selling collections ever. We have received emails from some of the stores that have received their orders, ready to re-order.

This video is dedicated to all of you girls, "material" or not.
 

Have a great day and watch for a drawing tomorrow................................................
 
 

Soon to be outlet store.

Conference Room.

Lindsay's office.


Crop room, or roller skating rink......... depending on the day.


Warehouse. Seen from the mezzanine.

The outside. We are keeping it top secret........ just kidding, it's so cold they have to wrap it.

Since CHA Winter a few weeks ago, which actually feels like a few years ago, we haven't had hardly a second to breathe.

 I visited with Devin, our Warehouse/Shipping Manager (We call him Captain Awesome) this morning and he said never in the history of Cosmo Cricket has he had as much to ship as he does now. The three new lines are going off the charts crazy!

Speaking of CHA, I thought we might include a couple of video's.

 The first, is just before CHA opened the first day and it seems the focal point was eyelashes. Julie promises an "eyelash demo" very soon.

  The second I need to explain first. 

 We have a Cosmo Cricket tradition were we try to have our booth set-up two days before the show. We work very early to very late to make this happen. The day before the show we try to make our company "play day". We want to be fresh when we get to see all of our store friends again.

 Last year my wife and two of my kids came, along with Kristen and her husband Mike, and Eric and Julie and we all went to Disneyland. This year because it was Natasja's first trip to the United States, we decided to go to Beverly Hills, Hollywood, Malibu, and Balboa Island.

I was the tour guide on this trip.

The second video shows something interesting that we found in Hollywood. All I can say is "A star is born." Maybe a star with his eye's closed-No teasing people. Just kidding you can tease if you want.

Now speaking of Hollywood, are you watching American Idol?

Okay, a girl is going to win this time, but, there are a couple of guys that are terrific. I have listened to the guy who sings Paula Abdul's " straight up", three times. He's really good.

We should give something away today.

 Do you know why we have giveaways?

 We want you playing, creating, and seeing how fun our products are.

I love what Eric and Julie create!

Leave a comment for a chance to win a Material Girl/Garden Variety Paper Pad, mini decks from both collections, and two new 6" x 12" Ready Set Chipboard letters.

 That's almost $40.00 worth of product. Not bad- do you think?

I almost forgot, tomorrow we will be featuring a very fun technique from Sarah Hodgkinson who made a wonderful discovery with our Early Bird Farmers Market paper and a corner rounder.

Have a really great day and we appreciate all that you do.

Hey Everyone,

If you are looking for some Material Girl, check out this fun kit! You can see all the details over on the Scrapbook Circle site, but before you go there, check out what their design team did with it.

If you know of any other Cosmo Cricket kits being offered, let us know. We love to spread the word so that people looking for them can find them! 

On another note, we will be posting last week's sketch players in the morning. If you would like to be included, put a link to your layout in the comments on this entry. We've had quite a few play this time, and there are some great layouts! It should be fun to see them all together!

I absolutely love this layout by Amy Parker. Can you believe that that is The Boyfriend? Of course she has paired it with the new Ready, Set, Chipboard Flour Sack letters, which go splendidly with it and her design sense which beautifully pulls it all together.

I talked to her about the photos at the show and she told me she is using a polariod feature to "vintagize" them. Apparently there is a website that does this for her, although I can't remember the name. Those of you that are Photoshop savvy can most likely find a vintage action to use that would give a similar effect.

Since I loved the design so much, I made it into a sketch for this weeks game.

 
If you would like to play, do what these people did with our last sketch. Make a fab Cosmo Cricket layout, post it online somewhere, and put a link to it in a comment on this blog entry.

Check out what these talented ladies did with last week's sketch!

By Cari Locken:

By Beverly Cunningham
 

By Jing Jing Nickel

By MIE

By Meg

By Kayla Dupont

By Lara

By Melanie Douthit

By Rosemary

Have a great day everyone!