My scrappin' life

Behind the Scenes - Meet The Crafter's Workshop

Hello and welcome to Behind the Scenes - Meet the Manufacturers!

I hope you enjoyed last week's episode! Let's start with the winners of those lovely Sizzix dies choosen with random.org! Here they are:

Congratulations ladies!! Diane Bosscher, Marie-Anne Raeman, Kim H, Jean A Marmo and Anette, please e-mail (info@birgitkoopsen.nl) me your addy and you will receive your prize soon!

 

And now on to today's manufacturer, please meet

I love The Crafter's Workshop Stencils! I use them a lot, especially for my textured canvas workshop, which I will teach a.o. at the Intohimona Skrappays Event in Helsinki, Finland, April 19-21!

The Crafter's Workshop stencils have very versatile designs. A couple of the designers are some of my favorite artists and friends, like Julie Fei-Fan Balzer, Ronda Palazzari and Dina Wakley. (Make sure to check out their blogs too to see all the gorgeousness the create!) These girls make the most awesome stencils, as does TCW's owner and Creative Director Jaime Echt, who is giving you some fun-to-know background information and a wonderful giveaway today!

Thank you Jaime for playing along! My blog is all yours now :)

Hi, my name is Jaime Echt, I am the Creative Director for The Crafter’s Workshop. I coordinate the creative process behind all of our products. Whether it’s actually drawing the designs for our stencils and metal dies, or overseeing the artwork done by our Signature Artists, I have my hand in every design that gets translated into stencils and dies including the packaging into which they go. 

When I’m not glued to my computer screen or at my studio desk playing with mixed-media goodies, I’m hanging out with our two kids in our 1940’s brick house located near the Hudson River in New York, just 20 miles north of New York City. Our eldest son is heading off to college next year, so we’re knee deep in college applications right now.  And our youngest daughter is busy with Girl Scouts, piano lessons and learning how to twirl a baton and do aerial silks gymnastics.  Busy, busy, busy.

A little background, we opened our paper arts store in 1997 in the little town of Elmsford, NY (a commuter town north of NY City.)  All of the products in the store reflected my personal taste. That’s all well and good if you’re a clone of me, but if you have slightly different taste, well, then that’s not so good. I soon realized that I needed input from other people in order to please my wide range of customers.  The same goes for our stencils. We have been so blessed to have very talented Signature Artists on our team who create beautiful and unique designs which complement mine.  I think it rounds out our selection perfectly.  Personally, I’m drawn to the more intricate designs.  I like the way sprays and pastes get caught in the cut away parts of the stencil. Dimension and tone-on-tone are my “thing”.

     

Not too long after opening our store, we realized that our customers wanted scrapbooking stencils that reflected the current design trends that they were seeing on Seventh Avenue (our fashion district in NYC). With a background in fashion design, I figured I could create something that would make everyone happy. So I called all of our store-owner friends and asked if they would buy a few from us. They said yes, and we’ve been cutting stencils ever since!! We did eventually close our shop, though. It was just too hectic to run a wholesale business, a 7-day/week retail business and have two busy kids to run after.

We’ve grown a lot in the past 15 years as a company, and we still make everything in the USA. Our designs are constantly evolving and becoming well-loved around the world, we are also branching out into the world of metal dies…you know, the ones that are used with those fun die-cutting machines like the Big Shot®, Cuttlebug®, Wizard® and many others.  If you love paper, you’re going to love our new dies!!

I think Scrapbooking is changing and growing as well. Many of our stencils are now being used to create memory pages using divided sheet protectors. Becky Higgins’ Project Life® is a great example of that trend. Many of our stencils and metal dies are shaped to fit exactly into a 3x4 or 4x6 window. It makes journaling so much easier and faster with the right tools!

If you’re looking for a place to buy our stencils, check out our “where to buy” page. 

There are many brick-and-mortar plus online stores that carry our products around the world.  And if you create something that you’d love us to see, be sure to post it on our Facebook page, or tweet it! We’re good sharers!

Where can we find your company?

Website: www.thecraftersworkshop.com

Blog: www.thecraftersworkshop.com/blog/

Facebook: www.facebook.com/TheCraftersWorkshop

Twitter:  @tcwStencils

Pinterest: pinterest.com/jaimeecht/with-our-stencils/

Check out TCW's "Video How To"-page for amazing videos and tons of inspiration!

Here's the first on on that page to get you in the mood! I'm sure you want more after seeing this :)

 

And here is today''s give-away. How cool is that? How would you like to be playing with this soon?

This is what you have to do:

First visit the TCW website and/or "Video How To"-page, then come back here and tell me what your favorite product and or video is and why. Comments close on Thursday, January 31 at midnight (GMT+1). The winner will be announced in the next Behind the Scenes on Friday, February 1.

Next week's manufacturer is 7Dots Studio! Don't miss it! :)

Thank you so much for stopping by today! Have a great weekend!

Tattered Angels canvas, new CHA colors!

Hello!

Today I have for you a canvas that I created for the Tattered Angels CHA booth using some of the new fabulous colors. They are so strong, bright and happy, just love them!!

The texture was created usig tags, doilies, tissue paper, chipboard, ribbong and texture paste.

Colors used: Glimmer Mist - True Turquoise, Strong Pink, Dijon, It's Red, Merlot Gold, It's Orange, Tangy Lime and Baseboard - Water, Lava and Grass.

Stencils are from The Crafter's Workshop and Prima. 3D Foam Hearts by Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L^TM, Fab Foil by WOW! Embossing Powders.

Just a little reminder:

Today is the last day (Thursday, January 24, midnight GMT+1) that you can comment on last weeks Behind the Scenes to be able to win one of the 5 lovely giveaway die sets from Sizzix. Click here to take your chance!

Tomorrow the next Behind the Scenes will be up featuring The Crafter's Workshop! So make sure to check back later!

Thank you for stopping by!

Have a lovely day!

CHA review... how much fun it was!!

Alsmost a week ago I returned home from CHA. Tired but very satidfied. 

I arrived at LAX on wednesday afternoon where my sweet friend and room mate Nat Kalbach was waiting for me. We took a shuttle to our hotel for the night near Hollywood Boulevard, went out for dinner in a nice Mexican restaurant and then went to bed early to wake up only 2,5 hours later and despite the fact that we were VERY tired after almost 20 hours of traveling and with a time difference of 9 hours we just couldn't sleep anymore.  In the morning we went to  Mel's Drive-In for breakfast. What a fun place in '50's style and a private juke box at every table.

Since we only had one day to do sightseeing we decided to take the hop-on hop-off bus around Hollywood.

We had so much fun, not only because we saw all those famous streets we all know from the movies and tv shows like Beverly Hills 90210 and Melrose Place, but also because of the information the bus driver shared with us. Allmost every street was the best place to spot celebrities, every restaurant was the favorite of at least one or two famous people and there was a lot that could be called SPECTACULAR!! LOL!

We hopped off the bus at the Farmer's Market/The Grove where we had lunch at the Cheese Cake Factory with an gigantic piece of chocolate cake as desert. We decided to share one but even together we could not eat half of it... ohmygosh... and that diet coke was more than I normally drink in a whole day!

In the early evening we took a taxi to our hotel in Anaheim where we had dinner and went to bed early again. The next day was filled with attending seminars and workshops, helping Nat with her Designer Showcase, dropping of projects at the Tattered Angels and Scrapbook Adhesives booth and highlight of the day our very inspiring  "mice-dinner" with the Blender girls which has become a cherished tradition in the last 3 years. 

The rest of the days were filled with some more seminars, walking the floor, meeting people, discovering new, fun and interesting products, dinner with sweet people, drinks, Starbucks coffee, lunch meetings and LOTS of laughter!

I had a great week and got home with my mind spinning with ideas to use all those great new products I found. Some of my favorites: Amazing Mold Putty, Tattered Angels' new colors and Primaries (which allow you to mix your own colors!), Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L^TM  Designer Shapes, Elizabeth Craft Designs' Shimmer Sheets and Silk Microfine Glitter, WOW! Embossing Powder Melt-it, Jillibean's and Cosmo Cricket's new paper lines, Kroma Crackle, the new The Crafter's Workshop Stencils by Julie Fei-Fan Balzer, Ronda Palazzari and Dina Wakley and muuuuccch more :)

Of course I forgot to take pictures most of the time, so hardly any pictures of some of my favorite people and products but I have a couple and I "stole" a couple from Nat and Julie's blog too :) so here is a little collage of my trip to Hollywood and CHA Anaheim:

Behind the scenes - Meet Sizzix

Hello and welcome to the 3rd episode of Behind the Scenes - Meet the Manufacturers.

Today's manufacturer is:

Over the last couple of months Sizzix generously gave me the opportunity to play with their products and I love them! I've been using Sizzix dies and templates a lot in my workshops over the last couple of years and my personal favorites are the embossing folders of which I used several for this workshop:

I am happy to introduce Sizzix to you and I hope you will enjoy today's interview with Pete Hughes, designer for Ellison Europe!

Thank you Pete for taking the time to do this! Please introduce yourself to the readers:

My name is Pete Hughes and I have been working as a designer using Sizzix products since it first appeared in the UK about 12 years ago. As a designer for Ellison Europe I spend my time creating projects for European craft magazines, trade and retail events, workshops and demonstrations as well as the QVC  shopping channel. Sizzix Bigz dies cut a huge range of materials from tissue paper to heavy chipboard, in fact, anything scissors can cut. This allows for a broad range of creative possibilities involving mixed media.

I started my professional life as an illustrator/cartoonist before catching the crafting bug. I live in North Wales with my wife and three children. Between work and family, what little spare time I have is split between indulging my lifelong obsession for the electric guitar and helping out at my local Karate club where my son Luke recently attained his black belt.

Can you tell us something about the company? By who and when was it founded and where is it based. Was it originally the intention to produce for the scrapbooking market or did it evolve in that direction in time?

The brand Sizzix was created by the company Ellison. This company was started in 1977 and all came about because a teacher in America would spend hours cutting out shapes over and over again by hand, to create classroom displays and learning tools. Her engineer husband developed a simple press machine to help her and the company grew from there! Initially this was based in the educational sector, but in 2001 the Sizzix brand was launched – creating machines and dies for the craft industry. Fast forward 11 years and we now distribute all over the world to crafters near and far! Our head office is based in California, USA, with the European Head Office located in Wales.

What kind of products does your company offer, which are your personal favourites and why.

Sizzix offers a huge array of different designs and techniques for die-cutting and embossing. We launch new ranges every month and are always coming up with inventive new ways to die cut and emboss paper, card and many other materials. We have 3 main types of die; our steel rule like our Bigz which are able to cut through thicker materials like leather and craft foam, our chemically etched dies like Sizzlits, which are perfect for cutting intricate paper designs and our wafer thin dies like framelits which give you great precision for cropping photos and sentiments. 

If I had to choose my favourite Sizzix designs then it would be a set of Bigz circles, a handful of classic flower dies and some ornate embossing folders to add the detail and texture. I am lucky enough to have every die at my fingertips but restricting yourself to just a few classic designs makes you work harder, and challenges you to stretch out creatively.

How are new products developed. Do you have in-house designers or designers from outside.

At Sizzix we have some really talented designers that work for us, coming up with new, on trend designs and then making projects with them. We also work with designers outside the company, such as Tim Holtz, whose style works well with our technologies to create something truly innovative! 

The process of creating a die design is quite simple. The designer comes up with the shape and decides which technology it will be. The image is then converted to a useable format and given to our manufacturers. They produce a quality control sample which is rigorously tested to make sure it is of the best quality and works just as it should. After this is signed off, the die goes into production and voila!

How do you think the scrapbooking/mixed media scene will evolve in the upcoming year. What will be hot and new, what will be out.

I’m very excited about the future of scrapbooking and mixed media, I love the way the two have evolved side by side over the last few years and how scrapbooking as a hobby is very open to new ideas and influences. Over the next year I think vintage will be popular again, as it is an ever evolving trend. In the wider world grunge is having a rebirth and this may well filter into craft with designers like Tim Holtz being more popular than ever. At the other end of the scale, the opulence of the 20’s and 30’s is still big and alongside this we are seeing a trend towards more contemporary prints and monochrome styling that echo the fun and vivacity of the sixties, but with a modern twist. 

The craft industry as a whole is such a creative melting pot, it is often difficult to say with certainty what will be popular and which trends will be more of a transient fancy. Who could have said that moustaches would have a moment in 2012, and yet they did! This is why I love working in this sector – there is always a new print, a new style, so you can never tire of it!

Is there anything else you would like to share with us, exciting news, new product releases…

This year we have some really exciting releases coming up that are only available in the UK and Europe! Keep your eyes peeled as these exclusive collections will be available for a limited time only and feature some gorgeous designs for every kind of craft. 

Also make sure you visit our website as we’ve always got something going on – whether it is free paper downloads, a questionnaire with a chance to win Sizzix goodies or simply a new blog project – the fun never stops at sizzix.co.uk! 

Where can we find you?

Website: www.sizzix.co.uk

Blog: www.sizzix.co.uk/blogs or http://sizzixukblog.blogspot.co.uk/

Facebook: www.facebook.com/sizzix

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/sizzix_uk

Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/sizzix/

Other: https://www.sizzix.co.uk/index/newsletter - to sign up to our free newsletter

Following you will find some fun projects created with Sizzix products. If you click on the pictures you will find info on the products used and instructions on how to create these projects:

  

 

We have a wide range of informational and inspirational videos available on our You Tube channel, which show users how to use all our machines and dies plus example of projects which can be made with them. Many of these videos are also available in a selection of languages – Dutch, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish and Russian. Simply click on the appropriate playlist on the right hand side of the page.

http://www.youtube.com/sizzix

Giveaway:

And last but not least Sizzix will offer 5 lucky readers the chance to win  658956 Thinlits Die Set 6PK - Fancy Label & Flowers. Thinlits is our brand new technology which is only hitting the shops in January 2013 so they will be amongst some of the first people to try them out!

Now, what do you have to do to be able to win?

First visit the Sizzix website and/or You Tube Page, then come back here and tell me what your favorite product and or video is and why. Comments close on Thursday, January 24 at midnight (GMT+1). The winner will be announced in the next Behind the Scenes on Friday, January 25.

Next week's manufacturer is The Crafter's Workshop, one of my favorite stencil manufacturers! Don't miss it! :)

Thank you for stopping by today!

Behind the scenes...

Dear readers,

Due to circumstances it is not possible to feature the 3rd manufacturer of the Behind the Scenes series today.

As soon as I can I will get the post up, hopefully in the next few days, so stay tuned!

We have a winner though from last weeks Behind the Scenes - Meet Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L^TM:

Drum rolls please for Debra Parminter:

Congratulations Debra!! Please e-mail me your address and I will make sure you receive this great prize pack soon!

 

And... talking of Scrapbook Adhesives... here's a canvas I made for the SAby3L CHA booth using one of the new CHA releases, one of my new favorites - Designer Shapes 3D Foam Hearts: 

I used embossing powder, glitter and transfer foil on them but you cn also use flock, perfect pearls, micro beads... just use your imagination! :)

Thank you for stopping by today and please check back soon for the Behind the Scenes post!

Behind the scenes - Meet Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L

**Edited: Due to the lack of internet here in Los Angeles I unfortunatly wasn't able to add last week's winner before this post went up but here he/she is!! Taru76! Congratulations! Please send me an e=mail with your address and I will make sure the package will be send out to you soon! And thank you all for playing along :)**

And now on to today's manufacturer:

A little more than 2 years ago I joined the Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L^TM (SAby3L) Design Team and that has been one of the best things in my creative career ever!

There are many, many adhesives available on the market and teaching my classes I come across all kinds. What I notice is that a lot of people see adhesive only as a side product, not as an essential. I have to admit I was like that before I discovered and got to work with SAby3L products. I choose the cheapest adhesive tapes and photo glue I could get, saving my money for all those expensive gorgeous papers, embellishments and tools out there. I thought adhesive was the least important to spent my good money on... I was so wrong! After a couple of years of scrapbooking I noticed while going through my albums that parts started to fall off my layouts, paper strips getting loose, flowers and embellishments drifting in the page protectors... and it was even worse for the altered art and off the page projects! I started to realize that good adhesives are the base of my projects. After all I don't spent a lot of time creating beautiful stuff to have it fall apart in time. I discovered that SAby3L products are perfect for me and not only because of the great permanent stickiness but also because of the versatillity of the products. There is a variety for every project, whether you are doing "just" paper crafting or into mixed media. SAby3L adhesives can be used for embossing, glitter, foils and much more! I can truly say that I love Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L^TM and I am delighted to introduce them to you in this second episode of Behind the Scenes.

Please meet:

Today we are talking to Beth Pingry. Beth, please tell us something about yourself.

Hi I’m Beth Pingry, Media Director for Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L^TM. I’ve been with the company for about 2 years. I’m a work-at-home mom to 2 teenage boys, wife to my college sweetheart, and a scrapbooker living in the Chicago suburbs. I love my job! I love working with the talented and fabulous Designer Teams we have, as well as my “boss” Betina Lind Krarup, who lives and works in Denmark. The time difference allows me to attend conference calls in my pajamas! We’re more like friends with a common vision than co-workers! I love meeting other craft industry people, coordinating cross promotional activities between companies. This is going to be another great year for us, and I’m thrilled to be a part of Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L^TM!

Can you tell us something about the company? By who and when was it founded and where is it based. Was it originally the intention to produce for the scrapbooking market or did it evolve in that direction in time?

The 3L Company was started more than 40 years ago in the family kitchen of the Ludvigsen brothers in Denmark. One of the brothers was a student and was in search of a repositionable tab-solution for his dictionary, but couldn't seem to find one, so the brothers invented one! And this was the beginning of the Adhesive Adventure. Today, many years later, the company is still based in Denmark and made up of four divisions, employing more than 100 designers, engineers, technicians and sales and support staff. The E-Z Runner® Family, including the E-Z Dots® Repositionable is still one of our strongest selling adhesives.

As a company, 3L has always been focused on best practice for the environment as well as all employees.  All packaging is made with at least 95% recycled materials and 100% recyclable, An average of 15% wind power is used in all our production processes. The administration and the production is placed side by side in building surrounded by green trees and rolling hills. The strong bond between production workers and administration is seen in the daily break, where we all meet for morning coffee and a talk of news, challenges and the great stories.

What kind of products does your company offer, which are your personal favorites and why?

 – Adhesives for crafters – Our most popular product is the E-Z Runner® Family including the E-Z Runner® Permanent Strips because they work great for nearly all applications, followed by 3D Foam Squares, which are great for dimension, and come in 2 thicknesses and sizes and even in tape! Adhesive Sheets are perfect for odd shapes, die cuts and making your own embellishments. 

A quick poll of our DT shows that each has specific favorites, E-Z Runner®, and E-Z Dots® Permanent are the runners our Designers reach for over and over, along with 3D Foam Squares of all shapes and sizes! All are permanent and easy to use (and the bright colors make them easy to find on your desktop!)

How are new products developed? Do you have in-house designers or designers from outside?

Sometimes our products are developed through requests from the paper crafters of the industry, and sometimes by the ideas of our in-house designers. We have a very creative international Design Team who constantly brings us feedback from the industry and keep making suggestions based on their experience and creative needs. Most often we send not yet launched products to our Design Team for evaluation and final tweaks before bringing it to the stores- We always encourage both our Design Team and paper crafters in general to bring us their input and general opinion about our products - in our opinion, this is the only way to be successful, and we are very grateful when people take their time to help us excel.

How do you think the scrapbooking/mixed media scene will evolve in the upcoming year.  

We believe the French influence will continue; along with detailed die cutting options in manual and electric; quilting, sewing and fabric influences, along with doilies, lace, knitting and crochet designs.

Is there anything else you would like to share? Some new exciting products maybe?

We are introducing new 3D Foam Hearts and Adhesive Hearts. They come in 3 sizes and will be perfect for glitter, flocking, foils, embossing powder and more. We’re also introducing E-Z Runner Refillable Dispensers, with your four favorite adhesives in a new ergonomical and economical dispenser!

Where can we find Scrapbook Adhesive by 3L^TM?

Website: http://www.scrapbook-adhesives.com/

Blog: http://www.scrapbook-adhesives.com/blog

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ScrapbookAdhesives

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/ScrapbookAdhesives

Twitter: https://twitter.com/SBADHESIVESBY3L

Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/SBAdhesivesby3L/

Free Newsletter: http://visitor.r20.constantcontact.com/d.jsp?llr=uzismrbab&p=oi&m=1101168976692

On our You Tube Page you can find several videos on how to create amazing projects using our products. Like this one showing how to use Adhesive Sheets with glitter:

That is pretty cool isn't it? 

And here is today's give-away,  a prize pack with a large variety of adhesives with a value over $ 90,-! And guess what? The new Adhesive Hearts and 3D Foam Hearts are in there too!

 

What do you have to do to be able to win?

First visit Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L^TM website and/or You Tube Page, then come back here and tell me what your favorite product and/or video is and why. Comments close on Thursday, January 17 at midnight (GMT+1). The winner will be announced in the next Behind the Scenes on Friday, January 18.

Thank you Beth for a peek behind the scenes of Scrapbook Adhesives^TM by 3L and for this awesome givaway!

Next week's manufacturer is Sizzix! Don't miss it!

I Love Texture! ...and Tattered Angels!

I really do! The more texture the better!

I like to layer all kinds of stuff like tags, doilies, tissue paper, chipboard pieces, buttons, bookpaper, lace etc. Cover the whole with gesso, add some modeling paste using stencils and then spray paint it.

Here are 2 layouts I made for one of my classes using Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist and Chalkboards.

On the 14th I will be posting another texture canvas on the Tattered Angles blog using some of the new colors that are being revealed at CHA! They are totally amazing and I am very excited about them!

Finaly I want to remind you that today is your last possibility to comment on the Behind the Scenes - Meet Panpastel post for a chance to win an amazing prize. Comments close today (January 10) at midnight (GMT+1).

New Behind the Scenes is up tomorrow: Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L^TM.

Thank you for stopping by today!

Altered Mirror With Scrapbook Adhesives and Prima

Hello!

Today I want to share with you an altered mirror that I created using a variety of Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L^TM products and Prima loveliness:

If you'd like more detailed instructions on how this IKEA mirror was altered then please hop over to the Crafty Power Blog for all the information :)

And here's a variation, made a long time ago, but I thought it was fun to show again :)

If you missed my previous Behind the Scenes post, go check it out here or scroll down. The first episode is bringing you PanPastel with this awesome giveaway!

Comments are open until Thursday, January 10 midnight (GMT+1)

Next Behind the Scenes will be up this Friday featuring Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L^TM. You will love the story of how the company was founded and the giveaway will be amazing! Last weeks winner will also be announced here! Make sure to check back! :)

Behind the scenes - Meet PanPastel

Hello and welcome to the first episode of Behind the Scenes - Meet the Manufacturers!

I'm very excited about this new series and I'm thrilled to present to you the first manufacturer today...

We are talking to Bernadette Ward from:

Only this last year I discovered their products and I instantly fell in love with them!   

PanPastel!

If you have ever worked with PanPastels you know what I am talking about, if you haven't... boy oh boy, you really missed out! So sit back, enjoy reading the interview and don't forget to take your chance of winning today's awesome give-away!

Thank you so much Bernadette for participating and for the wonderful give-away!

Please introduce yourself:

My name is Bernadette Ward, I'm the Co-founder/Owner of Colorfin LLC. We are a small business so my responsibilities cover many areas…although my primary focus is anything on the commercial side of the business and especially related to sales/marketing.

I love to travel, which is lucky as I travel quite a lot for work. Creatively, while I get to work with PanPastel all the time in many ways and never get tired of experimenting and creating with it, I also love to paint in other media and am currently experimenting with encaustics which I discovered through using them with PanPastel Colors. I also love to knit.

By who and when was your company founded?

I founded the company with my husband, Ladd Forsline, 7 years ago. We had been developing our new ranges (PanPastel & Sofft) for a few years by then and set up a manufacturing facility to make the colors. We are based in a small rural town in Eastern Pennsylvania, close to the Appalachian trail, but not far from the cities of New York and Philadelphia. A great location.

I have been involved in the art materials industry since 1988, on the product management/sales & marketing side of things. Ladd is a trained artist, his background includes sculpture and ceramics, so he really understands materials. He had also previously developed two other significant new products for artists: OilBar® and ColourShaper®.

What are the kind of products PanPastel develops and how are they being produced?

We develop and manufacture a unique range of artist’s colors called PanPastel®, alongside a new range of applicators for art & craft called Sofft®.

We developed our products for fine artists, and they are now being used with impressive results by mixed media artists. Mixed media is a very experimental area with no limits so PanPastel works great for so many techniques with almost any other medium.

PanPastel Colors are artist’s pastel colors manufactured in a pan (cake-like) format instead of a stick. The pan format is unique and holds the color like paint; making PanPastel the world’s first dry color medium that functions like a paint. Sofft Tools are tools and applicators made from a specially formulated micro-pore sponge, to be used with PanPastel and with any water-based media.

PanPastel had never existed before we created it we had to develop everything from scratch including manufacturing equipment. We have a small team that helps us in production. 

How are new products developed?

Ladd & I develop everything ourselves. It is a very organic process that starts in the studio.

We work together on everything 100% but we each have our own strengths (as explained previously). It is a really good combination of skills with just enough overlap to make it work.

It’s hard to describe our process, it comes from a deep understanding of materials, how artists work and what the trade customers need also. It’s one thing to come up with an idea for a cool product, but it's a whole other thing to work out the best way to make it, and then make sure it works through the distribution chain to the retail store and eventually to the artist.  

We are not interested in re-inventing the wheel.  We  also do not want to replace existing materials, our aim is to enhance the process of making art by offering completely new materials to artists that will help stimulate artistic expression and solve problems for the artist.

We are really enjoying seeing how mixed media artists are using PanPastel. We recently launched some new kits including new mixed media kits (with Donna Downey) these are shown here. 

Where can we find you?

Website: www.panpastel.com

Blog: www.paintdrawblend.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PanPastelColors

Twitter: http://twitter.com/panpastel

Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/panpastel/

Our YouTube page has a good selection of videos:

http://www.youtube.com/user/PanPastel

Like this one about Color Mixing Techniques:

Or this one on Paint Backgrounds and Color Washes with PanPastel:

 

And here is today's give-away:

Wow, who would not want to win such an awesome set of colors!

Now, what do you have to do to be able to win?

First visit PanPastel's website and/or You Tube Page, then come back here and tell me what your favorite product and or video is and why. Comments close on Thursday, January 10 at midnight (GMT+1). The winner will be announced in the next Behind the Scenes on Friday, January 11.

Next week's manufacturer is Scrapbook Adhesives^TM by 3L! Don't miss it! :)

Thank you for stopping by today!

Happy New Year!!!

It's the last day of the year and we're all getting ready for a nice evening with family and/or friends and the final count down of 2012.

The last year has been a good one. We had a lot of nice family gatherings, 2 wonderful vacations that still make me smile remembering them.I went to a lot of new places/countries to teach and got to know a couple of sweet new friends, no one in our family got really ill and there were many more good things to be grateful for.

And now we're looking forward to the new year. Lots of exciting things are already planned.

Last Saturday we had a goodbey-surprise-party for my sweet daughter Anne. She is leaving to Hawaii in only 3 days. OK, I'm not really looking forward to not having her around for almost 6 months, but for her it is a wonderful and exciting oppertunity and I'm very happy for her!

Then only one week later I'm going to CHA, very much looking forward to that! It will be so fun to meet all those amazing and sweet people again! Most of them I only see once a year. I'm also excited to see all the new stuff we will be working with next year!

Right now I'm planning my trip to Finland where I will teach again. That will be so much fun!!

I'm also very excited about my Behind the Scenes-series that will start on January 4th! Every friday I will bring you interviews with a large variety of manufacturers. They will share fun and interesting stories about their companies and you will have a chance to win a great giveaway each week! Read all about it here!

And of course January is the month of the Creative Jump Start Summit 2013 for which I am one of the Jump Starters. This is such an amazing thing, initiatized by Nat Kalbach!! This is the second year and if you joined in last year I'm pretty sure you already signed up again. If you missed it last year... be sure to sign up for the newsletter now! You get loads and loads of inspiration and giveaways all month and it is FREE!!

Click here for all the information and to sign up and start the new year in an amazingly creative way!

Besides this there is much more to look forward too, but for now this is enough :)

I'm going to enjoy some oliebollen, a traditional Dutch New Year's Eve pastry that my dear hubby baked this morning and spend a lovely night with my family!

Wishing you all a wonderful, healthy, creative, happy new year!

See you all again in 2013!!