Hope you all had a wonderful Mother's Day. I wanted to share this absolutely lovely gift from my 10-yr-old. She took all my little scrap recipes--the ones I have jotted down on envelopes, scraps of paper, cut off of packages and out of magazines over the years, and organized them into this beautiful recipe scrapbook--complete with (Heidi Grace Designs) tabs between the sections. She also wrote comments throughout and memories of when we ate some of those things. Honestly--made me want to just burst out in tears! Tell me about your Mother's Day, and I will pick one random winner and send you a free scrapbook on Friday. 
Recent Posts
Random Acts of Crafting Bumper Sticker Giveaway
So how many of you crafters out there have performed "Random Acts of Crafting" lately? Have you brightened someone's day by giving them a handmade gift or maybe invited a friend over to craft with you lately? When we were in San Antonio, we handed out 150 scissors (mostly for kids) on the street, so people there would have tools to create something special. My dear friend, who now works at Michaels headquarters in Dallas, just sent me a card saying how much she used to treasure our crafting mornings in NY while our daughters played. I think some of my most special times in life have revolved around the giving, receiving or creating of crafts! I just found a box of these bumper stickers we had made for a tradeshow. If you have RAC'ed someone lately, tell us about it. We'll send you a sticker to let the world know it too! Monday is the deadline, and it's only while our supply lasts.
FiskarsTV Season 2 now on DVD!
The new DVD is ready, and I can't wait to give some away. Season 2 features such great guests as Stacy Julian and Wendy Smedley of Simple Scrapbooks, Melissa Inman of Scrapbooks, Etc., Stacy Croninger of Papercrafts, UK crafting celebrity Shimelle Laine, and Two Peas Garden Girl Joy Uzarraga. The list of crafting greats goes on and on. Just tell me what crafting guest you would like to see on FiskarsTV in Season 3 or tell me your favorite FiskarsTV episode so far. I will pick three random winners on Friday to receive the new DVD!
The Texas Room
Michelle M and Danielle are the winners of the Travel Paper from Cloud 9. Email suzanne@fiskars.com with subject line "Travel paper winners." It is a Longhorn Skull. Cool guesses, everyone. It was quite the adventure carrying it on the plane (and quite the conversation starter). Today is moving day, and I will definitely be sharing pictures of his room. So far, I know I am painting it burnt orange. I am making a distressed leather padded headboard. I have a cool metal star that was made from the roof of a barn in TX, and I ordered horseshoes that I am modifying to make curtain holders. I have an antique print of an armadillo that I may decoupage to a piece of wood. I have two big lizards for the wall and a real lizard in a cage. Oh yes, there are some UT posters and a small sign that says, "By order of the mgt, all cowboys must check their guns at the bar." Any other ideas? Am I missing anything? Coming soon...the football room and the "tween" girl hangout! Decorating a new house is such fun. I look forward to sharing the adventure with you!
Scissors Close to Your Heart?
Do you have special scissors that your hubby and the kids are not allowed to use? Have you ever caught them trimming the bushes or cutting pipecleaners or maybe giving the dog a makeover with them? We want to hear your stories!! Please post your stories by Friday, and we will select SEVERAL random winners to receive the early prototypes from our American Heart Association line. They are not in packaging or exactly like the final product, but they are limited edition red. Can't buy these anywhere folks! Tell us your special scissors stories, and we might send you your next special pair!
Winners and another Challenge...
Jennie, Debbie Buckland, Jenifer Cowles, and Sandy.
Winners please respond with your mailing addresses to suzanne@fiskars.com by Friday and whether you need a boy or girl pack. Anybody else want to win some of the great storage items from Heidi Grace Designs?
Now for a challenge...I have had a real cleaning and organizing bug lately--from cleaning closets to cleaning the cleaning supplies and then right down to my craft storage area in the basement. I bought 24 bins to store various supplies that I need to support my many crafting addictions like cake decorating, sewing, papercrafting, etc. My challenge for you is...try to come up with as many of the 24 labels I put on my crafting bins as possible. The three of you who guess the most correct bins in my basement will win some of this cool storage to organize your stuff. Winners will be announced next Monday!!
Drilling into good companies!
So it's a play on words because A. I went to the dentist today and have a story to tell.
B. I am willing to give away an ever popular green craft drill to bribe you for feedback! 
So I went to the dentist for a check up today during lunch, and I had to sit and wait for about 10 minutes. Really no big deal to me, but they like to move the patients thru quickly. The receptionist apologized that they were behind when I arrived, the hygienist apologized, the dentist explained that another patient had some complications that threw their day off a bit. I still really was not worried about the short delay, but then the dentist handed me a $10 Starbucks gift card for my "inconvenience." Also, I will note at this office, they give the adults headphones and a remote control so you can tune out during your dental work. Hartjes Dental--it's a great place to go!
Last week, I traded in the mom van for a cute little champagne colored Volvo. Get this, they told me I can bring it in every Saturday and get it washed and vacuumed for FREE. Not only that, if I want to bring the kids along, they will get free ice cream and play games while I enjoy gourmet coffee and watch the big screen tv. WOW, I have never even heard of anything like that before. Of course, I have already told countless people these stories, so their techniques are working and WORD OF MOUTH Marketing is alive and well.
Now, my question to you is this: What can a craft company do to set themselves apart? What would make you say, "Wow, I can't believe Fiskars does that!" What do we do well, and what could we do better? What would surprise and delight you? If you have answers to any of these questions, please respond by next Friday and I will select a craft drill winner. I hope your responses will help make us a winner!
Good News and Bad News
The good news is that I had 27 entries and amazingly enough--27 leftover templates to give away. The bad news is that they are not all letters. Some are numbers. But hey, free craft stuff is always good news, isn't it? I LOVED reading your words--LOVED, LOVED, LOVED! It really gave me insight into your lives and crafts. Great job everyone. There are 17 letter templates--some upper and some lower, so I will give those to the first 17 people who responded. The next 10 will get the number templates. Maya--with your multiple "L" issues, I have decided to include TWO sets of Heidi Grace Letter stickers from her Orchard collection to get you through your next spring layout. And, Marianne, you can cut out 49 and 50 for your Santa page. All winners, just send your addresses to suzanne@fiskars.com by next Friday with "free templates" in the subject line. Thanks so much for sharing your words!!!
Anybody Want Alphabet Shape Templates?
How fun to personalize your pages and projects with words and names! During a recent closet cleanout, Melanie discovered that we have way too many alphabet templates hanging around. You can use them with the ultrashape express to cut out letters, kids can use them with crayons or markers or you can trace and cut with scissors. Womans World even did a cute project where they used the template on fabric to make personalized pillows. Just let me know what special word you might write on your next project. I will give away all these templates and one lucky winner will get a nice shape template organizer too. I will draw winners on Friday, so start spelling it out for me!
