Cosmo Cricket

$95 And Another Make A Difference Challenge

I'm so excited to report that we have achieved anther $95 toward our Make a Difference fund for a new total of $240!

Take a look at some of the fantastic projects you all made in cheery yellow.

First up, a beautiful, victorian-styled, paper cone made with Tea For Two and Evangeline by Donna of Meme's Art Place. 

Kayla Dupont made a sunny Kindle cover with DeLovely fabric. This looks so professionally done that I think we should all demand a tutorial! She has more photos on her blog so you can see the cover and inside.

Another happy DeLovely project comes from Izzy B. I think this card would brighten anyone's day.

Emerille made some fun tags and a layout. See them all on her blog.

This layout from Tamao features a softer, butter yellow. Tamao also made another layout and some cards. Check them out on her blog.

 Shannon Lane made a cute card that she posted to our facebook fanpage. This one is makes me so excited for spring to get here!

Another project from our facebbook page that is sure to put a smile on your face are these cute little Early Bird gift boxes from Vanessa Menhorn.

A special thanks to all our other participants:
Victoria Frail
Lowri McNabb
Celia (Celia, your link didn't work for me. I would love to see your project though!)
Sheri
Beth Williams
Jean Marmo 

It got a little difficult to know which projects posted to our facebook page were intended for the challenge and which weren't. We tried to err on the side of counting them, but if we missed yours, please let us know and we'll adjust our total!

For this coming week, we have one more Make a Difference Challenge. Facebook fan Melissa Cook posted on our page suggesting we do a Gift Challenge. I think it's a great idea! Make something to give away by Monday and Eric and I will give away $5 for each participant to KIVA.

KIVA is a a micro-loan organization. For as little as $25 you can make a differenc in the world and watch it happen. Kiva takes donations and lends them to the very poor in the world so that they can invest in opportunities that can lift themselves, their families and even entire communities out of poverty. These people then repay your loan to you. If you choose, you can then donate the money to help someone else all over again. Pretty cool, don't you think!

To help us track the entries, please post them in a link to this blog post. If you post them to our facebook page, please put "Make A Difference Challenge Entry" with the post. THANKS! 

Birthday Invites, Surprises, Giveaways

Jack is turning 5! I have always dreamed of having a beautiful "Martha-esque" party with all these lovely paper creations I've made, but alas it's never happened. Too busy with life I guess. So, this year I am getting started early. His birthday is on the 27th, but I've already made the invitations. They were so easy, it only took about 20 minutes total. (Let me apologize for the shadows. It's partly cloudy here today and the light keeps changing.)

These cute cards were inspired by this little animal sound book I made. It took less than 10 minutes, but I love it!

Now for my big surprise. Tomorrow morning at 5:30am, I will be waking my four beautiful children, piling them into the car and driving them to the airport. We spent all of Eric's sky miles to buy six tickets to California.

When we get to the airport, we are going to tell them that we are flying to see their grandma in St George. They will be really excited about this, partly because they love to see their grandma, but mostly because none of them have ever been on a plane.

When we land in LA (it was a lot cheaper than John Wayne or Long Beach) we are telling them that grandma's house is about 2 hours from the airport. I'm sure that it won't take long for Ethan and Kate to figure out that we are in California (we have done similar tricks before, like telling them we are driving home from grandma's only to end up at Disneyland). When they do, we are going to tell them that they must have put us on the wrong plane and now we are lost.

We are taking them to see their cousins that live in Orange. They haven't seen them for 5 years. We'll also hit Disnelyland and the beach and then be back on Friday. I can't wait!

Now for another surprise, we are offering our stores Cosmo Cricket Combo Kits for National Scrapbook Day. These kits are similar to the one we did for HSN...... pricing and everything! I won't put all the details here because Lindsay put them together and I might make a mistake...... by the way, Lindsay is on his way to Northern California at the moment..... he's meeting his dad this week!!!!!

OK, back to the kits. There are three different ones: Garden Variety with Early Bird, Joy Ride with Lil' Man and Material Girl with Earth Love. They have tons of stuff. They will value around $37.00 with around 1800 pieces and you could win one! Tell us one of your favorite surprises to be entered into our random drawing. We'll choose three winners that we'll announce here tomorrow morning.

Let's Take a Little Joy Ride

I would try to write a fun story or something to make you laugh, but it is snowing and I am mad about it! There is at least 5 inches of fresh snow on the ground at the moment and more is coming down. Have I ever told you that I feel like one of the kidnapped girls in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers? Yep, I've been taken up to the mountains and I won't be let down until spring! Bless my beautiful hide!!! I guess it could be worse...... Eric's out there shoveling the driveway as I sit in my cozy kitchen complaining for you all!

OK, I have received some of the funnest Joy Ride projects. I've hardly had a chance to use this line myself. But, Jack has a birthday the end of April and I have big plans of doing it up with these fun papers! Can you imagine the polka-dotted and striped party hats?

The following projects come from the SRM Sticker's Design Team. They are a super-talented group of girls! Then there's one from a fan and one from our team member, Laura. Take a look!

By Norma Kennedy

 

 

By Amy Heller

By Celine (She combined the line with Lil' Man)

 

 

By Kathy (She mixed the line with Early Bird and Garden Variety..... Love it!!)

 

By Laura Craigie

 

By Jen Martakis

HSN Recap and Tags

My first time on HSN was fun, scary, exciting, but most importantly OVER. The kit did really well on air and we exposed about 4 million viewers to Cosmo Cricket! Thanks to everyone that watched and supported us and complimented me afterward!! Here's the scoop.

Upon arrival, a lovely HSN person takes you on a tour of the studio. It's actually quite fascinating. HSN is a huge campus of studios and offices. They have sets for fashion, cooking, home, outdoor and more. They have a room with props, mannequins, easels, etc. for creating your table top display on one of the many wheeled tables lining the hallways. They have a lounge, green rooms and salon.

The first thing you do is set up your display. At some point your on air host will meet you and go over your product with you, jotting down notes of the important selling points. After this is done, your next appointment will be the salon.

I was told it would take two hours for hair and make-up. I wondered if this was just me or if everyone took that long. Well, it turns out that everyone is scheduled for two hours, but I only took about twenty minutes....... they can't really "do" my hair so that cut the time down quite a bit and I'm so pale they didn't really want heavy make-up.

For the next hour and a half I tried to sit perfectly still as not to mess up the make-up or wrinkle my dress. Oh, let's talk about that dress. I got lots of compliments on it. It's my favorite and you may have seen me wear it before. I wanted to wear it on air because I feel lovely in it and I thought that would help with my confidence. However, you also have to wear two really large boxes under your clothes for the mic and ear piece. It's a good thing I'm as small chested as I am since they hung those on my bra and zipped the dress right over the top!

After you have your mic and ear piece on and working, about 15 minutes before your air time, you sit and wait in the studio for your turn. I was so nervous I was shaking. To alleviate that problem, I sat on my hands. BIG MISTAKE..... especially since we were sitting on a carpet covered bench. When they called me up to go on air, I looked down at my hands and they had carpet texture pressed into them. EEEEEKKKK! That is the last thought that went through my mind as they pushed me out in front of the camera.

From there, the adrenaline totally takes over. You lose all sense of time. You have no idea what you are saying or doing. It seems like about 30 seconds and it's done.

I haven't watched it yet. I'm a bit nervous to. But if you missed it, you can see it here.

I had so much more to show as far as project, tags, cards. I will be posting these over the next few days. I have to say I loved creating all the stuff for the displays! Garden Variety and Material Girl go together so well. Who would have thunk it?

Here are some tags I made. You can do these up really quick by just layering element cards and scraps of paper. They're perfect for adding to gifts, layouts, cards, etc.

Joy Ride: Kit Club Giveaway!!!

I was suppose to post this giveaway on Wednesday, but in between evaluations for Jack, moving warehouses and setting up the new building, the HSN announcement, finishing up our May release (I hope I don't get in trouble for saying that) and working on the new CHA summer stuff...... Well, let's just say that I woke up from one of my nightmares Wednesday night and realized that I totally spaced it!

My life right now reminds me of what it was like after I had my fourth baby. I went through a phase where I forgot everything...... keys, appointments, etc. One day at the pediatrician's office, I had forgotten the immunization card and so explained my plight to him.

He told me that our brains are like icebergs. Every thing we need to think about is like a penquin standing on the iceberg. He said sometimes the iceberg gets all filled up, but more penquins try to get on. As they jump on the iceberg, they push three or four penquins off on the other side. So, I am claiming too many penquins!!! Now I just have to figure out how to get a bigger iceberg!

Ok, onto the kit.

I love this one. Before I saw the kit, I saw this layout that was made using it. In fact, we posted it on our facebook fan page because we thought it was so fantastic.

 

This kit, Every Which Way, is brought to us by Up the Street Scrapbooking. I love the colors. They do such a good job putting together a fun assortment of products. They also have some fun add-ons that you may want to check out.

Tara wanted to do a giveaway on her blog, as well as ours. And I think that's a great idea. Leave a comment today through Monday morning, here on the blog, and we'll pick a random winner. Tara will pick a winner on her blog too.

While you're waiting to see if you won, check out these other projects made by their team. Update: I was just reading the Up The Street blog and they are looking for designers! I know how talented you all are, so thought I might mention that bit of info too.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Box Flower Video Tutorial

Just a note, before you watch the clip....... I am teasing Justin. He is really my retailer event BFF and I would help him with anything, including stepping up his make and take and helping his customers..... that way I can help them right over to my products! I'm kidding.....

To make one of these flowers, simply attend an event where Justin is slacking, or watch this video. They are fun and easy!

The New Challenge and Jolly By Golly Projects

For those of you that are longtime blog followers, you know that I am constantly trying to stay in shape and regain my youthful, pre-four-babies figure.

Well, just in time to completely ruin the holiday season I am at it again. It all started with this post on Facebook.

Well, after a phone call to Thom, we have decided on a company challenge with ourselves as the players. Here are the rules:

Start date: Today

End date: CHA Winter 2010

Trust: We will be honest because being dishonest is worse than being flabby.

Measures: We will use the same scale for every weigh in. We will use the percentage of weight lost. The person losing the highest percentage wins.

Other rules: No fads, or gimmicks. These include by are not limited to cleanses, pills, saunas, etc. Just good, old-fashioned diet and exercise. We want to be healthy!

Winner's Prize: The winner will see their new CHA line used in a layout done by the other and posted on the competitor's blog. (Thom thinks he is getting the better deal because we have a much larger blog following. What I didn't tell him is that I'm not a very good scrapbooker...... wait, maybe he isn't either.) The winner may also see their company shirt worn by the other at their booth at the show. We need approval from Thom's boss before promising this though!

Here's what I need from you all....... tons of support! I weigh a bit more than I did at Scrapfest, 5 pounds more to be exact. But, Thom weighs a lot more than me and he's a guy. So, I started a seperate blog, The Julie Diaries, for any who are interested in following all my ups and downs..... hopefully, their all downs! Go there and keep me motivated with helpful tips and encouragement, I'm sure I'll reward you with occassional prizes.

OK, enough of that! I love to get emails from Karola Witczak. I couldn't resist any of the Jolly by Golly project she sent my way. They are all delicious.....

 

 

 
 
 

Mosh Posh Kit Giveaway!

Good morning everyone!

Are any of you fans of Mosh Posh? I think you must be because they have sure put together a darling kit for November.

It features our Nutmeg papers and you could win one for yourself. Simply head on over to their blog and leave a comment. They will enter you into their drawing for the free kit. Then you can make some fab projects like these ones that their design team created.

 

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If you would like to increase your odds for winning some Cosmo Cricket love today, then you will also want to check out Moxie Fab World where our design team member Wendy Sue Anderson is guest blogging. Over there you can win some Jolly By Golly products, including the 12" chipboard.

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Yesterday I went down to Oscar's for a haircut and since many of you posted last week about liking the haircut blog entry, I thought I would update you.

About four months ago I plopped myself down in Oscar's chair and said, "Oscar, I am bored with my hair. I have had different versions of the same haircut for the last 15 years. So, I either need a brand new short haircut that I have never seen before or I need to grow it out. If we can't do either of those things, then I think I will become a brunette." (I had to throw in this threat because Oscar thinks my super short hair is the perfect length for me.)

The threat worked and Oscar replied, "No, brunette for you Julie."

So, we are four months into growing my hair out to what Oscar says will be a long haircut for me, but short haircut for anyone else. Apparently he is planning something about chin length that is "shaggy and artsy". 

I'm very intrigued, but I'm not entirely sure I will last to see it come true. It is now not short enough or long enough for anything. You know, that terrible every-day-is-a-bad-hair-day stage! In fact, yesterday when I went in to have him "help" it, he told me I wasn't allowed to come back again until after Christmas. He seems to think that cutting it won't make it get longer faster.... whatever!?!!?

I think he is secretly enjoying my torture for making him change the length. He seemed to smile, a wicked smile, as he told me I would have to endure a couple "uncomfortable" months.

So, here is my question to you, will it be worth it? I am now worried that I will grow it out to find I don't like it and then chop it all off again only to have Oscar say, "See Julie, you should just listen to me, I am the professional."

All advice will be considered!

Cosmo Cricket FAQs

Our brand has really grown a lot over the past three years and just when we think we have answered all the questions for the last time, a new fan comes around and asks again. We love it! I think we just really enjoy talking about ourselves or something?

Anyway, I thought that there may be many out there too shy to ask, but are wondering some of the same things. So, I have put together a list of frequently asked questions along with their answers and some projects just for the fun of it.

1. The most frequently asked question is definitely if Lindsay is my husband.

We have addressed this many times, but like I said, it still comes up. So, no, he's not. Lindsay is married to a lovely and talented woman named Tehawna (tea•on•uh). Besides that, he is 14 years older than myself and actually tells me when things make me look fat!

By Laura Craigie using The Boyfriend

2. Are you related to Lindsay?

We were asked this again just last week, and there is a bit of a story here. Eric and I are actually related to Lindsay by marriage, but we didn't know until about 6 months after we had started Cosmo Cricket. We were originally referred to him through a business consultant (the best $200 we ever spent, but don't tell Lindsay). Then, at a Memory Trends trade show, we found out that Lindsay's cousin is married to Eric's sister. I can hear you all saying, "only in Utah", right?!? Well, they are actually from Star Valley, Wyoming..... I think it must be like Utah, but worse.

By Debbie Olson using Be Good

3. How did you come up with your name?

Cosmo Cricket is Eric Comstock re-arranged. That's right, the technical term is that it's an anagram.

4. Why is it Eric's name and not yours or Lindsay's?

My name scrambles into Occultism Joke and Cute Jock's Limo. I am thinking that our next venture could be a limo service or Halloween supply store, but for scrapbooking we liked Cosmo Cricket. Lindsay's name scrambles into Side Arm Looney....... need I say more?

By Wendy Sue Anderson using Girl Friday

5. Where can we buy your fabric?

Our fabric is distributed by Andover Fabrics in New York. If you have asked your local quilt shop and cannot find it there, you will most likely need to purchase it online. We are hoping to have our own consumer shopping site for fabric available soon.

By Dannisdoodles using Nutmeg

6. Can I use your products in items I sell? / What is your Angel Policy?

All Cosmo Cricket products are protected by copyright. We do allow our products to be used in items for sale (cards, pre-done layouts, collages, etc) as long as it is the original product that is being sold and credit to Cosmo Cricket is given. You may not reproduce our products in any way without written permission. If you would like to request written permission, you can email us through our website's contact page. We consider each request on a case by case basis.

By Yukari Takanashi using Flueriste

7. How can I get on your design team?

When we have openings on our design team, we advertise this through our blog. I don't know when the next call will be, but I'll be sure to let you know here, well in advance.

8. How can I submit projects to you for your online galleries and blog features?

Email your projects to us through our website's contact us page (I don't post the email here because it generates tons of spam). We love to see your projects and are very grateful to you all for helping us show others how to use Cosmo Cricket products.

9. Does Cosmo Cricket offer digital scrapbooking products?

All our digital artwork is available through scrapblog.com. Sometimes we have free digital downloads on our blog, you just need to keep your eyes open for them.

10. How do you come up with your designs?

My husband, Eric and I design every Cosmo Cricket product. We work together in an office in the basement of our home and inspire each other to do our very best. Eric is very in touch with the latest trends in design and color. I focus more on the concepting of new lines and product ideas. We are influenced by our everyday surroundings, friends in the art world and even our moods.

By Laura Craigie using Snorkel

11. Is it as much fun to work at Cosmo Cricket as you make it look and how can I get a job?

It is a lot of fun working at Cosmo Cricket, in fact, it is written as a requirement in the contract between Eric, Lindsay and myself. If you would like to work for us, send us your information. We don't have many openings, but when we do, we look through the resumes that we have on file first.

12. Can I buy product at wholesale for teaching classes at my local scrapbook store?

You betcha! We love to work with designers that love our product so much they want to share it with others. If this is something you would like to do, please contact us through our website contact page with the details. You will need to meet minimum ordering requirements of $100, so please keep that in mind.

By Gudrun Loennecken using Snorkel

13. How can I get Cosmo Cricket to come teach a class at my local scrapbook store?

We love to teach classes, unfortunately we are not a large company and Lindsay and I actually like spending some time with our own families. If we are going to be in the area for other events, you are more likely to get one or both of us at your store. Contact Lindsay for more information on requirements and our schedule.

14. What if I have a question that wasn't answered here?

Feel free to ask! You can leave a comment here and I'll update as needed.

By Amy Parker using Girl Friday

Nutmeg!

Nutmeg should have arrived at your local scrapbook stores by now. Have you seen it there? I hope so!

If you are having trouble locating this fun line, it is now available for purchase here. Just a reminder, when you place an order through the Cosmo Cricket website, it will be the store nearest you with the product in stock that will ship your order.

By Natasja Verbeek

I am updating this post with these great layouts from Jen Benoit. Lindsay just sent them to me and I think they are fabulous!

Now for the winners of Lindsay's contest.

Congratulations:

Christine H. who said, "Welcome back to the blog! I really do love this blog. It makes me laugh. 2009 is winding down. Hopefully, you had enough excitement in 2009 to carry over into 2010....shoot for boring next year. It's really underrated."

Cathy K. who said, "Glad you're feeling better - sorry about the hospital experience, but you almost make it sound comical - makes you appreciate the comforts of home, doesn't it?"

Jen who said, "Lindsey, glad you're doing well, safe and sound at home! Pick me!"

Aimee who said, "LOL. Thanks for the giggles tonight :) Hope you are getting on the mend!"

Laura who said, "Glad to hear that things went well with the surgery and kudos for having a sense of humor about it all (can't be easy sometimes). Happy weekend!"

OK, you lucky ladies, send your address to kristen@cosmocricket.com and she'll send you your prize!

Thanks for playing everyone and have a great Monday!