Guinevere and I are in Hong Kong this week! We are visiting our factories and meeting with our contacts in China. This is a view from our Hotel - Guinevere took it with her phone. We stayed in a new area called Tuen Mun - Gorgeous! We’ll have some more photos from the trip when we return home.

Here are some fun layouts by Tina Freeman (talented ATB designer!) using some new products.

Her designs showcase:
• 3D Scrapbooking Kits (These products work with and without 3D glasses - 2 pairs are included in the kits along with a dozen sheets of paper and 3 big sticker sheets!)
• The Travel Embellishment Super Pack - Chipboard Tags
• Ultimate Chipboard Tag Kit #3 - Occasions,
• Embroidered Elements - Celebrate Alphabet
• Big Metal Brads- 4 Seasons

Our new products are expected to be in your favorite scrapbooking store sometime in May. To see a preview of more products - have a lookie here.

Flocking is a wonderful and easy technique that can be used on all scrap pages and other paper craft projects. The ATB glue stickers allow you to make beautiful designs on your paper projects.

For the above card I used:
• ATB Glue Stickers
• ATB Flocking
• ATB Patterned Papers - Happy Day and Running Horses
I also used some white & pink cardstock, a circle punch and adhesive.

By punching circles on out of the Happy Day paper you can play around with circles and the “outside pieces” that are left. By combining different colour this way you can get a more interesting design.

After I placed the circle punch “best friends” inside the brown scallop, I mounted it on the dark running horses paper. I also mounted the pink cardstock on the running horses. To finish the card I placed a glue sticker on the right and then used some white flocking powder. It has a wonderful soft “feel” and makes the card look special.

Have fun!
Annette

Scrappy (below), ATB’s happy mascot, invited all of his canine (and one feline) friends over for a visit and a lunch at ATB.

Scrappy quotes one writer, ”Having dogs in the workplace has been shown to reduce stress and improve employee morale. Employees are more willing to work longer hours.” You can read more about this phenomenon here and here. Scrappy, a Golden Retriever, belongs to Jennifer.

Facts from the American Humane Association:
Staff morale and worker productivity increased by bringing pets to work.

Increased camaraderie among employees.

Happier employees result in enhanced job performance.

Increase in sales reported by store owners who take their dogs to work.

Dogs can serve as a crime deterrent. OK, maybe not our pack of sweet tiny dogs, but hey, Scrappy is big - oh, and the little ones can really bark loud.

“There’s something about pets that really brings people together” says Carol Moulton, Director, American Humane Society.

Hey there Mr. M, got any good snacks for me?

Even Butters (above) was invited. Scrappy doesn’t discriminate. Sherry is Butter’s human. Butters felt honored to be the only feline present.

This is Gibson, one of Guinevere’s dogs - Yorkshire Terrier. Guinevere’s other pup, Kira, is the white Maltese Terrier (below). Kira is getting up in her years, probably our oldest visiting friend. How does she maintain that youthful look? And great hair bows too!

Katie Bell - Braylee’s super cute Pomeranian. Be still my heart.

Sadie, Kristen’s spunky and sweet Yorkshire Terrier. She’s only 6 months old. That face! Awwwwwwww.

Bella, (above) is Cheri and Robert’s Lhasa apso/Poodle mix. She is the sister of Toby (below), who belongs to Trent. Super friendly and cuddly sweet dogs. These two have the softest fur ever! (You know, like that super silky fleece fabric? Yep.) Don’t you love Toby’s chocolate color? You could just eat him up, but he probably doesn’t taste much like chocolate, and he’s hairy too. Ok, bad idea.

Are you tired of cute doggie photos? We didn’t think so. Ok, here’s more.

Is Scrappy smiling in this photo? Yep, we checked, he is. He sure does love Kristen. That’s Matt, Kristen’s fiance. He’s a dog lover too. At least we’re 99% sure he is. You can tell by the expression on his face.

Thanks for the scratches Steve. You know Scrappy loves scratches. Oh man, you’re my best bud. I sure do like you Steve. When you’re done with my back, can I get a belly rub too?

Annette says: “One of my favourite techniques to use with printed paper is to cut strips in different sizes. This is a fun way to use lots of printed paper on one page without the page becoming to busy. With this great paper from ATB you also have journaling strips that you can use with the printed paper strips.

For this design I used white cardstock as the background and then added one jumbo photograph and lots of printed strips and journaling that were mounted on a dark pink patterned paper. You can also use other fun techniques on the strips such as distressing or inking them, and if you are into sewing on your pages, it would look beautiful on this type of design. To finish the page off I added a ATB horse brad.”