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.”

Annette is one of our amazing Design Team members. She says, “I am a wife, mother, scrapper and photographer. My life is filled with creativity in various ways and getting my daily dose of ’scrapping’ is very important to me. I love to create anything with paper. I would describe my style as simple and the photos form a very important part of every page. I believe it is important to have a good balance between products and photos. Being part of the ATB design team is a great honor for me and I look forward to sharing more of my ideas with you.”

You can learn more about Annette, see more of her work and photos of her sweet children by visiting her blog.

Annette created these adorable altered clothes pins. She says, “The pegs can be used to attach photos, notes or just fun stuff (on the fridge or a wall). They are also great to use to close party packs.”

Instruction
1. Cover the pegs with some left over patterned paper.
2. Attach some gorgeous ATB Chipboard Tags from the “tag kit 2″
3. Tie ribbon through eyelets on the tags.

Here are some cards Annette also made using ATB Chipboard Tags and Soft Strips along with white and colored cardstock, ribbon and staples. Try making some for yourself - you’ll love them!

I would like to introduce Lisa Falduto - she is one of our very talented designers at ATB.

Lisa says, “Imagine me elbow deep in Patterned paper, embellishments, tools, adhesives and anything else Paper Crafting related! That is where I love to be, love to spend my time. I’m a paper crafting fanatic and love every minute of it!”

Lisa’s love for paper crafting shows in her work. Try making these projects Lisa has recently designed using ATB products.

School Supply Box

Supplies
1 cardboard pencil box
1 sheet each of School Days, Chalkboard, and Love my School Patterned Papers
School Days brads

Instruction
1. Cut a strip of Love my school with blue lined side up to fit around
school box. You may have to cut 2 strips and overlap. Cut a saying from
the Love my school sheet to place on the front of the box on top of this
strip with a brad on either side of it. Now, secure this with adhesive so
it wraps around the outside edge of the box.
2. Cut a piece of chalkboard so it fits the top of your box leaving a 1/8″
white border showing. Do not attach this piece yet.
3. Cut various sayings out of the Love My School sheet, and pictures from
the School Days sheet and place these on top of the chalkboard sheet above.
4. Scatter brads on the top where you want them and secure.
5. Finish off the box by tying a small piece of ribbon in a knot and
securing it to the lower right hand corner of the box.

Love Letter Mail Box

Supplies
1 Sheet each Head over Heels, Amore, Secret Admirer and Pink Floret Patterned Paper
1 Package Babe-Love 3D Crystal Appliques
1 Love Punch and Emboss
1 Circle punch larger than the punch and emboss
1 Mini tin mailbox (I got mine in the Target dollar spot)
6″ Coordinating 1/2″ ribbon

Instruction
1. Measure and cut a piece of the Pink Floret, solid side up that wraps
around the outside arch of your mailbox and secure in place making a slit so
it fits over the rivet in the mailbox flag.
2. Measure and cut a piece of Amore for the same area you just covered.
You will want to make this piece about an inch more narrow than the previous
piece so when attached it will leave a pink border. Secure in place.
3. Cut two 1/4″ strips of Secret Admirer. This will serve as the trim
between the pink and blue pieces you just attached to the mailbox.
4. Attach the “Love” Crystal Applique on top of the mailbox.
5. Remove one of the mailbox end caps and trace around the outside edge on
the brown side of Head over Heels. Cut both of these out slightly inside
the drawn line to make them a little smaller and then adhere to the ends of
the mailbox.
6. Use the Love punch and emboss to punch into the solid brown side of
Secret Admirier. Use your circle punch to punch this entire piece out.
7. Create a pink rectangle the size of the flag and adhere. Place the Love
punched piece centered in this rectangle and adhere. Tie on ribbon accent.

Steve and I took a trip to Canada to meet our scrapbooking friends and introduce our new CHA Winter release products. While there, we taught classes, demonstrated our new products and had some fun too! Here are some pics from the event.

On the first day we set up our booth.

The blurry figure in the above photo is one of our new BFF’s, Nicole from Imaginese. The event was a great venue for meeting our customers and for developing friendships with other vendors too. Here’s a shout out to Nicole and Denise from Imaginese, Margie from Making Memories and our new friends from Provo Craft, Bazzill, My Minds Eye and Cards Magazine!

After the booth was looking especially gorgeous, Steve and I had some free time so we pointed the rental car in the direction of one of Canada’s National Parks - Elk Island. The park is somewhat of an animal preserve. We saw bison, muskrats, chipmunks, birds and an elk. Steve enjoyed driving close to the bison - it made me a little nervous. I kept having visions of tourists being gored, so I was a bit of a nagger - “STEVE, STOP!! Don’t get so CLOSE!, SHEESH!” He didn’t seem to mind so much, evidently this was not the first time he has been nagged.

This guy was keeping his eye on us. Or was it a gal? It was hard to tell the difference. We did notice that many females were “with calf”.

This one kept licking his lips. I could hear his inner voice saying “Hey Steve, drive a little closer…you guys might be a tasty winter snack!”

Ahhh…nature.

The next day we dove into the teaching and selling scene.

There were over 200 ladies in attendance at the show - and we counted…the ladies who took our class made a total of 987 cards! The cards featured our patterned paper theme “Living Life“, Edgy Strips (used as borders - how cool!), Antiquing Tool, Paper Tagger and Big Metal Brads - Hearts & Arrows.

This is one of the class kits. Hey, a big thanks to Glue Arts for donating the Glue Rings adhesives. What a hit they were - the ladies loved them!

Steve is sharing his favorite card making techniques.

A close up of one of the cards and the Antiquing Tool.

Let’s pause here for a nod to the Antiquing Tool.

Wow - this thing is amazing! (And I’m just not bragging randomly about an ATB product!) This tool has serioulsy earned a medal or gold star, or whatever ranks higher. We had 5 tools at the show with us and those tools were used and abused! Each tool inked the edges of hundreds of papers and they still had ink at the end of the show. Talk about value - that ink lasts forever!

Oh, and did we mention it has an easy-to-hold handle? No ink on your hands! I think it could possible be one of the 7 wonders of the scrapbook world. Seriously.

Here are some of the most talented scrapbookers at the show, Barb and Doreen. They were so much fun. We always appreciate the ladies with the humor at the shows. Barb said she loved our cards the most - and she couldn’t even believe it - she didn’t even get anything crooked!

Thanks so much Annette and Trudy for the opportunity to come and meet and teach all of your fun retailers. We’ll be looking forward to next year!

Janelle is one of our very talented ATB designers. We’re sharing some of Janelle’s latest ATB designs.

Janelle says: “I live in Georgia with my wonderful husband, Christopher. We have 3 fabulous kids; Meghan-8, Matthew-4 and Brenden-2 . I have been scrapping since 2000, and I have finally found my groove!

I thoroughly enjoy scrapbooking, being the family historian, and preserving all our memories for many generations to come. I have had the honor to have been published in Memory Makers, Scrapbook Trends, Paper Trends, Paper Art, Pine Cone Press, Cards!, Scrapbooks Etc. and Scrapbooking Keepsakes.”

To make Janelle’s Sweet Fabulous Wand…
1. Purchase a wooden wand from your local craft store. (Mine is from Michaels)
2. Adhere some ATB Patterned paper to the star with glue stick. I used ATB’s patterned paper from the Essential Scrapbooking Kit.
3. I cut up and applied one of the Uber Luxe Soft Strips - they’re adhesive back.
4. Add some 3D Crystal Appliques for some added bling.
5. Tie some ribbon around the handle.

Super fun! I have a had time keeping it out of my kids hands! They keep telling me they want to use it to turn daddy into a butterfly!

Jessica Ulery, one of our very talented Design Team members has designed this super cute Valentines Day box. Here’s how to make one for yourself…and someone else too!

Supplies:
Around the Block Flocking and Glitter Kit
Around the Block Glue Stickers – Flourishes
Around the Block Soft Tags
Around the Block Frame Tape – Lace #2
Wooden Box
White Paint
Brown Ink

Instructions
1. First paint wooden box white. After it dries, ink the edges all the way around.
2. Place the glue stickers where desired and gently shake pink flocking over them. Remove excess by dropping into Around the Block tray.
3. Cut the part of the soft tag off that would be used with the paper tagger. Round the edge so it blends with the rest of the edges. Glue down with small Zots.
4. Decide how long your frame tape needs to be and tear it off. Ink the edges and allow to dry.
5. Peel off backing and stick to the lid of the wooden box.
6. Use glue included in flocking kit and put a drop randomly in the middle of every few flowers. Apply pink flocking shaking off the excess.
7. Allow to dry and enjoy your Valentine’s Gift Box!

Sometimes we get so busy, we forget to say “Thank You” to the people who are important to us.

We appreciate your business.

Merry Christmas to You and your Family.
Your Friends at Around The Block

Supplies
White cardstock
Christmas Sweets & Sugar Cookie Patterned Papers
Fabric & Paper Ribbon Tapes
Christmas Brads
Adhesive

Instructions
1. Cut the card backs, 8.5” x 5.5”, fold. Finished size 4.25” x 5.5”.
2. Hand tear a strip about 4” wide of the Christmas Sweets paper – make sure the white shows in the tear, adhere to card.
3. Cut out a star sugar cookie, adhere on top of Christmas Sweets paper at a slight angle.
4. Cut a 3.5” strip of the Ribbon Tape, stick to card covering tip of cookie star. Top with a Brad – use all styles that match.

I would like to introduce Tina. Tina is one of our talented design team members. She has designed some super simple and fun ornaments you can make with your children.

She says: “This Holiday season I am in a ornament swap. I can’t tell you how thrilled I was to use the Around the Block Glitter and Flocking kits! They are so simple to use and so fun for the whole family! My elementary school boys made one for each of their teachers as well!!”

Here is what you do…

Supplies
Around the Block Flocking and glittering kit
Misc. Ribbon
Glass or plastic ornaments for your tree

Instructions
1. You simply choose a pattern or word from the rub on glue sheets. They are placed on see through plastic so it makes placement so easy.

2. Center on the glass ornament, rub down, and peel off plastic backing.

3. Then pour your glitter over the glue word and gently press the glitter or flocking into the glue.

4. Blow off excess glitter glitter and add ribbon.

Simply, rub on, pour glitter and blow! How fantastic is that? You should see my nieces bike helmet!! Soo cute!

A very talented Scrapbook & Paper Crafts designer and a member of ATB’s Design Team, Vanessa Colant, brings a fun and funky style to the Block! Vanessa has created a gorgeous Christmas Gift Bag and Christmas Card using ATB products. We invite you to try these ideas this holiday season.

Here’s a bit more about Vanessa…

Hi everybody, my name is Vanessa but everybody calls me Nessa or Ness. I’m a 27 year old Belgian girl. Do you know where Belgium is? it’s in Europe and it’s a very little and rainy country. We really need some sun here….

My mother tongue is, of course, French but I’ll do my best to write you in my best English. I live with my man and our 2 little boys (30 months and 7 months). I don’t work, I’m a stay at home mum so I have a lot of time for my passion: scrapbooking!!!!! Scrapbooking is a great part of my life!! I need it in my everyday life, to escape from my very speedy mummy life…I love to create !!!! As Jennifer says it, I’m a bubbly and cheerful girl, so I think she’s right…????? What do you think ?

Gift Bag Project

Instructions:
1. Cover bag, or create your own bag and cover with ATB Patterned Papers (Ornaments and Ho Ho Ho)
2. Paint Sassy Swirls Chipboard Letters green.
3. Attach Chipboard Letters, Ultimate tag kit tag and paper sentiments with adhesive.
4. Draw on doodles with permanent black marker.

Christmas Card Project

Instructions:
1. Cut a card back out of ATB Patterned Paper (Snow Storm) 5″ x 5″. Draw a black frame around edge of card with a permanent black marker.
2. Cut out sentiments from ATB Patterned Paper (Christmas Magic & Merry Christmas). Cut out bracket shape, circle and scalloped border (Snow Storm). Outline sentiments & shapes with a black permanent marker.
3. Attach sentiments & shapes with adhesive.
4. Cut out star and attach Christmas Epoxy Tag to star. Attach Star to corner of card with the Paper Tagger.
5. Attach a strip of green ATB Paper & Fabric Ribbon Tapes to bottom of card. Adhere “LOVE” sentiment to top of Ribbon Tape.