‘Tis the season to be smiling and the Paper Source Design Team has given us plenty of reason to grin. In fact, there are more than 100 ways to show off those smiles in our 2011 Holiday Photo Card Collection.

Our holiday assortment features dozens of festive styles, and new this year you can personalize the back of your card! With the option to choose your favorite backing style, we’ve given you more ways to do something creative – add a stylish pattern, more photos, even include a holiday letter. Between the clever designs and the exclusive Paper Source color palette these holiday greetings are sure to become a wonderful keepsake.

We also invited PS Fans to submit photographs for our new holiday photo card line. From hundreds of lovely photographs, the Paper Source Design Team featured several families in the latest collection. Today we’re congratulating Grace K. and her beautiful family as the winner of our $100 Paper Source gift card drawing. You can find Grace and her family in the New Year multi-photo card featured here and other samples online and in our stores.

Browse our newly designed holiday assortment online, and save by ordering this month – through October 31st enjoy an early bird discount of 25% off your holiday photo card order.

As we anxiously await the July launch of our new line of birth announcements, we wanted to let our fans know about another opportunity to inspire our designs – our 2011 Holiday Photo Card development is underway and we’re looking for families to feature in our catalogs, online and in our stores.

Send your favorite hi-resolution *photographs to psholiday@paper-source.com by July 10, 2011 and your photographs will be considered for our product line and one family will win a $100 Paper Source gift card drawing.

*Requirements:
Your photograph should be print quality (ideally 300 dpi) and approximately 5″ x 7″ when printed. We encourage you to submit either candid or staged shots; however, we insist that you own the copyrights to any image submitted. A photo release and consent form will be required for all selected photographs, so double check if submitting images that are not your own. Purchase not necessary to win. Must be submitted by July 10, 2011 to be considered.

We will announce the gift card winner with the launch of the 2012 Holiday Photo Cards in September.

As much as I hate to admit it, it is already October and whether I have my Halloween accents done or not, the holidays are just around the corner! Each year we like to do a kick-off Holiday Card Making Event that begins the season of stamping, stickling, heat embossing, and layering (both papers and good wishes) with plenty of creative ideas! This Thursday, October 7, from 7-9pm is our annual Girls Night Out: Holiday Card Making. This event usually sells out (some locations already have), but not to worry, we also have a Holiday Card & Tags Workshop coming up on October 21. Check with your local store on seat availability, or ask them about having your own private “Crafter’s Night Out” with 6 or more friends!

Here are a few holiday card samples the folks will be making tomorrow night. Left: We used our new Tombow Markers with rubber stamps to add fun hits of color! Right: Vintage distressing combined with our die-cut snowflake cards, layered over new 12×12 paper.

Below are a few card ideas sure to be winners for those who love creative embellishments like bakers twine or decorative cloth tape! (Some of these new ingredients are hot off the press and you’ll be the first to see them in this workshop – not yet available online).

Please stop into a store to view even more holiday card samples on our inspiration boards, and get a jump on your own creations just in time for the start of our 5th Annual Holiday Card Contest! This is the season we love to inspire correspondence between families and between friends. This is the rich part of life, sharing your thoughts and words with those you love. And, well…this is the fun part too, getting to “Do Something Creative Every Day!”

Cheers & Happy kickoff to the Holidays!

–Linda
PS colors: chartreuse & pool
Latest fave: 2011 Paper Source Booklet Calendar

We recently compiled a list of Crafting Essentials: our favorite tools that make projects easier and more professional…the tools we think everyone who loves doing creative things should have. Now we want you to tell us why these products are a must-have for you – tell us how you use any of our crafting essentials and we might share your story on our blog!

To Participate:
Review our Crafting Essentials and draft a blog post that describes how you use any of these products to Do Something Creative Every Day. Feel free to mention other complimentary PS products and include personal photographs to help tell the story of your staple product(s). Also, be sure to tell us your favorite PS product and your two favorite PS colors – just like we include in our blog signatures.

Submit Your Entry:
Email your blog post, photos, etc. to PSFan (AT) Paper-Source (DOT) com by Friday, July 9. We’ll select a guest blogger to be featured in a blog post the following Monday!

–PS Team

Thank you ALL for coming to our “birthday party!” We were delighted to see all of the enthusiastic comments and wonderful suggestions for things we can bring to the blog. We are touched to know that Paper Source has been a part of so many memories from weddings and births to birthdays and holidays. We promise to work hard this coming year to bring you more inspiration and creative ideas, including incorporating some of what you said you’d like to see!

And now, the winner of our $100 gift card give away is…

Terri from Dearborn Heights, Michigan!

Congratulations, Terri! We appreciate your support and hope you enjoy a little shopping on us.

–PS Team

Update 6/9/10 – Congrats to Terri from Dearborn Heights, Michigan – our blog “birthday party” winner!

Put on your party hats – our blog is celebrating its 1st birthday and you could win a $100 Paper Source gift card! One full year of creative inspiration, how-to projects, store events, and more. We’re thrilled with the way things have shaped up and are so thankful to YOU for stopping by periodically to see what we’re up to.

We wanted to celebrate this occasion by sharing some of our (and your) favorite blog posts from our very first year.

5 steps to perfect rubber stamping
How-to: recycled origami hearts
Decorate your office with birthday banners!
Founder’s Day
A baby shower gift worth drooling over
Rubber stamping on chalkboards?!
How-to: bookworm baby shower invitation
Lovely paper jewelry
How-to: sweet treat keepsake
Rubber stamping with powdered sugar

Now we want to hear from you! What keeps you coming back to our blog…what types of things would you like to see more of…what new things can we bring to the blog? Share your thoughts and ideas as comments to this blog post. And because it’s a celebration, we’re going to give someone a $100 Paper Source gift card just for coming to our “party.” (Next week, we’ll choose at random someone from the comments to this post as our winner.)

Stay tuned! We have wonderful ideas and news to share right around the corner…three new PS colors, great ideas for 4th of July celebrations, our 2011 calendar lineup, keen new fall kits, and new store openings coast to coast!

P.S. To receive email updates about new blog entries, just click “Blog updates by E-mail” under subscribe in the right hand navigation.

–PS Team

After weeks of anticipation we are thrilled to announce the winners of our first ever Facebook contest. Collectively the twenty-six Mother’s Day card entries perfectly celebrated motherhood, both the many different kinds of mothers and the many different styles of mom. From retro to whimsy the design inspiration will be permanently available as a Mother’s Day photo album on our Facebook page.

The winners, as determined by hundreds of fans who voted online, were asked to share a little bit about the woman who inspired their creation. Here are their stories:

Grand Prize Winner
Everything Grows In Mom’s Garden

My inspiration for this Mother’s Day card is my mom. She had the most beautiful garden in town while I was growing up. Everything grew in Mom’s garden including her children. Her garden is still as just as lovely, serving as a place for friends and family to gather and celebrate the bounties of hard work and dedication. Growing up in my mom’s garden has shaped me into the devout naturalist I am today, and for that I have my mom to thank!

–Tiffany Heater, PS customer
PS colors: strawberry & pool
Latest fave: Summer Magnolia Paper Flower Kit

2nd Place Winner
Grandma’s Roses Read the rest of this entry »

We’re excited to announce our first ever Facebook contest in celebration of Mother’s Day! Our Facebook fans have the opportunity to win a Paper Source gift card by submitting a photo of an original Mother’s Day card creation using 100% Paper Source materials. Fans will vote for their favorite designs, and we will announce the top three winners on May 10th. In addition to a gift card, the winning entries will be featured on our blog!

Even if you don’t enter the contest, please join us on Facebook and vote for your three favorite designs from May 3rd – May 9th.

WHAT: Mother’s Day Card Contest
WHERE: Our Facebook page
WHEN: Submit your entries via Facebook by May 2nd (11:59pm CDT). Voting by Facebook fans is open from May 3rd – May 9th, and winners are announced May 10th.
HOW: If you aren’t already, become our Facebook friend, then submit your entry by uploading a photo of your card creation through our contest page.

Prizes
1st Place: $100 Paper Source gift card
2nd Place: $50 Paper Source gift card
3rd Place: $25 Paper Source gift card

Please note, although you must be 18 to enter we welcome card designs created by kids – you may submit an entry on behalf of a child. For more information and official contest rules, please visit our Facebook page.

We can’t wait to see how you plan to honor a mother, grandmother, or other special women in your life with a one-of-a-kind Mother’s Day card creation!

As promised here is the second installment of some of the Holiday Card Contest submissions from a few of our stores. We think you will find these soooo amazing and inspiring that if you haven’t already sent cards for the holidays, a brilliant handmade New Year’s card may be just the ticket!

Read the rest of this entry »