We're Back

Good morning! We had a safe trip back and after sleeping most of the day yesterday, I feel almost like my old self again.

I wanted to post this project by Natasja Verbeek, because Lindsay showed it in a video and gave credit to a fictitious person named Martina...... although he did get the country right. I absolutely love this project. I emailed the photos of my son, Jack, over to Holland where Natasja made this book. She bound it with ribbon for the show and it was a big hit! I'm not sure what she used as the pages, but you could used chipboard, bookboard, old game boards, old book covers, etc.

Many of you want to know which line sold the best. Well, I would tell you if I knew, but it is too close to call. To be honest, we cannot, at this point, even rule out Lil' Men and Everafter. Even when the orders are entered, Lindsay and I will continue the debate until the lines are dead...... and I mean dead, dead, dead. We are still arguing over whether Halfway Cafe will ever be able to sell more than Dutch Girl. I picked Dutch Girl which was number one, but now there is a chance Halfway Cafe could be picked up by another account giving Lindsay his bragging rights two years later.

AHhhhhhhh Photos!

It really is a miracle........ we remembered the camera. Here's some pics from the show. Now, you know, we never leave our booth, so when I say from the show I really mean from one little corner of the show.

Here come the attendees, checking out the gallery wall.

The booth was hoppin'.

Here's Lindsay filling in our sale's reps.

Product displays......... they always look so nice in the mornings.



I think this customer was telling Lindsay that if he said Snorkel was going to sell better than Girl Friday one more time that she was going to hit him.

Here's Lindsay....... charmin' the customers.

Let's Set the Record Straight!

Hi Everyone! First I have to apologize for being a right brained, highly creative, but organizationally challenged person. The camera is still at the booth! However, Maren did email this photo from dinner to me.

Now, to clear up a few issues that have been brought to my attention repeatedly on the show floor. Mr. Lindsay is NOT my husband! I had one gal come into the booth and ask to speak to my husband and so I directed her to Eric. She said to me, "That is not your husband." I assured her he was and then found Lindsay for her. Over and over again people are referring to me as Lindsay's wife...... and all I can say is .......... he should be so lucky! (I'm just kidding Tehawna.)

And one other thing. He is not by boss either! I had another customer tell me it must be so fun to have Lindsay be my boss. I replied to her that I was actually his boss. She said, "Oh, because your his wife." And so it goes!!!

The First Day at CHA

Good Morning!

We had a fabulous first day at CHA.

With every release, Lindsay and I have a competition to see who can pick the number one selling line. This show I am predicting Girl Friday and Lindsay is predicting Snorkel. Right now they are running neck and neck, although we keep hearing from our design team that Lil' Man and Everafter are the easiest to work with. So, it's still completely up in the air. What's your guess?

I have to tell you, with our summer releases, we were both dead wrong on our predictions. I picked Jack's World and Lindsay picked Haunted. But as you know...... Mr. Campy was one popular marshmallow.

One more thing, we had a blast at dinner with all our guests and wanted to give them a special thanks for joining us! We enjoyed getting to know all of you!

PS: We'll post more photos, but we left the camera at the booth......... stay tuned....... more to come!

Hello From Anaheim

Hi Everyone,

We got to Anaheim safely, put up our booth on Friday and spent the day yesterday at Disneyland.

Here's some pics. Stay tuned for more from the show!


This is what the show floor looks like when you get there.

After a couple hours the booth is up and almost stocked.

Uh, Oh...... we forgot to send any Paper Crafting Kits...... Hello, UPS, can you do a Saturday delivery.

Disney Land! Can you guess whose family is behind us?

Hey Eric, I think these glasses need some embellishments.
Hey Julie, I think we should sell embellishable glasses!
And another product idea is born........ I think that means we can now deduct this Disneytrip as a business expense!

Booth 1345 and Dinner Winners

You may have noticed that we don't take ourselves too seriously at Cosmo Cricket. So, if you want to find the most fun booth at the CHA, be sure to stop by. This year, our back wall will be a gallery of paper patterns, hilarious old family photos (these are legit..... well, except for the captions, the one above is Eric's grandpa and friends) and some irreverent treatments of classical art. When we made the gallery for the back wall, we printed a few extra pieces, and you could possibly win one!

Now, onto the dinner winners. We decided to have three random winners instead of just one. Here they are:
Mary T...... it looks like your husband will have a chance to wear his Buffalo Bill tie.
Memories Galore..... I'll tell Lindsay to try and remember his manners.
LaCoe...... Don't trip and fall as you're running to our booth!

For everyone else, we are so glad you like us enough to want to join us for dinner. We hate that everyone couldn't win!

Down to the Wire!

Are you all ready for CHA? I am so super busy with the final preparations, that this is just a short and simple entry. I will announce the Cosmo Cricket Dinner Winner tomorrow morning. If you have not had a chance to get entered into this contest, read this entry for all the info.

Check back here for updates from CHA. I'll be posting everday on the road.

One more thing. we have our first $5.00 charity contribution on our Health Nut contest (if you don't know about this contest, get filled in here). It seems that on Lindsay's and Eric's trip, Lindsay used a taboo word. Although I'm holding him to his $5 donation, I will say that what we are referring to as the $5.00 diet, has not been cheated on....... we are almost 4 weeks free from all junk food. That's 4 weeks with absolutely no chocolate of any kind! Somehow I have not died yet.

Paper Flower Tutorial

First let me say, that the Dinner with Cosmo Cricket contest is still open. Read my previous post for your chance to win.

Now, onto today's business. Natasja Verbeek, one of our design team members, makes these absolutely beautiful paper flowers. I asked her if she could teach me how to make them...... I need all the scrappy help I can get..... she told me she learned it on the internet and that she would find me the link. Well, she couldn't find the link. Instead, she went above and beyond the call of duty and made me a personal youtube tutorial. I am so in love with these flowers, that I thought you might like to learn to make them too. So, I asked Natasja if I could post her video. It took a fair bit of coercion (she did not intend for it to be public) but she is a really good sport and agreed. And, I am so glad she did...... I just love her!

Now I have started making my own flowers. Here is a layout I am working on with my first paper flower. I wanted my flower to be made from our printed cardstock, but the paper seemed a bit thick so I peeled the top layer away from the bottom layer. I love this look. It makes very delicate looking petals.

111 Layouts and 1 Free Meal

If you do anything less than 25 layouts in a day you are a complete slacker! OK, I'm just kidding, but Krista, Kristen, Kathy and I started making layouts at 11:00 on Friday and by 5:00 we had completed 111 layouts. Why would we be so obsessed you ask? Well, sometimes we do a "make and take" at our booth sometimes we kit product together and do a "take and make", but this year we are just doing a "take".

You see, I wanted customers that place orders with us to have a layout to help merchandise the product in their stores. Our booth really isn't big enough to allow several people to be making layouts and if I give a kit, the store owner still has to take her time or pay someone else their time to put the layout together....... as a small business owner myself, I know there is never enough help or enough time. So, right now we have a free layout for the first 111 stores that place their order (I said right now, because we might find time to complete even more).

I was going to photograph some of them to show you all, but my sweet hubby boxed them up and put them in the crate before I got a chance! I guess you'll just have to get over to Booth 1345 to see them in person.

On another note, if there's no such thing as a free lunch....... maybe there is such a thing as a free dinner. That's right, we want to take you and your friend to dinner with us the first night of the show. What will this cost you? First you need to leave a comment telling us why you want to come to dinner with us and why we should pick you. Then, you have to get yourself to CHA. Finally, you have to be willing to endure an evening with the infamous Lindsay Moore...... the man with the cute shirt, Julie Comstock..... that's me, the girl with the whitest skin, Eric Comstock...... the luckiest man on earth, Kristen........ the smartest blonde at the office and hopefully Maren Benedict and Debbie Olsen..... two of thee most talented designers. If you won't be at CHA, but you know people who will, let them know about this contest. We'll leave it open until Wednesday @ midnight and announce the winner Thursday morning.

One last thing, congratulations Angela @ 10:02, you are today's winner. Send your address to kristen@cosmocricket.com and she'll get you your prize.

Congratulations and More Prizes

Isn't this just a lovely card by Krista! It's so beautiful and simple to make.

Now, I have to apologize that I don't have a free download for you today. But, you know, if I give you one everyday you might become spoiled and demanding. We wouldn't want that to happen now, would we? Of course not..... I am glad you agree. :)

However, I do have some potentially exciting news for anyone who's going to be at CHA. Whether you are a fan, product designer, paper artist, store owner, design team hopeful, whatever...... if you are going to be at CHA, you could win dinner for you and a friend with Cosmo Cricket (I told you it was only "potentially" exciting). If you are not going to be at CHA, let your local store know about this opportunity and have them come to our blog next week for their chance to win.

But wait........ there's more......... You could win today!!! Tell us your favorite thing about your special someone and be entered into a drawing to win the Element Cards and Borders from all four of the new lines.

Congrats Tigger and Scrapaddict21! You both have won the Lil' Man Paper Crafting Kit. Send us your address and we'll send you your prize.

All Stars, Happy Days & A Lucky Girl

Another project by the talented Krista. Can I tell you I love the plaids and stripes in this line. They remind me of vintage shirting or quilting fabric. So nostalgic!

For today's game we will be giving away a Little Man Paper Crafting Kit, but we're going to be a little tricky. You can enter your name into a drawing by leaving a comment, but you can increase your odds of winning by having your friends come to our blog and leave a comment. Tell them to say who sent them and if they win, the friend who sent them will win also.

Here's another download for you. After reading the wishes yesterday, I thought of the song "Happy Days are Here Again." I hope all of you looking for jobs (or having husbands looking for jobs) find them. And, like so many of you, I also wish for warm sunny weather. I hate winter. I miss the sunshine. Hopefully, it won't be too long until we get to use this happy little sunshine on our layouts! The same rules apply. Please use it as much as you like, as long as you're not selling it or using it for commercial purposes.


Oh, and today's winner is delaina@teleclipse.net. Delaina send us your address so we can get you your prize.

A Winner, A Freebie, Another Prize

For today's game, tell us a wish and be entered into a drawing to win the Snorkel Ready Set Chipboard (which won't be in stores until mid February) and stickers (shipping Jan 26).

I noticed yesterday that several people thought the title of "Me, Myself and I" would be fun for their layout. So, I made this printable download (click on it to make it larger) that you are welcome to have. Please do not sell it in anyway and we will still be good friends.

Congratulations Fourguysandagirl you are the lucky winner of yesterday's Spinner Card prize. Send your address to kristen@cosmocricket.com.

Spinner Card Layout

The full sneak peek is in the post below.

Look how fun these can be on your layouts! I sparkled the spinner on the card and left it free (so it can spin still). I have found that being in my mid-thirties, some days I feel like a completely different girl and other days I still feel like an 18 year old. I did this layout to try and show that. Maybe when my girls hit thirty they'll look back at this and relate.

You could win a set of spinner cards. Tell us a title for a layout all about you and we'll enter you into a drawing to win the new spinner cards..... they won't even ship until February 10th.

The Card Has Spoken!

**** Be sure to check the blog tomorrow for more great projects featuring our new releases!****

Have you been on the edge of your seats?

We'll begin our Sneak Peek this morning with one of our four new lines...... Girl Friday. She's cute, she's hip, she's totally down to earth. You have to check out her "Elements." I am so excited about these!

The second line for today is Everafter. Much more formal than Girl Friday, Everafter is beautiful for weddings, engagements, mother's day and heritage pages.

For all of you worried about all this girly stuff, relax, we have your boys covered...... even those really big ones you call hubby. Check out Lil' Man below..... I really love the "Ready, Set, Chip" chipboard stickers!

And finally, meet Snorkel. To introduce this collection, I think a song is appropriate.

Summer scrappin’ had me a Blast. Summer scrappin’ happened so fast! I found a line, perfect for me. I found a photo cute as could be. Summer days, driftin’ away to, uh, oh, those summer night crops. A well, a well, a well, uh huh. Tell me more, tell me more, did you get very far? Tell me more, tell me more, was your layout the star? When you see my layout, you’ll start to drool. ‘Cause stuff with Snorkel ends up so cool. Summer days, driftin’ away to, uh, oh, those summer night crops.



PS: As you probably know, you can click on the images to see them larger.



Oh, and for the girl who really does want to die with the most paper, you have two options. Our new Double Decks come with 48 papers (24 from two different Cosmo Cricket collections) or grab our new Paper Crafting Kits that have 12 papers, plus the Elements, Borders and Cardstock Stickers.

And of course, new Blackboard!