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From the Helm
Dawn Heath, PublisherShip's Captain
This month we are cruising our way to South America! We're visiting Venezuela and Trinidad/Tobago! I can hear the music already, it just permeates into the blood stream, we are even walking light on our feet! All the rich full colors everywhere, beautiful dresses, beautiful landscape, the rich aroma of coffee and sunbathing on the white-sand beaches. All I want to do is relax, be pampered and be inspired by all that is around me as I try to get some stamping and scrapping done! We can enjoy the goat and crab racing season in Tobago. We can enjoy the crystal-clear seas, rain forest intended for escape. Majestic coral gardens, and the tropical waters made to float your cares away. We are visiting a place of magic, where the food, no matter where it is from, one of the island’s first-rate restaurants, or something simpler like barbecued barracuda on the roadside is as sleep-inducing as the lazy afternoon breeze. So, lay claim to your adirondack chair and plan for a wonderful relaxing month of pampering! There are many festivals this month on the islands and Venezuela to keep you active too! They say that Archipelago of Los Roques, Venezuela's greatest marine national park is where God perfected the colour blue... All in all, I think we have found paradise.
PRESS RELEASES!
We are thrilled to add a new section to our mid-month changes! This is an opportunity for you to hear the latest information in the industry!
We've been teasing you for months on to watch for information on Scrappers ER. Well now we have some more to tease you with! Click HERE to learn about this awesome new opportunity for you!
Scrapbooking's First Virtual Book Tour by Best-selling Author Angie Pedersen to Kick Off April 24th! Angie Pedersen will embark on a 15-website tour on Sunday, April 24th, promoting her third book, The Book of US: A Guide to Scrapbooking about Relationships (EFG, Inc, 2005). Tour events include online chats, scrapbooking layout challenges, book reviews, and prizes. To print Angie's schedule and for more information click HERE If you haven't joined our Ezine Yahoo! Group, now is the time so you can chat with Angie yourself!
Last month we had a booth at the Midwest Scrapbook Convention We had such a great time! We demonstrated the Transfer Ink by Stewart Superior and our samples were flying off the table! We were struggling to keep up with the demand! We had such a great time meeting everyone who stopped by and we gave away some awesome prizes! The gift baskets we had for each day were full of awesome products, Kaleidescope Creations sent in their software and 2 full sets of their cardstock stickers! They are just gorgeous!! I can't tell you how many people asked us where they could purchase the software for themselves. Stewart Superior sent some of their Pallette inks and their Transfer Ink and Black India Inkpad. We had a collection of supplies that we've been hoarding for just such an event to fill up the baskets too! The ScrapLady donated some of her awesome paperbag kits! I spent way too much money in The ScrapLady's booth! The shopping was wonderful at the convention. I picked up some awesome bargains and we had the privilege of judging some of the contests! Magic Mesh was there and they are very special to SSR, they have been faithful advertisers with SSR for over a year now! They had a tag contest at the Friday night crop and we had a terrible time picking the winners! Everyone did such a marvelous job!! You can see the tags that won in the Reader's Gallery.
We had so many beautiful submissions to our March Stamped Art Contest! It is with great pleasure that we announce that Mary G. Kerr is our FIRST Place Winner! Mary has won a $50 gift certificate for Bound2Remember services! Our SECOND place winner is Christine Smith! Christine has won a $25 gift certificate toward Bound2Remember services. Our THIRD place winner is Heather Taylor!! Heather won a $10 gift certificate toward Bound2Remember services! If you'd like to see Christine and Debbie's photos, please click here. All the winning photos are displayed on the Contest page! Mary's winning design will be March in the 2006 calendar! CONGRATULATIONS to all three of our winners! Our April contest category is our Scanned LAYOUTS! These are your layouts scanned and submitted using Yellow/Spring as your theme! Think Spring! Easter pictures or Gardening layouts!
Please size your image to 475 pixels (longest side) for submitting to the contest. We need it in a much smaller size for the magazine. But, be sure to keep your image in the proper scan size for the calendar if you win! So, you'll have 2 sizes for your image. Both are important! We need to have your submissions sent to editorialsubmission@ssreflections.com with your permission to publish and print your submission. Please also include your name, address, phone number and products used if you know them!
Did you know that we send out a bi-monthly newsletter when we change our Reader's Gallery each month? The newsletter is FREE and is full of up to date information of what is happening on board our magazine! If you would like to receive our newsletter you can sign up for it HERE. If you are a member of the Ezine Yahoo! Group then you know that we are giving our Bingo a bit of a rest and that we have instituted all new programs on the group! We now have Becky coordinating our monthly swap, Melissa is coordinating our brand new Card of the Month program, Lori is coordinating our RAK List and Purnima is keeping things lively with our Question of the Day! Our Wednesday Tip Day has just exploded and our Communications Officer, Joe, has been doing a great job with his product reviews, sharing his art and keeping up some fun conversation on both the Ezine Yahoo! Group and the Ezine Message Board!
We are very pleased to have Stacey Panassidi of Junkitz as or Celebrity Headliner this month! If you don't know who Stacey is or you aren't sure what Junkitz is, then have we got a treat for you! Now, for just a small taste of what you'll find in Stacey's feature..."I think that we have stayed true to our original motto "Unzip your Imagination" as we have continued with our growth. We enjoy bringing new and innovative ideas to scrapbooking." If you are thinking, but I'm a stamper not a scrapbooker...you will still want to read this feature. Trust me, I won't let you down! Junkitz is a company who have created awesome embellishments and they are so appropriate for the stamper! Did you know that Junkitz have also introduced a line by Tim Holtz that includes Metalz, Clearz and Frostz Embellishments that can be altered using the Tim Holtz alcohol inks by Ranger. Now, I've got your attention don't I?
Melissa Stephan, Paperkuts Managing Editor is joining us with an extra special surprise! Smooth Sailing with PaperKuts is a brand new feature on board the S.S. Reflections each month! Melissa has written a special feature on "Wise and Wonderful Mothers!" Experience a scrapbook tribute packed with layout ideas to honor mothers everywhere just in time for Mother's Day gifts!
In our VIP Lounge this month we are featuring Fairytale Creations. Fairytale Creations was born back in 2000 when scrapbooking was still young. Jennifer O’Byrne started FTC with a dream and first came out with templates. Jennifer traveled around from convention to convention showing Scrapbooker’s how to use her unique templates with chalk. Customers fell in love with the quick and easy scenes that could be created with a little chalk and her famous templates. You can now see Jennifer on DIY’s Scrapbooking show chalking away. Therefore, Jennifer has earned the nickname of “The Chalk Lady”. Jennifer can still be found chalking away in her booth at many of the conventions.
Our Designer’s Challenge this month was sponsored by Stamp Francisco! Our theme for this challenge were travel stamps. Stamp Francisco is a fine art rubber stamp company that has a store in Camas, Washington (25 minutes from Portland, OR), and an Internet site www.Stampfrancisco.com. Owner Catherine believes that Stamp Francisco has a rubber stamp for your every mood...from Santa Claus to peeling walls. Stamps can be ordered either wood mounted or unmounted, and sizes range from small cat paws to large florals. Stamp Francisco also offers alphabet stamps, borders, bookplates, and quotes. To find out more about this wonderful stamp company you'll have to be sure to visit the Designer's Challenge! 
S.S. Reflections Advertiser Spotlight!
As you finish reading this jam packed issue of S.S. Reflections, please make your way to our Making Waves page and visit our advertisers! We have revamped the page to make it more accessible to you and easier for you when you are shopping! Some of our Advertisers have wonderful specials and announcements just for you! If you are looking for that special logo-wear of your favorite online magazine, you can purchase your own t-shirts or sweatshirts in the Purser's Store! If you have any special requests, please email us at info@ssreflections.com and we'll see what we can do!
Be sure to come back for all the BIG news from CHA!! We're going to have lots of great news for you right here!
Posh Impressions Posh Impressions always has specials that change without notice. If you see it and you like it or want it, order quickly and it is yours. Notice that the page is titled "Items Briefly On Sale" or you can click here to is what is offered this moment: Special Sale
Hearts in Touch Click HERE for details of NEW releases and details for 10% off your order!
Magic Mesh RELEASES TEN COLORS IN 12" X 12" SHEETS! Click HERE to SEE for yourself!
PennyWise Arts is offering *** Micro Bead Madness Packs *** Click HERE to for more details!
PaperArtsy: New from PaperArtsy are 4 new quarter plates called 'wings' comprising angels, butterflies and other winged creatures as unmopunted stamps. These new plates are available from April. Also new on the website are our collage and transparency sheets: great for transfers, collage art or overlays. Be sure to visit the PaperArtsy website!
Ranger has lots of awesome new products that were announced at CHA! Click HERE for more details on all of them!
Midwest Scrapbook Association - Click here for a printable Schedule of Events: Be sure to stop by the SSR booth at the Madison Convention, booth number one!
Two Paper Cranes - Click here for a look at the awesome products that Two Paper Cranes is offering!
Now to tell you what is on our Editorial Deck! In The Stateroom this month we are featuring PaperHouse Impressions. I saw the papers that PaperHouse at Memory Trends last Fall. I absolutely fell in love at first glance with these gorgeous papers. I'm a true French Impressionist fan and when you see what Paper House produces, you'll understand my love for these papers! Dean has a project that cost under $2 and is a must have by any crafter! Megan is creating her own idea book using her favorite magazines. Sharon, our Librarian, is reviewing "Getting the Most From Your Scrapbook Tools" By Memory Makers Marlisis answering your questions and sharing your tips from the Ezine list! On a sad note, our first mother/daughter team, Marlis and Megan are leaving SSR. Marlis has been with us since our launch and Megan has been a bright spark on our design team, she has been awesome as our teen scrapper and it's been easy for all of us on the crew to treat her as our own daughter. We will miss both Marlis and Megan very much.
Last month we launched our Digital Deck! This month we are introducing you to 2 new Digital Designers to help give you ideas to go with the techniques Tonya and Tara and Dyan are teaching you! Please join us in welcoming Elizabeth and Tricia to our Digital Design Crew!! We are so excited to have them on board with us! Ramie is teaching us the basic terminology of digital scrapping! You'll want to be sure to print this out and save it for future use! The Showcase this month was written by our own Lori Roberts! Lori has done a review on "Paperpourri, a Multimedia Papercrafts Zine" from Carole Pivarnik. This is an awesome multimedia program and you can read all about it here! Lori has done a fantastic review and if you are a member of our Ezine Yahoo! Group then you'll even get to chat with Carole as she is a very active member! Bill is looking fast by standing still! I'm going to let you visit Bill's feature to find out exactly what that means! Tonya has done an amazing feature teaching us how to straighten crooked photos! I'm still in awe that I can do something like this!! and Tara is creating simple easy backgrounds and creating your own elements! Dyan is creating her designs with Word Art and teaching you how!
Now on to the Stamping Deck! I have some very exciting news to share with you! We have a brand new stamping deck crewmember! Please join us in welcoming Melissa Huber to our crew! Melissa is our own Lori's daughter so we are really celebrating Mother/Daughter teams this month! Now to tell you what our Stamping Crew has been up to this month starting with our Stamping Cruise Director; Cindy has some great ideas for clear acetate to share with you! Cricket is altering paint cans! Debi has created beautiful tri-fold cards! Robin and Wendy have had a lot of fun playing with different textures in their altered books! Cindy Cade has been listening to her muse and has been very busy creating with alphabet stamps. Andi has a passion for purple. Suzanne has been undergoing color pencil therapy and is sharing her knowledge with us! Lori is altering tins! Purnima is playing with a plethora of papers and if you are pondering what we are pontificating about, you'll need to read Purnima's perfect paper feature! Melissa has written her first feature for SSR on Crayon Resist! Now, this month we have a brand new feature for the Stamping Deck, we will now have a Stampers Book Review! For our very first feature, Robin has written an awesome review on "Texture Effects for Rubber Stamping" by Nancy Curry! This feature will actually be written starting next month by Judy Cantrell, so please join us in welcoming Judy Cantrell as our Stampers Deck Librarian! She is putting her list of books to review together, and we know this is a very welcome addition to our Stampers Deck!
Now on to the Scrapping Deck! Laura our co-Scrapping Cruise Director is cooking with glazes in her scrapbooks! Sara has done an awesome feature on monograms! Chrissy embellishing her pages with miniatures! Stacie has done a wonderful product review on Shortcuts! These are awesome self adhesive papers! Marilyn is explaining the differences with all different types of adhesives we have to choose from! Our Cindi not only moved to a new State during this past month but she insisted on working during this time! She wouldn't even take the month off! Cindi and I both moved this past month and I suspect she is just as exhausted as I am. Cindi is enhancing her pages with tags! Becky is manipulating color and sharing how the same pictures look different with a change of color! Janet is using all different types of chalks in her layouts. She has some awesome ideas to share with you! Laurie has also done a feature on monograms! We just know that you are going to love the different ideas that Sara and Laurie have to share with you!
As usual our Reader's Gallery is just outstanding! We have so many beautiful designs to share with you! The design featured is by Laura Naida who won the Magic Mesh contest at the Midwest Scrapbook Convention! If you would like to be featured in our Reader's Gallery please submit your designs to Robin Willis! Robin is our brand new Production Assistant and will be assisting Dyan putting the Reader's Gallery together. Robin is very excited at being the first to see your work so please don't let her down! If you have something that you'd like to have included in our May 1 gallery please submit your designs by April 25th to Robin at robinwillis@ssreflections.com. We love to showcase all our reader's artwork! Please remember to send us your name and the city/state or country where you live along with a basic list of the products used. We hope to give our advertisers as much exposure with your designs as we can!
I have one last thing I'd like to share with you. S.S. Reflections is proud to sponsor Holly McMillen's team for Relay For Life. You can read more about this wonderful program HERE. We all have stories of hope and strength and love, and this program means a great deal to me.
If you have read this entire article, THANK YOU! We will now reward you with a very special treat. I'd like to introduce to you Scotti Rankin! Scotti is joining SSR as our Editorial Assistant and will be our professional proofreader! Scotti will also write a "Dear Scotti" an advice column each month. If you have any questions or would like some advice please email Scotti at scottirankin@ssreflections.com. Thank you for coming on board our virtual ship! Next month we will be cruising to Central America and travelling through the Panama Canal! I can't wait! Remember to count your blessings each day. We hope you will be able to relax and enjoy your favorite online Ezine, S.S. Reflections!
Happy Sailing,
Cap'n Dawn
publisher@ssreflections.com
Publisher
S.S. Reflections, Inc.
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