Select Artwork for Larger View and Item List
"Ctrl P" to Print
From the Helm
Dawn Heath, PublisherShip's Captain
We made it. We're in Italy! We have a choice of beautiful beaches off the Adriatic Sea to the Alps. We could even take a day trip (or two) to Switzerland, Austria, France or even Slovenia. The wonders in this part of the world are incredible and we will discover something magical and beautiful each day. The Italian people are so warm and welcoming, I think we are going to love visiting this beautiful country! When I was little we lived in Germany. My father was in the Royal Air Force and we were stationed there for 3 1/2 years. We had a VW Beetle and a tent and spent weekends camping all over Europe. I love sharing the photos of these visits with my boys and they are fascinated to see pictures of me in places they are seeing on TV. This virtual cruise is bringing such wonderful memories back for me. I hope you are enjoying this as much as I am. This month's issue of S.S. Reflections is spectacular! Our crew has created such beautiful art to share with you. So, sit back and enjoy this "magnific" issue of S.S. Reflections! With the launch of the August issue, we have some VERY exciting news for you... The thumbnails are now larger and the pop ups have also been changed to a new format with larger images too!! We've been working on this for MONTHS and we are so happy to present this to you!
It is with great honor that I introduce to you our Celebrity Headliner this month! I am thrilled to have Julianna Hudgins on board for our trip to Italy. I met Julianna last month at ACCI and I know how hard this trip has been for her. She REALLY wanted to visit Portugal this month!! I'm not sure how we can fit a trip to Portugal in for this cruise but we are going to Spain NEXT month, so maybe we can stop in Portugal on our way to Spain. Julianna is the spokesperson for Sizzix now on the Shop At Home TV network. Julianna is very well known in the craft industry and I'm thrilled that she was able to find the time to join us in Italy!
Our VIP Lounge guest this month is Betsy Griffin of Innovative Stamp Creations! This is a double blessing for me as I was privileged to meet Betsy this past Spring at a convention in Milwaukee! If you are an avid reader of S.S. Reflections then you may remember back in May, we had an extra special Designer's Challenge. Our very own Cindy designed the stamp used that was manufactured by Betsy! So, you can see we have a very special history with Betsy!
This month on Scramping Central we will be featuring projects and designs using Luminarte, Twinkling H2O's! Yes, you read that right!! Angelwings Enterprises was acquired by Luminarte just last month! Our design team for Scramping Central has created some beautiful designs and you'll even recognize some of our own crewmembers on Scramping Central! Shirley Parks is a past member of our crew and a very dear friend of mine. Shirley has written an awesome review on the Twinkling H2O's with the scrapper in mind and Martha Myers has written a review with the stampers in mind! No matter what craft you prefer (we hope BOTH!), you'll not want to miss either of these reviews.
Our Designer’s Challenge this month was sponsored by Marina Lenzino of Cherry Pie Stamps. How appropriate is it that we have Cherry Pie on board this month while we are in Italy!! Our crew have all used the same stamp and all of them have so many wonderful ideas for using the gondola!! Please also read Dyan's article on Cherry Pie Art Stamps in her column this month, Dyan's Shipboard Romance, I know you will love the stamps that Marina has created!
I know that the contest was last month, but I just love this picture of Cindy Cade and her family and wanted to share it with you just one more month! If t-shirts aren't your thing, don't forget that we also have two different types of tote bags AND we are in the process of changing printers so we will be offering travel coffee mugs and water bottles very soon!
Thank you for coming on board the S.S. Reflections! BTW, if any of you are overseas and are interested in a shirt, we do ship overseas! Just send us an email at info@ssreflections.com and we'll get right back to you on the best way to ship.
You will notice quite a few changes with this issue! We have created a whole Digital Suite now with our Ship's Photographer, Bill, leading the way! Tonya Doughty has come on board as our Advanced Digital Scrapper and Tara Markley, who has been writing the designer challenge intros each month, is doing a special intro to digital scrapping column each month!! So, if you are a seasoned digital scrapper, you will love what Tonya has to teach you - she has an enormous amount of knowledge to share with all of us! If you are new to digital scrapping, don't feel overwhelmed, Tara will be with you every step of the way! She will gently guide you as you begin this wonderful journey of digital scrapping! Our very own Dyan Cross is moving to the Editorial Deck and into the Digital Suite to bring us a whole new feature each month on FONTS! Being a font-a-holic myself, I'm VERY excited to read all that Dyan has to share with us!! This is a feature I've wanted on the magazine from the beginning and I'm very happy that Dyan wants to do this! We already know that Dyan has so much to teach us and with her gentle ways, this will be a wonderful addition to the roster!
There is so much to tell you about what our Stamping Crew has been up to! First off, let me share with you the exciting news that Debi Wind has joined our Stamping Crew! Debi will be doing a column each month teaching Stamping 101! This is just one more step that we can make to bridge the gap between stampers and scrappers (scrampers)! Cindy Roland, our Stamping Cruise Director is BACK this month! We sure did miss Cindy and we are relieved that her husband is recovering so well. Cricket shows us how to produce a beautiful birthday party by creating EVERYTHING yourself! Robin and Wendy have been sewing up a storm in their Altered Stateroom! Elizabeth has done an amazing product review on the Twinkling H2O's and our very special Purnima and Snow are now working together in Purnima and Snow's Solarium. Maria has created her last article for us this month; we will surely miss Maria's gentle spirit on the crew but we wish her all the best in her exciting future! She has given us a whole new way to work with transparencies! Suzanne has a whole article this month on creating designs with the exciting new gelly roll pens! Dyan has submitted her last regular feature on the Stamping Deck this month with her article on Cherry Pie.
Our Scrapping Crew has also been very busy. We felt that since we were having a Stamping 101 feature each month that we needed to have a Scrapping 101 feature too! So, let me introduce you to Marilyn Zumstein, a dear friend of mine who has been teaching scrapbooking for YEARS!! When the idea of doing this was first suggested (thanks Chell), Marilyn came straight to mind! So, please join me in welcoming Marilyn to the crew! Ramie our Scrapping Cruise Director shows us the way to use acrylics in our layouts and Diana shows different ways to create titles for our layouts. Chrissy is sharing the love...that's amore! Dru has written a wonderful article on a brand new company called The Little Scrapbook Club. Stacie is working from the heART with pages of artwork her daughter created! Laura teaches us all about creating our OWN rubber stamps and using them in our pages and Kelli treats you to a very special feature on the scrappers point of view using the Twinkling H2O's. Sam has also submitted her last regular feature to S.S. Reflections. Sam will stay on board as a fill in, but we won't be seeing her beautiful work each month like we are used to! Sam has so much to teach you this month so you won't want to miss how she is altering her paper! Wanda shows us how to alter CD's and use them on our pages!
You won't want to miss our Editorial Deck either! Dean has created an awesome set of shelves for storing our supplies with full instructions on how to build your own! Marlis, our Ship's Doc, has some special answers from Purnima on how to use fibers. If you would like Marlis to find an answer to one of your questions, please feel free to email Marlis! Sharon's book review this month is on an idea book by Magic Scraps!! Megan helps us to combat scrappers block with some excellent ideas!
Phew! This is taking a toll on my brain! The magazine just keeps getting bigger and better each month! We've got a jam packed issue and you won't want to miss a thing! Our Reader’s Gallery is awesome yet again this month! This design was created by Catrina Kohl of her trip to Italy! If you'd like to be in our Reader's Gallery please send your designs to Readers Gallery Submission. We love to showcase all our reader's artwork!
Thank you for coming on board our virtual ship as we travel all over the world. I hope you enjoy this issue and will tell your friends about us! I always ask that you please visit our advertisers; you can find their banner ads on the pages of our articles or you can find an alphabetical listing on our Making Waves page. Let them know we sent ya and tell them how important they are to you! Without them, there wouldn't be the S.S. Reflections.
Happy Sailing,
Cap'n Dawn
publisher@ssreflections.com
Publisher
S.S. Reflections, Inc.
This entire web site © Copyright S.S. Reflections, Inc.
>
