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From the Helm
Dawn Heath, PublisherShip's Captain
We're off again! We're beginning the next leg of our virtual world cruise! We're heading up to Nova Scotia, Canada. I started researching our destination and I'm hooked. Nova Scotia is a beautiful place and once I started going through the websites, I couldn't stop myself! Nova Scotia lies on the east coast of Canada and is almost completely surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean. Believe it or not, millions of years ago Nova Scotia was actually part of Africa. When the earth's crust shifted and Africa and North America separated, Nova Scotia got left behind. Nova Scotia is Latin and it means New Scotland. It was given this name by the Scots, who were the first British settlers to come here. Canada's Seacoast is a beautiful place and I'm sure we are going to have a fabulous time here exploring all the beautiful coves and sea ports. I have a girlfriend who went to Halifax for a weekend away with her husband and she sent me a beautiful pewter keychain with the Peggy's Cove lighthouse on it. I have the keychain with me all the time and think of Kim everytime I drive somewhere! Now, here we are visiting this very place albeit virtually, but that is the joy of the internet, the world is a much smaller place and everything is reachable.
On a very serious note, as we were preparing the January issue, the tsunamis hit Asia. We have sat in horror watching on our TV's the devastation on the other side of the world. If you would like to help with a financial contribution here is the link for the American Red Cross. Purnima has recommended International Association for Human Values. If you are interested in sending something for Disaster Relief for the victims of the tsunamis, there is information on both of these sites to do that. The IAHV mentions the Art of Living Foundation (a group that Purnima is a member of) which is the International Association for Human Values. It is a United Nations NGO (non-government organization). The volunteers mobilize very quickly to provide aid on the scene for disaster relief. They provide not just material things for relief, but also knowledge and practices to assist people in dealing with the terrible stress and losses of such an event. This disaster has hit close to home for my family as one of my cousins was in Sri Lanka for the holidays with all of his wife's family. They were enroute to the beach where he has an apartment, and were inland when the tsunamis hit. They are all safe, but the apartment was destroyed. Our prayers are with all the countries and the tremendous losses suffered by all these families.
We had so much fun with our FIRST Anniversary Sail-ebration contests that we are going to have a regular monthly themed CONTEST and the prizes will be sponsored by Bound2Remember! We did a feature with Pete DeLuca of Bound2Remember last November in our Showcase. Bound2Remmeber will sponsor 3 prizes each month, First prize will be a $50 gift certificate, Second prize will be a $25 gift certificate and Third prize will be a $10 gift certificate for services provided by Bound2Remember. The winners will then be featured in a special Calendar for 2006. A portion of the profits for the calendar will go to the Susan B. Koman Breast Cancer Foundation. Participation for the contests is well rounded, just like S.S. Reflections! You can submit a photo, a digital (or scanned paper) layout, or rubber stamped art project within our theme for the scheduled month. For a schedule of our themes, please see the contest page. 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, ie: camera used, products used, etc.
If you are a member of the Ezine Yahoo! Group then you know that this month we've just finished our second round of Bingo! CONGRATULATIONS to Catherine Marcandella in Belgium! Catherine is going to host the next round of Bingo which will start on January 10 so there is still time to get in on this next round! We have also started our Wednesday Tip Day where you can share your favorite tips with everyone! You may even find your tip featured in a future issue of S.S. Reflections! 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!
This month's Celebrity Headliner is Paulette Jarvey, the Owner and President of Hot Off The Press, written by Sara Nauman! If you are receiving The HOTP Scoop then you know who Sara is! HOTP is small. It's woman-owned. It's incredibly successful. And for 25 years, its sole focus has been to inspire the creativity of scrapbookers, cardmakers and crafters. We are thrilled to help Hot Off The Press celebrate their 25th Anniversary!
Joy Knox for Scrapbook Premier is taking you behind the scenes of the life of a traveling scrapbook manufacturer. She says it's a lot like the life of a rock star on tour, minus the screaming fans and inflated ticket prices! Nonetheless, the hectic touring schedule that allows very little sleep and demands one to stay in constant show mode makes a scrapbook manufacturer feel as though he or she has overdosed on show specials and drayage charges. Rising supah-stah Jennifer from Fairytale Creations granted us an exclusive interview regarding her life on the scrapbooking road. Jennifer is pictured to the right with Sandi Genovese of DIY and Mrs. Grossmans.
In our VIP Lounge this month we recently had the opportunity to talk with the owners of Kaleidoscope Collections, sisters Jeanie Sumrall-Ajero and Nancy Kurokawa, to learn more about their company and their products. Creating photo kaleidoscopes has never been easier thanks to new software from Kaleidoscope Collections! With Kaleidoscope Kreator, photo kaleidoscopes are just a button click away. Whether you're a digital or traditional scrapper, computer "illiterate" or digital guru, budding artist or seasoned designer - you'll find Kaleidoscope Kreator sparks your creative imagination and reminds you what it's like to be a kid again.
Our Designer’s Challenge this month was sponsored by Caputo's Kits. Jen Caputo is the owner of Caputo's Kits and these are so much fun! The crew had a ball with these kits and I have to tell you that they are quite addicting! In fact, Cricket has bought quite a few of Jen's kits and has been creating gorgeous albums and selling them! Jen is also a regular advertiser with SSR so please visit Jen's store and tell her that we sent you! I think that once you see what you can do with these kits you will definitely want a few of your own in all the different sizes! These make wonderful personal gifts! The book displayed to the right was created by Tonya Doughty! We are thrilled to tell you that our crewmember Snow and brand new crewmember Linda Cummings are teaming up to write our challenge company profiles! Please join us in welcoming Linda to the crew!!
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!
Posh Impressions We were given the privlege last month to be the first to share Dee's 2005 calendar, if you haven't ordered this beautiful calendar yet, there is still time! Order it here. What a truly beautiful calendar!!
Hearts in Touch Click HERE for details of NEW releases and details for 10% off your order!
Fibers By The Yard - Their Special for Jan is: order $25 or more and get 15% off your entire order PLUS a FREE grab bag of fiber & fabric scraps. Also if you join the FBTY FANatic Club by Jan 15th, the first 3 months of 2005, they are including Fabric Strip Samples, 5 different 1"x12" packs with every FFC membership :)
PaperKuts is very excited to announce that PaperKuts magazine will now be published 8 times a year! For a limited time, anyone can subscribe or renew their subscription and get all 8 issues for the same price as 6 issues.
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 has 12 brand new (quarter) plates released this month under 3 themes - Ancestors, Asian and Architecture!! These new plates are being billed as their 'triple A'. Available now via the PaperArtsy website!
Ranger is proud to announce the release of RED HOT UTEE™ which is available this month! Click HERE for more details on this HOT product!
Midwest Scrapbook Association - Click here for a printable Schedule of Events:
Now to tell you what is on our Editorial Deck! In The Showcase Beverly Hamilton has come back to SSR to write a special feature on accessories you need to go with your digital camera! Hopefully the one Santa brought!! In The Stateroom this month is an article written by our own Dyan Cross, featuring a torn paper technique developed and taught by June Lydiate. Also on our Editorial Deck, Bill has written a tutorial teaching you how to color in your photos to give them pizzazz! Tonya is finding the good in our photos. Of course, the photo she has chosen for this tutorial is PERFECT in my book! Check it out for yourself and you will see! Tara is teaching us about saturation levels in our photos and how to adjust them. Her subject is absolutely adorable!!!
Dyan is creating her own dingbat and handwriting fonts using the Font Creator from High Logic. Dean has finished building his wife's custom scrap room and it's beautiful! Megan has done a product review on Scraps and Scribbles, a scrapbooking company that has created their papers with the teenager in mind! Sharon, our Librarian, has done a review on Junkitz Unzipped by Stacie Panassidi. For more ideas on using Junkitz zippers be sure to check out Stacie's feature this month! Marlis is answering questions about rub-ons. Marlis has received answers from some readers on our Ezine Yahoo! Group as well as from our design crew! Please remember Marlis the next time you have a question about something craft related!
Now on to the Stamping Deck starting with our Stamping Cruise Director; Cindy is creating with one of my favorite looks, Shabby Chic!! Cricket has done a feature creating cards using your photos. The card on the right was created by Cricket! Debi has done a special feature on the versatility of vellum. Robin and Wendy are altering all sorts of things in the Altered Stateroom! Cindy Cade is helping us to recover from the frenzy of the holiday season by encouraging us to find time for ourselves. We announced last month that Andi Mulholland had joined our crew and for her first feature Andi has done an article on slide mailers! Suzanne is doing fun folding and creating beautiful art within these folds! Lori has done a fantastic feature using match boxes! These are absolutely stunning!
Now on to the Scrapping Deck! We'll start with Ramie our Scrapping Cruise Director; Ramie is starting the new year by doing calendar pages to keep for a lifetime! Laura our co-Scrapping Cruise Director is shopping for great finds in the dollar store! The design featured to the right was created by Laura! Diana is playing with ribbons and as usual has created beautiful layouts to encourage and inspire you! Chrissy is sharing ideas on how to use all those multiple pictures we have. Stacie is zipping her layouts! She has done a wonderful feature using zippers by Junkitz in her layouts! Kelli has done a feature on the brand new PaperDillies kit monthly club! Wanda is playing with faux filmstrips! This will be her last feature with SSR; we wish her well in her future endeavors! Marilyn has been busy creating mini albums! Cindi is creating with scrapbook paint using the Making Memories paints! Larolin is creating layouts using WORDS as part of the design! These are absolutely beautiful layouts!
Our first Reader's Gallery for January is our usual gallery featuring all the work of our reader's submissions! The design featured was created by Deborah March who lives in Nova Scotia! Thank you Deborah for sending in such beautiful work showcasing how beautiful your country is!
Our mid-January Gallery will feature designs created with images by Hearts In Touch! If you have something that you'd like to have included in this very special gallery please submit them by January 12th to Dyan at dyancross@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!
Thank you for coming on board our virtual ship as we begin our second world cruise. On behalf of the crew, we wish you a Very Happy New Year. Remember to count your blessings each day. Now that the busy holiday season is over, we hope you will be able to relax and enjoy your favorite online Ezine, S.S. Reflections! Because of you, we are celebrating the start of the new year with record high numbers! We've had well over 6 million page requests during our FIRST Cruise!! In fact, December 2004 was our busiest month with the most requests yet!! WHOO HOO!!
Happy Sailing,
Cap'n Dawn
publisher@ssreflections.com
Publisher
S.S. Reflections, Inc.
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