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From the Helm
Dawn Heath, PublisherShip's Captain
We've been having such a ball visiting South America we thought we'd stay in this part of the world and visit Colombia then head up to Central America to Costa Rica and then into Panama! We'll then head through the Panama Canal on our way to the Pacific Ocean for the next leg of our journey. In my search of photos of the Panama Canal I discovered a website http://www.pancanal.com/eng/photo/index.html with an awesome photo gallery of this incredible area of the world. Please take a few moments to see these photos, they are just amazing. Now, close your eyes and imagine yourself standing on the balcony of the S.S. Reflections as we travel through these locks. What an amazing experience this would be. In 9 years the Canal will be 100 years old. Since we live now in the age of communication, it's hard to imagine the freedom that the Canal created back in 1914 when it was finished? Our ships no longer needed to travel all the way around the South American continent in order to get to the West Coast of North America.
PRESS RELEASES!
Cap'n Dawn was a featured guest on the Diva Craft Lounge Talk Radio Show on May 4th at 2:05 PM Central Time. You can hear the segment by clicking Here!! This is an internet radio show so EVERYONE can listen to it!! Please tune in and show your support!!
We've been teasing you for months 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!
Windy Hill Paper is a designer and printer of scrapbooking pages. They have more than 250 designs in their collection which includes seashores/vacation, florals, nature and pattern collections. You can read more about this awesome paper company HERE and check out the VIP Lounge this month as Windy Hill is our featured guest!
Scrapbooking's First Virtual Book Tour by Best-selling Author Angie Pedersen to Kick Off April 24th! Angie Pedersen embarked 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. We had our first Celebrity Chat with Angie this past week and had a wonderful turn out on our Ezine Yahoo! Group!
Last month I had the pleasure of judging the layout contest with CK Hall of Famer Courtney Walsh at the Lay It Out Loud Grand Scrap Fair at the Grand Geneva in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. S.S. Reflections provided the Grand Prize for the Layout Contest with an enormous gift basket full of product from some wonderful sponsors! Thank you so much for sponsoring our prize basket! Fiber Scraps – E-Z Walnut Ink Tintz; Kaleidescope Collections – Kreator Software, Cardstock stickers; Celtic Traders – Celtic stickers, Little Black Dress ribbon; Ranger – Scrapbook Palettes; Walnut Hollow - Hot Marks Tool ; PaperKuts – Idea Books, 1 year subscription certificates to PaperKuts magazine; Magic Mesh – variety of Mesh; St. Croix Cropping/The Scrap Lady – Altered Book Templates; C-line – Page Protectors and Page Horn. Congratulations to Tammy Vangan who won First Prize in the Layout contest! Victoria Wallace won Second Prize and watch out for Victoria because you will be seeing a lot more of this wonderful young lady on SSR! Congratulations also to Lisa Brockman-Martin who won Third Prize!! There were so many wonderful layouts submitted for this contest, it was very hard choosing the winners!
We had so many beautiful submissions to our April Scanned Art Contest! These contests are getting harder and harder on our judges to choose. Now, having said that it is with great pleasure that we announce that Becky Thackston is our FIRST Place Winner! Becky won a $50 gift certificate for Bound2Remember services! Our SECOND place winner is Joan Petty!! Joan won a $25 gift certificate toward Bound2Remember services. Our THIRD place winner is Jackie Mooney!! Jackie won a $10 gift certificate toward Bound2Remember services! If you'd like to see the winning photos, please click here. All the winning designs are displayed on the Contest page! Becky's winning design will be the month of April in the 2006 calendar! CONGRATULATIONS to all three of our winners! Our May contest category is a Photo Contest! These are your scanned or digital photos submitted using Pink as our color theme of choice and Mother's Day as your theme!
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 on 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 just had a membership drive! We've had many new members and we are having a wonderful time of sharing ideas and tips and techniques. Officer Joe announced the winners of the membership drive this past Friday, First Place was Elizabeth Dyson; Second Place was Becky Sorensen and Third Place we had a tie between Audrey Huffman, Carole Pivarnik (Paperpourri) and Anji Riley. We are also organizing a focus group of a few of our readers in the three catagories that make SSR the huge success that we are! We are searching for some readers to help us with Stamping, Scrapping and Digital areas of the Ezine. We are only looking for 10 of each category so you'll want to ask for an application ASAP!! Please send an email to publisher@ssreflections.com. 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 the one and only MaryJo McGraw as our Celebrity Headliner this month! You can read how MaryJo got into stamping. She gets asked that all the time... and she is here with us on this fabulous cruise to tell you all about it! It turns out that MaryJo used to be into dolls! This is such fun for me as my Mom used to teach porcelain doll classes too! I have a huge assortment of dolls that my Mom has made. To find out that MaryJo used to love all dolls, fashion dolls, cloth, composition, even porcelain dolls is awesome! It really is the beginning of an obsession, my Mom can attest to that too! It was during this time that MaryJo was with her Mom at doll/craft shows that she discovered a nice couple selling rubber stamps... if you want to hear the whole story you will have to read MaryJo's feature...you definitely won't want to miss it!
We have a very special feature from From Paperkuts new Fine to Fabulous special issue by Vicky Randall titled "Embellish It!" in the Smooth Sailing with PaperKuts column this month! Do you want to take a casual layout and dress it up? Embellish it! You can accessorize by taking pre-made embellishments and altering them to fit your personal style. You will need to visit PaperKuts column for the rest of the story...
In our VIP Lounge this month we are featuring Windy Hill Paper. Windy Hill paper is a young, dynamic company offering a unique blend of scrapbooking products. Owned and operated by Al & Tammy Parasida, it is located in the cozy town of Indiana, Pennsylvania. Indiana also happens to be the birthplace and hometown of famed actor Jimmy Stewart, remembered most for his performance in “It’s a Wonderful Life.” Windy Hill believes that it is indeed a wonderful life, and that it’s worth scrapbooking to remember the special times and events that make it so wonderful!
Our Designer’s Challenge this month was sponsored by Fibers By The Yard! If you haven't visited Tracey's store lately you need to take a look, Tracey has so much more to offer you now. She also has an amazing selection of ribbons and fabrics in www.scrapbookfabric.com as well as her wonderful fabric stiffener! Tracey also offers a brand new item - Monthly Embellishment Kits - but you better be quick! They sell out very fast!! These are a hot ticket item!
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 always have 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 Special Sale to see what is offered this moment. Don't forget to order Dee's brand new DVD "Simply Posh". What a wonderful opportunity to learn from the master.
Hearts in Touch - Click HERE for details of NEW releases and details for 10% off your order!
Caputo's Kits has some great new bookbinding items in-stock including a new kit! Also, don't forget that all Making Memories items are on clearance - 35-65% off! Click HERE for more specials just for you!
PennyWise Arts has lots of exciting news about new products! Click HERE to for more details!
PaperArtsy: New from PaperArtsy are 4 new quarter plates called 'wings' comprised of angels, butterflies and other winged creatures as unmounted stamps. These new plates are now available. Also new on the website are 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:
Two Paper Cranes - Click here for a look at the awesome products that Two Paper Cranes is offering!
Mother Rubber - Is having a HUGE Mother's Day Sale! Click here for details!
Sarah Heidt Photo Crafts is continuing the Free Mosaic tile pack with your first retail purchase. Choose round, square or hexagon tiles, in any of the six new plaid patterns! Click Here for all the details!
Heart Full of Memories is having a 20% off sale and free shipping in honor of National Scrapbook Day. This expires on May 7th. But just for our SSR Readers the 20% off sale will be extended through the month of May 2005 just be sure to put SSR in the Special Instructions box when you check out.
Now to tell you what is on our Editorial Deck! In The Stateroom this month we are featuring Grassroots, a wonderful new paper company based out of Wisconsin! Dean is organizing closets this month! We'd like to take this opportunity to introduce you to Scotti Rankin! Scotti is our brand new proofreader and she will be writing doing an advice column each month! If you have any questions, please "Ask Scotti"!!
On our Digital Deck this month, we are excited to introduce you to Dawn Shepherd of Mother Rubber Art Stamps. Dawn will be writing a special feature in The Showcase over the next three months about starting your own internet based business. Ramie is using pre-made textured backgrounds. Bill is capturing vacation memories from a cruise he just returned from! Tonya is creating metal charms and embellishments. Tara is expanding on her feature last month creating simple easy backgrounds. Dyan is playing with the alphabet! Elizabeth is also doing backgrounds in digital. Tricia is creating digital greetings.
Now on to the Stamping Deck! Cindy is creating journal covers! Cricket is using rub ons! Debi has created just gorgeous envelopes! Robin and Wendy are teaching us all about Gluebooks! Cindy Cade is inspiring us with manly cards in time for Father's Day! Andi has games on her mind this month! Suzanne is having fun with stencil paste! Lori is creating awesome collage cards! Why are these so hard for me to do? Purnima has created a gallery in Lavender! Melissa is creating with Pearl Ex! Judy has done her first book review on "Vintage Greeting Cards" by Mary Jo McGraw!!
Now on to the Scrapping Deck! We are thrilled to introduce to you, Jill McNamee from Hudson, Wisconsin! Jill will be sharing space with Laura! Jill has done her first article on inspiring us with homemade products! Diana has done a beautiful feature on quotes! Chrissy is using hidden elements in her pages. Stacie is absolutely "charm"ing us with her feature this month and Marilyn is teaching us about different types of tools we need for our trade! Our Cindi is staining her layouts this month and Becky is gripping our heartstrings with nostalgia...lilac kitchens huh? I think Becky has been hanging around Purnima's room too much! Janet is heating things up and embossing on her layouts! What gorgeous inspiration for all of us! Laurie is sharing poetry with us...the window to the soul. Sharon, our Scrapping Deck Librarian, is reviewing "the little book of BIG quotes"
As usual our Reader's Gallery is just outstanding! We have so many beautiful designs to share with you! The design featured is by Chris Herrmann of Gilbert Arizona! If you would like to be featured in our Reader's Gallery please submit your designs to Robin Willis! If you have something that you'd like to have included in our May 15 gallery please submit your designs by May 10th 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!
Please don't forget to keep Holly in your thoughts and prayers and feel free to contact Holly if you'd like more information about Relay For Life. 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! Thank you also for coming on board our virtual ship! Next month we will be cruising to Hawaii! 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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