CHA is over...

I'm talking with someone just outside my booth when my husband taps my shoulder and says "Um... Nik, Jenni Bowlin just walked in our booth" I turn around and see this adorable petite lady, OMG JENNI BOWLIN IS IN MY BOOTH!!! OMG SHE IS LOOKING AT PRODUCTS!!! So I calmly (NOT) walk over to her and introduce myself and then start crying!!! Yes, that's right I started crying, WOW I have this lady who has been such an inspiration to me for so long here in my booth, it is amazing to me!! In that moment I realized just how far I had come in pursuing my dream!! Jenni Bowlin had always been a designer I admired (still do) and I was thrilled to meet her. (She is soooooo sweet too!!) Jenni told me that she had heard my name more than once and wanted to check it out her self. (She placed an order too, so keep an eye out on website, www.jennibowlin.com) Thanks Jenni!!
Here is another GREAT lady, Jill, from Jillibean Soup!! Jill is as sweet as her papers are! She had three ladies working in her booth with her that were wonderful to me, they fed me and gave me water too. Jill also gave me some of her paper!!! Thanks so much Jill, and thanks everyone who worked in her booth!! You all rock!!
Nancy Nally from Scrapbook Update came by to get all the info on why we started this business and about all my products. My husband thanked her because he has been reading her Scrapbook Updates to learn as much as he can about the scrapbook world. We had a great time chatting about everything CHA!!
Julie McGuffee was recording a segment near our booth then stopped by to say Hi and again I was so honored that she stopped by my booth!! I love her and Beth Madlands show on PBS called Scrapbook Memories!!
This pic is with Susan Dupre, Chartiy Hassel (two of my DT ladies), Jenni Bowlin and me!! CHA has been great for all of us at Nikki Sivils, Scarpbooker LLC, we've had soooo many orders and the feedback was crazy good!! Dan and I are very happy with debuting at CHA and can't wait for the Winter CHA in January 2010!!!

CUPCAKE INSTRUCTIONS...
One more thing my make-n-take the little "paper cupcake" was a huge success!!! Many people wanted the instruction so here is the link to the video I used to make them!! I've never met Leah Fung with Scrapbook Etc Magazine, but her VBlog is wonderful and filled with many great ideas!! Here is the link to Leah Fung's VBlog: PAPER CUPCAKES

WOW... CHA ROCKS!!!!!!!!!!!

So here it is, our booth!! (This pic it from Monday night the last night to set up before the show started, on Tuesday.) I was so tired last night I couldn't even do a post here. I'm as tired tonight, but still a little pumped from all the momentum of the day!! We had a steady stream of buyers in our booth literaly all say long!! YAY!! We took many orders today and talked with many people and gave out a ton of catalogs. The feedback was fabulous!! I meet some great people, and 'The Scrap Review" ladies came by and were so very nice and funny too, they took many pictures and even made a little video in my booth!! (Emilie, don't forget to edit that video!!LOL) Thanks Scrap Review!!!

This is the make-n-take that was going on all day at my booth. Two of my design team girls, Susan Dupre & Charity Hassel took turns all day demonstrating the make-n-take!! They rocked it!!! Dan and I heard ladies, and even a couple of men too, laughing and having a great time with them!! Thanks Charity and Susan, you both were great!!!
I GOT TO MEET DONNA DOWNEY!!! So I turn around and who is checking out my paper line, "My Sweet Cherry Pie", no other than Donna Downey!! I ran up to her and introduced myself and she said my papers were cute!! What a great compliment and honor!!! Thanks Donna!!
One of my orders today came from Sheri, the owner of The Scrap Nook in my hometown!!YAY!! We only have two scrapbook stores in Springfield so it's so nice to be in both!! Sheri was a sweetheart and loved my papers, and it was soooo nice to see a local person in such a sea of strangers!! Thanks, Sheri!!! Well that pretty much sums up my day... wild and crazy!! It's so great to get such awesome feedback and orders too of course!! Until next time... -Nikki

CHA... setting up our booth...

Dan and I got up at 7am to check on the construction of our booth, and to our surprise it was up and ready for us to start displaying our products!!!
Okay so we learn a few things today, like what a "Marshall Yard" is, and all it takes to getting a lot of product from point A to point B!!
Here is the fun part, putting it all together!!
Dan took my picture while he was "grounded" to the make-n-take table because, bless his heart, no matter what he did today it was a disaster!! Seriously, once I went up to him to check on the filling candy in boxes, when I saw what appeared to be ribbon under his shoes, then I took a closer look and I saw a piece of my "cherry" paper under his shoes, so I said "Dan, what's under your shoe" and he looked down then looked at me with this sweet "little boy" look and shrugged his shoulders!! It was my homemade candy box!! (No worries though I fixed it.) Then he hit himself in the nose with his laptop and cut open his nose and we thought he may have broke it!! Then he trips in the booth and catches himself on the paper trays, and BTW they are plastic and barely fit on the slat wall!! I've never laughed so hard in one day during our entire marriage, I think maybe a little bit of "Goofy" for Disney has got a hold of him!! LOL!! What a day!!

This picture is just a very small part of the HUGE convention center!!! I'll have more for you all tomorrow, pictures of the booth completed!! Also I met the owner of Jillibean Soup, Jill, she is super sweet, and her booth is adorable!! I can't wait to meet more people tomorrow!! Have a great night!! -Nikki

The Husband is back

My wife travels in a luxury box. While driving I noticed she was gathering pillows and blankets from the back and intensely organizing them around her. She then put her water bottle and Coke in the two cup holders. That left me with no place for my water bottle, but who notices such things? Anyway after she was done she was literally surrounded by pillows and had her legs up on the dash covered in a blanket. She then promptly fell asleep in her little luxury box. Later after she was rested she drove and I thought I might shut my eyes for a bit. But that never really worked because my wife was listening to her Ipod and every five minutes or so she would loudly sing a sentence from a song. Then silence for a few minutes then she'd sing another half sentence. Then silence for a few minutes then a full sentence. And so on. She dances while she drives too; which thankfully only occasionlly beomes a safety hazzard to us and the vehicles around us. As I have said before, never a dull momment. We are her in Orlando and ready to go watch our booth be set up tomorrow; then we will begin setting up everything else! Goodnight! -Dan

Day 2 done and one to go...

This is me waving goodbye to Tennessee, our first over night stay.  We drove from Missouri to Tennessee on day one.   Tonight we are in Georgia and will drive into Orlando tomorrow afternoon.  Okay, so I thought three days on the road and I would be able to "organize" my Mac, maybe work on some ideas for next springs paper lines, polish my nails, catch up on my back issues of my scrapbook magazines, and start my new book "The Kite Runner", well we weren't on the road for 20 minutes and I started getting sick to my stomach!! What the heck... I've never been car sick ever!!  So Dan let me drive for awhile to see if that would help, and it did.... however, Dan then started to get an upset belly!  What was going on??? He has never been car sick in his life either!!  Then we finally figured it out, the trailer we are pulling for the trade show is wobbly and it's making the car bounce just enough that our equilibrium is off!! We are getting more use to it, but I can only do things for very short periods of time.  Now Dan and I are doing a coin toss to see who gets to drive, because that's the only time we aren't sick!!   Have a goodnight  -Nikki 

www.nikkisivils.com is now LIVE!!!

My website went live today!! Woo Hoo!! Please go check it out...

www.nikkisivils.com 

Let me know what you think!! Oh and the gallery should be up and going very soon!!

Have a great Friday!! -Nikki

Another CHA Summer 2009 Sneak Peek....

This is my little 6x6 mini chipboard album that goes with "Victoria's Street"!! I made this over the weekend for CHA and my little 6x6 mini pad of papers works perfect with it!! I had so much fun making this!! I can't wait to get it in the hands of my DT ladies, I can't even imagine what they will do with it!! Okay now for my little seak a peek at my Halloween line.... Boo-tiful!!
This is my mom and I a couple of years ago!! Yes, I'm a cat and my mom is rabbit!!
I made this little haunted house out of my Halloween "Boo-tiful" paper line!! It was so much fun to make, but it took like 11 hours..... EEK!! Hope you enjoyed the little peek at Boo-tiful!!
Oh and this really cool online kit of the month club bought my papers for their August kit and they too are giving a little sneak peek so you might want to go and check it out also!! Here is the link Scrapinkits blog Have a great day!! -Nikki

CHIPBOARD, CHIPBOARD, AND MORE CHIPBOARD...

This picture has nothing to do with chipboard, but it does have something to do with the make-n-takes for CHA!!! I cut so many squares that I actually blew up the electric carving knife!!
The chipboard is here!!! Three pallets of chipboard!! YAY!!! We had to have a packaging party to get all the chipboard albums packaged!! So Dan and I invited our friends and family over to help us. We had, pizza, soda, and cupcakes. We packaged for 2 hours and a got 1200 mini albums packaged!!
Vicki packaging the tree for the "My Sweet Cherry Pie" paper line.
My scalloped albums.
Henry and his mom even helped us out!! Thanks Hen-pen and Heather!!
This is my friend Brooke and she didn't package, she made an owl door hang for her room out of the "My Sweet Cherry Pie" papers and the owl chipboard goes with the "Henry's Brilliance" paper line. Very cute Brooke!!
Dan and I at our chipboard party.
My sweet grandma even came over to help us out!! Thanks, Nan!!
This is my friend Katrina, in the white shirt, and my new friend Lindsey; they were packing like crazy!!
This is Heather, our "Graphic Bee" and her Godmother, Charlotte!! Thanks ladies!! We also had my brother DJ and his wife Tonya, and my youngest brother Barron!! Thanks to all of you, we couldn't have done it with out you all!! Now we only have like 6,000 more mini albums to package.... -Nikki and Dan

Calling All Florida Retailers......

We are not only attending the CHA Trade show this month, but we are going to exhibit at the CHA Super Show too!! However WE ARE NOT SELLING TO CONSUMERS, JUST TO RETAILERS!!! We thought since we are a brand new company that even if we are not selling at the Super Show we can at least do make-n-takes and introduce ourselves to the consumers!! So we'd like to have several retailers that are attending the Super Show carry our products. When I am asked about where they can purchased my products, I can say booth #??? and #??? are carrying my products and you can purchase them there!! So if you know of a retail store that's going to CHA, or you are a retail store going to CHA please email me at nikki@nikkisivils.com !! Thanks for all your support and comments about my products!! I get emails everyday from ladies wanting to know how they can get my papers, so Thank you!! -Nikki

I'm Back!! Sorry Dan...

This is the project I was making for CHA that I got pulled away from making Friday night by my DH!! (But, aren't they soooo super cute!) These little paper cupcakes are made from my Christmas paper line called "North Pole Nights"!! So I guess this is also just a little sneak peek at this paper line too.
(I got the idea from Leah Fung's Scrapbook VBlog. I love her layouts and her VBlog is great too!!) I'm making two paper cupcakes per paper line, 12 total. Ok now for Dan's little "take over"..... very funny, and those pictures.... WOW, not my first choice of pictures to post, but he is a funny guy and a real sweetheart too!! (I was very sick and unable to hardly lift my head off the pillow!!) Thanks for all your comments and "get well soon" posts and emails!! I'm feeling much better today, I did do a little online play yesterday and got caught by Julie... (one of my DT ladies) thanks Julie!! I'm not working much today, dh said I still need to rest....... so tired of resting, and I have to say I'm not good at it either!!!! I can't think of a time I've been this sick, it's been crazy! Strep throat is a killer!!!

Now on to more exciting things, Allison Davis is using my paper line "My Sweet Cherry Pie" for her July Hall Of Fame Kit. Here is a picture of the layout she made for the kit:
You can go to Scrapbook Generations Blog for more details, I think you can purchase this kit this Wednesday, July 8th on their website. Also Allison's sister, Stacey, is a great card maker and she too has her own monthly card kit. Stacey also used my papers on one of her cards for her monthly kit. Aren't these cards just too cute!! I of course love the card she made with my papers, but isn't that "watermelon" card adorable!!!!!
Now for my last blog entry, I went to into my LSS story (Scrapbook Generations) and above my products they are selling they had this l/o Allison had made of her boys using my papers and I just had to share it. I'm not so good at doing two page layouts, I'm a one page layout girl, so when I saw this two pager using my paper "Cherry Blast" I thought it was so creative!

I guess that's all for today!! Have a great rest of the weekend!! -Nikki

This is Nikki's Husband-I have taken control!

These two photos explain a lot about my life, about which I will explain later. Nikki is sick with Strep throat, but I bet you knew that; what you may not know is that she despises being sick and refuses to admit or accept that she is until she is near collapse (once before we were married she slept for 17 straight hours after a week of claiming she was "not going to be sick!"). That is where I come in. I took away her computer and sent her to bed after I found her pale, shaky and with a fever on our family room floor making "cupcakes" out of her paper for CHA. I send a plea to all of you out there, if you catch her blogging or uploading in the next 24 hours tell her to go lay down and rest!!! Now the photos and how they explain my life. I find myself frequenlty looking at Nikki wondering just what she is doing and what I am to do (1st pic). But then I always accept her and love her exactly the way she is (2nd pic). This might have been Easter, but honestly she will put on a costume for almost any reason. Never, never a dull momment. Good night. -Dan

Another CHA Summer 2009 Sneak Peek....

INTRODUCING.......
HENRY'S BRILLIANCE
This is my "back to school" paper line I created for my step-son Henry!! Henry is 13 soon to be 14 and the older he gets the harder it is to "scrap" those cute school snapshots! At the age of 13 there are no more pictures with your teacher, sitting at your school desk, or at school with friends. So I wanted papers that could be used for both, little ones just starting school and the bigger ones going in to 8th grade!!! WOW.... time flies by really fast!! So I hope all of you will enjoy "Henry's Brilliance" no matter your age!! (I even used it on one of my older college photo's taken of me at my college graduation!) Enjoy! -Nikki
(We are shipping it this month (July) so it can be in retail stores for all the back to school photos!)