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!)

Due to a fever and a very sore thoat....

I've been able to do a little scrappin' along with a little work too! I made this card for my mom's b-day on the 8th of July, and I made her a layout about her dog, Molly! (That dog is out of control by the way, but they love her.) And I made one for me about my shoes!! (I'm lovin' this size too, 6x12) I used my papers from "My Sweet Cherry Pie" my corduroy brads, bread(less) tabs and stamps too; Heidi Swapp chipboard letters, Am Crafts Rub-ons, May Arts ribbons, and my new found TOY.... TIM HOLTZ TINY ATTACHER!! Okay if you don't have one it's a must!!!!! It works great, and is perfect for all ribbon sizes, but perfect for smaller ribbon. I've used it so much I ran out of the tiny attachers in less than one week!! I even emailed Tim and told him I was in love with that thing!!! Go get one you won't be disappointed!! Seriously!! Oh and I used Tim Holtz Dabber paint too and it's wonderful also and so easy with no clean up!!

A few random things.....

First of all I renamed "In-Practical Lilith" to "Lily Bug"!! She needed a bright shiny name, and Lily Bug fit the bill. (I only got to drive her twice today, but it was sure fun!!)

Secondly, one of my friends, Lori, who owns and designs her own really cool clear stamp company, Clear Dollar Stamp, bought all of my first two paper lines to sell on her online store!!! Yippy!!!!! So very sweet of her!! BTW her clear stamps ROCK!! You can check it out on the link posted below.
http://www.newcleardollarstamps.com/servlet/Categories?category=Nikki+Sivils+Line

Now, this is a great story... a friend of mine from Jr High contacted me on Facebook when I had made an entry about the start up of my scrapbook company. Hi Kendra!! She's been my "go-to" girl for some of my "retail" questions!! Thanks, Kendra!! Well she too bought all of my first two paper lines!! How fun is that, and she lives in Texas!! So very cool. You can check her store out here:
http://stores.myphotoliciousgifts.com/-strse-Nikki-Sivils-Scrapbooker/Categories.bok
This is why I love scrapbooking so much, I've met great people that are now great friends, and a few are actually working for us now, and some I've rekindled relationships with after many, many years!! I LOVE SCRAPBOOKING!!!
Have a great weekend!
Happy Scrappin'!! -Nikki

Guess what I got today.....

a bug..... getting the keys from Bill.

Dan actually drove it once....
Bella even liked it!!
I know, I know, Dan doesn't look like he likes it, but he'll come around!!

A CUTE LITTLE BUG....... isn't cute!!!! CUTE AS A BUG IN A RUG!!! Hmmmm.... that would be a good layout for my girl!! heehee! Well we've had one car for a couple of months and it was time to get another one and I've been trying to convince my DH that this car is the perfect car, and he wasn't convinced!!
But, he gave in!!! We went to test drive it and I of course fell head over heals in love and he just shook his head!! He knew he had to give in. (He even drove it once today.) Anyway that's all for now, just wanted to show off Lilith, that's her name, but my DH named her "In-practical Lilith"!!

Website....

Oh and BTW I'm getting closer to having the website completed! My web design company is working day and night to get it in great shape!! (Many thanks to Global Net Designs!) However I'm not going to take it "live" until it's in tip top shape!!!

CHA Summer 2009 Sneak Peeks...

Here are all my papers for "Victoria's Street" and "My Sweet Cherry Pie". These are two of the six lines that I'm debuting at CHA this summer! I've been receiving many orders for these two paper lines already; they've been quite a hit so far!! YAY!!!!!! I hope you all will love them too!! I have been shipping literally all over the world! Brick and morter and online stores are already selling both of these paper lines and some of my other products like, clear stamps, brads and 6x6 mini pads,and more will be selling them soon. (I'll link you all to some of their sites when they start selling them.) Also I'm very excited because Ali Davis, Creating Keepsakes Dream Team Gal, Hall of Famer, and Scrapbooker of the Year finalist, is using "MY SWEET CHERRY PIE" in her July "Hall of Fame Kit of the Month Club"!!!! I can't wait to see what she does with my papers!! So get out of the heat and do some scrappin'!! Have a great day!! -Nikki

Shipping and I got to play a little on Saturday....

This is our sweet Caitlin that has been working for us this summer. She helped me get all the DT packages out ..... here they are on the couch waiting to be shipped!!!
This layout I did of Henry, my Step-son!! I scrap-lifted it off of a Kristina Contes layout, I've always loved her work!! I think she rocks... I would love to see what she could do with my papers!! ( So everything on this l/o is made by using my products expect the bracket: Pebbles Inc, the rhinestone brads are unknown.)
I made this for my DH, Daniel.... for Father's Day. Everything is made with my papers except the frame: American Crafts, and the blue dot is by Pebbles Inc., and the blue chipboard letters are by Hedi Swapp.
I did this l/o last night and I have to say I totally scrap-lifted Jennifer Matott's technique, one of my DT ladies, she folded up the scallop edges of her l/o like I did below and I loved it!!! So I tried it last night... thanks for the tip Jen!! Here is her blog: Jennifer Matott
This is my sweet Willie-Bee.... just another layout of him!! We sure miss him, but his little spirit lives on!!! -Nikki

My New Friend.....

Lexi!! I met Lexi from my DT call, she just lives a few miles from me so I invited her over. Lexi was so sweet and made an adorable paper project out of my paper line "Victoria's Street", she is very talented!! Here is a link to her blog: http://www.lexi-bridges.blogspot.com/ where you can see that cute project!! (I'm going to take it to CHA with me b/c it's so cute!!) Thanks Lexi!!! Hope we get to meet up again!! -Nikki

Scrap-a-Palooza......

I went to Scrap-a-Palooza this last Saturday that Scrapbook Generations put together from 9-10pm!! I had so much fun!! I gave away two door prizes from my paper lines, and was introduced for the first time as "Nikki" from "Nikki Sivils, Scrapbooker LLC. The DJ from one of our local radio station introduced me and asked me some questions about my company.
The ladies from Scrapbook Generations set up a VERY nice sign on a table with my products that they bought for Scrap-a-Palooza!! Thanks so much ladies!! Here is their blog with more pics http://www.scrapbookgeneration.blogspot.com/
This picture didn't turn out to good, but it's better than nothing!! This is a pic of all the ladies from Scrapbook Generations, (from left to right) Karin, Stacey, Debbie, Allison, and ME!!!
There were over 200 ladies scrappin' up a storm!!
And the chocolate fountains.... with fruit, cookies, marshmallow and did I mention CHOCOLATE!! What a treat this was, for four hours this chocolate ran while we scrapped and ate!! All the food was great, homemade bread, rolls, and the chicken was fantastic!!! And they served 200 plus ladies!!! It was great, and if you are up for a Scrap-a-Palooza, they will be hosting another one September 12, 2009!!! You can go to Scrapbook Generations Blog for more info. http://www.scrapbookgeneration.blogspot.com/ I plan on being there and I hope some of you all can join me!! Have a great week!! -Nikki

MY FIRST SALE......

My first sale took place today!! A local scrapbooking
retailer here in good ole' Springfield Mo bought my
first TWO paper lines. The name of the store is Scrapbook
Generation, here is the link to their store http://scrapbookgeneration.com/
as some of you will know it's the home of Allison Davis, Creating
Keepsakes Dream Team, Hall of Fame, and Scrapbooker of the Year finalist.
Also here is a link to Scrapbook Generation's blog: http://www.scrapbookgeneration.blogspot.com/ where you can see the display of my papers in their retail store!! I'm so very excited..... the picture above is of one of the store owners, Debbie, and I holding my paper line Victoria's Street, I'm holding my layout using products from Victoria's Street. Thank you Scrapbook Generation!!



I made these 2 projects using my paper line:
"My Sweet Cherry Pie"

Introducing Willie-B's Leading Ladies....

The Domestic Design Team:
(they are in no particular order)

1. Charity Hassel from (FL) Blog: http://meaningfulmenagerie.blogspot.com/
2. Nathalie Leonelli from (CA) Blog: http://anounceofcreativity.blogspot.com/
3. Julie Tucker-Woleck from (AZ) Blog: http://thetuckerwolekclan.blogspot.com/
4. Deana Boston from (MO) Blog: http://www.deanaboston.typepad.com/divalogues
5. Jennifer Matott from (NY) Blog: http://arttalk-sigmagirl.blogspot.com/
6. Susan Dupre from (TX) Blog: http://scrappysusandupre.blogspot.com/
7. Jana Eubank from (UT) Blog: http://www.frommyfeatherednest.blogspot.com/
8. Mimi Leinbach from (PA) Blog: http://mycharmingblog-scrappermimi.blogspot.com/
9. Michelle Lanning from (CA) Blog: http://michellelanning.typepad.com/tutusandgluedots/
10. Laura Achilies form (CO) Blog: http://lauraachilles1.wordpress.com/
11. Deanna Misner from (TN) Blog: http://deannamisner.blogspot.com/
12. Abbie Torroll from (OK) Blog: http://abbietorroll.blogspot.com/

The International Design Team:
(they are in no particular order)

1. Hilde Janbroers from the Netherlands Blog: http://www.scrapworld.web-log.nl/
2. Emeline Seet from Singapore Blog: http://www.scrapvilla.blogspot.com/
3. Nadhrah Maidin from Malaysia Blog: http://www.chunot76.blogspot.com/
4. Mette Kallander from Sweden Blog: http://mettka.blogg.se/
5. Kathleen Glossop from Australia Blog: http://www.kathleenglossop.blogspot.com/
6. Anne Jo Lexander from Norway Blog: http://luvalotland.blogspot.com/
7. Ria Mojica from the Phillippines Blog: http://www.cakesnscraps.blogspot.com/
8. Mieke Nagtegaal from Holland Blog: http://mickeyspicsandscraps.blogspot.com/
9. Malin Dahlstrom from Sweden Blog: her blog is being worked on
10. Claude Campeau from Canada Blog: http://imzadi481.blogspot.com/
11. Jodi Wilton from Canada Blog: http://luvalotland.blogspot.com/
12. Michele Beck from France English Blog: http://michelebeck.blogspot.com/
Michele's French Blog: http://michouscrap.canalblog.com/

Thank you to everyone who submitted, and please help me in congratulating these wonderful designers!! YAY!!!!!! I sincerely loved all the submissions. I hope all of you will stay in touch with Nikki Sivils Scrapbooker LLC!
We had hundreds and hundreds of submissions from all over the world!! It was extremely difficult to only pick 24! I believe we will have a great group of designers to show off our papers!
Please check back later for the debut of my new website nikki@nikkisivils.com
Thanks again for all of your sweet comments. I really enjoyed all of the "About Me" layouts and I can't wait to see what all of you will create with our new paper lines. Oh and stay tuned for the next paper line... Victoria's Street!! -Nikki

I am overwhelmed....

with the amount of Design Team submissions I'm receiving!! (35 submissions in just 3 hours today! WOW!!) There are some ROCKIN' good scrapbookers, card makers and paper crafters from all over the world!! I started going through the submissions one at a time Friday night for about 4 hours, then again on Saturday for about 6 hours with the help of some in house ladies, and now today, Sunday, I'm working on it again. I have know idea how I'm going to pick and choose when everyone is so good!! Soooo I've decided to have a domestic and an international DT!! I haven't decided on how many designers for each team yet, but I will very soon!!
You all have about 4 hours left to submit and I can't wait to announce who will be "Willie-B's Design Team" next week!!
Thanks for all your VERY, VERY kind words and Good Luck to you all!! -Nikki