WOW! This time tomorrow morning Terry and I will be on a plane headed for LA/Anaheim and the CHA Winter 2007 show. So… in light of this final 24 hours, here are a few things for you and us to remember:

• We are debuting 2 NEW paperWERX Collections by the amazing Genevieve Simmonds - go girl!
• We are debuting 6 NEW Poppet(R) Places backgrounds for the Poppet(R) Collection, by the one and only, Claudine Hellmuth
• We are officially debuting 5 NEW Poppet(R) Clear Stamp sets, including a brand spanking new one featuring Boys and Girls Clothes [so you can make your own Poppet dresses out of pattern paper of your choice!]
• We are bringin’ da fun with a Carnival photo-op… YOU can be a Poppet and have your photo taken and printed at CHA from Sunday - Tuesday
• Claudine Hellmuth will be in our booth at various times throughout the show, visit her blog for days and times
• Come by for a visit and say hello… We are in Booth 3772

The new papers and stamps have been uploaded to our main corporate website and will be available for purchase on our return from CHA on our online store. Here are the links to the new products:

http://lazarstudiowerx.com/paperWERX/paperwerx_cellular.html
http://lazarstudiowerx.com/paperWERX/paperwerx_organic.html
http://lazarstudiowerx.com/Poppets/poppets_places.html
http://lazarstudiowerx.com/Poppets/poppets_stamps.html

It’s been an insane 3 weeks for me… between regular work [OT every night for 3 weeks] and late night show prep, I’m a little fried. I am however looking forward to seeing and meeting everyone at CHA and getting back to a semi-normal routine.

While we are away at CHA, all order processing will be delayed until February 6.
Any/all orders placed in the last 10 days has been delayed due to show preparations and will not be shipped until we return after Feb 6. We apologize for the delay, but due to show preparations and work commitments, we have not been able to complete processing orders prior to our departure. We will try to get all your orders out ASAP on our return. Thank you for your patience and understanding.

See you all at CHA, Booth 3772 - Lazar StudioWERX

No, no… unfortunately our good news is not a REAL baby, but it is a happy, new furbaby friend for Kodiak and us!

The story: I went to our vet to order some of Kodi’s special dry food and when I went in, I spied an exam room full of 8 kittens. Our vet works closely with the SPCA throughout BC to adopt out kitties to homes here in the Lower Mainland and specifically in Richmond. She is a Cat Care specialist and only serves kitty cat patients.

Well, I had to see them… I had been missing Mackenzie dreadfully for the last week and I needed a little kitten tlc, and after all, they ARE kittens - all spazzy, purring and desperate for love… they make you feel good. One little 9 week old girl grabbed my attention immediately. It was something in her demeanor, her tortoiseshell coloring and a sweetness in personality cried out to me - she reminded me of my sweet sweet Mackie girl. I picked her up and I was done. I had to have her… Had to love her…

We had initially planned on waiting until we returned from CHA to pick her up, if she was still there, but our vet recommended that we do it sooner than later. Luckily we have a housesitter coming to stay while we’re gone, so Kodi wouldn’t be lonely and alone for so many days, so he’ll just keep her segrated from Kodi as we will this week. We’ll make introductions between the two of them once we’re home and can monitor their interaction. So for now… Kodi knows something is up. He can hear her meowing, the bedroom door is closed and I think he’ll be ok once they meet.

So here she is… Miss LuLu Lazar-Schuler at 9 weeks old. Ain’s she sweet?

We have a little bit of exciting news to share with our blog friends… will post pics tomorrow =)Hmmmm… what will the news be?!? [Aren’t I evil?]

Mwah ha ha ha <insert evil grin here>

Happy to say that today was the official Effer Dares Day at LSW! If you’ve never heard of the Effer Dares, well, you are in for a treat…

This group of of super cool girls creates some of the most cutting edge, urban, freestyle scrap and art journal layouts I’ve seen in a while. They each have their own style, yet manage to combine them in one collective site - very cool. Each week a sponsor, guest artist or Effer Girl poses a challenge, a DARE shall we say, to create a scrap layout based on that challenge. This week, I’m so pleased that we were able to sponsor one of the Effer’s weekly DARES, and I even got to come up with dare myself. Here is my DARE to the Effer Girls:

As a full-time graphic designer and visual artist, I am constantly reading about and observing emerging trends in advertising and visual design. So… here is your Dare, should you choose to accept it [yeah, I watched MI3 this weekend LOL!]:

**Create a layout inspired by the design of a truly cool website.**

Details: Choose the inspiration website based on the graphic design and layout of the site first. Twist your inspiration layout by using a color palette similar to the original website inspiration, instead of working in your regular color palette. [I love doing this and it can be really cool especially if the inspiration design isn’t a color palette you usually work in!] Do this to really push yourself creatively, taking you outta that comfort zone and forcing you to try something different.

This week, in addition to posing the DARE, I also got to be that guest artist - so cool! So here is my EFFER DARE submission:  The Inspiration Website

My interpretation and layout based on the site:

For more DARES from those amazing Effer Girls, visit their site today! Inspiration everywhere from you hip girlies… thanks for letting me play!

Dear artist/friend Claudine Hellmuth is also friends with a fellow artist, Bernie Berlin, who runs an animal shelter in the southern USA called A Place to Bark.

I frequently visit Bernie’s blog for A Place to Bark and marvel at the her courage and fortitude rescuing animals from the horrible conditions she finds them in, usually waiting to be euthanised… the darkness and dispair she sees in the animals she rescues saddens me deeply, as much as her courage and compassion renews my hope for the good in people.

Through her blog, I have seen and read about the many horrors she sees weekly, if not daily, in USA pounds and one story in particular touched me - the story of Noel, the earless dog…

Here is an exerpt from Bernie’s blog:

This past week has been one of non stop, every minute of my days, has been filled with animals and emotions.  have been to the pound many days this past week. They were filled to capacity, like I’ve never seen it before. As I passed the kennels, looking into each animal’s eyes, nothing could prepare my heart, for the little red dog I was about to see…
She meekishly looked at me, her tail thumping the ground and her eyes pleading for a home to love her. I could not move, I lowered myself to my knees and started to sob.. ((I’ve been crying for days)) She had no ears. Scars of new and old, all over her body and she is just a baby. In more pain than I could ever imagine, she still could wag her tail. Well, she has become my Christmas Gift. Her name is "Noel" and has become a lesson in love, a memory that will never be forgotten.

Our best guess, judging by the extent of her injuries is that she was used as a bait dog. If you are not familiar with the term, it’s a dog that is use to train other dogs to fight. Whatever the case this poor baby has had a hard life of pain. She has old injuries, months old all over her body that have healed and new ones, open and full of infection.

Bernie runs her shelter with little outside help, covering the many many expenses through donations, a few grants and her own income. She is currently scheduled to have up to 5 dogs in for expensive surgeries and has ongoing veterinary bills for medications, immunizations, food and supplies all the time. I don’t know how she does it, and the animal lover in me wants to help… 

So in an effort to help out with some of her exorbitant bills and raise some funds for her non-profit organization, I’ve launched a WIDGET on my blog called ChipIn. I hope you will consider donating to this worthy cause, every little bit helps. I, she and most of all the animals, thank you for your generosity.

All funds raised through the ChipIn widget will be held in trust until February 28, 2007 after which it will be transferred by Paypal to Bernie’s shelter A Place to Bark.

By the sweet and goofy Claudine Hellmuth… Here we go:

Reveal 5 things little-known things about me…

1. I watch soap operas when I’m home on a week day - Here is the list from 1pm - 5pm: Days of Our Lives [an old obsession from my highschool days], General Hospital, Young and Restless. Nothing like a good, empty-headed soap on a sick day/work-at-home day!
2. I’m lactose intolerant but CAN eat sour cream and cream cheese in small doses [and wouldn’t give those up anything!]
3. Even though I’m a cat owner/parent now… I grew up with a pure-bred Hungarian Puli sheepdog named Chutak [Hungarian for ‘rag mop’] who I called my ‘black sister’ in Grade 1. All the teachers were convinced my parents had adopted a little black orphan girl =) She only ’spoke’ Hungarian and if you tried speaking to her in English she just ignored you LOL!
4. I actually spoke ONLY Hungarian until I was 3.5 years old even though I was born in Vancouver BC Canada. My parents wanted to instill some of my Hungarian heritage in me at an early age through language, so much so that when I started Pre-K, my teacher thought that I was a new immigrant with my thick eastern European accent LOL! To this day I still understand alot of Hungarian, but still speak like a 4 year old.
5. I had a HORRIBLE case of chicken pox as a child, so bad that it almost blinded me. I had chicken pox everywhere… between my fingers and toes, in my mouth and a couple on/under my eyelids [that is why my parents were so scared of my vision being affected]. The doctor made house calls while I was sick because I looked so scary LOL! I still have a few faint scars on my knuckles.

So that’s it, little know facts about me and some you probably DIDN’T want to know LOL!  Hmmm… Who should I tag now? I know! I’m going to tag Becky, Gen and Marissa

After a hectic weekend, I finally carved out some time to play with our new paperWERX lines Cellular and Organic and I gotta say, I LOVED working with this paper, so cool and graphic. Here are some samples for you to salivate over [just kidding!]. Click on the thumbnail to view these samples at 800×800 pixels. Enjoy!

The samples below feature Cellular and Organic paperWERX papers, elements Rubberstamps [by Lazar StudioWERX], Au Naturel Chipboard tags [paperWERX] and embellished with Heidi Swapp alphabets and various ribbons.

As promised, here is the Sneak Peek at the second paperWERX Collection from Gen Simmonds… [drum roll please]

or·gan·ic –adjective: of or pertaining to the shapes or forms in a work of art that are of irregular contour and seem to resemble or suggest forms found in nature; developing in a manner analogous to the natural growth and evolution characteristic of living organisms.

Designed as a companion line to the paperWERX Cellular Collection, the Organic Collection is named for the lush, irregular and natural textures present in the design. It is a group of papers that can be used alone, or easily combined with the Cellular Collection [many other pattern papers from the paperWERX line and other mfgs] and provides a strong, textural foundation for virtually any paper arts project. Consider these ideas for using Organic:

• a foundation for any scrapbook layout [of course!]
• crop out Cellular circle pattern and layer onto Organic for a custom background
• use in altered artwork to create a visually textured foundation for your design
• add stamping to create YOUR OWN patterns on this visually textured paper
• use in bookbinding project for covers to create a lush textural look without adding bulk

Organic will be available in 80lb acid and lignin free, 12×12 sheets beginning February 15. Pre-ordering from our retail store will start on February 5 and retail store shipping will begin February 21, 2007.
Here is your tasty Sneak Peek…

Woke up to snow again in Vancouver, with more falling this afternoon - alot too. So, feeling inspired by the white and the need to cocoon inside with the frigid weather outside, I decided that I would finish off a lovely, lumpy scarf I start knitting this past weekend, tonight.

First, I shovelled our loooooooooong driveway, the sidewalk and front entrance and by the time I came in [an hour later!] my toes were frozen, pants wet and legs slightly numb. Once inside the nice warm house… I grabbed my lovely lumpy yarn [hilariously named ‘Pooch’ by Patons] and curled up in front of the roaring fireplace on Mackenzie’s favorite chenille blanket, just like a big ole lazy kitty - needles, hot chocolate, Leo DiCaprio [in the Aviator] and yarn in hand of course.

I popped in the DVD and proceeded to knit away whilst watching Leo as Howard Hughes. I had already put in about 5 hours in the scarf on the weekend, but it still needed a couple more to finish it off. Tonight I did. Here it is:

Pooch Scarf Supplies:
The following direction will make a 10" wide x 48" long scarf

• 3 skeins of chunky, lumpy yarn [150 yards]
  I used ‘Pooch’ by Patons in Indian Summer
• Size 15 knitting needles
  I like to use Clover bamboo needles, they’re are quiet and non-clinking

Pooch Scarf Directions:

• First, check stitch gauge by creating a sample swatch. See mfg. notes on side of yarn for proper gauge.
• After stitch gauge complete, cast on 20 stitches on size 15 needles to get about 10" in width for scarf
• Knit each row in garter stitch fashion - no purling in this scarf. Super EASY and fast doing it this way.
• Knit through 3 skeins of yarn, or until you reach 48" in length
• Cast off end and weave yarn ends into the scarf edges

Voila - you’re done. How easy is that? It just takes a few hours, a few dvds and the urge to knit; it’s far easier than the three sweaters I’ve knitted over the years! One sweater was a stocking, seed stitch alternating pattern for hubby [not too hard]; another was a large single center cable in stocking stitch [a little tougher - had to really keep track!]; the last one was completely made up narrow cable knitting and brutal! It made me go almost insane with the count, and blind over the cabling… give up knitting for quite some time after that project!

Lately, the knitting bug has biten me again, hard, and with all the cool yarns so readily available these days, knitting has become a fun, trendy, tactile hobby you can take practically anywhere. So if you’ve got a few hours, are stuck in an airport or on a plane… consider knitting a quickie scarf like this one. They are gorgeous, easy and make fab gifts. Enjoy!

As the biggest paper arts trade of the year looms on the horizon, I thought it was about time to start sharing some Sneak Peeks about the NEW products we’ll be manufacturing and selling in the first part of 2007.

Local mixed media and paper artist Genevieve Simmonds [Gen to most], of Effer Dares fame, is a girl after my own heart. She loves getting down and dirty with gesso and paint like me, creating background textures with rich color in much the same way I do when creating our paperWERX Collections. We met and bonded over paint and paper months ago and we have brought her into the Lazar StudioWERX family…

We’re proud to announce that Gen’s has created TWO new and fabulous handpainted paperWERX Collections, both which will be debuting at CHA on January 28, 2007!

The first collection is named Cellular, and when you see it you’ll understand why. Using distressed, handpainted backgrounds as a foundation, Gen used a handpainted circle as the primary [and only] pattern element in the collection. In my opinion, this collection is both simply elegant and strongly graphic at the same time; each design is based a precisely random circular pattern that is as easily cropped out of the paper, as it is used as a layout tool. Think about it…

• use the ‘cells’ as frames for punched photos and graphics
• create journalling within the ‘cells’… containering your thoughts in a organic and structured, yet non-linear way
• punch out or crop the pattern out and use both the positive and negative shaped edges with coordinating colored cardstock/papers to create another unique background
• PLUS it’s just too damn cool!

Cellular will be available in 80lb acid and lignin free, 12×12 sheets beginning February 15. Pre-ordering from our retail store will start on February 5 and will begin shipping February 21, 2007.
Here is your tasty Sneak Peek…

 

Watch for samples to hit this blog in the next 2 weeks leading up to CHA. There is a whole lotta good stuff happening in my studio, can’t wait to share it all with you!