Well, I am enjoying my new role as your Fiskateer Legend.  You’ll be seeing me jump in here on the Fiskateer blog from time to time to let you know what’s going on in my crazy, creative life.  First things first.  I want to share with you something new hanging on my living room wall…

This lovely piece of artwork was a gift given to me by the gang at Fiskars and Brains on Fire.  I have been a huge fan of Claudine Hellmuth for many years.  As most of the early members of the Fiskateer community know, Claudine helped design the original look of the Fiskateer website, turning our original Leads into her famous Poppet Characters throughout the website.  Okay, I’ll admit that when I found out that I was selected to become a Lead I had daydreams of what I would look like as a Fiskateer Poppet.  However with a new term came a new look for our website and I was framed just like the Leads above!  (You’ve missed my sense of humor, haven’t you?)  So, you can only imagine my excitement when a huge brown box was delivered to my door that had a return address from Claudine’s studio.  I was screaming with excitement before I even opened the box!  This is one beautiful gift that I will cherish always.  A HUGE THANK YOU to Fiskars, Brains on Fire and Claudine for such an awesome token of appreciation for my work as a Lead Fiskateer.  

Well, it’s taken me about a little over a week to finally wind down from all the excitement of CHA Chicago.  Yes, once again I spent my vacation doing what I love the most… spending time with some of my fellow Fisk-a-friends.  This CHA was different for me then the last five CHA’s I attended.  I actually got to spend the majority of my time checking out all the vendor booths and walking the convention floor with other members of the Fiskateer community.  I even had the time to do a few make-and-takes.  Cheryl, Angela, Rebecca, Tami and were hard at work spreading the Fiskateer love at several different booths throughout the show.  A handful of Fiskateers went out to Navy Pier one night and another night a group of us went out for some famous Chicago Pizza.  Throughout the week, I took over 600 photos are here are just some of my memories.

CHA & the Super Show…

Fiskateers out on the town…

The Leads Class at the Supershow…

As you can see, no matter where we go, the Fiskateer community is filled with friendship and fun.  Well, that’s it for me right now.  Like I mentioned before, I’ll be popping in on the Fiskateer blog from time to time.  Until then… Fisk-a-hugs!

I encourage each of you to “think outside of the box” on all your future crafting projects while using your Fiskars tools.  When Fiskars and Brains on Fire asked me to do just that when I applied for the Lead Fiskateer Position back in 2008 by submitting an anti-resume, I probably listened a little too hard.  Some of you may have seen this photo before, but I wanted to let you know that I will always eat, sleep, breathe and bleed orange.  If there ever comes a day that you can’t seem to find your creative mojo and you need to consume a spoonful of inspiration to get you going in the morning, push aside that box of Wheaties and reach for this cereal box instead…

Fisk-a-hugs!  I’ll see you on the message board! 

Wendy Jo, Fiskateer Legend

(Be sure to visit my personal blog: www.wendyjocrafts.com)

I have some final prizes to send out and here are their winners: 

Joanna’s Mystery Books:  Laura #1943 & Shannon W. #6394; Purrfect Project Idea:  Cindy #4113;  Not Just for Gardening: Marla #3291;  Mark Montano Books:  Sandy #514 & Merlene #1166 (If you haven’t done so already or for the new announcements, please email me now at wjof99@yahoo.com and put “prize winner” in the subject line.)

Now back for a little blog chatting… Over the last two years, I’ve shared with you stories not only about my love of Fiskars tools, but some of my other favorite things:  The Big Bang Theory, chocolate, twizzlers, gingerbread lattes, sushi and Peeps! … just to name a few. Tomorrow I will be posting my last blog posts as YOUR Fiskateer Lead. 

Of course I bleed orange, always have, always will.  I’ve really enjoyed writting all my stories here on the Fiskateer blog, but I’ve also loved all the fun chats I’ve had in the Fiskateer chatroom.  So, I was thinking it would be fun to spend my last night as a Lead Fiskateer hanging out in the Fiskateer chatroom.  Not only am I inviting you to this chat, I’ve sent out a special invite to some other crafting celebrities too. 

So, join me on Wednesday, June 30th from 7:00 pm - 11:00 pm Eastern time in the Fiskateer Chatroom.  Don’t forget, when you log on, be sure to sign in using your name and Fiskateer# (ex: WendyJo_99) so we know who you are.  Hope to see you there!

…the Butler who did it!

No, I’m just kidding.  I ran into the great scrapbook mystery writer, Joanna Campbell Slan!

I know that Angela has blogged about her books in the past and now, Joanna has a brand new book available.  If you are looking for a fun book to read this summer, why not turn the pages of another fast-paced mystery adventure with the book’s main character, scrapbooker Kiki Lowenstein!  Let’s review Joanna’s mystery books to date.

Paper, Scissors, Death: A Kiki Lowenstein Scrap-n-Craft Mystery was the first book in the series.  In this book, when Kiki Lowenstein’s husband dies under suspicious circumstances, the spunky scrapbooker vows to bring his killer to justice.  Her snooping around uncovers her husband’s secret past - and a photo album full of clues to murder!

Cut, Crop & Die: A Kiki Lowenstein Scrap-n-Craft Mystery was the second book in the series.  In this book, all it took was one scone… and Yvonne Gaynor wound up dead at Kiki Lowenstein’s scrapbook event.  Kiki struggles with an angry papercrafting community, a quarrelsome pre-teen, a meddling mother-in-law and a coy Detective Detweiler.

And now, a third book has just been released in the series… Photo Snap Shot: A Kiki Lowenstein Scrap-n-Craft Mystery.

In this book, Kiki’s world is rocked when her daughter Anya finds a dead body at her elite prep school.  Now Kiki must sift through the school community’s shocking secrets to keep her child safe.

So, is anyone dying to get their hands on a copy of this new book?  Well, Joanna loves the Fiskateers and she has given me two autographed copies to give away during my final days as one of your Lead Fiskateers.  Let’s have a little fun giving it away, shall we?  If you were to title an upcoming scrapbook mystery, what would your title be?  Leave a comment below and I’ll select two titles Tuesday morning at 8:30 Eastern time.  Good Luck!

(written by Wendy Jo, Lead Fiskateer 2008-2010)

I spent most of my time doing demos for Brad at the Deals from Wisconsin booth.  Now I know that there are cheese heads in that neck of the woods, but when I asked Brad to pose for a photo for the Fiskateer blog… he really knew how to say “cheese!”

I ran into quite a few of my Fisk-a-Friends throughout the weekend.  While we were sharing stories of the past of times spent together, we shared some hugs, some laughter and some tears too.  

I ran into another familiar face while I was there.  So who is this mystery person?  Read my next blog post and you I bet you will solve that mystery!  (…and yes, I just gave you some clues!)

So everyone has their favorite Fiskars tool.  The Fiskars Ultra ShapeXpress has always been the tool that I reach for and usually use on almost every project I make.  However, I had to reach for another tool the other day because I found myself stuck in the corner.

I bought this frame at my local craft store.

I knew that I wanted to wrap the frame with a cute sheet of paper I found.  Even though I use my USX quite a bit with the freehand spacer attachment like a craft knife, I couldn’t quite reach the corner of this frame to create a clean cut on the paper.  So, which tool did I grab?  The Fiskars Fingertip Retractable Craft Knife of course! 

With a cut here and a fold there, I wrapped that frame quite quickly.  I added a little bit of yarn, a few inked chipboard shapes, and adhesive foam… and I made the purrfect little gift to frame a photo of my parents new kitten, Skeeter.

Do you have someone you want to frame?  (Purrhaps I should rephrase that…)  Do you have a photo that you would like to frame?  I can help one lucky Fiskateer with a blank frame, a Fiskars Self Healing Cutting Mat, and a Fiskars Fingertip Retractable Craft Knife.  Leave a comment below and I’ll select a random Fiskateer late tomorrow night.

(Posted by Wendy Jo #99, Lead Fiskateer 2008-2010)

The event was Bowl for Kids Sake and this is where we shared the love of Fiskars with charity participants.  At this event, we helped “Big Sisters and their Little Sister matches” along with a few “Big Brothers and their Little Brother matches” create their own scrapbook layout of their day bowling. 

During the event, I took photos of each individual team, printed the photos on the spot.  After the participants were finished bowling their games, they joined us at our craft area and we showed everyone how to use each Fiskars tool properly.  The page I created for the day was very simple because we had “kids” of all ages in attendance.  Everyone had the opportunity to use some Fiskars Clear Acrylic alphabet stamps, the Fiskars corner and border punch, squeeze punches and some Fiskars adhesive too.  I even found some bowling acrylic stamps by another company to add to the theme of the page.  Here is the simple layout we created that day…

Everyone was punching like crazy!  I wish I could share more photos with you of this event; however there are some participant privacy issues that I must abide by at the request of the charity organization.  I do assure you that we saw a lot of smiling faces that day.  Not only did participants have a fun day of bowling, they each left with their very own layout that they created with Fiskars tools.  And for an extra added surprise, each child also walked away with their very own pair of Fiskars Recycled Student Scissors and Fiskars Recycled Sharpener.

To me, an important part of being a member of the Fiskateer community has always been finding different ways to spread my love of Fiskars tools.  As you can see, it’s very easy to spread the love outside the normal crafting community.  There are many charity organizations that would welcome you with open arms just by sharing your passion of crafting with others for a few precious hours.  I encourage each of you to think outside of the box and find a way to spread the love of Fiskars crafting in your own community.  Whether you spread the love alone or with other Fisk-a-friends, I guarantee that it will be an experience that you and those you reach out to will never forget.

(Posted by: Wendy Jo #99, Lead Fiskateer 2008-2010)

I was there for their demo day and I had a quick little make-and-take featuring the new Fiskars Anywhere Punch.  I gave away a lot of Fiskars goodies and Jeanne walked away with a new Fiskars trimmer.  This store had beautiful samples around every corner and the store’s blog has many of those projects posted in their gallery.  I encourage you to check their website here.

The gang at Photo Scraps welcomed me with open arms.  I met so many wonderful Fiskars fans while I was there and the time flew by so quickly.  I’m looking forward to visiting my new friends there again in the future.

Well, my time as Lead Fiskateer is quickly coming to an end.  This weekend I’ll be visiting the Great American Scrapbook Convention in Chantilly, Virginia.  If you are in the area and coming to the convention, be sure to stop by the Deals from Wisconsin booth.  I’ll be there at their booth both days doing demos and will have a few surprises too.

(Posted by: Wendy Jo #99, Lead Fiskateer 2008-2010

I planned on doing a flash back blog or two about some of my favorite memories and projects from the last two years in the days ahead.  I initially had not planned on writting about this again, but it seems appropriate right now.  Do you remember when I shared this layout with you?

Well, yesterday I had another flat tire.  Rotten luck I tell you, rotten luck.  For those of you who are keeping count, that’s three flat tires since becoming a Lead Fiskateer.  I created this layout back in February 2008 with flat tire number one.  I had a second flat last June when I was driving to the Great American Scrapbook Convention in Virginia, and now this one.  Rotten luck I tell you, rotten luck.  (Oh, and I failed to mention that I had my car in the shop on Monday too due to engine problems, but that’s a whole different story.) 

Yesterday I drove to Eldersburg, Maryland to visit a local scrapbook store, Photo Scraps.  (I’ll tell you more about this store later this month.  Check the calendar for an upcoming appearance I’ll be making there later this month.)  After visiting that store, I headed to a local mall because I was craving some Godiva chocolates.  (Me.  Chocolates.  Go figure.)  I left the mall, grabbed a bite to eat and then headed back on the interstate.  When all of the sudden I felt a slight pull while I was driving around a curve in the road.  Something just didn’t feel right so I pulled off on the next exit, got out of my car and sure enough I had another flat tire.  Lucky for me I was just three miles away from the mall, so I turned around and went back to vist the same mall to get it fixed.  I spent my day driving in circles, getting dizzy.  

I do like to “scrap life” and create layouts about my crazy, dizzy life but I think one layout on this topic is more than enough.  But I am glad that I do take time to stop and scrap about the little things because later on down the road in life I can go back and share all these memories over, and over, and over again with my family and friends. 

Do you have one particular page in your scrapbook that you seem to look at over and over again more than others?  Perhaps you have a story similar to mine.  (Oh you poor, poor sould if you do.)  Perhaps your particular page shows off your best work.  Perhaps you to have one partiuclar page that always brings a smile to your face because of one special photo.  Why not share it with us?  Load that page in your personal Fiskateer gallery then share the link in the comments below.  Think about it.  We can all go on a ride together without physically getting in to my car.  Just use your mouse and key board to go around in circles right here on the Fiskateer website together looking everyone’s favorite layouts.    

Who’s up for the ride?

(Posted by: Wendy Jo #99, Lead Fiskateer 2008-2010)

I recently attended a quilt show here in Maryland.  There was inspiration around every corner.  (I’ll have to tell you more about that later.)  But I did want to share some photos of some beautiful quilts that I saw that weekend.  Check out the colors in the last photo, don’t you just love it?!  It screams Fiskateers, doesn’t it?

I was invited to the Scrapbook Cottage where I spent a weekend crafting with several of my areas Certified Fiskars Demonstrators.  Scrapbook Cottage is a cute little private scrapbook retreat located at the Woods Resort in Hedgesville, WV.  Guess who once again forgot her camera?  Why didn’t I use my cell phone camera you ask?  Well I took out my memory card to transfer some photos into my laptop and left it sitting on my coffee table.  Bummer.

Let’s see… what else?  I’ve been running into some of my Fisk-a-Friends at scrapbook stores too.

On a personal note, a Hobby Lobby finally opened up a store about 20 minutes from my hometown.  While there I stumbled across and purchased a Fuseworks Microwave Kiln.  Okay, so it isn’t paper crafting but I’ve been dying to get one of these for quite some time.  Jewelry making has always been an interest of mine now I’m really going to have the time to rock out the bling later this summer.  Oh, and you’re going to love this.  Check out what walked into my photo shoot.  It’s a rare appearance by my cat Mordecai.  As most of you know, she usually runs when I have the camera in my hands, but I guess she had to check out what was sitting on her floor.

On some previous blog posts I wrote, several of you commented that I needed to slow down a little, that I was making some of you dizzy by all the running around I was doing.  Well, I tried to take your advice, but sitting still drives me crazy!  I just haven’t told you about some of my adventures until now.

I’m hoping to visit some more stores this month and I have a very unique Fiskars garden tool project in the works too.  Oh, and I can’t forget to mention that I’m attending a consumer scrapbook convention the last weekend of the month as well and trying to finalize those details. 

A lot going on, so little time left to get it done by the end of month so I can tell you all about it.  So, my Lead Fiskateer adventures continue for one just more month.  Are you ready?  So, sit back and relax while you read my upcoming blog posts.  As for me, I’m going to do anything BUT relax!  So grab your motion sickness pills.  (LOL!)  Wanna get dizzy?  Well, here we go!

(Posted by: Wendy Jo #99, Lead Fiskateer 2008-2010)