4 Gift Shows, 2 HSN Shows and 1 CHA Show later… I finally get back to this Blog. Whew! January came and went in about 20 seconds flat.

We’ve just released the most product we’ve ever done. It’s “go big or go home” time! There are 12 new patterns in our fabric bags and accessories, there are over 150 new stationery and invitation items and 4 brand new scrapbook collections. We are shipping like crazy - check your local retailer!

Here’s a pretty picture of our booth at CHA.

The only thing prettier than our new Cecile Collection was the flower arrangement from Jason Kenneth Designs. They are one of our Invitation and stationery accounts in Costa Mesa California. Gorgeous! Can’t wait to see what they come up with next year!

That’s me standing in front of the giant paper flower display I made for my Dynamic Store Displays class. I haven’t taught a seminar at CHA in years, but I was inspired to teach by all the wonderful things retailers were making out of paper to showcase their products.

This is a photo of the 50 retailers folding and cutting. It was a sea of white petals!

We made a giant Valentines Day back drop complete with flocked paper hearts from our new Valentina Collection…

Spring has sprung with our new Isabelle Collection. We made 3-D paper butterflies - what fun!

Last but not least, the beautiful white display is for a wedding window. I love working on a giant scale, the bigger the better!

A good time was had by all…talk to you later!

Thank you to everyone who watched my HSN debut! You all made the launch a great success!

I promise to get the hang of looking at you in the camera by March - after all of this time on TV, it still makes me incredibly nervous! I couldn’t have been happier with those of you who called in to talk. Thank you for being so generous with me.

HSN was such a great experience and I look forward to going back. It was like a great big hug, everyone there wanted us to succeed!

I took a few photos to show you the behind the scenes…

Tracey and I back stage setting up the tables. Everything at HSN is white and every detail counts in HD. I really liked how the broadcast glowed. The lighting made the projects look fantastic.

This is our cute buyer, Danica. She and our supervising Producer, Erin stayed up most of the night to be with us. She’s on the set with the 3Birds Today’s Special overstuffed card kit. It was fun to meet Donna Stork and everyone involved with that innovative brand.

There were many things that made us feel special - the first was our very own Green Room. It was nice to have a place to relax and watch the craft presentations.

The second was the salon - wow, they give you the works!

Lastly, they made us a set complete with our paper patterns lining the drawers of the cabinets. HSN went above and beyond the call of duty. Thanks everyone! Now on to the celebration…

We celebrated by going to Bern’s Steakhouse - (See my post entitled What to do with Frequent Flyer miles). Above is a photo of a wine our table neighbors were enjoying from 1899. We actually got to taste it!

As a special celebration, Tracey, Danica, Laura and I enjoyed a Chateau Mouton Rothschild from 1994. It was a once in a lifetime experience!

That just about wraps it up. In case you missed the debut, you can shop HSN online for our items all the time. I noticed that they even loaded the show days before I went on. So if you want to get a jump on things next time - bookmark my crafts store on hsn.com.

I’m back on March 15th with a Today’s Special that you are going to love. Here’s a hint - I made a scrapbook for you!

It’s time to prepare for
Christmas Day…
The postman will soon
be on his way…
Handmade cards make one
squeal with glee…
Come create your holiday cards with me!

I finally had the card making party that I’ve wanted to have for years! I have always waited until the last minute to send out my cards. Not this year! They went out the first week of December!

It was so fun to fill my dining room table with friends and half the contents of the craft room from work.

I made a disposable table cloth out of a roll of kraft paper. I jazzed it up with oversized scalloped edge scissors.

One of the party favors was this gorgeous bag filled with crafting supplies. The bag is from my friends at Punch Studio that I found at Home Goods. Love it!

Here we are in action! What a beautiful mess.

A good time was had by all! Happy holidays everyone!

Today is the day.

It’s the big announcement!

Are you ready?

Where am I?

HSN! Yes, that’s right - my new craft show will debut on HSN January 12th at 1am and 4pm. I couldn’t be more excited! I hope you will watch!

Did you know that HSN loves crafts? They have dedicated craft programming every single month! This March they even have crafts on the weekend so you won’t miss out during the week. They are really dedicated to bringing you the best of the best in every shopping category.

This move means that we will have more opportunities to bring you great products. I’ve been working for months developing new lines many of which you will see first on HSN. They give you great deals on shipping and have a huge selection of crafts on their website that you can buy anytime.

I have had such a positive experience going to Tampa for meetings, having a glamorous photo shoot and even guest training. Believe it or not, they want me to look at the camera! Seriously though, I could not feel more at home.

Mark your calendars for January 12th. They are counting on me to bring my fans! Help make my debut on HSN a smashing success!

Just in time for Christmas crafting…

Calling all card makers…

I thought that we would finally give this a try! As of 10 am today, you can purchase our first ever kit club kit, made just for the holidays.

For the last 20 or so years, I have waited until the last possible date to make and mail my handmade cards. Of course, I only make a few, but that’s another story…this year I resolve to get busy, have my friends over and have that card making party that I have always wanted to have!

Above is a photo of everything you get. You can celebrate while you decorate this holiday season! The exciting, jam packed kit includes an assortment of gorgeous papers and embellishments. I have even included card stock and envelopes plus some luxurious ribbon trims for extra sparkle.

There are lots of great project ideas posted in our craft gallery as well as an idea sheet included with the kit. I’m sure there is something there to inspire you!

(Want to buy now?, click here.)

Happy Holidays (early)! - Anna

I just got back from the International Quilt Market in Houston where our new fabric collections for Windham Fabrics made their debut.

I thought you’d like to see our booth. It was one of the most serene places in the show. Both collections are really muted and felt like a breath of fresh air amidst the vibrant color and patterns competing for attention at the show.

This the Calisto collection. It’s my version of the beach and the experience of vacation. My Mom’s seashell collection looks right at home alongside my fun props. This group is in quilt shops now and stay tuned, as is will hit scrapbook and gift stores in the new year!

This is the Georgette Christmas collection. It’s subtlety and elegance are hard to see in this picture, but take my word for it, it’s beautiful! The quilts hanging here are the first of my design as far as traditional quilting goes. I’ve designed a lot of quilts, but their focus has been on three dimensional sewing techniques instead of true quilt squares. I love how they turned out and love Joanie and Melanie of Tailormade by Design for making them!

On my travels around the market, I happened upon these cut outs in the Moda booth and couldn’t resist! Now this is the best I will ever look in a bathing suit. Holley on the other hand, looks just like this even after having 2 kids!

Finally, a bad photo of sample spree where we sold our bags made from the Anna Griffin quilting fabrics. I thought our first happy customers were worth noting. My friends Arlene and Jan, got us off to the right start by scooping up multiple bags! They even helped me figure out our credit card machine. Thanks to everyone that made our first spree an outrageous success!

Stay tuned everyone - the launch of our first kit club is just around the corner….Thanks for reading! -Anna

A great big THANK YOU to everyone that participated in our Scrapbook Super Sale over Labor Day weekend. You made it a great success and we plan to do it again! (Make sure to sign up for our newsletter so you can be the first to know about the next one! www.annagriffin.com

There were over 300 of you that placed orders!

I am glad to know that this online thing works - it frees me up from having a yard sale every weekend! Seriously though, I think passing enormous savings on to you is very exciting!

I woke up to an email from a friend saying that she had started us off right by placing a $400 order at midnight. Then I got a text that we sold out many of the items and that we had tripled our goal for the sale in just the first few hours. Apparently everyone loves a bargain!

I am just back in the office from QVC US where I was on Monday morning at 4:30am…I haven’t pulled an all nighter since college. If you weren’t up all night with me, you can actually still get the clearance prices offered during the show. www.qvc.com

I want to say Thank you to Sharon and Martha in California who called in to the show in the middle of the night! Martha, you made me cry. Thank you for your kind words. I sincerely appreciate your support of what I do.

Some of you know this already, but Monday morning’s show was the last craft program on QVC. Many crafters have speculated, blogged and written - but now it’s for real. It’s over and it has been about a year in the making. While my shows were the most successful (thanks to you) it still wasn’t enough.

For those of you that are reading this overseas - I will still be on QVC UK and our products are about to be offered on QVC Germany.

What’s next, you ask? I’ve been in the business of making beautiful products for the last 15 years. My commitment to making high quality craft products is stronger than ever. We have BIG PLANS in the works. You are going to be thrilled, so stay tuned!

Just wanted to let you know…in case you haven’t heard…that there is a really big sale happening on our website this weekend! It starts FRIDAY night at midnight eastern and runs through MONDAY night. http://www.annagriffin.com - just click on the Shop Online button on the left hand side of the home page.

This summer I have taken advantage of so many great deals on things that I love. Those deals inspired a sale of my own! You will LOVE the prices…50% off is just the beginning…some items are even 80% off…and with FREE SHIPPING…it’s all a steal!

All this for $30…once upon a time this would have cost you over $180. We’ve bundled lots of products together to make sure you get more bang for your buck!

So get ready. Mark your calendar. Set your alarm! Enjoy the shopping!

Anna

(P.S. If it goes well, I promise, we’ll do it again!)

Inside scoop! I just wanted to let you in on a sale that is about to happen at your local AC Moore craft store. From August 23rd through August 30, the Anna Griffin Wedding Studio mix and match invitation products are going to be 30 percent off!

What is this exactly? Well, if you like making party and event invitations, this feature space is the destination for creating one of a kind invitations. Elaborate card stocks, satin ribbons and embellishments are all on display at the end of their wedding aisle. Each of the invitations has a specialty finish like glitter, flocking or multiple layers. Couture details like buckles, paper flowers and imprintable tags make designing each invitation easy and fun!

Fashion ribbon colors are pre-cut and work in numerous ways on all styles of invitations. Double envelopes, a high end tradition for invitations, are included in packs of 25.

There are coordinating thank you notes programs and even envelope linings!

The invitation offerings are a la carte, making it easy for you to customize! I love how you can add bright colored ribbons to the romantic patterns to get just the right look. It’s as easy as 1.2.3 - pick an invitation & envelope, choose your embellishment and print them yourself!

You can’t view the program on the AC Moore website, but you can locate a store near you. Happy shopping!

Time sure flys when you’re having fun! It’s been months since I blogged about anything! I’ve been busy on all sorts of fun new projects - one of which is being a guest blogger this week on the CK website http://creatingkeepsakesblog.com/. You have to check it out. There are prizes to win! Let me know what you think of our new Darcey collection…

One of my summer highlights was my niece’s first dance recital. Precious and precocious all at the same time!

There was a big wedding at Anna Griffin Inc. this summer. Lara, our purchasing and inventory manager, got married!  The event was beautiful and so was the Bride.

Of course we pulled out all the stops for the wedding paper goods - custom made, vintage flowers and engraved everything!

Before I forget, we’ve got a big event coming up for all of you who love to craft…we are having a Scrapbook Super Sale! It’s going to be a total blowout of craft products from our online shop. Most of which will only be posted for the sale. It will be rock bottom, yard sale, steal it kind of pricing - so don’t miss it! Click here to sign up to be notified of all the details. http://www.annagriffin.com/rsvp.html

I had to include this photo from my summer travels to inspire anyone who loves paper. This dress is part of an exhibit in the Atlanta airport of all paper clothes - it’s amazing! I wish I could wear it.

I spent four days in Napa Valley with some friends and it was an incredible adventure. We ate and drank our way through many of the vineyards collecting lots of wine along the way. This picture is of my favorite wine tasting at Swanson Vineyards. From the antique table inlaid with agates to the caviar & creme fraiche potato chip served from a seashell, it was an experience for the senses! www.swansonvineyards.com

I’ve been to lots of Gift Shows this summer where we launched our first collection of hand engraved stationery pictured above. It’s beyond beautiful, if you are a paper person, you’re going to LOVE it!

Our showroom had a visit from Santa…It’s always hard to come up with displays that catch people’s attention. I borrowed the antique santa so he could do a wheely in the old soap box derby car. I think it was a success!

I’m heading off to the beach to celebrate my “forty-something or other” birthday and my summer wraps up in the UK for QVC. Happy summer to you all! I’ll be back in touch soon!