Hello!

First of all, thank you to everyone who bought things during the sale, there are some items that sold out before I was even able to get my hands on them. It amazes me how I am in the store three times a week for several hours a day and there are always products I see on the walls and think “where was I was these got here and how have I never seen them before?!” and then before I know it, all sold out. I mean, those Sassafras Lass Feltie critter animals were amazing, lets not lie.

Actually, that moment of not noticing something that i MUST own right this moment happened about three hours ago with the Xyron two inch adhesive roller just sitting casually on top of the mountain of Xyron sticker makers we have in the store right now. I will clearly be headed home with that today before another thing gets sold out that I wanted.

ANYWAY my reason for writing is that I am pondering something and I am hoping for some suggestions. My scrapbook pages (I work 8×8 because 12×12 takes me DAYS to complete instead of the reasonable 7 hours for each page I usually spend) are very technical – lots of hidden journaling, flaps, magnetic attachments etc. I am not really a flower person but have been really into the brightly colored Prima flowers. I bought a jar  (because fake flowers in a glass jar are unnecessarily adorable)  but so far I am just looking at them in the jar and not actually using them.

How can I start using flowers on my pages in a way that doesn’t make it look like I have tons of flowers on my page?

Post some suggestions or come by the store and visit me! Im here Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday 11 to 4pm.

Thanks! Hope you are enjoying this hour of no rain

Well, the summer semi-annual buying trip has arrived and PortraitBug is in hot hot hot Orlando stocking up on the latest goodies for the store. This year will be our first full holiday season so we are trying to find fun holiday products. Sadly, no good Hanukkah has surfaced but we are still on the lookout.

While my post is short, you can look at Julie Fei-Fan Balzer’s amazing writings (she has been sitting in the hotel room working on her blog post for hours) at http://balzerdesigns.typepad.com. There are tons of images for you to see some of the product we will be stocking in the store.

We are also about to post of schedule of classes for the fall. Get ready, its packed with affordable fun technique and project based classes for everyone.

Hello fellow PortraitBug blog readers!

My name is Mattie and I am one of the new(ish) employees at PortraitBug.

Like many children born and raised in Manhattan  my summers were a combination of two week art and museum programs, free events for kids around the city and day camp.

As I got older such scary words as “sleep away” and “THE country” and “nature, woods and lake” began to enter my vocabulary as I started to attend sleep away summer camp up in the great state of Maine. With the exception of a few weeks with no computer, no taxis and no air conditioning, I loved summer camp.

To this day the best part was by far the presents from home. After coming in from the grueling two hours in the pool practicing breast stroke there was really nothing greater in the world than seeing a thick bubble padded envelope waiting for me on my bed. I never had any idea what the contents would entail – sometimes socks sometimes pens, sometimes hair elastics and every now and then I would get something really great which usually involved stickers. And a small craft (something I could do quietly on my bed during rest hour).

Now its July and sadly I don’t get amazing care packages anymore at summer camp. Last week in the store while thinking about the packages I used to receive I thought “how cool would it be if PortraitBug had totally awesome camp care package kits?” Immediately,  I walked around the store and put together some kits that I would have loved to receive at camp.

There are five choices for camp care packages. All packages can be done as a solo project (taking alone time during rest hour) and/or with tons of friends crowded around. All packages can also be completed with or without photos. No scissors, no glue (unless I included gluedots) and nothing that isn’t part of the package is needed so there won’t be the worse experience ever of getting a really great gift and it needing 8 AAA batteries and one D battery to power on.

Check out the packages below! They can be ordered online or picked up in the store.

Happy Summer Camping!

Mattie

We put together some summer themed items to inspire you! Check it out:

A Walk Through The Park

Road Trip Across America

Summer Birthday

Day at the Beach