I am admittedly having a grand time with the giveaways, my only regret is that I can’t give everyone that enters a prize, I want to, yes I do. Please don’t fret if you haven’t won yet, I do plan on making the giveaways from Besotted Brand a regular part of the blog as I release new designs + products, so if you are feeling lucky odds are you will be soon.  The winner of the Pretty Parcel is Miss Hope Wallace Karney!  I drew the names at random and was happy to see Miss Hope’s name come up.  I had Hope in one of my Souvenir Foto classes and was very touched by her kindness + thoughtfulness.  Hope has her own stationery goods shop Paper Relics filled with vintage inspired designs and also teaches a few very successful journaling e-classes, that look like they are a ton of fun (she does great hand lettering).  I truly admire anyone that has the fortitude to sit down and either scrapbook or journal, I am hopeless at both. Congrats Hope! For those that want to be winners you can still enter here and here. Good luck!

I had completely forgotten to add this the other day to the giveaways (I’m good like that). I ordinarily wouldn’t stamp in pink, I am so dreadfully predictable with my ink/color choices either neutral or shiny (I love metallics). I was inspired when I put together a package for one of my favorite bloggers and knew I couldn’t even think of sending her a parcel without it including pink, thus this shot was from a practice run to make sure the pink and the stamp were just right. This stamp is hopefully going to save a lot of people from not having a spare thank you card around, because you will be able to make as many as you can find paper to stamp on, really though why stop at paper?  You can stamp on ribbon, glass, wood, whatever you can dream up.

I did get feedback the other night that the stamps when wet dissolved the ‘adhesion’ from the lucite base.  I am so happy I got this note because I had been taking for granted that people know more about rubberstamps than they might. You do know what good it is to assume right? Please reference the Bad News Bears for that lesson. For the record Besotted Brand stamps are not permanently adhered to their base, they stick via static (the rubber is backed with a special cling material) which makes them removable for easy storage and to be able to create your own designs. I was assuming that people would know that but I guess I was wrong.  What I would love to know from all you creative + crafty folk (and your answer will enter you in the giveaway) is what I should be letting people know about how to use and care of ones rubber stamps, any tips or tricks? For those that don’t know much about the wonderful (and highly addictive) world of stamping is there a burning question you might have?  I will announce the winner on October 7, 2011.  Good Luck!

I fell in mad love with photographer Amy Neunsigner’s home when it was first featured in Blueprint  I thought the light was insanely beautiful and it seemed like a house that one could actually aspire to in its quaint simplicity. Then Amy went and created her current home + studio and I gasped when I first spied it in the pages of House Beautiful.  Again, the light was heavenly and I made a mental note to try to get invited to her abode one day. Well, that day has come and I have an appointment scheduled at 2 p.m. to actually see this beauty in person.  I have known about this for a couple of weeks now, but couldn’t wrap my mind around the fact that this magical day was actually coming into fruition. I am beside myself with excitement.  Amy’s house is located in one of the most charming parts of Los Angeles. I honestly don’t know how I will be able to contain myself, it feels like the equivalent of meeting your favorite rock or movie star. Maybe with her permission I will be able to send some  IPhone pics via my tweets while I am there for the photo shoot (no, the shoot is not for me). I will be sure to let you know if it lives up to my expectations but I have a feeling it will be surpassing them.

P.S. We have out first winner for the Besotted Brand Archive labels and it is…Joy//Of Strange Sensibilities. I can’t wait to get these to her, you must check out her logo, it’s fabulous. Congrats Joy!  I can’t wait until tomorrow to announce more winners.

I am currently having a torrid love affair with Pinterest.  I can’t pin fast enough and the Fancy has exclaimed, ‘oh great, another place for you to catalog cute things,’ (said in a tone that isn’t that far off from sarcastic). I would be annoyed at him if I wasn’t so engrossed with this new outlet of my desires.  I had a hard time adopting to Twitter, I did finally and I do like it more now. Facebook, well I go on about once every six months, it just doesn’t have the same pull as Pinterest. I feel like Pinterest has a vibrant community of individuals that know exactly what I am missing on my virtual inspiration boards.  I am currently decorating my imaginary dream home, stock piling on industrial chic wares, creating a custom cute menagerie and the list continues.  I thought I would just be on there to try to help hock my goods, but oh no, that’s not likely with my being so distracted by shiny things and all.  Speaking of shiny things, I made a pit stop to the craft store to pick up some of Martha Stewart’s new ‘paint on virtually anything’ craft paints. I rushed to the craft store because it looked in the ad that the metallic paint was really metallic, almost like a foil, but alas that is not the case.  Of course it didn’t stop me from buying the paint (Martha needs a new wing at Skyland I’m sure). I still am eager to try the paint out and with holidays coming up and tons of Besotted Brand tutorials to do I am sure the paint will be a welcome asset to the craft tool box, right?

P.S. Don’t forget you still have time to enter to win here, here, here and here!  Please link your pins so I can check out your boards and procrastinate even more.