anything but ordinary

on the backburner...

Well, it's official and has been for a while now. After much discussion, Tony and I have decided to put our fledgling business (Thunkitup Creations) on hold for the moment.  We are really REALLY looking forward to launching our business, but feel it best to wait until we can give it our full attention and start off as strong as possible. So, there will be no CHA Winter for us this year. Hopefully, we will be debuting our scrapbooking products at the  expo in 2009. 

There are just way too many life events happening in 2008, that we needed to alleviate the stress where we could. Between planning a wedding, moving (and maybe even buying a house), and Tony possibly switching jobs, we felt like starting up our business was just a weee bit too much to take on at this time.

But don't worry. We will be launching the business as soon as we can. We have lots of designs finalized that we will be opening with.

And in the meantime, I am still creating my own smaller products that are for sale...I have to do this kind of thing to keep me sane. I NEED to create. Check out my personal stores:

www.chelbug.etsy.com
www.cafepress.com/chelbug

how far to leap?

So, it's BIG decision time. about ready to launch our first line of products. However, with the Memory Trends expo looming near (late September), the question is...do we launch with one line now...or compile our other lines we have in mind and EXHIBIT at the expo? both ways have great risks involved...mostly coming down to how much money we are willing to lose in case things don't go the way we'd like them to. hmmm.... maybe i'll just flip a coin.  ; )

patience...

i have none. patience, that is. though i AM trying to work on that...no real choice, i guess. i'm chomping at the bit. can't wait to "officially" launch the business i've been mentioning for what seems like YEARS now (to be fair, it's been MONTHS, not years...)

i set an unofficial date that i want to be ready for business by...june 2nd. why? cuz it seemed like a good date. (don't ask.) i feel like i'm doing what needs to be done on a daily basis to get this thing up and going...but it never feels like i'm doing enough.

so i wait. and, while i'm "patiently" waiting...i create.

we're launching the business with one line of products (faerie papers and stickers...see my sidebar...). why only one line? call it a test of sorts, i suppose. we're investing all of our own money to this project, and want to make sure we get some kind of return. so, this is all we can afford to start with for now.

but we have other product lines on stand-by. tony has one he has created for the end of year holidays (we hope to have that one launched in time for the Memory Trends expo in september), and i have a line of my own that i am working on. and then, today, inspiration struck once more and i created sketches for another line of products.

but i must wait. i need to be patient and wait my turn.

so...difficult...

Sneak Peek!!!

So, here you go...a total sneak peek of our first product line. Shown below is the beginnings of the postcard mailing we will be sending out soon. Note: the images shown are CLOSE-UPS of detail on the pages...they are NOT images of the complete design on the papers.

Our first line is called "Faerie Sightings" and features four 12x12 paper designs, as well as one set of coordinating stickers.  It will be available VERY soon...stay posted...or drop me a line if you'd like to receive ordering information as soon as it is available (retailers only, at this time).

 

CHA-Winter

Well, I made it! Thunkitup Creations is now a PROUD member of CHA! It was about the longest 10 minutes of my life...waiting to see if we were approved. But all worked out for the best. We are now registered (non-exhibiting) Manufacturers, though I'm hoping the "non-exhibiting" status will CHANGE for CHA-Summer. (See you all in Illinois???)

I knew that the expo was going to be large, but nothing could have prepared me for the massive size of this thing! All of those crafters, crammed into one location. I'm telling you...I traveled every aisle, and I think I almost wore out my best pair of tennies. Tony and i were there (speed-walking) for over 4 hours. And on Monday I returned for another 4 hours to finish up the aisles I hadn't yet seen.

My legs now feel like jelly! But it was definitely worth it! Finally able to sneak a peek and see all of the fun stuff coming our way...instead of having to wait to read about it in the magazines later...priceless.

Priceless in other ways, too. Since we weren't able to exhibit this time around, we had other goals in mind. Network. Check out the booths. See how it worked. Prepare ourselves for our turn, next time. So...we were busy!

Not many photos I can show you...sorry. But, I met a few of my fellow scrappers (& bloggers)... here is a pic of me with Ana Cabrera. She was at the Purple Cows booth. She later helped at the Memorytrends Magazine launch, which she is now a part of.

And here is a pic of me with Kah-Mei Smith, of FontWerks. She continues to be an inspiration to me, as she recently decided to make the leap and commit herself to her company full-time. Making her dream come true...and it is wonderful to see how far she has come...and is still going...

So, all in all, it was fun. here...a few outdoor shots of the Anaheim Convention Center, itself. Nice to learn that the CHA-Winter will continue to be in this spot till at least 2010. Since I live a few miles away, it's QUITE convenient.

breathe, chel, breathe!!!

so, CHA is ina couple days. we're scrambling around to meet the requirements to become members. sigh. (procrastination, anyone?) as our product is finalized, i pace the floors...waiting for email responses, waiting to help scan in pages, just...waiting. it makes me nervous to not be able to DO anything.

as for the expo itself, i really don't know what to expect. and i know that's the whole POINT of us going this time around. we're not ready to actually exhibit (big bummer there, as our stuff will be ready right AFTER CHA Winter), but we want to go and see what to expect for next time around...

i'm still not good at this whole "not knowing" thing. don't know what i'm preparing for, and yet, i'm trying to prepare myself. i want to meet everyone i've come to know and love thru this blogging world, and a few other inspirational people as well. but, weird...since i am reading about all the other preparations and excitement from those exhibiting, i feel a bit left out. i tell myself...that will be ME next time. but not now. not my turn.

and in the meantime, i just need to RELAX. (easier said than done, i think.) hope to see you there!!!

ch-ch-ch-changes

we're about to release our first product line. but, it's different than the first line we had in mind. at the last minute, we had a change of heart and decided to open our business with something else...designs that have been playing at the corners of our minds for some time now, discarded because we thought it would be best to start with something a bit more "safe."  well, as usual, inspiration won out, and we started over from scratch. and, as a result, we are now more excited than ever. the designs are "coming alive" before our very eyes. just wait and see...i'm sure you'll agree that there is something very magical about them.

coming soon, i promise!!!

lesson learned the hard way

so, we've all heard these types of stories before, and we all say the same thing..."
that sucked, but it won't happen to me."  well, guess what? it happened.

long story short (and to avoid "finger pointing"), our desktop computer crashed, sort of, and so all the programs had to be re-uploaded. in the process, the wrong drive was reformatted, and ALL my digital photos for 2006 are now gone. just like that.

hindsight is 20/20, unfortunately. and coupled with my procrastination, i feel horrible. stuck in the whole "what if i had just..." mode. talk about terrible timing. i had decided to back all the photos up on a disk that weekend, and the computer crashed on the thursday night before. i had made it one of my new year's resolutions to start printing out the photos. too late. when i purchased my laptop, i was going to get an external hard drive and move all the photos and music there for storage...but they didn't have the one i wanted in stock, and so i decided to wait for a sale. sigh.

at least i am a listmaker. i have my planner from last year that i immediately went through, taking note of dates and events that i KNEW i had photos for, and times that i knew OTHERS had taken photos there as well...now i have to chase down all those people and beg to have copies of their photos made.

and thank goodness for other things... for christmas, i had made that digital book of tony's family...so all of those important photos got incorporated, and we have those books as keepsakes. also, i took a family trip to nebraska, iowa and missouri in may. i would have been DEVASTATED if those photos were lost. but, as fortune would have it, i printed out all of those photos as christmas gifts for family members, including an extra set for myself. (whew.) and thank goodness for my blog...i have more photos up here than i remembered, including a few random, but important, ones.

luckily, all of our business files were on a different drive that didn't get wiped out. so while we're set back a bit, we're okay. (We won't be recovered in time to finish what we need to be able to exhibit at CHA this time around...but hopefully we will be on track enough to still be able to become members in time and attend the show...)

we also lost all of our music files, but luckily most of the songs are on our mp3 players and can be synched back with the computer. and all of my scrapbook files were wiped out. i can re-scan most of my projects, but the ones i gave as gifts are just a memory now, with no record for myself. oh well.

please, please, PLEASE...at least learn from my mistake. don't WAIT to back up your files. even if it means you have "too many" cds being used...just do it. i figured i would get to it "soon", but it just wasn't soon enough.

edit: Tony's father worked on our computer, and was able to recover ALL the reformatted files. Yippee! we have our photos back!!! you had better believe that they are getting double and triple backed up!

joining CHA

so, i'm starting to get REALLY excited. my business is feeling more and more REAL as i go on...i'm sure a lot of you understand. coming up is the CHA winter expo...in anaheim, california of all places. um, hello? born and raised there...and it's still a hop, skip and a jump away. so, i told myself, THIS is our deadline. THIS IS IT! while we won't have our products ready in time to actually EXHIBIT this time around (and i WOULD like to see the interior of how these things work first, so we don't have to make it up as we go along...), i made the decision that we WILL BE THERE! no excuses. the catch? as a MANUFACTURER, in order to attend the show, we have to become members. not a prob, and we would LOVE to do this...but we have to meet the requirements. no prob, i thought...until i JUST read the fine print in the non-exhibiting member application form that says that the registration form, $$$ and proof of business MUST be received by fax or email no later than December 29th!!! (oops...DANG that fine print!) so, i will probably have to just register in-person on the day the convention starts. (have an email into someone in charge to make sure...) well, it's probably better that way, anyways. while we have our license and sales permit, what we DON'T have is a final product yet. and, as more of the fine print stipulates...manufacturers must provide samples of their products. dang. could i just bring a poloroid instead? oh well...so, on we go. our designs are being finalized and our business credit card application is being processed...so hopefully, we will have the products, sell sheets, and anything and everything else that we need...just in the nick of time. whew! wish us luck. and...if you've been through this before, and have any words of advice or suggestions, please...bring them on!!!

getting restless...

a few of you might have noticed that my heading on my blog says "co-owner of thunkitup creations." well, it's true. tony and i started our own business, what seems like AGES ago, but never really made anything of it...yet!

so, i REALLY want to get started with my business. i mean, REALLY. i have had the license and all the paperwork for quite some time now, while we played with the idea of exactly WHAT we were going to do. started out a mish-mash of things...logo design, custom scrapbooks and greeting cards, etc... you name it...if someone asked us to do something creative for them, we said YES! but, it wasn't getting us anywhere. the projects were so extensive, taking up too much time and too much of our resources (aka $$$). we LOVED doing these custom assignments (and still take them on occassion), but we were getting nowhere fast.

early this year, it was finally decided that we would begin our OWN line of scrapbooking supplies. tony is a digital artist, and i am heavily into the scrapbooking scene. so...why not? it just made sense. so, i started looking into actual paper/sticker manufacturers, barcodes, distribution, etc...

however, life always seemed to get in the way. we were already scheduled for so many side-projects that we never really got a chance to work much on our OWN stuff this year. so, it's a small setback. but, we are getting back on track! early next year, we will be launching our first line of scrapbooking items, which will be a baby theme. the designs are being finalized as i type. i am SOOO excited, i can hardly stand it!

Please keep checking in, as i will be updating you of our progress along the way. i wish i could tell you to visit our website to see all the cool stuff planned, but there's not much there yet, either (www.thunkitup.com). but, trust me...it is ON IT'S WAY!

just FYI, though...we are only going to be selling wholesale to retailers...both brick-and-mortar stores as well as online stores. So, if you are a customer, please...bug your favorite store to drop us a line and get on our mailing list!!!

-stay tuned!!!