Congratulations to the 9 talented ladies who were invited to join the PC Team. I’m thrilled to have more people to harass and bother because the old girls are getting a little lippy! Just kidding. LOL! I’m super excited to have even more creative brains on board to help bring you the best of the best.

I’m particularly excited about trying out more hybrid projects and I hope you are too. Joscie, Mary Jo and Claire will definitely get us all crafting! I haven’t even told them yet, (because I just thought of it as I was typing) but I think it would be fun to do a Mint Chick Feature on each of them (old and new) cause I want all of you to get to know them too. So maybe we’ll feature one Chick a week for your viewing pleasure. That could be fun, right?

So that’s the official team TOOT! Speaking of TOOTS, I was on the elevator in my building bringing Chase in from a walk when two little boys (maybe 11-ish) and their Mom walk on right after me. The two boys are giggling and trying to muffle their laughter.  Their Mom follows them on and sees them laughing. She looks at them and says with a smile,  ’oh you brought it on with you, didn’t you?’…’oh you’re TERRIBLE, just terrible!’ They were carrying suitcases so I figured that’s what she was referring to when all of the sudden the most rancid smell of egg fart fills the entire elevator. Yeah. She definitely wasn’t talking about the suitcases. I guess one of the boys had farted before he got on and decided to keep tooting away once he got on the elevator. Luckily I only had 2 floors to go by that point. The poor Mother was so mortified. I just pretended that I didn’t notice. Boys. LOL!Ok, that’s all the excitement for now!
Have a great weekend!

So the Design and Hybrid team call is officially over. Wowza. I was completely overwhelmed by your talent. You guys are INCREDIBLE!!!! I knew I was in trouble when I was ready to take the first 5 applications I read. I was just so impressed with everyone. I spent the last few days going through them all and I have to say, you guys are a really interesting bunch!! I really, REALLY enjoyed reading all about your lives, your jobs & your hobbies. It was a lot of fun to learn more about all of you. It’s amazing how digital scrapbooking interests such a diverse group of people. Different ages, different jobs, different countries. It’s pretty cool actually.

So I’ve sent my emails out so if you didn’t get one this time around please don’t be too disappointed. As much as I wanted to take everyone, I thought that a team of 200 would be a little hard to manage. LOL! I will say this, and this is the truth – I really had an INCREDIBLY difficult time narrowing it down.  I have a very large list of people who I would be thrilled to have on the team but because I already have 6 existing members, I was limited in how many more I could take. After all, I’m just one designer so I don’t know what I’d do with a team of 30. As it is, I took on more than I expected to.

So if you weren’t contacted it’s not because I didn’t think you were good enough, because like I said, I have an extensive list of people who definitely are and I’ll be hanging on to all your applications. I really appreciate every single person who took the time to apply. The site will be undergoing some changes in the coming months and I hope to offer more opportunities for everyone to be more involved. As soon as I hear back from those I’ve invited, I’ll be sure to announce the new members and I hope they will inspire you to continue to grow and create.

And before I go…yahoo – Jason Castro was in the bottom three on Idol!! I hope he’s next to go. Ok, that’s mean. Sorry ;(

I’ve been watching American Idol since Season One and I’m telling you, I don’t know how much longer I can wait for Paula Abdul try to spit out a complete and coherent sentence. Honestly. Half the time I’m watching I just want to jump through the screen, swat her on the back and scream ‘Spit it OUT Woman!’. Even when she gets a partial sentence out very rarely does it make much sense. At least this year she definitely seems more sober. Don’t get me wrong. I love Paula. Hers was the first real concert I ever went to back in her ‘Cold Hearted Snake’ days. I just wish she’d say something other than ‘You look great tonight’.

Tonight was a great week. Everyone was pretty strong. I always enjoy Brooke, Carly and David Cooke – he really killed it with a great alt-rock rendition of Billie Jean. Michael Johns finally had a good week; So did Sayesha but I don’t know what little David was singing. Some happy snappy song that no one’s ever heard. Very Disney Channel. I really can’t STAND the dude with the dreads. I already forgot his name…hang on, I’m looking it up. Jason Castro. Argh. His singing isn’t that bad but when he speaks, it’s just….not good. Not good at all. The whole thing – I just don’t like it.

Sorry, I don’t know what possessed me to go on an American Idol rant. LOL. It just came out.

Apparently Spring has officially started. We are ONE week away from April and it’s snowing here in Toronto. Mr. Mint already put his summer tires on…like 2 weeks ago. I told him not to but he did it anyway because he thinks it makes his car look better. Men. Those of you unfamiliar with Canadian weather, it is NOT supposed to snow at the end of March. It still feels like winter. Boo. Hopefully it won’t last.

 That’s the news for now. Be back tomorrow ;)

I hope everyone had a great Easter weekend! We went to Montreal, Quebec for the weekend to throw my Dad a surprise 60th birthday party. He only lives about 2 milliseconds away from me, but most of our family lives there. I bought a super cool HD video camera to document the big surprise. I bought an extra battery because the one that comes with it only lasts an hour (or 5 according to the box but only if you don’t turn on the lights, the screen, the effects..the camera) and Mr. brainiac Mint forgot to bring it to the party, so we had to be careful what we recorded. We still haven’t watched it yet because to be honest, while we were really excited to have a HD camera at first, now we aren’t so sure that we really want to see ourselves in HD. Know what I mean?

Chase spent two days at the Petsmart Pet Hotel. It’s awesome. He was in Doggie Day Camp from 9-5 and then in a little doggie suite for the night. They get unlimited potty breaks in a special potty room so they never go outside, and you never have to worry that anything’s going to happen to your pup. The ladies there said that they’ve seen many a Min Pin but none with such endless amounts of energy as Chase. He’s a wild dog I tell ya. He must have REALLY put on a show over there because we picked him up on Saturday night and he’s pretty much been sleeping ever since…Excellent.

Abby was pretty pissed that we left her here by herself. It was only a night so we figured she’d be ok. She was. Just a little mad. But she’s over it now. LOL. So now that I have a fancy camera I can take really good Chase and Abby videos. What do I use to edit them? I was using the little Windows Movie Maker thing before but I don’t think it will be able to handle the size of an HD file. Any suggestions?

Back to Easter, Melany Groves (Mellykat) sent me this awesome pic of her adorable son wearing the Easter Crown she created from Kirstie’s Easter Crown post! I think Kirstie and I were both really excited to see a photo from someone else. She really did a great job and it turned out so cute! I know a few of you were thinking of creating one, so if anyone else did – send me your pics!!!!

I hope everyone is enjoying Painted Season, as well as the sale. Thanks to everyone who’s been stopping by, leaving comments and shopping. I always appreciate it. ;) Till next time my little scrappers!

Hells yeah! Get your party hats on!!! Spike the punch and rub some balloons on your head and stick ‘em to the wall – it’s FINALLY and I mean FINALLY time for Miss Mint’s embarassingly late Birthday Bash. Better late than never I always say. Actually, I just looked at my calendar and my birthday was only 10 days ago. Wow. Those were some LONG 10 days let me tell you – it feels like it’s been 3 months! Stop by the store any time before March 31 for some BIG savings. Now is the time to stock up on all your favorite digital products and especially on those Board Books since they don’t go on sale very often.

I imagine we are all a little bit over After Midnight at this point! Here’s a new kit to keep you busy for a bit. Sort of spring, sort of Easter, sort of floral. A little mish mash of bright colors and funky flowers. As always, I look forward to your pages. So get downloading and start scrapping!

Trisha already made the CUTEST page with this kit.
Your turn! Pick up Painted Season now!

Our monthly gallery contest winner for the fabulous month of February is the lovely Miss Ashley Hawkes. I just love how she put this page together and the way the photos are tinted to match the warm colors of the kit is just great. Congrats Ashley! You win a free kit!! Woo hoo.

Some new goodies to debut as well – of course. My new favorite thing is this set of Dirty Solids. They work with just about everything! And it’s super simple to change the tone and tint of each paper to match everything under the sun. Urban Clover is this year’s ode to the Irish. A versatile kit focusing on luck, gratitude and blessings. Certainly something we can all scrap about. Finally, two sets of The Written Word top off the list of new products. These hand drawn doodles make a great addition to any page or project to give it that homemade look. 

Check out these GORGEOUS pages!!!

Layout by: Kirstie

Layout by: Missy

Layout by: Kirstie

Layout by: Joann

Layout by: Trisha

Layout by: Missy

Layout by: Trisha

Layout by: Shanta

Layout by: Joann

Layout by: Kirstie

Click HERE to see more fabulous pages from the team!
Now don’t just sit there. Start shopping!!

Happy St. Patty’s everyone! Hope you all had a great weekend. Be sure to check back tomorrow for some new goods and a St. Patty’s Day CONTEST to win a Shutterfly Photo Book. Yay!

Everyone getting ready for Easter? It’s ALMOST here and the fabulous Miss Kirstie has crafted up an adorable Easter Crown. C’mon that’s cute!

Here’s how she did it:
To start I printed out a piece of blue paper on cardstock from the Twinkle Toes Kit that resembled the sky. I then cut the paper into 3 strips approx 2″ thick. I joined 2 pieces together and measured where the 3rd piece had to be glued by placing it on my daughters head.

I then made some grass using the green paper from the Cardboard Grunge paper pack and created a clipping mask over the red edge (which resembles grass) found in the Construction Paper Edges embellishment pack. I then printed out 3 edges on plain paper and 3 edges on cardstock. I them all out and  glued the ones printed on paper to the bottom edge of the crown.

I chose the bunny and the Easter eggs from the Cutesy Doodle Doo embellishment pack to adorn the crown. I printed out 12 eggs in various colors on plain paper and 1 bunny on cardstock. I wanted the bunny to be firmer than normal paper as the ears would be sticking out above the crown. I glued the bunny at the front of the crown and glued the eggs randomly around the remainder of the crown.

To finish the crown I used the grass that I’d printed on cardstock. I trimmed the grass a bit thinner and glued only the bottom edge to the crown and not the actual blades of grass. Once the glued dried I gently bent the blades of grass out a little to give the crown a bit more dimension.

See you tomorrow!