Brand Buzz Blog

EK Success Brands is participating in Operation Christmas Cards, a campaign devoted to sending holiday cards to US and Canadian military men and women deployed overseas. The 2011 goal for 
Operation Christmas Cards is to send a total of 175,000 cards to bases in Afghanistan, Japan, Iraq, Egypt and Germany. For half of the recipients, these cards will be the only correspondence they receive during the holidays.

This heartfelt outreach is a way to show our gratitude and support to the men and women in the military who put their lives at risk every day for our country, for us. At a time of the year when being away from home and family is especially difficult, receiving a card with a personal note of appreciation and encouragement can raise the spirits and help each individual feel a connection to home. It is a gift beyond measure.

Our goal at EK Success Brands is to collect 9,000 cards before November 11th. All of EK Success Brands’ four office locations—Chicago, Clifton, NJ, Kansas City and Wyomissing, PA—will host office events for employees to take part in the card making, as well as sponsoring a local school in each city with supplies to create and collect cards.

Ready to jump in and help? We have a FREE, self-paced online class available NOW if you want to learn a few new techniques in card making or just get some inspiration. It includes a 25% off coupon! Register now to get started.

You can also host your own Operation Christmas Cards event at home with friends or at your church, or join in a class or gathering at your local store. See our projects for a wide variety of ideas. Here are a few simple guidelines to follow:

• Do NOT seal the envelopes, or apply postage
• Write supportive and encouraging notes
• You may include your email or mailing address inside the card
• Please do not use products that contain exposed glitter
• Non-crafted, store-bought cards may be sent as well
• If mailing large quantities please ship in bulk; indicate the number of cards on the outside of the box.
  

Send cards to arrive at the following address no later than November 11, 2011:
EK Success Brands, c/o Operation Christmas Cards, 100 Delawanna Ave, Suite 700, Clifton NJ, 07014.

Cards sent after November 11, 2011 should be sent directly to Operation Christmas Cards. To find out more, visit www.operationchristmascard.org.

Make a difference to someone this Christmas with a gift of your thoughtfulness and support. It’s what we crafters do best!

Warmest wishes,
Kristel

For all my Perler Beads devoted fans out there, this is for you. We have just launched Perler Beads Snapshots—a place where you can create your own patterns for your Perler Beads projects.

The really COOL part is that you can upload your own photos and make a pattern that is totally yours! There is also a gallery of our images from which you can choose. This is so easy, kids will have as much fun creating their own patterns as they do making the final design in Perler Beads. Definitely colorful and kid-friendly! Watch the video!

Now, let me take you through a sample project so you can see how easy it really is. On the first page, you have two choices to get started: Start with My Image or Start with a Gallery Image. I was anxious to see how it would work with one of my photos, so I started with my own image rather than one from the gallery.

Note: If you start a Snapshots project and don’t have time to finish it, you can save it to your computer and Upload the Saved Project on this page to continue working later).

I browsed to where my image was located on my computer and selected my photo. Here’s a little cutie near and dear to my heart! On this page, I was able to edit my image by cropping, rotating, or zooming in or out. I chose to crop the sides a bit as shown. Sweet!



Next, I chose which size pegboard I wanted to use. Since this is a vertical design and I wanted as much detail as possible, I selected the new super pegboard. This is how the pattern came out on that size board. You can try more than one to get the best results. Your selection will tell you how many beads the board holds and the average time to complete the design.

Here’s where I did some fine tuning. There are two options:
1. Change bead colors one at a time: simply choose the bead color you want to use on the right and click on the beads you want to change in your image. If you click and drag, it will change all the beads you drag over. I wanted to make my background disappear so my project is shaped, so I “painted” all those circles on the pattern white. 
2. The other choice is to replace all of a color with another color, wherever it appears in the design. I was able to brighten up the face using this option, and could have changed the color of her clothing in the same way. This page also tells you which colors were used and what the bead count is of each color. But wait! It gets even better...

Once I was happy with my editing, I clicked to go to the last step. There was my pattern, looking pretty good! I could choose to download my pattern right away, or if I thought I might want to tweak it a little more later, I could save it. I could also check my stash of beads and see what I needed to order to create my project and do it all right here. Snapshots had my shopping list ready for me, including the pegboard, and I could place my online order immediately. Now I can’t wait to work on my project!

Throughout, there are Perler Parent Tips to help kids get good results when they create their patterns. Kids will love being a “designer”, especially when they can use their own photos. Try Perler Beads Snapshots now!

Smilin’ all over the place,
Kristel