Run for the border!!!!

Or should I say "Stamp on the Border."

I love these new circle stamps... They make a great border on the circle blanks and flowers. Grab one while they are hot! Click over and scroll down. You will also see our other new design stamps as well.

Big shipping day

How do 7 grown women get through a shipping day like today??? SNACKS...oh and 3 pots of coffee (not pictured)!

Someone hand me the fire extinguisher!!

...'cause we had a couple of fires to put out!

We had the best of intentions. "It's the 4th of July weekend," we thought. "We have these cute, new graphics, lots of letter sets and tools. Let's have a sale!"

Indeed.

We prepare. We Blog. We Twitter. We Facebook. We send out the newsletter with the cute, new graphic announcing the sale.

We check the site. Everything is a go. We imagine our customers shopping and getting excited about the tools and stamps.

We push the refresh button on the computer to reload the homepage, just to check to see that the sale notice is up. And push, and push. Our server seems not to listen. Or our website to load.

We can now imagine our customers cursing our very existence at the very same time we are cursing our server.

Web guru Paul to the rescue.
That is Paul on his night out on the town fixing our server by candlelight via IPhone (and with a helpful beer.) For those of you not in the know, Paul is our Lisa's genius hubby. Patient hubby. Clever-with-an-IPhone-hubby. Nice work, Paul.

Thanks so much for your patience, folks, on this one. We are up and running (knock wood). Enjoy your stamps and tools. I am off to refill the fire extinguisher.

Bead & Button 2009 New Product is LIVE!

We went, we saw, we shopped...

Your turn...Our picks are up in the Shoppe and ready to purchase!
Many are one-of-a-kind, so when they are gone, they are gone! Check 'em out here...

Bead & Button 2009...Just a couple more things!

Well, all in all it went great!
We were all set up and ready to go.

Booth was busy.


Our Preview night on Thursday was a blast. Thanks so much to our customers who were patient and seemed to be having a good time, too.


...and liked the brief sit-down moment at the check out!

Not to say that there weren't highjinks...

Our tool rep, Mike, sporting a Beaducation apron! (hottt!) Great look on you, Mike!


That is NOT Kate cracking a beer after class. At Beaducation, we are the model of decorum and would NEVER, EVER show such an example.
(Okay, unless it was beer o'clock and someone had been teaching for 12 hours!!!)

The whole week was great. Dinners with friends were enjoyed. Pratfalls ensued (thanks, Mindy). Songs were sung (karaoke in Milwaukee may just be the best. Mustang Sally, anyone?). Oh, and tools and supplies flew out of the booth (sorry, we are out of screw-down hole punches, but can I interest you in a foldy ruler?).

We made it back...

Yes, you do see 4 suitcases and two carry on's each...don't ask!

See you next year, Milwaukee!

New UPPER and lower case stamp sets. Be the first on your bench block.

We've got new letter sets.The top line is the Economy Basic Lowercase Set 1/8." The font is based on the popular "Comic Sans" font.

In the middle is the Economy Fancy Lowercase Set 1/8". The font is a script-type and varies in size from letter to letter.

On the bottom is the Economy Fancy Uppercase Set 1/8". Again, the font is a script-type and varies in size from letter to letter.

These sets are made in China and as you can see, really vary in size from letter to letter. We like to think that the size variation is a great way to add whimsy to your design. A great design idea would be to mix these letters up with your Kismet and Gothic sets for a truly whimsical design.

They are tool-hardened steel, made to last a long time. As Lisa says in the product description try these stamps out first on copper to perfect your stamping technique.

These will make a great addition to your stamps sets. We hope you'll love them! (we sure do!)

Bead & Button 2009...Hot for Teacher! (or is that a hotflash?)

After we packed and left the booth for the night, we dashed upstairs and put on cute dresses. We dashed downstairs and set up our teacher tables. We dashed around taking video of teachers in the room before the student invasion. (More on that video later. It does not contain singing, pratfalls or other hilarious highjinks. Really).

Meet the Teachers is a phenomenon that began at Bead and Button years ago...(how many years, you ask? I can't remember, let's just say a lot).

The purpose of this much-anticipated event is to let the students meet the variety of teachers that come from around the country and in turn the teachers can meet the students before class, chat it up and have an opportunity to sell their kits and promote their classes.

It is also an opportunity to drink wine.


and an opportunity to mug it up for the camera...

(Kris, Lisa and Lisa's Awesome Kits!)

Students come from all over the country to take classes. It is always fun to meet new students and catch up with former ones.

We also got to visit with our fellow instructors...a shout out to Barb Switzer and Liz Jones.

Fun was had by all...

Kate, Mindy, Kriss and Lisa, having fun.

Thanks students, it was great to see you all!