Merry Christmas & Happy Everything!

Vagabond raffle winner Doris Wray
with The Queen

Thanks to all of you who helped make our 14th Birthday Bash a big success. Your generosity was amazing, and we're so pleased that your "birthday" gifts have been donated to Operation Gratitude in support of our military at home and abroad. Our raffle for a Sizzix Vagabond raised an additional $125 to help defray the cost of postage for soldier care packages. Congratuations to long-time customer Doris Wray!

Our Creative Connection night meets this Saturday (December 13th) and we have space for more artists. This event is an opportunity for art enthusiasts to gather on a regular basis (monthly) and share the creative process. This is NOT a class; rather, it is a SPACE... for friends to start or finish a project... cards, journals, wall art, etc. Look forward to lots of laughter and fun, and an opportunity for help and collaboration from fellow artists. In addition to a space for you (WARNING--not a table of your own), you will enjoy snacks and drinks; access to the classroom's diecutting machines, dies and texture fades; and, 20 percent off the regular price of all in-stock products.

Since the shoppe is open until 9:00 Monday through Saturday from now until December 23rd, we are opening up the studio to our customers for creative play. We will be working on our cards, last minute handmade gifts, and just "playing", and would love to have you join us. Take a break from shopping, baking, and wrapping, and get some one-on-one Zentangle coaching from Patti on Tuesday, make paperdolls with Lolly on Wednesday, watch a gelli plate demo with Terry on Thursday, OR just bring your half-finished projects and enjoy the camaraderie of the season with us.

We think it's important right now to remind all of you of the importance of feeding our souls with our art, which helps keep us grounded. We will continue to order new products as they are introduced and restock all your favorites; however, as with all of you, we have had to adjust to the changes in the economy, and have (necessarily) adjusted our restocking intervals to more closely reflect the times. We've seen this trend with our suppliers, our fellow business owners, and our customers, and ask that you work with us to determine how we can best meet your expectations while observing the bottom line. If you have ideas about classes and new products, please forward those to us (queens@queensink.com), as we are trying to plan for the next 6 months... more cards, fewer cards; paper engineering (or not?); product techniques and demos; whatever ! We want to hear from you, our most valuable resource of all. 
  
Patti's promise for the New Year (but beginning now) is to write a Facebook post EVERY day... there's always something to say, right? Go to the bottom of this newsletter and "LIKE" us... don't miss out on her daily musings. She (with a little help now and then) will report on shop happenings, new products, maybe a cool technique she discovers... or anything else that you might suggest to her. Lolly wants you to mail-bomb her inbox if you see that she's reneging on her promise!
  
One last note... we will be closing at 3:00 p.m. on Christmas Eve, so tell those last-minute shoppers in your life that they have a deadline!

We just received Seth Apter's workshop descriptions and project photos, so those will be posted in the next few days. workshops. We're so excited to host him the weekend of February 28th-March 1st, during which he will teach a 3-hour workshop and two all-day workshops....all brand new for 2015! Watch Facebook for the big reveal!