More Winners!

The winning submissions to the Halloween Crafters Challenge - made by PZ employees are: 1st place goes to Sarah Schilt, Manager at our Tacoma store; 2nd place goes to Helen Hogan-Campbell, Assistant Manager at our Bellingham store. We had so many great entries, please check out our album.

I asked each winner to tell us about their creation. Here is what Sarah said about her unbelievably creative album:
"I am always looking to challenge myself when it comes to being crafty. One of the best ways I have found to do this is to look for random, inexpensive items that can be transformed into something super cute. Recently, Paper Zone started selling plain paper lunch sacks - alone, not that exciting, but when turned into a mini album, simply amazing! (And at only $0.15 a piece, the entire album base cost less than $1.00!) Add some adorable ribbons (at only $0.99 a roll!) and coordinating decorative papers (only $0.89 a piece!) and you have an inexpensive yet priceless mini album that can be given as a gift or used to preserve memories of any kind.

The album I made was inspired by the upcoming Halloween holiday, but just think of all the mini albums you can make: First Day of School, Special Holiday Moments, Friendship Album.the list goes on and on! My next mini album: a collection of my family's favorite recipes to give as Christmas gifts. Think: pull out recipe cards complete with photos of the completed dish, quotes, memories, etc. all compiled into an adorable (and did I mention inexpensive!) gift that will be cherished by many.

The album itself is super easy to make and so much fun!" - Sarah, Paper Goddess

Click here for a list of supplies and step by step instructions for this project.

And here is what Helen said about her spooky little tin:

"I like to alter tins, so thought it might be fun to see what I could create using the challenge products. I used an empty candy tin, measured the top, bottom and around the tin and cut the paper pieces to fit. To get the corners exact I used the Corner Chomper. I could not get the top rim piece straight for the life of me, so finally colored it black with a sharpie. I inked the edges of the paper pieces to "finish" them, and adhered with red line tape. Before I adhered the top I stamped the web and added the skeleton sticker and the button to the web. After attaching the paper pieces inside the tin, I attached Martha's bat punches with glue dots. It was a lot of fun to make, and I've made a few more with candy inside for friends. " - Helen

We hope you were inspired from ALL of the entries. We will be announcing the Holiday Crafters' Challenge on Monday!! --Kim

Tins of Fun

Hello Everyone! One of the things I love about Paper Zone and Paper Zone's product is that it can be so versatile and the simplest little thing can be turned into a cute gift or fun treat for someone. This week, the products of choice are tins from Pinecone Press. We have some amazingly creative people in our stores and you'll agree once you see what Jenn in Shoreline created. She took one of the smaller tins and created a very cute and very useful sewing kit. It's so cute, I'd love to have that in MY purse!

She took her creativity up a notch and created the most adorable traveling version of Tic Tac Toe which smartly uses a CD size tin along with magnets also sold in our store. How great is that?!?

Sarah in Tacoma also had a fabulous creation using the tins to house a "Critter Card Kit" she made using the adorable Max & Whiskers line and Pop Tones.

So next time you see a tin, remember that the possibilities are endless. And with a little bit of paper, some embellishments and a touch of creativity, you can really have something special (from a tin!!). --Kim