ABNH 9th Anniversary Instagram Hop

 Hello friends! Danielle here.

I was so happy to be invited to participate in the A Blog Named Hero 9th Anniversary Instagram Hop!

For my card I used the Affirmation Messages stamp set and Sea and Sky stencil. I used acrylic paints with the stencil to create my background, but you could use Distress inks, Distress paint, or your favorite mixed medium product!

I cannot believe it, but I was a member of their design team right at the start! Where did 9 years go?! I had a walk down memory lane looking through old projects I had created during my time on the team, here are just a few:

Be sure to head over to the Neat and Tangled instagram account HERE to hop along! Be sure to comment all along the way to enter to win a $50 gift certificate!

Happy hopping!

Danielle 

Neat and Tangled Announcement + Clearance Sale

Hello to all my crafty friends,
 
I am here today to share some news. 
 
After the last year, obviously the events of the world, how it played out in my own life and just my own growth and change over the last few years, I have made the choice to discontinue producing new products under the Neat and Tangled brand. If there is one thing I know to be true, it’s that I am always learning and growing. And I know when it’s time to make a change. I love being creative, but my own crafty interests have shifted. I still love creating but now more in the form of painting. I still love lettering, but in different ways with a new purpose. 
 
If you’ve been following along for a while you know that after everything with my Dad, I gained a new perspective on life. I completed my meditation teacher training almost 2 years ago, and have been leading meditation in my local community. I teach people now how to find peace within themselves, and I’m developing a new program to help people use color, art, and words to cultivate joy.
 
The paper crafting industry has grown and evolved so much since I began Neat and Tangled almost 9 years ago!  As I sit here and reflect back to what the landscape looked like when I first started it is amazing to see the transformation. It has blossomed, and flourished, and there are so many amazing companies putting out the most creative and innovative products. Truthfully, at this point, I don’t know that I have anything truly unique to offer that would be much different than what’s out there. And for me, it’s really important to feel like I’m being of service, and offering something meaningful that can really add value to your life (and craft room!). 
 
What I will carry with me most of all after all these years, are not any of the products or cards I’ve crafted.  It’s actually the relationships and time spent together. Friends I’ve made at other companies, design team members that became friends, and customers I’ve come to know and love online and in person. This last 9 years have been filled with a lot of smiles and love. I will be forever grateful for that.
 
I am so thankful that so many of you have pieces of Neat and Tangled in your homes. My heart swells when I think of how much love and kindness has been spread because of the work that has been done at Neat and Tangled. Not only all of the cards you’ve created and mailed out, but our coming together as a community to help others through things like our Happy Mail for Grayson card drive, and Crafting with Compassion Fundraising for The Burning Limb Foundation. So many lives have been touched and transformed because of you. So much love and kindness has been rippled out into the world.
 
It’s bittersweet. There is the sadness that comes when something so good comes to an end, and the excitement of the new.

 

There are still products left in the shop, and currently everything is marked 50% off. Use the code NEATANDTANGLED for an additional 20% off. The online shop will remain open until we clear out the inventory.  I know many of you have been emailing and messaging about items that are not listed in the shop. If it’s not in the shop, it’s out of stock. You can always do a google search with the product name, as many of our online retailers may still have it in stock! Sometimes you can find older products on ebay or Etsy as well, but I will warn you that sadly there are many counterfeit versions of Neat and Tangled products out there on those sites. The safest bet is checking trusted craft supply retailers like Simon Says Stamp, Ellen Hutson, Seven Hills Crafts, Butterfly Reflections, etc.
 
Thank you for all of the love and memories,
Danielle

End of Year Clearance + Cheers to 2021!

 Hello friends!

Can you believe we are at the end of 2020? Time was strange this year, in that it feels like this year has been both long, and simultaneously flown by incredibly fast.

Just like many of you, our year has been filled with ups and downs and everything in between.  I sit here in front of our Christmas tree feeling grateful for my family, my friends, my home, and the continued support of this community <3

If you've been following along, you know I am working to clear out the rest of our old inventory to make way for the new in 2021.  There are still many great items left in the shop!

Just as a heads up, I will be pausing the online shop from January 17th- 31st to reorganize and make some updates :) 

Sale is good on in stock items only.

Sale includes items in SALE section

Please allow for extended shipping times

Orders cannot be combined

Sale will continue as long as inventory remains

I am wishing you all a very happy New Year,  filled with peace and love.

Cheers to 2021! 

Danielle

Happy Thanksgiving! + Black Friday Sale

 Hello friends!

For those in the US celebrating Thanksgiving, I hope you had a beautiful day. I'm sure for many of you, this Thanksgiving was unlike any other, and I hope you were still able to enjoy the day in some way.

I've said many times this year already, but I can't say it enough. Thank so much for your continued love and support.

If you are a newsletter subscriber, you know that at the end of summer I made the decision to shift my focus away from new product development and back to more of a stay at home mom role while my kids are home doing remote learning. It was certainly an unexpected transition. It was difficult to make a choice to push pause on the business, but after my last newsletter, explaining this all, I was so surprised. So many of you sent me personal emails, letting me know you were supporting me, and that this time with my kids was important, and something I'll look back on and know was for the best.  I was moved to tears and the kindness and compassion from my community here. 

I do have a few things in the works for early 2021, so I hope you will stick around with Neat and Tangled! But in the meantime, I am trying to clean out as much from the shop as possible. A fresh start for the new year if you will.

So, in the spirit of simplifying, I'll keep the sale simple as well!  Please enjoy 40% off the entire SHOP all weekend long. Just use the code GRATEFUL2020.  

With love,

Danielle

Grey Cardbase and Circular Dies with Daria Grushina [Part 2]

 Hello dear friends,

Daria here.  Hope you going to have a wonderful weekend and may be some time for crating... As I have a new card to share with you. 

I am here to continue my challenge of using both light grey cardstock and Circular die set. I am curious how many I can make (lol). Join me, if you find this idea interesting and fun and tag us in Social media. 

As about today's project, I wanted to use circles as frames for the critters. I am again playing with Santa's Wonderland stamp set, that is not available any more. But, you may use any critters stamps you have on hand, or may be not even them but flowers, or cupcakes to create for example a birthday card. 

So, I die cut lots o circles, stamped cute images over three of them and then coloured them with simple pencils. At first, I simply wanted to place those over my grey cardstock base, but then, I've decided to add something else. 

I added circles in different sizes and colours and adhered some directly to paper some using foam tape. I followed the rule of irregular numbers in creating colour accents: three blue circles, tree white circles three pink shapes (two circles and a banner).  Each time I am consistent with number of circles behind each image. Although they are all of different sizes, it helps to balance them more equally. 

Sentiment is places over a banner shapes from Skinny Strips die set (my personal all time favourite). Again, you may use any theme for you card and change images and sentiment. Overall, I like the way it tuned out. Hope you do to (wink). 

xoxo, 

Daria.  

Grey Cardbase and Circular Dies with Daria Grushina [Part 1]

 Hello-hello awesome people,

Daria here.  Recently, I was organising my cardstock and found a few lists of beautiful light grey cardstock. Surprisingly, it is one of my favourite colours, as it works with everything. 

So, I have decided to challenge myself to make several cards using it. To make it more interesting, I've added to the scheme a Circular die set. This way, it is going to be a little series of cards made using both light grey cardstock and circle dies. 

Here is the first one. 

I love the idea of using different circles to create a background. I've already made a few cards using this technique to mimic confetti background (you may found them here). 

This time, I am using it to create snow. It is easy and perfect for any winter scene cards. 

I am also playing with our older stamp set to create a little scene. I free cut the slopes to place the North Pole sign from Santa's Wonderland stamp set. 

Unfortunately, this stamp set is not availably any more. But, I also feel guilty not to use great stamps from my stash. And, I thought it would be good to use them anyway in case you already had them. Or may be, you will decide to switch it with something wintery that you already have. 

I heat embossed the sentiment in gold and added a couple of gold sequins.

That's all for today.  Thanks so much for stopping by, and see you next time,

xoxo,

D.

2020 Update + Sale

Hello dear friends!

Hope this update finds you well as we head in to the last months of the year.

What an unexpected year, to say the least!

As most of you know, I had paused any new releases back in March when we found out my children would be finishing out the school year remotely at home and I'd be helping with their online learning. 

Our family took the summer to relax and escape to the beach. And I (im)patiently waited to hear the news of school. Here in Northern Delaware we learned all public schools would be starting fully remotely, with a plan to return hybrid in mid-October.  Again, I decided to push pause on any new releases. With my husband being a teacher, I knew I'd be the one primarily helping the kids with their virtual learning and I did not want to add any more stress to our lives.

At the end of last week, we learned the school our kids attend pushed the return to hybrid learning again, now until November. Rather than continue to hold my breath and keep pushing product creation and release dates I've made the decision to officially announce there are no new releases planned for the remainder of 2020, and no dates for 2021 at the moment.

Many people don't know that Neat and Tangled has actually been just me and my husband (who also works full time). Of course we have our amazing design team, and at times I've had help with customer service emails from Sarah, and product packing during busy times from Marla, but other than that it has just been the two of us. Preparing all product, inventory management, packing all orders, and everything in between. So for now while I am busy with the kids during the day, there's just not enough time, or energy, to actively create, launch and manage new product.

I know it may be a disappointment to our long time customers. And if you know me, you know this decision did not come lightly.  However, as I have shared so many times, Neat and Tangled was born out of a desire to be able to stay home with my children, do something I love, and build my schedule around my family. I feel so very grateful that at this time in our lives, I am able to pause work to shift my focus back to my children.

So while I help them, in between Zoom calls and snack breaks, I'm busy behind the scenes clearing out old inventory, reorganizing my office, painting and doodling new designs.  We still have quite a bit of retired product hanging out that I would love to see find homes to make room for the new. So a big sale it is!

A few details:

- Sale is good on in stock items only, and cannot be combined with other coupon codes. 

- Please allow for extending shipping notifications due to the large volume of orders placed! 

- Coupon code can be used on items already marked down in the SALE section.

- All items in the SALE section of the shop are retired products, and will not be restocked - once they are gone they are gone!

Head over to the shop to grab some new favorites!

Also, for those of you who followed our last few releases, you'll know I brought on Robbie Bryant, a friend and local tattoo artist, to collaborate with on designs.  It has been an exciting year for him as well, as he is preparing to open his own tattoo shop, Omnia, here in Delaware in the coming month. If you follow him on Instagram, be sure to send him well wishes on his new endeavor!

As always, thank you for the continued love and support!

With love,

Danielle