seeing is believing

Today we’re in full-on catch-up mode here at Paperie. Since our Chinese drywall ordeal, we literally have no immune systems to speak of in our family. And now that the weather is changing, once again we’ve been down for the count for a few days with horrible colds. If you’re waiting to hear from either of us, please be patient – we do apologize!

But couldn’t let the weekend start without a big giveaway / guest / vendor post — some new packaging photos — contest winner announcements — and a big Halloween sale from my favorite packaging vendor. So read on and make sure you don’t miss anything…

Hi everyone, Ariana here from Photographer’s Wall Display Guides. If you aren’t already familiar with us, we create stylish, fresh and modern wall guides that use REAL room backgrounds to help your clients “picture their pictures” on their walls!

What happens when you SHOW your clients how amazing the images you took look on the wall instead of just talking about it? A huge increase in sales of large wall prints and canvases course!

And now, Photographer’s Wall Display Guides have teamed up with the Organic Bloom, to bring you Organic Bloom frames for the Photographer’s Wall Display Guides!

If you didn’t already know, Organic Bloom is the premier company creating beautiful, whimsical frames sold exclusively through photographers.

We think it’s a match made in heaven, and think you will too once you see this little video (click to launch Vimeo player):

The Organic Bloom frames can be used with ANY of the 15 Photographer’s Wall Display Guides rooms and it’s loaded with features:

•   Includes ALL 16 Organic Bloom frame styles in 10 different sizes from
    a 5×7 to a 20×30
•   Cross organized by both style and size for easy reference
•   Includes an incredible 101 (yes, you read that right!) designed
    groupings!
•   Includes both swatches AND a Color Book of Organic Bloom frame
    colors that makes showing your clients ACCURATE frame colors a breeze!
•   Actions for glazing, resizing and inserting your images
•   Create Double and Twin Double stack frames automagically!
    **{Stacking only supported in Photoshop CS3-CS5}
•   Use images of your client’s home as a background if you wish!
•   Easily create custom sizes and groupings not included with the product.

Although the Organic Bloom frames look STUNNING in all of the wall guide rooms, we did create a special new “Kid’s Pack” { Girl’s Room, Boy’s Room, Baby Room, Playroom } to coincide with the release of the Organic Bloom frames pack that can be purchased separately or as a bundle with the Organic Bloom frames.

Right now through midnight Eastern on November 4th, all Paperie readers will receive 15% off from Photographer’s Wall Display Guides with the code paperie.

And now the best part – we are giving the WHOLE thing away to one lucky reader! That’s all 15 Photographer’s Wall Display Guides rooms with the Organic Bloom frames pre-installed, currently a $385 value.

Ways to enter:

1. Like the Photographer’s Wall Display Guides Facebook page

2. Follow the Photographer’s Wall Display Guides on Twitter

3. Sign up for the VERY occasional Photographer’s Wall Display Guides newsletter (by occasional we mean maybe 2-3 times a year when we release new products!)

Each entry requires its own separate comment here. (In simple terms: If you want THREE chances to win, you have to do the THREE separate things listed above, and then make three separate comments here telling us how you did them.)

Comment that you have followed the Twitter and/or Facebook account(s), or already follow them – and / or have signed up for the newsletter – in separate comments here to have multiple chances to win!

ATTENTION: All links you post must direct to public-access accounts. We cannot verify links on private, friends & family only, or passworded accounts and they will not be eligible to win this item. If we have to subscribe to your feed, a website, or forum – or request permission to see them – your entry will automatically be disqualified.

Comment(s) must be posted here by 11:59 p.m. EDT on Tuesday, November 1st. You can enter up to THREE times total. Post that you have met the individual requirements in separate comments to have multiple chances to win!

You can enter / post up to three times total – one entry each for all of the options listed above. (PLEASE NOTE: Comments are held for moderation and may not appear immediately. Please be patient! They will show up eventually.)

You have THREE chances to win, but only one chance PER OPTION – please do not post the same link multiple times. Duplicate links will be removed. Each entry requires its own separate comment to have multiple chances to win!

Comments on this entry will be numbered in order of posting. The winning number will be chosen by Random.org, and the winner will be contacted within 48-72 hours of the winner-announcement to claim their prize.

That’s it, thank you! Good luck to everyone who enters!

And thanks Ariana / Photographer’s Wall Display Guides for the amazing prize!




I’ve posted a couple of my own photos to my Pinterest “Pretty Packaging” board recently, in case you’ve missed them:

We have a winner in our Hardwood Whimsical Frames contest and it’s…mhs Photography!

And the winner of our mini-camera magnet set giveaway is…Jammie Lopez!

Congrats to our two winners, thanks to everyone who entered, and a special thanks to Hardwood Whimsical Frames for the fantastic prize pack!

Winners, you’ll be hearing from me this weekend with information on how to claim both of your prizes.




Last but not least…guess where Paperie is this week? New York City!

We have a photo in a beautiful Organic Bloom frame at the HB Photo Packaging booth for WPPI NYC @ PhotoPlus.

If that isn’t scary enough, they’re also having a Spooktacular Halloween sale!

Happy Haunting, everyone!
-Robyn & Todd

TGIF!

Excited Photographer Cafe is back for a new giveaway / vendor / guest post!

Photographer Cafe is dedicated to providing photographers with a beautiful shop filled with practical, fresh products, along with an inspirational blog and active Facebook page. From marketing resources to card templates to newsletters to album templates, Photographer Cafe has all the tools photographers need to look great and save valuable time.

Get a jump start on your client holiday marketing efforts with the new 2012 calendar sets. Pair a personalized calendar with a coordinating client card, and you’re well on your way to connecting with your clients this holiday season and getting your name out to countless potential clients. Choose from a variety of designs and styles, including our popular Playful set and our chic Loft set (shown below). Add coordinating business and marketing templates, and you have the tools to create a cohesive, professional presentation in no time at all.

Photographer Cafe is giving away a $100 shopping spree to one lucky Paperie reader. Here’s how to win your choice of fantastic products from the Photographer Cafe shop:

1. Visit Photographer Cafe and dream about how you would spend $100. Come back here to leave a comment, telling what you would purchase if you won.

2. Follow @PhotogCafe on Twitter, and tweet the following (and tell us where you did):
Enter to win a $100 shopping spree from @PhotogCafe / PhotographerCafe.com at @PaperieBoutique / PaperieBoutique.com – http://is.gd/w3vzLa

Each entry requires its own separate comment here. (In simple terms: If you want TWO chances to win, you have to do the two things listed above, and then make two separate comments here telling us how you did them.)

Comment that you have followed @PhotogCafe / posted to your Twitter account, with a link to where you did it in the comments here – in addition to making another separate comment stating what you would buy if you won – to have multiple chances to win!

ATTENTION: All links you post must direct to public-access accounts. We cannot verify links on private, friends & family only, or passworded accounts and they will not be eligible to win this item. If we have to subscribe to your feed, a website, or forum – or request permission to see them – your entry will automatically be disqualified.

Comment(s) must be posted here by 11:59 p.m. EDT on Tuesday, August 23rd. You can enter up to two times total. Post that you have met both requirements in separate comments to have multiple chances to win!

You can enter / post up to two times total – one entry each for both the options listed above. (PLEASE NOTE: Comments are held for moderation and may not appear immediately. Please be patient! They will show up eventually.)

You have two chances to win, but only one chance PER OPTION – please do not post the same link multiple times. Duplicate links will be removed. Each entry requires its own separate comment to have multiple chances to win!

Comments on this entry will be numbered in order of posting. The winning number will be chosen by Random.org, and the winner will be contacted within 48-72 hours of the winner-announcement to claim their prize.

Good luck!

Thanks to Photographer Cafe for the great giveaway – what a nice way to kick off the weekend!

Hope everyone has a great one!
-Robyn and Todd

awesome sauce

We have another awesome guest / vendor post and giveaway today – Photoumbra Studios is back with their new venture StudioThoughtSauce.com.

We are Monica and Jake of Photoumbra Studios. Our home-based studio was just featured in the June issue of Professional Photographers Magazine article about home-studios that you can view here. In conjunction with this article, we have not only launched a new website, StudioThoughtSauce.com, but released a new product that is sure to excite home-based studio owners: The Studio Inspiration Guide: Enhancing your Home-Grown Studio.

This 30 page downloadable eBook features six chapters full of great information for getting the most out of your home-based portrait studio including studio photos, individual exercises and checklists to help you identify where and how your home studio can grow.

Chapters include:

ONE: The Client Experience {We take you step by step through 7 critical contact points to make your client’s experience a positive and memorable one. We also share ideas on how to infuse each contact point with important information to maximize your selling potential and tips on how to do this from your home studio.

TWO: Space Wars {Owning a home-based business not only presents the challenge of balancing work and family, it can also put you in the middle of a constant tug-a-war for space. This chapter will help you determine which spaces are best utilized for specific functions and how you can creatively utilize your space to its max!}

THREE: Do-it-Yourself Tips and Tricks {We walk you through several DIY ideas on how to enhance your space and client experience such as how to make your own background studio system for under $50}

FOUR: Keep the Bottom Line in Mind {This chapter will provide specific activities to help you be more profitable in your spending and selling.}

FIVE: Defining your Success {Success is measured in many different ways. We’ll help you explore your own definition of success and offer tips on how to better reach your goals.}

SIX: Our Favorite Things {This chapter identifies the the tools and vendors we find most useful in operating a successful home studio.}

BONUS: Enjoy some of the graphic elements we used to create the Studio Inspiration Guide. Get 7 Doodle Frames and an entire page of fun doodle elements. See images below!

Get the Studio Inspiration Guide for the special launch price of just $19.99, regularly $39. Plus, get a bonus download of 7 doodle border frames used in the book as well as several doodle embellishments!

You can purchase the guide HERE.

Also, for your chance to win a complimentary copy of The Studio Inspiration Guide or any of the other great products that Studio Thought Sauce offers, simply visit our website and see which product you would like for FREE in the Sauce Shop — then visit our Facebook page and “like” us — and then write which product you would like for FREE on our wall by 11:59 p.m. EDT Saturday, June 25th. One random wall post will be selected by Monday, June 27th and will be notified via Facebook.

Thanks to Photoumbra Studios and StudioThoughtSauce.com for the awesome prize!

Don’t forget we also have a giveaway running through 11:59 p.m. EDT on Thursday, June 23rd for a pre-made logo OR $100.00 giftcard to Dear Miss Modern!

gratitude. journal.

When word got out from a recent post, I can’t even begin to describe the response. My brain, and heart, are overflowing with joy and amazement. How do you truly say thank you for something like this? Or the forum posts full of concern? Or the vendor notes of support (like the one when Moo‘s Vice President alerted several colleagues on staff to make sure I was taken care of just because he could). Or surprise gifts in the mail. Or Tweet DMs to check in – one from Pixel2Canvas on vacation in the middle of the Grand Canyon. Or the dozens of e-mails we’ve received. Or a note from a photographer who had just lost her husband and the father of her 5 children, worried about MY FAMILY. (We are so ok by comparison.) Or the little surprises in our PayPal account just because. I mean, it’s more than the human mind can really wrap around.

You go through life trying to do good and just make it day to day. You stumble. Sometimes you stumble hard. Sometimes you even hurt people. You dust yourself off eventually, regroup, reprioritize, remember you’re not really all that (well maybe all that, but often minus the potato chips), and promise yourself that if you don’t learn from those past mistakes what’s the point of the future…so buckle down and get to it… That’s been my 2010. I’ve buckled down and got to it. I had another such gut-check / perspective experience on a CT-scan table just over a week ago to make me even more focused on what’s really important.

In my recent Rangefinder piece, I wrote about the photographer community and my close relationship with my vendors. While being interviewed about this website, the article opened and closed with the following:

I let ‘Fit to Print’ evolve into Paperie Boutique, a standalone blog, through which I’m paying it forward to those who helped me along the way…..What has this experience taught Robyn? “I’ve learned to never underestimate the generosity of people and their willingness to teach and share,” [Robyn] says. “Just when you think you couldn’t possibly be more proud of your professional community, something as simple as a ‘thank you’ or ‘I can help with that’ never ceases to amaze.”

I’m used to being on the organization and donation collection end of things. It’s been humbling to be on the receiving end to say the very least.

Then yesterday the latest ‘random act of kindness’ showed up on my door step.

It’s no secret that I love HB Photo Packaging, but this was just beyond unreal. This was a surprise just for me, just because. You can read more of the details over here at Flickr – please make sure to add to the comments and thank them on behalf of our professional community!

And shop their weekend sale—HB Packaging is having a 10% off summer sale!

And speaking of vendors, we have a winner in the recent Design Aglow contest! It’s Silvine Designs / Silvine Photography:

Congrats to Michelle and another huge round of THANKS to Design Aglow for being such big supporters of this site, and for donating such fantastic prizes! Thanks to everyone who participated as well, and have a great weekend!

EXTRA! EXTRA!

We’re back in limited capacity! Thanks so much to everyone for their well-wishes and support! To our new advertisers, welcome! We’ll do our best to get you added in the days ahead.

I’m happy to announce we have an awesome Design Aglow giveaway this week – their new Studio Newsletter Collection magazine-style marketing tool. Read on and see more!

Want to get in front of your target market and stay in touch with your best clients in the most beautiful way? Our quarterly newsletter collection is a must for the studio who wants to stay at the top of their market!

Pre-designed, pre-written, yet 100% adaptable, we offer up a bounty of fresh ideas for topics that easily market all aspects of your studio. Show off new products, your most current images, and inspire with fab session ideas while you keep in touch with clients and prospective clients.

Four quarterly issues used for marketing with a luxury feel, printed as quadfold and mailed to best clients or used in high-tech yet cost efficient way, online. We have included instructions to make sideways scrolling online newsletter to blow your clients away via the web.

This beautiful product includes:
• four sets (winter, spring, summer, fall) of professionally written and designed pages complete with patterned backgrounds, design elements, and space to insert your own images
• A full tutorial

PRODUCT DETAILS:
• Fully customizable, consisting of unflattened .PSD files to customize all colors, text, fonts, and images
• Each brochure contains 8 – 4 x 5.5 inch pages – easily print as an accordion at your favorite lab
• Includes product images, but not portraits
• Contains directions to make an amazing online pdf with Photoshop, Acrobat and Bridge, and a slideshow with Lightroom
• Compatible with Photoshop CS or newer, Windows and Mac

How do you win? It’s simple! Leave a comment here with a positive testimonial why you love Design Aglow.

Then go to Twitter or Facebook and post:

I love Design Aglow / @designaglow – visit Paperie Boutique / paperieboutique.com by @shutterblog to win a new Studio Newsletter Collection

One lucky reader will be picked at Random by random.org from the numbered comments. Contest ends at 11:45 p.m. EDT on Friday, June 25, 2010. Good luck!

UPDATE: The winner has now been announced here – check it out!