Redmond, WA - April 30, 2010 -- Smilebox, Inc. (www.smilebox.com) will salute scrapbookers everywhere on National Scrapbooking Day 2010 and give away a free, premium digital scrapbooking design. The free design will be available from Friday, April 30th through Sunday, May 2nd and can be downloaded directly with Smilebox at the company’s blog at http://www.smilebox.com/smileboxblog.

The free, eight–page, square scrapbook is called “Blossom” and features rich, textured elements in fresh colors of poppy, tangerine and sea green, as well as flexible embellishment, color and title customization. It was designed by Sweet Shoppe Designs for Smilebox. Customers can easily add their photos, videos, words and music to the digital scrapbook and share it via email or post to a blog or Facebook. They also can enjoy premium Smilebox features such as ad-free viewing, expanded music and printing options, and full-screen playbacks.

About the Smilebox service
The Smilebox service lets customers quickly turn life’s moments into digital creations to share with others or to save. Smilebox users can choose any design, print to retail, email, or post to Facebook for free. For $2.99 to $3.99, customers can purchase and own premium designs to print at home, save to digital photo frames, get more music choices, and share full screen without ads. Customers can also subscribe to Club Smilebox for $5.99/month or $39.99/year for unlimited use of premium designs as well as the ability to burn their Smilebox creations to DVD or save video files to a photo frame. Smilebox is available for the PC and Mac platforms.

About Smilebox, Inc.
Founded in 2005 by Andrew Wright, Smilebox is the leading way friends and families celebrate, share and preserve special moments in their lives through photos, videos and music. Since the service’s launch in June 2006, more than 10 million people have installed Smilebox and more than 102 million Smileboxes have been played worldwide. Smilebox is the only service that supports all personal media (photos, videos, music), all content types (ecards, invitations, slideshows, scrapbooks, collages, photobooks and postcards) and all sharing methods (email, print, burn to DVD, save to photo frame, blog and post). Smilebox is a global, privately held company with headquarters in Redmond, Wash.

Smilebox is a trademark of Smilebox, Inc. All trademarks and brands are the property of their respective owners.

Contact:

Tamese Robinson
Smilebox, Inc.
425-881-9475 ext. 216
tamese(at)smilebox(dot)com

Portland, OR, April 26, 2010 -- The Scrap Art Site is an online scrapbook store that features one of a kind scrapbook paper and journal boxes designed by their scrap artists as well as other essential scrapbooking supplies such as albums, album pages, adhesives, tools and card stock sold by the sheet.

The Scrap Art Site began when it's founder Bobbi Jacobs received her first copy of Photoshop as a gift. The combination of Photoshop's unprecedented ability as a design program and Bobbi's impassioned love for scrapbooking lead to the very first 12 x 12 design "Ice Ice Baby." One year later with more than 200 designs The Scrap Art Site has added other essential scrapbooking supplies.

It is tier hope to inspire the artist in every scrap enthusiast one piece of paper at at a time.

Contact Information:
The Scrap Art site
Bobbi Jacobs
503 522 5140
scrapartsite@gmail.com
www.thescrapartsite.com

Fremont, Nebr. - April 25, 2010 -- AccuQuilt, a leader in fabric cutting solutions for quilting and fabric crafts, announces the kickoff of the Barn Quilt Design Contest. Quilters, artists and creative types everywhere are invited to submit their ideas for display on the AccuQuilt home office in Fremont, Nebr.

AccuQuilt is active in the quilting community, providing fabric crafters everywhere with fast, accurate solutions for cutting beautiful quilts. Now they're displaying their quilting pride by placing a painting of the winner's colorful quilt square on the AccuQuilt office. The AccuQuilt Barn Quilt Design Contest is looking for anyone with an eye for design to submit their barn quilt creations to barnquilt@accuquilt.com.

First, second and third place prizes will be awarded to the most vibrant blocks. The first place winner will receive a $1,000 AccuQuilt shopping spree along with an all expenses paid trip for two to AccuQuilt to see the unveiling of their creation. Second and third place winners will receive $500 and $150 gift certificates respectively.

"We are honored to join the National Barn Quilt Trail and demonstrate our support for the rich tradition of quilting," said Steve Nabity, AccuQuilt's CEO. "This contest is a thrilling opportunity to show the world that AccuQuilt is deeply committed to the quilters who make us such a success. We think big, and displaying a 20' x 20' barn quilt shows our passion to all who see our office."

Barn quilts have adorned farms across the nation for over 200 years. However, the modern American barn quilt movement took off in 2001 when Donna Sue Groves of Adams County, Ohio, painted a colorful quilt block on her barn as a way to honor her mother's love of quilting.

Rather than stopping with just one block, Donna encouraged others in the community to paint their own blocks to create an original driving attraction for tourists. Her idea quickly grew into the National Barn Quilt Trail, which now crosses over 25 states and British Columbia. Travelers from around the world plan driving tours of the barn quilts, making them a popular attraction as people visit each barn quilt location.

The contest begins immediately and runs through Friday, May 14th. Winners will be announced at the Spring Int'l Quilt Market in Minneapolis, Minn., on May 21st. Full contest details can be found at http://www.accuquilt.com/barnquilt.

About Accuquilt
Headquartered in Fremont, Nebr., AccuQuilt offers quilters, fabric crafters and retailers a premiere line of fabric cutters, dies, quilting patterns and other quilt and fabric cutting solutions that help quilters quickly and accurately cut shapes for quilting and fabric crafts. Cutting with AccuQuilt cutters is a natural evolution of fabric cutting methods. "First scissors…then rotary…finally…AccuQuilt™" for fast, easy, accurate fabric cutting.

April 15, 2010 -- Inspired by her daughter-in-law’s passion for scrapbooking – and her own desire to create a home-based business – Janet Korando developed www.RJsScrapbookingSupplies.com in July 2009 in partnership with her husband, Robert. And with the unleashing of her creative side, she too has acquired an array of crafty skills and techniques.

Today, the Korandos are pleased to announce the launch of their brand-new, interactive blog, www.RJsScrapbookingSuppliesBlog.com, which serves as an informational counterpart to their Web store. Here scrapbook hobbyists are invited to utilize the site’s Q&A platform to share and discover new crafting techniques and styles.

At RJsScrapbookingSupplies.com, shoppers will be delighted by the nearly all-inclusive selection of scrapbooking albums, decorative embellishments – stickers, paper cutouts, ribbon, buttons and more – as well as colorful paper page layouts and vibrant pens and markers.

Be sure to frequent the Web store as the couple will continue to bring surprises to the site. The merchandise changes daily, Janet explained; new products are added and old items are removed while holiday and seasonal products will appear too.

Don’t overlook the Web site’s featured products section, which is used to highlight a select number of items that have been reduced in price; the list is ever changing. Among the current merchandise within this section is a scrapbooking kit that supports the power of pink. Pick up the breast cancer awareness survivor tool kit!

Janet boasts that, at RJsScrapbookingSupplies.com, they demonstrate superior standards of customer service. Such a promise can be witnessed in the dedication they put forth to ensure every shopper receives exactly what they’re looking for, even if they have to do a bit of extra work to track down a specific product themselves.

RJsScrapbookingSupplies.com, take a walk on the creative and crafty side!

About the Company:
RJsScrapbookingSupplies.com is owned and operated by Web entrepreneurs, Janet and Robert Korando.
Janet Korando
www.RJsScrapbookingSupplies.com
(573) 547-6089

Cherry Glass Tulip 1 Inch Drapery Rod

March 29, 2010 -- Blinds Chalet is stepping away from the traditional into a more artistic realm. The new line of art guild rods include hand blown glass and ceramic designs. “It’s a new arena for us,” says Chris Stanley of Blinds Chalet. “Everyone should have a little fun with their products.”

Blinds Chalet recently added a drapery hardware line to their standard offerings of window treatments and blinds. However, the art guild rods are by far the most extravagant of the new drapery rods. From tulips to glass blocks to ceramic vase endings, Blinds Chalet is putting a little flavor back into home decorating.

The Cherry Glass and Turquoise Glass Tulip 1” Drapery Rods are made from natural materials such as recycled metals, glass, ceramics, low V.O.C water based paints and stains for finishing. They are packaged with papers and cardboard to eliminate plastics, as is the entire line of art guild rods.

The clear glass block is also eco-friendly and adds a contemporary modern flair to window treatments and blinds. A cappuccino ceramic vase looks as if it could have washed up on the beach. With a smooth matte finish and copper edging, this product works well with natural tones, adding just a hint of flair. The blue ceramic fluted vase ending softens a window treatment with a bit of femininity. Lastly, the Monaco ceramic vase is a glazed finish that can work with both traditional rooms filled with antiques, or beach houses.

A 30% off discount makes this line of drapery rods even more appealing to consumers. “We’re excited about this new line,” says Stanley. “We’ve had fun choosing the products and we hope our customers are as satisfied as we are.”

For more information on Blinds Chalet or current trends in the industry:

Contact: Chris Stanley
Company: Blinds Chalet
www.BlindsChalet.com
Phone: 1-888-633-7840 or 480-633-7840

R.I. County 4-H to host a National Scrapbook Day Event for Kids & Families, April 24 at Christ Church, Moline, IL

4-H is hosting a National Scrapbook Day Luau Event for Kids and Families on Saturday, April 24, from 10 am - 6 pm at Christ Church, 1717 8th Ave., Moline, IL. This event will give parents and their children a fun day to spend catching up on their scrapbooking projects at a luau-themed event. It is a great opportunity for parents, aunts or grandparents to spend time with kids, teaching them their hobby. Scrapbooking is a great way for youth to become involved in recording their family history. Mini-scrapbooking lessons will be provided throughout the day. Participants should bring their own supplies to complete their projects. Lunch and snacks will be provided. Each participant will also receive a scrapbooking goodie bag valued at $20! Registration is $10/youth and $20/adults. Advance registration is required. Register online at www.extension.uiuc.edu/rockisland or by calling (309) 756-9978 Ext 10.

Queen Creek, Arizona - Technical Made Easy has released Easy Quilt 1.0 for the iPhone and iPod touch. Easy Quilt provides step-by-step instruction with video based lessons on every aspect of Quilt Making. This new application ensures that the Art of Quilting can be taught and referenced from a mobile device.

This innovative application breaks down the barrier of understanding how each step is performed when constructing a quilt. Every topic is carefully defined with easy to read how-to's and delivered in a step-by-step approach with full color video. Included with the app are complete descriptions of Fabrics, Supplies, Tools, Charts, Formulas and Tips & Tricks.

Easy Quilt goes as far as giving you over 100 different block ideas and all the tools you need to get started right away. Don't have access to the Internet? Don't worry, Easy Quilt has all of it's content stored locally on your iPod or iPhone. An Internet connection is not required to watch the video lessons so you can take it with you anywhere you go.

Like the old saying goes, "A picture is worth a 1000 words", Easy Quilt doesn't let you down. Most people learn much quicker when visual reference is readily available and this is where Easy Quilt really comes through. The video instruction is perfect for the beginner or even the advanced crafter.

Device Requirements:
* iPhone and iPod touch
* Requires iPhone OS 3.1.3 or later
* 108 MB

Pricing and Availability:
Easy Quilt 1.0 is $2.99 (USD) and available exclusively through the App Store in the Lifestyle category.

Technical Made Easy develops iPhone and iPod touch applications along with various web content to businesses on the Internet. Copyright (C) 2010 Technical Made Easy, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Apple, the Apple logo, iPhone and iPod are registered trademarks of Apple Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries.

Anyone with an interest in crafts may want to make their way down to the Scrapbook Expo to learn new techniques and let out a bit of creative expression.

The annual festival is taking place from April 9th to 11th at the Paris Vincennes Floral Park, where people can take part in workshops, observe exhibitions and generally get up to speed on the latest craft materials on the market.

Scrapbook Expo - or Version Scrap as it is known in France - could be a great way for travellers to break up a day of sightseeing before heading back to their accommodation in Paris.

As well as an area where art enthusiasts can purchase supplies, there will be a "Make & Take" section and various competitions.

One blogger who attended the 2009 event deemed it a success and was particularly impressed by a demonstration of kirigami and the way that it can be used to make cards.

"I loved especially the distress ink exhibitions. Distress inks have been formulated to produce an aged look on papers, photos, fibres and more," remarked Raquel Minardi.

Entrance costs €11 with tickets available on the door or online, but there are package deals available if people want to take part in workshops.

Opening hours are 09:00 to 19:00 each day and a cloakroom is available at the venue.

Jessica Reading, head of marketing for LateRooms, commented: "Demand for Scrapbook Expo is always significant and we recommend that anyone considering attending should book their hotels Paris as early as possible."

Editors notes:

LateRooms.com is the UK's leading online accommodation site offering late availability deals in over 30,000 properties worldwide, ranging from bed and breakfasts to five star luxury hotels.

LateRooms.com offers customers a saving of up to 70 per cent off the normal room rate for a variety of independent and branded hotels. Customers can book online or by phone 24/7, whether booking 12 months or 12 minutes in advance - whatever time, whatever day. No other accommodation site offers this flexibility.

LateRooms.com arms customers with information to help them choose the right hotel. Users can read from over 520,000 true hotel reviews, written by customers who have booked through LateRooms.com and actually stayed at the hotel.

LateRooms.com is the first online site to use VisitBritain's official national classification system to rate its hotels, bed and breakfasts and guest houses. This ensures customers know the standards of quality they can expect when making a reservation.

For further editorial information please contact:

caroline.bell@laterooms.com
+44 (0)161 607 3460

Molluskerade Pearl Neckpiece

PRESS RELEASE

NEW YORK, USA, March 12, 2010/ZEMIS LTD – The famous Great Barrier Reef is the inspirational backdrop behind the seashell themed fashion accessories collection at ZeMis. Queensland’s Quarry, a statement necklace made of assorted seashells set on metal chain dramatically displays the variety of mollusks found in the Earth’s largest coral reef system. Molluskerade is an exquisite neckpiece made of rust colored fresh water pearls surrounded by glass beads set on handwoven tribal fabric and gently draped in chocolate brown satin sash. The collection also features costume jewelry/fashion accessories like the Knit Me Tie Me bracelet made of handwoven salmon pink sequins and fast growing wood that would grace any wrist beautifully.

ZeMis specializes in immaculate neckpieces made from natural components, semi-precious stones, luxurious and hand woven exotic fabrics and glass beads, all artfully interlaced by skilled artisans. Lindy Castillo, ZeMis’ designer and founder explains, “The Great Barrier Reef is so vast and rich in marine life that we could easily create a multitude of necklaces and artisan jewelry inspired by the sea. This time we had to focus the collection on the shells so the Great Barrier Reef capsule offers artistic neckpieces made from freshwater pearls, Mother of Pearl shells and other mollusks.” Castillo enthusiastically adds, “Perhaps next time, we can ride on this coral reef inspiration and expand to fashioning neckpieces with octopus and starfish designs.”

For its Spring/Summer collection, ZeMis worked around the theme of ‘Wonders of the World’. ZeMis came up with its own 7 Wonders list to draw inspiration from for its fabulous Spring collection of neckpieces. A preview of the Spring/Summer 2010 line may be viewed at http://www.zemis.com/content/Spring_Summer_2010_Collection.htm.

Through this Wonders of the World Series, ZeMis hopes to attract attention and glorify these marvelous sites so people around the world will continue to visit them, appreciate their awesome grandeur while supporting efforts to protect and preserve these one-of-a-kind natural wonders. Lindy Castillo remarks, “The fast paced industrialization process is warming the Earth’s waters, making it difficult for some of the marine species to thrive. The infamous Crown of Thorns starfish continues to eat up the coral reefs and prey on all the small marine animals. Its sharp thorns has successfully weeded out potential natural predators so the Great Barrier Reef is now ‘overpopulated’ with this thorny starfish.”

ZeMis debuted its designer accessories line in celebrity gifting events and handed out its AKT Vianca minaudiere to nominees, presenters and famous celebrities such as Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon, Paula Abdul, Eva Mendes and Sarah Jessica Parker as well as last year’s Oscar® winners and nominees, Penelope Cruz, Kate Winslet, Meryl Streep and Amy Adams and respected female actors like Cate Blanchett and Scarlett Johansson. This year, opulent neckpieces were handed out to Sandra Bullock, Drew Barrymore, Anna Kendrick, Mo’nique, Juliana Margolies, January Jones, Lea Michele, Penelope Cruz, Meryl Streep, Vera Farmiga Joan Collins and Maggie Gylenhaal.

ZeMis differentiates its products from other online stores selling jewelry and fashion accessories by presenting detailed product pictures with variousangles and sketch diagrams showing relevant dimensions to give customers comprehensive information as well as delight, convenience and a seamless transaction experience.

ZeMis utilizes Amazon's e-commerce technology in order to provide ZeMis guests a safe, secure, and convenient online shopping experience. Transaction processing for ZeMis is handled by Amazon so buyers can use their Amazon.com account to order and checkout.

ABOUT ZEMIS
ZeMis is owned by ZEMIS LTD, which is associated with World Charms (USA) LLC, a private Delaware LLC. ZeMis has teamed up with Amazon.com and licenses its shopping cart software for its reliability and cutting edge features. Inquiries on ZeMis may be directed to marketing@zemis.com. >>>>>>>

ZEMIS
Shop the world over
www.zemis.com

Gig Harbor, WA - March 11, 2010 -- Artbeads.com, a Gig Harbor, Wash., online retailer of beads and jewelry supplies, is proud to celebrate its tenth anniversary and tenth consecutive year of record sales.  Like many small businesses, Artbeads.com began as a part-time venture operating out of the garage. Two years off the ground, Devin and Cynthia Kimura found themselves struggling to balance one full-time job to pay the bills and a quickly growing web business, while raising two young children ages two and four.

Cynthia, like most moms, was burning the candle at both ends, making sure that orders were filled and in the mail while at the same time taking care of family,” says Artbeads.com CEO & Strategist, Devin Kimura. “But we liked beads. I worked with glass, Cynthia began to develop an interest in making jewelry, and there was space in our garage for something new.” Launching a new online retail business in December of 1999 at the peak of the dot-com boom gave the Kimuras motivation to chase their dream of building a world-class bead and jewelry supply company.

As their business started, however, the Kimuras would soon find themselves in the midst of the dot-com crash and a major economic downturn, much like the situation many small businesses are facing today. Aware of the risks associated with debt-leveraging a business, Devin and Cynthia “bootstrapped” growth, reinvesting every penny of profit back into the company and tightly managing expenses. “The lessons we learned by bootstrapping in the early days have continued to serve us well especially now in this latest economic downturn,” says Devin. Artbeads.com came up with creative ways to reduce costs without layoffs and focused on launching low-cost marketing programs to grow free organic search engine traffic and generate word-of-mouth advertising through social media. They also became more aggressive with their pricing and promotional strategy, using email marketing as the primary channel to reach value-seeking customers. Devin credits these and many other efforts along with the entrepreneurial spirit of the Artbeads' employees for leading Artbeads.com to their tenth straight year of record sales and solid growth in profits.

“2009 was a fantastic year for us,” says Artbeads.com President and Chief Creativity Officer, Cynthia Kimura. “We’ve been able to expand our efforts to educate and inspire jewelry makers and crafters with our Learning Center, which has grown to include over 600 inspirational jewelry and craft ideas along with numerous how-to-make-jewelry videos that are all freely available to the public. We’ve also made great strides to support the beading community while encouraging others to share ideas and discuss projects and events.” In 2009, Artbeads.com sponsored numerous beading events; supported jewelry-making instructors, bead societies and bloggers; launched a forum on their “Blog for Beaders”; and drove significant growth in its social-media sites such as Facebook, which now supports over 20,000 fans.

As Artbeads.com enters their tenth year, the Kimuras are proud to have built one of the largest online bead and jewelry supply companies in the United States that has served hundreds of thousands of customers from all corners of the world. Their dream that began in a garage now operates out of a 24,000 square-foot warehouse and provides jobs for over 140 employees in the Pacific Northwest while supporting countless artisans and craftsmen from around the globe who contribute to the more than 25,000 products carried on the Artbeads.com website, ranging from beads, findings, and tools to unique hand-painted pendants.

About Artbeads.com
Artbeads.com is a leading provider of beads and jewelry supplies for jewelry designers and the beading community. Artbeads.com caters to the quality-conscious designer with products like Swarovski crystal beads and the finest sterling silver beads, but also works vigorously to provide an exceptional customer experience while maintaining competitive prices. Thanks to Artbeads' buying power, those looking for wholesale beads are attracted by wholesale pricing discounts, no minimum order requirements and fast, free shipping anywhere in the United States. With a vast Learning Center, Artbeads.com is also a popular destination for beginners looking for jewelry designs and tips on how to make jewelry.