Happy Birthday, Gauche Alchemy!

Hey everyone!  It’s Amy and Heather.

Whoo hoo!  Can you believe Gauche Alchemy is THREE years old? What a long, strange trip it’s been.

Stay tuned this month, as you will be getting behind the scenes glimpses of the innermost workings of Gauche and insights to our humble and crass beginnings…don’t worry, we won’t post anything toooo personal.  Or will we?  You just never know!

We have had a quiet summer – at least from your perspective.  The blog has been silent for the most part, while we scheme our evil plots and hatch our gauche plans.  We’ve got some terrific fun for you this month and in the coming months, starting with our guest designer, Dina Wakley!

As many of you may know, Dina has been an amazing creative force in the mixed media and scrapbooking world for a number of years.  She was, in fact, one of my first true crafty inspirations, and she remains one today!  Her unique style has taken her all over the globe teaching and sharing her love of art.  Needless to say, I was pretty darn excited when Amy and I scheduled a face to face meeting with her!

Heather and I had the pleasure of meeting Dina in person, as she is one of the few designers we’ve worked with who actually live in the same city we do.  It was a bit of hike to get to each other, as Phoenix is one large m-f’er of a city, but we had a lovely lunch with her at Wildflower Bread Company (where I ate like a pig bellying up to the trough, but that’s a different story).

Dina’s cutie patootie youngest son was there to act as photographer, and a good time was had by all.  Dina and Heather seem to be hatching plans to make art and bake bread from the whispers I’ve been hearing… now that’s an event that will require photographic evidence, cuz I can’t wait to see what THAT’S all about!

It’s true!  If I ever make it to her side of town, there will be baking and painting involved!  PS: Can you tell from the picture that it is about 179 degrees where we live?  Talk about a glow!  ** it is actually a delightful combination of oil and sweat, but we prefer to think of it as glowing.  Always a lady!**

And we have another bit of news for you – we are releasing a new kit NEXT WEEK!  I don’t want to give too much away, but if you like mail art, you are going to LOVE this kit.  The new kit has a smaller version and a larger version – one for every budget… and we’ll also be having a ton of giveaways and prizes this month to celebrate our third birthday and our re-launch after our summer of silence.  So make sure you’re following us on Twitter and Facebook – some of the goodies will be given away there.  Also, if you don’t already have a Gauche Alchemy badge or blinkie on your blog, consider putting one up – we’ll be choosing blinkers (badgers?) at random to win fun stuff.