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by Dora Dekker
We love the way the internet has made it so much easier to be inspired by paper crafters around the world. We loved this wagon project when it was first presented to us, and we are beyond thrilled that we have been able to find the originator of the idea to thank her for inspiring us! Please check out Flo's corner of the internet and be sure to thank her for sharing her creativity with the world! Thanks Flo!
A few weeks ago we invited our readers to submit questions that they were interested in having Melissa answer. Boy, did you ever deliver. There were a lot of them! We are finally back with her first few responses. Check back over the coming weeks as we will be sharing a few of her responses at a time.
Melissa also asked me to thank you for your patience as it has taken us some time to both get her answers and announce the winners of the prize we said we would give out to a random winner who asked a question on the thread. To express our appreciation, instead of giving away one Vintage Posey Page Kit, Melissa decided to choose two lucky winners!! And they are:
Helén | who posted on March 03, 2010 at 01:21 PM
and
Holly Moore | who posted on March 09, 2010 at 02:56 PM
Please look for a message from me in your in-box ladies.
Q: I love the many ideas you have with your products. How did you get started in the business with your products? Thank you. Posted by: Stephanie S. | March 03, 2010 at 01:23 PM
A: The birth of the Melissa Frances scrapbooking line happened quite accidentally. As a leader in the giftware market, Melissa had designed paper mache boxes and shapes with charming vintage looking art labels. Soon her customers started requesting the labels for their own craft projects. Over the course of mass-producing her vintage labels for individual sales, scrapbookers and scrapbook publications discovered them. The excitement for the line was fever pitched, as Melissa's product was very original and served an underdeveloped niche in the market. With the success of her vintage labels, Melissa began to pursue creating an all-encompassing product line for the discerning scrapbooker; A line that wasn't trendy, or followed fads, but one that was timeless and everlasting. Spring 2004 was the launch of the full spectrum Melissa Frances scrapbook line.
Q: How did you come up with the designs for the beautiful vintage papers?
Did you draw them or use vintage images? I love MF!! Posted by: Lynn | March 03, 2010 at 12:21 PM A: Thank you for your kind words. Here at Melissa Frances our patterned papers are designed using a combination of vintage sources hand-drawn images and lots of photoshop! The answer may be slightly different for each paper.
Q: I love it all, your products and packaging, the vintage style. One question I do have is...do you plan on creating more boy-ish paper lines? Inquiring minds want to know. :) Thanks! Posted by: Lesley Langdon | March 06, 2010 at 08:25 AM A: Thank you Lesley. I will be quite honest with you, I don’t know! We have tried making boy-ish lines in the past. One line was a success and was produced by our company, and a few others did not meet our quality of design standards. It is difficult because my personal taste, and that of my staff is very feminine so it is not an easy process for us to naturally design products that are so far from our comfort zone. When we do design boy-ish products and they meet our standards, you will see us release them, but until then, we’ll stick with what we do best!
Q: Are the frames and little trinkets something you designed and then had reproduced? Posted by: ScrapNSister1 | March 06, 2010 at 09:02 PM A: Hello ScrapNSister – Yes, the resin embellishments are a product that is designed for the Melissa Frances company. They are not a stock item which someone else designs and we purchase. We pick the design (often based on vintage images) and our factory makes them for us.
Q: Can I ask too if you have plans to expand your team and we would like to see new faces. Posted by: GicLee | March 04, 2010 at 05:47 PM A: We are a company who prefers to build long-term relationships with our designers, which is why all of our current team members have been with us for many years. Our plans do not have us anticipating adding more American designers at this time, as we are happy and inspired by those we have on our team. However we anticipate adding more international girls in the near future. Q: I live in Texas and your products are so hard to find. I shop on the internet but your favorite products sell out so fast. Have you ever thought of putting on your blog when new lines will be out? I love all you do. Posted by: Debbie Peysen | March 03, 2010 at 02:02 PM A: Thank you Debbie. We are planning to adopt this as our regular policy.
this fun project features papers from our new Vintage Posey Collection that is shipping to stores now! It also features the beautiful Melissa Frances Crepe Paper, and a sticker from our new Vintage Ephemera Stickers!!!
another fun project by Dora Dekker
we always love seeing what women are creating with our products around the world. We are excited to share this fun project by Dora Dekker from the Netherlands...
we'll be sharing more of Dora's projects over the next few days...
from Jill Cornell
These adorable projects feature papers from the Melissa Frances Fresh Twist collection.
