Our Brand New Catalog Has Arrived!!!!

Last week, at our annual convention at the Paris Hotel in Las Vegas, Uppercase Living finally revealed the brand new vinyl catalog that we've all been waiting impatiently for. It is now available for you to page through on my website. All the new expressions are also there for you to browse or search. There is just too much good stuff for me to detail individually here. But here are some of the highlights to whet your appetite. Hostesses always get free catalogs, so contact me to schedule your party and I'll get one out to you ASAP. And now, here's the scoop:

Brand new color: This year's new color is Mustard Seed. It's a deep yellow that is not only decor-friendly, but the perfect shade for softballs and water polo balls for all those sports teams. I think it will look particularly beautiful on darker walls and/or paired with Navy, Slate Gray (a very on-trend combination right now) or Vintage Bordeaux. 

Tons of new expressions: I love our new expressions. So many beautiful sentiments with more contemporary fonts and styling; sweet, fun, romantic, serious and playful; always with the most important undertone being home, family and the activities that bond us together. There are so many inspirational words for your walls. Here's one of my favorites:

Big Changes on Accessories: You'll notice that our Accessories section has been streamlined. The MDF Foundations boards all now come painted white!! There's a gorgeous new Vintage Embossed Metal Board in Berry, which previously had just been a seasonal item. Best news of all: lower prices on all Frameworks!!

New Grande Format Designs: These versatile designs continue to be popular.  Among the botanicals and other designs are my favorite: headboards! Over the years I've designed many headboard replacements for customers who just couldn't have the real thing. Now I can add two actual headboard designs to the options. Here is the wrought iron look:

12 New Fonts: The choices in creating your own vinyl lettering designs are greater than ever with the introduction of 12 new fun, contemporary, classy, versatile and gorgeous fonts. Which do you like best?

A Brand New Hostess Rewards Plan: Our new, simplified hostess rewards plan gives you more FREE and half price products than ever before when you host a fun Uppercase Living party. Every hostess with a qualifying party gets at least 2 half price items in addition to her FREE products. Plus, you'll earn FREE products based on every single dollar your guests spend at your party. More goodies for you! As my calendar fills with hostesses wanting to share the new catalog with their friends, party dates will be more difficult to fine. I'd love to schedule yours!

Fun New Additions to Erasables: We love our Chalk Walls because they come in handy in so many ways. Plus they are just so much fun! The new Value Pack is perfect for organizing any space, from a pantry to a craft room to a garage...and more! Our Chalk Markers are now available in red and blue. And guess what else:

I can't wait to share more ideas for this fun and versatile product with you. Look for my "Back to School With Chalk Wall" post soon.

Returning Favorites: To celebrate Uppercase Living's 5th anniversary, some customer favorites have been brought out of retirement and back to our new catalog. You'll be able to find them all with the special logo throughout the catalog. Here's one I love that is not only cute for a bathroom but perfect for a dental office:

Those are just some of the highlights of this fantastic new catalog. Others include leopard print, the Serenity Prayer, owls, lots of great clocks and so much more. Once again, the possibilities for lettering and design are virtually unlimited. I would love the opportunity to help you create a uniquely personalized space with our products. Design and consultation services are always FREE and you can even earn your products FREE when you host a party. Just let me know how I can help you. And if you love working with me, I would appreciate your referrals. I consider them the highest form of praise. I look forward to working with all of you and sharing the great new products in this catalog, and many many more new things with you.

Summer Splash Ends Today!

It's finally here: the last day of Summer Splash. The last day to Buy 2, Get 1 FREE. Your last opportunity to get Hermione FREE when you buy Harry and Ron. Your final day to create an awesome word cloud and get a third of it FREE. The .... hmmm, www.thesaurus.com isn't inspiring me with any other synonyms. Hopefully, though, you get the picture. Today is the last day of our fantastic Buy 2, Get 1 FREE special. There is definitely time for you to get your orders in. I will be available throughout the day morning and afternoon tomorrow for anyone who needs help. You can also order all day on my website. Just make sure you place your order by 11 PM Pacific Time to take advantage of the Buy 2, Get 1 Free special. Or the Buy 6, get 2 free. Or Buy 9, get 3 FREE...

Rotate Your Way Into Great Design

Have you heard? There is a whole new way to create custom expressions in MyDesign Suite. The brand new Rotation Tool is giving me all kinds of ideas and I wanted to share a few of them with you. With the popularity of subway art, and word clouds like the ones on Wordle, I've been wanting to play with some custom designs made of multiple words within a theme for a while. However, without the ability to rotate individual elements, the MyDesign suite on my website just couldn't produce an accurate preview of what it would look like with our products. Fortunately, that is no longer the case.

Inspired by some of my colleagues, today I created this design as a possible addition to our home. While I still need to find the perfect spot for it, I am absolutely in love with this concept. I love how personal I can make the design, using all of our names as well as our anniversary (which we refer to as our family's birthday). Of course, the mix of colors and fonts is just a taste o what's possible with our products. The most fun part is how easy it was to rotate the words "love" and "Julia."

With my kids still on my mind, I created a couple more designs, because it's so much fun in the interest of research.

What's great about these designs is that they are quite affordable and can be created to fit any space and budget. Right now, they are even easier on the wallet because of Buy 2, Get 1 FREE. In the "brothers" design, for example, 3 of the sections are FREE!

There are so many different ways to use this great design concept. Here are just a few:

• In a kitchen with cooking words such as bake, chop, mix, stir, etc.
• Repeat the same word in multiple languages. Good ones would be love, welcome or family.
• As wall art for a beach cottage or mountain cabin.
• As a wedding gift with the couple's names, wedding date and either romantic words or words that are meaningful to the bride and groom. 
• In a photography studio as a backdrop for family pictures. 
• As contemporary church decor with words of faith.
• In a dental office with gentle reminders such as brush, floss, don't chew ice, and more. 

There is still time to save on your perfect design; Summer Splash and Buy 2, Get 1 FREE go on through July 15. Start playing around with the MyDesign suite and create some individualized artwork or send me a list of words you'd like incorporated in your design and I'll create it for you. Either way, don't miss out on the great savings. It's so exciting to share with you yet one more way Uppercase Living personalizes and beautifies your life.

How Big Is Harry Potter?

The closer we get to the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2, the more the excitement builds for our exclusive Harry Potter Photo Prints. There have been some questions about their size, so this video should give you a good reference point. You'll notice that each contour cut Photo Print also comes with a contour cut movie title.

Watch carefully and see if you can figure out which movie character is not actually a Photo Print.



Don't forget, you can get a FREE print when you buy 2 others before July 15.

A Note About Joining Uppercase Living

Part of what I do as an Uppercase Living demonstrator is mentor and support others who begin their own UL businesses. I love this part of my job. It's so much fun to hear the excitement in a new demonstrator's voice as she realizes the possibilities are with this amazing company. I love hearing the different reasons people decide this is what they need to do: to help their families financially, to earn enough for a new car payment or family vacation, to do something fun and creative as a break from a mentally grueling full-time job, to fill the time when the kids are finally all at school, or to get away from the kids and spend some time with adults. The reasons are as diverse as the individuals who have joined our company in the last five years.

As Uppercase Living celebrates its 5th anniversary this year, we demonstrators anticipate a whole new level of innovation and growth. Just this week, UL has announced an unprecedented product, the Harry Potter Photo Prints, our first foray into licensed images, along with a new patented adhesive. Clearly, Uppercase Living is looking to the future and it looks pretty bright! No wonder that each day we get to welcome new demonstrators from all over the U.S. and Canada to our company.

But now, for the first time, Uppercase Living will undergo a freeze on new demonstrator sign-ups from July 1 to July 25. This is necessary as UL gets ready to roll out some exciting changes which will be announced at our upcoming annual convention. Anyone who joins before then will be able to conduct business as usual throughout the freeze period. In fact, there is a benefit for signing up now. However, if you'd like to join my team but don't do it before June 30, you'll have to wait until the freeze is lifted on July 26.

I always advise anyone who approaches me about joining Uppercase Living to do it when the time is right for her or him. This time, however, I'm saying "Don't wait. Do it now!" There are definite benefits to joining before the freeze begins and I'd be happy to discuss them with you personally. Like I said, each person I talk to has a different set of reasons for joining and questions before she makes her decision. Let's talk about yours!

Calling All Witches and Wizards. Muggles, This Is Not For You!

Like so many of you out there, I am a big fan of the Harry Potter books. I discovered them the summer my daughter was born, while I spent endless hours holding a sleeping baby (the little stinker would NOT sleep in her crib). I quickly caught up and waited anxiously for each subsequent book to be released. Each time I'd disappear for a few days until I finished the book. They are extraordinary. Now, I'm looking forward to sharing the books with that same baby who caused me to get hooked on them, since she turns 11 next week and is at that perfect Harry Potter age.

Knowing how many of you also love Harry, I'm so excited about Uppercase Living's exclusive release of Harry Potter Photo Prints, larger than life vinyl decals of Harry, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger! Just in time for the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2, these are going to be fantastic for your favorite Potter fan, not to mention perfect party decor!

Each is 47" high and features a new, patented adhesive that is strong but still gentle on your walls, making the prints removable and reusable! This will make them an ideal choice for dorm rooms and apartments, even office cubicles! Their size will blow any traditional poster right out of a the water!

The Harry Potter Photo Prints are available for a limited time for only $49.95 each. However, if you order them before July 15, you can use our amazing Buy 2, Get 1 FREE Summer Splash special and get your third one FREE. No need to choose your favorite, because you can get a complete set! And if you order all three, you'll also receive 2 of our monthly bonus expressions FREE as well! No need to hit your stash of gold at Gringotts; this offer is magically affordable!

Getting your Harry Potter Photo Prints is almost as easy as waving a wand. You won't need any Floo powder, or magic spells. You won't even need a promotion code! Just send me an email or visit my website and search for Harry Potter. Don't wait too long, though, because on August 31 the Harry Potter Photo Prints will disappear. And unlike Dumbledore's Phoenix, they won't reappear once they're gone. Place your order now, and while you wait for Hedwig (or your UPS man, if you live in a Muggle neighborhood) to bring it, enjoy this trailer for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2

Tricky Installation? Try this Quick Release Technique!

One of the questions I get asked most often is "Will Uppercase Living vinyl work on my textured walls?" The answer is definitely "YES!" You can definitely put our expressions on textured surfaces, but you might run into a little bit of a challenge when it's time to remove the transfer paper. Here is one technique that will help you if that happens:



Another technique? Give me a call and I'll help you through it! Simple.

Inspired By Papa: A Legacy to Live By

Isn't Facebook great? Where else can you read you friends' horoscopes, see where they had lunch, get a feel for their political views and see picture after picture of their kids, not to mention tend a farm, fight zombies and mobsters and get poked? Now, I'm as big a Facebook junkie as you'll find out there, but I pride myself on my ability to, ahem, skim my News Feed, glossing over most of the silly stuff. Once in a while though, I'll see something that stops me right in my tracks. That's what happened when my friend Kerry posted this photo of a note her late father carried in his wallet every day.

Wow.

I was struck at the depth and simplicity of these words. What an amazing code to live by. And what a tremendous legacy for Kerry's father, affectionately known as Papa to his grandchildren, to have left behind.

I asked Kerry's permission to play around with her dad's words and try to create a custom Uppercase Living design that would adequately convey their great meaning. I felt, as special as these words are, they would make a beautiful focal point in the family home, serving as a unique reminder of Papa. I came up with this design:
 

I'm not sure my design does justice to the original note. Maybe Papa's name should be added somewhere. Another idea would be to create a Photo Print from a scan of the note, with Papa's own handwriting. There is so much that can be done with an item this special: surround the words with Photo Prints of the grandchildren; create multiple copies of this expression so each of Papa's children can have one in their home; make a smaller version that can be framed along with a photo of Kerry's dad, and more. I just love the idea of these special words becoming part of the home, and keeping Papa's words and wisdom alive for his family every day.

Next time you're on Facebook reading through the canned status updates, the YouTube videos and the gross jokes, slow down a little. You just might find a gem like I did.


Thanks to Kerry and her family for sharing her father's words and allowing me to share them here with you.