Here’s your second chance!! If you missed the first benefit concert for Shriners Hospitals for Children last year, then you’re in luck. This Thursday, May 17th at Huntington High School there will be a benefit concert featuring Emily Davis and 4 Mile. Tickets cost $5.00 at the door and the concert starts at 7:00pm. Everyone is invited, and anyone can come!

A Modern Focus is happy to be donating an awesome portrait package ($200 value) for the raffle drawing during the concert. You do need to attend the concert and purchase a $1 raffle ticket to be entered into the drawing, which will be held during the intermission. The more tickets you buy, the more chances you have to win the portrait package or some of the other great prizes being offered!

All of the proceeds from the benefit concert and raffle will be given to Shriners Hospitals for Children. Come support a great cause this Thursday evening at Huntington High School!

To learn more about Shriners Hospitals for Children and the great work they do, please visit their website.
You can find more information about 4 Mile at their website or on their Facebook page.

On Saturday, April 28th I stopped by the outdoor artisan market at Heritage Station to visit the Lovely Creations table and check out their display. This was also the first time Lovely Creations had the chance to use their new display banner printed by Wallace Multimedia. I set-up the banner for Lovely Creations using the design I did for their current product brochure and sent the file to Wallace Multimedia for the pull-up banner. I have to say, the finished banner looked great!

Let’s get to know a bit more about both businesses…

Client - Lovely Creations

How long have you owned Lovely Creations?
In February 2007 Lovely Creations was started because of the desire of my older granddaughter who wanted a hobby that she and I could do together. On a Sunday afternoon after enjoying a family meal she started the conversation and within the hour she came up with the name, her logo idea, and the product she wanted us to make and sale…..that being hand-poured bars of soap. Around that dining room table we had a graphic artist, a computer programmer, and a little sister who loves the idea of making money. I listened and reminded her often that I had a full-time job working in the education system. With a big smile she responded, “There are always the weekends!” And so as we find ourselves in our 5th year of running our home-based business, we find some weekends busier than others.

What services/products do you provide?
Currently we offer plain soap, oatmeal soap, soaps for children, lotions, hand sanitizers, soap foamers, lip balms, smelly jellies, and bath fizzies.

What are some of the most popular products you’ve produced for businesses and folks around the area?
The most popular items that we offer are soap nets filled with small pieces of scented soaps, lip balms, and oatmeal soaps.  Our younger customers like our ‘Up to my Neck in Soap” which has a small rubber duck character submerged in the soap bar, and of course they love the bath fizzies which swirl and twirl in their bath water while releasing fragrance.

Our custom gift bags and baskets are another popular product. We have had the opportunity to fix small gift bags of one-ounce lotion or hand sanitizer for businesses to distribute to their customers during the Christmas season.  A gift package of a two-ounce lotion plus the same size hand sanitizer were purchased by a local church to be given to all the mothers on Mother’s Day Sunday. Once we packaged a set of flip flop bath fizzies for a school to use as Teacher Appreciation Gift  Packets for each of their staff.

What do you like best about owning Lovely Creations?
The best part about owning Lovely Creations is doing business as a family. Our products are not mass produced, because we make every product one at a time.

Why should someone consider ordering from Lovely Creations?
We pride ourselves on creating products for our customers that match their celebratory occasion or personal need.   We keep our prices at a minimum with the hopes that everyone will be able to afford a Lovely Creations product. When we receive website orders, we make contact with our online customer, learn their wants and needs, and then continue to communicate with them until the package has been delivered and opened for inspection and satisfaction. Pride in our work and satisfaction of our customers is our goal.

Any exciting news you’d like to share? Upcoming promotions or products we should look out for?
My youngest granddaughter has the job of being our product tester….her philosophy being that if she doesn’t like it, our customers probably won’t like it either.  As of today, I don’t think she has tried a Lovely Creations product that she has not liked!  She is great at dreaming up new ideas for us to try.  She is hinting that we need to start making wick-less candle tarts…..so that might be something we will be offered on our website in the near future.   Look for future “Outdoor Market” Days at Heritage Station….we were told they might have another artisan sale on June 23rd and July 28th.   Because of a previous engagement we won’t be able to participate in the June 23rd….but look for us at the July 28th if the sale does happen.

Vendor - Wallace Multimedia

How long have you owned Wallace Multimedia?
Officially, Wallace Multimedia launched on March 1, 2012, but I’ve been working under the banner of Wallace Multimedia full time (along with my other full time job) for a couple years. I’ve been involved in website creation, printing, creating a business (I was one of the founders of HYAMP – an all ages venue), and being involved in various aspects of what I do with Wallace Multimedia as far back as 1998. Along the way, I ended up earning a degree from the WVU Institute of Technology and working for, and with, some great companies.

What services/products do you provide?
Through in-house printing and a network of suppliers we provide posters, t-shirts, bumper stickers, various types of banners, large signs, and more. If something can have branding or print added to it from an item as small as a keychain to a vinyl wrapped vehicle as large as a box truck we have options available for our customers.

We also provide design and website services for customers who may not have these assets already in place.

What are some of the most popular products you’ve produced for businesses and folks around the area?
That’s a great question! I have recently completed some interesting jobs. We supplied the custom license plates for Big Green members at Marshall University and also created some really great chrome Marshall University emblems that can be added to the back of peoples’ vehicles. Keep an eye out for these around town.

We have worked with the United Way on their promotional materials. It is great to be a part of the work they do and I’m proud of the fact that I get to work with such a great group.

We have also supplied Cabell-Huntington Children’s Hospital with some jump ropes they gave away as promotional items. That was a really cool idea since it helps to promote a healthy lifestyle for kids. It is a perfect example of what can be done with promotional materials because it helps create a tangible reminder of how a hospital isn’t just concerned with helping someone when they’re ill, but is also a driving force behind promoting a healthier community.

Signs and banners have also been big products of interest among all of our customers no matter what size their budget. A fun example of how we served a smaller client would be the set of magnetic signs we made for a customer who makes gourmet dog treats and is planning on selling them from a mobile cart.

What do you like best about owning Wallace Multimedia?
It’s rewarding to be able to work closely with my customers and my team to create the best product available to fit our customers’ needs.

Why should someone consider working with Wallace Multimedia?
At Wallace Multimedia we are dedicated to meeting our customers needs in a timely, professional, and stress free fashion. That, combined with our attention to detail and customer service, helps us find customers and then build an ongoing relationship with them.

Any exciting news you’d like to share? Upcoming promotions or products we should look out for?
The best way to stay on top of new information coming from Wallace Multimedia would be to check out our website: http://www.wallacemulitmedia.com We have a page with contact information where our customers can find us on various social media networks and we have had a free banner we gave away recently via Facebook.

We are also getting ready to launch an affiliated store named “Brand Yourself” that will be located in shop number 9 at Heritage Station. We will be offering custom products, and regional based items that can be printed on demand in the shop. We set up kiosks that will allow our customers to print shirts of their own design right in the store. Downtown is growing and thriving so it’s exciting to be a part of Heritage Station along with some other great retail and service oriented shops

I want to thank Lovely Creations and Wallace Multimedia for taking the time to answer these questions! It’s always great to learn more about the businesses I work with and I’m excited to be able to share this information with others. So put these local businesses on your mental lists for custom products…from soap to promotional products!

We also tried a [cup]cake smash, but Miss A wasn’t too happy with getting her hands messy (note the last image – not happy!). We managed to get some cute shots of her anyway! Check out a few images from Miss A’s portrait session.

To see more images from her session, head over to AMF Seniors.

Most of you know that I work full-time during the week, and I’ve been teaching part-time for the last 2 years. I enjoyed not thinking about AMF for a few months, which is a major reason for the neglect. Okay, so I never really stopped thinking about AMF, but I forced myself not to market/blog all of December and it eventually got easier. So easy that it is now March of 2012!!

I really shouldn’t wait this long again. It took me a few minutes to remember my the correct log-in. Soooo, here is the first blog post for 2012! (*marking this off my list….*)

Natasha is a freshman at Wayne High School and meet up with several of her friends at Ritter before the dance. She looked beautiful! After taking some pictures I got out of the madness, but I have to admit it is fun to see all of the pretty dresses and how excited everyone is before their big dance.