Experience the Magic: Welcome Bag and Dinner Gifts (UPDATED)
Here is a sneak peek of the Experience the Magic!, 2019 Keepsake Ornament Club Convention, welcome bag.
Welcome Bag Includes:
- Three exclusive convention ornaments (over $40 in value)
- Commemorative tote bag
- Lapel pin
- 10 event buttons
- Lanyard and several Hallmark gifts (over $40 in value)
NOTE: Charter members will receive an extra ornament ($12.99 value)
UPDATE: (6.6.2019) – Additionally an exclusive ornament will be given away as you enter each of the (Friday and Saturday) dinner events.
UPDATE: (6.19.2019) – Now, more goodies in your registration bag when you arrive!
To allow attendees the opportunity to get additional ornaments signed and to support the variety of travel plans our attendees have, you will receive all three Event ornaments included with your registration inside your registration bag when you arrive! These will no longer be handed out at be evening dinners. There are still so many reasons to attend the Friday and Saturday evening events and we hope to see most of you there. Expect good food, entertainment, laughs with friends and artist appearances! It’s going to be a magical time!
2019 Keepsake Ornament Club Convention
We are so excited to share more information about the 2019 KOC Convention with you, including the overall agenda, what’s new with the convention this year, Product Shop details, and more!
Stay tuned. The site preview will go live on Tuesday, February 19th at 5:00 p.m. CST.
2019 Sneak Peeks: A Closer Look at the Magic
Along with their new 2019 KOC Membership cards, club members are receiving a brochure of 2019 Sneak peeks with commentary from the artists.
“Each nutcracker in this new series will illustrate a theme, with each one featuring various attachments in different materials to help showcase the nutcracker’s special kingdom.”
Which kitten will you find inside? That’s the fun of a mystery ornament! A special repaint of the third ornament in Nina Aubé’s Mischievous Kittens series, there are two colors of kittens to add some feline fun to your tree this year!
“I was in heaven being surrounded by all my favorite candies, which I literally made each ornament out of to test! The finished ornaments will reflect the original ones down to every last detail. Hopefully no one will try eating them!”
“I have always been fascinated with the little Limoges boxes that came in all sorts of shapes and sizes when I was growing up. This ornament will be made of porcelain with a metal clasp. I’m making it a fairly good size, too, so that’s not only a standout on your tree but also serves as a place to store a note or charm for yourself or someone special.”
“My inspiration for this whole unofficial series is my son, who played in the marching band in high school and college. I’m trying to get as many instrument sections represented as I can, with this year’s ornament focused on woodwinds. The snowflakes represent the sounds of the flute, with several smaller snowflakes used since the flute makes a smaller sound.”
“One of my favorite things about this tree trimmer is that we are using an actual tied-ribbon bow. The concept drawing for this bow-tying elf was done several years back as I was planning ahead on what the series might look like. The inspiration came from the bow-making machine in the Hallmark Visitors Center. I think the addition of a real bow (red for the store release version and gold for the special 2019 KOC Convention version) adds a nice touch to the ornament.”
“A Closer Look at the Magic.” 2019 Brochure.
2019 Reveal: Super Bowl LIII Champions, New England Patriots
Congratulations to the New England Patriots for winning Super Bowl LIII.
Patriot nation has risen again! The New England Patriots are once again Super Bowl champions, and this commemorative Keepsake Ornament is the perfect way to display your Patriot pride and remember their historic sixth win and eleventh Super Bowl appearance. But don’t wait long – supplies are limited.
PREORDER NOW
Available at participating Hallmark Gold Crown Stores and on Hallmark.com
Save the Date: 2019 Keepsake Events (UPDATED)
Mark your calendars for the BIG Keepsake Ornament Events this year, only at Hallmark Gold Crown and hallmark.com!
Ornament Premiere
July 13-21, 2019
Ornament Debut
October 5-13, 2019
Open House / VIP
November 8-17, 2019
Gift of Memories
December 2-8, 2019
Featured Artist – Joanne Eschrich


Title:
Hallmark Master Designer
Started at Hallmark:
September 1981
Started at Keepsakes:
January 1996
Hometown:
Westport, Massachusetts
.
Like so many Keepsake Artists, Joanne has been perfecting her craft since childhood. Her eagerness to learn and grow has taken her all over the world, including a trip to Poland last year, to learn about glass-blowing techniques and work with old-world artisans. Joanne continues to find new ways to celebrate hallowed Christmas traditions, and delight her many fans.
People started collecting Joanne Eschrich’s work when she was in third grade. Of course, the collectors at that time were her classmates. Later, the requests kept coming—in high school fellow classmates asked her to illustrate their biology reports. That was Joanne’s moment of discovery. Unfortunately, it was because the biology teacher didn’t think Joanne should be sharing her talents when it came to homework assignments.
Joanne’s parents encouraged their children to be creative with their playtime. As a young artist being raised on a farm, Joanne had no shortage of animal friends to pose for her. She built dollhouses with her sisters and spaceships with her brothers.
When college came along, Joanne knew she was going to study art. Nothing else was as important. Despite her parents’ attempts to talk her out of her career choice, she persevered and got an interview with Hallmark in her senior year. A job offer soon followed.
Joanne had never even considered sculpting when she was asked to try doing a piece for the Hallmark Merry Miniatures line. She created a basset hound named Sebastian for that assignment and discovered that her sculpting abilities rivaled her illustration talent.
Joanne doesn’t have to look far for inspiration or support for her craft. Her daughters Jamie and Anna are thrilled with what she does, especially when she brings her work home and they get to give their opinions or model for her angels.
“On a few occasions they’ve brought my original sculptures along with the finished ornaments to ‘show and tell’ at their school,” says Joanne. “They also love seeing ‘Mom’ on the back of the ornament boxes at the store.”
Ornament Spotlight: O Tannenbaum
With Anita Marra Rogers
When charged with coming up with the next great ornament idea for the Keepsake Ornament Club, Keepsake Artist Anita Rogers knew she wanted the ornament to reflect the work of many different artists in the studio. “We tried to come up with an ornament that would incorporate several well-loved series ornaments, plus a couple of others,” she said. “I think Tom Best came up with the original concept for the tree and we decided together what ornaments or characters would best fit the situation.”
“O Tannenbaum” ended up having seven different artists help shape it in some way—from the idea, all the way to the finished piece. “Nina Aubé sculpted the Mischievous Kitten peeking out of the tree and the angel tree-topper is one of Robert Chad’s Mary’s Angels,” said Anita. “The guitar is Nello Williams’s miniature guitar, the fire truck was an old Don Palmiter miniature from 1993, and I sculpted my Granddog, Oreo who represents the Puppy Love series. I finished by sculpting the tree and packages, and put it all together!”
Anita makes it sound simple, but every artist works differently, so “O Tannenbaum” had to be traditionally and digitally sculpted to help bring it all together. “Rodney Gentry helped scale down the angel and the guitar digitally from existing ornaments, and the fire truck was an actual mini ornament already,” said Anita. “Nina was the only artist other than myself who did an original sculpt for the piece. I basically put it almost all together and left a space for her to sculpt the kitten in.”
Anita also made sure to add little touches special to her that she knew KOC members would love. “I chose to put gold tinsel garland on the tree because my own tree every year gets gold tinsel garland, and it has for as long as I can remember,” she said.
It’s little touches like the tinsel that made Anita fall in love with the finished ornament, and she thinks KOC members will, too. “I think the collectors are going to love that so many artists and series are represented,” said Anita. “They might also love that it is such an iconic Christmas morning scene with cute interaction between the pup and kitty.”
So what’s Anita’s favorite element of the ornament? “That’s an easy one,” she said. “My Puppy Love, Oreo, of course!”
Local Club News: January 2019
Here is the latest Club communication that was received today.
Dear Local Club Presidents and Club Leaders!
Hello and Welcome to 2019! I hope you enjoyed the holiday season and are off to a great start for a Happy New Year. Thanks for signing up to receive the Local Club President Email update. I sincerely hope you find this email to be enjoyable and full of useful information to share with your Local Club members.
I am so excited about the 2019 Keepsake Ornament Club. You are an important part of our Keepsake family, and as a VIP, you deserve special rewards and privileges. Christmas magic lasts all year long when you’re in the Keepsake Ornament Club, with exclusive Keepsake gifts, special-value pricing and more exclusive rewards and benefits than ever – all year long!
Please encourage your Local Club Members to sign up for the Keepsake Ornament Club beginning 1/29.
Here are a few important updates we want you to know about:
Read the January 2019 Local Club News
2019 Sneak Peek: Dream Box
In preparation for the launch of the 2019 Keepsake Ornament Club (KOC) membership year and the opening of enrollment tomorrow, (January 29), Hallmark has posted additional pictures of the contents of this year’s Dream Box. Amongst the images shared are a couple of 2019 sneak peeks. Cuteness Beyond Measure, a measuring spoons snowman is featured on the cover of “FESTIVE Favorites, KEEPSAKE ORNAMENT CLUB COOKBOOK.” Recipes from Club Members, Keepsake Artists and Villagers and Prince of the Forest, 1st in the Noble Nutcrackers series is featured on the cover of “Christmas Everyday”, An 18-Month Calendar (July 2019 – December 2020).





























