2015 Sneak Peek and Wallpaper
Smile every time you look at your desktop with this months Free Wallpaper, featuring the 25th anniversary Puppy Love ornament by Keepsake Artist Anita Marra Rogers. This special anniversary edition, which depicts three new lovable puppies happily frolicking, is the the only one in the series to feature multiple puppies.
Puppy Love
25th Anniversary
Special Edition
Available September 6, 2015
Featured Artist: Edythe Kegrize
Title:
Hallmark Master Designer
Started at Hallmark:
October 1979
Started at Keepsakes:
October 2002
Hometown:
Pennsylvania
See how Keepsake Artists Edythe Kegrize and Robert Hurlburt put a new twist on a classic Christmas tale.
Edythe Kegrize had an in-depth love of three-dimensional art ever since she was young. She remembers making all kinds of creations from scraps around the house, including a tiny paper television with pictures that rotated with the turn of a knob and a crèche fashioned out of laundry detergent and food coloring.
Edythe’s talents blossomed with the help of her loving family. Her grandmother saved tidbits of fabric, trims and pretty papers. Her mother never hindered her daughter’s creativity despite the risks of having holes cut in tablecloths or glue on the rug. From her father, Edythe inherited attention to detail, patience and mechanical curiosity that make her Keepsake designs so intricate.
While in college, Edythe majored in illustration, but also was inspired by ceramics and weaving classes. At Hallmark, she would often devise unique folding cards that brought an extra dimension to her designs. Edythe featured needlework and collages in her greeting cards and crafted several original dolls to be photographed for select card collections.
With nearly 25 years of experience illustrating greeting cards, Edythe cultivated an appreciation for a wide range of decorative surface designs, from traditional folk art to classic, elegant scroll-work. This is perhaps most evident in the details of her Santa’s Around the World unofficial series.
2014 Reveal: Event-Exclusive Keepsake Ornaments and itty bittys®
Hallmark Reveals Plans, Exclusive Keepsake Ornaments for Comic-Con 2014
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (July 17, 2014) — Hallmark once again will showcase its creative products at Comic-Con International when it opens next week in San Diego.
This is the seventh year for Hallmark to exhibit at the largest comic book and popular arts convention in the world. Hallmark will provide more than 130,000 attendees access to event-exclusive Hallmark Keepsake Ornaments and a pair of itty bittys® plush collectibles. Other perks include visits with a Keepsake Ornament artist and sneak peeks of Hallmark products to be released in 2015.
Comic-Con Exclusives
During the convention, held July 24-27, 2014, Hallmark will sell limited quantities of the following Keepsake Ornaments:
Wampa™, Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back™ – This Keepsake Ornament created especially for event sales depicts the ferocious horned predator that attacked Luke Skywalker on the ice planet Hoth as seen in Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back™. In place of actual wampa fur, the ornament is covered in velvety flocking. Sales limited to 200 pieces per day as part of a total production run of 1,800 ($35 each).
Arkham’s Avenger, BATMAN™: Arkham City – Inspired by the 2011 video game Batman: Arkham City, Batman crouches on a rooftop gargoyle in this Keepsake Ornament created as an event exclusive. Sales limited to 175 pieces per day as part of a total production run of 1,575 ($35 each).
War Machine™, Iron Patriot™ – As featured in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, this event exclusive is a repainted variant of last year’s Iron Patriot™ Keepsake Ornament. Sales limited to 150 pieces per day as part of a total production run of 1,350 ($25 each).
Since December 2012, iconic characters of film, comics and television have appeared as sweetly and uniquely styled plush itty bittys® exclusively in Hallmark Gold Crown® stores. In celebration of this fall’s addition of Star Wars™ characters to the itty bittys line, Hallmark is offering a two-pack of itty bittys styled after a Tusken Raider™ and a Bantha™ as seen in Star Wars: A New Hope™. Sales limited to 300 pieces per day as part of a total production run of 2,700 ($20 per pair).
Each of these event exclusives also will be available to attendees at New York Comic Con, Oct. 9-12, 2014.
Activities at the Hallmark Booth
“We’re very happy to be returning to Comic-Con this year to trade stories and share memories with our passionate fans,” said Beth Dorr, associate merchandise manager for Keepsake Ornaments. “We look forward to giving sneak peeks at our new Hallmark products in a creatively designed exhibit space. We’ll also have all the fun reasons for stopping by our space that Comic-Con goers have come to expect from us.”
Visitors to Hallmark’s booth in the Lucasfilm Pavilion will walk into a stylized version of the desert planet Tatooine, where they will see familiar characters, including some in Lucasfilm-owned costumes that provide a perfect photo opportunity. There will be additional opportunities for photos with costumed members of the 501st Legion daily throughout the convention.
Visitors also can collect a series of five buttons featuring Keepsake Ornaments that will be handed out for free while quantities last. The button series features Star Wars designs with a limited quantity of one design given away each day of the event.
Visitors to Hallmark’s booth will be able to meet and receive free autographs from Keepsake Ornament Artist Jake Angell, who will sign the War Machine™ ornament he sculpted.
Inside Hallmark’s booth, visitors will be treated to up-close looks at Hallmark products including many of the new 2014 Keepsake Ornaments such as Godzilla, the flying time machine of Back to the Future Part II and Cornelius of Planet of the Apes, while getting an early preview of what’s ahead for 2015.
An official schedule of all Hallmark fan activities at Comic-Con International will be available at the Hallmark booth in the Lucasfilm Pavilion, located at Booth 2913-H in the Exhibit Hall.
More Comic-Con Fun
Comic-Con goers will be encouraged to share a fan-favorite photo or moment they want to keepsake by using the hashtag #KeepsakeIt in social media and by entering online at Hallmark.com/KeepsakeIt. Submissions to the website will be entered to win weekly prizes and a grand prize of Keepsake Ornaments, plus $3,000 toward a #KeepsakeIt Family Vacation. Learn more at Hallmark.com/KeepsakeIt.
Starting July 21, before Comic-Con International begins, follow Hallmark on Twitter (@Hallmark) to learn more how to enter to win one of two Hallmark prize packages: 1) a set of the Comic-Con exclusive Keepsake Ornaments, or 2) a pair of the Comic-Con exclusive Star Wars itty bittys plush characters. This Twitter giveaway provides fans who may not make it to San Diego a chance to win Hallmark’s Comic-Con exclusive items.
Wampa™
Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back™
Arkham’s Avenger
BATMAN™
War Machine™
Iron Patriot™
Bantha™ & Tusken Raider™
Star Wars: A New Hope™
itty bittys®
two-pack
2014 Sneak Peek: Regional Keepsake Ornaments (UPDATE)
Hallmark will release three state-exclusive Keepsake ornaments later this year (two in Texas and one in Colorado). These ornaments will be available at participating Hallmark Gold Crown stores starting Ornament Debut Weekend, October 4-5.
Texas
Colorado
Texas Cutout
Texas Boots
Colorado Mountains
UPDATE (June 18, 2014) – Added the Colorado-exclusive Keepsake Ornament.
Featured Artist: Nello Williams
Title:
Hallmark Artist
Started at Hallmark:
July 1995
Started at Keepsakes:
July 1995
Hometown:
Safford, Arizona
Keepsake Artist Nello Williams shares some fun, new interactive ways to celebrate the Christmas countdown, and a jukebox that’s sure to get you rockin’ around the Christmas tree.
Nello Williams grew up drawing anytime, anyplace, even in school—and not just in art class. His class notes ended up looking more like artwork than a study sheet.
The young artist started out sculpting the ships and robots from the television program Lost in Space. Once, he saw a scary dungeon set advertised in a comic book, but like most kids, couldn’t afford to buy it. So Nello recreated the toy instead.
Popular culture kept on inspiring Nello’s art. In high school, he and a friend made masks of characters from Planet of the Apes—a big movie of the day. Now he keeps up on the latest trends for his creations in Keepsake Ornaments.
Nello spends much of his outside time nurturing one of his other big interests—music. He designed the album covers (wishful thinking) and T-shirts for his high school garage band. He even designed a guitar for himself, and twenty years later, he actually built it! Nello sees guitar design as a place where his two great loves, sculpture and music, meet.