Randi's Review	Kathleen's Review	Penny's Review	Renee's Review	Rita's Review

Review by Randi

The "Love Me Tender" collection from Around the Block is a bit unusual in Valentine/Love themed collections. Instead of the typical red, pink, and white this one stands out from the crowd with a color scheme of blue, pink and brown! I received four of the five available papers from this collection:

• Head Over Heels - conversation hearts with a brown design on the flip side
• Secret Admirer - brown patterned on one side, plain brown on the other
• Amore - blue designs on both sides
• Sweet for You - pink designs on both sides

Like all of the Around the Block papers, they are quality and heavy-weight, and competitively priced at 59 cents each. Around the Block has created many embellishments to make creating with these papers even more fun! You'll find these little treasures on my layouts

• Love Me Tender Alphabet, Shrinky Stickers - These deep pink "shrinky dink" look embellishments also feature "love" words in blue, pink, and brown. There are two sheets of stickers for $3.99 retail.
• White Alphabet Epoxy Stickers - The four sheets of stickers in this pack contain two complete alphabets in upper and lower case. Each letter sports a word such as "amaze" on the letter "a." $4.99 retail.
• Winter Brads in a Bag - 42 brads in coordinating colors and designs inside a small, plastic zipper handbag! $4.99 retail.
• Love Charms - This value pack contains 20 painted, metal charms in a reuseable storage case. You'll find hearts, arrows and more. $5.99 retail.
• Foil Transfer Kit - This consists of three sheets of adhesive art and foil that is burnished on top of it. Five different colors of foil are included for a great variety of options! $3.99 retail.
• Hearts & Arrows Big Metal Brads. Extra large brads for a big effect! There are seventeen brads in this package that sells for $4.99.

I'm a pretty traditional gal when it comes to holiday colors, so I wasn't sure that I was going to like the blues and browns of this collection, but it WORKS! The message of love is clearly portrayed through the collection as illutrated in the following two layouts from my family's Valentine's Day celebration.

Title: Waiting Dance
Products used: Heads Over Heals paper, Around the Block
Sweet for You paper, Around the Block
Brads in a Bag, Around the Block
Shrinky Stickers Around the Block
Big Metal Brads Around the Block
Foil Transfer Kit, Around the Block
Nero Exclusives Cardstock, Prism Papers
Permanent Bond Glue Runner, Adhesive Tech
Sketch: Karen Day


Title: Who Needs Pizza When Candy is Waiting?
Products used: Secret Admirer Paper, Around the Block
Sweet for You paper, Around the Block
White Alphabet Epoxy Stickers, Around the Block
Paper Tagger, Tails, Around the Block
Typewriter Alphabet Stamps, Sugarloaf
Metal Letters, JoAnn Scrap Essentials
StazOn Jet Black Ink
Basic Black Embossing Potion, Cat's
Permanent Bond Glue Runner, Adhesive Tech

I also enjoyed using this collection for some everyday photos of three very special little people in my life.

Title: My Loves
Products used: Heads Over Heals paper, Around the Block
Amore paper, Around the Block
Brads in a Bag, Around the Block
Charms Around the Block
Tagger and Tails Around the Block
Shrinky Stickers Around the Block
Big Metal Brads Around the Block
Ric Rac, Tie One On Ribbon Club
Permanent Bond Glue Runner, Adhesive Tech

If you have photos from Valentine's Day, an anniversary or wedding, or just a backlog of photos of those that you love, be sure to check out the Love Me Tender collection. With the variety of papers and embellishments, there is sure to be something you'll love!

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Review by Kathleen

I received a plentiful supply of love and tenderness from Around the Block’s ‘Love Me Tender’ line this Valentine’s Day. I was ready to go with five sheets each of four different patterns of double-sided paper, a mini keychain tote full of decorative brads, a package each of Shrinky Stickers, charms, foil transfers, and a chipboard book kit.

I immediately oooo’d and awwwe’d over the patterned paper. Three of the designs were distressed and hip complete with swirls and various sayings in pink, blue, and brown. The fourth pattern was a candy lovers dream with a page full of candied hearts with little love quips. The weight of the paper is also sturdy and easy to work with and I only lamented over which side to work with.

The mini keychain tote, aka Brads in a Bag, is adorable. I love decorative brads anyway, but these brads are fun and hip. Included in the ‘hip’ category is the package of metal charms. The 20-piece value pack contains an assortment of hearts, arrows, and ‘LOVE’ medals.

Some newer products that I have never seen before are the Shrinky Stickers and the Foil Transfer Kit. The Shrinky Stickers are dimensional and transparent. The two-sheet package contains the entire alphabet as well as words and some punctuation. The Foil Transfer Kit contains three sheets of various stickers that you place on your project. Then you select the colored foil and place that on top of the sticker. When you remove the foil sheet, the colored foil that sticks to the sticker will remain behind. Now, while I really liked this particular product, it would have been more useful to me if the foil colors actually coordinated with the rest of the ‘Love Me Tender’ line.

Another fun product I received was the chipboard book kit. The kit comes with one 6 x 6-inch spiral bound chipboard book, four sheets of patterned papers, and one sheet of epoxy stickers. This little kit would make a great Valentine’s book for someone special.

The first project I made with the ‘Love Me Tender’ line was a layout of my husband and me back when we were young and dating. I just love the photo and I am so happy I finally found the inspiration and products to scrapbook the photo.

Title: Young Love True Love
Products used: Cardstock (Prism Prismatics)
Patterned paper, brads, charm (Around the Block)
Fluid chalk ink (ColorBox)
Black Pen (Micron)
Adhesive (Adhesive Tech, Permanent Bond Glue Runner)

My second project is a card that I started out creating for Valentine’s Day. However, once I finished it, I really felt it was suitable for any occasion where one would want to express love to another person. While the scan does not show it, the red foil is simply stunning against the brown paper.

Title: Sweetheart Card
Products used: Patterned paper, brad, foil transfers (Around the Block)
Fluid chalk ink (ColorBox)
Swirl stamp (Tim Holtz Collection- Stampers Anonymous)
Adhesive (Adhesive Tech, Permanent Bond Glue Runner, 3D design blocks)

In summary, this is a rockin’ collection of products. I love the different take on colors for this collection. I found the products were fun and innovative. This was my first time using Around the Block products and I will really be looking for them now. I would highly recommend Around the Block to anyone who enjoys using great quality, trendy products.

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Review by Penny

When I received my materials from Around the Block, I was excited by their range of gorgeous, high quality products!

The Love Me Tender collection is soft and romantic. The double-sided papers are cardstock weight and priced very reasonably at around $.50 retail. I received five sheets each of "Head Over Heels" (heart pattern), Secret Admirer (soft brown), Amore (soft blue) and Sweet For You (soft pink). I couldn't stop creating with these papers!

Alphabet lovers (like me!) will want the Paper Treats pack which includes four sheets of 1 1/2 inch white epoxy letter stickers with a colorful word on the side of each letter, such as D (daisy) and M (memories), along with full-color quotes, exclamation marks and brackets. Priced at $4.75 retail.

Hearts & Arrows Big Metal Brads are big (sizes vary from 1" - 5") and bold in white, pink, teal blue, brown and yellow, The brads are inserted into a foam cushion which is enclosed in an acrylic box, allowing each of the 16 brads to be visible. They are well priced at $4.75.

This layout features the alphabet stickers and big metal brads.

Title: Love
Products used: Patterned Paper (Sweet for You, Head Over Heels, Secret Admirer and Amore) (Around the Block)
Epoxy Stickers, Big Metal Brads, Love Charms (Around the Block)
Ribbon (Tie One On Ribbon Club)
Acrylic Paint Dabber (Ranger)
Walnut Ink (Fiber Scraps)
Marker (Zig Writer)
Adhesive (Adhesive Tech Permanent Bond Glue Runner)
Other: paper clip

The Metal Charms come in a reusable hard plastic box that is divided into six sections with pink, red, blue and brown hearts, arrows, and circle tags tucked inside. The charms are generously sized varying from 3/4" to 1 3/8". Each charm has a place to hang from and are ideal for use with the Paper Tagger. The value pack holds 20 per box for a retail price of $5.50.

The Love Foil Transfer Kit retails at $3.75 and includes three sheets of love-themed adhesive art with five sheets of foil in red (2), gold, silver and black. The adhesive art is applied like a rub-on, followed by placing the foil shiny side up over the adhesive. A light rub of your finger over the image is all that's necessary to complete your transfer. I used a pretty border transfer with red foil on my hearts in this layout. What a gorgeous touch!

Title: Life Is Better
Products used: Patterned Paper--Amore, Secret Admirer and Sweet For You, Foil Transfer Kit (Around the Block)
Rub-Ons (Making Memories)
Ink (Tsukineko VersaColor)
Ribbon (Bobbin Ribbon)
Pen (Uni-Ball Signo)
Die Cut (Cricut-George)
Adhesive (Adhesive Tech Permanent Bond Glue Runner)
Other (lace)

The Love Chipboard Book Kit includes one 6" x 6" spiral bound book with an attached chipboard charm, four 6" x 6" sheets of patterned paper and one sheet of epoxy stickers, all of which coordinate perfectly with the rest of the collection. For $4.99, this is a beauty!

The concept of providing completely coordinated product is only one of the attributes that makes Around the Block so valuable. They have an extensive and unique range of product within each collection. (Several products within this collecton were not included in this review,) Their packaging provides a clear view of the product inside as well as a full-color picture on the packaging. The high quality and diversity of Around the Block products will keep me coming back for more.

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Review by Renee

Around the Block features fun-loving, chipper products that easily lend themselves to those happy moments in our lives. They have innovative products that are in keeping with the latest trends in the scrapbook industry. In keeping with this tradition, the Love collection is no exception.

For this review, I received five sheets each of the Love collection papers. These include Sweet for You, a pinkish paper with brown flourishes and sentiments printed on one side and a pink pattern on the other. Amore is a blue paper which has brown and white flourishes as well as the word love and other sentiments printed on it. The back side of this paper is also blue. Secret Admirer is a brown patterned paper themed around admirer. The backside of this paper is a rich chocolate brown. The last paper of the collection is called Head Over Heels and contains heart shapes in the colors of the other papers with sentiments on each heart. This paper contains a lighter brown patterned paper on it's rear side. I also received a package of the Shrinky Stickers, which are pink epoxy letter stickers that also contain a number of epoxy words and punctuation symbols. In addition, I received a package of brads in a bag corner and doodles, a 20 piece value pack of Love charms, and a package of the Big Metal Brads containing 17 pieces of hearts and arrows. I also received a Chipboard Book Kit, which contains a 6 x 6 chipboard, 4 sheets of patterned paper and a sheet of epoxy stickers.

As always, the Around the Block papers were a sturdy cardstock weight and contained patterns on both sides of the paper, making it very versatile to use. The bag of brads comes packaged in a cute clear mini purse and contains innovative corner brads as well as doodle inspired flower brads. The epoxy letters and words are versatile to use and the heart charms make a cute addition to ribbon or brads. However, the Big Metal Brads were my absolute favorites. These brads are large (from one to two inches) and make a nice presence on the page. In addition to the traditionally shaped arrows, this package also contains circular inspired arrows as well as arrows designed to look as if they are shooting through the hearts..

For my first project, I elected to use the pink and blue papers from the collection to make a girly layout for my daughter. The pink epoxy brackets make a sweet addition to the title as does the circular arrow from the Big Metal Brads collection. The flower inspired doodle brads and corner brads also add a whimsical touch to the layout.

Title: Sweet
Products used: Patterned Paper (Around the Block)
Big Metal Brads, Bag of Brads and Shrinky Stickers (Around the Block)
Wizard Die cut System (Spellbinders)
Die Cute Alphabets (Sizzix)
Adhesive (Adhesive Tech, Permanent Bond Glue Runner

For my second project, I used the blue, brown and heart patterned papers to celebrate a love of a different kind, my son's love for watching television. I layered the patterned papers with a shaped cardstock to create a base. I attached the Big Metal Brads through this cardstock base before attaching to the green cardstock. Even though I was applying the brads through multiple layers of heavy papers, they still held their shape in application. I was also impressed with how easy it was to like up the heart and arrow, so that they created the desired shape.

Title: TV Love
Products used: Cardstock (Prism Prismatics)
Patterned Paper (Around the Block)
Big Metal Brads (Around the Block)
Die Cutting System (Spellbinders Wizard)
Die Cut Alphabets (Sizzix)
Adhesive (Adhesive Tech, Permanent Bond Glue Runner

The Around the Block Love collection is a fun, perky collection of love themed products. However, even though the theme is love related, it still manages to be versatile enough to use on many more layouts. The embellishments from this collection are innovative and fun to use. I especially love the Big Metal Brads. If you are looking for bright, fun papers and embellishments to scrap your love themed pages, this is definitely a collection to try

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Review by Rita

This was my first experience using products by Around the Block. I visited their web site upon learning that I would be reviewing their product, and learned that Around the Block is a relatively new company headed by veterans in the scrapbooking industry. Browsing through their web site I was impressed by the variety of products the company offers. You can learn more about Around the Block by visiting their website.

When product first arrived I was very impressed by the generosity of the company to the review team. I received five sheets each of medium-weight patterned cardstock from their Love Me Tender collection. Patterns included "Sweet for You", "Head Over Heals", "Amore", and "Secret Admirer". Embellishment packages were also included. I loved the look of the Shrinky Alphabet stickers, epoxy letter stickers, and big metal brads in a variety of shapes.

The patterned paper is two-sided. The front of the design includes words that relate to a love theme. The backside offers either a similar pattern without the words, or in the case of "Secret Admirer" - my favorite shade of warm, rich brown. The option of using either side makes the paper perfect for layouts that may not be "love" themed, but for which the color choices are perfect. I loved the subtlety of the patterns designed, which would work well for a layout about a child, as well as for pages about adults.

In my first layout I wanted to show how versatile the "Love Me Tender" collection can be, extending beyond romantic love and Valentine's Day. In this layout I wanted to show the love I have for my sister's family, but also how much I admire them. The "Secret Admirer" patterned paper inspired my thought process, and I chose to use the imprinted word as a part of my title, by covering up the last "r" with a coordinating strip of paper. I printed a title directly on the patterned paper, which fed through my ink jet printer without problem. I used a glaze pen to embellish the title letters, and used clear glaze pens to emphasize the swirl patterns present in both the "Secret Admirer" and "Amore" papers.

Title: Admire This Family
Products used: Paper: Around the Block Sweet For You - "Secret Admirer", "Amore"
Cardstock: Prism Prismatics
Pens: Sakura
Brads: Doodlebug
Flowers: Prima
Buttons: LaMode
Adhesive: Adhesive Tech, Permanent Bond Glue Runner

I found the "Head Over Heels" patterned paper completely delightful with its pattern of Valentine "conversation hearts candy" illustrated in blues, pinks and shades of brown. It inspired a layout about the conversations I have with my four year old daughter throughout the day. The hot pink of the Shrinky Alphabet stickers were perfect for use in creating the title. The letters offer enough flexibility to allow one to peel the letters off the patterned cardstock and reposition as needed. The sticker sheets include word phrases such as: hug, giggle, love, kisses, wink, several punctuation marks, and shapes. I used a heart, framed in a circle within my title as a nice accent and hyphen in my title work. As a side note, when I removed the capital E from the sticker sheet two tiny pieces from the die-cut fell loose. Rather than consider these little pink dots for the garbage can, I chose to use them on the photo as a shrinky sort of bling. They look like little pink crystals in real life - how sweet is that!?

Because the conversation hearts had such fun words on them, I chose to use them as deco squares in my layout, versus covering them up. On each block of "Head Over Heels" patterned paper I used a glaze pen to fill in one heart, and then covered the heart with a dimensional glitter medium. The soft tone of brown found on the backside of this paper worked well to showcase my journaling and still allow for easy legibility. The warm tones of brown, mixed with the bright tones of pinks, and soft shades of blue really bring this layout together with a little extra zing.

Title: Sweet - talks
Products used: Cardstock: Prism Prismatics
Patterned Paper: Around the Block – Sweet for You, Amore, Head Over Heels
Letter Stickers: Around the Block “Love Me Tender’ Shrinky Stickers
Pens: Sakura glaze
Flowers: Prima Got Flowers
Brads: Doodlebug
Ink: Colorbox
Glitter: Stickles by Ranger Industries
Adhesive: Adhesive Tech, Permanent Bond Glue Runner

For my third review project I allowed the fun words printed on the Paper Treats White Alphabet Epoxy Stickers to inspire me. Each letter in this collection of alphabet has a descriptive word printed on it, that corresponds with the letter. For example: A = awesome or amaze, B = best, O = oh, boy!, T = thanks. I decided to use the letter T and create a thank you card. I used a Dymo labeler to create the rest of the word "thanks" and placed it against the T. I added a metal heart brad, to tie in with the saying on the inside of the card, which reads, "from the bottom of my heart". With the beautiful coordinating papers this card came together quickly.

Title: Thank You Card
Products used: Patterned Paper: Around the Block Sweet For You - "Secret Admirer", "Amore"
Epoxy Alpha Sticker: Around the Block Paper Treats White Epoxy Sticker
Big Heart Brad: Around the Block Big Metal Brads - Hearts and Arrows
Label: Dymo
Ribbon: Offray
Adhesive: Adhesive Tech, Permanent Bond Glue Runner

I really enjoyed working with the products from Around the Block. The patterned papers are heavy duty. They can handle being taken up and repositioned without suffering rips and crimps, inked upon, and handle dimensional mediums without problem. The letter stickers can also be repositioned with ease, which is wonderful should your line of letters become crooked, etc. I was not able to utilize the Big Metal Brads much this time around. Some colors used in this particular package of embellishments did not coordinate with the "Love Me Tender" collection, although I am sure they can be painted, or embossed to change their color. The arrow shapes and hearts are totally fun and will definitely find their place amongst future projects.

I definitely would consider purchasing Around the Block for future projects. As I perused the company web site I noted the variety of themes offered in their paper collections that would suit most anyone. The embellishments offered appear interesting and fun to use. I also discovered that Around the Block offers a buyer incentive for their customers. Certain products offered for retail sale include a "point" - shown in numerical value on the back of the package near the UPC code. By tearing the point and UPC code from the package, you can collect points and send them into the company for additional product. This is a smart way for the company to promote product and develop brand loyalty. Points aside, I thoroughly enjoyed creating paper crafts with Around the Block and hope to find their product soon in my local stores.

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