| Happy 4th Birthday to us9 Comments1 April 2015 | Admin Double Loyalty Points this weekend - get your coupon code belowApril 1st might be full of jokes, but it's a special day for us at Chocolate Baroque as today is our birthday!! Chocolate Baroque started trading in April 2011, a phoenix arising from the ashes of our previous business, but with a brand new vision and determination to succeed. And we have passed one major milestone - did you know that most new businesses will fail within their first three years? Well we've reached our fourth birthday, and that's a good thing to celebrate. I'm also celebrating Sue Page, our lovely, wonderful, talented artist who draws pretty much all of the designs for Chocolate Baroque stamps. She's such a humble and self-deprecating artist who draws everything by hand in painstaking detail. Sue doesn't do any of her designing on a computer, but lately I have been using mine to create collage stamps from her drawings which you can see in our range of individual cling mounted stamps. Sue is so shy of the limelight that I have been asked a few times if I do the drawings myself and use her name as an alias, but I can assure you, she's genuine and her fine drawing skills far exceed mine when it comes to designing stamps. Sue enjoys seeing what other people create with her designs and she loves to find and pin artwork to our Chocolate Baroque Stamps board. If you like our stamps, then please leave a comment below and tell Sue yourself - she'd appreciate that. Over those four years, we have been privileged to work with some super people on our Design Team, many of whom are still with us today. Special thanks go to Design Team Leader, Judith, who works tirelessly behind the scenes, looking after, not just the Design Team blog, but also our Challenge Blog which she was instrumental in setting up last year. Our business plan can be summed up in three words - integrity, quality, service. And the quality is provided by the eagle eyed Val who both manufactures and quality controls every single stamp that leaves the building - and if they are not up to scratch, they leave the building in the trash! Her eye for detail is what ensures the stamps you receive are in perfect working order (and if ever they are not, then we will replace them without quibble). And while I'm in award ceremony mode, I have to give a very big shout out to the person who's been by our side from day one, doing anything and everything that it took to get this ship afloat and sailing. Lesley has been my right hand woman for the last four years (despite having a complex fracture which actually left her without the use of her own right arm for two of those years!) and I'm more grateful to her than she will ever know. Lesley has been managing the day to day running of the business on her own for nine months now and I think you will all agree she's doing a cracking job. But of course it doesn't matter how brilliant we are, YOU are the ones who have made this business a success. You buy our products, you tell us straight if you like them, you encourage our design team with your thoughtful comments, you produce beautiful artwork with our stamps and you share our news on social media. So we thank YOU for being part of our business too. And to say thank you properly, I have a little birthday/Easter coupon for you. From now until the end of April 6th (Easter Monday) you will get double loyalty points on anything you buy when you enter the code EB15 into the coupon box. Loyalty points expire after 12 months, so if you have some, don't forget to spend them! If you need more information on how our loyalty point scheme works, click here. You need to spend £5 or more for the coupon to work and you can only enter one coupon code per order. You also need to be a registered customer to earn loyalty points - if you check out as a guest, then we have no account to assign points to, so why not click here and register your details before you shop. I am also having a little trip down memory lane and putting some of our older stamps on special offer so have a look in the Current Offers department and see what's there. Let me finish by wishing you all an eggcellently eggstravagent Easter weekend and here's to the next four years! |
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I think you all do an amazing job at CB, not many people would have started a new busines sso soon after having to close the doors on the last. We are all so lucky that you and Adrian decided not to throw in the towel despite so many things being against you.
Lesley does an marvelous job getting all the orders sorted and sent out in such a short turn around time, it's not hard to see why you value her so highly.
And to Sue, your stamps are wonderful I can't wait for the end of the month, when the new stamps are released. I'm never disapointed with the themes and I'm happy to say that most of the stamps that I own are from CB, Graphicus and EI.
Keep up the good work, here's to the future.
Sue xx
I very much admire your drawing skills Sue & have learnt much myself about shading from using your images.
Lesley's efficiency just astonishes me & having a reliable quality control person in Val is another cog in the wheel that adds to the smooth running of the operation as a whole.
Keeping tabs on DT posts & their co-ordination is not an easy task & Judith's experience in that field just as vital a part of the daily CB routine.
All but a few of the stamps I own are CB or EI & the company as a whole has been vital in my own artistic growth.
Thank you to all of you.
Paula (PEP)
Congratulations on our fourth Birthday. Carpe Diam .....and you do love the stamps and the artwork wonder refreshing image's Long may you continue x
Just to say I think the Steampunk Birds stamp set is fabulous. The 'hawk' bird is the image of my parrot, so I have to get this one! Sue is so talented, all my stamps I have been so pleased with. Happy Birthday, and many happy returns. x
I have been impressed ever since my first view of a Chocolate Baroque stamp some two years ago in a steampunk magazine. I was so tempted to buy that set, but the fact that you had to buy a whole set put me off, until.... I got one of the cardmaking magazines that featured a project with the butterfly cards. Resist no longer, I did not. And I adore all of the stamps I've gotten from your store.
Sue -- your artwork is truly lovely and amazing. I look at all the intricate lines and designs and feel humbled by the fact that you share your artwork with us, to use on our cards. Thank you.
Thank you, too, Glenda and Leslie, for all you do. I hope to remain a happy Chocolate Baroque customer for many more years.
Sue, love your pinterest board. Just discovered it from this post and can't wait to explore more. Everyone at CB is wonderful! Talented, kind, and always willing to help and share.
Congratulations all!
You do have beautiful stamp designs, service is excellent, quality is outstanding and you really have eye for the customer - it's people dealing with people, not a business dealing with customers. You set the standard high for other companies. Hope you will stay in business much longer and expand it even more!
Hugs,
Debbie.
Wow, such wonderful comments from you all - thank you so much. Lesley is here in Scotland now for a well deserved Easter Break. Happy Easter everyone!
Hi. Happy Birthday! I absolutely love your stamps and feel they fill a niche in the market for beautiful unique works of art. Sue, you are very talented! I live in Canada so I don't have access to as many of your beautiful stamps as I would like but I certainly keep up with the latest offerings. I first fell in love with Chocolate Baroque when I saw the peacock stamp sets; I had to have them! Thanks to all for sharing your talents and I wish you all continued success.