We have been happily working with C.R. Gibson for 25 years this year. Happy Anniversary to all of us! We just returned from a visit in Nashville with our wonderful C.R. Gibson friends, and we couldn’t wait to get back to the drawing board to get started on the next 25 years.
Photos: Top left, a welcoming sign when we arrived. Bottom left, our newest collection, Welcome Home Noah. Right, Cathy with Sherrie McCulloch, Director of Infant Products, after a lively discussion of new designs for 2011.
We thought it would be fun to take a stroll down memory lane and see how styles have changed over 25 years. Whoa, this memory lane was a long one, we’ll just have to share a little sampling!
1986, Share A Hug Paper Dinnerware; 1994 Woodcut Santa Christmas Collection; 1988 Village Square Kitchen Collection (I created this during the country-country-everywhere trend–I still miss my cool Ralph Lauren prairie boots!)
My first collection with C.R. Gibson was Share-A-Hug®, which was a group of characters built from this festive fella (above), J. Randolph Reindeer, who was based on a Christmas card (below) that I made when we lived in New York City, (note antlers) while I was veeeery pregnant with my first baby, Ellen. As you know, Ellen is the co-blogger of this blog, so, I guess you could say Ellen has been collaborating longer than she is old.
After Share-A-Hug, I continued to produce several everyday collections, Christmas groups, and eventually my first baby collection. And, then another and another … as you can see below, we love to make artwork for C.R. Gibson products!
Above top left clockwise: 1996, Little Noah Collection (best selling baby book at Babies R Us for 7 years straight! … and, I am having memories of all these borders painted by hand before computers … approximately 100 feet o’ flowers, whew!); 2003, Little Carousel Collection; 2004, Baby Princess Collection (more parents were learning if they were having a girl or boy, so we could now make an all-girl book … it was a pinkapalooza for us!); 2004, Baby All Star (boys-only, too!); 2004, Zoophabet® (These ABCs have found themselves decorating over 70 products); 2006, Little Pond (four years later and still a favorite). Photo below: 2010, our newest collection, Welcome Home Noah.
So that was a smattering of our collaborations with C.R. Gibson, and happily in 2009, we were able to say that over 2 million babies have a Cathy Heck baby book. We love to think of all the babies learning about their first milestones with our little characters.
So, we better get back to work for the next batch of babies. Ellen and I are working on a bundle of fun new surprises coming your way soon. Thank you to everyone at C.R. Gibson for giving us the opportunity to make lots of beautiful books for lots of adorable babies!
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9 Comments
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Congratulations! We are one of those families with one of your baby books and we cherish it. Keep up the great work, Cathy!
p.s. I love reading your blog!
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Thank you so much. Happy baby booking!
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We are VERY happy to have reminders of your early C.R. Gibson years in the house each Christmas – in particular notepads of our favorite reindeer Randolph.
To use the precious Randolph notepad (of which maybe only 25 sheets are left?) – the subject must be of grave importance. Messages to beloved teachers, for example. Or notes about the Christmas Roast Beast, and exactly how perfection was achieved back in 2003. :-)
xo
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I have watched this continuous creativity for the whole 25 years, and I am still amazed by Cathy’s fertile brain! And all this accomplishment has taken place while she was simultaneously being a loving, supportive wife and busy mother of three extremely talented and active girls. This Mother-in-law knows…..Cathy is a VERY SPECIAL PERSON!!!!!!
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Author
… with a very special mother-in-law! :-)
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Louisa, I am honored that your amazing Roast Beast recipe graces a J. Randolph Reindeer note page!
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What a great resource!
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I picked out the Zoophabet baby memory book for my oldest daughter before she was born and love it! I looked and looked for one when my second daughter was born this past April, but couldn’t find one. I bought some other one just so I’d have a baby book for her, but I still want a Zoophabet for her b/c its so great! Can you tell me how I can get one, please?! :)
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Please help!!! My new puppy chewed my son’s baby photo album and I want to replace it with the same exact one that was given to us as a gift when he was born. Would you please let us know how we can purchase: 2004, Baby All Star (boys-only, too!
I really really appreciate your help!!!!
Thank you,
Corey Dell
