Stamp By the Light of the Moon

Spring Updates and Promotions: April 2009

Here's an update for you of all the spring promotions currently going on!

****April 1 begins the sales period for the spring Occasions Mini Catalog, which is featured on the righthand side of my blog.  You can click on it and see the entire catalog.  For the month of March, only pages 11-13 were available, now they are all available! 

****Stampin' Up! has begun a Three Easy Payments option for those people interested in purchasing the Demonstrator Starter Kit.  This promotional option runs from March 13-April 30, 2009 and is designed to help alleiveate the financial strain of paying for the entire kit up front.   It lets you start your business (or support your hobby!) a little bit at a time, and as you earn your commission/discount, you can put it towards your next payment!  A special form is needed and online signup is not available with this option.  Your first payment is charged to your chosen credit card when you sign up and the next two are charged to the same credit card on the 15th of each of the following two months.  After the third payment, the kit is now paid in full.  Anyone interested in this option must send in the forms no later than April 30, 2009.  If you're interested in signing up using this method of payment, please let me know! 

****Get Connected Campaign:  Beginning April 1-30, 2009, any customer who spends $40 in the spring Occasions Mini Catalog can choose one item from the "Under $10" page on the last page of the Idea Book & Catalog for free!!  If you are a hostess, and your workshop is at least $150, you also may choose one free item from the "Under $10" page in the catalog!!  This means that if you're in any of my clubs, this qualifies you when you are the April hostess!! 

Under $10" items include the following:

Item	Description	Retail Price
116209	Note of Thanks Mini Note Kit	$9.95
116210	Birthdays Count Mini Note Kit	$9.95
114494	Forever single stamp	$5.95
114492	Beautiful Baby single stamp	$7.95
114486	Birthday Wish single stamp	$6.95
114490	Glad Friends single stamp	$5.95
114498	Flowers in Silhouette single stamp	$7.95
114496	Celebrations single stamp	$7.95
114484	Elegant Thank You single stamp	$6.95
114552*	Gracias single stamp	$5.95
114488	Fun Flowers single stamp	$5.95

That's it for now!  I'll post any additional updates here as they are announced!

It's amazing what a little inspiration can do for you: A Pretties Kit card

The last couple of posts I've done, I've been sharing my art of copying cards, or using other people's ideas and inspirations to help my own along.  Back in February, when I was sick, my friend and fellow demonstrator, Renee, was trying to help me out prepping for my All Occasion Card class.  She'd send me ideas for simple but pretty cards, and see if they'd work for my class or not. 

Here's one that she sent me.  It's from a blog she frequents, and I apologize that I don't know the name of the blog, but the watermark is on it, so it may look familiar to some of you. 

 

When she sent me this card, I thought to myself, "Simple, but pretty!  I can do that!"  I didn't have all of the same items, but I did have the Pretties kit, as did Renee, and between the two of us we had enough flowers for everyone in the class.  Since Sale-A-Bration had just begun, I used some of the Delicate Dots papers because they were free and gorgeous!! 

So here is my version of what I called "The Pretties Kit" card.

 

I absolutely loved this card, and I think it was one of everyone's favorites that night.  I offered the option of a half pearl in the center or of a clear rhinestone brad, and some people did one of each, since we make two of every card.  I always always always have white and vanilla ribbon of some kind, on hand at all times and that makes my class prep very easy, same with my workshop and club prep.  I know for sure that if I need an accessory , I always have ribbon that is guaranteed to "go" with any card. 

I used Bashful Blue classic ink and the From the Heart stamp is from Holidays and Wishes on page 33 in the Idea Book & Catalog.  The set is $18.95 and I get a lot of use out of it and one similar to it: Hugs and Wishes on page 134.  Lots of useful stamps are found in those sets! 

Sometimes all it takes is a little bit of inspiration!!  I hope this blog provides some of you with that little bit of inspiration when you need it too!

Be on the lookout for some updates coming soon, since it's the end of one month and the start of another, that means all kinds of promotions going on!

The art of copying cards: my Embrace Life Card was Cindy's card first!

Last week in my post, I talked about what a lifesaver my demonstrator friends were the week I was sick, whether they knew it or not.  Being a demonstrator allows you access to many special things, and fellow demonstrators are one of those special things!  The week prior to my getting sick, I had a demonstrator meeting at my house.  Each demonstrator is asked to swap a card at the meeting, so they bring enough cards for everyone and go home with one card from each person at the end of the night.  It's like a cookie swap! 

Cindy Hassell came to my meeting with this card, and everyone loved it:

 

Such a pretty card!  Cindy used the Delicate Dots FREE Designer Papers from the Sale A Bration catalog for this card.  She also incorporated the FREE 5/8" Barely Banana Grosgrain Ribbon from the SAB catalog.  The card stock is Stampin' Up!'s Glossy Card Stock, which is so incredibly smooth and glossy, it's unlike any other glossy paper I've seen.  Although it looks like Cindy watercolord her images, which are from the Blooming with Love stamp set, she said that she used our Many Marvelous Markers to color them in!  They look so perfect, I told her that they looked like they came already colored in!  Finally, she sponged around the images with her Mellow Moss Classic Ink and a Stampin' Sponge.

In true Cindy Hassell form, she also stamped the inside of her card, which I almost NEVER remember to do:

 

Isn't that so pretty??!!  All of my friends are such good stampers, I love featuring their cards, and better yet, I love copying their cards!  For my All Occasion Card Class, I did not have on hand exactly the same stamps and colors as Cindy had, but I improvised with what I had, and here is the card I came up with, thanks to Cindy's inspiration:

 

For my own card, I used Blush Blossom Card Stock and the new Tea Party Designer papers, which I just think are sooo pretty!  I still used the free Banana ribbon and I also colored in my image with the Many Marvelous Markers and I sponged around it as well.  Since I did not have the same Mother's Day greeting as Cindy had, I used the Square Scallop Punch and the glossy paper to make my card a thank you card instead of a Mother's Day card.  I used Embrace Life for my stamp set and the Ronald McDonald House charity set: Say it With Scallops. 

I also must comment on the unique card layout design that Cindy came up with.  I love the off center look of the two strips of paper, one set to the left and one to the right of the main center image.  It makes the card unique and different.

I do enjoy taking another card design I see and making it my own, whether it's from the Idea Book & Catalog (they don't call it that for nothing!) or from our demonstrator magazine Stampin' Success (they put in card layouts every month) or from the demonstrator website, or from other demonstrator swaps!  There are so many great ideas floating around out there!  I like to take a little bit from here and there when I am feeling creatively challenged, or under a time challenge.

Thanks so much, Cindy, for sharing your talents with the group, and for helping me with my card class!

To see more of Cindy's incredible work, check out her blog at:  http://www.chassell.blogspot.com.

Check out my next post in a few days to see my next CASE'd Card!  (Copy And Steal Everyhing= CASE!!)

Birthday Weekend, Cheers to You (again.)

It's early Sunday morning, no one is up yet.  Everyone's recovering from a busy birthday weekend.  My husband turns forty tomorrow and I threw my first-ever surprise party for him on Friday night.  I'd sent out Cheers to You invitations back in February, similar to this card from my January  class:

    

In the real card, I fixed the Time To so that it sat, slanted, on the celebrate.  Then I also lengthened the strip of Riding Hood Red so that it was longer than the card, and then trimmed it with my Paper Snips so it'd be exactly right.  He had no idea when he saw me making the card for the class that I was coming up with a prototype for his surprise party invitations.  This card was a perfect masculine card and worked out great for the invites.  I got a lot of compliments on them at the party.

I am thankful for my Stampin' Up! job, not only because I can create such perfect for the occasion cards, but also because I had a perfect excuse for getting Don to the party, which was at a local hall nearby.  I told him I rented the hall for an Open Stamp Night, where I bring all my SU "stuff," like stamp sets, ink, paper and accessories, and people pay a fee to come and use it all for the evening.  It was an event that would involve no prep for me (because who wants to spend all week cutting paper for a fake class?) and it would provide me with a logical, normal place to be going.  I'd rented this hall before for a class that got too big for my house so it seemed like no big deal to Don that this was where my class was held. 

My excuse for getting him there was that I left my ink pad caddy and all the inks at home in my office, on the table.  He came home that day, with a scratchy throat, feeling so tired.  He told me he planned to sleep on the couch the whole time I was teaching my class, and would not be up when I got in at 11:30 that night, for sure. (Uh oh.)

At 7:15 I called him in a panic from my "class," telling him I'd left my inks all at home and couldn't do any stamping with my people without them.  I begged him to throw the kids in the car and bring me my inks.  He was SOOO not happy with me and made me wait almost a half hour before arriving with the inks,

 

and the girls, who were thrilled to realize that this was not a class, but in fact, a huge party.

 

He actually sent the girls in first, hoping to "serve me right," by disrupting my class.  Caroline and Elizabeth came in first, followed by Alexandra, who remained rooted to her spot for minutes, trying to process what was going on.

 

He came in next, only then, realizing that something seemed not quite right, and of course, forgiving me for being so unorganized as to forget something as important as my ink pads for a class!!

And so my ink pad caddy, which I love, extender piece and all, sat unused on the stairs, all night long.  I'd even taken all of my ink refills off of the top, so that when he carried it out and drove it to me, they didn't fall out all over his car.  I figured why put him through any extra annoyance on the way over to the hall.

 

We had a great time, and it was a 100% success.  The following day was my daughter, Alexandra's fourth birthday party, as she was born on my husband's birthday four years ago.  So I had two fun-filled parties in 24 hours' time. 

 

Here she is, above, opening her Webkins from her sisters.  Thanks to my sister in law, Jessica for givin me her photo card before she left last night, to load onto my computer.  My own from this party are not off my card yet, so this was one of Jessica's photos of Alex's party. 

As I sign off for the day, I will say that this weekend I was once again, saying, "Thank Goodness for Stampin' Up!" as I often do.  As a job, it has saved us in more ways than one, and blessed our lives tremendously.  Who knew, it'd be the center of the party planning for this weekend's party?!! 

Enjoy your day.....

As promised: the original version of Renee's Delicate Dots card

Last week I posted all about my cousin Valerie's party.  I mentioned that each person had chosen to do a different card than the one that I had prepped, which I totally love when that happens.  When I was typing the post though, I realized that I didn't have the photo of the original card sample, made by my friend and fellow demonstrator, Renee Santoro.  So as I promised, I did take a photo of the card, and I am posting it here tonight.

 

This is the card Renee made.  It uses the SAB Delicate Dots free designer series papers, as well as the SAB free 5/8" grosgrain ribbon.  I loved that it used the oval punch and the scallop edge punch. 

The story behind this card is that back in February, when I was recovering from being so sick with the stomach bug, I had just three nights in which to prep my All Occasion Card Class.  I was stressing out over not having enough time, and Renee offered to help me.  She sent me the photo of this card:

 

She told me that she had made this card to accompany a shower gift and if I wanted her to, she could recreate it with current SU paper and ribbons.  I asked if she could recreate it with the SAB free paper and ribbons, and she did.  She came over one night, picked up all of the supplies, even loaned me her oval punch, since I don't have my own.  The next day, before I could even go to her house to pick up the finished supplies, her husband arrived on my doorstep with everything completed.

The one thing I've always said about my job with Stampin' Up! is that the thing I treasure the most is the friendships I've made through the job.  I never would've known any of these people, had they not been customers, hostesses, and fellow demonstrators.  I have had customers come and help me prep for big events in the past, and Renee has helped me out many times as well.  I recently joked with Renee that I should just move into her basement in order to cut out the back and forth time between our houses.  Thankfully she lives close by! 

In my next several posts, you will see how other demonstrators saved me that week, the week of my All Occasion Class, even though they may not have known it at the time! 

I will be posting all of the cards from that class and will also be posting the Explosion Card project that I just did with my March Stampers Clubs.  Be on the lookout!

As a side note, thanks to everyone for frequenting my blog!  I just looked at my Typepad Stats Page, and it shows that I have reached over 10,000 visitors!! My blog has only been live since Memorial Day weekend, 2008, so I am thrilled to have reached this many hits in such a short time!!  Thank you all for reading and for posting your comments!  I look forward to sharing many more posts with you in the future!

-Jen

Sale-A- Bration Delicate Dots Designer Series Paper projects

I've been wanting to do this particular post for almost two weeks now.  We just can't catch a break here.  My youngest daughter, who was the last one to catch the stomach bug, had been well again for just under a week when she started with what I now know is croup.  So she's been sick most of this week after only being better from the other bug since the end of last week.  Each time I think I'll be able to catch up with my blogging and my other work, I can't!  So I'm sneaking a quick post in now, in the middle of the day while I have a couple of minutes.

I've been wanting to write about this great workshop that I did on Sunday, March 1st.  My cousin Valerie, who lives about 45 minutes from me, but in Massachusetts rather than RI, has always complimented me on my cards from the holidays, thank yous, etc.  She's always said she saves every single one, and I know now that it's true, she does.  This past summer, we got together with them at a family function and she mentioned that she'd love to have me come up and do a workshop for her and her group of friends, so that she could learn how to stamp also.  We finally got our calendars together this winter and settled on March 1 as the date. 

Of course, March 1 dawned somewhat snowy and lots of people have been sick on and off, so we weren't even sure if the party would happen after all, because of the weather and because of illnesses.  However, it ended up taking place despite all of it, and we had such a great time!  Val's friends were all new to stamping but one.  She also had a guest who had scrapbooked before, but not stamped specifically.  I planned a very basic, introductory workshop using the Sale-A-Bration Delicate Dots Designer Series Paper that comes free in the SAB catalog.  I just love that paper, it's so pretty, and delicate, hence the name I guess!

 

I planned to do a card and a coordinating gift bag with them and I had pre-cut all of my paper, as always.  I brought three of my favorite stamp sets with me: Short & Sweet, Simply Said, and Say it With Scallops.  The two bags that are shown above are my samples.  One of them I made before arriving, as a sample to show, and one of them I made while there to demonstrate along with them.

Well, I was so impressed by Valerie and her guests!  They did something that is very rare in new stampers!!  They wanted to make all of the projects their own way!  I told them that they were more than welcome to do that and that they could use the papers and supplies I'd brought, however they wanted to.  I was so glad I had my camera with me because I was able to take photos of their projects before they left with them.  Below are some of the bags that were made.  You can see how different they were than mine. 

I was so proud of everyone!  Every bag was different.  (My two samples are shown all the way to the left, and the rest were theirs.)

Their cards were just as unique and creative.  Here are some photos from that project as well.

The card right above this sentence, to the right with the oval punch, is very similar to my original sample, which I realize now I don't have a photo of.  I'll have to post it another day.  But it gives you an idea of just how creative everyone was and how each and every project was different.  I was so pleased and loved all of the projects they completed.  They all seemed to love them as well.

My cousin Valerie ended up taking advantage of the Demonstrator Starter Kit special price, since she was now totally hooked on Stampin' Up!  I can't wait for her to get her kit, I told her it's just like Christmas when that box arrives!  It's so exciting!  I think Val will enjoy being a hobby demo, she's a very creative person and has lots of great ideas.  I could tell this as I watched her create her gift bag and her card. 

I love creativity!  To me, that's what Stampin' Up! is all about, sharing creativity!  I had a great day that day, all around.  I got to have lunch and share an afternoon with a cousin whose company I enjoy very much, and I got to share a craft I love, with her and with her friends.  What could be better? 

I hope you've enjoyed this particular post!  I hope to get back on track (I seem to keep saying this!) and post more projects. 

Occasions Mini Catalog Promotion and Starter Kit Discount!

It's been a week since I've last posted, and for good reason!  Although last week when I posted, I'd thought that we were out of the woods with the stomach bug we'd had in our house, it turned out that we were not and my youngest had it last week.  So hopefully now, we are out of the woods and I can get back on track with everything.

The first thing I thought I'd do is post a special promotion that began on March 1, since I am running about a week behind! 

I've posted the new Occasions Mini Catalog in my right hand sidebar, below the Sale-A-Bration Catalog.  From March 1-31, customers are being offered the chance to purchase any Easter related stamp sets, even though the catalog doesn't officially begin until April 1st!  Stampin' Up! did not want anyone to lose out on the chance to make their Easter Cards in plenty of time!  Here is the list of stamp sets you can choose from, along with the official announcement from Stampin' Up!:

The following products will be available for customer purchase beginning March 1. Although the Occasions Mini Catalog is not available to your customers until April 1, we wanted to give your customers time to create their Easter projects using our adorable new Easter stamp sets and accessories.

Item	Description	Retail Price
113196	An Egg-cellent Easter	$21.95
113262	Wagon Full of Fun	$34.95
113822	Eight Great Greetings	$27.95
115421	Ocho saludos geniales  (Spanish Eight Great Greetings)	$27.95
114643	Huit souhaits sympas   (French Eight Great Greetings)	$27.95
113833	Egg Hunt Stampin' Around wheel	$6.50

These products will be available at full retail price for your customers and no limits apply.

Next, I'd like to pass along a reminder to you that the Stampin' Up! Demonstrator Starter Kit is on sale NOW!  It is on sale for $169 and is a perfect way to get a part time business or full time business off the ground!  Despite the fact that the economy is in crisis nationwide, I have seen the largest sales numbers in my business from September to the present, that I've had all year long thus far.  People are looking to make gifts more than ever, and are looking to make them as special and unique.  People are also looking for ways to have fun at home, and Stampin' Up! classes, classes, clubs, and parties do just that.  So if you're looking for a way to bring in some extra income, pay off a bill, contribute to the family budget in a new way, consider this option!  For $169 you get plenty of product to last you a long time!  There's a great variety of stamp sets, ink pads and card stock, and you can customize your kit by substituting the colors and sets that you want!  So if you've been with me for a while and you "have it all," you can get what you don't have and bulk up your current collection.  If you're just starting out you can get all that you need with a minimal investment.

The Demonstrator Starter Kit comes with a 20% discount for the life of your demonstratorship, as well as the monthly Stampin' Success Magazine that teaches all kinds of great stamping, scrapping and business techniques you need, and access to the SU Demonstrator Website which is just amazing! 

Finally, if you're just sick of paying ME for all your supplies, and want to get a discount on your supplies and put some money back into your own pocket, consider getting the kit and using it for your own discount and selling to yourself and close friends and family.  Many of our demonstrators are hobby demonstrators, and our company relies on their creativity and enthusiasm as much as that of the business demonstrators.  The kit is the same, as are the benefits. 

As an added bonus, all new demonstrators get to choose an additional free stamp set in their kits during Sale-A-Bration!  So you'd be getting five rather than four stamp sets!  You can find a photo of the suggested contents of the kit on page 14 of your catalog.

You can sign up online by going to my Demonstrator Business Website and using the recruit password: jencowart. 

I know I've given you lots to think about, but it's been so long since I posted, I think that's not a bad thing!  Anyone with any questions about the two promotions, let me know and I'll be glad to answer them for you.