Stamp By the Light of the Moon

This week's Deal of the Week: if you have the Big Shot this one's for you!

As you know, each week Stampin' Up! will be posting a deal of the week through the end of this month.  Here is this week's promotion:

This week's deals run from October 12, 10 AM (MT) through October 19, 9:50 AM (MT).

Item	Page	Description	Regular Price	Special Price
115961	200	Perfect Setting Bigz XL die	$42.95	$25.99
114515	195	Flower Burst Embosslits die	$11.95	$5.99
116760	201	Pop-Up Three Tier Cake Bigz XL die	$39.95	$25.49

Great prices on great items! You can order them on line through my Demonstrator Business Website by clicking on the blue Order button in my right hand side bar. Be sure to take advantage of these special prices this week before they are gone!!

October brings lots of great specials, promotions and new products!

Happy October everyone!  Welcome to a new month of specials and new products!  Thanks to my friend Jen Foley, my blog has been updated with everything new in the right hand side bar.  Click on any of the specials to see the complete details.  There's a new product: My Digital Studio, a hostess special and a deal of the week every week this month!

Keep in mind also, sign ups for my November 15 Christmas Card Class are happening right now.  The deadline to register and pay is October 15.  Looking forward to seeing everyone then!

If you would like to watch a video about the My Digital Studio scrapbooking software, check out my Demonstrator Business Website under "products."  There are so many capabilities this software has, it's amazing! 

There's also a new Digital Scrapbooking Starter Kit for just $185 that includes the new software PLUS traditional rubber stamping & scrapbooking supplies!  Be sure to check it out and sign up today!

Kids' Stamp Camp Project Specifics

As promised, here is some specific information about each project we created at the kids' stamp camp last week. I'll start with the project that was everyone's favorite, the notebook project.

 

This was the sample that I showed the girls.  I made sure to tell them though, that mine was only a very simple sample and that they could add color to theirs and add other stamps from the Sock Monkey stamp set to make it their own design. This project had an outside and an inside.  Here's the inside:

 

I gave each child a pencil and a notepad for the inside of their folders.  I told them that besides keeping them for themselves, these would also make nice gifts for the first day of school for their teachers.  My girls decided to do both.  They're keeping the ones from stamp camp and they each made an additional one for their teachers.

 

This is Caroline's finished project. This shows how the image looks when it's colored.  The kids used basic colored pencils to color their images in.  The morning group of older girls did some sponging around the edges.  Alexandra, my four year old, over-sponged hers a little, but she loves it and that's what matters.
 

Our next project, my personal favorite, was the paper bag scrapbook.  I used all retired ribbons for this project as well as the above notebook project.  This is the sample I showed the kids. I also used retired Designer Series Paper for my sample so that I could save the Build-A-Bear Designer Series Paper for the kids' projects.

All of the Build-A-Bear products go on sale September 1, which is Tuesday!  If you are interested in purchasing them, please let me know!  You can order through me on my Demonstrator Business Website 24 hours a day!  Just click on the Order Now button at the top of my blog!

 

 

This is what the inside of the book looked like. It has two big pages for pictures and two tabbed, hidden, smaller pages for either additional photos or journaling.  The girls liked the idea that the pages were hidden.

Here's Elizabeth's scrapbook:

 

She ended up using retired paper for hers also.  She didn't want to use the colors we had.  Her book also ended up backwards, but when you're seven, those things don't matter much!

 

This is Caroline's scrapbook and she used all the Build-A-Bear Designer Series Papers for her clothing and accessories.  It was funny how specific a lot of the girls were with their clothes matching their pocketbooks and other accessories.  The bears came out so cute!

The final project was the easiest project but was time consuming enough that it allowed me to pull each child aside to run their card stock for the bears through the Big Shot, and do the accessories too.

We made a set of four note cards using the new Build-A-Bear stamp sets, retired ribbons and colored pencils.  I let the kids do any greetings they wanted for their four cards.  Here are my two simple samples:

That's the outside, here's the inside:

and the back side: 

 

Here are the kids' samples:

 

These were Caroline's cards.  You can see how the girls really took the projects and ran with them.  Each girl worked very hard to make their cards unique and pretty.  They put a lot of effort into their cards.

Alexandra took a very unique approach, making all of her images into one single card:

 

Every project was loved by all of the kids, but their favorite was the note pad, hands down. 

I have the measurements and dimensions for all of the projects.  If anyone is interested in receiving them, just send me an email to jen@stampbythelightofthemoon.com and I will send them to you in my reply. 

My next six posts will be Christmas Card Class posts!  The class was today and it was fabulous! All of the participants already have 30 hand made Christmas cards done and ready to go and it's not even fall yet!!  What a way to get a jump on the holiday season!

I already have five people signed up for an additional session of the class in November.  If you're interested in the class, here are the details:

Sunday, November 15, 2009
1-5 pm
30 cards
$50

There are just a few spots left.  If I have enough interest, I'll start a third session on another Sunday in November.  Please let me know right away if you'd like to sign up.

Be on the lookout for the card samples from today's class to be posted in the next couple of weeks!

Kids' stamp camp: a huge success!

Last Thursday was my Kids' Stamp Camp.  I've done several in the past but the last one was at least a year or two ago, so I really had been looking forward to doing another one.  My kids were really really looking forward to it!!  They literally counted down the days, and when the box of supplies arrived prior to the camp, they cheered!  They were just so excited.

I waited to post the photos from the event because I wanted to make sure it was alright with the other moms to post their children on here. Today you'll be able to get a glimpse of the projects as the kids are doing them, but with my next post I'll start showing specific project photos and the instructions for them.

 

Here's Natalie.  She and her sister Emily were in the morning session.  I used the Big Shot to make name tags for every girl.  We also used the Big Shot for one of the projects, the paper bag scrapbook.  I decided that the best way to let each girl use the Big Shot was to do it with them one at a time while they were working semi-independently on an easier project.  I set up the four cards project at the table (behind Natalie, got them started stamping and then let them stamp while we ran the card stock through the machine for the next project.  We used the Build A Bear products that I pre-ordered from the holiday mini for the two projects and a different set of products from the new catalog for the third project.  The girls liked using the Big Shot, and really who can blame them, it's so easy and so much fun!!

Here they are working on their cards.  My Caroline looks a little startled here.  (There's another Caroline sitting right next to her, which is why I say "my".)  They did a great job with their cards. 

 

Here are the morning session girls posing with their paper bag scrapbooks.  They were all very fashion-specific when dressing their Build A Bears in the clothes.  Luckily all of SU's Designer Series Papers coordinate well together and luckily they created a set of papers specifically for the Build A Bears.  Don't they all look so pretty?

 

Here's Madison and Jordan from the afternoon session, working on the third project, a notepad in a stamped two pocket card stock folder.  They were very serious about their work, all of them.  They all did a good job cleaning their stamps, not mixing inks, etc.

 

 This photo shows something funny.  Emily, sister of Natalie above, had made a mistake on her cover of her notepad folder.  I said something about correcting it, and she asked if I had a sponge, so that she could do some sponging over it and then sponge around the edges.  I laughed because that was totally a question that only a child of a stamper would ask!  I went down to my office and got some sponges, and they sponged away, and they really did a good job with it! 

Hope you've enjoyed the photos!  Be on the lookout for more specifics soon!

Sharing my Stampin' Up! Excitement!

I have some exciting news!!  (And no, don't even ask, it's not that!)  It's stamping and scrapping news!  Let me give you some background before I share, and let me tell you now, be sure to read to the end of this post, there's a very funny story at the bottom...

When I first started with Stampin' Up!, I had slightly more disposable income.  If I wanted something, I bought it.  However, with the change in the economy and the increase in the cost of everything else over the past two years, I've had to be very, very careful with my Stampin' Up! money and make sure that my business not only pays for itself, but contributes as much as possible to our family's budget. 

Therefore, if I want something now, I have to earn it for free, or else use class fee payments from class participants to purchase it as part of a class project that they're making.  It's been almost two full years of my business operating on such strict terms, and it's been hard, but I've been doing it.  I try to choose my hostess benefits wisely, getting more of what I need, and less of what I want.  In fact, there was a whole class on this subject at Convention last summer, and it hit home that week because, what I really really wanted, was Stampin' Up!'s new Sizzix Big Shot machine that came out last summer.  And I really really wanted a bunch of SU dies to go with it!  But, the machine was very expensive.  And, I already had a Sizzix machine from the Christmas before, with Sizzix dies to go with that.  So, even though I wanted it so badly, I had to wait. 

This summer though, when the Build A Bear products came out in the Holiday Mini (which you don't have yet, but I do!) and they were stamps and Sizzix products, now I really really REALLY wanted that machine.  I decided to use all of my hostess benefits for it from my Open House in July, if I had enough sales to get to $95 in free merchandise.  I knew I had a children's stamp camp coming up in August and could use the Build A Bear sets for the camp as well. 

 

Here it is: my lovely Sizzix Big Shot machine from Stampin' Up!  It took me a year to earn it, but I earned it!!  I love it! 

 

Even though I did not yet own the machine over the past year, I did something that I think was pretty smart.  Any time I did have some little bit of extra hostess benefits, I would order an inexpensive die from the catalog that would eventually go with my machine.  It kept me motivated to buy the machine and it allowed me to get a small stockpile of dies ready to go.  I'm glad that I did this because now, besides having the Build A Bear dies from the upcoming Holiday mini, I have several others that I can use for future workshops and stampers' clubs.  I do try to think ahead of what I have got coming up that I need to buy supplies for.  Now I know we can play with the Big Shot for several upcoming events because I have the machine and the dies.  And now, I can continue to slowly build my collection over the coming year(s) because I finally have the machine.  HOORAY!!

Before I end, here's a funny story (I can laugh now) about my Big Shot's arrival for you:

My Open House order arrived late Friday afternoon as we were coming home ourselves.  It was three huge boxes and very heavy, so I asked my UPS guy to just leave the order at the bottom of the stairs for me.  I went about my business for the rest of the day and into the evening, forgetting the boxes had arrived.  Around 11pm my husband returned from a baseball game and he and I were chatting when I suddenly realized I'd forgotten to open my order, and my Big Shot was in there!  By now, it was midnight, but my husband, patient man that he is, carried the order up the stairs for me and into the living room where I tore them open and found my machine.  I opened the box and saw that the handle does not come attached to the machine itself and had to be put together.  There was a little screw, a little washer and a little screwdriver all in a bag together. 

I said to my husband, "Ugh!  I have to put this together!  Can you please help me?"  He said he would, and to bring it over to him where he was sitting on the couch.  He put out his hand, I handed him the tiny pieces and one of them proceeded to roll right out of his hand and into the crack of the couch. 

"Now that can't be good," my husband said. 

He put his hand into the side of the couch and said, "Huh.  That screw must've gone into the lining of the couch.  It's not here." 

I wanted to die.  I now was the one trying to be patient, trying to be calm.  I knew that nothing would be accomplished by me losing my mind, which was what I really wanted to do. 

It was now 12:30 am.

My husband goes down to his workroom and comes up with two empty milk crates.  He lifts the couch up and I prop the milk crates underneath the end the screw had fallen into.  He gets a pair of pliers and begins slowly taking out the dozen or so staples that are keeping the lining attached to the couch. 

 It was a slow, painful process, literally, because at one point he bopped himself in the face with the pliers as he laid under the couch pulling out the staples.  I asked him if he wanted to stop, but he said no, he'd keep going, but "boy that's going to hurt tomorrow," he said.

Finally, all of the staples were out, he reached in, found the teeny, tiny screw, and went downstairs to get the staple gun to re-staple the lining to the couch.  First though, he went over to the dining room table where my handle-less Sizzix sat waiting, and he sat and put the handle on for me. 

It was now 1:00 am and I could play with my Sizzix, while he re-stapled the couch. 

The moral of the story is this:

1) Put your handle on your machine yourself

2) Do it on a table

3) Don't wait til the middle of the night to get started, just in case.  You just never know what can happen...

How I get my inspiration

I thought I'd take a minute and share with you some of the ways that I get inspired when it's time to come up with a project.  I was at my Open House the other day and a customer said, "Oh, I'm just a copier."  So many of us are, including me! 

When it's time for me to plan an event or even plan a birthday invitation or a Christmas card, I immediately start looking through things.  I look through the Stampin' Up! catalog.  I look through the Stamper's Showcase cards on the demonstrator website.  I look on Splitcoast Stampers, I look at cards I've received as swaps.  Eventually, something strikes me.

I mentioned the other day's blog post of my 6x6 page, that I was inspired by the plant in the photo and that led me to the paper choice for my DSP paper.  The plant later got cut out, but that was one thing that helped me plan my project.

For the layout of that page, I also had inspiration.  I'd received a Weekly Inkling in my email inbox, of this card:

When I saw it, I immediately knew that I'd found the layout for my scrapbook page make and take.  I saved it to my desktop and when I got my order in with the DSP, I chose it, (using my photo for inspiration) and looked at this photo to lay out my page.

And you can see, it's pretty similar!

 

When I post my next project sample from the open house, I'll let you know where that project's inspiration came from as well. 

Where do you get your inspiration from?  Leave me a comment to let me know!

Couldn't wait to share: New Catalog Open House Projects!

What a perfect day it was today!  My New Catalog Open House took place beginning at 11:00 am and ending at about 3:30 pm.  I had three time slots and everyone had a wonderful time!  I've been working on the projects all week and wishing I could share them here, but I just had to wait until everyone who came to the open house could see them!

Now that it's over though, I just couldn't wait to share.  I'm starting first with my scrapbook page that we did.  It's my favorite of all the projects for many reasons, which I'll share below.

 

Here's Project #1.  It's a 6x6 scrapbook page of my new niece, Maya Lynne Cerbo, out in California.  I cannot wait to meet her when she and her parents visit here in September.  She obviously is the first reason I love this project, because I love her!  After I got more information about when the photo was taken, I added the words "Week one: June 2009" to the journaling under her name.  But, I'd already taken the picture of the page before I did this.  I sent a copy to Maya's mommy my sister in law and fellow stamper/scrapper.  I also made her a page for her scrapbook.

I love this page because it uses some of our new In Colors, specifically Rich Razzleberry which so far is my favorite, and Crushed Curry.  I used the textured card stock also, and I just love the rich look and feel to the paper.

I also love this page because it uses gorgeous Designer Series papers.  These are from the Level 3 Hostess Bundle on page 18.  The paper is called Lovely Flowers, and it truly is lovely.  The funny thing is that originally, before I cut the photo to fit the page, there was a tall plant with pink flowers on the side table behind the baby's head.  I thought how well those flowers would match the flowers on the paper, until I realized, I'd cut them right out of the photo!  So they were part of the inspiration, and part of the reason I chose this particular photo out of the 100 photos I have from Maya's first few weeks of life. 

Everyone at the open huse made this page, but they were going to go home and put their own photo on, obviously, so I offered them the chance to use a button or a brad in the center of the flower, rather than the Hello Baby stamp from the new Teeny Tiny Wishes stamp set, that I used.  This stamp set is fabulous, it contains every single holiday all in one set, plus additional greetings such as the Hello Baby stamp.  I loved that little greeting though, it was a perfect match for my page and it fit perfectly on the 5 Petal Flower punch.  Several people chose to do a Crushed Curry flower instead of white, with a green or lavendar rhinestone brad in the center, or a button.  They were beautiful!!

This scrapbook page was a very versatile page, any photo could go in the middle since I chose not to use "baby girl" colors.  Some people did all of the DSP with the flowers facing up, some did all with the Curry side facing up, some did half and half like I did, and some did three floral and one curry.  Every single one was beautiful. 

I always try to include a 6x6 page because you don't have to own a scrapbook to use it.  You can use a plate stand to display it on an end table, as I often do before putting them into my scrapbooks, or you can put it on a refridgerator, or you can take a 6x12 piece of card stock, adhere it to the front, and make a card for someone.  There's so much you can do with a 6x6 page without being a scrapper.  I also like 6x6 pages because they're quick and easy.

I hope you've enjoyed seeing the first of the projects I shared today.  I'll be sure to post some more over this next week! 

I'll also being posting sign ups for some of the product sharing clubs that I'll be starting in August.  I always give first dibs to those who come to the open house, and make them public after that.  So, be on the lookout for marker clubs, ribbon shares and in color clubs coming up this week as well!

May 1-31 is National Scrapbooking Month! Check out these specials!

May 1-31 is National Scrapbooking month!  My goal is to scrapbook my photos from Mother's Day this month.  My daughter Caroline gave me a little scrapbook for Mother's Day and I decided to use the photos from that day to fill it.  That same day, I got an email from Shutterfly with an offer for 25 free photos!  So, I ordered 25 free photos from Mother's Day and now I can scrap them in the book she gave me. 

There are several SU specials this month in honor of National Scrapbook Month!  Here's the rundown:

 

Buy three packs of Designer Series paper (including our Specialty Designer Series paper) or 12" x 12" textured card stock, and get one FREE!

Buy a sneak peek stamp set from the 2009-2010 Idea Book & Catalog--Jumble Alphabet (set of 52; double-mounted)--at a 20 percent discount.  Normally $43.95 in the new catalog, it's just $35.16 for this special! 

Join Stampin' Up! for business or pleasure, by signing up for the $75 Scrapbooking Starter Kit! 

In celebration of National Scrapbooking Month, join Stampin' Up! as a demonstrator for only $75 with our limited-time Scrapbooking Starter Kit. The Scrapbooking Starter Kit contains the following:

Item Code	Description	Retail Value
113510	Schoolbook Serif Alphabet stamp set*	$42.95
113059	Simply Scrappin' Petal Party	$19.95
108697	Earth Elements Assorted textured card stock (12" x 12")	$11.95
105240	Whisper White Craft Stampin' Pad	$7.50

*Substitutable for any stamp set up to $43.95 value.

Please note: Each of the products listed above may be substituted for like items.  Please see the Scrapbooking Starter Kit Order Form for details.The Scrapbooking Starter Kit also contains all the business supplies contained in the standard Starter Kit:

• Getting Started DVD
• Getting Started Guide
• Guest Invitation Postcard (100)
• Idea Book & Catalog (8)
• Occasions Mini Catalog (8)
• To My Hostess Envelope (10)
• Recruit Folders (5)
• Recruit Brochures (20)
• Hostess Brochure (20)
• Hostess Benefits Form (10)
• Customer Order Form (50)

 

If you are interested in any of the above specials, you can call or email me at your earliest convenience!  The month is halfway through, so you don't have much time left!  Don't delay, place your order today!!

 

The sad story of my Scallop Edge Punch scrapbook page

Stampin' Up! has a scrapbooking product that I'm really enjoying.  Well, several, but this one in particular is one I like.  The Large On Board Book Basics Kit is something that I really like.  It is a very simple product, just blank chipboard with rounded corners, four to a pack, but I enjoy making seasonal scrapbook pages, just one at a time, to keep on display in our living room.  It allows me to show 1) recent photos of the kids and 2) a little bit of what I "do."  I've done a summer page, a fall page, and now a winter page.  Eventually I will use the front and backs of all the pages and make a full book of them for a different, unique scrapbook.  I can't wait.  I also love that by using these, there's no pressure to finish a book, it's one page and I'm done.  I feel so accomplished.

Here's the most recent one that I did in time for my Open House on Sunday.  Take a look and then I'll tell you the sad, sad story about it.

 

So here's my sad story.  One night last week, I think it was Friday, I was determined to get this one page done in order to have it on display for my open house.  I knew what photos I wanted to scrap, they were some of my favorite photos from the holidays.  I took my computer downstairs into my office, printed out all the photos and began to work.   I didn't have a lot of space because of how I printed the photos, so I was trying to think of how to accessorize my page, just a little bit.  I used Real Red card stock to bring out the red in Santa and Mrs. Claus' outfits, and I thought the craft white snowflakes from the Holiday Blitz stamp set would be a cute background.  I decided to use the Scallop Edge Punch to make a border for the side and for the top.  I got the whole thing done, added a title using my Ticker Tape Alphabet, and put it on display in my living room.  It was so pretty and the kids were so excited.

Sunday came, and the first guests arrived.  My girls came to greet them, they were people they knew, and one of the girls went over and grabbed the scrapbook page to show them.  I hear my little Alexandra saying, "And THIS is Caroline, THIS is me, and THIS is Elizabeth.  THIS is Santa, THIS is Mrs. Claus...."  With every "THIS" there must have been a point onto each photo with her little finger because now on each photo there is a wet fingerprint mark.  I was crushed.  I had to put the page away for the rest of the day and now I'm going to have to try to print out new photos and pull of these and put the new ones on, without destroying the page completely.  I don't know if that's even possible. 

So that's my sad story and I'm SO glad that I photographed the page BEFORE the fingerprint incident, or I would've been twice as sad.  Once for not being able to display it in my house and once for not being able to put it on my blog!  At least I can post it. 

I apologize for the flashes showing up on the picture.  I have a new camera that I've been using but it's on loan to me and it didn't come with instructions so I don't know how to use it so that the flash doesn't go off when I do close up photos.  I'm trying to figure that out!  Until then, I'll have to live with the flash reflections. 

You can find the On Board Book Basics kits on page 183 of our new catalog, which is now on my blog as well.  There's even a new kit: the Long Board books.  So I use the Large Book Basics kit, there is a Small Book Basics Kit and the new Long Board kit.  I encourage you to try it out.  They are not expensive: $5.95, $6.95 and $7.95 per kit. 

Featured Stamper: Renee's "Embrace Life" 6x6 Scrapbook Page

I thought I'd take a break tonight from all of the Christmas themed posts and do a post from my good friend and fellow demonstrator, Renee.  She recently participated in a 6x6 scrapbook page swap and she sent me a photo of her page.
Isn't it stunning?  Her month was a summer month, August I believe, and she wanted to do something that reflected the summer season.  I was just amazed when I saw this photo and I had to post it, even though it's not summer now! 

Renee originally gave me the list of materials used for this page and I cannot find the list anywhere.  However, I know she embossed the flowers in white craft and I know she used a stipple brush to stipple the ink on. 

After scanning the page for me, she also added one white half pearl from the Pretties Kit to one of the flowers.  I can only imagine how beautiful that looked! 

Renee, thanks for sharing your page with us!