Happy Thanksgiving, and Saturday Demo!

 

Happy Thanksgiving, friends!  We will be CLOSED Thursday and Friday, November 28 and 29th as we celebrate Thanksgiving.  We hope that you have a happy and healthy holiday, filled with good friends and good food!!!  Since we will be closed, we will not have our regular Thursday FREE Make-and-Take, but we wanted to leave you with this little bit of inspiration.  The card was made for our Wall of Fame by Sherry Hickey.  I love her paper piecing work on this image - super, super cute!  

 

 Will will reopen at 10 AM on Saturday, November 30.  We are participating in Small Business Saturday, so if you have registered your American Express Card, and you use it to purchase more than $10 in stamping supplies on Nov. 30, you will receive a $10 credit on your next AmEx statement.  Yay!  If you don't have an American Express, please stop by anyway.  I will be leading an encore demo with 2 of my favorite products - the Faber Castell Paper Crafter Crayons and the Envelope Punch Board.  The demo will take place between 11 - 1.  Hope to see you then - and a very happy Thanksgiving to you all!

Wax On, Wax Off

Tuesday's Learn at Lunch FREE demo features a brand new product - Faber Castell's Paper Crafting Crayons.  These fabulous wax crayons come in "twist-up" packaging, so they are wonderfully convenient to use and can even be sharpened for detail work.  You can create resists with them, fabulous backgrounds and even melt them for a cool, wax texture for your mixed media projects. 

Join Angela between 12 - 2 tomorrow and take the opportunity to play with something new! 

Closed for 4th of July!

 Because we will be CLOSED on Thursday, July 4, we will not be having our usual FREE make-and-take project this week!  We hope you'll join us next week for an adorable card featuring lots of dies!  What a great way to make use of scrap paper and have a quick, cute card too!  Meanwhile, we are taking this opportunity to look back at some of the fun we had at our first annual Unconventional Convention.  That's right - I'm calling it first annual, because it was so much fun, we plan to do it again!  Pictured above are the incredible artists (and me - I'm a wannabe) from Sweet n Sassy.  Wow - they really transformed our classroom into an incredible show floor!  And Kathy's demo of transferring an image to create a lake reflection was spectacular! 

 Then, Darsie Bruno (designer from Just Rite stamps and Spellbinders) joined us for some amazing demos on Saturday.  She was on a mission to share her knowledge, so I just had to photo bomb her :-)  She created stunning backgrounds with the large Just Rite stamps and Gelatos.  Very cool!

Rounding out the event was a visit and book signing with Mollie Cox Bryan.  The level of talent and artistry in the room was inspiring, and we look forward to having all the ladies back soon for classes and demos and another signing when Mollie's new book comes out in the winter!

For cards that are Just Rite

One of my favorite things about Just Rite stamps is that they are interchangeable. But almost as impressive is how well they work with punches and dies. With just a few sets, you can create lots of different combinations - I LOVE that! Stop in Tuesday between 12 - 2 and see how easy they are to stamp with. If you can't join us for our demo (or if you just can't get enough), join Angela for her Just Rite class on Thursday, October 18.

Snow Much Fun!

One of my favorite things about Just Rite stamps is how they mix, match and coordinate not only with other stamps in the Just Rite collection, but also with Marvy punches and Nestabilities. If you have to make a bunch of Christmas cards, but you get bored with the assembly line approach, make a change in the border or in the center stamp and voila - something new to color without completely recreating the wheel! Stop in Thursday and try it for yourself. You'll love the storage convenience and price of the Just Rite system!

Clearly Just Rite!

Just Rite has long been one of our favorite stamp companies. Their unique products make customizing your projects quick and simple. And now they've made them even easier to use. Join Jenn this Tuesday from 12-2 to play with their new CLEAR mounts! Now you can see exactly where you're placing your images. These clear blocks still have the "ridges", so they are fully compatible with sets you have purchased in the past. Intrigued? Stop by and see - no reservation is required!

Monochromatic Magic

I love the simple elegence of monochromatic (one color) cards. But creating them, especially when trying to incorporate decorative paper, can be tricky. That's one of the reasons I love the cover-a-card background stamps from Impression Obsession. You can create "background paper" to match whatever color scheme you want! And, even though they are large stamps, they are super easy to stamp when you use the rocker block. We finished this card with one of the new sentiment stamps from Just Rite (another company that's all about customization). Come play with us and see how much fun these stamps can be! All day Thursday, and it's absolutely FREE!

Perfect Holiday Greetings

Just Rite stamps are wonderful for the holidays. Use them to personalize every gift! Mix and match borders with center images, or use fonts to create exactly the right words. Last year, I used mine to create a personalized bookplate to stamp inside the books I gave as gifts. They also make great pail toppers (we're using them in our Holiday Open House make-and-take this year). And, in one of my earlier posts, I showed how you can personalize or recycle "store-bought" cards. Stop in for our demo tomorrow from 12-2 and let Jenn show you the hundreds of uses for Just Rite stamps!

Let it Snow!

Stampendous just released these mini tins, and they are adorable! I thought they would be fun for treats and small treasures for Christmas, but Dee and Marilynn are clearly more creative than I am! The came up with this "snowglobe" concept featuring punches, Polar White Flower Soft and Just Rite stamps on top. Join us for our Holiday Open House on December 5 and make one for yourself. You must reserve a space for this make-and-take, and the spaces are limited - so don't delay.

We also announced in our most recent email alert that Joe & Kathy of Seaside Stampin' Ink will be here from 10-4 on Dec. 5 demoing dozens of things to do with a Spritz Bottle (well, really the contents inside the Spritz Bottle, but you knew that). They'll also be bringing their entire trade show booth for your shopping pleasure. I know you don't want to miss that! Make plans to join us and ring in the holidays in style!

Fun Idea from JustRite Stamps

Donna took a class yesterday with JustRite Stamps, and they had a very clever idea. Purchase cards after Christmas this year when they are marked down to 75% off. (I was thinking you could also reuse cards you received this year - "thinking green".) Cut the front of the card off and then customize with a ribbon and stamped greeting.

Then mount the card onto a new piece of cardstock, and you're done! How quick and fun is that?

Notice how beautifully the JustRite stamps fit into the punched shapes - again for quick mass production. Donna is bringing back handouts so that we know exactly which stamps fit in which punches - it couldn't be easier than that!

Demo that's Just Rite!

Jean had a great time preparing for Tuesday's next installment of the Learn at Lunch (our FREE demo series that runs from 12-2 PM). We have a bunch of new designs to coordinate with the Just Rite series of customizable stamps, and once Jean started playing, she just couldn't stop. She made a set or cards, then created a box with coordinating paper to put them in. What a fantastic gift! Come and play and see for yourself how addictive Just Rite stamping can be!