Wow, another Christmas behind us!! I think it was the lack of snow and cold weather that had it creep up on us faster than we realized. Shopping seemed to be easier this year as we decided on gift cards for many people. Everyone seems to have everything in this day and age and gift cards from Keith and I were the oblivious solution. Of course for our little grandkids it had to be toys. We got Rosie a doll she asked for that she saw on TV, cute little thing and she named it anookie after a friend she knows whose name is Anuke. Brenda and I had a good laugh over that when she told us. Grace got her Barbie Hair Salon set that she asked for. We had fun at the table washing hair etc. The traditions at our house changed somewhat this year. In the 60 years of Christmas for me, I have always celebrated in Port Colborne. This year we spent with Keith’s daughter Carleen and her husband and our other 2 grandkids who are 13 and 11. Carleen is the daughter who has cancer and we felt we needed to be with her this year. So the 24th was with them and then over to Keith’s brothers home for the meal on the 25th. It was a wonderful Christmas for us. Carleen is in remission right now and doing very well.
On the down side of my Christmas, my friend Karen, is failing quite fast with her ALS. She is now in a wheelchair and can’t really talk much anymore. I know this is my last Christmas with her, according to her doctor, so I try to do whatever I can for her. To all of you who sent her Christmas cards, I thank you, and wish you could have seen her face as she opened all of them. So many of you came through with my request therefore she received a large number of beautiful handmade cards. You all are true angels!!
I have taken a couple well needed days off and will remain closed on the 27th and again on January 2nd. Within that time Keith and I have to get the inventory counted so it’s not really time away from the store. Brenda has been working hard getting classes ready for the new year so lets get down to...
WHAT’S NEW AT THE STORE
I guess what you’re all waiting to hear is when our sales will start. For our 3 “S” members, they will enjoy shopping with a 25% discount (actually it’s 35% as they can add their membership discount to that 25%) on all Christmas products from Dec 28th to the 31st. Which means for the rest of my customers you can receive a 25% discount on Christmas items beginning January 3rd. Stores normally feature sales during the month of January and Stamplicity will be no exception. We would like you to visit our store often so stay tuned for various sales for the entire month of January and February. Although I won’t be attending any retail shows this winter you can be assured I will remain on top of the latest products introduced at these shows thanks to my sales rep, Kelly Grace who represents over 30 companies and Kristen Hulst from Notions Marketing. These ladies are the best at their jobs and once we hear from them, Brenda and I will be on top of all the latest and amazing new items that are being introduced. We have some spring Dies we pre-ordered that Tim Holtz introduced last fall and they are expected soon. I do know that Spellbinder is once again going to be doing a blog to feature their new products. Once we hear about all the new products being introduced in 2012 we will make our decisions on what items to pursue.
In the meantime check out Spellbinders blog in January to learn about what’s in the future for their company.
WHAT’S COMING IN THE FUTURE
NEW CLASSES
You asked for the following so here is a line up of what our schedule is for January....
WINTER SONG ALTERED BOOK $45.00 approx. 2 1/2 hours
Join Brenda as she walks you through creating a beautiful altered book. The soft palette of purples and silver are perfect for your winter holiday photos. Brenda includes touches of Luminarte and Paint It papers.
Friday January 20th 1pm
Wednesday February 1st 6pm
GARDEN CLUB $7.00 approx. 1 hour
Monday February 6th 1pm
Monday February 20th 1pm
These classes will be quite different than anything we have done before. This will be an ongoing class every other Monday at 1pm that Brenda will be teaching. Many of you know there are oodles of dies and techniques for making flowers and that’s what Brenda will explore in these classes. In every class you will be making a different type of flower (maybe 2) whether it be from a die of Cheery Lynn, Marianne designs or Spellbinders. Brenda will use the spellbinder Flower Pot die and you will complete a different little bouquet in a pot in every class. Have fun learning all the many flowers that adorn cards and scrapbook pages. As Brenda will probably be making these on an ongoing basis there will not be any pictures of what you will be creating. Every class will be a pleasant surprise!!!
With the first quarter being around the corner we will be introducing our new paper line from Christine Adolph and Creative Imaginations which is called Winter Song. The Altered book class mentioned above is made with this line and Brenda will also be designing a scrapbook class as well in the new quarter. We have a date for the scrapbooking class but no pictures until Brenda completes the 2 page layout.
WINTER SONG LAYOUTS $20.00 approx. 2 hours
This class will feature the soft purple and silver colours of Christine Adolph’s Winter Song paper line. The layouts you will complete will be perfect for any of your winter pictures whether it is your current ones or the ones you still have to scrapbook from previous years. ( I think we are all a little behind in our scrapbooking). You can see this paper line on our website. You know Brenda’s work, whatever layouts she puts together will be worth completing.
Monday January 16th 10:30 am
LUMINARTE ACCORDIAN JOURNAL $35.00 approx. 2 1/2 hours
When Brenda saw the album I did in Texas she thought it would make a great class. She put her own album together and tweaked it and now is ready to teach it. You will be using the Creative Imagination paper line “Devotion”. Check the site for samples of the journal.
Friday January 27th 10:30 am
BUTTERFLY BEAUTIES $20. approx. 2 hours
Once we got the amazing new butterfly dies in the store Brenda has been thinking about putting together a class. Although it’s still winter wouldn’t it be nice to take a class focusing on a spring theme with elegant, cute butterflies, using dies and embossing folders.
Friday February 10th 10:30 am
Thursday February 16th pm
TWINKLING H20 TECHNIQUES $20. approx 2 hours
This class is all about colouring with a medium called H20’s. These are solid paints that you add water to and apply to stamped designs, papers or to the actual stamps. You can create glorious backgrounds as well with these paints as Brenda will show you with the cards you will make in this class.
Thursday January 26th 10:30am
My goal for 2012 is to create some cards classes myself using the existing products we carry in the store, such as Sew Ribbon, perfect pearls, 3D designs, embossing folders, glitter, peel off stickers, Cheery Lynn dies, unique techniques with stamps, Sew Easy, Embossing Powders, etc. Tall order I know but with redistributing jobs to Keith I hope to have more time to create.
SWEET DEALS
We will continue with our monthly sweet deals but hope to change it up a bit and introduce card kits some months instead of just scrapbooking kits. Here is what’s coming for January and February.
January Quick Quotes Scrapbooking Kit $24.95
Hero Arts Stamps...Check out their catalog online or visit the store and order your choices with us from their new 2012 catalog and get 25% discount. www.heroarts.com
February Quick Quotes Waterfall Album $29.95
Serendipity Rubber Stamps Order your stamps from us and enjoy a 25% discount www.serendipitystamps.com
You can check out the Quick Quotes offers on our site under programs
Our Scrapbook feature paper line for the second quarter will be “Good Day Sunshine” from We R Memory Keepers.
So as you can see there are many exciting new things happening in 2012. It’s the perfect time with cold winter months ahead to take some classes and get back into the swing of scrapbooking or cardmaking. We are here to help you get your creative side flowing once again.
TIPS AND TECHNIQUES
1) With the intricate dies, rub a dryer sheet, like Bounce, in/on the die...not just a light wipe, but not like you have to put all your muscles into it. It cuts at least twice before you need to use the dryer sheet on it again. Deneen Treble
2) How to stay organized...article from Scrapbook Etc.
1. Clean up your space between layouts.
2. Invest in a labeler or create labels using return address labels. Use the labels to identify where your supplies belong.
3. For digital elements, create a filing system on your computer. Tag the different files you download so you can easily search for whatever element you need for a page.
4. Keep your oft-used items close at hand-either in boxes on your work surface-or nearby in a drawer or closet.
5. Purge on a regular basis. It might be hard to let go of some of those old supplies, but you can donate them to day cares, preschools, classrooms, or service
organization where they will be used and appreciated.
6. Commit to an organization system for three months. The only way to learn what works is to experiment. If you commit for a short period of time, you give yourself
mental permission to like or dislike the system without regret.
7. Determine your top three go-to items and store them together so you won't have to dig through your stash.
8. Dedicate a chunk of time to implement the system for ALL your supplies. If you only organize 10% of your supplies, you won't reap the rewards.
3) Painters tape comes in colors and different sizes. It can be used for masking. Painters tape releases easily from surfaces & does not damage cardstock unless the paper is delicate. Tear or cut to the right size, overlap it at the edges to create larger mask, apply the mask where needed, and when done stamping, remove the tape. To use painters' tape as a stencil, adhere the tape to wax paper and cut out or punch out the shape you need. Remove the wax paper and use the painters' tape stencil as you would any stencil. On the subject of masking when cutting masks cut them slightly smaller than the image you want to mask to avoid halos.
4) Plumbers tape (comes in a roll in different sizes) . Cut 2 pieces about 5" long. Peel off adhesive and attach to cardstock for a background and then sandwich in a Cuttlebug folder and run through. Daub with alcohol inks. You could also attach to cardstock and die-cut and cover with alcohol inks.
5) If you have no use for the baby's crib any longer, take it apart and mount the side rails (slat) as a single unit horizontally on your stamping studio wall. One set of rails can fit at least one hundred small, medium, and a few large wood mounted imaged and get them into view so you can find them easily.
6) Monoprints sound familiar but you can't quite place the technique? Essentially, you get a plastic folder, apply a dye ink pad, open and close the folder to trap air and 'blob' things up; insert glossy cardstock and press with your hands, Voila!!
7) Perfect Pearls Mist...when you spritz some glimmer on a card and have access on the mat underneath blot it up and transfer the blotted up residue onto another piece of cardstock. Don't drag just pat.
8) Instead of purchasing a large acrylic block for those big cling stamps try using your b & c clear plates from your Cuttlebug or any die cut machine
9) Hate foggy windshields? Buy a chalkboard eraser and keep it in the glove box of your car When the windows fog, rub with the eraser! Works better than a cloth!
10) If you seal an envelope and then realize you forgot to include something inside, just place your sealed envelope in the freezer for an hour or two. Viola! It unseals easily.
Just added these last 2 as I thought they were pretty neat
Posted by Pauline
Jan 02, 2012
A Night To Unwind
Fall Flings 2011
About Us
If you are interested in the February Album...please contact the store and reserve your spot (maximum 8).
HERO ARTS
