Let It Snow

Isn't this a cute and cheerful Christmas Card? Actually, I suppose you could you this throughout the winter months for just about any occassion.

This was a make & take card that Melanie brought to our meeting last week. It was a lot of fun to make. There is sparkles (Dazzling Diamonds) in the center of the snowflakes but you can't tell from this photo. The biggest challenge of this card was making sure to fit all of the letters in across the white cardstock! I made it on the first attempt!

Recipe for this card: Big Deal Alphabet and Cold Play stamp sets; Bashful Blue, Chocolate Chip and Whisper White cardstock; Chocolate Chip, Bashful Blue, Basic Black and Purely Pomegranate ink; Purely Pomegranate double-stitched ribbon

Ok, now here's my take on 'Let It Snow'. I loved Melanie's playful card but didn't have the same stamp sets, so I came up with my own design.

Recipe: Ballet Blue, Very Vanilla and Cherise double-sided designer paper; wide Very Vanilla grosgrain ribbon, basic black ink and ballet blue ink. I used the 2-way glue pen to add the dazzling diamonds to the snowflakes.

Thanks for the inspiration Melanie!

Time Well Spent

Look what I received in the mail last week!! A new stamp set! A gift from Shelli Gardner, the CEO of Stampin' Up! Ok, so I wasn't the only one to receive this - all demonstrators received this stamp set!! This stamp set, Time Well Spent, will be available to Hostesses only in the Spring/Summer 2008 catalogue. Give me a phone call and we'll book your party for the new year!

My group of demonstrators is going to use this new set for our swaps in December. This should be lots of fun to play with!

Happy monday to all of you! Have a good week.

Here Kitty, Kitty

Happy Monday everyone. Looks like the rain has stopped for the time being. Isaac and I are hoping for a non-rainy day because we've got a date at the playground today!!

Tonight is my demonstrator meeting! I always look forward to getting together with the group of girls because, not only are they great girls that I love to spend time with, but we also get to stamp a great variety of projects! And yes...we do talk business too!

For each meeting, every other month, we swap cards with one another. This is a great way of gathering samples and ideas to keep us going and it helps keep our clients interested. Here is my swap card for tonight. There wasn't any specific theme this month, just had to be current Stampin' Up! products.

This stamp set is called Here Kitty, Kitty and the wheel, Meow, coordinates with it. I just love this cute and friendly set! The card is Elegant Eggplant with Basic Black to highlight the More Mustard and Naturals White cardstock. I stamped the kitty with basic black ink and then coloured it with the pencil crayons and aqua-painter. I stamped the hat and mouse, coloured them, cut and punched them out and then used Stampin' Dimensionals to make them 'pop' up. I added the More Mustard brads just to finish it off.

I have many of the stampin' wheels but don't very often use them because I found them difficult to use. Well, I finally invested in the Stampin' Around Wheel Guide, and wow! what a difference. This wheel guide allows you to follow the edge of the ruler with your wheel, therefore making it easy to make perfectly wheeled images, no more crooked lines or overlapping images! I just ordered two more wheels last night!! Can't wait to use them plus dig out the ones I've already got! The wheel guide sells for $13.50 and is on page 192 of the current catalogue.

Here's a couple of 3x3 cards. One is using the Here Kitty, Kitty set and the other , Yappy Day, the puppy dog set. The Yappy Day also has a coordinating wheel, Good Dog. Both sets can be found on page 75 of the current catalogue. At the Craft Fair this weekend I sold oodles of the 3x3 cards and these 2 cards were quite popular with everyone!

I had a fantastic weekend displaying at a local Craft Fair hosted by Denise and Roger at Sayward Farms. It was such a great setting, the vendors, about 11 of us, were set up in their barn (a very nice barn!) over the two days. The outdoors and the inside of the barn were beautifully decorated for the holidays and we had Christmas music playing, it really put us in the Christmas mood! I was thrilled with the number of visitors that we had through and it seemed that they really enjoyed the quaintness and the personal feeling that you got while shopping with us. I met and made lots of new aquaintances which I always enjoy. Hopefully, I see many of you again very soon!

Wishing everyone a great week ahead,

Alicia

Willis Point Craft Fair

The First Annual Willis Point Craft Fair went off without a hitch! The weekend was full of firsts: first Craft Fair for Willis Point, first time for me organizing and planning a craft fair, a few of us (including me) had never sold their products at Craft Fairs before, and it was the first time alot of our vendors had ever visited our beautiful community! With that said, it couldn't have been more fun! The community, as always, showed their support by coming to see what we were all about and by spending their money to support the very talented vendors on sight.

I was told not to have great expectations for the first year and so at the end of the day on Sunday when we counted our admission ($1 admission) and determined we had 131 people come through over the 2 days everyone seemed thrilled with that! With the $1 admission our shoppers were offered complimentary hot apple cider or coffee with some yummy little treats.

This is a photo of our display and my neighbour Linda shopping. I've also got my friend Carolyn helping me with my business. As the organizer it was important for me to have someone at my table at all times. At my table I had hand-stamped silk scarves (hanging behind us) for sale, along with money/gift certificate holders, greeting cards, retired stamp sets, enclosure cards, and hot chocolate sachets.

This photo nicely shows the beautiful jewelry my friend Bonnie makes, called Lotus Line Jewelry. All of her jewelry is made with sterling silver. She's got great creativity with colours and designs. If you'd like to have a chance to view her jewelry or even purchase her jewelry she'll be at the Commonwealth Craft Fair Nov 17/18.

I received such wonderful support and compliments from both the shoppers and the vendors, I really appreciate it all! I had alot of fun doing it and everyone was so easy to get along with. Some of the 'seasoned' crafters provided me with so much knowledge and ideas of what works and what doesn't work, I really appreciated the feedback. As I announced to all of them in the end, I will do it all again next year and I look forward to it!!

Happy November everyone!

Alicia