Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Happenings on August 2nd 2011

Good evening all,

Ah!! The sweet smell of dirt. Do I have your attention? Most store blogs you go to are just trying to sell you stuff. My blog... I like to think it's one friend writing to another. Now back to the dirt. Every once in a while I loan my car to Priscilla. She uses it to take mom shopping. And most of the time it comes back "different". It comes back with a scent of perfume, or the mirrors need adjusting, the switches aren't in the same spot, my seat need to be moved. You know just a lot of different things. Now before you start rolling your eyes, I really don't mind all of this. Especially the last time she borrowed my car. I get up early to go to the store and open my car door and the sweet smell of dirt greets me. There are some things that are guy things and dirt is one of them. It's like gasoline, or turpentine, or Hoppy's #9. Priscilla and mom went shopping for plants and bags of topsoil. For the last five days I've been in heaven, driving around with the wonderful scent of dirt and all the additives that are mixed with it. I felt I was back in construction.

Ok, back to some items that relate to the store and might be of more interest to you. First up -we are once again sold out of the Eclips Die Cutting Machine from Sizzix. We are now in the process of pre-selling it until the next shipment arrives. The big news is that you can pre-order it for $229.95. We also have the cartridges on sale at $24.95 each. The Eclips, as I've mentioned before is a great machine. It makes the fine intricate cuts that it's competition can't match. There are on-line stores that are selling now, but you'll get it a lot quicker through us and we can show you how to use it. Stay local if you can.

I mentioned a few months ago that Lynell Harlow (Drweamweaver Stencils) will be visiting family and friends in the islands during the month of September. Lynell has come up with a new Stenciling Technique that she will be teaching in 2 classes at our store. If your interested, save Wednesday the 14th or Thursday the 15th and give me a call if you want to sign up. I don't have the cost yet or any samples. I'll post that information as soon as I find out. The classes will be from 6:30-8:30pm.

Fran has scheduled another class for Thursday August 11th 6:30-8:30pm. The name of the class is "Mini Card and Tote". Your going to have to come in and see the samples (yep! she got them to me early). The "tote bag" is really cute and blends the use of embossing folders and punches. You will find multiple uses as a gift bag or party favor. And the mini cards are the perfect accent. The ladies taking this class are going to have a lot of fun. The fee for the class will be $20.00 and I have a list of what you need to bring at the store. Check out the photo below. It doesn't show the degree of details that has gone into developing the Mini Cards and Tote.



















Priscilla has also made her sample for the Second Sunday "Make and Take" this month. It's a gift bag with a butterfly as an embellishment. What makes this embellishment rather innovative is that Priscilla uses the Bead Template from Hot Off the Press to make the body of the butterfly. Added to that are some twisted pieces of wire and you have a butterfly that is unique and really "cool" looking. Reserve some time for Sunday August 14th 2:00-5:00 and come in and share the fun. It's FREE, although we do ask - if you can donate a dollar to the "FoodBank" bucket.




















Lets see- Next up is some exciting news. The Sister Stamps that everyone is enjoying and talking about are about to have some new "brother" and "sisters" to join the first edition. Release #2 is scheduled for September 1, 2011. For those of you that are interested, we are allowed to pre-sell them, but we can't distribute them until the release date. That's the agreement all the stores have made. If you are interested in reserving one or more just let me know. Any paid pre-order will receive a 10% discount. If you have our discount card we'll give you 10% + 10% on a pre-sale.















Lastly, I've got a couple of samples for you of our Palm Moon stencil. Priscilla's sample uses one of the Greeting Farm stamps and is intended as thank you cards to her "kids". Mine is a bit simpler. I used white embossing paste, stipple brushes and stamping ink for color, and a few rub-ons that have gone un-noticed in the store.
















The last sample is another stamp from Greeting Farm. I used the Copic Pens for color. Now a lot of people have told me stamping is hard. If your blending and shading and adding shadows, it can become challenging. But if you do it like I do, it's no different than coloring a children's coloring book. All you have to do is stay in the lines. If I can do it anybody can. I don't think it looks bad and it opens the door for other challenges if you want to "play" with the pens. Practice on xerox paper first - that's what Priscilla and I do.
















That's all for now... see you tomorrow.... and if you want to make your husband happy - go buy some dirt. Ha!

UB

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