Done for the year....

Finally, school is over, I have a 3 week break from work and don't plan to take on as many classes next session, I finished my stamp camps, I was able to get out my December birthday cards and my Holiday cards for stampers, and finish my teacher and boss gifts! I'm done for the year!

You may have noticed I'm already dreaming about next year. I have a line-up of camp themes for next year already and in my head I am already coming up with ideas. My goal for this year is to focus even more on the Stamp Camp business and keep improving how it works. If you have any suggestions for ways I could improve Stamp Camp I would love to hear it, and if you leave me feedback you will get to choose a gift from my gift bucket at the next Stamp Camp. I am working on improving the lighting which I know is a problem and I'll do my best to have that kink worked out by January's camp.

For the 2008 year I would like to make Thursday nights "family friendly" nights, meaning that kids who are 12 & up could attend with their parent. I am also going to try to update my blog every Monday, so keep an eye out for new posts.

Another thing I would love to start for 2008 is doing kids stamp birthday parties at their location. I'm trying to figure a good cost and the details for that, so again, any suggestions would be welcome and can earn you treats!

I hope you all have a wonderful holiday and I look forward to stamping with you in the new year!

Last minute photos...

I profusely apologize for not getting these up sooner. Life's been crazy and my computer is trying to commit computercide I think, but here they are, the Stamp-A-Stack cards. I'm going to take $5 off the original price for the camp because I am feeling so terrible about the wait.

Upcoming Events

Boy, trying to balance work, school, stamping, and life has been a huge challenge, but I hope that I'm living up to it! Sometimes it feels like I go 2 steps forward and then 1 back and that every aspect of my life takes a turn being in the lead, but overall it's been really rewarding. I'm a little nervous with the Holidays approaching that I will wind up dropping one of the balls I am juggling, but with the support of my friends and family I'm sure that I can make it though.

I am constantly searching for the best way to approach business, so I hope that you bear with me as I try different things. So far the Evites have been working the best, but ultimately it may wind up that I do a quarterly newsletter with a preregistration form, or something similar. Any feedback that you have would be greatly appreciated it. I love to hear your opinions and get some new ideas. Knowing how you like and dislike aspects of the camps allows me to alter to suit my guests, if possible. Also, remember that anytime you have a card that you need, such as a special birthday card, or baby card, etc just let me know and I will have one for the next stamp camp.

I am going to try so hard to get my November cards done early. The stamp camps are planned for the last week of November and I hope to hold a Holiday Stamp-A-Stack the week or two after that. I don't want to wait too long or no one will be able to get their cards out before Christmas!

I will be having a table at the Firgrove Elementary Bazaar on Saturday November 17th, I hope that some of you come to see me there. I am planning to have a free make and take card for people to create while they are there and to just get the word out about what I do. I am grateful to all of you who bring your friends with you and make it a fun monthly girls night out!

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving and I hope I will see you at Stamp Camp this month. Please RSVP early so I can be sure I have enough materials for everyone to stamp!

New goodies!!!

Due to the wonderful turnout for Septembers camp, I was able to purchase a ton of fun new materials. We have new punches, new stamp sets, and new accessories for you to use on your cards.

I purchased tons of new paper and was able to restock almost everything I was low on. I was also able to purchase 5 new punches which have already been put to good use!

I was also able to get 10 brand new stamp sets, including a bonus set from Kim.

I hope you enjoy using these new items at camps. I always have a Stampin' Up! Catalog on hand so anytime you want to take a look and see something in there you love and think I should use let me know, I always try to accomodate what you want!

Thank you!!

Starting this year, I'm sending out birthday cards to my stampers. Those who came to the open house filled out some interest cards including their address and birthdays and during their birthday month they will recieve a card from me with a little coupon for a goody if they come to stamp camp during that month.
I am using different techniques for birthday cards. Sometimes these may take too much time to do at stamp camp, or we might wind up doing them sometime down the road, but i will post pictures of the more unique ones on the blog so you can see them.

Octobers birthday cards were File Folder cards. It's standard card size but made into a file folder with the sides sealed. Then on the inside is an insert with a tab that you pull out and includes a greeting. I created a variety for October, some personalized and some not, all using some diecuts I purchased at Joann's in the dollar section.

September Cards....

Well, as usual, I'm not quite done. I'm never quite done until about 5 minutes before camp starts, but I'm trying to get better about it which is why I'm posting pics now. I wanted to give a heads up on some of the cards. I still reserve the right to alter cards or use different ones the night of - just in case I find I don't have enough cardstock for everyone to stamp these particular cards or something, but if I don't use them this month i'll use them next month!


If you cannot see the slideshow above you can vie wthe cards here: http://picasaweb.google.com/Gammaray23/SeptemberStampCamp?authkey=jIrpvLSS7CI

Enjoy! I'll see you Thursday or Friday. Don't forget that I will have special surprises for people who leave me blog feedback!

The Glue that keeps us stamping....

I confess that I really hate gluesticks. They are messy, they get all over the scratch paper and stick to the back of the projects, it dries clumpy and half of the time unless I really get a ton of glue on the cardstock, it dries out and the fronts of my cards fall off. I find it a frustrating adhesive to work with.

After trying many different choices, Kim introduced me to the Tombow Multi Liquid Glue. This stuff is awesome - it's precise, only takes a tiny amount - literally barely a dot in each corner - and it makes it much easier to glue smaller pieces of cardstock to my projects. I don't have to worry about making a mess of my work area, it's clean and also has the option of being repositionable if you do it the right way.

Unfortunately due to cost, I am unable to provide the multi for stamp camps, although I would love to. I think everyone would be much happier, and given how little glue you have to use, one container of the multi would probably last through a year of stamp camps. Well, maybe that's an exaggeration since I dont' really know, but I use mine constantly and only have to replace it every few months.

Anywho, I did find a decent deal online and was able to buy a case of the multi. My plan is to offer it for sale to any of my stampers for $3. It will be labelled it with their name on my handy dandy labeller, then kept here for their use at every stamp camp so that they don't have to remember to bring theier own glue every time. They can just find their multi in the basket and get to work on cards!

I'll still have gluesticks for those who prefer them, but this way I can offer an alternative and consider myself an official glue babysitter!!!

Open House Success!

The Open House was a total success! A huge thank you to all of my guests, and a special thanks to those of you who spread the word to friends!

We created 2 cards, one fall themed/back to school card, and then a birthday card, although there was a choice of different sentiments. We also created a bookmark as our project of the evening.

19 people showed up and they had a blast stamping away at the cards and projects laid out for them, while getting to know each other.

At the end of the evening we drew door prize slips and Carmen walked away with a coupon for a free stamp camp! Prema and Julianne each won a set of 5 cards!

It was a total success and I'm so excited that those new stampers got a chance to come! I'm also very grateful that my regular stampers continue to support my business! Thank you so much and see you at the next Stamp Camp!

Open House for Stamp Camps - Great chance for new stampers to get involved!

I'm kick starting a new season of stamp camps with an open house. If you did not receive and evite invitation, please email me sus2005@rainierconnect.com and I will add you to the list!

There will be refreshments, cards and make-and-take projects, info on upcoming camps and workshops, doorprizes, thank you gifts, and all of it is totally free.

This is a chance to come and see the new stampin space and a great way to introduce friends to stamping. Even though it is not a regular stamp camp, if you bring a friend who is new to stamping and you will still recieve a coupon for $5 off your next stamp camp! Bring more friends, get more coupons! This low-key event might be just the thing to get those shy stamper's feet wet so spread the word!

For those of you who do like to stamp at home, I will also have all of the stamp sets and accessories I no longer use up for sale at great deals. I will post pictures here when I get a chance.

I hope you are able to make it and please spread the word!

We're officially moved...

Ok y'all, we are officially moved!
Our new house boasts a lot more room which will be such a relief for stamping, plus there will be more space for new stampers so be sure to spread the word to your friends and when you bring a guest to a stamp camp you get a coupon for $5 off your next camp!

The house is slowly coming together, but we inherited 2 extra 6 foot tables and 4 more chairs, so we will have lots of surface space to spread out and we will have 2 spots to stamp at each station which will eliminate any waiting around. Plus then you and a friend can work together on your cards.

Some other exciting stamping news is that the new Stampin' Up! Fall & Winter catalog is out now and soon I will be placing an order for some new stamp stuff! This means new colors, new stamp sets, new papers, and new accessories.
This also means I will be cleaning out the old stuff so for those of you who like to stamp at home, you will be able to take advantage and get some great deals on some much loved stamp sets & accessories. I'll let you know when I will be having that sale.

July is coming to a close and we'll be on vacation the last week so I won't be able to hold a stamp camp this month, but I will do my best to schedule a big August stamping bash. Keep your eye on the blog and your email if you are on my list. :)

One last thing, your feedback is really important to me. I do my best to provide a fun, comfortable environment with a variety of projects to suit everyone. If you have a certain theme card you need, or if you would love to see more classes suited to projects, scrapbooking, etc. or if you would prefer different times than the current Thursday & Friday nights, please send me an email and let me know and I will do my very best to accomodate your wishes!

Happy Stamping and see you soon. :)

Summer Hiatus?

After the typical cram the night before stamp camp when my creativity kicked into high gear and those card ideas got themselves finished, it's time for a summer hiatus. I think....
Typically my house is too hot and too small to suffer a crowd of any size starting whenever the weather warms up, and of course, having fans on during stamp camp is not really a good combo!

However, we are planning a move this summer and it recently got bumped up a month! So, beginning July 1st, not only will have seating for 14 stampers before I set up any tables or chairs, but we'll also have the blessing of Air Conditioning!!! Woo hooo!

So, there is a chance if the move goes smoothly and easily (ha ha ha ha ha) that I might be up for some summer camps in the new location, after all. I was toying with the idea of doing a "Christmas in July" stamp a stack to get those Christmas cards started early... No promises of course, but if you would be interested in that the more feedback I get the more inclined I'll be to make it happen. :)

Enjoy your summers!

May Cards

Finally! I meant to have these up last week but time got away from me and then we were on vacation for the long weekend. Now you can check out the May Stamp Camp cards on the link to the right. I have 9 posted and 1 coming just as soon as I get a silver inkpad to finish it!
Enjoy and hopefully I'll see you stamping this week!

Upcoming events....

Ohhhh, I've got some fun stuff coming up and it's very exciting!!
First of all I'm going to try out an Open Card making night. I am always left with the question of what to do with the extra scraps and extra cards from cutting the cardstock for the camps? What better way to put those to use by opening up a card making night to all of my stampers?They can unleash their creativity and have free reign of my stamps and inks and tools. They can all share ideas and for a fraction of the stamp camp cost, create as many cards as they can, for whatever occasions as they need! It should be a lot of fun and I'm looking forward to a casual night of stamping.

As for the upcoming stamp camps, I'm really looking forward to these because instead of a specific theme for the entire camp, I'm going to do stock-up cards. With Mother's day, Father's day, graduation and wedding season just around the corner, we can cover all of our bases with a variety of cards.
For April's camps we'll be creating 2 cards of each of the following themes: Mother's Day, Get Well, Sympathy, Friendship, and Feminine birthday cards.
For May's camps we'll be focusing on: Father's Day, Graduation, Wedding, New Baby (boy and girl), and Masculine Birthday Cards.

March Stamp Camps

Ok - Card pics have been added! Scroll down a bit they will be on the righthand side under Spring & Easter Cards!

The Beauty of "the Stack"

Joann's sells these things called "the Stack" which is a slab of 180 sheets of scrapbooking paper. It's way more paper than I think i'd ever use in my life, but they had a spring collection on sale the other day so I picked it up, mainly so i could use the paper to decorate other fun things. Scrapbook paper + Mod Podge = FUN! Here is my latest. This has been on the to-do list for awhile now but I never had any great paper to use to decorate it. These drawers will hold all my doo-dads - woo hoo! I'm off now to work on Stamp Camp Cards!

Here is my super easy attempt at decorating the giant clothespins. I will be using these to hold my card samples during stamp camps. I will probably add a little tag to them saying Sample, and trimming down the ribbon a bit. I just wanted to get a pic up becuase they are totally fun.

Fun New Stuff

I am so excited. Yesterday I recieved my giant clothespins in the mail from Oriental Trading. I've seen these decorated on splitcoast stampers and thought they would actually work great as card sample holders for my stamp camps! This way the cards will be up a little higher so the stamper can see them and they will also be up off the table. I am hoping to get a chance to decorate them today and then I'll take some pics to post.
I am having some USB port issues and it's not reading my external hard drive so it's kind of a pain to upload my pics and therefore I have been putting it off. I also need to get to work on my Spring Stamp Camp Cards and get pics of those up! They are coming soon I promise!

Happy Stamping!

Parties & Private Camps

After attending the PSCNS auction last night as preschool alumni I've started to think on different things I can do with my crafty ability. Birthday parties, particularly for kids, are huge and I also know kids love to craft so i was thinking I could rent my services as a stamper for birthday parties and help kids make a card or project. I could do the same for adults as well. Private parties. I did hold one at my sister in laws and it was a ton of fun, however I think I would change the format if I did it in the future.

Some other ideas are to hold an open stamp, where everyone is welcome to come and for a small fee, use my stamps, inks, and creativity to help them create their own cards or scrapbook pages, etc.

It's something to think about. For the Auction next year i plan to donate a stamp camp for 10 people...

Birthday Cards Camp

The Thursday kid's birthday card stamp camp went really well. Thank you to all of you who attended and welcome to the newbies who came!
I was not in the best spirits, being so tired, but it was a nice relaxing evening.


I rescheduled my Friday stamp camp for a week later, March 2nd, due to most of the attendees being ill. I hope that this allows more stampers to attend who weren't able to come. You can view the cards for this camp below by clicking the link to the stamp camp. :)