December 2009 Newsletter - Holiday Photo Cards

Holiday Photo Cards

Would you like to make holiday photo cards this year but you don't want to spend a lot of time or trouble? Make an appointment with me and I will help you create amazing holiday cards with your digital photos. Stampin' Up's professional printer can print on both sides of the inside of your card as well as the front! Include a holiday letter in your card this year, or more photos, or just use Stampin' Up's beautiful images to customize your card inside and out. If you already have the pictures you want to use in your card this year, call me to make an appointment just to see what we can do. Here is an example of one possible card inside layout - what would be in your card?

Sale-A-Bration: The Biggest Event of the Year!

Every year Stampin' Up's biggest event is Sale-A-Bration, and every year Sale-A-Bration gets better and better! This year Sale-A-Bration will run from January 5th - March 31, and there are more free stamp sets available than ever.

Sale-A-Bration is the big sale where you can earn free stamp sets and other product in several ways. First of all, for every $50.00 you spend on any Stampin' Up! products, you will earn one of the stamp sets or other goodies as shown in this year's Sale-A-Bration catalog. That catalog is coming to you in the mail this month - if you don't receive yours by the end of December let me know and I'll be sure to give you one. Since the new mini catalog is coming out at the same time, it will be very easy to find $50.00 worth of stamps you'll want to buy. There is no limit to the S-A-B rewards you can earn, so for example, if you order $150 in products you'll be able to choose THREE free Sale-A-Bration sets!

Secondly, when you host a workshop, in addition to all the free hostess gifts and products you would earn at any time, hostesses will receive a free Sale-A-Bration set for every $300.00 in workshop orders. If you remember that many of your guests will be trying to buy $50.00 worth of products, getting to $300 or even $600 in orders will not be hard.

Thirdly, if you have been thinking about becoming a Stampin' Up! demonstrator like me, this would be the perfect time to do it. Both the regular and the digital starter sets are 15% off, and in addition you can choose any stamp set valued up to $47.95 to receive for free!

In short, Sale-A-Bration is an event you won't want to miss, and it's definitely the best time of the year to host a workshop. Call me today to choose your workshop date! You'll have an easy instant party, your guests will have fun, and you'll earn free stamp sets. What could be easier?

Holiday Goodie Jar

Do you need a hand-made, heartfelt gift to give to teachers, friends and neighbors? Wouldn't it be nice if this gift could also be made quickly and easily and didn't cost a lot of money? Holiday goodie jars are simple and fast to make, and always fun to receive. The Delightful Decorations tags are the perfect touch, and with the ornament punch cutting them out is fast and fool-proof.

Supplies:

• Merry Moments designer series paper
• Real Red 1/4" grosgrain ribbon
• Silver or Gold elastic cord
• Delightful Decorations stamp set
• Ornament punch
• SNAIL adhesive
• Sticky Strip adhesive
• 1 glass 1-quart jar w/ lid

Contact me by Dec. 15th to order in time for Christmas!

Charly Bratt

CharlysInkLink@gmail.com

www.CharlysInkLink.StampinUp.net

Progressive Scrapbook

Yesterday I had a workshop at my friend Lyndy's house - I enjoyed meeting Lyndy's friends and family, and also getting to spend a little extra time talking with my friend Lisa. I demonstrated a progressive scrapbook page, which I find makes scrapbook layouts much easier.

For the design I chose to use Tall Tales designer series paper and the coordinating Animal Stories stamp set. I love the combination for a boy's scrapbook page - cute but not too babyish. I chose the brightly colored flowers to highlight in the 6x6" page, since this versatile design will compliment almost any photo, and our workshop guests could then use their mini scrapbook page for whatever they wanted.

The fun designs of the Tall Tales paper and matching stamp set are great for kids, or any animal theme. It doesn't hurt that I love the rich, bright, but not overly-intense color scheme. These stamps and papers will be showing up in many of my future projects - I haven't even started working with the papers with the animal designs! I discovered that the Fresh Favorites II button collection have wonderfully coordinating (but not matching) colors, I'm sure I won't be able to stay away from them!

But let's get down to business: To make a progressive scrapbook, start with a 6x6" page. Here are the supplies I used: Tall Tales designer series paper; Animal Stories stamps; Chocolate Chip, So Saffron, and Brilliant Blue card stock;Chocolate Chip stampin' pad; stampin' dimentionals; a scallop edge punch and a corner rounder punch (which I didn't use right away, you can see the rounded corners in the 12x12 photo below).

Tips:

• To save on paper, and to make the layout more flexible, cut strips of paper and card stock which are only 2" wide, then scallop and layer them. Note: this only works because all foreground elements are the same height in this layout.
• Make sure the subtle stripe in the background of the designer series paper runs vertically, in this vertical layout.
• Place the giraffe image on the solid Chocolate Chip background - the giraffe placed directly on the busy flowered background gets lost visually and loses all impact.

Next I incorporated the 6x6" page into a larger 8-1/2x11" page. Supplies used include everything already mentioned, plus Ruby Red card stock and stampin' pad; Taffy alphabet stamp set; the Fresh Favorites II button set; and a stamp-a-ma-jig.

Tips:The final step for this scrapbook page is to incorporate the 8-1/2"x11" page into a 12"x12" page. Supplies used include everything listed before, plus Chocolate Chip 1" double-stitched grosgrain ribbon.

Tips:

• The name "Trevor" was stamped on designer series paper with a subtle So Saffron stripe pattern running horizontally. The stripe is now vertical in this layout.
• Use the stamp-a-ma-jig to line up and space letters evenly when stamping with an alphabet set. Also, start in the center of the paper and work outwards to center your word in the space provided.
• Cut flowers out of designer series paper. Two flower designs were used here.
• To make faux thread for the buttons, cut out tiny slivers of card stock and glue them in the button holes.

• Use very short pieces of ribbon between pictures to save on ribbon; or use one long strip of ribbon to make assembly easier.
• A wet glue will soak into a ribbon and show through. I used a glue stick on this project, but sticky strip adhesive might be an even better option.

I hope this example inspires you to make a progressive scrapbook page of your own. Please contact me if you have any questions about what I did, or to order any of these supplies. Don't miss out on the new Animal Stories!