Santa is A-Coming

Greetings everyone. I hope all of you enjoyed a wonderful, bountiful and pleasant Thanksgiving last week. Our table was filled with beautiful food, a huge turkey, lots of stuffing and homemade cranberry sauce. Thanksgiving is always such a wonderful holiday. It is when I reflect even more upon how thankful I am for all the wonderful blessings in my life. I have a great family, fantastic friends, shelter over my head and a loving Lord who by his grace has blessed me with all these wonderful things.

Stamping and Stampin' Up! are such a wonderful part of my life also, as I truly enjoy sharing ideas and techniques with other stampers. Another really great thing about being a demonstrator is sometimes we get free stamp sets as a thank you from Shelli Gardner (the CEO and founder of Stampin' Up!) In the pic above is a stamp set she just sent all demonstrators as a Thank You gift. It is one of the sets that will be in the upcoming new catalog.

However, I have hit a point in my career as a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator where I need to make a decision as to whether I can remain as a Demonstrator.

I know the economy here in Michigan is very poor. We are all feeling the crunch of gas prices and the increase of just about everything lately - therefore making it more difficult for many of us to have the extra funds to spend on stamping(including myself). I am hoping this is also the only reason why I have had the tremendous decline in my business. Because of this I am feeling my time as a Stampin Up Demonstrator are limited. I love being a Demonstrator and I love spending time with all of you - my wonderful stampin' friends. I haven't given up totally yet thought. There is a new catalog coming out in January and Sale-A-Bration starting in February so I am hoping this will spark some interest in hosting workshops and attending some classes I have been putting together for all of you. Therefore, I have a couple of challenges for you:

Host a workshop in December - (It can be a catalog, virtual or in home workshop). When you host a workshop in December you will receive not only the present Fall/Winter Collection catalog, but also the new Spring/Summer Collection for 2008 along with a Free ink pad and matching package of cardstock. If your workshop reaches over $500 I will also give you a free ink pad or package of paper per month for one year beginning in January 2008 (restrictions apply - a free ink pad or package of cardstock will be given each month to anyone who's workshop reached over $500 in the month of December 2007. Ink pads or paper package will be rewarded only as long as Laura remains a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator or until December 2008)

Host a workshop in January - and receive a Free copy of the Spring/Summer Collection 2008 catalog for free and a package of one of the new designer papers featured in the Preview Brochure. If your workshop reaches over $500 you will be rewarded with a free inkpad or package of cardstock a month for 6 months (same restrictions apply for the December challenge)

One More Challenge: Introduce someone new to stamping or to my stampin' up circle. If they set a date to host a workshop of their own then each of you will receive a sheet of Stampin' Up!'s new line of Rub-Ons featured in the Preview Brochure. These are really great ways to quickly add a special touch to your cards and scrapbook pages.

Sharing Time:

I am finally posting some of the pages of the altered book I made when my Uncle Steve passed away. What a wonderful person he was and I am very proud of the the job I did on this book. For my first attempt at an altered book and collage art I think I did a pretty good job. I'll post more pictures of other pages at a later date. Here is the cover and one of the first pages. The picture on the cover is of my Uncle making his first communion. I copied the picture onto a transparency and adhered it to the cover. I worked a lot with transparencies in this book and really like how it looks. I like seeing part of the images from the paper show through the pictures. On some of the other pictures inside the book I have painted on the back of the transparencies highlighting the dress of my grandmother and the uniform of my grandfather. I'll post that pic at a later date. Anyway, I hope you like it. I am looking forward to making another one of these books. It is a challenge, but one worth doing.

I got the idea for doing this from one of the fantastic publications from Stampington. They publish many art magazines where I find tons of inspiration. From Stampington I found a book they featured called : Altered Books Workshop. You can find and purchase this book on Amazon or I am sure you can find it or have it ordered from any bookstore. It is a wealth of information and inspiration for all levels of altered book and collage artists.

This book gave me a chance to try some different mediums. I had never used acrylic paints or gesso before and found it pretty fun to work with. Modge Podge was my choice for adhering the pictures on the pages. My cuttlebug was used for some of the embellishments on this page. Other pages use some antique lace I found at a local antique store (I love Somewhere in Thyme). Anyway, I hope you enjoy these pages I featured today. I'll post some more later.

Last, the candy is still available for when I have 100 guests sign my guestbook! Share with your friends my website.

Oh, one thing I will clarify just in case you are wondering - Stampin is in my blood - therefore the blog and ideas will continue even if my career as a demonstrator doesn't.

Have a blessed day and thanks for stopping by.