Monday, November 17, 2008

Mandeville Store Closed Tuesday & Possibly Wednesday

I think I was a little quick on the draw to return to work. I feel more sick this evening than I did last week. Felix and I will be returning to the doctor tomorrow and hopefully figure out what we can do to get better. We ended up having to cancel this evening's stamping class because the stamping teacher got sick also, this afternoon and couldn't come back. She did manage to teach the class this morning, but I think it got the best of her. And my friend who was supposed to come help me put out the new products called and told me she was very sick, also. Actually, if I didn't have Caller ID on the phone, I wouldn't have been able to tell who it was.

Please take care of yourselves in this horrible flu and cold season. Get your shots. Take your vitamins. Drink your juice. Whatever it takes to keep you healthy. And always remember, there's no such thing as washing your hands too frequently, especially if you are in contact with the public!

I'll post again when I am able, and when the Mandeville store will reopen. We are very sorry for any inconvenience this may cause you. If you need anything in the meanwhile, please contact Emery at the Metairie store, at 504-301-1081.

We really appreciate your understanding that this is totally out of our control at this point.

Dee

New Louisiana-Themed Rubber Stamps on the Way!!!

Greetings, Y'all!

I have some very exciting news for you: We will soon be getting in MORE Louisiana-themed Christmas stamps, that I'm sure I won't have ordered enough of, regardless of how many I actually ordered! Once Felix puts these up on the website, people are going to swarm! And, I'm going to have him put up samples made using the stamps, so I know once people see some of the things they can do with them, they will just HAVE to have them, now, won't they?! Hopefully, they'll be here by the end of this week. I'll keep you posted on their arrival. In the meanwhile, remember that I am doing the same Louisiana-themed Christmas card class this Thursday that I originally did last week. We had a lot of requests to do it again, by people who missed the first one. Please call to sign up as soon as possible so I can make sure I have enough materials on hand for you.

Felix is still feeling under the weather, but I feel great, and am ready for another busy week. I'm still in the process of putting out all the new Creative Imaginations and Karen Foster Design papers here in the Mandeville store. I already put out the new Stamping Station items. Emery has everything new down in the Metairie store, but I don't think everything is on the shelves yet. I'm sure if you stop by and see him, he'll let you help him empty the boxes of goodies on the table waiting to be put out!

Our crops have really been full on the weekends, and we have such wonderful people coming to us to enjoy and share their crafting, and fun times. Please call in advance if you wish to join us at a Metairie Friday night crop or Mandeville Saturday night crop, both until Midnight or whenever! Also, please remember that you are all welcome to come and crop at either store, any time the store is open, Monday through Saturday, 10 AM until 6 PM. Just please check the calendar to make sure there's no event scheduled at the same time you wish to come that might mean you'll have to share your space!

We should have the new Crop Celebration flyers out this week in both stores, which will be the last weekend of next February, 2009. Their website is not yet updated with the new info, but they are working on it. Stay tuned for more info on this fun, new, cropping event in Hammond, Louisiana! Of course, we will again be a vendor for them, and this time will offer classes.

TIP OF THE DAY:
When rubberstamping, think outside the images that the rubber stamp was originally intended for. You could mask portions of the stamp and use pieces of it to make completely different things than what it was first created for. Look at the outsides of images, and see if you could use them, or parts of them, as flourishes, grass, tree limbs, hair, etc. Looking back at the Pelican stamp from Impression Obsession that I used for my Louisiana-themed Christmas card, and thinking about how I masked off each piece in it separately in order to obtain the final layered result, I realized that I could also use each of those elements separately, in another scene or another form. For example, the wreath would be great used by itself on an image of a door or mailbox, or car/truck hood... the possibilities are endless. Be creative. Be daring. Be yourself, and find joy where you can, in the little things, and in the creation of wonderful keepsakes that are most definitely, individually YOU!!!

Have a wonderful day! Until next time, happy scrapping and stamping!

Dee

Friday, November 14, 2008

Cricut II Class / NEW Creative Imaginations, Karen Foster & Stamping Station

Thanks to all of you who wrote and called inquiring about how we felt, and thank you to all of you who are praying for our speedy recovery. Emery and I were able to work today, but Felix had to stay home. Hopefully he'll be back up to speed tomorrow. We have LOTS planned! Emery will be cropping during the day Saturday in Metairie. If you wish him to stay until Midnight, please call him as early as possible to let him know. He said he will stay if there are enough requests. The Metairie store number is 504-301-1081. We will be cropping in Mandeville tomorrow until Midnight, as usual, after the Cricut II class. If you want to crop in Mandeville tomorrow, after 1:00 PM, please call to reserve your spot. The number for the Mandeville store is 985-624-3338. We already have a number of people scheduled, so call ASAP to make sure you get in.

We got new Creative Imaginations lines in. Thanksgiving and Fall, and the Christmas collections that I am holding until we do the Layout of the Month. Wait 'til you see these! Gorgeous papers, most of them with diecut edges, and matching 12x12 transparencies, ribbon collections, and rub-ons! If I get to finish the LOTM tomorrow, I will have the Christmas lines out Monday, but the Thanksgiving and Fall lines are already out.

We also received new Karen Foster products. The most adorable pregnancy and newborn stickers, rub-ons, and papers that are new releases. Precious cardstock stickers of a little boy's "shaving" session with Daddy or Grandpa. Veggie paper, new Swim Team collection just released, finally Tennis paper... so much I can't list it all. You just have to come in and see for yourself.

Our Stamping Station order finally arrived, as well. We have brand-new Louisiana paper that I am hoping Felix will be able to put on the online store this weekend. It is gorgeous and I actually sold a bunch of them before I had a chance to put them into inventory fully. People were just buying them out the pack! We also got in new Florida and Alaska paper, and a few others.

Speaking of merchandise not making it to the shelves--we got in our backordered Tim Holtz masks that were flourishes and clocks/gears. Well, all I can say is that there are no more flourish masks left in Mandeville, and I'm not sure what Emery has left in Metairie. They never even made it to the hooks on the wall! Apparently a LOT of people love these, so we've already reordered them. If you haven't had the chance to see how these are used, please log onto Tim Holtz' website, where he has a video showing you how to use them. VERY cool. I'm considering putting together a class on the different ways he demonstrates so you will have actual hands-on with these very versatile tools.

There are lots of other new products we've gotten in over the past couple of days. If you get the chance, stop in and check it all out. I promise, it will be worth your while!

Until next time, happy scrapping and stamping!

Dee

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Christmas Card Workshops / Cricut II Workshop / Gulf Coast Scrappers / Layout of the Month

Our Louisiana-themed Christmas card classes and our FREE Christmas card workshop we did this past week and weekend were unbelieveable! We had so much fun, and so many people loved these cards, that we have had a request to do this same workshop again. I'm working on trying to figure out where I can squeeze it into our schedule right now. Next week is the Gulf Coast Scrappers event, and the Metairie store will be closed during the event on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. You can check the calendar on the website (http://www.scrappersaurus.com/07Calendarnov08.html) for the exact days if you forget. We will be open in Metairie on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, and the entire week in Mandeville. So I can't schedule the Christmas card workshop in Metairie until after that, as I won't be able to get down to the Metairie store before 7:00 PM to hold the class. Please call and/or e-mail me and let me know if you want me to schedule something in Metairie the week after GCS, and if you would like to attend during the day or in the evening. Also, please let me know if you would just prefer I do it up here in the Mandeville store, again, next week.

Remember our Cricut II workshop is this coming Saturday, November 15th at 11:00 AM. Heather will take you even deeper into the wonderful workings of this awe-inspiring machine as she shows you more intricate things that it can do, particularly with the Design Studio software. PLEASE call as soon as possible to reserve your seat, as seating is limited and we already have a number of people scheduled.

If you are signed up for the Layout of the Month Club and have not picked up your kit yet or come to the Workshop, please contact me so we can either send it to you or schedule a time when we can get together and I will do it with you, one-on-one, either in Metairie or Mandeville. We ordered extra for this month's LOTM Club kits, as we figured a LOT of people would want it once they saw it. The papers are fantastic, and you know we won't let you down when it comes to learning new techniques with this month's kit, either. If you have a particular technique you would like to learn and think others may be interested, please call or e-mail me, and I'll see if I can work it into the next Layout. We're always looking for something new and fun, especially when it comes to things we've worked with before in other ways. I actually spoke with a manufacturer recently when placing an order and told her how I used her products in one of my recent classes, and she was amazed. She had NO IDEA that her product could be used in such a way! I felt very honored, and was quite tickled, as you might imagine.

Have a wonderful week, y'all! Until next time, happy scrapping and stamping!

Dee

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

History in the Making!!! What a Scrapbooking Opportunity!!!

Greetings, All!!!

As we all have seen by now, Barack Obama will be our 44th President of the United States. Whether we voted for him or another person, he has won, and will be the United States' first biracial president. Folks, this is history in the making!!! I encourage you to save your newspapers that you get today and in the coming weeks, and create scrapbook pages with them. Remember to scan them first so they won't turn brittle and yellow and deteriorate in your albums, though! Your children and your children's children, and many more to follow will appreciate your doing this. Remember to record your thoughts on his making presidency, as well as any other thoughts you may have of current events--political, cultural, social--whatever. And if you do not have children or other family members to pass your albums on to, please remember that libraries jump at the chance to get scrapbooks, journals, and diaries, as these all include what was happening in the world at the time these books were created--not just the person's personal events.

Looking back at some scrapbooks I have created, I can see so many things that no longer exist, as well as recall events I have lived through that I may not have thought important at the time, but which played out to be a major occurrence in history. My actual very first scrapbook was of current events, and was a school project requirement by my Social Studies teacher. That scrapbook has newspaper clippings in it of topics from the gas lines (at that time the gasoline had skyrocketed and there were literally lines around the block of people waiting to fill up because they thought there would be a shortage), to "new" laws for child abusers, to events that were occurring involving President Richard Nixon. At the time of creating that book, I thought it was stupid to put things like that in it, but now I am so thrilled that I did. It not only put the bug of scrapbooking into me, but taught me to appreciate that life changes in a breath's time, and that I am living in history, in everything that I do. I thank that teacher for giving me that assignment, and just wish back then we knew about Archival Mist and acid-free adhesive runners!

So, go make your own history book. And make it personal. Include your thoughts and ideas on what's happening in our world today, as well as how things you include in your book affect your life as an individual. Twenty years from now, you'll thank me.

Have a great day! Until next time, happy scrapping and stamping!

Dee

Monday, November 3, 2008

Louisiana-Themed Christmas Card Workshop / Basic Stamping Class

Happy Monday! I hope you all had a splendid weekend, as I did. Felix and I even got to go to the cinema yesterday, and then came home and watched another movie On-Demand! Relaxation overload!

Tomorrow, Tuesday, November 4th I will be having a Basic Stamping class in the Mandeville store at 6:00 PM. Please call in advance if you are planning on attending (985-624-3338). In all my Basic Stamping classes, I give you a printed handout of the information that I teach you (because there's a LOT!) so you can refer back to it when you get home and begin your own stamping projects. In the Basic Stamping class I teach you: The difference between all six (6) types of ink and what their different applications are for; how to properly care for and clean your stamps; the different types of stamps and other things you can use to stamp with; how to get a great, crisp stamped impression every single time you stamp; how to heat emboss; how to use chalks in different forms and how to prevent the chalk dust from rubbing off; how and when to use blender pens; and different ways to color in your stamped images. That's A LOT for a Basics class, I agree, and it is a 2-hour class. I include all of these things because I LOVE stamping (can't you tell?!) and I want to share with you a diverse overview of all the wonderful things you can do with this type of papercrafting. I do have an Advanced Stamping class that includes even more information on masking and using multiple stamps to create one image, stamping on surfaces other than paper, and using a stamp-positioning tool. I don't have an Advanced class scheduled right now, but if you contact me, I'd be happy to do the class with you one-on-one if you want it this month, in either store.

This Thursday, November 6th, we will be doing the LOUISIANA-THEMED Christmas Card Workshop. OMG!!! This class will actually be done using some of the Advanced techniques, but don't worry if you haven't mastered the basics yet. I'll show you step-by-step what you need to know and do in Thursday's class, as we go along and create our cards. We will be using multiple stamps to create ONE scene, and it is absolutely AWESOME!!! Thursday's Workshop will be in Mandeville at 10:30 AM, and in Metairie at 6:00 PM. Please call us or e-mail us ASAP if you want to be included in this outstanding class. I have a limited amount of the stamps available to purchase afterwards, and I can tell you that the few who have seen the finished product have already signed up and prepaid for the stamps we will be using! I have placed another order to get more of these great stamps in, and am waiting for word from my Sales Rep on when they will arrive. A lot of people want to do these as the Christmas cards they send out this year. If you have not really stamped before, please consider coming to my Basic Stamping class tomorrow so you'll feel confident as you create your cards Thursday.

This Saturday, November 8th, we will be doing a general Christmas Card Workshop using some really nice stamps. If you wish to make cards without stamping, please contact me so I can pull some products together for you and get instructions printed so you can make your cards without using stamping.

I hope you have a wonderful evening, and remember to GET OUT AND VOTE TOMORROW!!! I don't care who you vote for, just vote! It is a privilege and a duty that we have as American citizens, and EVERY vote counts!

Until next time, happy scrapping and stamping!

Dee

Sunday, November 2, 2008

Happy Birthday, Chris!

November 1 is Chris G.'s birthday!!! Chris is on our Design Team, and you can read her bio on our website in the Design Team section, or view her profile under our Follower feature here on this blog. She's an integral part of our team, and was actually even a customer when we opened our first store, pre-Katrina. She's truly a member of our family, and we miss her being here to share time with. She is a traveling Occupational Therapist, and I believe she thoroughly enjoys that lifestyle right now. She just transferred back to D.C., where she has family. Today when I spoke to her, she told me how beautiful the turning leaves are...I'm so jealous! We're hoping she'll get a chance to come back into town early next year. She treated me to the most wonderful Tea in Covington when she was here last, the week before Scrap'N On the River. We share a lot of similar likes (and dislikes!), and a lot of similar childhood experiences. She's very special to us, and I love her dearly. Please join me in sending her well-wishes for another wonderful year.

We cropped tonight in Mandeville, until 3:45 AM!!! We had a wonderful time, and us gals were really cutting up once Felix went home. I sent him home early so we could play, and play we did! We left Felix a nice surprise for when he comes back in. You know how much he loves to play jokes on people and, well, this one will be a doozie, but for HIM! He may think twice about leaving me to my own devices with a crop room full of people again!

I hope you have a wonderful weekend.

Until next time, happy scrapping and stamping!

Dee