I got promoted!

Stampin' Up! just changed my title from Associate to Senior Associate because I met a sales goal. Woohoo! I just started this little business in May, and I've already gotten promoted. Very exciting.

Stampin' Up is always offering these great incentives to its demonstrators. Last week, they announced a new promotion for those signing up to be a demonstrator. It's called "Choose Your Family". When you purchase the starter kit (everything you need to start your business) between now and September 30, you will also receive a family of 12 classic stamp pads for free - that's a $58 value. (That's the Rich Regals family pictured - it's my favorite color family). What a great deal! Contact me at alison@shilohstamps.com if you would like more information on how to become a Stampin' Up demonstrator.

Also, check out what Super-Demonstrator Tina has to say about her dream job.

Christmas card ideas from my stack of samples

Here are a bunch of Christmas card samples, to get you thinking about how you can take advantage of the Shiloh Stamps Early Christmas Special. I want to help you make homemade Christmas cards early this year, so I've thought about what could be most helpful. If you order a stamp set, cardstock, adhesive, envelopes, and embellishments (everything you need to make your Christmas cards), then I will mount your stamps, cut your cardstock into cards, and make you a page of custom return address labels. The last day to place an order is August 29th. E-mail me at alison@shilohstamps.com for more information.

If you would like to try out some new stamp sets (including some from the new Holiday Mini) and work together to design your Christmas cards, sign up to attend my Christmas in August Stamp Camp. I have one spot open for Friday evening and a few spots open for Saturday afternoon. Let me know ASAP if you would like to participate.

This was our Christmas card last year. It opens in the middle and uses the tree from the Loads of Love stamp set. It also uses the stipple brush for some shading. I made this card at an in-home workshop the previous year, and loved it. My generous stamping friends loaned some of the supplies I needed for this card. I liked Loads of Love so much, I wound up ordering it for myself!

This was Claire's Christmas card last year. It uses the City of David stamp set. I love how she put the Luke 2:11 scripture on the back of the card. She used markers to color in the star and palm trees on the front.

I made this card at an in-home workshop I attended last year. I love this color combination - mellow moss, always artichoke, and whisper white. It uses The Snowflake Spot stamp set. Hemp twine is one of lowest-priced embellishments, so this is a more cost-effective card.

I made this card at a Stamp Camp I attended at Claire's house years ago. This may have been one of the first stamping events I tried. This card uses a cool technique with glossy cardstock and reinkers. I would be glad to show you this technique.

My husband loves the blue and chrome color combination, so this may be his favorite card I've ever made. These silver snowflakes are raised up using a technique called embossing. It's lots of fun, and it looks fabulous!

This card uses a beautiful stamp set that is now retired. It also uses the crimper, my new favorite tool. I love how artistic this card looks with the splotchy paint look in the background. It's a stamp set called Itty Bitty Backgrounds.

This card was made by another stamper - Yolanda Croucher. When I signed up to be a demonstrator, Claire let me pick some cards out of her stash of samples. This is one of the cards I chose. I'm guessing she got this card through a swap.

This may be the first Stampin' Up card I ever made. I attended a Stamp Camp at Claire's house, and she had a drawing to give away her hostess benefits that night. I won! I got to order all sorts of goodies for free, and I was hooked!

My first "big" swap

One of the joys of being a Stampin' Up demonstrator is participating in card swaps. A bunch of people (in this case 10) make 10 of the same card, mail them to the "host" and then someone mails everyone 1 of each card. Swapping is a great way to get samples of stamp sets you may not have or to have samples of a different style than yours.

This particular swap calls for a stamp set that's new in the Fall-Winter Collection 2007 that was not in the Preview catalog. I chose to use my favorite new set, In the Spotlight. It's a hostess set. This is the same layout as a card we made at my Open House in June, but it uses a different color background. The other one used Vintage Violet, which is now retired.

Sometimes when you make a swap, you include a "recipe" on the back of the card listing all the ingredients needed to make that card.

This swap was hosted by a member of the INKredible Impressions group of demonstrators. We all share common uplines, so we're 'related' in the Stampin' Up family through Super-Demonstrator Tina. I'm also a part of the PhillyInkers, Claire's downline. Being connected to these groups of creative ladies is half the fun of being a demonstrator!

new pics!

I've posted a bunch of new pictures from my trip to Vegas and some crafty projects. Thought I'd point that out since they're a bit buried at the bottom of the page.

much appreciated MIL

So my dear Mother-in-Law/Love was in town for my at the end of June. She's from TX, so we don't get to see one another very often. We had lots of fun together. We attended a conference in DC, hung curtains in our new (old) house, did some stamping, although the 4th of July fireworks got rained out (so we thought).

Her visit just happened to overlap with my Stampin' Up Open House, so she got to help me launch my new business. One of our projects that day included some fun with punches. I think that got her thinking about all sorts of punch possibilities. She ordered 6 punches! In addition to giving me a great sales boost, she said I could hang on to the punches for a while after they arrived, so that I could make some samples. Woohoo! So I've been having fun playing with all these new punches, and here are some things I've made.

I LOVE this card with the black-eyed susan. This flowers looks perkier than the flowers in my front yard, that's for sure! I think I probably got the idea from some of the galleries on splitcoaststampers.com. I punched all the petals and the leaf using the large oval punch, and then I made the center of the flower (forget the science term) using the 1 3/8" punch.

I made a fake bow for this Elegant Inspirations card using my MIL's 1/8" circle punch and some chocolate chip 5/8" grosgrain ribbon. It's a trick I learned from Claire. I love the way this sentiment looks with Baroque Motifs. The swirly lettering coordinates with the swirls in the design.


I punched a whole bunch of flowers with the Spring Flower Bouquet punch. This is a great way to use up scrap paper and it makes 3 flowers at once. I learned that this punch works much better with thinner paper like the designer series paper, vellum, or dare-I-say copy paper. It takes some muscles to punch SU cardstock with this punch, since the cardstock is so thick. I'll post some more samples once I make some cards with the little flowers.


For a listing of all the SU! punches, see pages 182-183 of the Fall-Winter Collection 2007.

(My dear husband figured out our scanner and gave me a little tutorial, so Shiloh Stamps should have better quality images now.)

Shiloh Stamps Early Christmas Special

Get started on Christmas cards this summer!

So I've gotten inspired by reading The Martha Rules. Since I'm starting a new crafty business, my mom gave me Martha Stewart's rulebook about starting a new business. I admit, I was skeptical, but the lady has sure made some dough with all her cooking/cleaning/crafty tips. Much to my chagrin, the book opens by Martha talking about doing time. She says that while she was locked up, lots of women approached her with business ideas. You see, when people do time, they have lots of time to think and dream about what can happen on the outside. At the minimum-security facility where Martha paid her debt to society, many of the women had aspirations about starting businesses. Martha described one pair of ladies who had drawn up a business plan with lots of specifics and concrete plans. Martha decided that she could help others with entrepreneurial spirits by putting some of her lessons learned into a book.

In the chapter entitled "Teach so you can Learn", she tells how business owners should 'think like a customer'. So I started thinking about what my customers have told me. Many have said that they would like to make birthday cards and they have trouble keeping up with birthdays. So I knew I was on track with planning my birthday calendar workshop I hosted earlier this week. Many others told me they would like to make homemade Christmas cards. Then I thought about what challenges people face in trying to make Christmas and birthday cards. I addressed all of these challenges by designing the Shiloh Stamps Early Christmas Special. For many stampers, the first challenge after choosing the perfect stamp set is getting those darn stamps mounted. This was a pain for me for 3 years until I got the Craft and Rubber Scissors as part of my new demonstrator kit. Now it takes me minutes to mount a stamp set. Another barrier to making cards is not having all the right supplies, so I will pledge to help my stampers inventory their supplies and order the proper quantities. The next challenge is cutting all that cardstock, which can be difficult if you don't have a paper trimmer. Finally, I decided it would be helpful to make each stamper a page of address labels. So here's the Shiloh Stamps early Christmas Special, inspired by The Martha Rules.

Many of you have told me that you would like to start on your Christmas cards early this year, or perhaps make handmade Christmas cards for the first time this year. I would love to help you make that happen. I have designed a special to help you bypass some of the challenges that can keep you from getting your cards done in a timely manner. I will help you by mounting your stamps, cutting your cardstock, and making return address labels if you follow the steps below:

1. I can help you design a card that suits your style and schedule, whether simple or complex, modern or classic, bold or subtle; I would love to help you design your cards. I am hosting a Christmas in August Stamp Camp to help people design their Christmas cards.

2. You take a look at your address book and decide how many home-made cards you would like to send.

3. I will help you inventory what supplies and quantities you will need to complete your cards.

4. You place an order by August 29 that includes:
page numbers refer to the Fall-Winter Collection 2007
a. A stamp set –or- wheel and handle
b. Ink (pp. 165-167, 186)
c. Cardstock (pp. 165-167, 170-179) - colors, neutrals, designer paper included
d. Adhesive(p.185) - includes SNAIL, glue dots, etc.
e. Embellishments (pp.178, 187-191) - ribbon, brads, eyelets, etc.
f. Envelopes (p. 169)

5. When your order arrives, I will
a. Cut and mount your stamps
b. Cut your cardstock into cards
c. Print a page of custom address labels for you

For all those who take advantage of this promotion, I will schedule a special Christmas card assembly session in September. We will meet at my home and work on our cards together, and maybe even listen to Christmas music.

Remember – this offer ends August 29, so contact me soon and we can start designing your Christmas cards together.

alison@shilohstamps.com

Birthday Fun

So today is my 30th birthday. I know, I know, it's hard to believe.

Well, just the other day I had a bunch of stampers over to make birthday calendars. See, one of my goals is to be better about sending birthday cards and gifts on time. So I made this birthday calendar to help me remember. I'm going to hang it on the wall in my craft room so that I will have cards on the ready when needed. My mom and my grandma are both really great about sending birthday cards. They send out all their birthday cards for the month on the 1st day of the month. So if your b-day is the 20th, you're getting a card early. If it's on the 1st, it may be a bit late. What a novel idea, though. I have lots of friends with August birthdays, so this month is a good time to start the new habit.

These are some samples of birthday cards we made together (and matching envelopes).

There's also some samples of pages from the birthday calendar we made together. If you'd like a birthday calendar of your own, let me know. I would be glad to show you how I decorated mine, or I could decorate one for you (for a small fee, of course). Sorry for the white boxes in the photos. I didn't think to take photos before I started writing everyone's birthdays on my calendar!

June - with watercolor mortarboards. The AquaPainter works well in the calendar since it has thicker paper. Otherwise, the moisture makes thinner paper curl. Watercolor paper is on my wishlist!



July - Jon was excited to see me doing a patriotic theme. I think these stars almost look like denim - very Americana.













May - I love these flowers in Year After Year. They're so versatile, and they're easy to color in with markers.









October - These pumpkins are watercolored in Really Rust with the AquaPainter. These colors are so vivid!