All Alone and Stamp, Stamp, Stampin'!

This weekend my boys went to PK's parents house for the weekend. That means I am all alone and blissfully stamp, stamp, stampin' today. The weather outside is cold and rainy and I can't think of a better thing to do than stamp all day! Of course, I'll have to break tonight to catch the Twins game.

Thursday night was also full of stampin'. My upline (for blog's sake we'll call her SHAO for "Stamps Her Art Out") hosted a Stamp-A-Stack event at her house. SHAO is a mega-stampin' queen with a large downline and huge customer base. She is definitely someone to learn from. Our goals are very different, but I can't help but respect the success she has had. Anyway, she invited her downline to partipate in her Stamp-A-Stack and I was excited to see what it was all about. A Stamp-A-Stack is an event where a customer pays a fee and comes to stamp a large number of cards for different occassions all in one night. Apparently they are all the rage in stampin' circles because people are able to take the time to complete card for all their upcoming needs in one night. In this case, we completed 16 cards (4 each of 4 different kinds) for a $16 fee. The cards were relatively simple but showcased a lot of different products. They were easily customized for any occassion and SHAO had a variety of greetings for the stampers to use. Here are photos of the projects we completed.




I relly enjoyed it and I'm thinking of hosting a Stamp-A-Stack of my own. It might have to wait until after LB's wedding though. I'm a little worried I won't have enough interest in the event to make it worth while. SHAO had 16 people at her event. I'll be lucky to get 5. I guess I'll never know unless I try though.

Today I'm working on getting together projects for my stamp club meeting on Monday. I'm looking forward to having everyone over again. This week we're going to try a new faux metal tehnique. It's a little difficult to master and it's messy, but it's a good opportunity for the girls to try it out. Here's a photo of the card we'll be making.



Since the faux metal is a difficul technique and takes quite a bit of time. The other two projects are a bit more simple. You'll notice that I copied the format of this card from one I did at SHAO's Stamp-A-Stack. I changed the stamp set and a couple of the colors, but kept the rest the same. Don't worry, copying is the greatest form of flattery to a stamper. I encourage all new stampers to copy at first. For more experienced stampers, copying can get those creative juices flowing again after a drought of new ideas. In my case, I just liked the card and thought my customers would like it too. I also wanted to use my Just Beakause stamp set again. I haven't used it in a long time.
By the way, it says "party together" on the inside of the card.

I get a lot of my ideas from other stampers and stamping publications. A lot of times I change the format, stamps and colors so much that you wouldn't even recognize it as a "copy". Somtimes a layout or color scheme is all the inspiration I need. Other times, I really like the way a stamp was used. In the last stamp club project I'm planning, I got the color scheme and stamps from SU!'s regional convention. But I've modified the layout slightly and added some embellishments to better meet my tastes. This is a 6X6 scrapbook page. For blog purposes, I've distorted the face of CT, but you still get a good idea of the overall page effect.

It says "I just love you" in the left corner. It might be too small to read.

Well, I have to get back to work. So little time, so much stampin' left to do!