Holiday Open House

So now that the Holiday Open House has come and gone and I've had a chance to breath...here are the promised pics of the projects. You can email me if you have any questions. It seems we all had a good time, the sale was great, the projects were lots of fun and a big "thanks" goes out to Annie McGuire from WRB representing Clearsnap for her demo and project. She used the new Design Lines which are so easy to use. I will be showing them again at the "New Products" demo on Saturday Nov. 1. Enjoy the pics and I hope you get inspired to create fun stocking stuffers and other little gifts for your friends and family!

Portland Wholesale Show

I'm back from the wholesale show and actually had a lot of fun. There were new products, stamps, techniques and so much more. Wrote up orders like crazy and so the store should have lots of fun new things in soon! Some of the products I beg and pleaded for the companies to get it out in a day or two so we could have it in the store in time for our Holiday Open House on October 18 and they are obliging. Guess it doesn't hurt to ask for the impossible--you might just get it! As for the other things that it was just impossible due to availability or shipping time, these new things will be in the store in time for the "New Products" Demo November 1, so it's all good.

I finally got to see the JAC paper from Dreamweaver in use--so cool and just in time for the holidays with all the glitters. If you own stencils or like glitter-you've got to see this. It's soooo fast and easy-very impressive! This one will definitely be shown at our New Products Demo and added to our stencil class.

Stampendous has new stamps and stickers. I'll have a great quick project on display using some of the new large mirror Class a Peels--must see.

Clearsnap has their new Watermark Pad and it's really good and less costly than it's competition. Also new from Clearsnap is their Design Adhesives. I've tried other companies versions of this product and I have to say I like Clearsnaps. Really easy to use with really good results. This product will be at the Open House and also featured in one of the Gift Projects. You've got to come by for the Gift Projects!

Printworks has new stamps - great holiday images. Art Impression has new "Old People" -really funny with saying that as we age we can all relate.

There was more --so much more but it is 12:35 AM and while normally that isn't late for me, tonight I'm really tired after a long weekend and a long drive home.

Want to see all this and more? Stop by the store Oct. 18 and Nov. 1.

The last Quarter of 2008

Well here we are, the last quarter. The last class schedule I'll have to create, the last Holiday Open House, the last of a lot of things. Wow, it feels really strange. But on the other hand there are a lot of "The Firsts", or at least plans for them. I have decided to attempt to plan to put on one if not two retail shows a year. The "plan" is to host a retail show at the Embassy Suites hotel here in Lynnwood. I say plan because I could easily find out that it just isn't feasible. But for now the plan is a show that would consist of a day of classes followed by a buffet dinner and Make-N-Take Get Together. The second day would be a day of shopping. Vendors would have booths set up like you would normally find at any retail show. There would be Show Rates for the hotel rooms for those traveling. I expect to have everything priced individually as well as a package deal. You would be able to choose what you wish to participate in or receive a small discount for signing up for the full two days which would be something like 3 classes, dinner, make-n-take get together and entrance to the show on day two. These are very sketchy plans right now but that is what I am envisioning. To help clarify that vision I am attending a wholesale show in Portland this weekend. This after all is the show that I wish to emulate so I will be picking their well developed brains.

Aside from that I am looking at having some of my drawings put to rubber or clear stamps, enhancing the web store with all kinds of stuff, once I have all this time(?) and taking a well deserved vacation after the store is closed and before starting all this other stuff.

As for the store, I try not to dwell. I expect to have a clearance sale the first weekend in February then regroup and rearrange the store. Customers who have store fixtures and other store items on request to purchase will be called to come pick them up. The second and last sale will be the second weekend in February and then I'll be done. We'll spend the last two weeks in February cleaning up the store and then I'll fly off to Hawaii to visit my family, lay in the sun and eat! After a week or two there I'll return tan, relaxed, warm, fat and happy--ready to start on new adventures--what every they might be.

I hope everyone will visit me on the web, email me, etc. Some of you know where I live and I expect to keep in contact with many. I have after all known some of you for 15 years!

As for the immediate--be sure to come to the Holiday Open House. I am planning lots of fun projects and a good time! October 18 - Early Bird Sale starts at 9:30 AM! Check the web site for the schedule of things going on and their times. www.funstamps.net

Make a Scallop Tag

Necessity is the mother of invention! How true and how often does it happen in crafting? Can't find just what you need, well if you need it bad enough you'll find a way to make it. So it happened the other day while I was putting together a quick sample for some product I was putting out--everybody loves to see samples. The product was a Scallop Pocket die cut and I wanted a tag to go inside and nothing I had really fit or had the shape I was looking for as I wanted something with scallops. As I was looking at all the punches I have I thought the Marvy Giga Circle would work but it's scallops are a little smaller than what I wanted and the square is ok too but the Giga Oval was just perfect, except for the fact that it's a oval.

Now while I marvel at my creativity I can't help but think that others out there must have had the same idea, it's just that I had never seen it done so I had to figure it out on my own & therefore thought it was worth sharing.

As you can see by the pictures I used the narrow end of the oval because what I was working on was 1 7/8" wide. If the tag was to be wider I would use wider section of the oval. Depending on the project you are doing the square or circle may be perfect. Place your piece in the punch and pull the end you don't want punched out and now your only punching one part and it creates the perfect scallop topped tag.

Altered Puzzles

There here, there done! Our group of six met today at Fun Stamps returning with our puzzle pieces that we have worked on for the last few weeks. Everyone had initially met, received our 24 piece puzzle, white washed it to cover up the puzzle picture then painted over with colors of our choice. We choose our theme and everyone went home with four pieces of everybodys puzzle. We decorated the pieces according to the color choices and theme of the owner of each puzzle. Today we returned and gave everyone back their puzzle pieces and put them together and they are wonderful! These puzzles can be matted and framed and displayed to inspire! These are so much fun to look at. Every time I look at them I see another little treasure that I didn't see before. From top to bottom the themes were Vintage Hollywood (mine), Opera, Sea, Circus, Shabby Chic and Asian.

KAREN LOCKHART INCHIES SWAPS

Karen Lockharts stamps, especially the new Itty Bittys and Inchie products have had rave reviews by those who have had the pleasure of taking an Inchies class from her. She has now taught at least two inchies classes, one of them at Fun Stamps in Lynnwood and one at Monkey Love in Seattle. The two stores will host Inchies Swaps, like ATC but Inchies Tiles will be swapped. It is the plan at Fun Stamps to block time for the swap itself and for some play time. These swaps are planned to be scheduled once a month, rotating between Monkey Love and Fun Stamps. Everyone who is interested is invited to participate. Even if you don't have any Inchies to swap you are welcome to attend to check it out and see what it's all about, get interested and come back next month prepared to swap! Watch for information for future monthly swaps listed in the store calendar under "Inchie Antics". If you have any questions you can contact the participating stores.

spiraling into the blog world...(be gentle with me)

So, a blog--who'd-a-thought. By today's standards I am almost computer illiterate so this is all new for me. I was so proud when I finally got a web site up after attempting it for nearly 6 years! So why strain my already overworked brain with a blog? Well two reasons--one, they say learning new things keeps away dementia, and two, I wanted a place to set the record straight about my retail storefront which will be closing somewhere in January of 2009 if all goes as planned. The website somehow didn't seem the right place to drone on and on about the details. So for those who care or were wondering--here's the scoop--which may change from week to week so I will update my random thoughts and plans as they make themselves known to me. Oh my, your going to get an insight to the inner workings of my brain--scary! My storefront, Fun Stamps, has been in operation for almost 15 years. I opened the doors to my glorified hobby when my son was 5 years old, he is now 20. I had been a obsessive, compulsive stamper for about 2 years at that point and had been doing home parties utilizing Stampendous and PSX catalogs (remember them--ahh the good old days). The problem with that was you had to order two of everything and almost no one ordered the same thing. I ended up with the second image and while, yes I kept many of them, after a year of this there were too many duplicate images! But wait, concession craft stores started popping up, I was saved--sort of. You would rent a space in the store and sell your goods. You had to work a couple days a month at the store. So this was an outlet for all those extra pieces and a couple days a month wasn't that big a deal. I was still working at my other business which was a pre-school and day care in my home where I utilized my early childhood degree that I got so I could properly homeschool my son. All was going well enough except that I was up till 2 am doing prep work for the preschool project and stamping to keep me sane. Short story long--I decided I like stamping better than daycare. My son went to a private school and I opened a store. Fast forward 15 years, my son is out of highschool, retirement is somewhere on the horizons and I'm looking at life a little differently. To keep the store I would need to sign another 5 year lease and I don't want to. I don't know what I am going to be doing in 5 years and I like that idea. If I sign a lease my life gets planned out for me for 5 years, such a commitment. So, after a lot of thought, I have decided to close the retail store. I started thinking about what I wanted to do. I'm still young enough to be productive for another few years. Maybe change my direction altogether, go back to school. Then Karen Lockhart said to me "but you have a clientele, a history, experience, a web site". Oh, well yes now that you mention it I do. So at this point I have decided to continue feeding this habit of mine, to reinvent myself to some degree and most of all, to keep in touch with my clients and friends that I have made over the years. At present, I have been thinking about pulling together some of the local talent and artist that we have here in the great Northwest to do a quarterly get together of a day classes or something along those lines. This would be after the store has closed and is being considered mainly because a lot of my customers have been stressed as to where they will take there classes from after we close. There are, of course, wonderful stamp stores in Washington state that offer great classes but ours would be offered here in the same area where our store is located now, in the Lynnwood area. I am also redoing the web site. Deciding what lines we will keep, add and create. I am working on our own line of stamps which at this point I am thinking about doing in a clear line. So thats it. The store is operational as normal until November at which time I will need to consider carefully what to stock in the store for the holidays. The clearance sale will be in late December early January--almost everything must go ( I promised my husband I wouldn't bring it all home). People have been requesting stamp and paper shelves, die cuts and the machines. We've been selling off our sample cards and boards as we go through the seasons and holidays. Customers have put requests and holds on everything! I keep telling people to leave their name and number for whatever they want even if someone else has requested it. By the time we are ready to call people they could have changed their minds. We will go down the list by date of request. That all being said, there is a very small chance we will close earlier. If the management find someone who wants to be in for the holidays and wants to sign a lease, then we would consider closing sooner. As management is all about renting something that they are not already receiving rent, it is very unlikely this will happen. I promise never again to be so long winded.