The 2007 Fall/Winter Stamp Set Retirement List

The 2007 Fall/Winter Stamp Set Retirement List came out yesterday morning. I was very pleased to see it came out early as I had to leave by 7:00 am for a craft/vendor show.

Not surprised about many of the retiring sets - well, except for a few of the newer sets with a more valentine or spring appeal.

Serene Sunflower is the one I am most upset about. I LOVE that set...just used it last week in fact for an out-of-the box card using it for a Christmas wreath. Looks Like Spring was a surprise too. I haven't used it in a while (duh, SPRING). Just thought those two would make it to the Spring catalog and then retire after that.

Most of my favorite go-tos for the fall/winter holidays will be gone...Booglie Eyes, Carved and Candlelit, Flaky Friends, and my beloved Frosty...I may just have to wear black on Tuesday for my It's a Wrap! class. I knew it would be his last year. He deserves retirement as I have sold probably 50+ Frosty sets since he joined our catalog! Now he can sit back at the Stamp Set Retirement Home and play shuffleboard with Stella Stamper!

I do not keep many retired sets - the only ones I have kept throughout the years are religious sets (for the card outreach program at my church) and some masculine-related stamp sets. I think I have a total of 5 retired sets that I still use. Frosty may join this bunch though as my set is soo stained from use and it is a great set to use with kids.

Well the good thing about this December retirement list is I can use my retired samples for Christmas cards this year and not have to store them for 6 months!!!!

I guess I will start December's posts with a tribute to a dear friend ... Frosty!

Happy Thanksgiving!

My customers are really important to me. Many of them I see more than my family and long-time friends. They share my love of stamping, and they look to me for ideas and inspiration.

Just a few weeks ago, I was blessed with a wonderfully happy moment. I was dropping off some items to one of my customers. She was not home, and her husband answered the door. I had called before I came so he was expecting me.

After I gave him the bag, he said "Jane, thanks for all you do." I must have look a bit puzzled. He went on, "My wife and her friends just love coming to your house. They look forward to it and always have such a great time. I hope you know how much fun they have!"

He said a few more kind words, and I told him how much I enjoyed having them stamp with me. There are some fabulous women in my customer circle!

I am so blessed in my life - wonderful husband and kids, family and friends, and a job and other interests which I am passionate about. My customers are a special blessing - and I am truly grateful for their friendship, loyalty, and inspiration.

Happy Thanksgiving - may your blessings be many!

A Stamper's Christmas Wish List

If you're a stamper, there is always something on your wish list. Why not make it easy for Santa this year? Here's a link to my Stamper's Christmas Wish List ~ hopefully, you'll get what you want for Christmas this year!

Stamping (and Laughing) With My Customers

This week, I held my third Technique Tuesday event. I had the techniques picked out for quite a while. I was actually surprised at how much I had prepared ahead of time. Thank goodness because it was one of those days when the to-do list was much too long (volunteering, cleaning, homework help, baking...).

I have three great boys and a husband who do help when it comes time to preparing the house for company. With my stamping business, that translates to about four or five evenings a month. There are jobs they love to do, and of course, some they don't like to do (you can include me in that one!).

Well, I was cutting out some of the pieces for a project and having to run a little interference in the household chores and the homework battle. I must have been pretty distracted because when my stampers got to the project later that evening, the pieces were not evenly cut. I wanted to just cry...I really love to pamper my stampers and try very hard to have projects all ready.

Leave it to my customers - they just laughed, took it in stride, and kept reminding ME that these were just samples for them. They totally understood and made me feel so much better.

Well, November is I Am So Thankful Month...and to all my customers...I am so thankful for you!

November Special

During the month of November, purchase three packs of our Designer Series Papers and receive one pack absolutely FREE!!! Regular shipping and tax will apply to the three purchased packs, there is no shipping or tax on the free pack.

Designer Series Papers are 12x12, patterned on both sides, come twelve sheets to a pack, and sell for only $9.95 per pack. These papers on pages 170-173 of the Fall-Winter Catalog and pages 12 and 19 of the Holiday Mini Catalog.

Here is a list of the paper packs and their coordinating card stock and ink colors:
Outlaw - Chocolate Chip, Really Rust, Sage Shadow, Very Vanilla

Brocade Backgrounds - Always Artichoke, Chocolate Chip, Old Olive, River Rock
Fall Flowers - Old Olive, Really Rust, Sahara Sand, Soft Sky
Linen Prints - Always Apricot, Cameo Coral, Close to Cocoa, Old Olive, Pink Passion
Porcelain Prints - Blue Bayou, River Rock, Wild Wasabi
Le Jardin - River Rock, Soft Sky, So Saffron, Very Vanilla
Uptown - Almost Amethyst, Basic Gray, So Saffron, Wild Wasabi
Wintergreen - Always Artichoke, Certainly Celery, Sage Shadow, Soft Sky
Flowers for You - Certainly Celery, Lovely Lilac, Regal Rose, Tempting Turquoise
Petals & Paisleys - Certainly Celery, Taken w/Teal, Rose Red, Pretty in Pink, So Saffron
Creepy Crawly - Basic Black, More Mustard, Pumpkin Pie, Really Rust
Notations No. 2 - More Mustard, River Rock, Very Vanilla, Wild Wasabi
Charbon - Basic Gray, Very Vanilla
Cerise - Real Red, Very Vanilla
Dashing - Old Olive, Real Red, River Rock, Very Vanilla
Cutie Pie - Bashful Blue, Basic Black, Certainly Celery, Rose Red, So Saffron
Darling Doodles - Brocade Blue, Groovy Guava, Rose Red, Wild Wasabi
Apple Cider - Close to Cocoa, River Rock, Really Rust, Wild Wasabi
Holiday Harmony - Always Artichoke, Purely Pomegranate, River Rock
Prints - These papers come in twelve patterns of one color per pack: Lovely Lilac, Almost Amethyst, Soft Sky, Tempting Turquoise, Brilliant Blue, Blue Bayou, Always Artichoke, Old Olive, Certainly Celery, River Rock, So Saffron, More Mustard, Close to Cocoa, Pumpkin Pie, Groovy Guava, Rose Red

Order your three packs and choose your fourth pack absolutely FREE. Call or email me today!!!

2007 Holiday Cards Stamp Camp

I held my 2007 Holiday Cards Stamp Camp this week. For my stamp camps, I am trying to focus more on card format and technique refreshers because I want to save the new techniques for my Technique classes. Here is one of the cards we did:

The Big on Christmas Criss-Cross Card was perfect for this stamp camp as it showed a different card format. I found the hardest part of the Criss-Cross Card (which is being featured all over the web) is visualizing what parts to cut off. I created a visual template for my customers. This really helped them cut the correct pieces. This will not be true to size, and the scan didn't pick up folded middle where cuts are made from.

I've uploaded the 2007 Holiday Cards Stamp Camp to my stamped art gallery - you can view it here: http://www.stampwithjane.com/stampcampgallerychristmas2007.html

Holiday Confusion

It is October 8th...Happy Columbus Day! Halloween is just around the corner...but it will be 85 degrees in Wisconsin today. To top that off, tonight is the first night of my Holiday Cards Stamp Camp. Baking Christmas cookies in 85 degree heat with my decorative jack-o-lanterns and witches gathered around my house is a bit more than strange.

What helps me get in the mood to stamp for the Christmas holiday season is music. My family has an extremely large collection of Christmas music. We used to keep it in storage after Christmas until November 1st (when I start my Christmas decorating), but now we keep it out with the rest of our music collection. I host Christmas in July events too, so this is helpful to create a mood in July as well.

Our Christmas music collection is an eclectic mix. Vince Guaraldi's Charlie Brown Christmas soundtrack is never far from reach. It is my favorite, albeit somewhat cliche, music choice. They could play it at my funeral - now wouldn't that be a hoot! Maybe even have a sad little tree on top of my casket. I am also a closet Andy Williams fan (shh, don't tell anyone). I'll never forget singing with my younger sister to my parents' records when he was a "hot" item. Other holiday music favorites include The Roches, George Winston, Bing Crosby, Bare Naked Ladies, Johnny Mathis, Il Divo, Lorie Line, Manheim Steamroller, Larry Carlton, Chet Atkins, Twisted Sister, Amy Grant, Johnny Cash....ok, you get the picture. If only Van Morrison would come out with a holiday collection!

I'll post the Holiday Cards Stamp Camp pictures this week!

World Card-Making Day

Tomorrow is World Card-Making Day. I am pretty good about sending out cards for major holidays (I usually send them out for Valentine's Day, Easter, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas). I also send birthday cards to family, friends, and customers. However, I don't think I have ever sent a card out for National Chocolate Day or World Menopause Day. Thankfully, I know I never received one for National Grouch Day!

To the left of this blog post, I posted an October Listing of those types of silly or obscure observances...be sure to pick one out this month and send a card to someone who many not expect it!

I'm hoping to compile these throughout the year...so we can find more reasons to send cards!

Trick or Treat, Smell My Feet

This evening as I was making dinner, I caught the Friends episode with Phoebe's Smelly Cat video. I was never a big Friends fan, but loved Phoebe/Ursula on Mad About You. When I saw this episode, it reminded me I really wanted to share my Smell My Feet Tent Card.

As stated on the previous post, the tent card is making its way to nearly every stamping blog. I love Stampin' Up!'s new Batty for You stamp set - especially the smell my feet saying. Brings me back to my childhood I guess. So while you take a look at my creation, you can either start singing the childhood classic trick or treat song or the more updated Phoebe version Smelly Feet, smelly feet...why are you so smelly?

2007 Fabulous Fall Stamp Camp

Fall is my favorite time of year. I love the crisp air and bright skies...the gorgeous landscape backdrops...the crunching sounds of leaves underfoot. Now, my boys love this time of year as I tend to bake more...they translate autumn with the smells of my pumpkin bread or apple crisp. In Wisconsin, we truly have magnificent colors this year due to the late summer rains. Autumn colors in rich hues inspire me.

I love hosting my Fabulous Fall Stamp Camp. At this year's stamp camp, my customers made three cards and a 3D item.

I wanted to show a different fall color palette for one of the cards so I used Very Vanilla, Chocolate Chip, Close to Cocoa, and Blue Bayou. WOW...it was a fabulous combination.

I then showed my stampers how to do the filmstrip technique. Easy to do and great way to stamp a silly card!

I also tried a different card format made very popular on recent blogs - the tent card. I love this new style and came up with lots of different versions.

The 3D item was a Trident Gum Packet. A big hit - so easy and adaptable to many different occasions.

All of the cards from the Fabulous Fall Stamp Camp have been uploaded to my stamped art gallery. I even posted the other samples I shared with my stampers - you can check them out here: http://www.stampwithjane.com/stampcampgalleryfabfall2007.html