September Scrapfest!

September is almost here, and with it brings Scrapfest in Edmonton Sept. 7th and 8th! I am participating in the Marketplace, along with 3 other Stampin' Up demonstrators who are members of my upline. We've been planning like crazy, and are excited for it to get here! Of course we're excited to meet all the scrapbookers gathering to see the latest in scrapping gear; we're also excited to walk through the Marketplace ourselves! Yes, last year when we were there, it was really hard on our pocketbooks; all the papers, ribbons and all kinds of other accessories - it was like being a kid at Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory (Sorry - that movie was just on, so it popped into my head when I thought of really excited children!)! We'll be setting up for a few hours on the 6th, and then we'll be there all day Friday and Saturday, from 9am to I think 9pm! A long couple of days (and on our feet too!), but so much fun! Check out Scrapfest.ca, register for some classes, buy a ticket to the Marketplace (over 30 vendors to oggle!) and come and visit us! :) Hope to see you there!

Tin Full of Cards

On a post further below, I mentioned I am doing a class using the Build a Flower tin from the SU catalog, and posted a picture of the altered tin. Well, I am now getting ready for that class, and have made the 5 cards that will go into the tin. Here is a picture of the whole project:

I had SO much fun making these little 3x3 cards last night! I flipped through the catalog, looking for inspiration, then went to work. 4 of these cards were inspired by other cards and projects out of the SU catalog (see if you can figure out which ones! ;) ), but the one with 3 flowers and grass was my own idea. I hope the ladies taking this class have as much fun as I did! Of course, they won't take NEARLY as long making these cards as I did - I worked non-stop from about 7:30 pm until 1 am! I have to say these little flowers are a little intimidating to use at first. Not that they are hard to use or anything, but I am a person who has trouble making decisions, and once you have decided to use one of these, that's it! Once you stamp on the little labels, if you screw it up you can't redo it! Yikes!!! You can pull the flower off the page a few times though, before it looses it's stickiness, so that helped ease my tension. This project actually helped me get over a little of that perfectionism; using these flowers is kind of fool-proof. They all look nice, no matter how you use them, and once I got over my idea that I had to have everything "perfect", they turned out pretty perfect after all (in my opinion, anyway!)! Let me know what you think! :)

An Amazing Starter Kit Special!

Promotions like this don't come around every day! From now until the end of September, you can get a full set of ink pads in one color family FREE with your starter kit!! That's a value of 79.95!! Yippee!!

Here's the details:

From August 10 - September 30, new demonstrators will get to choose a colour family of Classic Stampin' Pads® free when they purchase the Starter Kit. That's up to a $79.95 value in addition to the excellent value of the kit itself, valued at over $500! The cost of the Starter Kit is only $275 CDN (no S&H or GST!)

New recruits can choose between the four colour families (Bold Brights, Earth Elements, Rich Regals, and Soft Subtles - 12 pads each) or choose a 6-pack of our 2007 In Color pads.

Want to know more about the Demonstrator opportunity? Check out these links!

• Get 12 Free Ink Pads Now!
• FAQ's ABout Being A demonstrator
• What's in the Starter Kit

Request your free information package here! (Canadians only!)

My Own Website!

I finally did it - I signed up for the Stampin' Up Demonstrator Website! I'm so excited to use it; I love that I can put my classes up on the web for my customers to see, as well as any SU specials (and mine too!), etc. They're going to re-vamp it in the fall too, so that we can send ecards and newsletters, keep track of our classes/appointments, and our "to do's" for workshops, etc. What a great tool this will be! I need to do a few more things to tweak it, but here it is: http://sherivanhooren.stampinup.net . I'll put a link to it on the side of this blog so you can check it out any time you want! :)

Build A Flower Tin

Our first night at Convention we had a Slumber Party with 2600 Stampin' Up demo's! It was an absolute blast; everyone was in their pajamas, hootin' and hollerin', stampin' and having a great time. At the party, we had a few make n' takes, and one of them was decorating the tin from "Build A Flower" (Fall/Winter Collection, pg 178). Stampin Up gave us all the tin along with 3 stamp sets for attending Convention. Here is the tin after I decorated it:

It was so much fun to decorate this tin, and make some cards using the flower pieces inside it, that I decided to offer a class with it. In the class we'll decorate the tin and make 5 cards to put inside, all for $25! I think this would be a great gift for any occasion. I'm thinking of buying a few more for myself, decorating them and giving them out as gifts this Christmas season. So cute!

When we did this tin, we got to use the Crop-A-Dile. WOW! Is that ever an amazing tool! It punched through this tin like it was butter. We used it on some other projects for various purposes, and I was totally impressed. Another item to add on my "Must Have" list!

We also used the Build A Brads on a few of our make n' takes, and they're really neat. I'm not sure why we can't sell them yet; they say there are some quality control issues, but I'm not sure what it could be, because they worked fine when I used them. Well, I sure hope they get it figured out soon so I can buy more of them! :)

Wow! Card Convention Swap

Here is the card I made for the Wow! Card Swap, with other Splitcoast Stampers members. I had to make 21 of these, and they were NOT quick - let me tell you! I chose to do a shadowbox card (I wonder why? ;) I love these cards, but now that I've made so many of them, I'm thinking I just MAY take a break for awhile!), so I punched out a "window" using the 3/4" square punch. I added "curtains" using Mellow Moss cs; I crimped each one then tied them with Moss gingham ribbon and stuck them to the back of the windows using glue dots. Then I punched out flowers from the Spring Bouquet and Three For You punches, added stems, and stamped the Simply Said flowers stamp with markers. I stamped the "Weathered" background stamp on the Sage Shadow front, and cut out the oval with my Coluzzle (awesome tool!). Then I added my saying, from the new Hugs & Wishes set, distressing the sides and adding some sponging. That's it! Didn't seem so bad when I made the first one; by the time I'd made 21 though, I had some pretty good tendonitis from all that punching!

I did get a lot of great cards back from this swap though, and am glad I joined and made the effort. I can't wait to show my customers all the cards and ideas I got back! I'm hosting an open house this Saturday to sell my retired sets, and show off my great swaps. If you're in Edmonton and are interested in joining us, email me for further details! :)