Open House Fever!

Hello Stampers,

I had my semi-annual Open House, Catalogue Launch and Garage Sale Party on Saturday and it was so much fun!  My friend, Sue Farrant, & I had a joint event so we had lots of samples to share and great deals to be had in the garage sale.  It was one of the hottest days of the summer here in Vancouver – about 35 degrees (that's about 90 for my US friends) but thankfully the room was air conditioned so we all stayed cool!

The calm before the storm……

Sue (left) and I (right) just before the crowds hit…in front of one of our 20 display boards full of samples!  The unusual humidity made havic with my hair – LOL

The trickle starts with the garage sale….a HUGE thanks to my friend Rachel Miles for bravely looking after the garage sale table – she's a dynamo!!

In full swing with make n' takes, ordering and snapping pictures (yes you can bring cameras to our events to remember your favourite cards).

 The beat goes on and on and on…

We had so much fun – thanks to all of you (over 60 guests made it out on a hot summer day!) for making the effort to come from near and far (Mission & Squamish!) to our Open House – hope you had as much fun as Sue & I.

Here's our make n' take cards from the day…

This was Sue's make n' take – it uses the new Flight of the Butterfly stamp set along with the fabulous Bella Rose designer papers.  The colours are two of the new In Colours for 2008 – Pink Pirouette and Riding Hood Red.  This is so fresh and pretty!

The butterflies are created using the 2 Step Stamping method (a  Stampin' Up! brilliant idea – don't be fooled by imitations LOL).  First the solid butterfly is stamped in the lighter of 2 inks and the "dots" and "flowers" are added with another stamp in the darker colour of ink. 

This was my contribution to the Make n' Takes – it uses the new Eastern Blooms stamp set (just gorgeous by the way) along with the new Baja Breeze In Colour and my favourite Chocolate Chip.  My customers are used to me saying "if you can't eat chocolate everyday then you should at least stamp with it!).  This card was designed by Sherri L Barron.

The large flowers were stamped in Baja Breeze and then punched out using the 1 1/4" punch.  The flower centers were stamped in Chocolate Chip and punched out with the 1/2" circle punch.

The edge of the chocolate chip piece was punched using the new Scallop Edge Punch.

Another old favourite, Sincere Salutations, was used for the greeting.  I love this set because each saying is exactly the same size.  So I tell my customers to stamp a bunch of cards all at the same time and put them away in a box.  When you need a card you can pull it out and add the appropriate sentiment for the occasion knowing that it will "fit" in the space you've left blank on your card.

CONGRATULATONS to the following Prize Draw Winners – Jo Anne Dube – Level 1 Hostess set; Sonya Lore – Level 1 Hostess Set and Gaby Weiss – $20 in free merchandise!  

Thanks for visiting my blog and for coming to my Open House…stay tuned later today for my Virtual Open House where I'll be listing my left over stamp sets from the garage sale – watch for awesome discounts!

Happy Stamping!

Alison