Well, here it is, my Halloween card for the year! You know, if you've followed me for a year or two that I don't have much cause to do Halloween cards. My customers are not really into them. But I do love the colours and the drama associated with Halloween. I didn't order any stamp sets this year because they just weren't dramatic enough for me, so I used one of the Seasonal Chums stamps for my main image. But the star of the show with this project is the Toil & Trouble Designer Series Paper! I do love the colours and images with this DSP and along with this card, I have a little 3D project to share with you on Wednesday as well.
I also wanted to play along with the brilliant sketch challenge at The Paper Players this week:
Anne Marie has given us a super lay out to play with and one that's perfect for using a variety of DSP with. And great ribbon, like the beautiful Black 3/8" Glittered Organdy Ribbon that is part of the Toil & Trouble Suite in the Holiday Catalogue. Here's another look at my card:
- On a card base of Gorgeous Grape I mounted two panels of DSP from the Toil & Trouble series. I backed both of them with Basic Black cardstock using narrow 1/16" margins. I adhered the two panels together before adding the already tied bow made from the Black 3/8" Glittered Organdy Ribbon.
- On the Lemon Lime Twist panel, I used Glue Dots to add bats that I fussy cut from another sheet of the Toil & Trouble DSP.
- On a piece of Whisper White cardstock, I stamped the front image of the Seasonal Chums pumpkin in Memento Tuxedo Black ink and Coloured it in using the Pumpkin Pie Combo of Stampin' Blends as well as the Granny Apple Green Combo and just the Dark Basic Black shade.
- I made a mask for the image using Post It Note paper and the die from Seasonal Tags and used it to protect the stamped and coloured image when I stamped the background using one of the images from Gallery Grunge and Highland Heather ink stamped off once to make it light enough.
- This image was die cut with one of the Stitched Shapes Squares and backed with a coordinating scallop square from the Layering Squares framelits.
My Stampin' Up! Story!
I wanted to share a little of my Stampin' Up! journey with you and let you know what being a Stampin' Up! demonstrator has meant for me, as I prepare to head for Orlando, Florida next week to celebrate Stampin' Up!'s 30th Birthday!
I became a demonstrator in March of 2012, two years after I retired as an elementary school teacher. I had been enjoying retirement and stamping as a hobby for those two years, but I was getting a little bored without a purpose and missing my interaction with my colleagues everyday. I decided to take the plunge and become a demonstrator and take my hobby to the next level. I had been involved in direct sales before without a lot of success, so I didn't think that I'd be a great salesperson, but I was looking forward to that 20 percent discount on my own stamping supplies and I was kind of intrigued with the marketing aspect.
The other thing you need to know about me is that I am pretty introverted and doing workshops was hugely out of my comfort zone, especially the inviting part, but I decided it was time to stretch myself a bit and see what happened. What I really wanted was customers that would come to stamping classes, because I knew I would feel comfortable doing those, but first I had to find them.
A friend held a workshop for me with all our common friends, but although there were a lot of people there, not many ordered and only two of them decided to come to further classes. That was discouraging, because I didn't know many other people. Then I had the opportunity to do a craft fair that my upline had signed up for but couldn't attend. From the contacts I made there, I was able to start holding classes and meeting other people.
After my first 18 months, I was the only Canadian demonstrator that year to earn the Rising Star Award and got a trip to the Home Office along with 3 other American demos who earned it that year as well.
I've since reached the title of Silver Elite and earned my first $100,000 in sales and my goal this year is to finally earn the incentive trip to Maui in 2020! Along the way, I've made so many incredible friends, demos and customers alike! (Stampers really are the nicest people!) And I've learned new skills and found new strengths I didn't know I even had! I'm enjoying having the leadership of my own downline, the Papercraft Cats and I'd love to have you join me in this journey.
Believe me when I say that my skill set did not include selling things and I'm very shy and quite a klutz, so if I can do this and have success, you can, too!
If you're a Canadian who loves crafting or would like to have a home business where the products literally sell themselves, then please contact me. I would love to help you get started! Or click on Join My Team in the top menu, and follow the prompts!
Click on the links below to take you to my On-Line Store, where you can read about, look at, and purchase if you wish, the products used to make this card today.
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