Monday, October 5, 2009

Stampin' Up Fall Retreat!

I went to Huntsville Alabama Saturday for a Fall Retreat. It was sponsored by the one who recruited me and the one who recruited her. They have 2 retreats a year and they are always wonderful retreats.
The first pictures are of the adorable witch's hat we each had at our spot on our table. It is amazingly simple, a long rectangle folded and punched. I'll do a tutorial later this week so you can make some for Halloween if you want to. I'm also seeing Christmas Trees and wedding cake slices. Humm, what else is a triangle? Oh, candy corn! I actually don't like the taste of it at all but I love it as a Halloween decoration. LMK if you have any other ideas for this cute triangle box.

We made 6 projects in the morning with an inbetween project we could do before and during lunch and then we did 4 more cards after lunch. We had a little business thrown in here and there and someone talked about using the My Digital Studio. If you have been following my blog, you know that I've already been playing with that but she did mention a couple of things I didn't know. I'm still surprised at how much I am enjoying digital scrapbooking!
Oh, and speaking of My Digital Studio, I did one of my famous where is my brain moves with it. When I got it I noticed that there were 2 discs in the package and went on to install them. After I got the first disc installed I guess I was too excited to get busy making some pages and I totally forgot to install the second disc! After about a week I started to notice that some people's pages had bows on their ribbon. I couldn't find bows anywhere! I also saw fall and Christmas pages that had stamps I couldn't find. Someone said there were 60 stamp sets. I could only find 30. Was mine defective??? (no, just my brain) I finally asked on a SU demonstrator group I'm in and (very nicely without calling me a dunce) they suggested that maybe I hadn't loaded the 2nd disc.
I'll just blame it on my excitement to get the program loaded and start creating with it. It is amazing that I did over 30 pages with just one disc loaded! Now that I've loaded the other disc I'm even more excited. There are some great stamps on it and all the colors are there now. Did you know that the retail value of those 60 sets is $989.15????? At only $79.95 that is over a 90% discount! And that doesn't include the price of all the punches and embellishments. Soooo, just tell your husband you are saving him thousands of dollars when you try to convince him you need the My Digital Studio program :~)
There was also a swap, I got 28 great cards that I will be sharing later. Tonight I'll share the 6 projects we did in the morning. There were a few boxes, a bag, and 2 cards. I didn't take a picture of one of the cards because I already posted it a couple of weeks ago. It is the Sweet Centers card using the Halloween stamp, I used the black gingham ribbon and More mustard card stock. The one we made was basically the same except they used the striped grossgrain ribbon and Old Olive cardstock. I had taught it at a shoebox at my upline's house a couple of weeks ago along with the tag-to-remove-the-candy idea that I can't remember who I copied from.
The other projects were a box that was made with 2 sheets of 12X12 cardstock that is a very good size for medium sized gifts and is quite sturdy. It is the box right after the witch's hat that is Sahara Sand with a Taken With Teal band and a strip of patterned paper. The tag is punched with the new Ornament Punch and has a rub on from the Merry and Bright rub on package featured in the Holiday Mini catalog. It was such a quick and easy box to make and will cost so much less than boxes you have to buy in a store.
The next project is the red card box. It is made with a single sheet of 8 1/2 X 11 cardstock with a band of patterned paper to fancy it up some. It will easily hold 6 to 10 cards as a gift. It depends on how many dimentionals you use on your card as to how many cards you can get in it. The card we made to go in the box in the morning was using a tree from the Lovely As A Tree stamp set. Isn't it cool how we turned it sideways to look like the boughs of a tree? I got mine thicker than I wanted to but I kept stamping them too far apart. I was trying to hurry and didn't take my time on the placement. It still looks like a tree though. The ornament is stamped with one of the stamps from the Delightful Decorations set and punched with the Ornament Punch. I love it when there is a punch to match so you don't have to cut the images out!
Next is a fun little double sided box with a handle that would be perfect for a Thanksgiving celebration. It is actually made with 2 of the Box #2 dies that have the top left straight up and a handle punched with the Wide Oval Punch. I love the striped ribbon tied through the handle.
Last is a bag using one of theTreat Boxes on page 159 of the catalog. At just $3.95 for a package of 5 bags, that is just .79 per bag. I love the dark chocolate color and they are so quick and easy to decorate. This one just has a red ribbon tied around it and a tag using the Two Tags Die and a Jumbo Snowflake punch. Those are 2 things I haven't ordered yet that I really think I need :~)
Whew, I had to look a bunch of stuff up in the catalog! If I left anything out or you have any other questions, just ask. I'll be posting the special project (I think you will love it!) and the other 4 cards tomorrow. Then I'll post some of the swaps later this week.

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