Wednesday, October 8, 2014

World Card Making Day Open House Projects

Wow, my World Card Making Day Open House on Sunday was a blast!  

I was delighted to open my doors to the twelve great ladies who came. We had ate, chatted, looked at new products, met new friends, talked about classes, made some make n' takes and watched some demos.  

I also had out of town customers participating in my World Card Making day and supplied them with the same make n' takes and access to the Hostess Code for the specials and prize draws.  That's the great thing about being a Stampin' Up! demo, your customers can be anywhere and still participate.

Note:  Due to privacy issues, I'm not including pictures of my guests during the party, only my down line besties.  

How The Day Went:
Speaking of "besties" here are my two, Ethel and Sheri.  These gals are not only great paper crafters and demos themselves, but they just add so much to my team, because of their fun loving nature and thoughtfulness.  

Both arrived before everyone else to help with final setup and food. I was really relaxed before my guests arrived because they gave me time to work through some last minute details while they tried out the make n' takes table and made sure everything I needed was there.  

What a big help!  I must say, I couldn't have made it through the Open House without them!  So take a bow ladies, you certainly deserve it! You did an outstanding job and it was so much fun having you participate.


Make N' Takes: 
 
The card base is Soft Suede topped with a 51/4" x 4" piece of Soft Sky.  The 2nd layer is a 3 3/4" x 5" piece of Whisper White that has been embossed with the Large dot Embossing Folder.  To add some depth to this card face, I used the 3" circle framelit to remove a circle from this piece.  I then cut a 2 3/4" circle from Soft Suede and punched out a a 2 1/2" piece of Soft Sky with the 2 1/2" circle punch.  The Soft Sky circle was stamped with the "Merry and Bright" sentiment from the "Christmas Bliss" photopolymer  stamp set in Soft Suede ink and a few snow flakes were added from a retired stamp set called Snow Flurries.  Some Basic Rhinestones were added to the snow flakes and then this circle was mounted with dimensionals to the Soft Suede piece. 

For the inside of the card I added a Whisper White layer that was stamped with the sentiment "Wishing you a Bright &........" from the Bright and Beautiful stamp set from the Holiday Catalogue.  Two clusters of snowflakes were stamped in Soft Sky ink in the corners.  



We also made a Christmas tag using the new Tree Punch and the On Point Embossing Folder.  How cute is this:


The tree images were embossed with the Fancy Fan Embossing Folder. The beautiful glimmer stars were punched out with the Itty Bitty Accents star punch from the Dazzling Diamonds Glimmer paper.  Luv, luv, luv that stuff!

A number of gals said they passed over this embossing folder in the holiday catalogue, because they thought it was just a bunch of geometrics or triangles.  But guess what, along with triangles there are a whole forest of trees lurking in this design.  This just might be an embossing folder for all seasons!
Sheri and Ethel completed the make n' takes themselves so they could ensure all the equipment and supplies needed were there and ready for the first wave of stampers. They were and we were all ready to go when our first guests arrived.
This was my Make N' Take table and guests were able to make both a card and gift tag using the new Tree punch that coordinates with the Festival of Trees stamp set and the Christmas Bliss stamp set.
Everyone got to try out the Envelope Punch Board with Ethel's excellent assistance.  It must have been a hit, several people purchased one. 
Displays: For my Open House, I used the entire basement in my home for displays, make n' takes and refreshment set up.   It made it so much more comfortable than trying to cram into a smaller space.  

My guests were able to browse the catties in comfort and relax and chat.  My Pool table came in handy for a huge display that everyone could walk around and check out.  Here are some pictures of the set up and displays I used.  
The Holiday catalogue is chalk full of wonderful stamp sets and products so this area of the display shows off some of the stamp sets and some samples of what could be made with them.
Paper Pumpkin, Project Life and Clearance Rack items on display.
Here's my cozy "sit a while" area.  It was well used. 
As my guests arrived they each received a goodie bag.
There were some awesome specials offered in October including the one for World Card Making Day  and I wanted to make sure everyone knew all about them, so I made up this display board.

No Open House would be complete without a "clearance table", and in this case it's a table and some stools.  But hey, whatever works!
Along with my sale items we had some of Sheri's fabulous Infiniti scarves on display.  For every scarf sold she donates a percentage to the Run for the Cure.

This is my card making space, all cleaned up for taking orders.
And finally, here are some of my favourite cards on display that I made over the summer months.  Wow did I have fun.  Most of these were made for challenges or for my Stampin' On Tuesday get-togethers. 
PRIZE DRAW WINNERS:

What's a party without door prizes?  Congratulations to Christine H. and to Betty Lee who each won $55.00 in Hostess prizes from my special draw.  Both these gals were very excited when I notified them and have submitted their wish list items, which are now on the way.

Additional winners were:
Jennifer - Stamp Set
Sue J. - Gift card Sampler
Corrine - Stamp set
Arlene - Paper Pack
Nancy -  Dimensionals Pack

Well that's it for my World Card Making day.  I want to thank once again all the great ladies who attended my party and contributed to its fun and success!  You're all so wonderful.  Keep the first Saturday in October marked in your calendar for next year, because I think I'm going to make this an annual event.  
Happy Stampin'
Penny Tokens

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