5/4/10

It's all about Stars!

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This past Saturday, I had a Close To My Heart gathering to conduct. The theme - Birthdays. For you consultants, here's a run down on how the show went and the artwork created at the gathering. If you're not a consultant, I think you'll enjoy the artwork too.

We started with a demo of Studio J using my laptop. I brought along some photos of a family birthday celebration and we worked with the Hippity Hop kit that is exclusive to Studio J. It was a little bit of a challenge to operate the pc and be able to show everyone what I was doing but one of the people in attendance helped out by operating the mouse while I talked. Everyone seemed to really be interested in Studio J!

After the demo, we did a quick catalog walk through to familiarize everyone with the basics of CTMH. Then on to a simple project.

My sample was created with papers from the Miracle kit but their project used papers from Bella and Caboodle paper kits. Here's the card we made:


Making a simple card like this taught a few things - how to incorporate our great papers in a unique way, how to do simple stamping and even cutting out an image, how to add a sentiment to vellum over the image with brads, using a pen to add a little hand drawing.

From there, I then used the sample I created and cut off the back of the card, leaving the decorated front which can be used as a tag on a gift.

One more change to the card front was to cut the piece a little smaller by removing the section with the sentiment. I then used the piece to embellish a Miracle 12 x 12 single page layout:


The basic layout is very similar to the one in the Miracle directions booklet except it is rotated and embellished differently. This demonstrates various ways to use the same artwork - something for card makers to scrapbookers.

I then showed what else is possible to create with the star stamp set with these three cards:






I explained a little about each card such as what kit/paper was used, about stamping on the sticker letters, finding a card layout in Wishes (the last card was based on a layout in Wishes). This creates more interest in a simple star when you can see the variety of ways to use it! These three cards were then bundled with three envelopes and given to the hostess as a thank you gift.

We also created a simple card using one of our pre-made card kits - they loved the simplicity of these kits! The gathering was wrapped up with a pass-the-prize birthday themed game (10 questions such as "Who was born on a holiday?" and "Who was born before 1960?" and so on - the last person holding the prize after question 10, gets to keep it). And the prize was a booking set of stamps, the small acrylic mount, a little package of embellishments and a box of birthday candles.

The gathering was wrapped up in 2 hours and then orders were placed. This was a small group, only 4 people in attendance but orders were over $150 without the hostess even placing her order. So all in all, a success!

I hope this gives you some ideas for your next gathering! A birthday theme is something everyone can relate to!

Until next time, have a creative day! And don't forget to pop over to my random rambling blog and see what else is going on in my life. You can find it here -- Ridiculous Lab

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3 comments:

Stephanie said...

Mary - These are fabulous :) I love the stars as flames to the candles & the gorgeous scrapbook page!

The Mama Monkey said...

It really is all about the stars! Great cards...I am sure you will sell a ton of that set. You made it work well for every occasion!

JazzyH said...

Pretty!