It's almost Halloween!
I wanted to say it is fall, but it still feels a lot like summer! I can hardly wait for the crisp mornings and evenings....to say the least, I am not a "summer person"! I am not much of a Halloween person....at least the creepy kind, but for some reason I had to talk Robin into creating a class with zombies! That is so not me! I am definitely more the "fall" person....check out my class this month!
With fall near, Christmas can't be far away. I have a stack of stamps and dies on my desk to make samples of the cards that are in my head. I always do this.....make a bunch of different ones for the process of elimination. I do one or two that are sort of out of the box, then eliminate those as I just can't seem to wander too far. I never do Santa, or elves, or funny cards. I have made samples with cats, but they, too, got eliminated. I am more of a mountain/nature or religious theme person when it comes to holiday cards. It would be fun to know whether others also stick to a certain style or theme year after year.....or am I just in a rut?
We enjoyed having Julie Kelly join us a couple of weeks ago to teach Halloween and Christmas cards from Lawn Fawn. Everyone had a great time and Julie is so much fun. Lawn Fawn has very creative interactive dies which make their classes a lot of fun.
I think the October classes (really???it is really October????) offer a lot of variety. Kathy had fun designing cards using the Tim Holtz Entomology stamps and dies. Robin made even the nasty looking zombies from the new Tim Holtz release look...should I say interesting? Melissa has created a two card class that will give everyone the opportunity to really learn to mask! Check out the sitting bears. They are all individual bears, but with masking, they overlap, the foreground is also masked as is the background. This is definitely a technique class that will help you get a lot of use out of your single image stamps. My fall card class uses a couple of stamp and die sets from Taylored Expressions. I love the leaf frame die, and I REALLY love the new Pulsar paper (brown in this case) that I used on the card shown on the right. We have the Pulsar paper in red, blue and this dark brown...it is to die for! Be sure to check out the classes at our class link!
I want to give everyone a head start on holiday planning....for the last several years, we have had a cookie swap in place of a Saturday class. This year it will be Saturday, December 22nd. It is just a fun time to share with our stamping friends. Everyone brings 3 dozen home baked cookies to share+ a dozen for tasting. We have hot spiced cider and coffee and just visit with friends. Everyone leaves with an assortment of 3 dozen cookies aftering we all swap! It is an easy way to have an assortment of cookies for Christmas Day but only baking one batch! Mark your calendar for 12/22/2018!
You might enjoy the new Penny Black release! I ordered a board using some of the stamps and dies. It is a limited release so I hope I jumped in quickly enough. It is gorgeous. When it comes, I will be sure to send a photo!
We have new paper on order as well as some new embellishments. I love the Sparkletz from Buttons Galore. They are great for shakers and the individual pieces in the assortments are perfect to accent cards. Orders for stamps and dies are pretty much concentrating on fall and Christmas right now and should be arriving over the next few weeks.
On a sad note, in case you don't follow us on facebook, you may not know that our sweet Mittens went to Kitty Heaven Labor Day weekend. She had a wonderful 18 years, was a fabulous ambassador for feral kitties everywhere. She proved that even the most frightened little girl who was older than everyone says can be domesticated, deserves a chance. If she and her brothers had not been trapped and spent a few weeks in our bathroom with lots of patient and loving customers talking to them, they would never have survived the 15, 16, and 18 years that they did. They were loved by us and they loved all of you, too!
I hope you are all well and those in California and areas with wildfires have survived unscathed. We had a couple that were too close for comfort this year.....no matter where they are, they are never good. Stay safe, we hope to see you soon...
What's New?
As you can imagine fall and winter is the main theme. We have cute, traditional,
creepy, snarky, and whatever else suites your fancy! If you are interested in anything in the Penny Black release linked above, send us an email asap (info@catsmeowstamps.com) so we can add your 'needs' to our order. We don't have an expected ship date but it should not be too far out.
Our latest order from Gina K shipped Friday, so we should have it later this week. We ordered new stamps (including the holiday wreath maker) and dies, as well as Amalgam ink in the full pad size, and have filled in and ordered additional colors of cardstock. By the way, did we tell you we also stock Gina's glue?
We can't keep Nuvo Crystal Glaze in stock, and have had the Aqua Shimmer Pens on back order for some time. Trust me, we are trying to get them.....and it is frustrating. We know you all want them.
We are putting together another order for Altenew. The pan watercolors were a big hit...flew right out the door. They have also come out with more styles of their fabulous wide washi tape which is definitely on the list.
We are also ordering again from Lavinia...that takes a bit longer since it ships from Wales, but the images are worth the wait! You can check out their website and let us know if you want to save shipping from the UK by ordering through us.
Be sure to sign up for classes and come in for inspiration.....we are here to help however we can.
