A good value!

With so many sales going on, I've really been spending a lot of time looking online at different stamps and what they cost ... it's hard to say "no" but so far, I've resisted most of the temptations. I did buy a Thomas Kinkade stamp (on ebay!) for my Christmas stocking but that was the only craft item I got this year!

I guess what helps me resist is the fact that stamps from The Angel Company are just a good deal! I know I'm biased but here's a case in fact:

It's hard to see probably, but each of these Teresa Collins stamps run $5.95 each... Now to compare it to one of our sets that is $19.95 for all of these pieces. And, even cooler, we have 200 sets under $12.95!


There is some more exciting news to share with you too! TAC has decided to make some changes that will really benefit you.

Number 1. After much thought and discussion, we have decided to return to an annual Inspiration Book and Catalogue, to be released at Seminar. This new catalogue plan will involve a “Base Book” which will be our “core” catalogue. This catalogue will be released on an annual basis at each year’s summer Seminar and will offer a variety of merchandise including our top-selling stamp sets. To supplement that annual catalogue, two “magalogues” (cross between a magazine and a catalogue) will be released throughout the catalogue year…one during the fall and one during the spring. These magalogues will have a seasonal focus and will also introduce new products, including new hostess sets.

Number 2. One of the most frequent requests that we have heard across the field is that our stamp images be reflected at 100%. Returning to an annual ‘base’ catalogue allows us to do that. Stamp images will also be 100% in our magalogues.

So, would you like to see a sneak peak of some of the stamps sets that will be in the first Magalogue coming out the first of February?!?!




I'll be sharing some more in the upcoming days.
But don't forget - tomorrow, Dec 31st, is the last day to:

• Sign up for my overseas blog candy


• Buy the December stamp specials


• Get a chance for my Art Glitter Fall kit


• Take advantage of the buy one get one FREE paper deals!!

One more homemade gift to share...

The stocking stuffers I made were pretty much a hit...although my daughter probably won't take her magnets to school, she'll enjoy them at home. I also made my husband a Password book...no fancy ribbons (so he'd use it!) but I got tired of constantly searching for a blue index card that was full of passwords and easy to misplace. I formated the pages so that there would be two entries to a front and I also printed two per backside. I then put dividers inside and used my Bind it All to hold it all together. Rustic Chic papers from TAC make it manly and I had fun using some of their stamps to decorate the cover. The final measurements are 4.25 x 4.5 (cover) and the inside sheets are 4.25 x 4.25. It came together so quickly - the hardest part was first developing the inside sheets and I'm happy to share the word document so email me if you'd like it!

inside: tab punch from TAC and a label maker did the trick for dividers!

My parents left today and hubby had to go back to work so the house feels so empty. Time to catch up on laundry and finally finish my Christmas cards! The kids are loving their days off though and have been in a whirlwind of Playstation mania. I think we've had two Dance Revolution marathons and now they've rediscovered old games of Christmas' past!

Merry Christmas!

I wanted to wish you all a very blessed and Merry Christmas!! We celebrate tonight - it's my German heritage...and stockings in the morning. Lots of fun and excitement in the air.

Don't forget to scroll down to some of my other posts to see the different specials going on!

Are your Christmas cards done?

Just a reminder as December comes to a busy close! The Angel Company has some great stamp and buy one, get one free paper deals that end on 31 Dec. I also am offering a raffle for the following kit...you get one entry for every $30 you spend, and a workshop gets you 5 chances to win!

Fall - Pee Wee Art Institute Glitter Kit ($12.95 retail value)


109 Cavalado
056 Pumpkin
107 Red Oak
108 Inca Gold
017 Purple Shadow
079 Black
058 Brown

So, have you finished your Christmas cards? My idea is to keep them very simple and here are 3 possible cards I came up with.



I have about 80 cut and embossed with the cuttlebug but I still have to stamp, tie ribbon and of course, write them! yikes...sometimes I send out Valentine's Day cards when I miss the Christmas card time frame (I give myself until Jan 5 - that's fair, right?) But last year, I'm ashamed to say, everyone got an Easter card. I can do it, I can do it....

Stocking Stuffers

These two projects have no stamping BUT they do use things related to stamping! :) Plus, I wanted to share...

My daughter loves Harry Potter and Twilight and since she has a locker at school, I thought it would be fun to make her some magnets. I was inspired by an etsy store and also Tim Holtz's clear doodads that I saw on Beth's blog here. I wondered what I could do and then I remembered that I had some memory glass left over from one of my blog candys (I ordered these from TAC) and it worked perfectly. We also sell the tape but I happened to have some gold tape leftover from my stained glass window making days (that's over 16 years ago...that's a LONG time to hang on to something, eh?!?)

My 10 year old son is a football fanatic and we had seen some of these figures selling for over $17 in the store. I thought, "hey, I can make one!". So I searched the internet for some photos and saved them as a .jpg and then sent them to Costco to be printed as 5 x 7s. That ran about 39 cents each I think and I had some left over foam board so I glued them down and carefully cut (okay, hacked!) away with an exacto knife. To make them stand up, I just double sided taped a left over wood block from an SU stamp set that I had unmounted. Thrify, thrifty.

I should be cleaning house since my folks arrive tomorrow. Yikes! But, I really am looking forward to their visit. I hope your holiday preparations are going well!

A Special Event!

Each month The Angel Company has a chance to win a fantastic paper/stamp package...this month it's a Reece/Woodrowe package. The only draw back, as I found out this past week, is that you must live in the USA (or have an APO address) to enter. So as a special event, I am having a blog candy for those of you who do NOT live here in the United States!!

To enter, just post a comment and include what country you live in. Please make sure I have a way to contact you if you are the lucky winner!

This package includes the Tutti Frutti 12x12 paper collection, Toodle Loo hardware and two stamp sets - it retails for just over $40! Drawing will be announced on 1 Jan 09 to give you a chance to spread the word!!

Angel Noel

I had to make a Christmas card for my inlaws and every year they send out fancy angel cards so I reached for my retired TAC set that I love dearly...I gold embossed it on watercolor paper and then watercolored the image with SU watercolor crayons. I don't have Shimmerz yet (Heidi, I'll place an order one of these days!) so I grabbed my floor wax filled aqua brush and some long neglected Pearl Ex powders and added that to the greeting and wings. Please believe me when I say the colors do match in real life - sigh...to get a decent picture one day would be nice. :) I also paired the image with a K&C mat pad paper that I grabbed on sale one day and some Bazzill paper.



Be sure to visit me on Monday as I will be having a special blog candy for everyone who lives outside of the US and can't enter the TAC contests...this is my little offering to you!! Spread the word!!

Almost done shopping!

phew! Once again I managed to wait until the last minute to do most of my Christmas shopping...and now I'm dealing with: things my daughter put on her wish list are sold out (eeck! I'm going to be in trouble! She had links and everything ready months ago...), trying to find a balance between more electronic games versus "get out and play" games for my 10 year old son (ideas welcome! He loves football but is a couch potato the rest of the year...), and deciding what to get for my husband. I got him a pull up bar to go over the door but I probably need something more than that, eh? ... sigh. With all this wrapping going on, I needed more tags and I was "inspired" by Tim Holtz's blog where he is doing 12 Day of Christmas tags. wowser...don't get your hopes for my creations but his are certainly worth taking a look at! I also wanted to try some vintage dictionary backgrounds that I saw featured on Mel Stampz blog...it's an incredible site for fun ideas and she provides oodles of tutorials and patterns. In this case, you can download the background from a PDF and print it on cardstock. Then I just used my sizzix to die cut some tags and I decorated them with some current and retired TAC stamp sets. I also used some stickles and embossing here and there to jazz them up.

In real life the colors do match! And, I felt much better when the ladies at my hostess club saw my ornaments card featuring the Happy Winter set below in a past post ... and they said it looked much better in real life than in the photo.

Chance to Win!

Each month The Angel Company is awarding one lucky winner a special prize package. This month it is a Woodrowe/Reece paper package plus goodies, plus one stamp set. There is no purchase necessary - you just have to enter to win!

http://www.theangelcompany.net/Promos_ReeceWoodroweDec.html

Winnings:

December Newsletter update!

Hopefully by now most of you have received my eNewsletter via Constant Contact. I hadn't had a chance to pull a raffle winner for November's incentive, put I finally got my act together last night! Congratulations to Sheila - You won the Little Things stamp set and I'll get it out in the mail this week!

I also wanted to share I card I made recently with one of the Happy Winter vintage sets...this is another adorable image and I have found that I most often grab for this set, even though it has been retired for quite a while...so lucky for you that TAC decided to bring it back as one of it's vintage sets!

I used the Penelope cardstock and patterned paper for this card (features a library pocket on the inside for a gift card) since it's for a teenage boy. I love how the crystal lacquer makes the ornaments so shiny! And, I used my BIC markers to color it since I don't have copics ... I seldom use straight markers because I love to watercolor but I have to say in this instance, they were perfect.

Be sure to check out all the new TAC special offers that are featured on the side bar...some truly amazing offers!

Yikes! It's December...

where has the time flown? You have two more days before Double Dip rewards ends...and so many wonderful new specials to take advantage of. It "could" be a super Christmas under your tree this year!




I love this Christmas tree...I'm so happy that they've brought back the Happy Winter set for a short period of time. These vintage sets that TAC brings back make it really fun to dig out some neglected stamp sets.