STAMP DRAW WINNER:  We are pleased to announce the latest winner in our stamp draw is Lynn Gosney of Brisbane, Australia.  Congratulations to Lynn!   The 'new' stamp draw is ready to go.  I am doing something a little unusual this time.  I am going to repeat the same prize.  It was a great prize and no one except Lynn won it!....so, here is your second chance!   As usual, if you are the winner you can pick any stamp, including UM's of an equivalent value.  Good Luck!

AROUND THE STUDIO:  We are truly exhausted, but still riding the high of the Christmas shows we have just finished.  We are very fortunate in that we have a business that is growing every year, despite macroeconomics or world events.  This was our eighth year in business, and we did significantly better during the year in all of our venues; including the Internet, the Saturday Market, and in our Studio.  However, the Christmas shows were truly extraordinary.  We were overwhelmed by the sales and the enthusiasm of the people who flocked to our booth.  I mean really emotionally overwhelmed.  I just kept shaking my head trying to understand what the factors were that contributed to the amazing response we had at each show we did this year.  We want to extend a very heart felt thank you to everyone who contributed to our success.  Right now I feel like our customers have to be about the most wonderful group of people in the world!!   Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! 

MARGARET'S MUSINGS:  If you have had an opportunity to see our display at anytime over the past few years, you would have seen sample cards by our friend Margaret Appleton. Margaret is always trying something new, and comes up with some great effects with our stamps. She has agreed to write a short piece for each newsletter on stamping in general and on techniques slightly beyond the basics.

(Editor's Note: Margaret had written this follow-up piece to her August Musings about pearlescents.  However, we did not use it then, because I asked her to do the piece on the Christmas crackers last month.)

Last time I wrote about pearlescent powder. I continued to play and to try different ways of using it .

I knew that the powder would adhere to clear embossing ink or watermark ink applied directly to cardstock and I have written about that before. You can have fun with that on black cardstock as well as on lighter colours.

This time, however, I looked around to see what else might hold that powder. I had success with double-stick tape. I tried double-sided Scotch tape, the new vellum tape and embossing tape. All worked well with just tiny differences to the look. I made wonderful background stripes by tapping and lightly brushing powder onto the surface of the tape. They almost looked like they were stripes made of ribbon. I tried using more than one colour of powder on a stripe to add interest.

The ink or glue from a glue pen, clear embossing pen, or Erasermate pen will also hold the powder so you can draw or write with the pen and then add powder.

The next project involved mixing the powder with white glue. I squeezed the glue right on to a small (approx. 2" by 4") piece of white cardstock. Before I added the coloured powder, I spritzed the glue spot on the paper with a tiny bit of water and that made the glue a little easier to work with. Even with that, however, I needed to tap on the powder(s) quite quickly and then "finger paint". You can make swirls or whatever. The beauty of this "medium" is that, even after it dried, I could make colour adjustments or add more colours just by putting on more glue and water and more powder.

Happy Holidays!