CLASS OF THE MONTH:

Hello there! I hope your new year is off to a great start:) As with typical new year resolutions, I'm always thinking of ways to make improvements in the new year. I don't have a project to share today, but I do have a new idea. I didn't get enough people interested in a Club this time around, so I thought a little break would be kind of nice. But I started to feel bad for those who wanted to keep the Club going, especially now with Sale-A-Bration starting in a couple of days.

One of the struggles I personally deal with is my introverted personality. I know some of you are probably laughing thinking yeah, right. But the truth is holding events is extremely stressful for me. I put on a good front, but the older I get, the harder it is for me to pull it off~it probably doesn't help having a 3 year old in house 4 days a week either. My ultimate goal in life is to avoid social interaction, and holding events every month kind of goes against the grain for me. I love people, but I just don't want to spend a lot of time with them, lol. I wish I was different, but I've learned to accept that's just the way I am. As someone recently told me, we can't change our stripes, even though I've put alot of effort into trying to.

I have been doing alot of brainstorming trying to figure out if I can make this work for my customers and for me. I think I've come up with an idea that will work for all of us! I'm happy to introduce CLASS OF THE MONTH. I apologize for not having a photo to share with you, but I need to wait til I have better lighting tomorrow~so please stop back to see what the featured stamp set will be. Here's how it will work:

On the 1st day of each month, I will have a picture posted of the featured stamp set or product/s of the month. I will post a minimum of 4 cards made with the featured stamp set/product prior to the 10th of the month. If you are interested in signing up for the CLASS OF THE MONTH, you will need to let me know by email and have your money to me by the 10th of the month. You will receive the featured stamp set/product and a kit for making the 4 featured cards.

Once I've received your order and money, I will place the order and then prep a kit for you containing everything for the 4 cards featured on my blog. The kit will contain all the components for the 4 cards plus envelopes and any punching required will be done for you. You will have your own stamp set to do the stamping with, as SU! prohibits me from doing it. You will need to provide the inks and adhesive.

The cost of each CLASS OF THE MONTH may vary each month, but I will try to keep it under the $35 mark. The breakdown for the class will be the cost of the stamp set/product plus $10 for kit supplies and prep.

For those of you wanting to join a Club, you will need to order at least $25 of product (can be the featured stamp set/products or you can substitute for anything else, as long as your order is $25). Keep in mind, the cards in the kit will be centered around the featured stamp set/product.

For those of you wanting to join a Club, it will work the same way it always has. 6 members commit to ordering $25 a month for a 6 month time period. Each Club Member will get a turn as Hostess and earn free products of their choice during their month as Hostess.

I will provide you with at least 4 cards each month using the featured stamp set/product and will most likely post additional ideas as well. I will also post ideas using products other than the featured set/products because I'll go out of my mind if I don't have some variety:)

For those of you not afraid of committment,lol, and want to join a Club, please let me know ASAP so I can assign months. I will stop at 6 Members, and begin a separate Club for additional Members. Keep in mind, you may have to wait until I get 6, so please let me know right away.

As you  may know Sale-A-Bration begins on January 6th. During SAB, you get to pick a free product from the SAB brochure with every $50 you spend. This year there are 22 products to choose from! This is a very good time of year to join a Club as people generally spend more to get to the $50 mark, thus bumping up your workshop totals and earning more in Hostess Dollars if your month as Hostess falls during SAB. SAB runs through March. If you're interested in earning SAB sets, whether you're in a Club or not, you will need to order a minimum of $50. The $10 kit fee is in addition to this.

I know for some of you, the social part with friends is what makes stamping fun for you. I'm sorry I can't provide that right now, but you can easily make this work with some friends, alternating who hosts each month. You and your friends can each order the CLASS OF THE MONTH and pick a date after the 20th of the month to get together. Each of you brings your own stamp set and kit to make the 4 featured cards. Or, you can alternate months. One friend orders the January CLASS OF THE MONTH and you split up the cards or make up extra kits. The next month, another friend orders the CLASS. This works great for those who don't want to aquire alot of products or who don't have the room to store it. If you want to go this route, and you're interested in being a Club, pick one friend as the Club Member, and you can alternate months and split the Hostess Benefits.

I know some of you don't want to make a committment every month, so you can just pick whichever CLASS OF THE MONTH you're interested in. I just need to know by the 10th of each month.

There are basically 3 dates you need to remember:
     1st of the month: Visit my blog to see the CLASS OF THE MONTH
     10th of the month: Have your order and $ to me
     20th of the month: Pick up your order and kit from me. (The 20th is the
     approximate date your order/kit will be ready. To keep costs to a
     minimum, you'll need to pick up your order/kit, but I can also mail them
     to you plus the cost of shipping.)

Please let me know if you have any questions. And let me know right away if you're interested in joining a Club. If so, I will get an Occasions and SAB Catalog to you. Thanks you for your consideration and I hope we can make this work. Remember to stop back here tomorrow to see the CLASS OF THE MONTH:)