What a very strange weather season. I know some of you are having a tremendous amount of snow and others are having strange weather in other ways. Here in Michigan we had a snowy time during the Winter Workshop in November. Since then, we have had day-time temperatures in the 40's and 50's, the night-time temperatures are basically staying in the 30's and we've had lots of rain. This is so strange for us. I keep thinking we're going to pay for it in January and February. I looked it up in the Farmer's Almanac and, lo and behold, it doesn't look like we are going to have any super bad weather at any time this winter. I know some of you are making up for our good weather with bad weather in your areas. Looking on the bright side, you all with bad weather with lots of snow and cold will have a lot less bugs come spring and summer than we will. At this rate, we will be over come with bugs, since they're not being killed off by the below freezing temperatures that we usually have.
Let's all remember to take lots of vitamin C and E this year to try to stay healthy through out this off-beat weather.
I figured out, belatedly, that I should have waited until May to put out the new Sparkle Kit. Instead, I got so excited about it that I said that I would bring it out in January 2007. So - in your last newsletter, you got a new paint page -and now you will get another new paint page in this newsletter. This, also, means that you get a new 'Kit's' page in this newsletter.
There will be six (6) Quilt Block of the Month Clubs this year. I hope I have covered a good variety and that you will like what I've come up with. We will have two (2) baby quilts running one after the other. They will be six (6) months each. We will have a Pony quilt for the little girls and a Dinosaur quilt for the little boys. Then there will be a special set of roses for a Rose quilt. The second set of Flower Faces (all different from last year) will run this year. Then there will be the Southwest designs for the Southwest quilt. I hope I have covered a lot of different interests.
If you have ideas for the 2008 Quilt Clubs, let me hear them soon.
We will be having a great number of transfers come out this year. I'm trying for six (6) to nine (9) per month. These will be new and re-worked transfers. This does not mean that I will always be timely in getting them to the printer so they're ready for your orders right after the newsletter comes out. This month, if you order the Flower Face #2 quilt block, the Valentine Special, the Rose quilt block and the Dinosaur quilt block - they'll be back from the printers on Thursday (Jan 4 2007). (I got so into helping the economy {shopping} with my daughters that I forgot to get them to the printer's on time. We really, really had a good time, just one on one with each of them, that I hope you forgive me. I really am getting better. I haven't done this for a while.)
The Southwest Quilt designs are from Christy Lee. "Thank you, Christy!!!"
The rest of them are from various places and times, some new, some old. Halleen Fisk has been helping me get them set up in some kind of order. "Thanks, Halleen!!!"
I couldn't do any of these things without a lot of help from my friends -which I consider you all to be.
I will be trying to put out more "How to Sheets" this year. All suggestions on these will be appreciated. Get your ideas to me as soon as you can. I need the ideas.
Paints are $2.99 each
These together make the new K008 - Sparkle Kit 2 - $37.75
Okay - all you Sparkle lovers - you now have shading colors in the Sparkles, so go to it.
These monthly quilt blocks have gone over so well that I will be doing six (6) Clubs for 2007 .
There will be two (2) sets of baby quilts that will run six months each - one after the other.
Then there are two kids' quilts - My Pony and Dinosaurs - these will each run for 12 months. These can be done by kids -or for kids.
There will be the next set of 12 Flower Face blocks, Rose Quilt blocks and Southwest blocks..
What do you think? Is this a good idea? Do you like getting together at least once a month to paint and chat?
Did you do them by yourself last year? Try asking some friends if they would like to join you once a month or so this year. They would probably like that.
You could get some church ladies together to do the different quilts - then raffle them off at the end of the year.
How about one of the kids' clubs -they have to earn money, too, and they need something to do. They could make several of them (you know they are all going to look different) then raffle them or give them to some needy folks that will love them.
I'm sure you can think of a lot of ways to use the Quilt Clubs. Let me know your ideas on this.
BQ1-01 Baby Quilt Block Pak |
DQB01 Dinosaur Quilt Block Pak |
PQ01 Pony Quilt Block Pak |
RQ01 Rose Quilt Block Pak |
FFQ2-01 Flower Face 2 Quilt Block Pak |
SWQ01 Southwest Quilt Block Pak |
So many people have been asking for Fabric Glue back - which I decided to put it back in the Line and see how it went. It took me so long to sell out of the two dozen that I got when I bought the Company that I figured there weren't that many people that used it. I have been told that the problem was that they had bought a lot of it when Orlando had their 'going out of business' sale. We'll see. I'm not going to put out a new Accessories page until January - so you will have to tell your customers that it's back. If it doesn't sell well in the next couple of months - I will probably drop it again. The number is C379 - Fabric Glue -$4.95. Your orders will tell me whether to keep it or just sell out what I've got and drop it.
I have a couple new transfers just for Sparkle Paints: T4713 & T4714. These two transfers turned out great. The Shapes transfer you might remember used to come in two sheets. I shrunk it down to one sheet and put the transfer not only on the front of my sweatshirt - but, also, on the sleeve. Then I turned the sweatshirt over - put the Bubbles (which was, also, a two part transfer that I shrunk down) on the back and down the other sleeve. I wore this the other day to a restaurant and before I even sat down, I had a lady got up and came over to tell me to turn around, then asked me if I had painted the shirt. I told her yes and that I owned the Company - "would she like a business card?" Painted clothes are such a great advertisement. I love it!
Speaking of transfers - we were weren't we? Let's look at some of the transfers coming out this month.
T4696 Mare & Foal |
T4710 Love A Bug |
T4711 Bowling The Real Story |
T4712 Exercise & Defense |
T4713 Bubbles |
T4714 Shapes |
T4715 Hunting Eagle |
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T4716 Tiger Love |
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Did you know that when a horse is born, the horse associations always figure their birthday as being January 1st of the year they are born? Isn't that strange? So if your horse is born in November and you want to enter it in different association contests and shows the next year, say in March, it goes in the one-year-old category even though it's only four months old. It gets worse as the horse gets older. It's always in groups that are older and better prepared. So - horse folk are always shooting for their horses to foal in January, as close to the first of the year as possible. T4696 - Mare & Foal is set in about that time. It makes it a wonderful picture with the naked trees in the background and the old grass still in the meadow. I used an old toothbrush for the dead grass. Just take your mini palette - smear a light coat of paint on the bottom - then dip your old toothbrush in the paint. When you put the paint on the picture - set the toothbrush straight down - then flick it upwards. You can even practice on a piece of paper before you try it on your picture. Great technique. I've always hated throwing away old toothbrushes. It just seems like such a waste.
T4715 - Hunting Eagle can be done just as charted - or - you can spread your wings and start trying your hand at shading. You can shade and make the hills more three dimensional. You can make the pine trees look more real and dimensional just by feather-stroking in the colors where the tree would be high-lighted and shadowed. Make the pond look more alive by adding little wave marks in Sparkle Paints. You can put shadows at the base of the plants in the pond. If you play around with this transfer design, you will absolutely amaze yourself with what you can do.
Some of these transfers are very old. I'm bringing them back because I think you will like them. They still have something to say to people even in this day and age.
How about T4711? Have you ever thought of bowling from the pins point of view?
How many people out there are into self defense and exercise classes today? This is a great transfer for those folks. You can make a shirt to wear yourself. You can make a shirt for someone else for a gift. You can teach someone else how to make a shirt with it for a gift to give to their friends.
Transfers are the bread and butter of our business, yours and mine. If they buy the paint - they need something to do with it. Transfers give that to them. Sell lots!
Let's see if this is an answer to those of you that asked what was in our Perma Press. It's 65%Polyester and 35% Cotton. I hope that answers that question okay. I think that's what you all were asking for.
(Notice that there is no meeting in Lansing. Both meetings will be here.) (At the morning meeting be sure to bring a box lunch or stop somewhere for take out)
This month I will be teaching simple outline and fill in on the T4713 - Bubbles. This transfer uses almost all of the Sparkle Paints now in the Line.
We will do a little beginner shading using T4714 - Shapes. This is a pre-shaded design and will start teaching you about where to put your shadows to give your designs some dimension.
Florida - Rene McDonough gives classes twice a week in the Venice Area. Call her if you are interested in taking classes with her. (941-497-4242)
Florida - Sandy Wadelton is giving classes is the Leesburg Area. Call her if you are interested in taking classes with her. (352-787-4950)
Colorado - Rachel Fry has a good group going in Grand Junction. Give her a call if you are interested in joining them. (970-242-6091)
Where: At the Ginger's Cameo facility in Manchester, MI
Stay Tuned for more Information
When you're ironing off transfers, make sure that you don't iron off too many ahead. The transfer ink fades with time and you may have trouble seeing the transfer lines. If you do iron off a few ahead you should keep them covered up so the light doesn't get to them. This does not mean that if you iron a transfer on wrong that you can wait for it to fade away then put it back on. It does not fade all the way away, it just fades to the point that you can't see to paint it.
When you are painting a transfer that has two parts that are the same color right next to each other, try putting a line of a darker color between them to bring out the design. On the new T4689-Cave Nativity, Joseph's robes could use a streak of 111 Wine to delineate where one part stops and the other part ends. If you look on the picture around his shoulders you will see what I mean.
Sometimes, like on T4696 or T4486, you have two sections right next to each other that are charted 116-Black. If you leave a little line of unpainted material show between the sections, it will make them show up as different parts of the transfer. The other thing that you can do is to make a line of a lighter color between the two sections.
Most of the time any mistake that you make in this craft can be fixed: You can add shadows to cover up the fact that you got double lines when you ironed a transfer on - or you can add a little flower or leaf to cover up where you went out of the lines or got some paint in the wrong place. I know there are a lot of perfectionists out there - but believe me when I say that you should not throw away something just because you think you made a mistake. You can fix it and it will look fine. It may not look just like what you see in the transfer picture - but you just remember that 'artistic license' means that it is your painting and it will look different than anyone else's. This is a good thing. You don't want your painting to look just like everyone else's, you want to make it your own with your own ideas and personality.
Now get out there and have FUN painting!!!
The only fair entries I got this year were from Jan Smyth. Thanks for sharing Jan.
Jan enters her items in the Fowlerville Fair and the Michigan State Fair.
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Here's another suggestion. This one is from Halleen Fisk. If you are going to be doing a transfer on darker material - try going over the lines with your transfer Marker (C528) before you iron it on. That way the lines are darker and easier to see.
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We would love to show our readers what you've done with Cameo Paints. Send us ginger@gingerscameo.com or webmaster@gingerscameo.com some of your pictures and be sure to tell us about them and yourself.
See some of our past reader submissions in the Gallery
Well, I guess that's all for this month. Keep that those suggestions coming. I need every one of them. See you at a meeting.
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Copyright Gingers Cameo 2003 © |
Page Updated 1-05-2007 |
