Ginger's Cameo - Monthly Newsletter

HELLO ALL YOU WONDERFUL PEOPLE!

I hope everyone had the best holidays ever - had heat - electricity - lots of love - got what you wanted for Christmas (whether it was just seeing friends and family or things).

Our house was full of love starting first thing in the morning when my oldest daughter and her significant other came over and made me breakfast - then helped me cook the big dinner for later after everyone else got here.

Our oldest granddaughter, Meghann, made it in from New York City. She didn't get caught in their snow storm, but when her guy, Matt, was supposed to come in after Christmas, he couldn't get a plane out - so he had to come in by train - and she had to pick him up in Canada at a train station, since that was the only way he could get here on time for all the things that she had lined up for him to do and see all the people that she wanted him to meet. I guess he had to get up at 4:30 AM to get to his train. I'm glad he went to all the trouble of coming. We all really like him.

If any of you have suggestions for Cameo - be sure you get them to me. I need all the help I can get.

I'm glad people are finding 'Ginger's Cameo' on Facebook. I like getting your comments and letting you know what I'm doing and what's coming up in the future. Keep up the good work.

Don't forget to order any of the monthly quilt blocks that you are missing from 2010. You have until February 1st to order them individually - after that they can only be ordered in complete quilt sets.

This year we will have six (6) different sets of quilt blocks. These come out one quilt block per month and you can order the present month and any that were put out previously. At the end of the year you will have 12 blocks for each quilt. (January blocks will be #01.)

I will put out a painted picture of each new quilt block in the newsletter. Then, I'm going to try something new; I will put the cover page (the one that shows when the transfer is in the plastic bag) in color, also, that way you have not only the chart to know what color goes where - but, also, a colored picture to go by. This should make it easier for you to paint them whether you are in a class situation or sitting in your home by yourself doing them every month.

This Months Quilt Blocks
Bird Quilt - 2011	Flower Garden Quilt - 2011	Hex Signs Quilt - 2011
Lighthouse Quilt - 2011	Mythological Creatures Quilt - 2011	Oriental Quilt - 2011

Let's talk about the Monthly Quilt Blocks.

Why do we have them? Because it is easier to set aside time to do one quilt block than it is to set aside time to do a complete quilt. At the end of the year you have multiple quilts done to give away as gifts, or to use in your own home.

If you want to get together with some friends once a month (and you need an excuse) then you can all get together and paint the monthly quilt blocks. You can exchange ideas and maybe learn new techniques from one another.

If you are a distributor/Instructor of Cameo products, this gives you multiple monthly reasons to have multiple classes either in your home or at another facility (like the club house, or the senior's meeting place, or the church, or with 4-Hers or Scouts.) If you have people sign up at the beginning of the year, so you have their promise of continuing the classes for the entire year, then you know that you will have an order to go in each month.

As people find out more about your classes and what wonderful things you do and how easy it is, your class base will rise and so will your orders (and I like that!) and the advertising from the people that are participating (called 'word-of-mouth' advertising) will grow your business and you will make more money every month.

I will include a sign-up sheet for you to use to sign folks up for your monthly classes. Make sure that you tell them that this is their promise to do the classes for the whole year. You want that right up front. (You can make as many copies as you need.)

The reason for multiple 'quilt blocks of the month' sets is so you can sign folks up for more than one class per month. The more classes you have every month, the more money you make and the more 'word-of-mouth' advertising that you get and the more your business will grow.

I try to have easy quilts and harder quilts so those who are just starting to paint will be able to do them and those that already know how to paint will be interested in them. (I did find out the hard way that one of the sets has to be 'flowers'.

Everyone should be aware that doing the 'monthly quilt' blocks will be easiest with an Ideal Kit (IK). It has one of every color in the Line and that's close to what will be needed to do the full set of six (6) complete quilt sets.

If you are a dealer/instructor, you might think of having your people put an IK on lay-a-way. It will be up to you to keep track of the money paid in by each person and up to you to have the IKs there for them when they are paid for. (Right now the IK is $315.90 and includes 110 paints. The price goes up as we add paints to the Line.) If they pay $50.00 a month, they could have it paid off in a little over six (6) months. Or maybe some folks got money for the holidays and they would want to put in more in the beginning so they will have it paid off sooner. Maybe they would want to pay it off in two (2) months or three (3) months instead of taking a longer time. You do not want to give them parts of it as it's paid off. You need to make it perfectly clear to them that they will get the whole thing at once when they get it paid off completely. Remember - if you put something on lay-a-way at a store - that's how it works.

January 20 2011 - 11:00 AM - Here at Ginger's Cameo (4879 Sylvan Rd. – Manchester, MI)

Everyone enjoyed doing the 'horse' class at the Seminar. In fact they enjoyed it
so much that we didn't get the 'face' classes in. I will be doing those at the January
workshop on the 20th of January.

The regular monthly workshops are held on the third (3rd) Thursday of the
month. If it has to be cancelled for some reason, we go to the next Thursday.

I don't serve lunch, so you have to bring your own 'bag lunch' to eat. We
usually eat while we are discussing things that are coming up and possible designs or
quilts to come out.

Bring paints, Fiber Blenders, Brushes

January 8 2011 - Workshop at Sharon's in Brooklyn MI. Will do 'faces' if they want.

January 9 2011 - At Lori's in Brooklyn MI

There are, also classes going in Leesburg, Fl (Sandy Wadelton), in Venice, Fl
(Rene McDonough), in Grand Junction, Co (Rachel Fry), and other places that I don't
have information on. (See our Current List of Teachers)

Any of you that hold one class or more each month should get your information
to me so I can remind folks of it.

Be sure to visit our accessories page and see all the tools and pens to make fabric painting easier.

With our accessories you to can make professional looking designs and pictures come to life on clothing, table cloths, linens, or most any material.

I have had people that have asked for some ‘accessory kits’. I thought it was a good idea – so here are some Accessory Kits. These will stay in the Line from now on.

C561 C561 – Bottle Kit (for 10 sets of bottles) $9.00

This kit includes bottles, tips and caps and nozzles.

C660 C660 – Ideal Accessory Kit – $85.00

When you buy the Ideal Kit, you get one of all the paints that are in the Line at that point. This is the kit that gives you the rest of what you need. Carrier, racks, Dual Point Pen, Transfer Marker, Fiber Blenders, Tips, and Sandpaper Blotters.

C661 C661 – Small Accessory Kit -$25.00

This gives you a Black and a Brown Dual Point Pen, a Black and a Brown Transfer Marker. Sandpaper Blotters, Tips and a small package of Fiber Blenders.

C662 C662 – Large Accessory Kit -$35.00

This gives you the whole pack of Dual Point Pens, the whole pack of Transfer Markers and the large pack of Fiber Blenders.

I thought I would give you some ideas on using our accessories:

I have had some questions on having empty bottles for sale [C557 - (5) -$3.00].

One use for them is to make your own colors. Using colors that are already in the Line, you can mix the colors that you want to use on a particular design. Sometimes folks want to match the color décor of a dining room or bedroom. Maybe you want to do something on a particular color of clothing and need just the right color to work with. If you use an empty bottle to mix your color you will be able to use that color another time in the future.

I suggest that as you are mixing the color, you be sure to write your formula down so you can re-mix it when you run out.

You will need to order C557 + C556 (Decorator Tips - (10) for $3.25) + C558 (Nozzles and Caps - (10) for $3.30). Since you get five (5) bottles to a package, you need to order two (2) sets of bottles to go with the other two (2), since they come in packages of ten(10).

Another use for these items is to divide your existing paints into more than one (1) bottle. This is especially good for those of you that teach painting classes. You can buy one (1) bottle of paint and divide it into two (2) or three (3) bottles so that more folks in your class can use the same colors.

This works well if you're having classes with kids. They always seem to want to use the same colors as their friends are using.

For those of you that are running classes with the 'Quilt of the Month' quilt blocks, where your students are all doing the same design, this is especially good.

Of course, the best way to run the monthly quilt block classes, are to have them buy their own paints so they can continue painting at home. If they buy all the colors that they need for the first quilt block - then add the colors as they need them for the blocks as they come out - that makes your sales higher and gives them the opportunity to buy other things to paint in between the class times. This way they can gradually build up their paint stock and as their paint colors increase, they will want to do more things with them.

Be sure that you sell them (or give them) T4673-Paint Dots and have them iron it off onto something that they can carry with them. That way they can tell what colors they have and how many more they have to go to have the full Line. Make sure that you tell them to only fill in the dots with the colors that they own. When they have all the colors filled in they will have the whole Line and they can use the finished design to figure out what colors are called for in a particular design and figure out whether they want to change the colors to something else. This design fits on a P322Mini Flag, or just about anything else, even one of the P1492-Large Tote Bags. (If they put it on a tote bag, they can put the things that they need for the class in the tote bag to carry with them to class and know exactly what colors they need to order for the next class.)

There are un-numbered dots to fill in with colors that you mix up on your own (like I talked about in the previous section).

Another item that a lot of folks don't understand about is C548 - Sandpaper Blotters (5) for $3.75.

These are medium grit sandpaper.

These are the best things to paint on. You put one under what you are painting (or in between the front and back of a t-shirt or sweatshirt) and the Sandpaper Blotter holds the item still so that you can paint it and it keeps the paint from going through to what ever you are painting on (or to the other side of a shirt).

For those of you that have been painting for a long time and are used to using the hoops - this works much better. You don't have to worry about smearing the paint when you move your material on the hoop and you don't have to let the paint dry before you move to the next section.

I know there are those of you that have to paint lying down and you need to have the hoop to hold the item that you are painting, but even in those cases, putting a Sandpaper Blotter on your hoop works better than using a blotter pad. Just cut the Sandpaper Blotter to the same dimensions as a C366 - 10" round Blotter. The grit holds the item very still for you to paint without having to stretch it out when you put it in the hoop.

The Blotter Pads [C451 -(2) approx. 10"x12"-$1.75 and C452 -(2) approx. 12"x20"-$3.25] are good for doing washes and using a brush [C460 - Fabric Brush Set (3) or C470 - Fabric Brush Set 2 (3)] to paint with. It holds the material for these techniques and keeps the paint from going through to what you are painting on top of or through to the other side of a shirt.