Oh, my goodness, what a time.
First getting ready to work the fair: I thought that I pretty much had everything under control and fairly ready ahead of time. Then I decided to take a series of things that I had not thought of. Wow!! John and I were so busy that we only had time to get out the orders while we were getting things set to go.
Then I got to the fair: the first day was not too bad - then the heat hit. We kept making the top of the charts. (Now -I was raised for a fair amount of my young life down in Arkansas and I could never handle the heat. When I got up here as a teenager, the weather was wonderful.) Last week it was in the high nineties and low one hundreds and the dew point was in the seventies. It was not nice weather.
A lot of people were smart enough to stay home in the awful heat. That didn't do much for the fair, but the paramedics and ambulances were completely inundated and could not have handled any more people passing out with the heat and heatstroke victims and kids that didn't have enough sense to drink water and stay hydrated.
I was in a plain old pole building - no air-conditioning or exhaust fans. It was not good. I don't handle humid heat well and I was pretty proud of myself that I didn't pass out or just go to the motor home and stay there. Of course, I also, didn't talk very much and it was too hot to paint or do anything else. All of us vendors just sort of sat there in a daze, even those that are based in the Deep South. It didn't get a whole lot better at night. In the motor home I had a choice of not sleeping because of the heat or not sleeping because the air-conditioning was right over my head and very loud. Of course I took the loud air-conditioner, but I didn't get any restful sleep because of the noise.
On Friday it finally started to rain and breaks the heat and humidity. We had a lot of folks that came to the fair in the rain and didn't mind walking around because it was sooo much cooler. We figured Saturday would be packed. That didn't happen. We don't know what happened to the people - but they weren't at the fair.
Well, that's the saga of my last two weeks. Now I have to try to get back on schedule. By-the-way, I did make money at the fair - just not very much. I, also, got a lot of folks that say they are going to call me for classes. 4-H clubs, Girl Scouts, Cub Scouts, and Brownies are all ready to learn something wonderful to do for gifts and badges, etc.
Don't forget that the Company will be shut down from September 1st through September 9th. We will open back up on September 10th and get all your orders out as quickly as we can.
This is when I take the time to go see my relatives down south. John and I just get on the road and we see how many folks we can see before we have to get back.
I sure hope it's not too hot for me. (Of course, after the fair this year, I find I can handle a lot more heat than I thought I could.)
Now to making money in your business: If you are an instructor with a sales tax license number and if the order that you just put together to send me is over $75.00 - you should bring the total retail up to at least $100.00. With a 36% discount starting at $100.00, you will pay less for the $100.00 order than you will for the $75.00 order.
The same holds true with an order that is over $300.00. If you bring that order up to $500.00, you will pay less with a 40% discount than if you just order $350.00 in a retail order.
If you can get your order up to $1,000.00 retail - then you only pay 50% with your discount.
Don't do yourself out of money. Think ahead a little and take advantage of our very good discount program.
I want to thank Betty Hanes for the wall-hanging that she made for us to put up in the new Facility. Isn't it gorgeous? It shows that you can do your own thing and make up your own designs. Thanks Betty!!!
The special for August 2006 is the new transfer T4687-Palomino Horse Head. I wasn't sure how it would turn out, but it is just wonderful. (I never know ahead of time you know.) I had it at the fair last week and people went crazy over it. I think this will go over good for all ages. This horse head has been put out over the years under many different numbers and being many different kinds of horses. I really think that it turned out well this time, too. Halleen Fisk figured out the colors for me and I think she did a great job. Thanks Halleen!
We'll put in the transfer (T4687), the paints (101-102-113-130-140-146-149-168-198). Retail is $28.56 .Sale price is $25.00. This will go well on a shirt or a mini flag (P322). Order this under the number MSAUG06. Enjoy!!
The Animal Quilt blocks are set up for outline and fill-in. These would be good for beginners. Children would love doing these colorful blocks. I have a couple schools that teach quilting classes to their students (elementary schools). These would be perfect to start a class at your school either during the daytime class times or in the after school latch-key times.
The Flower Face Quilt blocks give you a chance to teach shading and highlighting, how to use the Fiber Blenders to smooth the paints into the material and how to use them to smear the paint together in blending. These have you blending up to 4 or 5 different colors at a time. They, also, let you teach feather stroking as a technique to paint in hair and the fact that using lots of colors in hair actually make it look more real. This is an interesting class for everyone. 4-H groups could use this to make an entry-style project. You could get together with the leaders and teach them to teach, or you could run the classes yourself at their regular monthly meetings.
For those of you that are doing the Flower Face designs, I have a hint on their faces and make-up. Paint the entire face with the base color (105) and then do the lips. When you get done blending the colors of the lips together - use that same blending tool to blush a little of those colors on the cheeks. You don't want too much color and if you use your blending tool while the paint is still damp on it, it has just about the right amount of color to look like her blush. If you get too much on - just go back over it with the 105 to dull it down a little bit.
This is, also, when you put in the shadow color around her chin and on her nose.
The Unicorn Quilt blocks take in even more techniques than the other two. The first thing that you teach is how to do a dry wash. You can use a brush or a small piece of rag. Almost everything in these pictures needs to be shadowed and highlighted. You have to use your Fiber Blenders all the time.
Wait for the base paint to dry before you use your Dual Point pen. These are used on the Flower Faces and the Unicorns. Do the base painting - then make sure the paint is dry before you use your Dual Point Pens. This keeps the Dual Point Pens from bleeding out on the perma press and keeps you from ruining your pen nib by getting wet paint on it.
It has been really interesting to see how these are going over. Every month more and more people are doing them. As they decide on doing another Set - they order all the previous Sets That they need to do the whole quilt. So every month I have people buying #1, #2, #3 and now they will be getting #4. It's very gratifying to see these go out in such large quantities.
I spend a lot of time just being amazed as I am packing orders to go out the door at how wonderful you all are.
I have gotten comments on the little hints that I put in each month. I'll keep trying to come up with new things to teach and things to teach about.
I have to say, again, how happy I am with the Fiber Blenders. As I sit down to paint up the newest transfers each month, I love using them because they are just the right size and shape to smooth and blend the paintings that I am doing.
When you smooth the first layer of paint into the material, you are giving yourself a nice even layer to put on your shading and highlights. Don't forget to do that - it makes everything much simpler.
AQ08 Animal Quilt Block Pak |
FFQ08 Flower Face Quilt Block Pak |
UQ08 Unicorn Quilt Block Pak |
The Carriers now hold 60 paints. Terri re-did them a little. They look great! You can still use some of the loops for your accessories, but you can now use them for paints, too. You can get 10 paints per row.
T4687 Palomino Horsehead |
T4695 Appaloosa Sunrise |
T4496 Majestic Deer |
T4463 Melody Duo |
T4534 Birth Certificate |
T4542 Clowns |
T4688 Love Is Christmas |
T4690 Winking Snowman |
There will only be two (2) Workshops for the month of August and both of them will be right here at Ginger's Cameo in Manchester.
We will be working on the transfer that's in the Monthly Special.
Be sure to bring your paints and what you want to put your transfer on with you. We should get this class done with no problem in the time frame that we have for these workshops. The workshops usually last three (3) hours or so. You can leave any time that you want to. If you just want to stop by and pick up supplies, that's okay, too. (That way you don't have to pay shipping.)
Be sure to bring your paints and Fiber Blenders. Cost of the class will be $15.00.
Have I told you that you can put a transfer onto canvas and after it is painted you can frame it? You can, also, put your transfer onto Perma Press and after it is painted you can frame it just like any other art work.
Last year Jan Smyth did just that and won a ribbon at her fair.
It looks good and don't forget that you should sign and date your paintings. This does not mean that you have to put your whole name and the complete date - it can be just your initials and the year. I usually sign mine - GW 06 - or something like that. I suggest that you make this signature not intrusive. In other words, sort-of hide it so people have to look for it. It shouldn't jump right out and hit them in the eye.
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.
When you learn a new technique - remember that you can always go back and use that technique on paintings that you did before. So if you have done a transfer in just outline and fill-in, you can go back and shade and highlight that design many years later if you decide you want to up-grade the look of it.
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!!!
We would love to show our readers what you've done with Cameo Paints. Send us [email protected] or [email protected] some of your pictures and be sure to tell us about them and yourself.
See some of our past reader submissions in the Gallery
I want to remind everyone that I close down the Company for a week surrounding the Labor Day Holiday. I take that time to go see my Mom and my other relatives down south. Just want to make sure you remember to order ahead at that time, or expect your orders to be late coming back to you. We'll leave early on the first of September and open back up on the 11th of September.
The rest of the year we're just pretty much here. If we leave, it's only for a day or so, so we can get the orders out in a timely fashion.
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 8-11-2006 |
