Thank You Party Demo's Overview and More

Thank you so much to everyone who came to our Thank You party! We had so much fun, and we hope you all did also. Sue Moffat's cookies were very nearly all gone, and oh my gosh they were amazing!

It was wonderful to see you all, and thanks so much for all your good wishes. We will miss you too!

Thank you to Avanelle Hansen for the door prize stencils that we handed out randomly. Everyone who received one was thrilled.

Please continue to come and see us, we will still be at the shop through October 31st! We still have furniture and fixtures and a little product to sell. We have a few new things coming in our orders that have not already been sold.

Two of the smaller class tables are still available, as well as the large class table. Also some display tables, wall shelves and more! Come in and get a little piece of Art 'n Soul.

We have had such a great reaction to our demo's from the party on Saturday, so we wanted to post a few things for you to reference. The technique that Susie Tracy did at the party was well received and we have seen questions on Facebook, so we went looking for the Technique of the Week that Susie did back in 2015, which was before we had this blog. We have retrieved this article from one of our email newsletters, and we are re-printing it here. We are also going to provide you with links to both the Stampscapes catalog and a video by Kevin Nakagawa.

Technique of the Week: “TURNING WOOD INTO ART – THE EASY WAY!”…by Susie Tracy

You may have noticed a number of different samples at the store that have wood as the base – a couple of different books, some picture frames and some boxes, perhaps.  These are often admired and customers question how they are done. Well, the answer is “they are easy!!”  And now here is how they are done.  (As with so many things I learned how to do this from Helene at Magenta.) 

Make sure there is no dust on your wood product.  Using a felt applicator, color the wood with alcohol inks.  You can create a rainbow effect, or a sky and grass effect, or just choose whatever colors feel good to you at the moment.  It doesn’t take a lot of ink but you do want to completely cover the wood product.

When the piece is ENTIRELY DRY (and it this case I don’t recommend a heat tool because the wood can burn a little) stamp whatever you choose on the product.  I use black StāzOn ink.  When the ink is dry – which should occur quite quickly -- grab your Prismacolor pencils and start coloring the stamped image.  You can apply quite a lot of “pencil wax” for a fairly bright effect.  Generally, the pencil will cover up the alcohol ink color beneath it.  But even when it doesn’t, the subtle layering of colors is, I think, really pretty.  I typically use a lot of white pencil for accents and brightness.

Of course you don’t have to color at all.  You can just use the alcohol inks and when the wood is dry, you can stamp an image on top and call it DONE!

We have several examples throughout the store for your enjoyment and inspiration.

See – I told you it would be easy!

Now to share a bit more about Kevin Nakagawa, creator and owner of Stampscapes.  We were so happy to see many of you watch Kevin create his scenic masterpieces during the party on Saturday.  

Kevin has a wealth of information available on his website which you can find here. In the future, you can order his stamps directly from him. His website also has lots of videos on a variety of topics - everything from ideas for combining specific stamps and stamp sets, to a variety of techniques for shading, adding color, creating skylines, bodies of water and so much more.  From the Stampscapes Home page, click on "Lessons" to see his videos.  The videos are also available on YouTube.  

One of Stampscapes most popular stamps is "Lakeside Cove", (049G).  For even more inspiration, you can find several videos using this popular stamp in a variety of ways here. 

Stampscapes at Art 'n Soul

Our big "THANK YOU" party to all of you, our wonderful customers is this Saturday, October 14 from 1:00 p.m. - 4:30 p.m. Please come and join us in welcoming Kevin Nakagawa of Stampscapes back to our shop. Kevin will be demo-ing his fabulous techniques using his beautiful Stampscapes stamps.

Our owner, Susie Tracy will demo how she stamps and colors her beauiful wood frames from Magenta, using alcohol ink and color pencils. We will have a limited number of wood frames for sale.

So many of you have been asking us where you can find your inspiration now. These last amazing demos are our gift to you. You can still find your inspiration at Art 'n Soul one last time, so please come and join us for our last big party.

By Pam Nelson

There will also be cookies made by Sue Moffat! In case you didn't know, Sue's cookies are legendary. Sue used to work at the store and has always been part of the Art 'n Soul family.

We would like to have one last major food bank drive, so please bring donations for the Thurston County Food Bank in the form of non-perishable food, or even cash. We would love to give them a last huge donation. You have always been so generous in the past, so please help us this last time. In the future you can continue to contribute to the Food Bank and drop off donations at the locations listed here.

NOTICE:

The Journal Club will meet at Art 'n Soul today, Friday, October 13 from 4:00 - 6:00. A lot of inspiration to be found with this group of talented ladies. Come and join them!

What's new:

We received our Rosie's Roadshow order, and there were lots of extra stamps for sale as of yesterday morning.

The orders to Magenta, Memory Box/Poppy, and RubberMoon have been sent, and we will expect those in soon. Unfortunately we were unable to order extras from these catalogs, but if you placed a pre-paid order with us, we will call you when your items come in.

We have also sent early orders to Stampscapes and hope that Kevin will be able to bring those with him when he comes. The Stampscapes catalog will still be open for additional orders through Saturday, October 14.

Some members of staff have elected to leave some Recycled Rubber up in the store, so come in and see what is still available. 

ALSO FOR SALE:

All the Furniture and Fixtures are for sale!

There are still a lot of furniture and fixtures still for sale. A lot of the display tables are still available, as well as the wall shelf units which come with 2 sides and 10 shelves, including the top, the slot walls and metal pegs, a few chairs, the large classroom table, and 2 file cabinets. 

 

We have a great small-ish refrigerator in the back that is being sold very cheap! Also a microwave, cash register, silk plants, printer, etc., etc. The CDs are $1 each, as are the sample cards.

 

Per Susie: "I will sell furniture and fixtures on a first-come, first-served basis. Furniture, furnishings, fixtures and cards will not be further discounted. To reserve an item of furniture that you want, you will need to pay for it up front. If I still need the items for displaying merchandise, I will ask that you pick those items up on a day close to our closing date, during working hours. Cards that are for sale will be sold for $1 each (no envelopes) and CDs will also be sold for $1 each. Loyalty cards can only be marked and used for regular, full priced merchandise, and not for any of the furniture fixtures, or accessories.

We will still be open through October 31th! Please come in and see us, we would love to see you!

Thank You from Art 'n Soul

We want to thank you all so much for showing up for our amazing final Recycled Rubber Event!! It was wonderful to see each and every one of you.

Recycled Rubber items will remain on the tables and back shelves through Sunday, October 8th.

 

 If you have things in Recycled Rubber that you want back, you can take your things back off the tables during this time. Anything that is left after October 8th will be donated to area schools.

 

WHAT'S NEW:

We have sent our order in for Rosie's Roadshow stamps. This is the last Rosie's Roadshow order we will send. If you have made a pre-order for Rosie's Roadshow items, you will receive a call when they are received. We did order doubles, so there will be lots of extra stamps for everyone to choose from.

 

The orders to Magenta, Memory Box/Poppy, and RubberMoon will go out as soon as we can compile them. These catalogs are now closed.

 

THE ONLY CATALOG STILL OPEN TO ORDER FROM IS STAMPSCAPES. The Stampscapes catalog will be closed by end of day of October 14th and the order will be sent by October 16th.

BIG THANK YOU PARTY FOR YOU!

As a Thank You to you, our wonderful customers, Art 'n Soul will hold a big Thank You Party on Saturday, October 14th. The shop will be open at the regular time, from 10:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m., but the party will be from 1:00 p.m. - 4:30 p.m.

 

There will be refreshments made by Sue Moffat, and demos, and we would love to see all of you there. And by the way, if you have ever had anything baked by Sue, you will come just for that! Sue is a wizard in the kitchen, and her baked goods are absolutely amazing!

 

Our owner, Susie Tracy will demo how she stamps and colors her beauiful wood frames from Magenta, using alcohol ink and color pencils. We will have a limited number of wood frames for sale.

 

We are also thrilled that Kevin Nakagawa of Stampscapes will be demo'ing his amazing techniques at our party! Many of you are familiar with Stampscapes stamps and the beautiful images they can make. Some of you may have been lucky enough to take classes from Kevin when he used to teach. We feel honored that he has agreed to demo at Art 'n Soul to celebrate our store and our customers. The Stampscapes catalog is open now! You can order Stampscapes stamps in wood or unmounted rubber. The order will be sent in by October 16.

 

FOOD BANK

We are holding a last Food Bank drive in conjunction with the Thank You party. You have all been so loyal in donating to the Food Bank over the years. Please bring any non-perishable food item or items with you to the party and we will be sure to get it to the Food Bank for our last donation to them.

ALL THE FURNITURE AND FIXTURES ARE FOR SALE!

 

There are still a lot of furniture and fixtures still for sale. A lot of the display tables are still available, as well as the wall shelf units which come with 2 sides and 10 shelves, including the top, the slot walls and metal pegs, a few chairs, the large classroom table, and 2 file cabinets

 

We have a great small-ish refrigerator in the back that is being sold very cheap! Also a microwave, cash register, printer, a couple of office style chairs, silk plants, etc., etc. The CDs are $1 each, as are the sample cards.

 

Per Susie: "I will sell furniture and fixtures on a first-come, first-served basis. Furniture, furnishings, fixtures and cards will not be further discounted. To reserve an item of furniture that you want, you will need to pay for it up front. If I still need the items for displaying merchandise, I will ask that you pick those items up on a day close to our closing date, during working hours. Cards that are for sale will be sold for $1 each (no envelopes) and CDs will also be sold for $1 each. Loyalty cards can only be marked and used for regular, full priced merchandise, and not for any of the furniture fixtures, or accessories.

Please come in and see us, we would love to see you!