Starting to think about Christmas....

I'm back! We got a little cold snap this weekend and I think it got me in the mood to start thinking about my Christmas cards this year. There are too many good options in both the new mini and the catalog this year. It's a tough decision! Since I haven't posted in forever, I thought I'd show a couple of cards I created for my holiday workshops last year. This is a belly band card with the same exact pattern as the belly band card I posted a while ago. I used Jolliest Time of the Year for both of these cards - such a cute set!

I know this card was inspired by some samples and a sketch on SCS last year. Of course both cards have a little glitter on the snowflakes. Can't do xmas without a little bling!

Rose Rocks!

I've been snapping some pictures of my fabulous swaps from convention, so here are the first couple done by one of my favorite stampers, Rose Kerry.
She used Party Hearty on the top card and Wow Flowers on the bottom. I love her colors combination with the new Kiwi Kiss and Pacific Point. We love to tease Rose about the number of brads she throws on her swaps...so many I think sometimes her fingers must bleed.

You can always count on Rose to go that extra step with embossing and dimension to make her cards just pop. You are the BEST Rose!

A Touch of Fall

It always amazes me how quickly it starts to feel like fall as Labor Day approaches and school starts. I just completed my first week back teaching - the first time I've taught full time in eight years! It was a crazy week, but the good news is that I still NEED to find time to stamp and WILL find the time. It's what keeps me sane! This is my "shoebox swap" card from convention. I think I explained what that was about in an earlier post. Anyway I think I may have discovered a new technique! At least I haven't seen it anywhere, so maybe I did. First I did the chalkboard technique, stamping with white craft ink and chalking the image. Then I stamped over it again with versamark and embossed with clear powder. I used a stamp-a-ma-jig to place the leaf, slightly shifting it from the original image. Once it was embossed, this shifting created a shadow effect. Very cool! So if it is new, I'm calling it "glossy chalkboard" and if it's old I'm still calling it that! Then I masked the leaf and stamped the En Francais background over the top. The gingham is colored with an apricot marker to age it a bit.
Here's the recipe:
Stamps: With Gratitude, Twill, En Francais, Sanded
Colors: Tangerine Tango, Riding Hood Red, Chocolate Chip, Apricot Appeal
Chalks: Bravo Burgundy, Only Orange, Summer Sun

Anyone notice my toes? Oh the lengths I go to get a good shot! :))
Enjoy your last weekend of summer everyone!

Dreams du Jour

Here is another swap I made for convention using the new set "Dreams du Jour." I stamped the image with white craft ink on cardstock vellum and embossed with clear powder. Then I colored the back with markers. The look was a little too subtle, so I re-colored the front of the image...all 40 of them! I used a glue dot and vellum spray adhesive to stick the vellum on without it showing through. This was my first time using our new scallop edge punch. I'm sure glad I went to convention to find out I was using it wrong! Their way was much easier!

Here's the recipe:

Stamps: Dreams du Jour, Floral

Colors: Rose Red, Pink Pirouette, Basic Gray

Other: Basic Gray taffeta ribbon

Convention Friendships

I think the one of the best parts of Convention is getting together with the friends I've made from all over the country. Some were from my online swap groups and this was the first time we had met and some I look forward to seeing every year. We all lead different lives in different parts of the country, but we have this passion for Stampin' Up! the creates an instant bond. Hmm....I wonder how many of them will still be my friends now that I've posted their picture on the internet!?! I was so excited to finally meet Erin Blair. She and I both love to scrapbook and we motivate each other to post more pages. She's the one who always sends me blog tags from her fantastic blog here: http://stampwitherin.typepad.com/starssharing_the_art_of_r/ I couldn't get over how tall she is! She's even more sweet in person and gave me the most adorable gifts I'll have to post later.
On the first day my Control Freak swap group met for lunch and it was so fun to meet Lisa Martz, our group mom. She works so hard for our swaps, so we all pitched in and paid for her convention. That was so much fun! She's right next to me and next to her is Shona Watson and Cindy Wilkinson.
Here's my convention buddy, roomate, and upline Kim Goodsell. We go to convention together almost every year. She knows about all of my little quirks (eating in the middle of the night, sleeping with 4 pillows) and I know all about hers! Let's just say...she'll climb 40 flights of stairs for a diet pepsi!

Okay we were supposed to make wierd faces and look at Lisa Somerville's perfect little smile. What's up with that? Maybe she knew I would post this?

This is me with Lisa Bohler, my buddy from Minnesota. She says things like "oober cute" and snorts when she laughs! Oh I don't think I've ever met anyone who talks so much. I wonder if she talks in her sleep? Imagine a line of 6000 women waiting to get into the last general session of convention. Well we were at the back of the line, but Miss Lisa used her chatty Minnesota charm to get to the very front! She kills me and I love seeing her every year.

This is a picture of my Sensational SU Swappers group at our Shoebox Swap. This is one of the best parts of convention! We all bring a project for 10 people to make and then we go around and make 10 other projects. I got the best ideas this year! Thanks Rose for organizing another fantastic swap!
Being an SU! demo is as much about the friendships you make as it is about the stamping. I'm already looking forward to seeing you all again next year!

Home from Convention! - one of my swaps

I just got home yesterday from the most exhausting fun four days a stamper could possibly have! It was so exciting to finally meet some of my favorite swapping girlfriends for the first time and to get together with the friends I've made from past conventions. I was told my previous blog picture looked nothing like me, so hopefully these ones do. The top one was taken by my eight year old! This was one of my swaps I made for convention...40 to be exact! I stamped the images with chocolate chip craft and embossed with iridescent ice, so it's very sparkly in real life. It's hard to tell, but I then sponged sage shadow all around the the image to give it a little depth. Here's the recipe:

Stamps: Kind Thoughts, En Francais
Ink: So Saffron Craft, Chocolate Chip Craft
Colors: Close to Cocoa, Sage Shadow, Very Vanilla, Chocolate Chip
Other: Chocolate Taffeta, Iridescent Ice embossing powder

I'll try to post a few convention pics here and I'll be uploading most of them to Snapfish. Leave me a comment with your e-mail address if you would like to view my album.

Favorite Swaps

Since I can't show you what I'm working on right now, I thought I'd share a few of my favorite swaps I've recently received. This one was created by Charlotte Brown and she used Fresh Cuts which is a set that will be available in the new catalog. She glittered all of the leaves and I love how she added the white dots with the gel pen.
This one was done by Chat Waszelaki using Pretty Amazing. She cut the flower out twice (times 30!) and layered it. I love her colors...anything with chocolate chip...go figure!

And this beauty was created by Rose Kerry. The flower image from Close as a Memory are embossed with clear. Rose did you do that with craft spots or stamp over the entire image with versamark? Then she masked the image and stamped over it with Canvas. Love that effect!

Fabulous Flowers Page

This is called convention swap procrastination! As much as I LOVE swapping at convention, making a gazillion cards of the same design can get very boring! I can't wait to share those with you, but that will have to wait until until they are swapped. I want my swap group to be surprised!

This page was a spin-off of a card I made a few months ago. I loved how it turned out, and I thought it would be perfect for these pictures. The pictures are of my grandparents with my boys and my nieces and nephew on probably their last visit to our family's ranch. Grandma is now in a nursing home, so these are memories I will always cherish.

Here's the recipe:

Stamps: Fabulous Flowers, Baroque Motifs, Sanded background, Lovely Letters, Define Your Life

Colors: Ruby Red (craft), River Rock, Chocolate Chip, Very Vanilla

Designer Paper: Western Sky, striped is a retired pack

Okay - back to swaps!

4th of July Scrapbook page

I scrapbooked! One of my goals for the summer is to get loads of pages done - with journaling! I'm bad about never getting around to the journaling part.

These chipboard stars are just sponged with Ruby Red craft ink and glue dotted on.

I stamped my title and fire crackers with white craft ink and embossed them with white. Here's the recipe:

Stamps: Independence Day, Well-Worn Alphabet,

Paper: Western Sky designer series, Blue Bayou textured, sahara sand
Chipboard: On Board Simon Upper (lots of stars!)

Enjoy your day!

To Have and To Hold

I just finished making reservations for two nights at Lake Tahoe for our anniversary. Whoohoo! The boys are going to my parents' house for the whole week, so we're going to take a few days for ourselves and celebrate our 14 years of marriage. Can't believe it has been that long! After doing that I thought I would share a couple wedding samples I've received. This top one was done by Karen Barber. This card is simply stunning. She used To Have and To Hold and the background Pretty Petals. Not only is the entire dress glittered, but it's all stamped on shimmery white cardstock. Beautiful!

This one was done by Lisa Martz using Together Forever. I love how she stamped the image on Groovy Guava, cut out the little flowers and layered them. It's a very striking layout as well.