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.