Swap Cards for Charlotte Regionals

I am going to Stampin' Up Regionals this weekend in Charlotte.  We are able to take a guest so Marianne is going with me.  We are going to drive down tomorrow evening and stay at the Hilton so we don't have to fight looking for a parking place Saturday morning.  Also, a bunch of NC demonstrators are also going to be downtown Friday night and we are meeting up with a group from Wilmington for dinner.  So it should be fun!  Marianne came over a couple of weeks ago and we worked on some cards to swap on Saturday.  Marianne used Snow Much Fun for her swaps.  I am doing 3-4 different designs and taking about 40-50 cards with me.  Here are a couple of the cards that I will be swapping:

 This car uses the wonderful Fabulous Florets stamp.  I stamped directly on the DSP except for the topmost flower which I stamped and cut out.

 This card was different for me.  I stamped the Medallion stamp with bleach - I actually used a Bleach Pen - onto the Crumb Cake cardstock.  Every one of them came out a little different.  Then using Elements of Style, I stamped the swirls with Versamark and embossed them.  This one is embossed with Gold Embossing Powder.

 These cards are similar to the one above it.  I stamped the bleached Medallion onto Chocolate chip paper and embossed the swirls with Black.

Here is one I embossed with Silver Embossing Powder.

Quarterly Rejects

This week as I have said, I have been working on cards and projects for my Quarterly swaps.  Tuesday I did 2-3 cards that I loved but decided after doing them that they would be too complicated for my Shoebox.  We do a Shoebox Swap on Friday night.  You design a card and put all the materials to make the card in a box for everyone else to make.  Friday night we only have 12 participants but still, we need to get 12 cards made, visit, and snack and still make it to bed at a reasonable hour to get up bright and bushy tailed for the next day of events!

This wa my first reject.  This is a card that was demo-ed on stage during convention and I love it!  The "cake" is 3 Hershey miniatures wrapped in DSP.  I used punches to make the Razzleberry cake stand - Border Punch, Word Window and Oval.  I pulled a thread in the satin ribbon to gather it around the candy.  This would definitely be a card you would need to hand deliver!  It just took too much time and I decided it would not be a good card for the shoebox.

This was the next card that I made.  I embossed the Vanilla cardstock with the Elegant Lines Embossing Folder and then painted the raised lines with Gold Smooch.  I used the Big Shot and Scallop Circle Die for the Early Edition circle that I "smoothed" in gold on the edges.  The Fabulous Florets flower is embossed with Melon Mambo embossing powder and cut out separately.  Again, too much time and tools involved!

This is the card I settled on.  It uses the new Occasions Alphabet.  I have already die cut all the Top Note shapes for everyone and embossed the dots on the white Top Note.  So, basically they have to stamp and put it together!  The paper is from Paisley Prints.  And notice the edge on the white stamped piece?  I used the new Postage Punch to make that!!  I love it when you can do more with a Punch than it's intended use!  The flower is punched with the Triple Layer Blossom Punch.  I punched 4 flowers, spritzed them heavily with water and crumpled them up.  Let them dry a bit; then flatten them back out and put together with a brad.  I did not put them straight on top of each other but instead put every other one slightly to the side of the other one.

This is my Bookmark Card for another swap.  I used the Two Tags Die for the bookmark and just sponged Marina Mist on the bottom and Peach Parfait and Daffodil Delight on top (masking a circle for the sun).  Then I stamped the Sail Away sailboat.  If you click on the picture to enlarge it, you might be able to see how I did the sails.  I stamped them separately onto Vellum, cut them out and turned them over and used a Stylus and a rubber mat to gently rub onto the sails and puff them out.  It really looks cool in person!  This is another great stamp for a great price!!  It is a single stamp in the Summer Mini catalog but will be gone the end of August.  So, if you like it, contact me to order it!!

And finally, my Punch Art Swap!  Good enough to eat, huh?  I used the following punches to make it:

Bun Top:  Extra Large Oval Punch (Crumb Cake)
Bun Bottom:  Word Window
Lettuce:  Blossom Punch (Celery)
Tomatoes:  3/4" Circle Punch (Cherry Cobbler)
Cheese:  Word Window (More Mustard)
Meat:  Modern Label (Choc. Chip)

Well, that it for Quarterly Swaps.  Think I am going to have to shop around for a camera today.  Mine has bit the dust I believe.

More Summer Mini Cards!

I played mahjong today and actually got embaressed because I kept winning!  We only play with $2.00 so when you're out of money, you don't pay.  By lunchtime, I had won every game and the other gals at my table didn't have any money left!!  Usually if I start out hot like that, after lunch I never win a game but that wasn't the case today.  I didn't win them all, but I did win half of the remainder games!  My winning streak has been going on for several months and the gals tease me that they won't sit at my table!  I told them I gave them a break while we were on our trip.

I made this card yesterday and I just love it!  I used my markers (Melon Mambo and Crushed Curry) to color the Flower Garden Embossing Folder (the debossed side) and then I ran my Whisper White card stock through the Big Shot.  Such a simple but lovely card!

This is another new technique that I discovered yesterday.  I stamped the Fabulous Florets with White Craft Ink on the Crumb Cake card stock and heat embossed it with white embossing powder.  Then, I used my Versamark Pen (never used before!) and colored in the flower petals for a fabulous tone-on-tone.  Topped a few of the flowers with some purple rhinestones that I found in my stash and voila .... another simple but pretty card!!