Turn your Photos into Cards!

My upline, Carol, lives in Tacoma, Washington - close to where we used to live.  The scenery there is breath taking and I really miss it.  For her convention swaps, she incorporated her photos with her stamps.  I thought that was a unique idea.  It just goes to show, all your cards don't have to be stamped!  Here are the four that she gave to me.

Who knows .... you might see my cat, Sammie on a card one day!!

These are her daughter's cats.

This one really touched me.  This is Mount Rainier - a view I never tired of seeing.  We lived in Gig Harbor which was a peninsula and had to cross over the bridge to get to Tacoma and if the weather was cooperating, we had marvelous views of the mountain like in this picture.

I don't know where she took this picture but I love how she cut it into three pieces.  Don't you love the rusted truck amid all the beautiful flowers?

Stamp Club

I had to move Stamp Club to this week since I was at Convention last week when it was regularly scheduled.  Summer is so hard to schedule events - everyone is so busy so it is come if you can and let me know if you can't!!  I was on the ball and made all my cards - and wrote up the directions - before I left town.  Here are the cards we made this month.

This first card is a good use of the wonderful Fringe Scissors!  I think it is really a great card for a girly girl!!  And the sentiment fits it to a "T" don't you think?  It is from the new stamp, Remembering Your Birthday (pg 59).

This next card was so fun to make!  I used the Hardwood background stamp for the fence, cutting apart the individual slats and sponging the edges.  But the greatest part was cutting the pointed tops of the fence!  I used the Chevron Punch and it was so easy!!

The clouds were made using the Word Bubble framelits - sponging Soft Sky around the edges.  I made a flower pot with the Artisan Label and Word Window punches.  The flowers are punched out of DSP with the Petite Petals Punch and candy dots were used for the centers.  Again, those Fringe Scissors came in handy for the grass.  Of course, the bird is from the versatile bird punch and his eye is a pearl colored with a black Sharpie.

This card was fun to make and everyone's will turn out different.  I used the Flower Patch stamp and randomly stamped the flowers.  I embossed the bottom half of the card with the Woodgrain folder (after stamping).  A caution using the Woodgrain folder - I have found that it is easily torn so I try to remember to emboss it by opening up Tab 1 on the Big Shot or you could also try using a piece of waxed paper.

This card was based off a swap I received last year at convention!!  I really haven't used this stamp set (Six Sided Sampler) or the coordinating punch very much and really need to!!  I love how it turned out.  I stamped the images in White Craft Ink on the Melon Mambo card stock and the images in Versa Mark on Black card stock.  Then I embossed the black card stock using Melon Mambo embossing powder and the Melon Mambo card stock with White embossing powder.  The white card stock is embossed using the Honeycomb embossing folder.

I hope these cards give you inspiration!

Framed Art Convention Swap and My Gift

At the Late Night Stamper's event, we did 3D shoebox swaps.  This is the swap I made for my shoebox.  I really enjoy making these framed art samplers.  I bought these little frames at Ikea for a couple of dollars and used all the new In Colors for the punch art.

The first night of Late Night, we exchanged gifts.  My gift came in this darling owl bag along with an owl card and owl candy bar wrap.  Isn't it darling??

And this is the beautiful piece that was inside the Owl Bag.  It is just lovely.  It is on a stained wooden piece that I am thinking may be an old background stamp piece of wood.  I love the pansies in two colors.  This was made by Kay Capps.

Fun at Late Night Stamping Event

Marianne and I went to Salt Lake City several days before convention actually started. The Late Night Stampers group was hosting their Stamp Camp for the 13th year.  I had always heard about it but never attended.  Unfortunately, I think this will be the last year for it.  They booked a block of rooms for the event (and convention) at a discounted rate at the Radisson.  As of May 1 (their cancellation date), they had filled almost all of them but as it got closer to convention, people started canceling.  I think what happens is that demonstrators book several rooms early in the year hoping their friends and down-lines will want them. When that does not happen, they cancel with no cancellation penalty.  So,today we received an email that they were 150 short of the 80% of rooms to fill.  When we were in SLC, the head of the group was told she would have to pay $20,000+ to cover her contract.  I don't know what the total came to after all was said and done but I am sure it was a hefty amount.  I can't imagine coming home to tell my husband I have to cough up that much money!!  The event was a lot of fun and we were busy from 8:30 a.m. until about 7 p.m. at night for 3 days.  We started at 6 p.m. Sunday night with a welcome party where we each took a handmade gift to exchange.  Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday we were busy doing 3D shoebox items, different projects and  winning a bunch of stuff!!

Projects and 3D shoebox 

More 3D shoebox swaps

My nametag

Projects we made

Several times a day, we  got to go to the "Give-Away" table and pick an item for free.  Plus they drew names several times a day for a large prize give-away.  I won the flower Big Shot Die below on the final day!

Just a portion of what I got for free

More of my freebies!

Convention Exhaustion!

 

I got back from Stampin' Up's Inspire, Create, and Share convention Saturday night .... or rather early Sunday morning.  Our plane got in around 11 but by the time we got home, it was after midnight. And almost 2 am before I was asleep.  I have unpacked my craft suitcase today (mind you - unpacked but not put away yet!)  I still need to unpack my clothes suitcase and do laundry,   Unfortunately, we had to leave convention a couple of hours early and missed one of the All Attendees give-aways.  Every day Stampin' Up gave us a freebie!  Plus there were several lucky people who got Prize Patrols .... but not Marianne or myself!  Oh well ... better luck next year!  

CONVENTION!!  Oh my word!  It was a crazy-busy-exhausting-fun-exhilarating week!  And one of the highlights of Convention was doing SWAPS .... lots of swaps! 

I won't be photographing all of them separately, but I will pick out a few to share with you over the next few days.  Here are a few funny ones that I got.

Here is the cover of the new STAMPIN' UP HOLIDAY CATALOG .... WHOO HOO!!  I actually have one of these in my hot little hands that they gave us at Convention.  I'm not allowed to share pictures of the content, but we can sure talk about it!  We were able to purchase a few items from the catalog on cash and carry basis.
First off - if you don't have a Big Shot yet, there is a super special coming for the month of August and you need to save your allowance and get one - because the holiday catalog has so many new Framelits in it, you are going to be cranking away! 

Next – we all need boxes for the holidays right? – can you say GIFT BOX PUNCH BOARD – WHOO HOO….. I bought one and will be using it this week!!

From cute, to elegant, to little towns, single stamps to use your Blendies on, stars (when you get that Big Shot Special, make sure you get the Stars bundle)…snowmen, Santas, and ENDLESS WISHES is in the catalog – so no “while supplies last” this time, although it might go on backorder because everyone wants it,  It was offered last year in December as a photopolymer set and is a great one!

Ok, back to the catalog, beautiful new designer paper, some very cool embellishments, a new Flipcard Framelit (snowflake shape!), new embossing folders, beautiful new ribbon and packaging is back…beautiful paper, all kinds of new boxes and bags, and stamp sets to create adorable tags…..

And the really good news – they took the layout of the catalog back to the old one, where the beautiful samples created by the Stampin Up Artists, are right beside the stamp sets!

Sea Street Convention Swap

Our internet here sucks so you probably won't see too many posts this week.  But be assured Marianne and I are having a blast and learning a lot.  We don't have much free time and go to bed exhausted every night.   Tomorrow is the final day of Late Night Stampers.  So far I haven't won a prize but Marianne won ALL the clear blocks the very first night.

The card above is my swap for tomorrow's 80 card swap using Sea Street.

Winner, winner, chicken dinner

Well, I'm not a winner yet but Marianne won big today.  First she was pulling for Germany in the World Cup and they won in the second overtime.  We found a small pub to watch the game here in Salt lake city.  I'm not a soccer fan so I took my Kindle and read.  This evening we went to the Late Night Stampers meet and greet where we exchanged hand made gifts.
They did a couple of drawings and Marianne won big!  She got the complete set of clear stamping blocks!!  I want to share the gifts but can't figure out how on this tablet.

It is really HOT here...feel like I'm back in Texas!!  Supposed to be in 100s tomorrow.  Luckily we'll be in the hotel all day doing stamp camps and other projects.

Bed time!!

Convention Gift

Convention time is getting close.  Marianne and I fly to Salt Lake City on Saturday .... EARLY!!  We have a 7 AM flight which means we have to be at the airport by 6 AM which means we'll have to leave home around 5:30 which means we'll have to be getting up at .... oh I can't even think about it!!  I am going to spend Friday night at Marianne's so that will cut a little bit of time for me.  Luckily, our first planned event is not until Sunday at 6 so we will have plenty of time to take it easy and rest.  We got this flight because it was cheaper than flying Sunday to Sunday.  I am almost all packed.  Today I will do a few last minute things, wash a load of clothes (so I'll have clean clothes when I return!)

Sunday night will be the Late Night Stampers Meet & Greet party.  We are supposed to take a handmade gift to exchange with someone (with the supply cost $5 or less).  Here is what I am taking:

 This is the front.  I bought the frame at Ikea's for about a dollar.  The DSP in the background is from the Moonlight paper stack.  I created and printed the rest of the pieces from My Digital Studio.

I decided I needed something for the back so I stamped the Hardwood stamp for the background.  The Blended Bloom flower is stamped with Momento Ink and colored with Blendabilities.

Exciting new products are in the Stampin' Up store!!  NEW arrivals include a fun Christmas stamp set that will be available in the new Holiday Mini Catalog BUT it is available to you NOW!!  Get a heard start on your Christmas cards!!

July 4th Thank You

I made this card and sent it last week to Ashley to thank her for her service to our country.  I used the new Stars Framelits for this card.  The red striped square is Fancy Foil DSP (pg 193).  The stripe is actually silver but I colored it red with my Blendabilities!!  I made this card for a challenge to use a word bubble but I can not remember whose challenge it was!!

Saturday when I was checking out a few other blogs, I ran across a blog by Erin Gonzalez who lives in San Antonio too.  She said that her family made a pact to spoil some of the many service men and women that they ran into around town on July 4th. (If you have never been to San Antonio, believe me, they will have no trouble finding any military people.) They were going around with treats, thank you cards and other goodies to give to the service men and women that they came in contact with.  Erin said that she wanted her kids to know the sacrifices these service men and women make.  Isn't that cool?!  If you get a chance, check out Erin's blog and leave her a comment on her July 4th posting as I did to thank her for what she and her family did on July 4th.

Here are a few of the photos I took on Saturday while we were on the lake waiting for the fireworks.

MDS Monday Challenge

I decided to do another MDS sketch challenge using one of my New Zealand layouts.  At this rate, I may get my book put together by Christmas!!  I am hoping to concentrate more on my New Zealand scrapbook after convention and all that craziness is over.

The sketch on MDS Monday was a little challenging to me. Here it is:

 I started out scrapbooking  pictures from our Alabama cruise but didn't like what I came up with.  Plus, my computer froze up and I lost the pae I had been working on anyway!  So I started over and this time pulled up these pictures from New Zealand.  We stopped off in Otorohanga for a quick breakfast on our way to Rotorura so the girls could go Zorbing.  Their pastry case was a dream come true!  So many choices of so many different pastries and breakfast items.  I settled on a donut that was filled was delicious cream.  It was not round like our donuts but looked like an eclair.  It was heaven!

                                                                                                                                                                     For this page I used paper and elements from the Sweet Shoppe download except for the word bubble which is from Seriously Teen.  

Hope you like it!   Check out the rest of the sketches at MDS Monday.