I'm Back!

Hello My Dear Stamping Friends,

Well, here I am quite awhile since my last post.  I’m sorry it’s taken so long, but I do plan to do better this year. 

I’m going to show you the cards that I took to convention this year to swap as well as some of the ones I received as swaps.  The ones that I swapped were also used as the stamping projects at our Customer Appreciation event.

Granddaughters Madison and Molly helped me make my swaps so I left home with 196 this year, which was wonderful.  I had so much fun swapping; it might be my favorite activity at convention.  Jim went with me again this year.  He’s gone several times and really enjoys his free time (he doesn’t attend convention—just visits friends, takes walks, listens to the Mormon Tabernacle organ recitals, etc).

I usually come home with lots of ideas that I’m going to implement---please read that to say too many ideas.  This year, I’ve made a list of only three things that I’m going to do.  Perhaps I won’t get so overwhelmed this time!  Anyway, one of the three things is that I’m going to do a better job of keeping up my blog (of course, with Jim’s help).

Before we start, I want to remind you that I copy almost everything.  I may change colors or stamp sets, etc., but I’m just not talented that way so, as I say at all of my parties:  “I can copy really well.”  So, if you’re seeing you card here, I apologize for not giving you credit.  I’ll give you the credit if you let me know.  And, thank you for the great ideas.

One of the swaps that I took was this yellow card.  I made it using the Daffodil Delight card stock, Basic Black card stock, and the Timeless Elegance designer paper.  The card is so easy as the color is added with sponge daubers directly on to the designer paper.  I saw it made in many different colors; I also saw the leaves colored, too.  I didn’t color the leaves on mine.  I added a few pearls---one of the silver based pearls and then a couple of other pearls from the Pearl Basic Jewels package.  The greeting is from the stamp set One Big Meaning. I love this card and it was VERY popular when I was swapping.

The second card that I’m sharing with you today is made with the Remarkable You and Teeny Tiny Wishes stamp sets.  Remarkable You is a great set that has several large flowers and I think that everybody needs Teeny Tiny Wishes.  The majority of the ones I made were made using Night of Navy card stock as the base; I ran out of Navy card stock so I used Perfect Plum for some of them.  I like both colors.  For the first two layers, I used color on color (Navy on Navy) with the top layer cut at 5 ¼ x 4 and then I used the Woodgrain embossing folder on this one.  (We used a couple of different embossing folders and I thought they all looked good.)   I then used the Circle framelits to cut the two circles.  I usually stamp before I cut, but I didn’t on these.  I used the Memento Black pad to stamp the flowers (did you know that there’s an Archival Basic Black pad in the Holiday catalog---it stamps like a dream!).  I then did a tiny bit of coloring with the Daffodil Delight and Mint Macaron markers.

Before I assembled the card, I wrapped a piece of Mint Macaron 1” Dotted Lace Trim around the top Navy card stock layer.  I then adhered the two circles together and attached them to the card using dimensionals.  Stamp the “With Sympathy” or other greeting on a strip of white card stock and punch it out.  I sponged a little Navy ink onto the edges.  I attached the greeting with dimensionals.  I then added a tiny pearl at each end of the greeting.  I also added three pearls to the top of one of the calla lilies.  I like this card a lot, too.

You can order any of these products by going to www.stampinlady.com and clicking through to my Stampin’ Up! website or you can call me or email me.   303-674-6435

Please let me know if you come here and read this blog entry—it will encourage me to keep it up.  Also, please let me know if you have any questions.  I really want to share with you.

Have a great day, Pat