May swap cards

These are my May swap cards for our local group of demonstrators which is focusing on masculine or Father's Day cards. I was really trying to keep it simple. I also have a TON of the "Spring Showers" designer paper to use up, and it's a good choice of paper because of the masculine colors and patterns.


This is a card that I woke up thinking about on Saturday morning. The hammer is from the set Power Up, and I stamped each hammer twice. First in Versamark on Vanilla cardstock, which I then covered in heat and stick powder that I then covered in silver Pearl Ex (because I for some reason don't have any silver embossing powder). I then cut off the hammer head, cleaned the stamp and stamped it in Creamy Caramel over the sort of burlap-looking paper and cut out the handle. Everything else is just straight pieces that were layered. The "dad" is handwritten and punched out with the Rounded Tab punch.

On this card, I think I was channeling someone with a MUCH simpler style than mine, and mine is usually pretty simple. I asked Ky to draw me a stencil in the shape of a traditional Father's Day tie. That's all I could think of when I saw this argyle paper. Even as I was making the cards, I wasn't sure I liked this card, and it was very late, so I couldn't start on something new. However, when I'd finished, and looked at it again, I really like how it turned out. The words are from Amazing to Zany and the "someone so" is punched out with the 1 1/4" circle punch and then faux stitched. The tie is up on dimensionals.

Part stamping, part ready-made

I was asked to make approximately 60 invitations for a retirement party. I was happy to do so, but the turnaround time was short, so I opted to combine a ready-made paper option (found at Office Depot in packs of 50) with a little stamped embellishment for a no-layer card. The second photo is a close up of the paper so you can see the pre-embossed/debossed circles (depending on which side you used). I thought the debossed version was a little more casual, so that's what I went with, then to spread the color around, I dotted every other circle with my Certainly Celery marker.

The flower is from Doodle This, and is on both the invitation and the envelopes. At Regionals in SLC, one of the presentations pointed out that the doodle style of flower didn't need to be outlined as carefully as some of the more detailed/formal flowers. I found the ability to outline quickly was a huge asset, and I just zipped around the details with 3 colors after stamping the flower in black Stazon ink (so it wouldn't smudge the colors). The outside outline is Cameo Coral, the center dots are Barely Banana, and the leaves are Certainly Celery which ties into the border dots. After doing 120 of these flowers, the brush ends of my markers are shot, even though I was careful with them. However, it didn't hurt this project, and if you were doing smaller quantities, it wouldn't damage them so exponentially.

Thanks for looking!

Tagged for seven things...

Hmm. Both Jovita and Jeanine tagged me to tell seven things about myself. Now I'm not sure if I'm modest, or boring, but this is really hard for me to come up with.

1. I live in Colorado, where I was born and raised. And, like most native Coloradans, I'm sure that I don't have an accent, but isn't the absence of an accent an accent?
   
2. My husband and I met because we were wearing the same maroon low-top converse on the same day in the cafeteria in college which was a good conversation starter for him. And he thought I was cute. :)
   
3. I don't like things that are damp. Especially unexpected dampness. Yick. It's to the point that when I shared a room with Jeanine at Convention, I offered to get up early for the first shower so I didn't have to experience a damp bath mat and it's the same at home with Ky. I get up and shower first just to avoid the bath mat.
   
4. I hate the texture of squash. I won't eat it because of that.
   
5. I'm pseudo-allergic to ALL fresh fruits and vegetables. It's really called cross-reactivity and just means that when I eat fresh fruits and veggies, my body thinks that I'm eating the equivalent of handfuls of pollen and my throat is incredibly irritated by it. I can eat fruits and veggies that have been cooked or processed, so canned foods are an option. This is a HUGE stumbling block to any weight loss program, so I'm trying to rely much more heavily on exercise, although this week has been bad for that, too.
   
6. My first job at 15 was in a rubber stamp store, but I've only been seriously stamping for about a year and a half.
   
7. My day job is at the same law firm that my mom worked at while I was growing up. People at work know this and will stop me in the coffee bar and ask how she's doing.

Phew!

I doubt that there's anyone at this point who hasn't been tagged for this yet, but if you haven't been and you're reading this, get going and list seven things about you!

Mother's day card

This is a mother's day card that I made using Doodle This and Au Chocolat designer paper. I'd heard about coloring in the white spaces on the paper from Splitcoast, but hadn't seen it until we went to Regionals on the 14th. After trying it out, I love the pop of color and the customization it provides. It doesn't show very well in this picture, but the dots on the double-layered doodle flower are all dotted with Crystal Effects and then covered in Dazzling Diamonds glitter. The "mom" on the tag is hand-written, and I rounded the Au Chocolat paper corners to show off just a little more of the long card. The petals of the pink flower were watercolored using the inside of my ink pad lid as my palette.

Stamps: Doodle This
Paper: Very Vanilla, Au Chocolat, tag sheet
Ink: Old Olive, Certainly Celery, Brown Stazon, Regal Rose, Pretty in Pink, Chocolate Chip
Accessories: Aqua Painter, Crystal Effects, Dazzling Diamond glitter, pearl brad, "flirty" ribbon, corner rounder punch, glue stick

Going away card

This card was for one of my co-workers/customers whose last day was yesterday. She's very fond of the Bold Brights color family, while I'm less sure about them. However, since she was the intended recipient, and since her departure was a happy occasion (for her, at least), I wanted to make a cheery card! I haven't used All About U in such a long time! The layout for this card was pretty much cased from my monthly demonstrator magazine from Stampin' Up.

Obviously I'll miss seeing her at the office, but I look forward to catching up with her at future stamp camps. :)

I've been tagged twice (that I know of)

I know, I know, we all love the validation! It's been so fun to find that there are fans out there. I was tagged by Judith over at Gone 2 the Dogs, and by Lindsey (Jacksonbelle) at Embellished. Both of these blogs have really nice creations. Take a minute to go and check them out!

We're supposed to pick out 5 of our favorite bloggers to share...so difficult! There are many others, but here are the 5 that came to mind first.

Michelle Wooderson - awesome organizational tips (oh, to be as organized) combined with GREAT stamping

Anna Wight - an incredibly talented stamper and photographer, love her writing style (and her ebay store!)

Jeanine Eckert - the one that got me into stamping! She has such an intricate, precise style that shows her attention to each piece that she makes. She is also an incredibly nice person!

Jovita Kloess - she's a stamper located about 50 miles from me in Colorado Springs and she makes really cute, sweet creations.

Jen - I don't know her last name, but I know I like her cards! They're all examples of pleasing layouts and combinations of elements.

Take a moment to check them out and give them some validation, too!

This one was missed!

I found this card from Debbi Rippentrop on my craft desk this evening. I meant to gather it up, too for posting, and it got left behind! This card is on glossy cardstock with versamark resist and opens up the middle. This photo doesn't do it justice! I love the paper piercing/faux stitching and the way it opens. She has cute cards on her blog - be sure to stop in and check it out. Thanks, Debbi, for thinking of me for my birthday!

Last of the birthday RAKs

I have had such a good birthday in terms of cards. I've never gotten this many for one birthday and they've all been wonderful cards! Thank you so much to each of you who took the time to send a card to me. It really brightened my day(s)!

These are the cards that arrived while I was in Salt Lake City. The first card is from Donna Baker. I absolutely love the bright spring feeling of this card. The paisley background looks SO good, that I keep feeling it to see if the texture I can SEE can also be felt. Also love the primas layered with the brad. Beautiful, Donna! Hop over to Donna's blog and check out her other creations. While you're there, comment for some blog candy that she's got going on right now. :)

The next card and goodies are from Justine Wogsland. She's my upline's upline and she is so fun! She sent me this adorable card, a stamp that says, "Never underestimate the power of a woman on caffeine!" and a post-it pad with the sage advice to "Put on your big girl panties and deal with it!" She makes so many cute creations that can be seen in her SCS gallery. Thanks for thinking of me Justine!!!

This third card is from Lauri Rybarczyk. I love how she combined the patterned paper with stamping and that giant polka dot brad is just wonderful. She also has a blog with very cute creations on it that you should check out. AND, she too has blog candy up for grabs right now.

And last, but CERTAINLY not least, is a beautiful card from Jeanine Eckert. This is the same Jeanine you see mentioned time and again in my blog. She's my very good friend, traveling buddy, and upline. It's getting to the point where we've known each other for a long time, and we just have such good times when we're together. She gave me this card as we were on our way to the airport for Salt Lake City this past weekend to celebrate my birthday (and her half-birthday) with some stamping girl time. I love the patterned papers she used as well as the big panel of "cracked glass" over the Petal Prints flowers. It's beautiful in real life, although I'm afraid my photo isn't doint it the justice it deserves. If you haven't already, check out Jeanine's blog for more of her beautiful creations.

Thanks again to each of you who took the time to send me birthday wishes!!

Alternate banner candy winners!

As promised, since my blog candy wasn't claimed originally by 3 of my winners, I've selected an alternate 3. If your name/blog are listed below, please email me about creating your banner.

Dianne - http://scrappinlibrarian.wordpress.com/
Toni - http://inkyfingersart.blogspot.com/
Judith - http://gone2thedogsdesigns.blogspot.com/

Later this week I'll post more of my birthday cards and share a bit about my trip to SLC. :)

Birthday RAKs

This bright blogger RAK card comes to me from Simone (aka spazzgirl). It opens out from behind the flower image and is held closed with a piece of hardware. I love all the little touches on this card! You can visit spazzgirl's blog here. AND, she even did a post on this card that shows the details of making it. You can read that particular post here.

This happy card is a blogger RAK from Nancy. It looks like glitter in my photo, but they're actually clear microbeads. I love the clean feeling of this card. Nancy's blog can be found here.

This pretty card is from Debbie. This is a set that I had trouble being creative with during Sell-A-Bration, but clearly, Debbie had no problem! This card is so cute. It's got a cottage-y, shabby chic feeling to it that is so soothing. I love the ribbon that's tied on the hardware and the sponged scallop in particular.

I don't have a link for this one because the poor envelope that it was traveling in had some hardships and appears to have barely made it to me! When it arrived yesterday, it was re-sealed into a post office issued envelope with a pre-printed, very apologetic message on it. If you are Debbie, or know which Debbie created it, I'd love to give credit! I know she is on the SCS bloggers RAK list, so I'll be doing some research to see if I can narrow it down.

This birthday card is from Beate. She has a fabulous blog of her own and it can be found here. If you need to find out how to do something in the stamping realm, check out the SCS tutorials section, and there's a good chance the tutorial was put together by Beate. I've never met Beate, but she just seems like the nicest person and I love visiting her blog and seeing what she's come up with. I love this card and it brought a smile to my face! Thanks, Beate.

This birthday blogger RAK beauty, one of Ky's favorite's so far, comes from Michelle Laycock. There is so much prettiness (is that a word) going on here! The color is even more vibrant in real life and it's so happy, feminine and cheerful - and I LOVE the glitter on the flower. Take a minute and visit Michelle's blog here.

This wonderful chicken card is from KittyAnderson (Oregon Stamper) and opens right to left. I love how did the sponging and that she used the cheesecloth with the chicken - it isn't a background I would have picked out, but it looks great! Her SCS gallery can be found here.

How cute is the prima with glitter in the middle of it. It really pops! This little purse card is a bloggers RAK from Leslie Brown and her blog can be found here. How did she know that I like purses so much?!


Thanks to each of these women for making my day by sending such pretty RAKs my way!
(ooh, that rhymed, hee hee.)

Still waiting...

Carol has emailed me and her materials are in process, and Ally is all done. That means there are THREE other winners out there who haven't claimed their prizes. If I don't hear from them by Saturday to claim their banner and watermark design prizes, I'm going to pick three NEW winners from those who commented on the original post. I haven't decided if I'll accept bribes, yet...

Also, I'm starting another blog just to showcase my banner and watermark designs. You can find it from the link on the left, or from right here. If you're interested in hiring me to make your banner and watermark, please email me to get started. It's $25 for the banner and for $5 more with the banner purchase, you'll get a custom watermark designed.

Finally, coming up soon, I'll be posting the birthday RAKs that have been coming in the mail the last few days. I'm going to take photos tonight! My birthday is on Friday the 13th this year, and I'm traveling that day, so keep your fingers crossed that I have an easy time of it and no bad mojo. :)

Blog candy winner - one down!

Ally, of Ally's Inky Hugs, is the only one to claim her prize thus far, and she was so easy to work with, that we've already wrapped things up! The first photo below is of her new blog banner (not posted yet) and the second is a shot of her watermark over a blue background.

Ally, thanks for letting me work for you and with you! I hope you have fun with these. When you get a chance to post your banner, please send me an email. I'd love to see it in place!!

If there are other lurking winners out there, please check in with me at my email address listed in the winners post below!

Blog candy winner!

The first winner of the blog candy custom watermark and blog banner is #42:

Joanna said...
That is a cool prize! Thanks for offering it. I have to say that after looking around I think that Stampin' Up! has the nicest stampest and the widest range of styles too.

Joanna, please email me and let me know your email address and whether you're looking for a blog banner + watermark OR the 2 watermark option. We'll go over some details and preferences by email and I can get some mockups going for you to look over until we fine-tune it to something you'll love. Stampin' Up was far and away the favorite stamp company, but many others got mentioned as well.

• Hero Arts
• Amuse
• Bellas
• Alota Rubber Stamps
• Technique Tuesday
• Lockhart Stamps
• PaperTrey
• Whipper Snapper
• My Favorite Things
• Penny Black
• Paper Inspirations

Because so many of you seem like you really would like to win, I've picked 4 more winners that should email me and I'll each of you the same option of a blog banner + watermark OR the 2 watermark option. The additional winners numbers were #37, #44, #14, and #45. I'll take on these projects in the order I hear from you, after taking care of our original winner, Joanna.

37: Angel said...
Stampin UP has always been my fav. They have
the stamps all coordinated for you in sets.

44: Ally Stamps said...
GREAT CANDY!!! I really need a banner and a SU watermark! Stampin up has to be my all time favorite but those cute little bellas are giving me a run for my money!!

14: Kraftin' Kimmie said...
Oh gosh....that's a tough question! I'm a diehard Stampin' Up lover for the stamps and coordinating stuff!! But I have a little bit of everything and right now I love the Bellas too!! Gotta share the love, right??

45: Carol said...
Stampin' Up. Love all their products and all the fun stamps and mod colors Carol St-Lazare

Thanks to each of you for playing!! Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Solicitors, no more (hopefully)

NO SOLICITORS

Our current, bold-faced, plainly lettered sign doesn't seem to have been working for quite some time, and I wonder, does that mean that the solicitors are just inconsiderate of my wishes, or that they don't know what "solicitors" means?

I doubt my new sign (see below) will have much effect on those coming to knock on my door and sell something, but it's more fun to look at than the sign we currently have in our sidelight window. In case they aren't up on their vocabulary, I thought I'd word it simply.

This sign was made with SU's whimsical alphabet in upper and lower case and Bodacious Bouquet.

Edited to add: We've already had someone come by with refrigerated truck trying to sell us meat. He rang the doorbell and Ky rolled his eyes and opened the door. The man says, "hi, I'm from the butcher shop and I have some amazing deals." Ky says, "sorry, there's a sign right there that says 'no selling'." The "butcher" says, "oh, sorry!" and leaves. I guess even if the sign doesn't work at first, it's something to point out to make them go away....

Borrowed Big Blooms

I made this card while Stamping at Jeanine's. When I stamp at her house, I try to use a set that I don't own, and/or that I wouldn't normally use. There was a lot of paper-snipping and TONS of faux stitching involved, but I really like how this card turned out.

I'm telling myself I don't need another floral set. We'll see how that turns out.

Stamps: Big Blooms, Warm Words
Paper: Very Vanilla, Cool Carribbean, Au Chocolat
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Regal Rose, Cool Carribbean
Accessories: Chocolate grosgrain

Chicken in a Bucket

My friend Janet's mom will be visiting soon. She is bringing along a friend, and Janet asked me to do a little stamp camp for them. They're my first long-distance stampers! Janet has since signed up to be a demonstrator (hi, Janet!!!) but since she first joined my stamp camps, she has been sending supplies and completed projects to her mom in Wisconsin. We're going make two cards with some different punches and techniques, and hopefully I haven't gone overboard and wear them out. :)



Janet asked me to include a card using Best of Cluck and I'm happy to do so because it's one of my favorite sets. I love putting the chickens in or on something. This time the chicken is in the bucket from the Basket Full of Fun hostess set and it's body was stamped on Au Chocolat paper and cut out. The "straw" is the largest flower from the Spring Bouquet Flower punch with lines drawn on them in creamy caramel. I traced the ribbing in the bucket with Ruby Red marker, then crystal effects over that. I also layered over the stamped handle with silver cording for a little more dimension. The sentiment is colored individually with a marker and stamped then punched out with the small tag punch and layered on Chocolate Chip that was punched out using the large tag punch.

Once I got rolling -- I had a little stampers' block to contend with -- this was a quick card and fun to make. I hope my stampers think so too!

Oh! And I've included a new version of my watermark. What do you think? It includes the required Stampin' Up! copyright information. You'll be able to see it better if you click on the photo to open it in a new window and enlarge it.

Don't forget to comment and enter to win your own watermark and blog banner combination! See my earlier post for details or to enter.

Stamps: Best of Cluck, Weathered, Basket Full of Fun
Paper: Ruby Red, Close to Cocoa, So Saffron, Very Vanilla, Au Chocolat (SU designer paper
Ink: Ruby Red, Choc. Chip, Creamy Caramel, Brown Stazon
Accessories: Linen thread, small and large tag punches, notched corner punch, spring bouquet flower punch, silver cord, Crystal Effects, sponges
Techniques: sponging, dtp, coloring w/ markers, punching

Watercolored doodles

This is the second card for my mini-stamp camp tomorrow night. On this one, the focus is on trying watercoloring with an Aqua Painter and watercolor wonder crayons. The doodle flowers were stamped in black Stazon on watercolor paper then watercolored with the crayons. Because the watercoloring takes a little more time, the rest of the card is simplified. I used the Stamp-a-ma-jig for the "Happy Birthday" and still got it a little crooked, darn it! Good thing I used it, or who knows how it would have turned out! The brads are Stampin' Up brads. I originally stitched around the Apricot Appeal mat with my white gel pen, but it just didn't have enough impact, so I switched to my black pen and just went over my stitching. The card base is Certainly Celery.

This is also my second use of my brand new watermark (designed by me!). It shows up a lot better on this card than my Chicken in a Bucket card. I'll have to alter a version of it for dark projects. Live and learn, eh?

Time for Candy!

I'm at over 3,900 views this morning! And that means time for my giveaway.

I have such a good time giving away blog candy that I have to control myself to not give out more... I'm hoping that today's giveaway will be of interest to many of you.

I'm giving away a free custom blog banner and watermark combo.

If your name is chosen from the comments submitted, I'll work with you to make something you'll really like. If you don't have a blog that needs a banner, I'd be happy to make you two watermarks for you to use.

Interested? By Saturday the 7th at noon (mountain standard time), leave a comment on this post (one per person, please) and tell me who makes your favorite line of stamps and why you like them the best.

I love knowing that you're out there and hearing from you! If there are over 115 comments to this post, I'll add another smaller prize that I'll draw a name for.

Jeanine has blog candy!

And it's easy to enter! She just needs your opinion. Head over to her blog by the 6th and let her know what you think! There are free stamps up for grab.

Gimme the details!

Goodness I'm posting a lot today!

This little card took an inordinately long time to make. I kept putting stuff on. Then I'd take it off. Then I'd put something different on. Eesh. And in the end, there's hardly anything on it.

Finally, this is where I ended up. I was very happy that the Sage Shadow matched some of the subtle greens in the Basic Grey Phoebe paper, so that was a good start, but I NEEDED something to mount the bird on. See that tiny little piece of sort-of burgundy in the lower right corner of the Phoebe paper? That's what I wanted to match. There aren't any SU colors that color, and that's the only solid paper that I'll buy. LUCKILY, with all the SU inks + SU solids, you can get darn close to just about any color. My scallop bird background is Real Rose paper sponged with Perfect Plum. It looks deliciously close to my goal.

I REALLY like what I did to make the slit punch/scalloped border. I felt quite clever. Let me know if this is something you'd like step-by-step photos of it to see how it's done. I haven't seen this done this way before, but with the multitude of savvy stampers out there, it may have been done before.

This card is going out as an RAK today, so I'll let it go. Thankfully (?) I've "matured" in my stamping life. When I first started stamping, I couldn't send anything out. Now, a lot of times, when I really like something, it goes to work with me and sits on the ledge of my desk so I (and my co-workers) can admire it, even though I'm not in the rubber room at home. It feels soothing somehow. Then, after some time passes, I'm able to let it go. Well, this time, the card was made last night and it's going out today. Fly away little bird-card!



Stamps: Rhonna Farrer - bird ($1.99 bins at Archivers)
Paper: Rose Red, Sage Shadow, Whisper White, brown Stazon (bird outline), Really Rust (watercolored w/ ink on feathers and beak)
Ink: Creamy Caramel (sponged on scalloped edge), Perfect Plum (sponged on scallped circle), white gel pen
Accessories: K&Company pearl brad, slit punch, 1/16" circle punch, dimensionals, aqua painter
Techniques: watercoloring, paper cutting, faux stitching

Blog Candy Heads Up...

At 3,900 page views, I'm going to post a new blog candy...

VERY BROAD HINT: It'll be something that I will make for you (because I think they're fun to make).

Birthday punch - yum!

This card is unusual for me in that it only has the "hb" (happy birthday) stamped in Not Quite Navy. Otherwise, it's designer paper (from Foof a la) and punched shapes. I ended up making the punched flower because I didn't have any stamps that were large enough to have impact on this 5.25" x 5.25" card. I based the design on one of the flowers in the pattern that you can see in the yellow paisley that's just above my gel pen in the picture. The punches used were all Stampin' Up punches: large and small ovals, 1 3/8" and 1 1/4" circles and the word window punch. The "tab" is part of a Basic Grey chipboard pack that I covered with Tempting Turquoise and So Saffron paper. There was a lot of uncertainty while I was making this, but in the end, I like how it turned out. I sent it out as a birthday blogger's RAK - so watch your favorite blogs and maybe you'll see it featured there soon!

April swaps

My upline, Jeanine, started a swap around the first of the year (I think that was the timeframe - how can it seem so long ago??). These are my contributions for the April swap which had a theme of feminine or Mother's day.

The first is on an Old Olive base with Petals & Paisley paper behind the main image which is mounted on Tempting Turquoise. The Turquoise has white pen doodles around the edge and 3 ribbon loops mounted behind. The idea for the loops came from Emily's blog.

It was so nice to use this stamp set again! I think that Petal Prints is the set that really made me fall in love with stamping. I'd never seen two-step stamping that layered outline stamps with solids. On this card I love the vibrant color combinations on the flowers of Rose Red (outline) and Regal Rose (solid). The stems are Certainly Celery and Old Olive. I think it's also been an interesting journey for me to enjoy the color pink in all its variety more because of stamping. [I write that as I sit here in my hot pink sweater...]

This is my second card for the swap. The barely-visible background is SU's Well-Worn Words in Apricot Appeal over the Certainly Celery cardstock.

The girl is colored with markers and the flowers are covered in Dazzling Diamonds glitter. I'm envious of the Amuse oval stamps that Amy uses on her projects to "ground" a focal point, but I don't have one. So I made a mask of the girl's feet and another mask using my large oval punch and post-its; I taped the two mask pieces together. Then I sponged over it with Creamy Caramel. The smaller picture is a detail shot (that you can click on to view larger) of the masks when they're stuck together (so I didn't have to keep compiling them for each card). This process worked really well and was easy to use while providing consistent results.

Basic Grey 6x6

This arrived just before I got sick, so I haven't had time to share it or use it, but these are SO cool. They're scaled down versions of the 12x12 Basic Grey papers from 5 lines made into 6x6 tablets. They don't appear to have these pads still available in a group, but I bought them from Doodliedoo which I heard about from Emily's blog. If you get a chance to purchase from them, they were priced reasonably and shipped out super-quick! Thanks Doodliedoo!

My first blogger RAK!!

This pretty card came in the mail yesterday! It's my first bloggers RAK (Random Act of Kindness)! It came to me from Wendy hoping to bring a smile to my day, and it sure worked. Thanks, Wendy! Check out her blog.

Paid to say thank you

By day, I work in an office like so many other people, and in April, employers (if they're smart) take time to tell their staff "thank you." Now, I know that my employer has plans in the works, but apparently it's on the minds of other employers as well. Early last week I got a call from a human resources contact at a local law firm. She wanted to know if she could have me make thank you cards for each of their employees, about 20 in all. I quickly agreed. I told her that I'd come up with a couple of samples for her to choose from. These are what I have so far, although I'm doing some more stamping tonight, so I may be able to come up with at least one more. I hope that these cards make their employees feel special and appreciated!

Swaps for SLC Regionals

These are several pictures of the process of making 50 swap cards for when I go to Stampin' Up Regionals in Salt Lake City, UT, in 12 days! Ooh, how exciting is that to think about?! Jeanine and I are leaving on the 13th, we'll attend Regionals on the 14th and fly back home on the 15th. A tiny vacation, but sounds like so much fun to me!

Regionals are basically a mini-convention with training and stamping time. Because we live so close to SLC, it's an easy flight (1 hour and 20 minutes), and it's actually cheaper to fly than drive. The other reason this is a fun trip is that it's falling right on my birthday! We're flying out on my birthday (I know, Friday the 13th, but I've never had issues when it's been on a Friday before...) and I'm guessing we'll have dinner to celebrate my birthday, and then Regionals are all day on Saturday. It's like Stampin' Up set it up just for me. *wink*

I'm making my swaps using Bundle of Joy from the current mini catalog, and I just love how they turned out. I'll post a picture of them soon! I can't believe I'm 2 weeks out from the deadline and I'm almost done except for assembling about 40 of them...Once you've got all the pieces ready for the assembly-line production, the hard part is done. It shouldn't take too long, either, but I have to remember to not do them all at once and get too stiff from sitting in one position!

Michael's finds

Yesterday after going to the bank I stopped by Michael's (which is in the same shopping area). I found a few goodies worth sharing with you...

The coffee tins were on clearance for $2.00 each (and they had other, similar tins for around the same price), I got the requisite $1 Congratulations stamp (which turned out to be a duplicate - hmm, blog candy?), some pearl brads, and the clip-on flowers which were all $1 each. The brads were the most expensive item at $2.99. I think the coffee tins will be great for covering with paper because with that red, I may not have to cover the lid, which is my very least favorite thing about making the lunch boxes with the hinged lids.