Sweet Stack Swap & Day 1 of Inspire Create Share 2015

So..if you truly know me you know that I'm always looking for a bargain.  There was no way I was going to fork over big bucks for my hotel room so I Hotwired it an got a huge price cut (which made me oh, so happy).  However that meant I had to do a lot of walking since I was 5 blocks from the convention center.  If I was a step counter I would have been in "step heaven!"

On Wednesday before convention began I participated in my first of 4 organized swaps---a new stamp set swap.  I had to make 41 of these babies.  When I signed up I forgot to pick a stamp set from the catalog and by the time I remembered there weren't many sets left to pick from.  As I looked at Sweet Stack, which is the set designed to go with the Cutie Pie thinlits and Sweet Stack kit, I thought I could come up with some kind of banner with the triangular piece.....yep....easier said than done.

I can't tell you how many ways I tried this and just couldn't get it to my liking.  Finally ended up with this:

I used the Cherry on Top paper to get my theme and went from there!  Daffodil Delight (it's supposed to be crushed curry, but it's just not bright enough for me), bermuda bay with the zig zag embossing folder, Then I stamped and cut out the watermelon wonder banners, mounted them on whisper white and cute again.  I stamped the banner again in pool party and cut out the "of" and added it to the watermelon wonder banner piece.  Add your whisper white baker's twine and then tie a ton of bows (which I added with 1/2 of a glue dot).  Final touch was 3 rhinestones in the corners of the banner.

The inside looks like this:

I used the set Fabulous Four and punched a couple more banners from glimmer paper and Cherry on Top paper (love this design--so bright and cheery) then stapled them on.  Swap #1 Done.

Here is a picture to give you and idea of the chaos that you see when you come into the convention center (especially the first morning).  Trying to find friends in the midst of all this is crazy!

Then we are herded (a bit like sheep) into the area where we have general sessions-- and controlled, fun chaos ensues:

The highlight of the morning session was the reveal of our awesome new Holiday/Fall Catalog!  There is so much in there you are going to want!  I can't wait until I can show you starting Sept. 1!

After the general session we had lunch and 4 different informational classes--mine were on building the business with kits, demonstration theater, making videos, and the compensation plan.  I got great ideas from all!  

I had my second swap that evening before supper--a WOW card swap.  So I made 51 of these gems (and stayed up until 2 a.m. the night before to get them done):

And the inside of the card:

Very vanilla, blushing bride and gold embossing powder added to the butterfly framelits and Cottage Greetings brought this all together!  I really intended to put gold thread under each butterfly, but it was too time consuming to get done for all 51 in the time that I had to work on them.  

The day finished with Awards night and the after party--but to be honest, I was so pooped from staying up late to finish the swap that I couldn't enjoy this like I wanted to!

Inspire Create Share 2015 (aka Stampin' Up Convention) Pre-Day 1

Whew--I got into Salt Lake City which is nestled in a valley surrounded by mountains on Tuesday evening.  I was lucky enough to meet several ladies from the Wichita area on my flight and had fun talking with them during our 4 hour layover in Las Vegas!  Convention doesn't start until Thursday but I got up fairly early on Wednesday, worked on some swaps and then headed up to the convention center to see if I could catch a bus out to Riverton to take a tour through the SU offices.
Riverton is about 20 - 30 minutes south of Salt Lake City and the SU building is beautiful!  The famous stone is at the end of a long drive (there are actually 2 of them). Of course I had to take my picture there!!

Then I headed into the building--here's what I saw when entering!

Yes-the center atrium on the lower level has a waterfall area surrounded by tables for people to sit and work or eat at--so calming and relaxing!

SU had a little walking tour set up for us so we could see many of the areas of the facility.  First we went to the Legacy Room which has vignettes set up using SU product--a bedroom with a wall of flowers, a wall of chalkboard sayings, and so on .... so much beauty....I couldn't take enough pictures! Here's a sample of what I saw:

This was from 1 of probably 7 or 8 scenes.  Next we headed into demonstrator support offices where they had all the cards donated for Ronald McDonald house set up for us to see and workers were there to chat with us as we went through.

After that we went to a balcony overlooking the floor where orders are filled.  This was so fascinating to me as much of it is automated/computerized.  Here's a quick video of what I saw:

The gal putting the boxes together slaps on 2 computer generated bar codes that tell what to put in the boxes.  So interesting!  I always was a lover of Mr. Roger's "how it's made" videos so this was right up my alley.

I was lucky enough to meet up with Shelley and Molly from Wichita on this tour which made it so much more fun!  I'll be back later tonight or tomorrow with details from the first (official) day of convention!

I Think You're Great!

At our last party I messed around a bit with this stamp set intended for "kissing."  We tried inking up the solid stamp and then "kissing" it to a dry stamp with no ink on it....here's what we got:

It just seemed very undefined and although there is a pattern in there on the background, it looks like I squiggled the stamp around and blurred the image (which I didn't--I don't think).  

When we inked up one stamp in a darker ink and one lighter we got this--which I turned into this card using the Cherry on Top wash tape:

I like it much better!

Right now I'm sitting in the LasVegas airport waiting for my connection flight to Salt Lake City, Utah.  I'm heading there for the Stampin' Up Convention.  I have been working like crazy on all of my swaps--I don't know how people have time to create 300 or 500 swap cards.  I've been working non stop on my 160 cards that I'm making for the swaps that I joined.  I didn't make any to just do general swapping with--thought I'd be less stressed this way.  Hmmm....  Here's what I've been doing as I sit in the airport--working on my WOW swap of 51 cards....

I'll post reports of what's happening at convention this week as well as photos of my swaps!  I'll be sending out an e-mail with the info. for weekly deals when I get into my hotel room tonight!

Thoughts & Prayers and some sweet Kissing....

Although the two groups I stamped with met just two days apart there were a couple of projects that weren't the same.  Sally the hostess for my first group requested a sympathy card idea.  I've always loved Thoughts & Prayers--its sweet tree and lovely sentiments...here's the idea that I got from several different cards on Pinterest...

Punch your circle out of a post-it and then place it where you want your moon to be.  Then sponge with soft sky before adding your tree and sentiment out of soft suede.  You may not see it very clearly, but we added some details with the scoreboard on the piece behind the main image on the card.  The soft suede piece is embossed with woodgrain (love).  

Since the McPherson group had already done the in color card with butterfly basics and the new lace ribbon I showed them the new set, "I Think You're Great" which was intended to use tie the technique of kissing.  I messed around a bit with the kissing and will post that in my next post...but I loved this card that was featured on Pink Buckaroo's blog and I think she got it from one of her friends Krista Jensen.

First card is tip top taupe and daffodil delight and the 2nd is watermelon wonder and tip top taupe.

I'll be back soon with some kissing!

July Stamping Fun!

Wow!  The lazy days of summer (when I tend to post more often) just haven't happened for me this year!  I've not had nearly enough time to stamp like I would like to--especially with all my goodies from the new SU annual catalog.

We had 2 parties in 3 days this week and it was so much fun to stamp with these two groups of ladies!    On Sunday evening I met with the Hillsboro group and then on Tuesday our McPherson group met--here are the cards from both parties:

 This was a card that I forgot to take to the June party in Hillsboro (still feel awful about that) featuring some new in color colors and product:

This featured Butterfly Basics and the beautiful lace ribbon in Tip Top Taupe.  The sentiment came from Banner Banter.

 I shared a couple of quick tips--cleaning your photopolymer stamps with an alcohol wipe (I got mine at Wal-Mart) when they won't stick to the block anymore, and how to make a mask using 2 Way Glue.  Here's the card I did using the mask with the set You've Got This:

The colors are Calypso Coral and Crumb Cake.  I colored the flower using a blender pen and calypso coral ink.

 I got the card idea and instructions for the next card on Stamping School.  I love that it uses the 6 x 6 packs of designer series paper.  Choose 4 coordinating prints and cut them to 1 1/2" x 3" strips and you can get 8 cards out of them.  This is a 5 x 5 card and features Friendly Wishes.  Here are 2 samples:

I used the Venetian Crochet Trim, the heart punch from the Itty Bitty Punch Pack and the small flower is from the Tree Builder Punch.

We did a card featuring the Braid Technique.  Here's the link to the directions and download of page of cutting patterns.  Love how special this makes a card look!  We decorated with a design that I found on Simply Simple Stamping--Connie Stewart uses a technique she calls Flash Cards where there is no waste of cardstock.  Check out her site!

Love, love, love the font on Cottage Greetings.  It is such a sweet set!

The last card was featured on stampinup.com and I think was created by Mary Fish.  It uses the adorable set You're Sublime.  I made a few minor changes in paper, but the design is basically the same.

I used the Schoolhouse designer paper and put a layer of So Saffron behind it.  I colored in my image stamped with Staz-On ink on shimmery white paper with a blender pen.  The colors I used were:  Melon Mambo, So Saffron, Pool Party, Smokey Slate and Memento Tuxedo Black.  I stuck it down with Everyday Chic washi tape and the hearts were punched with the Confetti Heart Border punch.

I'll be back tomorrow with the cards that were specific to each party.