Our swap cards are on their way back to us from my NMBS group. This was another swap for the Holiday Mini. I signed up for the Season of Friendship set. I really think this is a great set, I know I love all the stamps I order, hehehe! I'm already thinking ahead to spring and summer cards with this set. The versatility of it is wonderful. On this card I wanted to bring in the winter feel and use some of the new funky Frosty Days dsp. So I used the little snowflake on the tree along with a few leaves to fill in some space. Yes, once again I used the scallop bigz die for my main panel. The ribbon is the new felt ribbon in the Alpine ribbon originals pack. Tomorrow is the day, all products from the Holiday mini will be available for customer purchase. Contact me directly or place your order on-line from my demo business website. Hugs,

Since I am scheduling all my posts while I am gone, I can't comment on how much fun I am having or tell you about any of the other amazing things I am learning and seeing. You'll have to wait till I return to find out just how much fun I had! I'm sure I'm enjoying my time but missing my boys.
Here is the long awaited, swap card I kind of was teasing you with last week. This is for the GSG meet-up! Now you see where this came from. I used the same color combo of the new In Colors with the fabulous Kraft cs. I decided on stars instead of the dots since I used dots on my other swap card. The white cs is the shimmery white, which I felt gave the sparkle the card needed (I had to make those stars shine some how!). The ribbon is the Kraft Taffeta tied in a nice little knot. Oh, and the stamped stars are from the cute little set, Starstruck.
Thanks for stopping by! I'll have one more scheduled post before I can tell how all about my trip. I'm sure I'll need a day or two to get my barings back. Hugs from SLC,

I left this morning for SLC and the SU Convention '08!!! It is four days full of a lot of first for me and I am so excited. I thought while I was away I would show you the two swap cards I came up with. The first one is for the SCS Dinner. I will be joining hundreds of other members of the amazing community, SCS! It should be so fun. A great way to start the trip off.
Again we could only use current SU product. I had to make 46 of these babies! Thanks to my Convention roomie, Kristin, we agreed to split the swaps. So she made half and I made the other half. We will each get to keep 23 of the swaps we receive in return. The color combo used is Apricot, Olive, and Regal Rose. We used the Priceless stamp set and once again, I was in a polka dot and circle mood. I think they turned out super cute! I can't wait to see all the cards I get back. I'm having fun! Check back for my other swap card.
Hugs from SLC!

Did you figure it out? I think I talked about this term in a previous post, but for those who don't know, NVR stands for No Vendor Requirements. The other GSG swap I joined this month was a Show your Stuff, NVR swap. We could use any paper, stamps, ink, and embellishment we wanted. I love to do these every now and then because it gives me another excuse to use the non-SU stuff I'm slowly accumulating. Here is the card I did.
Hobby Lobby runs a sale on their designer paper (ds), 4 for $1, every now and then. I have SO MUCH ds paper that I really don't need any more, but sometimes when this sale is running I feel the need to get more. I've had this ds paper for over 6 months and have never touched it (see, this is why I don't need anymore, I don't use all of what I have). The paper is from My Minds Eye and I love it, so I got to use it here. The stamp set is Papertrey Ink, Out on a Limb. I even got to use some of SU's last years In Color cs, Buckaroo Blue. I paired that with soft sky and choc. chip and created this beautiful color combo! I added some brown Prima flowers, some dew drops, and even some stickles to the berries on the branch. It is so fun to show off my stuff!
Random thoughts about swap cards. Do you swap? If you do then you can probably relate, maybe not. Maybe I'm the only one who experiences these swap hurdles.
1) Don't you hate it when you think you measure your ribbon correctly, cut it all only to realize you are a bit short to even tie a decent knot?
2) Along the same lines, don't you hate it when you don't have the amount of cs you need to complete the card? Yes, I usually check this before I start the project, but I was sure I had enough textured soft sky cs. When it came down to it, I was short by 4 card fronts and had to improvise and make my own faux-textured cs (I used my canvas background stamp and ink it in versamark to create a subtle pattern on the sky piece). Can you see it on the right side of this picture?
3) Do you ever plan a project based on the number of brads you have left, in a not-as-popular of a color. As I used up the rest of my bashful blue brads on the other swap card, I am left with all of the Apricot brads from the soft subtle pack. I'm thinking I need to incorporate this color into my next project.
and last thought for now,
4) Do you ever cut cs pieces twice? I do my swap card assembly style. I cut all my cs first, then stamp, then assemble. Sometimes I get distracted in the middle of one of my steps and when I get back to it, I've been known to double cut one of my pieces. Like on the card I posted yesterday, I double cut the little 1 3/4 inch kraft squares. Now what to do with the extras? Guess I need to pair them with my apricot brads ;)
Okay, enough rambling for today, but before I do does anyone know what this card is missing? Can you believe it? Leave me a guess, and I'll tell you tomorrow. Thanks for stopping by!

I've been busy working on swap cards. Here is the card I made for my GSG swap of Any-Size-other than-A2 Card Swap. I chose to do a 4 .25 inch square, kick-stand card. I was on my Kraft cs kick when I designed this card, so that is the base. To make the kick-stand style card, I cut off 1 inch of the bottom front of the card and then when I attached the main front image I lined that up with the bottom of the back of the card (keeping it a 4.25 in. square). I used the summer picnic ds paper to set my color scheme, which also allowed me to use my new wide celery ribbon. Aren't the little stick people so cute? They're from All in the Family and stamped in Black stazon, then colored with WWC and aqua painter and paper pieced with scraps of Summer Picnic paper. The sentiment is the word set that coordinates with All in the Family, called Family phrases (it's a new-to-me set!). I added a few bashful blue brads and it was finished. If you haven't tried making different size cards (other than the standard, A2 size), I challenge you to step out of your comfort zone and try something new. I hope to share the other cards I get back from this swap. I know some of the girls are doing circle cards and I can't wait to see them. Check back tomorrow to see my NVR swap card. Don't know what NVR, is, well I'll tell you tomorrow.

All these letters, what do they mean? NMBS is another swap group I am a part of, it stands for No More Bad Swaps. Normally we do all SU stuff, but with this swap those that participated wanted to show off some of the other non-SU products we have. NVR stands for No Vendor Requirements.
It's a dark and gloomy morning here but I wanted to get this card uploaded since I don't know when I'll be back on the computer today. This card uses the PTI set, Pond Life and the Lemon Tart Perfect Match Cs and ribbon. When I started this card I knew I wanted to use this turtle image and the rectangle die cut with my scalloped nestabilities. I pulled some colors to see what would look good with the Lemon Tart and soft sky and celery just spoke to me. Seriously they did. They said, "use us, make a baby card." Don't these colors just scream BABY! I ran the soft sky scalloped rectangle through the swiss dots embossing folder and used a few different words from two other PTI sets (I tried a bunch to see which would fit in the lg. star punch) to create the sentiment. The only SU products I used were the sky and celery cs and ink, and both star punches. Oh, and I used Crystal Effects on the shell of the turtle. I am please with how it turned out. Now I just need to get them out in the mail. Nothing like squeezing it all in at the last minute!

so I haven't done any actual, new stamping projects. I am working a Crop this weekend at my son's preschool, so I am busy prepping for the make-n-take. The coordinator is hoping for 40+ guests and I will be the SU demo there from 3-9. I'm so excited for this opportunity, but mostly I'm excited to have 6 whole hours to work on my scrapbooking in the company of others who enjoy this obsession, I mean, hobby of ours ;)


This is the card I just did for a swap with some of the girls in the Great Swaps group. I chose to showcase the Ribbon slide (it is a piece from the new Styled Silver HodgePodge Hardware kit from the Spring mini). I showed it used two different ways on this card. I used it with a Ice Rhinestone brad placed in through the center and then used as the middle of the flower image. Then I used it with some ribbon as an accent on the Photo corner punch on the left side of the card. Hope the girls will like it. I can't wait to see what the cards look like that I will get back. I'll post pics of those since they will be showing some of the other cool accessories from the Spring Mini (rubons and die cut flowers!) after I get them back.


Happy Wednesday!

Stamps:Friendly Flowers, One of a Kind (used for the sentiment, I just omitted the little flower)
cS: textured white,wasabi, basic grey, Summer picnic ds paper
Ink: garden green and bashful blue markers, basic grey
Accessories: double stitched wasabi ribbon, ribbon slide, photo corner punch, ice rhinestone brad, round tab punch.