Regionals!

Oh I am so excited!! On April 27/28 I will be heading over to Vancouver to join hundreds of others for Stampin' Up! Regionals. I don't know if its the stamping I am most excited about or if its the fact that its an all girls over night trip to Vancouver!!! Which ever way you look at it, it will be lots and lots of fun.

As stampers, we love to share what we do with fellow stampers and/or (anyone that is remotely interested!) So with that in mind, we wouldn't dream of going to Regionals without our swap cards! I've got paper cut for 75 cards right now but do hope to come up with one other design to finish off with another 25 cards. Yes, your correct, thats 100 swap cards! But just think - I am going to come home with 100 different cards! Its all so exciting to think about!

It is somewhat stressful because you want your swap cards to be as original as possible. I have worked hard on coming up with these two designs. I hope you like them!

I really really like how this card turned out. I used a couple different techniques; masking and crinkled chalk. The pansies and leaves are from the In Full Bloom stamp set. I used the masking technique for the flowers and leaves. The flowers are mounted on brilliant blue and then on basic black. The background stamp is French Script. On this I used the crinkled chalk technique (basically sponging but with crinkled saran wrap). 'Thinking of you' is from the Warmest Regards Hostess stamp set. I stamped this in Whisper White. I finished it off with a knotted piece of ivory organdy ribbon. All of this is mounted on basic black.

We only have to swap card fronts which is great, not so much paper used. On the backs of our cards we provide our name, of course, and also the 'recipe' for our card.

This is the second card I have come up with. It is totally different than anything else I have ever stamped. I am totally out of my comfort zone using these colours but as I say that I am thrilled with it just the same. I borrowed this stamp set from my friend Stacey, and fell in love with it! So I am just waiting for mine to arrive from Stampin' Up!! The card is done with More Mustard, Old Olive and Naturals White. I am not sure what the proper technique name is (or if there is one...)for the crazy background I did. What I did was take the stamp pads and stamp directly on the paper, thats what gives the lines. For the leaves I used the rock n' roll technique. So you ink the stamp on one colour and then roll the outer edge of the stamp onto a darker colour and then stamp our paper. I softened the edges of each leaf image by sponging and then mounting it on Old Olive cardstock. To finish it off I wrapped each leaf print with hemp twine.

I hope you've all had a great Easter Sunday!!

Alicia

My first Stamp-a-stack...

went very well. I had a selection of 8 projects for the girls to stamp. The idea of a 'stamp-a-stack' is to come and stamp all or just a few of the projects offered. You can choose which cards you would like to stamp. Here's a preview of a few cards we made.

This is the 'happy' card made using Perfect Plum and Pale Plum cardstock. We stamped with the Polka Dots & Paisley set featured in the current Spring Mini catalogue. The flower petals were punched using the large oval punch. The centre of the flower uses a stamp from the Polka Dots & Petals stamp set, also from the Spring Mini. We used Stampin' Dimensionals to make the flower 'pop' off the card. Cardstock colours: perfect plum and pale plum.

I love this card...its so bright and cheery! This card features the Petals & Paisleys double-sided paper and the Polka Dots & Petals stamp set, both from the Spring Mini. I used Cool Caribean card stock and ink. The cirlces were punched with 2 different sized punches. I added a brad to the centre of the flower for fun. And like the card above I used Stampin' Dimensionals for the 3 circles.

These 4 cards are a variation of the same basic card. All the cards were created with Sage Shadow, So Saffron, Perfect Plum and Confetti White cardstock. The stamp sets used were Close to A Memory, French Script background stamp (which you can't see...), and 'Happy Mother's Day' from All Year Cheer II. I used the Stampin' Write Markers to colour directly onto the stamp so that my floral image is multi-coloured. I used different embellishments such as organdy ribbon, hemp twine, Hodgepodge Hardware and faux stitching. With just adding an embellishment or changing the layout just slightly gives you a very different looking card.

Thanks to those that took part in this workshop. As I mentioned in a recent email I do not have any scheduled workshops the rest of April as my family and I are moving!! Very exciting - with lots and lots to do! I will keep in touch! Happy Easter to all of you!

Alicia