Swaps from Tacoma Regionals

Hi Stampers!  Thanks for coming back to visit my series on the Tacoma Regional Meetings.  And yes, I am finally showcasing some of the awesome swaps I traded for.  Today I'm featuring all the Halloween and Fall cards I received. 

 

Before I begin though I'd just like to say I'm unable to give credit to the creators of some of these great cards because they have no identification on them.  This makes me so sad!  I'd like to be able to link your name and or blog information to your great card, but can't.  So if you are the creator of one of these "unnamed" cards please let me know and I'll add the link. 

 

 

I love this card! The witches boot and cute sentiment are from the fun filled 5-piece Bootiful Occasions stamp set.  And, check out that broom, it's made with the Owl Builder punch  The Spider Web Embossing Folder and the new Chevron Folders were used to create a spooky background on this card.  Very creative.  Unfortunately this is an "unnamed" card. 

Peg Bunn from Portland Oregon created this gorgeous "Frightening Feline" using the Howlstooth and Scaringbone Designer Series Paper on Tangerine Tango cardstock.  Both the cat and the Perfect Plum cardstock layer were cut out with the Labels Collection Framelits.  The beautiful bow is made with Perfect Plum 3/8" Taffeta Ribbon.  What a cute kitty!  

 

I was so excited when I swapped for this awesome hybrid card.  Zada Hall from Seattle Washington created this card using the MDS SU Program Toxic Framable Digital Template. She also printed out a great background layer using the  Halloween Program and mounted it on Pumpkin Pie cardstock. This MDS Template is a great value at $4.95 and it comes with a 34-piece brushset.  Some Googly Eyes, Pearl Basic Jewels and Rhinestone Basic Jewels add some glitter and motion to this card.  Well done Zada............. love it!  

This cute little witch is from the Googly Ghouls stamp set.  Jo Rauch did a great job on this card.  She coloured the Googlie eyes with an alcohol based marker to make them glow with a spooky green hue.  She added two strips of 1/2" Striped Satin Ribbon on top of the DSP and Spider Web embossing to create a pennant.  Basic black brads were added to the top of the ribbons, giving some added focus to the ribbons.  An all around cool Halloween card, nice job Jo. 

Another cute "unnamed" card made with the Googly Ghouls set.

One of the things I really like about Halloween swaps is the number of really cute 3-D projects you can come across.  Here's a prime example.  This candy holder was made by Jo-Ann Unrau, another incredible demo in the Abbotsford area of BC, and a member of our Colourful Impressions group.  Jo-Ann created a Pumpkin Pie layer that has been stamped and cut out with the new Apothecary Accents Framelits onto a piece of Chocolate Chip cardstock that is scored to form a cute little holder for candy corn.  I love the paper piercing she's done around the label it just steps this right right up.

This next 3-D is another creation by Zada Hall of Seattle Washington.  Isn't it just the cutest? She's stamped the little black spider from the Googly Ghouls set onto Pumpkin Pie cardstock and framed it in a bottle cap that's been mounted on a 1 3/4" Scallop Circle punched from the Howlstooth and Scaringbone DSP.  Rhinestone basic jewels add a little bling along with the googlie eyes.  Oh and I forgot to mention this little jewel of a 3-D is actually a broach........... that's right it has a little pin on the back.  How cute!

An "unnamed" 3-D swap.  Little wrapper holds a chocolate bar.

This is a view of the back and you can see the little chocolate treat tucked in behind. 

The beautiful leaves on this card have been embossed with the Chevron and the Lacy Brocade embossing folders to give them texture and then they've been cut out with the Autumn Accents Bigz Die.  The sentiment is from the Day of Gratitude stamp set.  This is another "unnamed" card. 



Deborah Barry of Longview, WA made this elegant card using the French Foliage Stamp set and the Square Lattice Embossing Folder.  What a terrific card.  I like how she's stamped the images in Early Espresso, Island Indigo, More Mustard, Rich Razzleberry, Tangerine Tango and Wild Wasabi.  Perfect fall colours!  The gorgeous Brushed Bronze designer button is mounted on the card front with Linen Thread, giving a nice focus and finishing touch. 

Charlene Tieking created this beautiful fall card by combining leaf images from the Gently Falling set and a sentiment from Word Play.  She has stamped one of the leaf images in what looks like Crumb Cake ink on Early Espresso cardstock, and the larger more visible leaf in Early Espresso ink on to Summer Starfruit one of the new Incolour cardstocks.  The sentiment ink is also in Summer Starfruit.  Great combo. 

Well that's the end of my Halloween and Fall swaps, but tune in tomorrow for a look at the Christmas and all occasion ones I'll be posting.  They are awesome and I know you'll love them too. 

Tacoma Regionals More Swaps

At the Beginning

Checking out what's in our goodie bags are Diane, Erin and my down line Ethel DeTemple. The bags contained our Make N' Take project packages for the day and our lanyards. 



Adel Klassen and her down line Gloria.  Both of these awesome gals  are demonstrators in the Chilliwack BC area.  If you're looking for some talented demos, these two fit the bill!

Diane Ison a Richmond BC demo and her guest Erin Parcey.  Erin just moved here from Winnipeg and wanted to make new friends.  Her mom advised her to join a stamp club, and that's just what she did.  She looked for demonstrators in Richmond and found Diane's stamp club.  Way to go Erin and Diane!

Here's Erin's great swap card using the Perfectly Preserved set from the Holiday Catalogue.  I love the little hearts escaping from the jar........... so much love!  It was so great meeting you Erin and exchanging swaps and sharing a table........... now we're friends too! 

 

Prize Patrol:

Prize Patrol brought lots of prizes.  They gave away lots of stamp sets and $50.00 gift certificate for the best swaps.  Everytime they called out Prize Patrol we pounded on the tables and anxiously waited to see if we were one of the 10 lucky names to be drawn.  We didn't win anything at our table, but we sure cheered on those that did.  Besides, Stampin' Up! is always so generous.  Everyone got one of these FREE clear mount stamp sets called Seasonal Sayings and the Merry Moments Simply Scrappin kit.  WOW, can't wait to use both of these.



Here's Ethel checking out her goodies.



Can you tell I'm happy to be there?  I'm showing off my great swag bag  I got for registering at Convention in July.  It's awesome and great for holding my supplies and swaps.  You just have to love those bold chevron stripes and the colour!

Here's a closeup of all my pins.  I love this bag so much I used a closeup shot of this on my Penny Tokens Face Book page for my banner.  I received all these beautiful pins and badges as a Stampin' Up Demonstrator.  Gonna get me some more!

Demonstrator Gift Exchanges and So Shelli:


From a Down Line to her Up line.  How Awesome!

From an Up line to her Down lines.

Boy I hope I got that right.  Never met the ladies personally, but if you're out there and read this post let me know who you are.  Both of these gifts are fabulous and sure demonstrate Stampin' Ups! Statement of the heart.  

This picture although dark gives you an idea of how big the Tacoma Regional was.  I don't know how many demos made it but I heard that Tacoma was the biggest Regional so far this year. 

It pays to look over your shoulder and check out the other tables. A lot of the tables were exchanging hand made gifts for their up lines/down lines.  On my way back from the Swap boards I came across the above gift exchanges.  Wouldn't you want to be the receiver?  I know I would have.   


Shelli Gardner, Scott(y) Nielson, CFO, Brian Pilling, Carrie Cudney and Holly Linford were sitting just two tables behind us, which was super exciting.  Unfortunately I wasn't able to get a picture of them but they all looked fabulous!

Shelli gave the opening address and finished up with a wonderful demonstration of this card, which I instantly fell in love with.  Now I just have to have the French Foliage set and I just have to order some of the Natural Composition Specialty paper............. that was used for the leaf.  The leaf is really beautiful!  

 

 

Gloria and a fellow stamper in an earnest discussion about how a swap card was made.  Serious but fun stuff!  I can't believe how much you learn at these meetings.  Someone is always sharing! 

 

Stampin' Up really knows how to treat us.  We were served a very tasty box lunch for our break. It included a salad, wonderful mixed meat sub sandwich, chocolate chip cookie that was to die for, an apple, cheese and a bag of lightly salted chips. Yum!

Make N' Takes:

Doesn't this look cool?  Our first Make N' Take was a set of four thank you cards and matching envelopes all bundled up in a really easy to make vellum envelope.  The envelope is tied with Calypso Coral Baker's Twine and has a small sentiment attached that's been stamped with a sentiment from the One in a Million set.  To give it a little bling a small Rhinestone Basic Jewel was added.   

What a great hostess gift this would make. The transparent envelope was made with a 7 1/4 x 7 1/4" piece of White Vellum Card Stock which was scored with the Simply Scored tool and Simply Scored Diagonal Plate.  Envelope making couldn't be any easier. 

A stamp set called Clockworks was used for all the projects today.  We inked it up with Basic Gray, Calypso Coral, Gumball Green, More Mustard and Pool Party inks.  Wow did they look awesome and what a great combination. 

This is the stamping on the envelope. Love the colour mix.

This is the card front.  Very simple but beautiful.

For our second Make N' Take session we made this awesome card holder.   Isn't it cute!  Love the flower which was made with the Fancy Flower punch. The scrunched up paper in the flower and on the box is made with First Edition Specialty paper.  This is a very lightweight paper similar to old encyclopedia pages, so it scrunches really well.  Oh and it's stamped on too with the Clockworks stamp set.   

 

The big surprise for me was that it's made with the Two Tags Bigz Die. If you're interested in how to make this box check out Heather Cserni's great tutorial, it's posted here.   

Here's another shot of the card holder and the cute cards that are inside it.  The cards are only 2 1/2" x 2 1/2" so they are tiny, but oh so cute.  The stamp set used for this project is called Clockworks.  Looking at this 8 piece stamp set in the Idea Book and Catalogue (page 105) I would never have guessed what a terrific stamp set this is.  It's definitely on my Wish List and I have plans to use it for a future card class. 


Our third and final Make N'Take was a very trendy scrapbook page called Above and Beyond. And, it truly was!   Again, we used the Clockworks stamp set and added some texture with buttons and some scoring (Baja Breeze piece was scored in 1/4" increments in both directions - kind of a cool technique).

The background Basic Gray card stock was stamped with the large image from the set in Basic Gray ink.  By stamping off some of the images it gave a grunge appearance to the scrapbook scene. 

I love the variety of card stocks used for the pennant pieces and how easy they were to assemble.  They were cut long and in a variety of widths.  The photo is layered over them.  Some of the pennant pieces were stamped or textured and all of the pointy ends were cut freehand, although you could use a square punch to make them more uniform.  Just sayin............  

This shows some of the lovely buttons and the colourful clock face.

 

Well that's it for this rather length post.  Tomorrow you get to see the actual swap cards I received .  Sorry for the suspense but I had so much fun I wanted you to share in my excitement.  Hope you've found it interesting.  See you back soon!

 

Stampin' Up Tacoma Regionals

Well stampers, I have to tell you this past weekend more than met my expectations! 
My downline Ethel and I attended Stampin' Ups "My Way" Regional Meeting in Tacoma Washington on Saturday and we had a ball!

 

We set out early Friday morning, enjoying a leisurely coffee and muffins in Linden, then did some shopping in Bellingham (can you say an hour in Michael's with no one bugging us "how much longer"), followed by a quick lunch and some casino time at theTulalip.  We arrived in Tacoma shortly after 3pm after a hectic but uneventful drive to Tacoma. Awesome!

 

We stayed at the Best Western Tacoma Dome hotel, which was  located in close proximity to the Tacoma Dome, Glass House, Zoo and Historic Car Museum.  During a short walk we found free transportation to the Convention center just blocks away at the historic Freight House Square. This old fashioned mall which stretches along several blocks, is a hub for a multi-modal commuter station and shopping district.

The shop keepers were very friendly and helpful.  One shop called Reclamation Candle Company run by Barney and Tammi Loucks proved to be a terrific place to browse.  The owners were more than friendly showing us all their wares and they had tons of great things including fun funky jewelry, antiques, candles and small inexpensive gift items. We bought ultra blingy lanyards for our event badges and I got a Mandles Cup O' Joe coffee scented soy candle that's to die for! 

 

View of our lovely room at the Best Western Tacoma Dome.

Freighthouse Square Shopping District

Ethel and I waiting for the free commuter train which runs every 20 minutes.  It's a lot like Sky Train on tracks. 

 

We met up with several members of Kristina Koch's Colourful Impressions stamping group during our stay. Kristina wasn't able to come but sent her best wishes to everyone for a good time.  It was wonderful seeing members of this group as it's been awhile since we've had a gathering.

 

Ethel and I had a few laughs when we saw this sign outside the Freighthouse Square and had to share it with our group.  Although spelled the American way, this signage was quite a coincidence!  Inside the shop they had lots of paper crafting supplies, including some Stampin' Up cards for sale.

 

Some members of Colourful Impressions .... Debbie, Sandra Farrell, Jenn Picard, Paul Jensen.  What an awesome group! 

 

 The following are some pictures of our swap cards and convention highlights. 

For my first card swap I chose the Jolly Jingles Jumbo Wheel and Four Seasons Hostess Set.  I embossed the images from the Jolly Jingles wheel with Silver Embossing Powder on Midnight Muse cardstock base.  The other layers are Brushed Silver, Midnight Muse and Whisper White cardstocks.  Some Rhinestone Basic Jewels were added for a little bling. 

The card base measures 4 1/4" x 8 1/2" and is scored at 3" and 4 1/2". Front fold will be a mountain and inside fold a valley. 

 

Tip:  If you make this style of card, make sure the layers all match up.  To do this, assemble the inside layers first and secure with adhesive to the inside of the card.  Next, assemble the front layers.  Press down on the front fold of the card so it lays flat, then line up the front brushed silver layer with the inside brushed silver layer, before securing with adhesive.  The other layers will automatically line up as long as you have made them all the same distance around.  

My second card is made with Button Buddies and the Mixed Medley Hostess sets.  The card base is Sahara Sand and I've used a 4 x 1" strip of striped DSP from the Be of Good Cheer Christmas paper pack.  The Cherry Cobbler layer is 4 1/2" x 3 1/2", the Gumball Green layer is 4 1/4 x 3 1/4" and the Whisper White layer is 4" x 2". 

The snowmen are coloured with Basic Black, Cherry Cobbler and Gumball Green Markers. A 2/8" strip of Red Glimmer Paper is adhered on top of a 4" strip of Gumball Green cardstock that was punched out with the Dotted Scallop Ribbon Border punch.  This is a really fun card to make and my card class stampers really enjoyed making it. 

Tip:  To get those little snowmen lined up in a straight row I recommend using the Stamp-a-ma-jig tool. It makes stamping so much easier.   Start by colouring and stamping the center snowman first (if you're doing a class get everyone to do this step then switch to the other colours).  Then, clean off your stamp and ink up with the Cherry Cobbler and Basic Black markers and then stamp the snowmen on either side of the center image, matching up the little twig arms.  You'll have to reink the snowman image in between stamping each of the Cherry Cobbler images to ensure a bright, crisp image.  Voila 3 little snowmen in a perfect row!  The rest of the card is just layering and a little bling.  I used Rhinestone Basic Jewels and some of the awesome Gumball Green 3/8" Stitched Satin Ribbon on the embellisment.

Here is Ethel DeTemple's beautiful swap card.  The card base is in Whisper White and the next layer which is embossed with the Framed Tulips Folder, one of my all-time favourite embossing folders, is in Baja Breeze.  Her little angel is fan folded using Snow Festival Designer Series Paper featured on page 10 of the Holiday Catalogue.  She used the Simply Scored scoring tool to make those folds a 1/4" apart.  The halo is punched from Silver Glimmer paper using the large oval punch.  She used the Scalloped Oval punch for the sentiment. Layered Boho Blossoms were used for the embellisment on the front of the angels dress. 

On Friday evening we spent some time with Paula Jensen, Sandra Farrell and Jenn Picard.  Jenn and Sandra, both placed in last year's Stampin' Up! Artisan Award Contest Top Ten, and let me tell you they are both such awesome and talented papercrafters, we could see why.  Ethel and I got to watch them assemble these swap cards, and let me tell you we were amazed at their assembly techniques, not the least of which was speed and craftsmanship.  We were star struck!

Jenn Picard's Swap card features one of the lovely ornaments from Delightful Decorations from the Seasonal Celebrations section of the Idea Book and Catalogue.  Her sentiment stamp is from the Greetings of the Season stamp set featuredon page 8 of the Holiday Catalogue.  Both winners and when paired up with the beautiful First Edition Specialty Paper and the Lacy Brocade Textured Impressions Embossing Folder, absolutely sensational.

Sandra Farrell's Swap Card made with the Scentsational Season's Bundle in the Holiday Catalogue. 

Sandra's second swap card is equally awesome.  It's made with the Christmas Wishes hostess stamp set from page 39 of the Holiday Catalogue.   This card layout is perfect for this stamp set and would just as easily showcase the other two stamps from this set (minus the clouds of course)

Okay, well that's it for today, but I'll be back with more cards from the Tacoma Regionals that you're sure to love.  Come back again!

Single Stamp Pilot Program

Introducing Stamp Sets Gone Single!

Have you ever looked at some of the more popular sentiment stamp sets and wished they were sold as individual stamps? 

Well, Stampin’ Up!® is launching a Single Stamp pilot program from October 1^st through January 2^nd, 2013, that just might interest you.  Here’s your chance to buy single pieces from these greetings stamp sets: Word Play, PerfectlyPenned, and Seasonal Sayings.  

Some Things You Should Know:

• You can find the stamp item numbers on the flyers (just click on the links above).
• These won't be sent to you in our typical cases or packaging; they'll be packaged in cello bags. If you'd like a case for your stamp, you can buy our Clear-Mount Stamp Cases that come in packs of four (item 119105).
• This offer is available for clear-mount stamps only.
• Note:  The stamps won't come with a Clear-Mount Block, and you'll need to buy a block separately if you don't already have one. The recommended block sizes can be found on the flyers. 
• There's no limit on how many pieces you can buy.
• This offer is not available in Quebec.
• Remember that this is a pilot program, so take advantage of it while you can!