Home from OnStage Local in Vancouver, WA

I got home yesterday around 6:30 from my trip to Stampin' Up!'s event, OnStage Local in Vancouver, Washington. I'm glad I went even though the trip down was just awful! It rained the whole way, sometimes in buckets. and the traffic in Seattle was horrible. Our over-imaginative GPS. Michelle, kept trying to reroute us around the slowdowns, but ended up getting us in worse jams! It took us a wearying 11 hours to get there. But once that was over, we had a great time! I showed up bright and early at 7:30 am and checked in and got my awesome tote bag, which I will show you a photo of tomorrow! Almost right off the bat, we got to see the new Occasions 2015 catalogue reveal! I can't tell you much until tomorrow, but it is EPIC! I can barely contain myself, but there is a publication ban until the other demos who didn't attend OnStage get to see it tonight!

Of course, the swaps were happening all over the room and I thought I would share with you today some of my favourite swaps that I got when I was there. I will share the creator of each card unless they didn't give any info with their card:

This one is from Deborah Dodson. I love the variegated blue and green on her ornament!

This one, from Debbie Hendrix, is one of my very favourites. Great layout and look how she accented the beautiful DSP!

Carol Sanderson made this pretty card. Am I looking at dyed ribbon here??

I didn't get the Flurry of Wishes stamp set and matching punch but these next two cards make me wish that I did! No info with this one.

Same stamp set for a card by Sharon Skelton! I love the Blackberry Bliss and Silver accents!

Thanks for this one, Darla Lorbeski! A great use of the Sleighride Edgelits and Delicate Ornaments Thinlits.

Here's a non-Christmas one by Angela McCormack! Simple, but pretty choice of colours and paper! Very effective!

More Embellished Ornaments and Delicate Ornament Thinlits in this striking card by Jill Gates!

Isn't this cute? I love the combination of the Woodland Embossing Folder and the Snow Place stamp set with the Snow Friends framelits! Thanks again, Jill Gates!

I do believe this is my very favourite of the bunch, but there was no information with the swap, sadly! But so effective for a monochromatic card. The Work of Art brush strokes, the image from Happy Scenes stamp set, heat embossed with Iridescent Ice Embossing Powder and the sentiment from  Versatile Christmas on a panel dry embossed with the Softly Falling Embossing Folder! Genius!

I hope you enjoyed this share and pop back tomorrow to see some photos from the event!

Swap Cards for OnStage Local

I wasn't going to go this time. I had a choice of attending an OnStage Local Stampin' Up! Event in either Edmonton or Vancouver, Washington. Edmonton is about 12 hours of driving in winter conditions, Vancouver, Washington is about 8 hours. Both sounded daunting. I suppose I could

have flown, but with the Canadian dollar so far below par, it was an investment I didn't want to make for only a one day event. And no one from our team was attending in Washington! Then, on the last day of registration, I got an encouraging email from Stampin' Up! and I registered at the last minute!

So, tomorrow I head down to Vancouver, Washington with my trooper of a hubby, who has a nasty cold, but will share the driving with me anyway.

Of course, Stampin' Up! events mean swap cards and I was at a bit of a loss this year. There is only a month and a half left for the Holiday Catalogue and we have not yet seen the new Occasions Catalogue. (Although I will get a copy at OnStage and be able to do a pre-preorder from it!I will share with you as soon as I am allowed to do so.) So, I wondered what to feature in my swaps so that they would be the most useful. I guessed that most people would be using Christmas designs right now, so I opted for two holiday designs, but both a little unorthodox.

This one was a good way to use up some of my lesser used designs from the Home for Christmas Designer Series Paper. It's rustic and outdoorsy with a vintage Christmas look complete with sponging. I fussy cut all the snowshoes and crossed them as can see, popping them up on Stampin' Dimensionals. The image and sentiment are from Winter Wishes, one of my favourite sets from the Holiday Catalogue. With the Kraft Corrugated Paper and Naturals Chevron Ribbon, this would be a great masculine card and if you changed the DSP for a non-Christmas design, you could use it for any occasion. A versatile design!

I thought I would try and do a design using a product from the Annual Catalogue as well. I saw An Open Heart, and it struck me all of a sudden that the leafy branch looked a lot like mistletoe and even has the white berries. And since you get kissed beneath the mistletoe at Christmas, "Live with an open heart." seemed like an appropriate sentiment. I stamped the images in Mossy Meadow first, then stamped another in Versamark, embossed it with Gold Stampin' Emboss Powder and fussy cut part of it out. I added it on top of the other branches and added a bow using the Red Striped Ribbon.

This was also my first time using my Christmas Greetings Thinlits dies and I better get going and use them more, to get my money's worth out of them. The Gold Foil "merry" at the bottom adds a little more pizzazz to the card.

Thanks for stopping by! Join me tomorrow for another As You See It Challenge.

Click on the links below to take you to my On-Line Store, where you can read about, look at, and purchase if you wish, the products used to make this card today!


Product List

Winter Wishes Wood-Mount Stamp Set [139742]	Winter Wishes Clear-Mount Stamp Set [139745]	An Open Heart Clear-Mount Stamp Set [135002]	An Open Heart Wood-Mount Stamp Set [134999]	Home For Christmas Designer Series Paper [139592]
Gold Foil Sheets [132622]	Kraft And White Corrugated Paper [138317]	Soft Suede 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock [115318]	Very Vanilla 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock [101650]	Tip Top Taupe 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock [138336]
Basic Black 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock [121045]	Mossy Meadow 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock [133676]	Whisper White 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock [100730]	Versamark Pad [102283]	Early Espresso Classic Stampin' Pad [126974]
Mossy Meadow Classic Stampin' Pad [133645]	Soft Suede Classic Stampin' Pad [126978]	Stamping Sponges [101610]	Gold Stampin' Emboss Powder [109129]	Embossing Buddy [103083]
Heat Tool [129053]	Natural 5/8" Chevron Ribbon [132982]	Real Red & Garden Green 1/8" (3.2 Mm) Striped Ribbon [139615]	Christmas Greetings Thinlits Dies [139659]	Big Shot [113439]
Liquid Multipurpose Glue [110755]	Stampin' Dimensionals [104430]	Glue Dots [103683]