A Vintage Swap Card from Leadership 2014

So I've been up for 22 hours now, travelling back from Leadership 2014 and visiting with my daughter in Vancouver, so this is going to be a kind of a short blog post.  I wanted to share the swap card that I made for Barbara Welch's Wow Vintage Swap!  (I just about wrote Very Vintrage, which I think would compliment Stampin' Up!'s Brian Pilling's Festive Furies very well - if you were at Leadership you will know what I mean!!)

Without further ado, here is my swap:

It combines the old with the new, by using the Peaceful Petals flower from the new Occasions Catalogue with images from Postage Due and Background Builders from the Annual Catalogue. There's lots of sponging with Soft Suede ink going on here and plentiful pearling (that's a verb!)  And just a tad of Gorgeous Grunge thrown in for good measure!

• The Peaceful Petals flower was stamped twice on vellum cardstock with Versamark in and embossed in gold Stampin' Emboss Powder.  It was then coloured in in some areas with a Soft Suede Stampin' Write Marker.  Layers were hand trimmed with Paper Snips and it was assembled with Dimensionals to give it a 3D look.  The smallest pearls adorned the flower center.
• The banner tag with the double furled end was created by stamping the sentiment from Blessings From Heaven in Soft Suede ink on the strip of Very Vanilla cardstock, cutting the flag end on the right and then working the other end with the bone folder until the paper plies separate.  You then sponge everything in Soft Suede and curl the plies separately to make the double furl.

Must go to bed now before I drop!  See you tomorrow with new weekly specials!

• Peaceful Petals [wood]
• Peaceful Petals [clear]
• Postage Due
• Postage Due Clear-Mount Stamp Set
• Background Builders Wood-Mount
• Background Builders Clear-Mount
• Blessings From Heaven - Clear-Mount Stamp
• Blessings From Heaven Wood-mount Stamp Set
• Very Vanilla 8-1/2X11 Card Stock
• White Vellum 8-1/2X11 Card Stock
• Soft Suede Classic Stampin' Pad
• Versamark Pad
• Gold Stampin' Emboss Powder
• Heat Tool
• Neutrals Stampin' Write Markers
• Paper Snips
• Basic Pearls Jewel Accents
• Brushed Gold 8-1/2X11 Card Stock

• Gorgeous Grunge Wood-mount Stamp Set
• Gorgeous Grunge Clear-mount Stamp Set

On the Road Again

Well, the first leg of the journey to Salt Lake City complete, we hunkered down in our Seattle motel room for the night.  Today we fly to Salt Lake City and meet our friends and get settled.  Wednesday we plan to do some sight-seeing and shopping, then the Conference begins on Thursday.

The trip has been a blast, so far, and by far the funniest time was had at our favourite restaurant, the Olive Garden, near Bellis Fair Mall in Bellingham.

If you do end up there one day, make sure you ask for Will to be your server, because he is too funny.  He entertained us from appetizer to dessert and I'm sure we drove him crazy with our banter and laughter, but he was such a good sport and we left him with a nice tip and a beautiful thank you card that Jill Buehler made.


Today, I want to share my first swap card with you.  It is one that I shared before here, except I hadn't decided which embellishment I wanted to add to finish it all off.  I tried ribbons, buttons, brads, but finally settled on the Natural trim and Very Vintage Button you see here:

• This is for a WOW Vintage Swap - right up my alley so to speak.  I just love the new Tea Party stamp set for its Vintage feel.
• Don't you just love the way the Ruffle Stretch Trim goes around circles and ovals perfectly.  And since we now have the Ovals and Circles Collections Framelits, it's a match made in heaven!

• You can see here that the Very Vintage Button is sewed onto the Naturals Trim Bow with some Wisteria Wonder thread I just happened to have!
• I also used my machine to to a little sewing on the Afternoon Picnic DSP panel.

More tomorrow from Salt Lake City!  Ta, Ta for now! 

Stamps:  Tea Party (w129135; c129138)

Paper: Afternoon Picnic Designer Series Paper (131390); Wisteria Wonder (122922), Soft Suede (115318) and Very Vanilla (101650) cardstock

Ink:  Classic Stampin' Pad in Soft Suede (126978); VersaMark (102283)

Accessories:  3/8" Ruffle Stretch Trim in Coastal Cabana (130024); Very Vintage Buttons (129327); Tea Lace Doily (129399); Delicate Designs Lace Tape (130966), 3/8" Naturals Trim

Tools: Ovals Collection Framelits (129381); Stamping Sponges (101610)

Craft Room Reorganizing and Leadership Swaps

Whew!  I had so many stampin' plans this weekend, but I really only accomplished one of them and that was cleaning up and organizing my overcrowded and messy craft room!  I vastly underestimated how long it would take.  I got my DH to do some renovating of my shelves - basic IKEA wood shelving units with ridiculously large spaces between the shelves.  He added some shelves to make the space more usable.  So my clear mount stamps are all organized and accessible in alphabetical order.  Now I just have to get him to do the same renos on my wood mount shelves.  I also was able to get my growing punch collection out of the plastic drawers in a rolling cabinet and onto a shelf where I can see them and they don't tip the whole cabinet over if I open the drawer too far.  After this, my long-suffering hubby has promised to make me some ribbon holders out of PVC drain pipe cut in half.  Once that is done, my crafting space should be much less frustrating.  Of course, I'd like to have the resources and time to install custom cabinets and work spaces, but that will remain a future goal for the time being!  Here's some photos:

My clear mount stamps, newly organized.  

My DSP and specialty papers organized alphabetically.

My punches newly liberated from their drawer!

The "Before" picture of my wood mount stamps, waiting for some shelf renos!

I will definitely post the "After" photo when it is done!  I'm actually looking forward to stamping tomorrow in my more organized room!  

I wanted to share another swap card I made for Leadership 2013 in Orlando.  This was by far the most time intensive of the 4 swaps I made.  But it was well worth the time and trouble as I received some amazing cards back.  Thanks to Barbara Welch for organizing the Wow Vintage Swap.  Here was my entry in Group 4: 

I used muted colours such as River Rock and Baja Breeze along with some DSP from the Sycamore Street collection, which you can earn free for every $60 of product you purchase during Sale-A-Bration!  This particular Summer Starfruit pattern is perfect for a vintage themed card!  The sentiment is from another Sale-A-Bration product - Vintage Verses - one of my favourite products of Sale-A-Bration!  The dress form image is from Established Elegance, a stamp set from the big catalogue.  

 To complete the vintage theme, I added some Paper Daisies, some of which I dyed using reinker and water,  some sponged and crumpled ribbon, water stains courtesy of French Foliage stamp set, and some curls on the Happiest Birthday flag (stamped with Loving Thoughts).

I stitched on the eyelet edging created with Finishing Touches Edgelits, and added the requisite pearls and it was finished!  Then I had to make 16 more!  I don't mind saying that I had some panicky moments wondering if I would get it done in time, but thanks to my wonderful downline, Doreen, who came over to help and stayed long past her bedtime, we got the task completed.

Stamps:  Vintage Verses (w129633; c129636); Established Elegance (w122530; c122532); French Foliage (w120845; c121166); Loving Thoughts (w125843; c125845)

Paper:  River Rock (108640), Baja Breeze (111352) and Very Vanilla (101650) card stock; Sycamore Street DSP (127540)

Ink:  Classic Stampin' Pads in Crumb Cake (126975), Soft Suede (126978) and StazOn Jet Black (101406)

Accessories:  Pearl Basic Jewels (119247); Baja Breeze 1/2" Seam Binding Ribbon (122331); Paper Daisies (119243)

Tools:  Finishing Touches Edgelits (127010); Stampin' Distress Tool (127562); Labels Collection Framelits (125598)

Baja Breeze 1/2" Seam Binding Ribbon

Stampin' Distress Tool

Established Elegance Stamp Set