I went to Stampin' Up! Kansas City Regionals this weekend. It was really great!! We got a bag of make and takes, saw many cool ideas & techniques and got to play with the Big Shot. The best part was Shelli Gardner was sitting at a table just beside us. Okay, if you are not a Stampin' Up! demo or dedicated customer it probably wouldn't mean anything to you but for those of us who are, Shelli is the co-founder and CEO of SU. We had our picture taken with her also. I took about 90 cards with me to swap and these are some of the swaps I received. On Friday night I went with my upline to her upline's house for dinner & a swap and we made some fabulous 3-D items which I will post later.

Don't you just love the turkey card? That was made by my sideline, Rebekah. I am definitely CASEing that card. How about those bats made from the square scallop punch? Unfortunately the person who made that card did not put her name on it.




The card on the left was made by Adele. She used spring silhouettes and put 4 square scallop punches together to make the outer scallop frame-clever huh? The DP is from the Green Tea collection.

This card was made by Megan. The ladybug is made from circle scallop punches glued back to back. The "ribbon" at the bottom is paper punched with the scallop border punch. The great thing about this card is that it folds flat to mail but "pops" up when opened.

These are just a few of the great swaps I received. I will share more later.

Still loving the Upsy Daisy stamp set!!! This set of cards is one of the Christmas gifts we will be making at my Christmas Gift Class. They are sooo easy to make. I had to tweak the folio a little because it bulges with all the ribbons. The next folio I make I am going to put a "spine" in the middle to allow a little more room for the cards. All I did was stamp the Daisy image twice. Once with a light coordinating color and then with a darker color, stamped a sentiment, and tied a ribbon.
Stamps: Upsy Daisy
Paper: pumpkin pie textured, whisper white
Ink: always apricot, pumpkin pie, certainly celery kiwi kiss, pink piourette, red riding hood red,bashful blue, pacific point blue,

Went on a short vacation!! My DH likes to play in a golf tournament every year with his brother. Believe it or not it is called "The Chicken Tournament." All the men bring fried chicken to eat all day and play golf tournament style. Every year either my DH or my BIL fry the chicken themselves. Yep!! That's right I don't even have to cook it for him!! (Like I could even if I was asked.) This year my DH cooked the chicken. However, this year Ike decided to blow through the town of Malden, MO (in the bootheel near Cape Girardeau) on the morning of the tournament. The winds gusted to about 60-70mph-not good for golfing!!! As a result they did not start until about 10AM. There were trees and limbs down everywhere!!! No damage to any houses near where we were staying except my SIL's trailer. The wind lifted up the roof in the back and took part of the siding off one side of the trailer. Her sons seem to think it is fixable!!

Anyway while the men were on the golf course my DS, DD, SIL, niece & her DH & DD's, went to church and then out for Chinese. It is my great niece's favorite place to eat (yes she choose it before McDonald's). Needless to say everyone in the church and in Malden knew that we were going to eat Chinese after church!!! The morning went something like this:

"Hi Amber How are you?"
"We go eat Chinese!"

"Hey Amber, How's it going?"
"We go eat Chinese!"

"Amber nice to see you in church today!"
"We go eat Chinese!"

Do you see a pattern? Sooooo cute!!!!! Amber is 6 and is a miracle baby. She was born with Sturge-Webber disease. She was having multiple seizures and on many, many, dangerous drugs for most of her life until a couple of years ago. She went to St. Louis and had surgery. Now she is drug free and seizure free!! The right side of her is not as strong but she is walking, talking, and learning to write her name!! And she loves to eat Chinese!!

I had to go back and fix this card after seeing it on the "big screen!" My circle in the middle of the flower was way off-center. Actually it still looks a little off center but hey, it is handmade and slight imperfections are to be expected. I wanted to use some DP from the hostess prints pack but the more mustard DP uses white in the background and I wanted very vanilla so I decided to make my own. I used the stamp from Boho Backgrounds on the card base and on a scrap piece. I then punched a circle from the scrap piece.

I made this card because I had a pile of chocolate chip scallop circles that needed a home. I have been making swaps for the Kansas City Regionals and whenever I make a large number of cards I like to "canabolize" the layered pieces. I simply punch pieces out of the middle of the layered paper and no one knows!! Well, now I guess you know but don't tell. This was not my idea I saw this on a blog somewhere but as usual I cannot remember which one. Below is the card I canabolized and a photo of the chocolate chip piece before it was distressed & layered. Waste not; want not or something like that.

What's on Your Stamping Table?

I used lots of scraps and leftover pieces from other projects and made all of these 3 x 3 cards. I used some full sheets of solid paper for the card bases but the punches & designer paper were bits & pieces from other projects. Some of the paper is from retired DP or a retired Scrapbook kit.

These were fun to make. Almost like a
limited supply challenge!! So the challenge is on-use those bits & pieces on your stamp table and make something pretty!!

This is my favorite card made with Upsy Daisy. The sky was made using a scallop circle punch and sponging baja breeze ink around it. I can't take credit for this idea but I can't remember where I saw it done. I sponged certainly celery at the bottom of the page and then stamped the image with chocolate chip craft ink. You could also stamp the image with chocolate chip craft ink, emboss with clear EP and then sponge the sky & grass.

Stamps: Upsy Daisy
Ink: baja breeze, certainly celery, chocolate chip craft
Paper: certainly celery, chocolate chip. whisper white

Another Upsy Daisy card!! I really love the new SU satin ribbon!! It is kiwi kiss on one side and very vanilla on the other. The ribbon is very thick and satiny!! I stamped the flowers first in versamark and then classic kiwi kiss ink and then heat embossed using clear EP. The background was sponged using baja breeze, certainly celery, and not quite navy. Do you see the little bit of sponging around the sentiment? I had to do that because I had ink on my fingers when I put on the rub-on. Soooo to cover up my baja breeze fingerprint. I sponged baja breeze over the entire sentiment. All great artisans make mistakes right? The trick is to know how to hide them. Of course ideally you shouldn't tell anyone but . . . Off to watch a movie with DD who is miserable with a cold!!!!!

Stamps: Upsy Daisy
Paper: chocolate chip, kiwi kiss, very vanilla
Ink: baja breeze, kiwi kiss, certainly celery,
not quite navy

This card is made with my new set Upsy Daisy! I like the silhouette stamps that are new in the SU catalog. This stamp makes a quick card because it is a large stamp. I think this color combo is my favorite new color combo so far. Pacific Point blue is definitely my favorite blue. Of course pink is always a good choice!!

Off to play some more with this set!!!!

Remember shrinky dinks? My DD and one of her friends made some shrinky dinks to make some necklaces out of. Notice the sock monkey!!!!! I put the nickel in the photo just to show how small these are. See everybody loves the sock monkey!!!