Saturday, July 18, 2015

Convention Swaps

Hi and welcome!
  I am off to Salt Lake City on Wednesday for the Stampin' Up! Convention.  It's been 2 years since I've gone and this time, two of my down line and another friend are all going together.  A real girl trip! 
 One of the best parts of Convention is that  you get to swap cards and other projects with complete strangers; people you've never met before, and of course, some friends you have made at previous conventions.  Being in the Stampin' Up! world is just about the best thing since peanut butter. There is nothing better than meeting new people who share your love of paper crafting.  Seeing what others make for their swaps, gives you a whole new world to explore.  We include "recipes" of the project, so that we can re-create it later.  This is called CASE - Copy And Share Everything...and it's perfectly normal to copy someone else's design, and/or add your own spin to it.  The greatest form of flattery is knowing that someone has used your design at one of their stamp camps or workshops.
 So today, I'm showing you my swap.  I decided to make book marks instead.  I know, a lot of people now read books on their Kindles and I-Pads, but me?  I'm still old fashioned.  I love the feel of a book in my hand, being able to turn the pages and wait for the adventure on the next page. I have such a huge book collection, I could live to be 100 and never finish reading them all.  Guess that's where my love of paper came in...good thing, since I love being a SU demo!

 Anyway, back to the book marks.  I used several colors of card stock. Bermuda Bay, Delightful Dijon, Rich Razzleberry and Island Indigo. The Very Vanilla one on the right was my first sample. All of these colors are found in the NEW Bohemian Designer Series Paper, which is what the little butterflies are made from.  The Flowering Flourishes stamp set, stamped with the coordinating ink of the card stock, a few pearls and done!  I made 100 of these, hope it's enough.  I also used the Ornate Tag Topper Punch to cut out the book marks.  Because I wanted these to be sturdy, I cut two for each and used the "green glue" (Tombow) to adhere them together before I punched them out. 
 Thanks for stopping by today.  If you don't already have a demonstrator, feel free to contact me and I'll be happy to send you a catalog.  Have a great day!