My Swap Card at Regionals

Wow, regionals were a blast. They actually put my card up on the boards (that's mine in the upper left-hand corner). Mine's the girlie one right above Jenn D's. That's right... I got to go to Cincinnati with my stellar down-line Jenn.

In between clients yesterday I went through the retired list and removed all the retired sets from my collection. Ugh! I knew it was going to be bad and it was. I was avoiding this task as I knew it meant I also had to go through my formerly retired collection and weed out some of those too. My garage sale is going to be HUGE. I came across this stamp set, "At the Races", that I was saving to make cards for my nephews' birthdays. They are way into Nascar and attend races regularly with their parents. What a treat to stumble into this set on this day! It was my nephew Brett's birthday yesterday and his party is today. I hope he enjoys this card as much as I enjoyed making it. I used one of my very favorite wheels, "Making Tracks", which, thankfully, was not retired and long notes. I colored the car image with my aqua painter and re-inkers, added some smaller images punched out with circle punches and.... voila! Well, no use crying over retired stamps when the new catalog is here. I am just crying over which stamps sets to order first!

I did it!! I spent the day with my stellar down-line Jenn Diercks and she helped me step into this century by showing me how to use my digital camera for things other than taking pictures. I now know how to save them on my computer and edit them so they fit on my Stampin' Up! website. Wow, I am just beside myself with joy!



This is the first picture I learned to re-size and edit. It is a project I did months ago for a stamp camp. This tote holds 6 stamped cards and matching envelopes. I saw soooo many of these on Splitcoast Stampers and was very inspired. I used Cranberry Crisp, True Thyme, Kraft and Naturals Ivory cardstock. I used the same colors of inks, hodge podge hardware and the incredible faux stitching technique. You know... using the paper piercing template and paper piercer from the Crafter's Tool Kit pierce card stock and then using a white gel pen connect the dots and there you have it, faux stitching! What a fun project and what a great gift to give.