My Leadership Swaps

Eeeek - my first solo trip since becoming a mother almost 6 years ago! Well, I did go on a crafting week-end getaway last spring, but this is more real. I'm flying to San Antonio, Texas, for Stampin' Up!'s Leadership. I'm excited to learn how to run my business better, meet some absolutely awesome demonstrators and hopefully get a few more ideas for projects ;) I hear that SU! knows how to put on an event and can't wait to experience it!!!

A SU! event also means swaps. What is a swap? I made 50 cards and will swap them with other demonstrators. The idea is that I'll end up with 50 other gorgeous cards that will give me ideas, techniques to show my customers and hopefully samples with stamp sets/techniques I don't have displayed yet :) It is also a great way to break the ice and chat with some wonderful stampin' ladies!

I really wanted to do something special for my swaps and love playing around with vintage techniques. The Rue de Fleurs stamp set in the Occasions Mini is such an AWESOME vintage inspired stamp set. I just love love love the umbrella with watches... I didn't do it for this card, but wouldn't it make for a gorgeous retirement card image? I think that the next retirement card I'll make will use this set. This stamp set is one I really hope makes it into the 2012-2013 IB&C!

I am also loving the upcoming Sale-a-Bration DSP Everyday Enchantment. It is absolutely gorgeous and the catalogue doesn't do it justice. How do you 'buy' it do you ask? Well... you don't! During Sale-a-Bration, you get to choose ONE FREE item from the SAB Brochure for every $60 you order! How awesome is that? It starts on January 24th :)

This card was my original swap idea, but I soon realized that doing three colors on the umbrella, as well as distressing all the edges would take waaaaay too long! So I did the umbrella in Soft Suede only and sponged the edges of the Very Vanilla card stocks. I did tear the top of the DSP and sponged it to antique it and I did curl the edges of the Very Vanilla layer and its Soft Suede mat. So the swaps still took a really long time, but they could have taken longer ;)

Tips & Tricks:

*The umbrella image in this stamp set is so easy to color with markers. Even though it blends together it is well delineated and it's easy to see where to start each color. It does look gorgeous stamped in one solid color too ;)

*I love the play on words in this set. "Thanks" "For Watching Over Me" (see the watches and umbrella?) or "For the Support" (the bust :) ). So witty and fun!
*There is a gorgeous trumpet and pen image in this stamp set - works for women's AND men's cards - now how many stamp sets can do that?
*Like the curled edge on the card stock? So easy to do! Just use your bone folder to 'tease' the card stock. SU! card is nice and thick, so it'll separate into layers. It's also dyed all the way through! No white core... so you can do techniques like this with it.
*Did I mention I hope this set carries over into the next catty??? ;)

I'm off enjoying some more Leadership... 'til next time, keep letting stamps bring out your creativity!