Shoebox swapping

This morning I attended a small shoebox swap with some stampers I've met through SoCal StampMania. There were eight of us there, plus a "virtual" stamper who couldn't attend but sent a project along. We made several cards and other fun projects. I will share some of them later - I'm saving a couple to send as a surprise to someone. Anyway, this was the card I designed. It's a matchbook fold - I used 12x12 paper, cutting a quarter inch off the length, then scored it at one inch and at 6.5 inches.
Supplies:
Stamps: Embrace life
Ink: stazon black, almost amethyst and lovely lilac markers
Paper: lovely lilac, almost amethyst, basic black, neenah classic crest solar white
Accessories: self-adhesive pearls, ribbon, hole punch
This was the door prize I made; it's a small clear acrylic paint can which I lined with a piece of berry bliss paper. I filled it with some small rolls of ribbon, primas, chipboard and other goodies like that. The door prize I received was also super cool - it was a package of PaperTrey's clear card boxes. Since I like to make card sets for gifts, I know I will get some use out of those.
Supplies:
Stamps: one of a kind
Ink: pretty in pink, chocolate chip
Paper: berry bliss, chocolate chip, pretty in pink, whisper white, pomegranate
Accessories: ribbons, blossom punch, CM circle cutters, prima

Copic practice

I won some Copic markers during the SCSM event, and then ordered a few more afterward so I could get a feel for them. I have 14 total, including a colorless blender. I definitely need more colors, especially earth and neutral tones and greens! But I have enough to now to at least get some practice using them. I was having some trouble with my black ink bleeding; I've purchased two different black ink pads now, so hopefully I can find one that works. I also think I need to get some 110 lb. weight paper. These are a couple of my practice pieces that I decided were worthy enough for cards! Both card are 3.5 by 5 inch notecards.
Supplies:
Stamp: Olivia Owl stamp from Stampendous
Ink: Memories black
Paper: soft sky, pomegranate, unknown white
Accessories: Copics, ribbon, dew drops, ticket corner punch
This is my favorite so far, and I think it really shows what you can do with Copic markers. I used three shades of blue and just kept going over them until they blended together! So pretty. This is a great image for coloring with Copics.
Supplies:
Stamps: Embrace life, sentiment by A muse
Ink: Brilliance graphite black, soft sky
Paper: soft sky, unknown white, basic black, brilliance blue
Supplies: ribbon, CM circle cutter, Copics

Favorite door prizes

Still no stamping for me, but maybe later today! I'm getting closer, that's for sure! I'm actually hanging pictures on the walls and getting shelves up - yay! Anyway, today should be the last of my StampMania pictures. These are some of my favorite door prizes from the hand-made door prize table. I love that they are all on display so we can check out all the great ideas! The first is a set of darling candy jars altered with Tart and Tangy by Nancy Hill. I am trying really hard to resist that set, but StampMania did not help that cause!
This is a darling altered clock - instead of numbers, it reads "Stamp Time!" We can all use more of that, right? Robyn, aka FunnyGirlRobyn, made this one.
This was my favorite of all the door prizes - she made a flower pot with altered paper flowers, and in the center used tiny paint pots filled with stamping goodies: ribbon, buttons, eyelets, Primas! It was so, so cute! And what a clever idea. Adela R. came up with this idea, which I so want to CASE!
Amanda Sewell made this gardening set - I love the papers, colors, and the idea of putting a little set like this.
This is another beauty - I have no idea who made it, but I thought it was so pretty. I think it's a Valentine's Day candy box. I love the patterned papers, and all that yummy chocolate ribbon!

More goodies from SCSM5!

I have a couple more posts of SoCal StampMania stuff to share, and when that's over, I hope to finally have some new stuff of my own to share. My craft room/office is coming along and I hope to be stamping sometime this weekend. Yay! Anyway, I didn't have time before SCSM to make any swaps to trade before the shoebox swap, so I made a few extras of my shoebox swap card to trade with some friends and my table-mates. The top two cards were from my tablemates; the card on the left was by Cindy/Chiripa and the card on the right was by thumbunny. Isn't that fruit kabob a clever idea? She also included a fruit kabob recipe inside. So cute!
The bottom two projects were by Kim/MamaKim on the left and Toni/tonistamping on the right. I met those girls last year when Kim invited me to carpool with them. We got to stamp together at another, micro Mania shoebox swap last summer. They are great girls, and both are very talented stampers!
The second photo is of the two make-n-takes we made during the event. The top is the cover of the roster - each page inside lists the name, screen name and other details for each participant at the event. I haven't had a chance to put it together yet because I can't find my Crop-a-dile yet! The second card was the Stampendous-sponsored make-n-take using the Sushi stamp set that is exclusive to Eclectic Paperie. That's the set I won! It is such a cute set. I can't wait to play with it a bit!

Swap city!

SoCal StampMania lives up to its name! The shoebox swap is set up so everybody gets to do 11 swap projects, while mixing and mingling with lots of different stampers. This year's projects were just fabulous. I got some really great ideas and got to try some stamps and techniques I wouldn't have tried on my own! The swaps are SU only (except for embellies not made by SU) which helps ensure quality. It's also a good way to see what's hot and popular! I can tell you that Tart and Tangy and the Summer Picnic paper; the Always set; and pomegranate, blue bayou and soft sky are all very popular right now! These pics are of the projects I made. Some of my favorites were the Fabulous Flowers square card - the smaller square is the opening, folding down to open and closing using the round tab. I also loved the belly band card with the bright summer colors and DP.
The next group includes a z-fold card, an adorable Cami scallop treat box, another type of treat holder, a double-pocket card and a square baby card! I love the double pocket with all those cherries, and the treat holder has a great color combo with blue bayou and celery!

Awesome door prize

One of the things I love about StampMania is the door prizes. Each attendee who wants to participate in the door prize drawing brings a hand-stamped or stamp-related door prize valued around $10 for the raffle. When you put yours on the display table, you get write your name on a ticket for the drawing. Then throughout the day, stampers go to the table, get their prize, then go to the hostess (Jami) and pull a name from all those participating. So you get to give your prize to another stamper! I gave my prize to Leann Yoho (check out her blog HERE!). Then an hour later, when it was Leann's turn, she pulled out my name and I got her prize. What a cool coincidence! Leann made this beautiful CD case with matching cards using the yummy ginger blossom paper. The cards have wonderful details, too, with all the different embellishments and GLITTER! Thank you, Leann!

A berry blissful day ...

When I set out to design my goodies for SoCal StampMania, I knew I wanted to use the Berry Bliss paper and One of a Kind for my shoebox card. Because the supplies were out, and to make it easier on myself, I used the same papers, colors and coordinating accessories for all of my SCSM5 goodies this year!
My shoebox card was designed around the envelope! I picked up a box of 100 check-sized envies at the dollar store - woohoo! So I made a card to go with the envie. I like non-traditional card sizes and thought this would be a good change at StampMania. The card measures 6 3/8 by 3 1/2. I used pretty in pink for the base, and added a strip of Berry Bliss dp mounted on chocolate chip cardstock, then tied the pink taffeta ribbon around it before placing in on the base. The stamp set is One of a Kind; the sentiment is inked in chocolate chip and the main flower image is inked in pretty in pink then the edges are rock-n-rolled in chocolate chip. The image is stamped on whisper white, then layered on pretty in pink and chocolate chip. The flower center is a punched chocolate chip flower from the small boho flowers punch, attached with a brad. The flower is mounted on dimensionals!

Next up is my name tag! I don't like pins and find name tags pinned to my shirt or jacket a bit annoying. So I used a name badge to make a name tag I could wear around my neck. I printed my name and SCS screen name on the computer and the color actually came out pretty darn close to pomegranate! I added some punched flowers, eyelets and a brad then layered the names on more Berry Bliss dp and pomegranate cardstock. I added some misc. ribbons to the top. It totally clashed with my red outfit, but coordinated with all my other stuff, and that's what matters most, right? Last, but not least, was the door prize I made. Between moving and coordinating VSN right before StampMania, I didn't have the time or creative energy to come up with a cool door prize - I'm going to share some pics of some of them later in the week, they were amazing this year! So I cheated. I went to my stash and put together a plain kraft gable box full of alterables. Here's what's inside: one large and two mini composition books; a medium clear pillow box; 2 name badges (they make great luggage tags); a Target mailbox; a round tin; a rectangular tin; a mini Maya Road tin; a key chain; a mini chipboard book; and the gable box. I wrapped them all up in cellophane and tied them with some pretty ribbons and a big tag I made using the Berry Bliss dp and coordinating ink, papers and accessories. I hope the recipient can find some inspiration in there!

Goodies from StampMania!

I had an absolutely fabulous time at SoCal StampMania V yesterday! It was a great day of stamping, friends, food, fun and goodies! Last year I was so nervous to go, since I'd never met a single SCSer in person. This year I was still a little nervous for about five minutes, but then I was fine - I met lots of great new people and saw lots of people I met last year, including a few I've been able to stay in touch with since then. It was a great break from the new job and moving!
I'm feeling particularly spoiled today because I won one of two grand prizes at the dinner following StampMania. eclectic Paperie and Copic contributed to my prize: a beautiful Copic storage case with six of the markers in it (my first Copics - now I have to learn how to use them!); a fun and brand new Stampendous Sushi clear stamp set (an EP exclusive); a darling Olivia owl stamp and sentiment from Stampendous; a package of white and shimmery cardstock (think shimmery white, but in vanilla, caramel and brown - yum!); a Spica glitter pen; a Brilliance dew drop; and a bottle of Ultra clean with scrubber. What an awesome prize! I'm still in shock that I won. I really need to get my stamp room organized so I can start playing with all this fun stuff!
Lucky girl that I was yesterday, I also won a raffle prize during the stamping event. Jami, Joy and Emily got so many cool prizes of all kinds from all kinds of cool companies! I won a great backgrounder stamp from Cornish Heritage Farms. I've never used their backgrounders and I can't wait to give this one a try!
We all received a few goodies in our tote bags when we checked in. A bunch of companies offered coupons or flyers with discount codes; eclectic Paperie handed out tags that had been Glimmer-misted! Mine was periwinkle - it's a beautiful color and I may have to order it. Stampendous provided pens and sticky notes so we could jot things down during the day. And the coolest little freebie was the cute little box from Ellen Hutson/Lockhart Stamps/Inchie Arts. The box contained all the things you'd need to make some cute little cards using inchies: Lockhart stamp images, chipboard inchie squares, designer paper, two tiny notecards and some fun bling! What a cute idea!
Tomorrow I'll share the projects I made!

Micro Mania Part 3

This should be the last of my Micro Mania photos! The first one is the outside view of the door prize I won. Pat Bear from SCS made this cute little suitcase (I believe it's a $1 candy tin from Target) and filled it with cute foam lady bugs and tons of little Primas (see second photo!) The thing was stuffed with flowers in lots of sizes and colors I don't have. It was a great prize.
The last picture, below, is of the nametag and bag our hostess, Minnie, made for everyone. We used the bag to carry our supplies and finished projects around from station to station. And everyone got cute nametags to wear so we would all know each other's names! Minnie also came around and offered us each a cute SU incentive stamp - I'm sure she has quite a stash, since she's been a demo for awhile and does quite well at it. I pulled out a cute bunch of grapes. All in all it was a great day!
That's all for today! Not sure what I'll have for the rest of the week, since the only stamping I've done so far this week is a secret for a bit longer. Happy Hump Day tomorrow!

Micro Mania Part 2

Here's a couple more photos from the Micro Mini Stamp Mania shoebox swap I attended Sunday. Our hostess was Minnie, in the turquoise with the black SU apron above. I didn't take very many photos, but this one is a good representation of the group hard at work on projects. It was a nice crowd; I'd met some of the women before and some were new to me Sunday. A few are SCSers, but not all!
This photo is of all the projects we made (except one that I'm saving as a surprise for someone who may or may not be reading this blog!) We had quite a variety of cards and other fun things. The long cranberry and thyme book was a cool coupon or paper scrap organizer Minnie designed; it used 5 self-adhesive business envelopes. I will be CASEing that one for sure! We also had two post-it holders; the blue Delight in Life one had a chipboard cover and back that were also stamped and cuttlebugged! Too cute. The other used stamps from Office Accoutrements. Other non-card fun projects included an empty TP roll turned into a candy holder, a corkboard bulletin board, a fun pinwheel using patterned paper and a pixie stick, and a cool magnetic metal tin (from Target) covered with Doodle This-stamped flowers. One last post tomorrow should wrap up my swap photos!

Micro Mania

Finally, I can share a couple of things I was working on right before and right after the Dirty Dares week on Splitcoast. Today was a SoCal Micro Mini Mania shoebox swap event. These micro minis were an offshoot of the big SoCal Stamp Mania event held each spring in Long Beach. I attended this year with a group of girls who live about 40 minutes away, and one of those girls decided to keep the fun going by putting together a series of "micro" shoebox swaps in our area. The first was held in May while I was on vacation, but the second was today and I could go! Yay! There's nothing more fun than stamping the day away, chatting and learning new techniques. Over the next few days, I'll share a few things from the event. The first, above, are the hostess and door prizes I took. I used some canning jars I've been carting around with me for ages to make ribbon jars (inspired by this month's Dirty Dozen gallery on SCS), then just pulled some ribbons from my stash to fill them up. I used a stamp from the Tagger's Dozen set and cool Caribbean and certainly celery inks. I tied the tag with some ribbon and added Primas to the top.

The second is the card I designed as my shoebox project. I struggled with the design for a bit before finally settling on this one. I used a faux postage template from SCS, then sponged bashful blue, so saffron and rose red ink over the stamp squares. The image, also from Tagger's Dozen, is is stamped in black stazon ink. I layered the postage on bashful blue and basic black. I also added a line of black and saffron prints designer paper on the side, then tied rose organdy ribbon along it to finish the card off. A simple but fun design, and the girls at the event seemed excited about it. Tomorrow I'll share the projects we made!

The last of Stamp Mania

So I'm finally uploading the last of the photos of things from SoCal StampMania. Since it was my first-ever stamp event, I wasn't quite brave enough to do the optional swap - 30 cards seemed like way too many! But I did make a few extras of my shoebox swap project to trade with my carpool friends and with others I met at the event. These are the cards and projects I received in trade. There are some really fabulous stampers in SoCal! I think next year I may attempt to actually make some swap cards for SCSM and see what else I might be able to trade for.
This is my favorite of all the swaps. Kim, or MamaKim on SCS, made these for her shoebox swap. Since we carpooled together, we swapped and I got one of these! Aren't they adorable? And what a clever idea. They were one of the most popular projects at the swap, and it's no wonder. We met up at a Rite Aid parking lot and swapped before we headed out. I left my swaps in the trunk of my car so I wouldn't have to worry about hauling them around or worrying about them all day. But it was so warm that day, the bath salts sort of melted together! You can't really tell in the photo, but they are all stuck to the back side of the bottle!

Look what I made!

These are the projects I made at SoCal StampMania last weekend. I had never been to a shoebox swap before, so I really didn't know what to expect. I can tell you, all the projects were fun to make, and nearly every one of them provided an idea or inspiration for future projects, which is one of the things that makes stamping with other people so cool! The group includes seven cards, a small genie bag, a tealight holder, a card folder to hold cards, and my favorite project, a magnetic coaster clipboard.
Isn't this the cutest thing you have ever seen? The project was designed by debbiejjackson on SCS. She used the petals and paisleys designer paper and a the polka dots and paisley stamp set from SU's spring mini catalog. (I hope I have those names right; I'm not a demonstrator and don't always remember them correctly!) It was a pretty simple project to stamp and assemble, but I love the finished product. It is hanging on my fridge right now, and I NEVER put stuff on my fridge! Thanks, Debbie, for the fun project!

The other thing we made was a make and take designed by Emily (Waterpixie on SCS). She designed a project around the event roster - inside this spiral book is a page for each person's contact information for all the attendees so we can send RAKs or keep in touch. We decorated chipboard coasters using the crayon resist technique, then assembled them with the Bind-it-all. I'm not a very good binder - the cut on my cover is a little crooked, and I needed two coils because I bent the first one wrong, LOL - but this is a fun little tool! You could make a ll kinds of things with it at home. I may have to add it to my (very long) crafting wish list!

I won! I won!

The organizers of SoCal StampMania did a very cool thing - they had everyone who attended bring a stamped item for the door prize drawing. When you dropped off your prize, you received an entry into the drawing, so that everyone who came got to go home with a cool handmade prize. I won this darling tote and matching cards and envelopes made by Beth (Showmestamper on SCS). Thanks Beth, I love it. The blue and black are great together.

The SCSM coordinators also went to a whole bunch of sponsors and solicited raffle prizes for the event. I think they had about 40 in all, and I won one! This daisy chain chipboard book from Maya Road is awesome. It's about 6 inches across, plenty big to add photos or other embellishments. I think this prize was one of the many donated to the event by the fabulous owners of Eclectic Paperie, a great online store run by Joy and Daisy. Joy was one of the coordinators of SCSM and she hooked us up! Thanks everyone for the cool prizes.

SoCal StampMania!

Yesterday I spent the day at SoCal StampMania IV in Long Beach. I'm on the left in the photo, with Toni (ToniStamping on SCS), Kim (MamaKim), and Minnie (Minnie Cieslak) - the girls I carpooled with. I had a great time - made much easier by Kim. I'm pretty shy, especially at large events where I won't know anyone, so I was reluctant to sign up for SCSM. But I took the plunge, and posted on the thread that I was nervous, but coming anyway, and Kim invited me to join her carpool so I wouldn't have to show up alone. I am so glad I took her up on her offer. We met up at the Rite Aid in Woodland Hills, and by the time we got to the event (after stopping to pick up JustHeather in El Segundo) I felt like I had a great group of new friends!

I met a lot of other fun and really nice people and had a great time stamping and chatting. If you saw me and I didn't say hi, I apologize - I am really shy! The projects, handmade door prizes and raffle prizes were awesome. I will be sharing those throughout the week. But first, here's the card I made for my shoebox project. I hope everyone liked it.

Since we were supposed to use all current Stampin Up products with the exception of embellishments not available to SU. I had to see what I had enough of in my stash of paper to make 18 cards - 10 for the shoebox, 2 for extras, 3 to RAK the hostesses - Jami, JoyofStamping and Waterpixie (Emily) - and three for the girls in my carpool since we agreed to swap our cards, too. Glorious green is one color of cardstock I have plenty of, so I used it for the base of this 3.75 inch triangle trifold. The stamp set is Booglie Eyes - I love that set - and I mounted the ghost on green galore and tempting turquoise. Ribbon is from Michaels. Watch for more pictures from StampMania throughout the week - I have swaps, my door and raffle prizes, and other goodies to share!

Getting ready

So I am going to my first-ever shoebox swap this weekend, and I picked a huge one for my first time! I am going to the fourth annual SoCal StampMania in Long Beach, where more than 100 stampers, including some of SCS's biggest names (think Jenn Balcer, Jami, 11Valerie11, Showmestamper, etc.) will be in attendance for an afternoon of stamping fun. I was nervous about going, since I'm an introvert at heart, but one of the nicest SCSers around, MamaKim, offered to let me carpool with her and her friends. That should make it much easier on me! So one of the things we have to take with us is a nametag with our real name and SCS user name. I modified a luggage tag I made for VSN in March by adding a Tim Holtz metal circle medallion wiht another flower and sticker alphabet letters spelling out my SCS name. I used my cropadile (love that thing!!!) to punch a hole in the metal circle and tied ribbon to attach it to the luggage tag. I'm recycling a lanyard so I can wear the whole thing around my neck! If any of my blog readers are attending SCSM, come say hi! I can't wait to meet you.

Trash to treasure and other good deals

One of the cool things about papercrafting is how easy it is to use paper and ink to make something beautiful! I'm a big fan of Starbucks frappucino - though I cringe at the price unless they are on sale - and was so excited when somebody on SCS found a way to recycle them into something pretty. So the next time I bought frappucino, I saved the bottles and the carrier, and turned them into a sweet little gift. When I give the package away, it'll be filled with chocolates. (I just can't buy them too soon, or I will eat them all!) This set is a particularly great bargain because the papers I used to alter the set were in a package I found in the clearance shelves at Target. A set of 12 coordinating sheets of patterned paper for $2.48! Woohoo!