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A few samples here, for your long weekend. Card 1: Tara, my Philly Inker member, demonstrated the versamark resist technique at our last meeting. Card 2: a swap by Gina T, with a sneak peek set Flowers Awash. Card 3: by my upline and Aunt Karen, who I will see this weekend when I'm in Ohio.
A lot of people ask me, "where do you get your ideas for cards?" When they see my sample box of around 100 cards, they ask, did you stamp ALL of these? Nope! Many times, they are samples from swaps I do each month with my Philly Inkers group of stampers. Just like a cookie swap, we bring a certain number of cards and take home that many ideas. I usually get at least 10 new cards a month! I love to get new ideas from them, and pull from those later when I need some creative juicing:0)
Card 1: Lynn Fones, Card 2: Gina Thornton, Card 3: Kristin Kortonick
We are back from our Stampin' Up! cruise and our own extra vacation to Puerto Rico. It was quite the trip! Our 18 month old kept us hopping. I got to take home a few free stamp sets - 2 brand new from the next catalog. So fun!! It was so nice to be on a cruise, all that food and not having to cook any of it! :0) Stampin' Up! really knows how to pamper its demonstrators! Going on the trip makes me want to make sure I make it on the next boat! The next boat goes to Alaska in 2011, stay tuned for more info on that later this month.
Here are a couple pictures from our trip, and down below, a couple samples, made by my Philly Inkers in recent swaps.
This "flower power" card was designed by Tara Gupta, one of my Philly Inkers, for a shoebox swap in April. I always know a Tara card will have a lot of ink to define the edges, which will end up on my fingers afterward, what a great feeling! I love her crafting style! It gets me to use techniques I might not have on my own.
This swap was not autographed. If you are the Philly Inker who made this fun Father's Day card, please let me know, so I can give you credit!
Today my very good friend, Melissa Chadwick Levay, hosted Shelli Gardner, Stampin' Up! co-founder and CEO! Shelli was the guest of honor at an afternoon open house for the Philly Inkers group (my downline), before the main event this evening, Melissa's "Workshop of a Lifetime." Melissa won a recruiting contest in January, and she and the other 23 winners (out of 40,000+ demonstrators!) all got to have Shelli demonstrate a stamping workshop at their houses!
What a wonderful way to spend the day - the Philly Inkers got lots of uninterrupted and personal time with Shelli and also her long-time friend Sue, another east coast demonstrator, who travelled up to NJ with her. We got to ask Shelli lots of questions, hear about her life and work, as well as a little of the history of Stampin' Up!, which began 22 years ago. I am sure we got to know Shelli better than we ever could have at a larger demonstrator event like Convention or a regional conference. What a wonderful opportunity! If someone told me 5 years ago - or even a year ago - that this day would happen (and that I'd have a downline of 50 people, almost half of which got to join us today), I would have had a very hard time believing it!
I was so impressed that even though Shelli has done over 20 of these workshops (she's doing 24 total across the country!), she made us feel like the demonstrators must have felt at her first workshop, like we were the most important demonstrators ever. :0) Shelli is an amazing and gracious guest, and this was a great day for the Philly Inkers!
Here are some pictures with Shelli and Melissa, followed by some group shots and stamping, of course:0)
This is another adorable altered project made by Lynn Larson, my stampin' sister from Vermont. I love the detail she added with the pearls and the white gel pen. What an easy and elegant gift item!
