Stampin! with Jaydee

Hi Everyone.  Happy Monday.

I hope you all had a great weekend.  We certainly did!

Lou and I got back from Utah late last night.  After convention, Lou and I drove up to Sundance Resort and spent the night up in the mountains, where it was considerably cooler than it had been in the valley!   It's so relaxing up at Sundance and we had a truly superb meal in the The Tree restaurant.  It's always wonderful for us when the Chef creates a veritable vegetarian gourmet delight, and this chef certainly had. All in all it was a fabulous few days and a much needed break.

Convention was great - but there were LOTS of people.   Almost 6000 if you count the fabulous SU staff who helped to make the event so memorable.  Some great sessions, great projects and I met some amazing people!

One of the swaps I made was a last minute general swap.   I had created swaps for three organized swaps and realized that I had no general swaps, so quickly made up some!   I decided to go with a bright, summery themed card and combine a couple of different things.   The main base of the card was Tape It.   Now..... when I started this card, I thought using my Stamp-a-ma-jig to stamp the vertical section would be a breeze.    Arrrrrgh... it was incredibly time consuming.   Totally OK for 1 card - but not for 40.   It took FOREVER!   Especially as I didn't want the stamped Tape It images to be perfect, but to resemble washi tape.   However, the swap seemed to go down really well, so I think the effort was worth it.   It's certainly a clean card - but hardly simple!

I did three different variations.   I did the first one and didn't think it was quite right... I loved it... I love the monochromatic feel of it, but Lou thought it needed a little something.  Here's the first attempt:

BTW.. I got the ink on the top right hand corner when I was creating the second version.   I put the StazOn lid on my work top and Charlie decided he didn't like it in that particular place so moved it - right over the top of my card! :-)

You can see I used the Stylish Stripes embossing folder on the background layer and stamped the Tape It stamps twice in each color.  That's where I needed my Stamp-a-ma-jig!   I then stamped the greeting from Wetlands in Basic Gray.  problem #1.  It wasn't strong enough - and really needed black to make it pop.     I did use the Chalk Pen again though to stitch around it.

I then used both the butterfly punches - Elegant Butterfly and Bitty Butterfly and layered them.   I colored around the edges of the butterfly with the Crisp Cantaloupe marker to make them stand out more.  If that wasn't enough work.... I cut up dimensionals to prop up the wings, too!

So... here's the second version.    This time I tried white embossing the sentiment

Close... but no cigar!

Then, I went in an entirely different direction......

Sentiment stamped in black. MUCH better.   Background layer Whisper White instead of Crisp Cantaloupe!  All the other elements remained the same, I just changed out the embossed layer and the sentiment color.  That's the one that I went with in the end.

I have some great swaps to share with you - including the two Wetlands ones I received.  I know you are going to love those.   I just finished taking photos of the swaps and will start to post them this week for you.

I also have lots of news to share with you from convention.   Some fabulous new products and some specials.

Linda: you asked about the type of Cranes Niles and Daphne are in this post.  They are Sandhill Cranes.   You can read all about them - and hear their VERY loud call here.   Oh...and I'm really sorry about your baby sweater :-)  

Elaine:   I agree with you... it's about time we named the goose from Wetlands..... mmmm.... how about Godfrey!   or, if she's female, Gladys!

Colleen:  I hope you are staying cool in Texas!

Beth:  so glad you had a wonderful time with your family... that's a great excuse to stay away from the computer :-)

Nancy & Cherly:  thank you for encouraging me to keep share cards made with Gladys/Godfrey :-)

Kelly:  Thanks for the reminder about using the square punch to cut the tails on banner sentiments!  I'd forgotten about that.

Doris:  We beat your temps in both Mn and Utah this week!   So, I felt your pain!  99 in Mn and 102 in Utah.  Hope it's cooler for you now.

Marina:  I'm envious of you spending 5 hours tending your garden!

Thanks to all of you who expressed concern - and relief - about Lou's finger.   We both appreciated it!

As always, thank you for visiting my little neck of the stamping blogosphere.  I really do appreciate your comments and your emails.   Warm hugs and prayers for those of you who need a little lift tonight.

have a beautiful Tuesday

hugs

jaydee