Nothing New... Just Revisions

This weekend I finally got a chance to stamp. I had extra cards left over from my last stamp camp, as well as swap cards to make, so that's what I did. I ended up changing a few things in the final versions, though. For the Reverse Spotlighting card, I found that the card was too big to fit into a medium square envelope, and too small to fit into the leftover Chocolate Chip envies I have from last year's Carousel Notes. So, I ended up adding a back panel out of Chocolate Chip to the card (the card above is photographed on a scrap sheet of Confetti Cream - it actually ends at the Chocolate Chip). The actual card opens with the Tangerine Tango layer, so thankfully the change worked out. I was able to finish the five extra cards I had left over from our last technique team swap. I also finished the ten Dazzling Diamond Dust cards we made at my February stamp camp.

Tonight I finished making the swaps for the technique swap meeting I missed last Sunday - doing the Grid Technique. Originally, I had used More Mustard with Pumpkin Pie highlights on the flowers, but after looking at my sample, it looked somewhat muddy, so I thought I'd try it again, this time using Summer Sun with Pumpkin Pie highlights - much better! I finished up those five cards, and thankfully before assembling them, I was able to cut them down the 1/4 inch I needed so they'd also fit in a medium square envelope (the card above was photographed on a scrap of Chocolate Chip - it actually stops at the Confetti Cream square). During the week coming up, I'll be getting ready for my next stamp camp where we'll be making the CD Folder Albums I posted last month. Not a lot of prep for those, as it's up to the stamper how she'd like her album to look. I'm anxious to see how they turn out, as a few of the gals chose a different designer paper for their albums. I'll post some images after my stamp camp on Friday. For now, have a great week, and go Jessie Royer - she's the musher my daughter and I are following in the Iditarod!

Technique Card Swap

Here's the final version of my Reverse Spotlighting technique card and the 6x6 instruction card. Our stamping team has been doing these pages on and off over the last few months for our monthly swap to build an album with tons of stamping techniques to help us get new ideas when creating. This month I chose Reverse Spotlighting, which was really easy and I love the results. Thank you to those of you who left me some comments - this is the final version that we'll be stamping tomorrow. I'm looking forward to what everyone else came up with for their swap!

Happy New Year! & Some Blog Candy

Happy 2009! I hope it is a good one for us all. We spent New Year's Eve at my folks', munching the night away. I made Sausage Soup, a recipe I got from my stamping friend, Erin, and it was yummy! We watched the movie Down Periscope and then watched ABC's coverage of New Year's for the last half hour of 2008. At midnight, with the noise makers squeaking, we had fun strewing streamers all over Mom & Dad's living room from all of the poppers we'd brought, had some Asti Spumante, and then cleaned up. After we got home and the girls were in bed, I was wide awake, so I spent some time working on an upcoming swap in my newly reorganized craft room. For our team swap the end of January, we are going back to our technique page swaps. I was looking through the technique ideas on Splitcoast and settled on reverse spotlighting. I loved Beate's card for the tutorial she wrote on reverse spotlighting, and wanted to do something similar without simply copying hers. I hadn't used my Haiku designer series paper yet, so I decided to use the colors that coordinate with that for my card (Old Olive, Tangerine Tango, So Saffron, More Mustard). The stamp set I chose to use was Eastern Blooms, one of many sets in my collection that hadn't seen ink yet. The sentiment is from Simply Said. The flower centers were stamped in Chocolate Chip and punched out with a 1/2 inch circle punch. I love how they top off the flowers. The green paper filling the circle spotlights is from the Haiku DSP.

I finished a second version of the card this afternoon and would appreciate your comments. Do you like the monotone flowers (top) or the one with multicolored flowers? Do you like the Olive or the Tangerine ribbon? Do you like the Olive brads or the Mustard brads? Do you like the one with the sponging (top) or the one without? Please leave me your comments and the winner will receive the stamp set So Many Sayings (new, unmounted - the picture is from an ebay auction so you can see what it looks like) and a 25 yard spool of 1/4 inch Spring Moss grosgrain ribbon! I'll randomly choose a winner on Friday, January 9 when I get home from work that day. Good luck, and I look forward to reading your comments!