Swap Sample

I had a great time today at the shoebox swap I attended today in Baltimore. The cards were fantastic, as were the food and the company. It's always fun to meet other stampers and try new things. Of course, I came away from the swap with more items added to my wish list . . .

The theme for today's swap was floral and masculine cards. I brought a floral card. This card is similar to the one I brought for the swap today. I made this version for a Spring Mini catalog swap I participated in earlier this month. It uses the new You Make Me Happy stamp set. The texture on the images makes it interesting to work with and different from the other floral sets I own. The folded-over flap on this card, though a neat design element, was a huge pain to do. No form of adhesive (glue dots, Mono Multi, regular Monoadhesive, Sticky Strip, overnight pressure from a Webster's Dictionary and Thesaurus) really held the flap down. Needless to say, I will not be doing that again. That was one of the elements I modified to simplify the card for today's swap. The other modified elements were the use of the round tab punch and the Certainly Celery mat under the flower image. The original card used a faux suede technique on the celery cardstock, which I opted not to include for the shoebox swap. An unplanned modification was caused by my forgetting to put the stamping sponge in my supply box (I was a little distracted while I was preparing because I was also listening to the University of Wisconsin hockey game on my computer). Since I left the sponge at home, sponging ink onto the Very Vanilla cardstock was not an option, even though I had planned for it to be. At least I remembered the stamps and the sample--and the snacks.

Materials Used (all from Stampin' Up!):

You Make Me Happy and Everyday Flexible Phrases stamp sets; Elegant Eggplant, Old Olive, and Certainly Celery Classic inks; Old Olive Craft ink; Elegant Eggplant, Old Olive, Certainly Celery, and Very Vanilla cardstock; clear embossing powder; silver brads; round tab punch; 1/16" handheld punch; mat pack and paper piercing tool; stampin' dimensionals; paper crimper; paper distressing tool; sponge