Shoebox full of ideas

I just love our team shoebox swaps. What is a shoebox swap, you say? Well it’s where a group of demonstrators on our team get together to share our love of stamping. Each demonstrator is responsible for creating a project and bringing all the supplies needed to make their projects for each person attending. Monday night, 12 of us got together to create beautiful cards. They are so much fun and we get some really great ideas from each other. I missed making one of the cards and didn’t realize it until I got home, so I will have to ask around for a photo of it to show you.

It’s funny, every once in a while, a couple of us will have the same idea and bring very similar (if not identical) projects. I was very worried that Tara was going to do the same project as I was, because she had posted a project very close to what I was going to do. Turns out, hers was totally different, but she was doing one like mine for hostess club. Whew! I’m safe. Here’s my card. I used the Designer Series Paper Summertime Splendor for My Digital Studio, sized the pages down to 3.75” x 5”, printed them out and cut them down, stamped my greeting in Night of Navy ink (I used the Friends 24-7 set), then stamped the flourish stamp from Baroque Motifs in Versamark on the top and bottom halves (You have to do it twice to get it to cover the whole paper). On one I used the clear embossing powder, and the other Iridescent Ice embossing powder, and then heated until melted. I layered this on Basic Grey (4” x 5.25”), then on Night of Navy card background. This paper is so pretty and is only available for My Digital Studio. By the way, I had designed this card in MDS first before cutting any paper, just to make sure it would look ok. It’s a great way to “design” your cards or scrapbook pages before cutting anything.

Back to the shoebox swap. Like I said, some will bring projects that are very similar. However, Letha and Jan’s cards were almost identical in style, just done in different colors, and one has an extra petal for a more “spirograph” look. These were done with the ¾” circle punch and the oval punch for the petals, the oval punch for the stems, and the background Whisper White run through the Big Shot with the polka dot folder. 


The yellow flower has each petal (7 total) set at 57° to give this spirograph look, anchored by either a ¾” circle or a large brad. 


The purple flower uses 6 petals set straight across from each other for a different look.

Speaking of spirograph, look at this fabulous card designed by Terry using a flower with that pattern. This stamp set is a Level 2 Hostess set from the Summer mini catalog called Punched Posies. This stamp set can be yours if your workshop totals $300 or more. 


 It also uses our new taffeta ribbon in 1/8” width. I love this card, simple and pretty. Stay tuned for more.