My favorite swaps part 4

Here is the fourth installment of my favorite regional swaps.  Hope you enjoy them as much as I do!

This card was made by Deb Sosa.  I love the waffle paper, and the sparkly shimmer paint.

This card was made by Sarah Wakeman.  I love the ribbon knot!

Come back tomorrow for the last installment of my favorite regional swaps!

My favorite swaps part 3

Here are the next two of my favorite swaps.  I have had so much fun just going through my swaps over and over again.  It is so fun to see how someone else sees something.  My mom was over yesterday, and we spent a whole hour having a "I like this, but if it were mine, I would change this/add that" conversation.  It was so fun.  We weren't trash talking any card, we liked them all just they way they were.  It was just fun to see that we all see things differently.

This card was made by Myla Barker.  I love the jewels in the snowflakes!  What a fab idea!

This card was made by Bobbie Meyer.  I love the wreath.  I would never think of using patterned paper to make this.  It looks great!

Come back tomorrow for my part four of my favorite swaps from regionals.  :)

My favorite swaps part 2

Here are the next two of my favorite swaps.  I am not posting them in any order - all eight are my favorite swaps.

This card was made by Heidi Douglass.  I love the polka dot background, and the coloring on the flower!

This card was made by Marie Fiebig.  I love the victoria ribbon!

Check back tomorrow for part three!

My favorite swaps part 1

I want to share some of my favorites of the swaps I recieved.  I have decided to break them up in to five parts.  Check back tomorrow for part two!  Here are the first two swaps - I hope you enjoy them as much as I do!

This card was made by Mary Jemes from Oregon.  I love all of the different textures here!

This card was made by Jan Farring.  Who knew I'd love Cajun Craze so much?

My Roommate Gifts (I am the worst roommate ever!)

I got home from Portland late last night.  We had so much fun!!!  It was so nice to have a little break from real life, and just have some fun!  The drive down to portland felt like it was going to take forever!  But we finally arrived at our hotel - thanks to my purple line around 9pm.  (GPS on my cell, Thank You! google maps!)  

We stayed at the Hyatt Place near the portland airport.  It was a very nice room!!  Our first stop was not our room though, it was the bathroom.  I have never seen so many women, go so fast to find a bathroom.  I would've laughed if I weren't racing toward it too.  After we got settled in our room, our next priority was food.  We needed dinner.  We were headed downstairs to check out the 24hour cafe in the hotel, when we met a pizza delivery girl in the elevator.  We decided to follow her back to work.  I am sure glad we did!  We followed her to a place called Pizanos Pizza.  That was some of the best pizza I have ever had, and to top it off - the prices were good too!

After dinner, we headed back to our room, we had an early morning ahead of us - and some of the gals still needed to finish their swaps.  (Mine were done.)  When we got back, the other ladies started handing out these LOVELY gifts!
::Insert my worst roommate ever sticker here::
I did not get my gifts done.  In my defense, this was my first time staying with other people for an event like this.  I really did not know that it is just expected that people do this.  Yes, I was planning on doing it, but the thing with plans is - sometimes it just doesn't work out.  So, I sheepishly accepted my beautiful gifts, and secretly planned to repay these wonderful women at a later date.  Here are a few of the gifts I recieved, I was hoping to get pictures of all of them - but I didn't get the pictures in before Kassidy saw all the pretty things I brought home.  They were all very nice gifts, but I only have pictures of 3.

This gift was from Cristena.  You can see more of her work here.  Everything she does is fabulous!  I was in total awe of every little detail on this bag!!  The candy was tucked neatly in a clear cello bag, and tied with pretty Early Esspresso Satin Ribbon - but the bag is long gone, so is the candy.  This candy is actually stuff we have for the little monsters, goblins, and princesses that will be trick or treating next weekend.  She also made us monogrammed notebooks for taking notes.

This adorable fry box was from Debbie.  I can not believe that she cut out the boxes by hand!!  I love the embossed spider web.  I also love that the first candy you see in the box is my all time fave - peanut butter m & m's.  I am trying not to eat them.  Not sure how long that will last!

This adorable card was from Frances.  It also had a fab gift tucked inside, a Starbucks gift card!!  How did she know I need my Starbucks in the morning?  We all used our gift cards the next morning when we stopped at Starbucks for breakfast on the way to the convention center.

Thanks ladies for such a wonderful time!  

Portland Baby!!

I am so excited to be heading to Portland this weekend!!  I am going down with a few girlfriends for Stampin' Up!'s regional event.  There are six of us, we are riding together, and sharing a hotel room.  It should be so fun!! Things at home have been very busy - so I am still working on my swaps and roomie gifts.  I really hope to get it all done before it is time to go!  My swaps shouldn't be too hard, I already have one of each of my swaps done. I am doing a card, and a tag holder.  The rest will just be assembly line work.  The longest part of any project is the idea itself, and the fine tuning.  Here is my swap card  - let me know what you think!  

Here is what I used:

Fifth Avenue Floral Stamp Set 113734 $24.95 (pg 122)

Teeny Tiny Wishes Stamp Set 115370 $36.95 (pg 157)

Pink Pirouette Carstock 111351 $6.95 (24 sheets) (pg 167)

Basic Black Carstock 121045 $6.95 (24 sheets) (pg 169)

Whisper White Carstock 100730 $8.50 (40 sheets) (pg 169)

Regal Rose Classic Ink 105211 $5.95 (pg 166)

Pink Pirouette Classic Ink 111838 $5.95 (pg 167)

Basic Black Craft Ink 102192 $7.50 (pg 169)

5/8" Organza Ribbon Whisper White $5.95 (pg 190)

Stamping Sponges 101610 $3.50 (pg 195)

Black Stampin' Emboss Powder 109133 $4.75 (pg 196)

Stampin' Dimensionals 104430 $3.95 (pg 197)

Lots of Tags Sizzlits 114508 $21.95 (pg 211)

Square Lattice Textured Impressions Embossing Folder 119976 $7.95 (pg 214)

Enjoy!

ABC's of the Perfect Handmade Holiday

Stampin' Up! is having a fabulous holiday promotion!!  Just in time to get all of your holiday gifts made.  How did they know that we are all thinking a little more handmade, a little less commercial this year?  They have made seven bundles that you can get at a 20% discount!!

Contact me today to get started creating you  perfect handmade holiday!

DESCRIPTION
Vintage Christmas Card Bundle**
Bells & Boughs Set (p. 19) and
Deck the Halls Designer Series Paper (p. 18)
Wood Mount 124067;     $23.92
Clear Mount  124068;     $19.92

Contempo Christmas Card Bundle*
Contempo Christmas Set (p. 45) and
Jolly Holiday Designer Series Paper (p. 174)
Wood Mount 124071;     $20.72
Clear Mount 124072;     $17.52

Tags til Christmas Bundle 1**
Tags til Christmas Set (p. 24) and
Decorative Label Punch (p. 25)
Wood Mount 124077;     $38.32
Clear Mount 124078;      $31.92

Tags til Christmas Bundle 2
Tags til Christmas Set (p. 24**) and
Ornament Punch (p. 203*)
Wood Mount 124478;     $38.32
Clear Mount 124477;      $31.92

Gift Packaging Bundle
Gifted Set (p. 30*) and
Mini Lunch Sacks (p. 13**)
Wood Mount 124083;     $26.32
Clear Mount 124084;      $19.92

Simply Adorned Gift Bundle*
Charming Set (p. 130),
Simply Adorned 1" x 1-1/4" Charm (p. 189), and
Simply Adorned 24" Chain (p. 189)
Wood Mount 124076;     $39.88
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Frame Gift Bundle**
Definitely Decorative Chunky Frame (p. 9) and
Small Chocolate Chip Dotted Flourish Décor Elements (p. 23)
124075;     $19.92
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*From the 2010-2011 Idea Book & Catalog **From the 2010 Holiday Mini Catalog ***From the 2010-2011 Definitely Decorative brochure