Telford Swaps

It was my first Stampin' Up! event at the weekend at the Regional Event in Telford.  I've heard much talk of swaps at these events - it's a way of sharing your creativity and ideas with others.

You don't have to participate and there is no quantity of swaps that you are required to make if you do join in.
The idea being though if you have some swaps you do just that and 'swap' with another demonstrator so you come home with lots more inspiration.

This was my swap:

It was based on some cards I had seen on line but I played with the set - Spiral Spins - to space out the spirals and have a mix of them on the card (luckily it's just a card front, not a complete card).

It wasn't until I was happy with the design that my idea to use something different rather than just punch some flowers seemed a rather bad one!  As I started stamping all the circles I needed to punch out I realised what I had done and nearly went for a plan b but being the nutter I am I persevered.

It was bonkers, yet many people that got a swap had very pleasing comments and responses so it made it all worthwhile.  Also being nuts I was determined to make 50 to come away with a haul of swaps so I do now have a box of 50 new ideas which I will share in the coming days (one lady had 400!!).

Materials used for this swap were:
Spiral Spins stamp set
Label something stamp set
Whisper White card & craft ink
Smoky Slate card & ink
Island Indigo card & ink
Crushed Curry ink
Dazzling Details
Rhinestone Basic Jewels
Lots of circle punches: Itty Bitty Circle, 1/2", 1", 1 1/4", 1 3/8",  1 3/4" and 7/8" scallop circle punch.

Shoebox card

Friday night I met up with another 13 Bloomin' Bud ladies and we all took a shoebox card - basically a card we had made with a box full of all the necessary for everyone else to recreate it.  The restaurant were very good to use, letting us have the table all evening - between courses!

This was my card:

Colours used are basic black, whisper white and bermuda bay.

I've used the stamp set Spiral Spins as I wanted to do something different.

The card also utilises 3 different circle punches.

Sentiment is from Wetlands stamped in black Stazon and a lovely little bow.
These bows are really simple and I've used paper from the Bright Designer Series Paper pack, click here to watch a YouTube on making the bow.

Jill