For someone special...

Hello there friends, 

By now, my friend and Upline has received this special card I made for her.  I'm excited to be attending Convention and am happy that I'll be rooming with her (and another fabulous friend).  It brings back bittersweet memories of our last T.A.C. Seminar and our late night visits.  I'm glad we'll be together again to visit, laugh, smile and look forward to the BRIGHT FUTURE with FSJ.  

As with my Secret Friend Swap #1 card and my Secret Friend Swap #2 card, I used scrappy elements left over from my ATC swap trades.  I love that I was able to create several beautiful cards with items that most toss into the trash.

 Adding a few of my most favorite elements...and my newest color combo favorites!!!

Most definitely, I'm so honored to share a friendship with Christine Pennington.  :)

Convention Bound!

Hello Journey Friends!

WOO HOOO...I'll soon head to the airport and fly away to Arizona!  I'm excited to attend my first FSJ Convention and I'll definitely be back in the evenings, so be ready for some peeks at fun projects, peeks at amazing new friends, select photos of trades/swaps and LOTS AND LOTS of shares about NEW goodies!

I also plan on doing some LIVE feeds from the venue...Pop in to my blog and scroll all the way down, you'll see my Ustream camera there.

Please follow me on Instagram and Twitter @stampingbugKerry and follow my Pinterest board "FSJ CONVENTION 2015" @theartsybug  if you want to be in the loop.  As always, I'll post on Facebook too.

35 ATC's down...

Hello there Journey Friends!

Convention is just a few days away and I'm busy stamping and creating my projects/swaps/trades...After three days of work, I finally finished my ATC's.  I think they turned out the way my muse wanted them to.  :)

Lots of collage work to create this project.  I started out squirting some Beach Breeze reinker on an acrylic block.  I let it drip a bit then applied the inked block directly to the watercolor paper.  After that, I added the "fishy net" background image with LemonGrass ink then applied the American Sun stamp in the corner with Lemon Drop ink.  I think that created some great sun rays!  The final few steps before mounting on cardstock included adding Silver Silk and a stitched line to carry my "tags" along on their journey with the bottle...

...Oh that bottle...I stamped some Shrink Film with my Black Licorice ink then heated it to set it and shrink the film.  I applied some Sparkle dust to the underside of each bottle with Journey Glaze.

 The tags were stamped with tiny sentiments from the Bezel Block ATS set.  I just LOVE that set because of it's versatility and tiny size...Perfect for little cards!

I used one of the smallest circle dies/punched circle dies to create the sun.  When that was complete, I mounted all the pieces onto black licorice cardstock then onto Beach Breeze cardstock.  FINISHED! Now on to project 2!

Convention sweets...

Hey journey friends.

While I'm stamping and creating swap and trade projects for Convention in a few days, I'm not forgetting those who cannot attend for one reason or another.  With all the jubilation and excitement leading up to Convention, I try to think about and consider my friends who won't be there.   I've been on that end before, and it's no fun.  When you can't attend, it's really hard to not feel a bit sad or lonely about not attending.  I remember also feeling out-of-the-loop for a long while.  So here are some things I'm doing to "include" my non-convention-going friends...

1.  Sending some convention love...I'm mailing out some special cards and projects to some FSJ Coaches that I know cannot attend.

2.  I created a Pinterest board to share all our goodies and fun events.

3.  I'll be hosting some live show-and-tell events on my live stream.  I hope to include many coaches and my newest friends!

4.  I plan on tweeting, pinning, instagramming, facebooking, etc. so just you wait...Your phone will blow up!  LOL

So here's my first treat being mailed out tomorrow...For a special friend who won't be attending convention.

This is a tiny little card- about 2 1/2 x 3 1/2.  The perfect size to hold an ATC...Yep, I'm including one of my ATC trades from convention too.  Just because I think she needs one.  LOL...
 The scrappy background came about after I trimmed the edges of my 35 ATC trades.  I had lots of scraps and decided to turn them into card backgrounds/elements.  Love the effect!

Ok...Now I'm off to create some more and fill up my swap bag.  :)  I'll be back to share my ATC that I'll be trading with some of my Coach family...

Happy End of April Secret Friend!

Hello there Journey stampers,

I'm sharing a special card I created for my secret partner in a swap I'm hosting for FSJ convention/seminar in June.  There are 12 people in this swap and we answered a questionnaire about ourselves.  These questionnaires were swapped out (by me) and each person was assigned a secret partner.  We will reveal ourselves at convention and will give our secret friends a special handmade gift and two cards...One created and shared on April 30, and one created and shared online on May 30.

This kind of swap is fun because you get to learn a lot about stamping friends you just meet, you get to create cards and projects for someone you may or may not have ever met and in the months leading up to seminar/convention, you are having fun and building on the excitement of the event.

Here's the card I created for my special Secret Friend.  I used some new FSJ products I just got in the mail yesterday and I was so excited to play with them.

I almost left the background image black and white...but the poppies called to me...or at least I think they are poppies.  LOL

 I loved tucking the sentiment into the ribbon.

 Pretty little beads tied to the twine give an extra special touch...

I didn't forget about the inside!  

FSJ Materials used:  

Wonderful Day Stamp Set
Oatmeal Cookie Card Base (A2)
Black Licorice Cardstock and Ink
Whip Cream Cardstock
Treat Label Dies
Natural Journey Twine
Sparkle Drops

Non FSJ Materials Used:

Copics:  Flower:  R000, 32, 35; Inside Flower:  E08; Y38, Distressing/Shadowing:  B000; W00, W1
Black Sewing Thread
Black sheer/satin stripe ribbon
Black Versafine Onyx Ink pad for distressing

Convention???

Attending Convention/Seminar?

Woo Hoo!  Seminar is coming up soon and I thought I would share some tips that many might find helpful.  I can always add more tips, so if I missed something, let me know.  PS...I'll be posting more helpful Seminar/Convention ideas in the days and weeks to come, so keep your eyes peeled!