Hello friends!  Hope you had as great of a weekend as I did!  I came back Sunday evening from a wonderful stamp convention in Collinsville, IL and created, purchased, spent time with some amazing people too…it was so fun!  It was fun to talk to other stampers and just enjoy our time there!  I thought I’d share some of the fun I had with you!

First, I would like to say that I was honored to finally meet up with a wonderful blog friend who inspires me with her creative art, Patti from Cherish Each Precious Day.  I was so happy to actually see her in person and meeting her lovely friends as well!  Thank you for taking the time to spend lunch with me and my mom! 🙂  I really wish I had remembered to take a snapshot with you though!

This was my first time in many years that I had actually even been to a stamp convention and I really hope to go to another one again next year as we had such a great time!  I always love going and seeing demonstrations and make-n-takes from the vendors…so of course I had to take part in the fun and here are some of the cards that I made there:

This was made from the Stamp On It vendor (Kim was the lady who taught the make-n-take) which sold these amazing kits with a variety of stunning images printed on acetate sheets.  You would use this sticky glitter adhesive to go over it and create this amazing look.  Of course it’s much more stunning in person!

This make-n-take was made from the Rubber Cottage vendor.  I just fell in love with that gorgeous floral background image and bought it! 🙂  The lady that taught the make-n-take showed us a clever way of keeping the card protected while the stickles glitter dried.  Again, it’s so pretty and sparkly in person!

These fun designs were from the Marco’s Paper vendor.  The “Woohoo” card was created with Nuvo paste at the bottom corner and a strip of Nuvo glitter with score tape.

The other piece you see was something that was made using a gel press and oxide ink pads.  We just had fun playing around with it and got some great tips from the lady sharing it.  I have a gel plate, but have yet to use it!  Hopefully I can pull it out soon and just play now that I’ve actually seen it in action! 🙂

This card was made from The Stamp Pad vendor.  She does not have a website as of yet, but she is a store located in the small town of Kimmswick, MO.  I was talking with the owner and she was explaining what a nice little town it was.

We used stencils with distress ink and Nuvo paste.  I thought the butterfly and papers were so pretty.  The sentiment was already previously stamped when given the kit.

This card was made from the Taylored Expressions vendor (You can actually see another version of this card on the front of her website!).  From what I heard from others at the event, she was new to this stamp convention and she seemed to be a very busy vendor there!  She had many different things going on with demos and several different make-n-takes.  I just loved her products and you will see something below that I got there! 🙂

This card was just a matter of adding the decorative paper in the background and then placing the colored card stock popsicles over the already cut out border.  We stamped the sentiment using the MISTI, colored the popsicle sticks with a Copic marker and added the twine.  She even provided an envelope.  Taylor helped me with my bow! LOL!  When I got home, the only thing I did was add some sparkle with my Spectrum Noir glitter brush.

Lastly, we created this alcohol inked background card from The Paper Cut vendor.  The lady there showed the different looks you get from dabbing verses twisting the applicator.  I twisted my background.  The frame was already die cut, but I ended up saving those tiny dots from the die and added them back onto it.  (We were provided with enough rhinestones for each dot in the sentiment as well as the corners.)  We used the alcohol inks to color the rhinestones in the corners and then we popped it up with foam tape.  An envelope was provided for this make-n-take too.

The stamp convention also held a card contest where you could make up two cards based on the theme provided for each day.  The themes for this year were Saturday:  “Ahoy Matey!” and Sunday:  “Time for a Nap”.  I decided to send in the limit which was two cards per theme.  Of course, silly me didn’t remember to take a photo of the cards BEFORE I mailed them off…so sorry about the quality, but I took photos on my phone of the cards that I made that were displayed:

I made this card using of course a My Favorite Things stamp set called Party Like a Pirate.  Where you see the girl pirate inside the port hole looking out, this is actually cut out with real wood veneer paper and it acts as a flap to open the card from the center so you can see the line where it opens.  I had so much fun with this one!

this is the second card I made in the same category.  I used stamps and a marker to make a map background and distressed the edges.  The skull and treasure chest come from an older set in my stash from a company no longer in business.  The parrot is from the same stamp set listed in the above card.

For the second day Sunday’s contest of “Time for a Nap”, this is one of the cards that I made.  It’s so hard to see the details in this photo, but obviously I’ve used a Snoopy stamp and colored it with colored pencils on kraft card stock.  I took a play on the sentiment and added the “Z”s in place of “be” that would be there.

And for my second card in this category, I’ve made this fun penguin beach theme using the My Favorite Things set called Penguins in Paradise.  I thought it would be fun to add a summer beach scene with a penguin taking a nap!  LOL!  The sky and the water were masked to create the different looks.

I have to say that it paid off in sending in my cards!  On Saturday, I had no luck at all with any prizes.  On Sunday, when they announced 3rd place, 2nd place and then the first place winner….I was so excited to find out that my penguin card won 1st place at the stamp convention!!  My prize award was $100 to spend with ANY vendor there at the show!  Believe me, it didn’t take long at all to spend it!!  LOL!

So I thought I’d just share a quick photo of some of the items that I got while I was there!  Notice the bag I’m holding above…so it gets MUCH bigger after that!  🙂

As you can see, I had no problem spending the prize winnings there!  I have to say though that this all equals out to much more than my prize winnings…believe me!! LOL!!  I can’t wait to start playing and using up all of my new goodies now!!  I think there are some items underneath all of this that you cannot clearly see in the photo either!

So after the exciting weekend, long drive home…I ate a late great supper that hubby made for me and pretty much collapsed that night.  Yesterday, I had been sorting, photographing and trying to “catch up” with normal life now.  🙂

Hope you’ve enjoyed my share and thanks for stopping in!  Hope you can share a smile with someone today!