Woo Hoo -- What a Thrill!

Last fall and winter I was pretty good about sending in at least a couple of cards each month to Stampin' Up! for their monthly demonstrator contests. Then things got kind of busy and I stopped, so I really did not expect to find any of my cards on the display boards at Convention. Imagine my surprise when I found not just one, but two of my cards on the boards! I was absolutely thrilled.

You can see the first of my two cards in the top row of this photo -- my card is second from the left. And I uploaded my own photo of the card so you could see it better. I think I sent it in for a Thanksgiving theme contest, and it was actually a CASE of my own card I made back in June -- I just changed the designer paper and used hemp twine dyed with craft ink to thread through the buttons instead of the gold cord I used in June. I also did a better job of water coloring the pumpkin. The funny thing is, I submitted another card along with this one, and I actually thought the other one was better, but it didn't make it onto the display. It just goes to show I'm not the best judge of my own work, LOL!

The second of my cards to make it on the boards was actually stamped with the retired Perfect Presentations hostess set from the Fall Winter 2007 catalog. Strange, I know, but really unavoidable. If you think about it, in order to showcase only the current stuff on the display boards SU would have to weed out retiring stamp sets, accessories, designer papers and in colors, one or more of which was probably used in 90% of the samples sent in. So instead they don't worry about it and just group the displays by theme or color. The displays are mostly there for inspiration (color combinations, layouts, techniques, etc.) so the fact that some of the cards use retired stuff doesn't really matter.

Nothing illustrated this point better than my own photo of the display card (The one in the foreground here and second from the left in the bottom row of the display photo). Once again, the card that was displayed was actually a CASE of one of my other cards, which you can see in the background of this photo. Originally I designed a card using the Season of Joy set. Then there was a challenge on SCS to re-do one of our own cards in the same colors and layout, but using different sets, so I reached for the Perfect Presentation set. So if you were a convention goes and you wanted to use the display card as an inspiration, you could easily reverse the process at home and re-create the display Perfect Presentation retired card with the Season of Joy current set.

Yes, your eyes did not deceive you! I did say that Season of joy will be a current set! I am absolutely thrilled to report that this set, one of my favorites from last year's holiday mini, made it into the big catalog! Woo hoo! Honestly, the selection of Christmas stamps in this year's catalog is unbelievable -- there may be one or two sets that I do not absolutely have to have -- the rest of them will make their way into my stamp room (if they're not already in it - LOL!)

And for those of you who are curious about sets from the holiday mini that made the catalog, here's a list:
Autumn Harvest (and if you like this set be sure to check out the new coordinating fall harvest wheel!)
Snow Jumbo Wheel
Snow Burst
Season of Joy
Merry and Bright (woo hoo -- I just love this little set!)
Holy Triptych

That's it for the Holidays 2007 mini -- all of the other stamp sets in it will be considered officially retired on the date of it's anniversary, September 1, 2008.

As for the Occasions 2008 mini, some of the sets from this mini made it into the fall/winter book:
Bloomin' Beautiful
Tart and Tangy
One smart cookie
Full of Life

But if your favorite Occasions mini set is not in the book this time, don't despair. There is still a chance that some of the rest of the Occasions mini sets will make it into the Spring/Summer 2009 collection. I'm so crossing my fingers for She's All That and Live your Dream!