Whew!!

Well, the 2nd Annual WNY SCS Spring Fest is now history. It was a great day filled with wonderful ladies, food, prizes, stamped creations and so much more. I will be honest and tell you I wasn't sure I was gonna make it. This last week of planning and preparing about did me in. But in the end, the day went really well and people came together to pitch in. Stampers are truly wonderful people! We had 75 participants, 25 more than last year, I am humbled by the great response. I was so busy that I barely had a chance to take photos but here is one of the gym where much of the day took place.

In the morning we shared shoebox swaps, there were so many great ideas on display. After enjoying a ton of food (hello---Oreo Truffles??? Oh my thighs!) we offered classes and demos. Marty was on loan from our local stamp store, Buffalo Stamps and Stuff, and she did 2 classes. One was a demo of the Making Memories Slice and the other was a discussion we called What the Ink?? She is a walking library on the subject of inks, their applications and uses. Thank you Marty for a fabulous time of learning!! Cheryl Rowley and Lisa Kind worked together to teach a class on Copic Markers. They became Copic Certified at the same class I did last month and both do amazing work! What a blessing to have them team up, share some of their wonderful talent and allow a hands-on opportunity to work with the markers. Thank you ladies---you rock!! I offered up a demo on the Big Shot and Spellbinder dies, covering some of the basics of what you can create with die cuts. Fun crowd!
After the classes we had an opportunity for the ladies to make 5 different technique cards and a Make n Take sponsored by cutcardstock. They provided us these awesome Hot Fudge Gatefold cards and envies...yummy stuff! We gave away awesome prizes through out the day thanks to an incredible list of companies and people who donated items. Again, I am just humbled by the generosity of others and I thank them deeply for their help!
For now I will just share one of my swaps for the 3-D group I was in.

I purchased small canvas bags from Joann's and used some fabric, fusible webbing and a Sizzix die cut to create fun floral iron-ons. I added a felt embellishment from Jillibean Soup and hand sewed on buttons. Inside my bags were some of my homemade vanilla, some homemade marshmallows and a recipe card for how to make the marshmallows. If this style of recipe card looks familiar it is because I cased Michelle Wooderson's wonderful idea, why mess with perfection?! Did you even know you can make marshmallows from scratch?? You can, and they are awesome!! I tried it for the first time last month and just thought it was such a fun novelty. If you want a simple way to impress your friends try it sometime! I simply did a google search and found dozens of recipes, all pretty similar. You can start here with one from Martha Stewart. Here is a photo collage of a few of my steps. A stand mixer is pretty much a must on this one.

I will share more about our event this week. Thanks for stopping by.