Spring Fest 5

Nothing creative to post today but I did want to share about the 

5th Annual Spring Fest 

April 28th, 2012

Buffalo, NY

A day of stamping, laughing, eating, prizes, chatting and being inspired

Holly McMillan (Toy) and I started this event 5 years ago, We thought we might get 15 people to come to this day of stamping and ended up with 50! Holly moved away after the first year so I roped several of my friends and family into helping. Here is a picture of our group in 2011...

The registration for 2012 is now open and spots are going fast. If you would like to read more about our "little" event, here is the thread on Splitcoast.

Swap Sample

Warmer temps and sunshine have finally come to Upstate NY and it is lovely! The top to the Vibe is open every chance I get, the hostas are coming up in the garden and the we finally shut the heat off. I was beginning to wonder if the day would come.

My hostess duties kept me pretty busy during Spring Fest but I did get a chance to make a couple of shoe box samples. This card was designed by Sheryl C who is a consultant for Amuse.

It was my first opportunity to use Amuse's hybrid ink pads. Oooohhhh, I like them muchly! Of course Sheryl did choose a great combo of colors for this card too but I found the coverage awesome. It is the kind of ink that will work really well with clear stamps. The kraft base was also embossed with a texture plate and there are tiny pearls on some of the flowers.

I see an Amuse order in my future!

Thanks for stopping.

3-D Time

At Spring Fest we had a variety of swaps available and each participant had to be in at least one swap. One of my favorite swaps to do and see is the 3-D swap. Here are some of the projects that people made...

There are always great ideas.

Those green baskets were adorable!

My friend Lynn covered card boxes, each one was a bit different.

These little goodies were made by Cheryl Rowley, love her!!

Each group had 8 participants to keep the projects manageable. Diane Zechman made the garden sticks in the background (so clever!), Lisa Kind made the jam boxes on the right using a My Time Made easy template (pushing my need for a Cricut!) and Michele Ghent did the covered notepads with magnetic closures to boot!

Very fun projects! Lots to drool over.

Recipe Cards

One of the swap groups for Spring Fest was a 6x6 recipe card. This group tied with the No Vendor Restrictions card front for the most participants-38! Sadly, I was not able to participate in any of the swaps so I can't even tell you who the creators of these lovelies are. But here is a small taste of what was swapped...

Two of the cards featured chickens, I thought they were adorable and had to share.

The wooden holders that the cards are held up by are the ones made by my FIL. He made a few extras and they worked great to display these larger projects.

I am getting my butt kicked by a cold or strep throat, may need to go to the doctor to get it under control. In the mean time, I hope you enjoy some of the projects the Spring Fest stampers worked so hard to create.

If all this fun sounds like something you want to join, check out the Get It Together forum on SCS to see if one is being planned in your area. If there isn't, maybe you can start one.

Another One for the Books

Four years ago Holly McMillan and I tossed around the idea of getting a few local stampers together for a shoebox swap. We were hoping for a turn out of 15 and got 50! Yesterday was our 4th annual Spring Fest in the Buffalo area and we had a glorious day with 85 stampers from 3 states and Canada. By now many of the faces are old friends but we also enjoyed meeting several new people this year. Here is a shot of our group hard at work creating their projects.

I put my older son in charge of taking photos and I probably should have given a bit more oversight. When I downloaded the umpteen photos this morning, most of them were blurry and unusable. Sigh.

Once again we had a phenomenal prize table with items that were both purchased with registration fees and donated by several awesome companies. Everyone went home with a prize. That is always a fun part of the day. Giving things away is cool!!

An event of this size is never a one person affair. I have lots of friends and family that go above and beyond. I {heart} these people, they are so giving of their time and talents. The event was held at my friend Beth's church. She also made these incredible favors for everyone.

Owls were the theme and Beth cased the idea for the owls from here. We filled the insides with tootsie rolls for a mid swap sugar refueling. We wanted them to perch so we stood them up on a spool she wrapped with samples of twine. Awesome! My father-in-law made wooden card stands for all our guests.

I will save some pics of projects another day. For now, I am getting out the bon-bons, putting up my feet and finding a good movie to watch.