This was not the post I planned to do today.  This is a post of desperation springing out of the fact that the one that I thought I was doing last week had technical difficulties.   But I never posted it last week.  Then today, the one I thought I was doing was missing.  Yes, it is just gone.  I have no idea where.  I have no idea why.  I am glad this one was in my draft folder.  I was going to put it out tomorrow, so it is just a day early.

On Saturday weeks our family is heading out for our annual family vacation, the stimulus for which is my annual stamping convention.  The convention is usually held in Salt Lake City.  That is twelve (ish) hours from here, and there is a whole lot of beautiful scenery between here and there.  So instead trying to find daytime childcare so I can go to this, we make a vacation out of it and have a blast. 

At the Convention, there will be thousands of stampers which to the naked eye would appear like a pit of lunatics.  On the first day there will be a frenzy of “swapping.”  “Swapping” is trading samples.  This is one of the best ways to get cool ideas, and for me, it is a way to get a lot of samples to use in my business.  Swappers make a certain amount of identical cards (or whatever moves them), then trade with others.  There are extreme swappers who bring 1,000 cards to trade.  Louise would not fall into that category.  I take 100 cards to trade because 100 cards fit nicely into my sample basket.  (AfterConvention I have an Open House, and one activity for that is to allow my customers to pick  through the basket and take whatever they want which makes room for the new things I get.)   

In years past I have stayed up until midnight or later the night before leaving for Convention making these swaps.  Or I have done them on the airplane or car on the way.  Now I have a much better system.  One of my customers is a terrific stamper and loves to do it, so I just get her the stuff, and she makes them for me.  No stress!  Done on time!  I took her the supplies last week, and she will be making 100 of these cards.  I “pay” her in stamps and supplies.  It makes us both unbelievably happy.

 

My rules for making 100 cards for swapping is that they look good, but are relatively simple and not super-expensive.  This one fits the bill.  And lest you think I thought this up on my own, this was my inspiration.  The changes I made were to make it not look like the original and to reduce the cost.  The heart in the original is made of chipboard and chunky glitter.  That would have added quite a bit of expense to the project.

 

As it is, I am happy with the results, although it is not the post I was hoping for today.

 

By Louise Cannon