Shoebox Swap Fun!

This year at Convention (are you tired of Convention stories yet?) I did something new for me. A large group shoebox swap. A what? Well, to prepare for this special swap I designed a card using all current Stampin' Up! product. Then I made 16 of the card and prepared 16 bags with the needed paper. I also brought along all the tools/stamps/ink pads needed to make the card in a shoebox - thus the name, shoebox swap. If the swap had been full, I would have left with 32 different cards that all used only SU! product and that could be used for demonstrations. I would have actually made 16 of them myself and carried out 15 (and my sample). Sounds like fun, right? The swap was not even close to full (and there were several that flaked out) but it was still so much fun. In fact it was probably more fun for me (a slow stamper) because there was no pressure to get out of the way of another person. I left very relaxed. It was fun to stamp just for fun (I wasn't designing for a class or club) and to chat with other demos from different areas. So what did I make for the swap? Here it is! (of course I realized after editing the photo I grabbed the most crookedly stamped card in the bunch...) At first I was worried about how simple this card was, but then I realized that was what made it great! The flowers are cool looking and simple to do. To make these cool flowers you need a paper crimper and the 5 petal punch. I took a rectangle of paper and crimped it about 5 different directions... you really want to break up the paper fibers so that the card stock begins to separate into layers. Then I punched out 2 flowers. Each flower I gently peeled apart into 2 pieces, which I layered with a circle punch to create the completed bloom. This technique will work with anything you can punch out of high quality card stock. Just make sure your original piece can fit through your crimper in multiple directions (ask me how I know). As always, I'd love to see what you do with this technique. It's such a fun way to add texture to your projects! Stamp Sets: Celebrate Everything, Itty Bitty Backgrounds Paper: Barely Banana, Old Olive, Pacific Point , Kraft Ink: Old Olive, Pacific Point, So Saffron