Swaps for Convention

So, why haven't you seen anything new from me lately? I should be thrilled that the new catalogue has gone live and I should be madly playing with my new stamp sets and paper right? That's exactly what I would be doing except that I am going to Convention this year. Convention is Stampin' Up!'s famous event for demonstrators (and guests if enough room) where they give out awards, highlight all the new things and just generally have fun, Stampin' Up! style. Going to any kind of Stampin' Up! event means that I have to prepare swaps. Technically I don't have to swap but I feel I would be missing out on one of the experiences. It's so great to see other people's card ideas and get samples of stamp sets and paper that I don't own. In my spare time, I have been cutting paper to get ready to assemble and stamp my swap cards. Here's the mess so far. I thought doing this card (which was a make n take at my summer mini release party) would be simple because it's just punching and glueing. Yeah. I am getting repetitive strain in my hands from punching so many little squares and I didn't realize that sticking all those squares down in a non-crooked manner is extremely difficult when you are making 48 card fronts.

I haven't even started on the flower embellishment which involves heat embossing and...you guessed it...more punching.

I planned to do 48 of these cards and then 48 card fronts using the Nature Walk stamp set. (on a side note, I am soo soo soo happy that Nature Walk made it into the new catalogue)

I am starting to despair that I will get everything done. You won't believe what I am doing this week. I had decided many weeks ago not to send my younger two kids to camp. I figured I could save the money and do my own home camp so I could really focus on some school preparation skills for my youngest child. My kids are thrilled. We are calling it "mommy camp". They figure they will have all the fun of camp but still see mommy so it's all good for them. Me, on the other hand, is now completely stressed out because it's 11:00pm the night before mommy camp and I haven't even started preparing the camp craft, camp snack and camp games yet. Fortunately, as a mother of three children, I have learned that spontaneity is possible.

Anyway, if you don't hear from me for a while, you know what I"m up to. I will definitely post again before I go to convention next week.