Serendipity Stamps Blog

My youngest daughter and I took the train recently from Kansas City to St. Louis.   Over the years I’ve heard horror stories about long delays along the normally 5 hour route, but recently I’d heard that most of those problems had been resolved so I decided we’d take the chance.   The train ride was great!   Very comfortable seating, similar to an airplane but with lots more seating space.   We left from Independence, MO, just east of Kansas City (home of Harry Truman and the Truman Presidential Library).  
 

It’s a small train station, staffed for just a few hours a day by volunteers.  There was a small, well kept parking lot, and benches on which to wait.     The train stops at least a half dozen times as it crosses the state, but only for a few minutes each time.    Much of the route is right along the Missouri River, through small towns, and farmland.  Very pretty scenery – much better than what we see from the highway (no billboards!!!!).   The trip takes just about the same amount of time as driving, and with two of us, we spent a bit less than we would have one gas.   Our trip back was not quite as idyllic – the air conditioning in our car was working only sporadically.   But the passengers took it in stride – most where St. Louis Cardinal fans traveling to Kansas City to watch the series with the Royals (I’m proud to report that our KC Royals won the series!), and were in festive moods.   This lack of grumbling really made the difference between what could have been a very long, tedious trip and what ended up being a “warm” , but fun adventure.   All of this is a not-so-subtle lead in to a couple of great samples made by our design team using our new Train Engine Large – 1217J image.  The name of each designer will display when select each photo.

In my last post I mentioned seeing lots of Goldfinches at my bird feeder.   Well just last week I saw a Goldfinch AND and an Indigo Bunting on the feeder at the same time.  It looked like a tropical rainforest with all those bright colors!   There’s a little wooded area with a creek near the end of our road and that’s where the Indigo Buntings hang out.   I don’t know if they like the shade, the water, or the water bugs, but it’s always a treat to see them flit by.  Here’s a picture of an Indigo Bunting in case you’ve never seen one – I hadn’t before a few years ago.
  

I love it when stampers get creative with our stamps.   Color a Coneflower yellow and it becomes a Sunflower.   Put a snowman in front of a summer porch, add some white gel pen to the bushes and you have a winter scene.   Kathie Bailey simply colored our new little Goldfinch blue instead of yellow and viola!   He’s an Indigo Bunting!   Kathie used our new Goldfinch 1219G and Quick Note Vertical 251D to create the outside of her note pad.

One day, about a month ago, I saw 6 little Goldfinches at the bird feeder at one time!   Oh they were sad little sights.  Not worthy of the name “gold” at all.   But over the next couple of weeks it was like someone had dipped them in a bucket of bright yellow paint (well – the boys at least, the poor little mama’s were still as drab as could be).  Now they all look like the beautiful little bird you see on Lynda Benden’s Memo Pad below.  She used the Goldfinch – 1219G, A Little Note – 553E, and Bitti Notes – 050C images, which are all sold together in the Goldfinch Cling Set – 1219QCL.

A few of the Iris have started blooming!    A few years ago, a woman in my town who raises a huge variety of Iris thinned her beds and gave me a garbage sack full of bulbs.  Well, I’ve been remis over the years and many of the colors have died away leaving me with mostly purple and white.   But even they are breath-taking and provided the inspiration for our Iris stamps – 546K and 547E.   Below the Iris is a beautiful card created by Pat Connelly.  On Pat’s card, you’ll also see the Spring Flower Background 578H and We Turn Not 573D.

One of the best things about Spring Turkey Hunting is the morel mushrooms!   Occasionally, well more like, very infrequently, my husband will come home with a turkey, but he always comes home with a sack of morel’s and I like them better anyway.  One day last week we saw this young lady walking around in our back yard (don’t worry – hens are safe during spring turkey season).    She would take a few steps, then make a high pitched “chirp” then walk a bit more.   Probably looking for love and hopefully she found it  and in a couple of months we’ll see her and her chicks walking by.

This isn’t exactly a “spring” turkey card, but it is one of my favorite cards of all time.  It’s super easy and beautiful!   Sue Eldred used 800K Turkey Large to create this card.    You can also get a small version of the same image – 801E Turkey Small.

I don’t have an image of a Morel mushroom – and I need to remedy that.  But I do have a  Toadstool – 1012G that makes beautiful cards – just don’t eat anything like these that you find out in the woods.

Congratulations to Velta Wesson!   You won the random drawing from our Customer Postcard Challenge!   Velta gets a free QCL sized cling set of her choice.   Thanks for entering Velta and here’s the pretty postcard you sent.   She used our cling set 712QCL – Adirondak Chair.   You can check out Velta’s blog at http://www.impressionsbyv.blogspot.com/

 Watch for my next post to see what our next Customer Challenge will be.  

Don’t forget!  Our Customer Postcard Challenge is due April 21st!   Just email me your postcard, made mostly with Serendipity Stamps at serendipity@serendipitystamps.com for a chance to win a free QCL sized cling set.

I came across this card made by Sue Eldred and it’s one that just makes me smile.  You could make this card in 5 minutes and send it to just about anyone for just about any reason (Sympathy?  Hmmm…maybe not).   So I thought I’d  make this little cling set the Quickie Sale this week.   Right now you can get the 925MCL Parrot Cling Set for just $3.50.  Hello!  Is that a bargain or what?  The other stamp used on the card, 851D Who Loves Ya Baby? is on the dollar sale.   So…you could buy all three stamps for just $4.50.  That should make you smile!

This card is a perfect example of taking a couple of fairly simple stamps and making something absolutely beautiful with them.  Kathie used our Cloisonne Butterfly images (cloisonne is a form of enamelware – often used on beads and other jewelry) which are great for layering and coloring.   She used stickles to “glitterize” the butterflies.  You can buy these images individually, 607D and 606D or as a set of two stamps 608G.  She also used 012G Lace Corner to create a lovely border for her card, which ties in perfectly with the lacy butterflies and the elegant die cut border of her layer. 

We had so much fun coming up with phrases to go with the little Skunk in our spring line of stamps.   But when it came down to choosing, I had to go with “Scent with Love” as being a bit more usable for making cards than “Love Stinks” (though don’t count it out for later releases!).   Both the Skunk and Scent With Love come in cling set 1203QCL.  Lynda Benden created the card below and after adding a bit of extra black with a prismacolor pencil she covered the whole skunk with white flocking (it’s hard to see this in the photo).  She also added little rhinestones to the flowers and around the scalloped edge of the card.  

When the SS Design Team’s Jennifer Woodward posted her adorable little Skunk card, she mentioned Pepe LePew.   How many of you remember Pepe?   I know, I know, we’re dating ourselves.   Well, if he’s a little fuzzy in your mind, try googling him.   There’s even a website of Pepe LePew’s quotes!   Oh it with make you laugh – my favorite was “You are ze corned beef to me, and I am ze cabbage to you” but there are so many more!  Thank you Jennifer for reminding us all of the most romantic little guy in cartoon land!   Jennifer’s card below uses both of the stamps from the 1203QCL Skunk cling set.   I love the combination of the soft colors and the pearl accents…