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.

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.

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.  

Last year I decided to fill my daughters’ Easter baskets with practical gifts rather than candy.   So they got socks and underwear – it doesn’t get much more practical than that right?   Well it didn’t go over so well so this year may find me in the chocolate bunny aisle again.   Plus – if I don’t give them candy, who am I supposed to sneak candy from for my own sweet tooth?

Some Easter Baskets for you.   These first cards, with the basket with the plain eggs is Jeanie’s Easter Basket – 701H - named after the artist who drew it.  This same basket is in the Cling set 567QCL with a beautiful word stamp.

Jennifer Woodward

Carolyn Hurst

Pat Connelly

The cards below were made using Judy’s Easter Basket – 702K - again named after the artist.    The cling set for this basket is 702QCL.

Carolyn Hurst

Kathie Bailey

Sue Eldred

Believe it or not, one of the more challenging things I have to do is come up with names for the new images our artists create.   It seems like it would be easy, maybe even fun right?   But the name has to mean something to you the stamper – say you want to google to find a stamp with a chick and a wagon.   And it has to mean something to those of us here in the shop who have to pull the stamp off the shelf, or maybe press the stamp, or cut it out, and so on.  So when I really want to call a cute little chick “Norbert” I can’t – I have to call him “Chick with Egg Wagon”.   Here are LOTS of examples of the Chick with Egg Wagon – 1092F or 1092QCL.
Maria Levine

Carolyn Hurst

Sue Eldred

Holly Craft

Kelli Richardson

In just about 3 weeks that silly Easter Bunny will be sneaking into our refrigerator and stealing all of our beautifully dyed Easter Eggs and hiding them all over the yard.  So don’t wait too long to get your Easter Stamps!   Our Bunny Artist image – 985F, which is available in a cling set, 985QCL too – has inspired our designers to create lots of cards!   Here are some to inspire you.

This first card was made by Sue Eldred using the stamps in the cling set, 985QCL.  Below that is a horizontal version.

The card below was created by Carolyn Hurst.  In addition to the Bunny Artist, she used Happy Easter II – 706D.

And below you’ll find two more cards created by Carolyn Hurst who used the Three Ducks  – 981F image too.

I haven’t seen any flowers here yet….but a couple days ago the last of the snow that fell in December melted in the garden and there was still green spinach under there!   So surely it won’t be long before some flowers start peeking out.  Until then we’ll enjoy some examples made with the Easter Flower Corner image, which can be purchased individually as 842F or in a cling set as 842QCL that includes the words you see on Anya Schrier’s pretty card below. 

Carolyn Hurst created the card below using some 3D layering with the same image.

The neighborhood I grew up in had a small lake that was home to several ducks.  Each spring there would be at least one family of ducklings paddling around the lake.    Anya Schrier’s cute spring card brought back lots of fun memories of my brother and I taking a bag full of old bread scraps up to feed those greedy ducks (and dodging that mean hissing goose!).  Anya used Serendipity’s “Three Ducks” 981F and “Happy Spring” 847C for her February Spring Challenge card below.   Another good image to combine with the Three Ducks image is 844D Jelly Beans.

Below is another duckie card – this one made by Sue Eldred…

And one more, made by Carolyn Hurst.    Carolyn stamped her image on velum along with Happy Easter II 706D and layered it over the Easter Wreath Large 979K.

Here’s our other adorable chick stamp.   840E Chick With Tulip or the cling set 840QCL, which includes “Celebrate Each Day” and “Thinking of You”.  This first sample is an amazing diarama from Holly Craft.   The stamps she uses in addition to the Chick are Bunny Artist, Happy Easter, Easter Wreath Small, and Jeanie’s Easter Basket.

The next card is from Sue Eldred – she included the Easter Flower Corner with the chick. 

The next card is from Amy Cokley – it’s a whole parade of chicks!