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.

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.  

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

Carolyn Hurst

Sue Eldred

Holly Craft

Kelli Richardson

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.

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

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.

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!