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.

The new Summer Release is on the www.serendipitystamps.com website!   And, just like I’ve been describing for spring stamps, these summer stamps were inspired by what I see around me everyday.   I’ve heard from a lot of folks who don’t get to see redbud trees in bloom or wild turkeys in the back yard – but they did at one time – and our stamps bring back those memories for them.

Our little piece of land sits on a 2-lane highway in western Missouri.  When we bought the place, I noticed some pretty pink and white flowers growing along the pasture fence up by the road.   I asked a neighbor and she told me that they were Sweet Peas.   Below is a notepad that Anya Schrier created for our DT Notepad Challenge.   Anya does a beautiful job of collage with several different word images plus the Sweet Pea 1215H and Earth Laughs 417D images that are both included in the 1215QCL Sweet Pea Cling Set. 

Here’s a close up of Anya’s project.  Watch for more posts this week showcasing our new Summer Stamps!

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.

They say that one of the benefits of a hard winter is less bugs in the spring – from what I can see that won’t be the case here in western MO (those dang ticks are out in droves already!)  However, a real honest to goodness benefit to a hard winter IS lilacs.   I have two lilac bushes – a deep purple one that I bought from a local nursery when we first built our house and a white lilac that grew from a shoot that I pulled up at an old abandoned farm house.   Both were just gorgous this year!   I filled vases so full of lilacs that Martha Stewart would have been jealous and we all swooned from the scent.   Here are some photos of the lilacs and the stamp image – 200L - they inspired and a beautiful card made by DT member Kathie Bailey.

Someone asked me the other day what provided the inspiration for new rubber stamp designs.   I couldn’t really come up with an answer at that time, but it’s been running through my head as I go about my daily life.  Then it hit me - “daily life” is what inspires me.   No – not dirty dishes, or email.   The GOOD stuff, the beauty and wonder that comes along every day is what inspires me.   So I’m going to spend a couple of days pointing out some things that have inspired some of Serendipity’s stamps.

Below is the view coming down my driveway this week.  And to think – this is not landscaping – just Mother Nature in all her glory!  Blooming redbuds only last a short time and the very best time to see them in on a cloudy day just after an April shower.

This view is just as pretty in January, though not as colorful.   But it was the inspiration for 1194H – Winter Fenceline, shown below.   All it takes is someone full of imagination, like DT member Anya Schrier, to turn January into April, as you can see in the card further down.

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.  

Garden Stamps 20% Off Until April 19th

NOTE: – There has been some confusion so I want to clarify – the discount will display on the page AFTER you enter your credit card and shipping information.

Last week was Serendipity Stamps Design Teams’ Mother’s Day Challenge.   They did such a great job showing off Serendipity’s flower stamps I thought this would be a good way to kick off our Garden Sale.   All of the stamps in our Garden category are 20% off – but just for a few days.  You can click the designers’ names to go to their blogs for details about each card.

This first card was created by Lynda Benden using our 443G Tulip Vase. 

The card below was made by Amy Cokley using 860E Dandelion Puff Small and 822D Mom Large (which is on our $1 sale right now!).

The next card, made by Kathie Bailey, shows off our 200L Lilacs image. 

Below is Jennifer Woodward’s card – made with the 719L Butterfly Bush image (which looks very much like the Lilacs!).

Next we have Anya Schrier’s  pretty 343QCL Pansy Corner Card.  This link is for the cling set, which includes word stamps to make a very nice sympathy card.  Anya’s card is  a Mother’s Day card and she used 286E Wishing You All The Best.

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.