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.  

Sale time!  You can save 10% to 20% on stamps in the Halloween Category at www.serendipitystamps.com.  But don’t wait too long – the sale ends Sept 27th! 

This will give all of you a chance to stock up on Serendipity Halloween stamps so you can enter our Customer Halloween Challenge!   Just email a photo of your Halloween card or project, stamped with Serendipity Stamps, to serendipity@serendipitystamps.com before October 15th.  We’ll post them all right here on October 15th, and draw a random entry to win a $20 gift certificate to Serendipity Stamps!  Last week Mary Puskar won our Monochrome challenge. 

Here’s an awesome scrapbook page created by Sue Eldred using our Batty Cling Set. 

Below are the submissions from the Serendipity Stamps Design Team for the September Halloween Challenge.  They came up with some really great ideas!  Some designers sent me more than one design and I didn’t keep good notes on what was for the challenge and what was just for fun so I put them all in – the more the merrier!  Be sure to check out the gallery at the bottom of this post – there are multiple picture of some items there. 

Now it’s your turn!  Enter our Halloween Reader Challenge!  Just send a photo of your Halloween Project, made exclusively with Serendipity Stamps, to serendipityreadercards@gmail.com.   Be sure to tell us your name and include your blog info if applicable!   The deadline for the Halloween Reader Challenge is October 15th.  A random entry will be chosen to win a $20 gift certificate for Serendipity Stamps!

The picture below is more than just a card – it’s a little pocket book to hold cards or candy!

These two cards were made using images Serendipity Stamps released in earlier years.  When you’re shopping for Halloween images on the serendipitystamps.com website, be sure to look at our Halloween stamp section in addition to the New Stamps section.  The first card is from Kathie Bailey, using our Witch – 795H image.  Notice how she mimicked the belt on the witches hat with her ribbon on the card?  The second card is from Lynda Benden and uses image 669H – Ghosties.   Both Kathie and Lynda have beautiful blogs where you can find more details for these cards – check out the links over to the right.

These Tall Pumpkins – 1174H are the favorite of the design team!  Check out Jennifer, Anya and Sue’s versions below.  And below that is a non-pumpkin card.  Jennifer Woodward created this card specifically with the idea of designing a card with just a word stamp.   I think she did a great job – love all that glitter!  She used the 1175D- Happy Boo Day image.

Here are two witches for you – two very different cards made using 1176E – Witch Sihouette.  Holly Craft’s little pop-up card is amazing!  Check out her blog for instructions.  And Amy Cokley’s card shows a great use for hinged tabs (those probably have a much better name, but I’ll be darned if I know what it is!).

When I was a kid, we used pillow cases.  Those could hold a LOT of candy!  And they didn’t tear when it rained or when some mean kid tried to steal it from you.  Ahhhh – those were the days…  Holly’s card uses both sizes of our new image – 1177E Trick or Treat Bag Large and 1178B – Trick or Treat Bag Small (on sale for $1 right now!) as well as 1173D – Happy Trick or Treating.