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.  

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.

And now I’m so excited about postcards that I decided it was about time to have another customer challenge – of course, a postcard challenge! 
DEADLINE:  April 21st
RULES:  Your postcard can be any size, but it must be FLAT.  No layers or do dads. 
RANDOM DRAWING:   All submissions will be entered in a random drawing to win a free cling set of your choice. 

Want some inspiration?   Here are a couple of the postcards created by our DT for their challenge.   Watch over the next couple of days for more postcards.   We’ll start with Jennifer Woodward’s Crocus Postcard since there’s a little crocus just like this poking up in my garden right now.   Jennifer used the Crocus Cling Set – 995QCL to create her postcard.  And guess what?  It’s on sale right now for 50% off!

Below is Amy Cokley’s postcard – well, the back of it.   I wanted you to see our Postcard - 330F in action.   The perfect thing to give your postcard that vintage feel.

Sue Eldred made the card below using our new Stamp of Approval – 1205E  image.  The red “ribbon” is a party streamer – crepe paper.    And that background?  That’s a newspaper with a photo of Sue’s son – who had won student of the month!

This first one is made by Jennifer Woodward.

The next is by Sue Eldred.

And last, but not least is one by Carolyn Hurst.