I'm ready for the Stampin' Up! Leadership conference....here's one of my swap cards!

Yes, it's true, for the first time I can ever remember, I had all of my card swaps ready more than a week before time to leave for a Stampin' Up! conference.  Hard to believe but I am telling the truth!  It helped that we had a busy Christmas and New Year's celebration planned with family so I had to be ready in advance but I was able to sneak in some crafting time while we were enjoying our family over the holidays and I even had more than a little help from my youngest son's lovely (and creatively talented!)  girlfriend.  Thank you, Laura...you definitely saved the day this year!  (she really did, she even helped me with convention swaps this past summer).  Anyway, all of my swaps are stamped, assembled, labeled and ready to go to Orlando for the Stampin' Up! Leadership conference.

The card above is for an organized swap hosted by Lyssa Zwolanek, a Stampin' Up! demo buddy from Watertown, Wisconsin.  This particular card is created with the "Cross My Heart" stamp set from the 2013 Spring Mini which just went active this week!  This set offers cute sentiments for multiple occasions all done in a "crossword puzzle" format.  It called my name the minute I saw it in the catalogue...I love crossword puzzles! 

The card has multiple layers but it wasn't difficult to make, coming up with the idea was the real challenge.  I am a good copycat stamper but creating original cards is the hard part!  I stamped the sentiment in black StazOn ink then went over the heart image with Cherry Cobbler Dazzling Details (red glitter glue) and forced myself to be patient and wait overnight before handling it.  Trust me on this, that glue takes a while to dry! After the glue was dry, I trimmed it, layered on black then trimmed again leaving a black edge, which I layered on a Cherry Cobbler oval (lg oval punch).        

   

The "Medallion" was created by diecutting black cardstock with the Labels framelit (2nd smallest, I think) which was then run thru the oval frame embossing folder.  It's easier to center up the embossing once you have the diecut shape.  The hardest part was waiting for the glitter glue to dry!  

There are some other layers for the main card with the top "faux newsprint" from First Editions Designer Series Paper  as the topmost layer.  I tied a piece of Cherry Cobbler seam binding around the edge of the card and the final touch was adhering a trio of clear rhinestones underneath for a little bling.  To keep the color scheme consistent, I used a black Sharpie marker and colored the gemstones black...they still sparkle but are a little more subdued which I liked. 

So, what do you think?  Would you swap with me?  I haven't blogged for ages (I think Oct of 2011?) so I would love it if you would leave me a comment and tell me what you think of it!