Demo Fun With Team Swaps -

Primarily I love being a Stampin’ Up! Demonstrator because of the relationships I have made with others that also love papercrafting. I have so many great friendships because of Stampin’ Up! as a result of enjoying this fantastic crafty journey. Those of us that are doing Stampin’ Up! as a small business often have our own personal style when it comes to creating, we are drawn towards certain papers, stamps and colour combinations that light us up and make us happy. Swapping with other demos’ is a great way of having samples on hand in different styles and showing looks, styles and colours that might not be what we would craft with, these may appeal more to those that love our products.

We often do team swaps organised by other fabulous Team Leader Kerry Timms, now I love everything Kerry does but to illustrate the point Kerry loves lots of white space, soft subtle colours, multiple layers and very small strips of patterned paper. Her cards and projects are usually multi-stepped and involved, she is the first to say she does not do simple stamping and struggles to create a very basic, simple, beginners card. Other team members love the basic simple stamping style of card making and shy away from the multiple step layered projects. These differing styles creating swaps make for a broad selection of styles to share.

Having swaps from all sorts of crafters really helps to widen the appeal of what we show our crafty communities so that they can see something that they might choose to replicate, that really is their style and level of crafting, helping them to enjoy a successful crafting experience.

I often choose a 3D project when the theme allows as I love to create boxes, bags, gift packaging and mini albums. The brief for this January Mini Album Swap was a 3D project with matching card, right up my street!

I decided to focus on the Heart & Home Products. This beautiful selection of products lends itself to simple crafting right up to being truly elaborate and fancy if that’s your jam! I used the Memories & More card pack, these are so versatile and are designed to work with our pocket scrapbooking offering but I use them on cards and for all my projects as they also contain stickers and some lovely sentiments that you can chop and change. I also used the Doilies from this collection and again I snipped them flipped them over, so pretty and versatile.

My colour choice for the projects featured Cinamon Cider that appears in the Designer Paper, Doilies and the Memories & More Cards. A rich, warm, rusty brown that looks fab with the Misty Moonlight and Pale Papaya in this collection.

Many years ago at a large craft fair, I attended a workshop and created what I would describe as a flip, flap mini album. This was pre-printed on 12 x 12 card to be cut apart and was part of a range by a large scrapbook brand. I still have this mini-book and love the way it went together. I’ve often thought about creating my version and here was my chance! I closed the album with a bellyband and then I made a little matchbook box to pop it into to keep it safe.

I was able to create the foundation of the album from a piece of A4 Card the finished album measures just shy of 3 inches square (7.5cm square). I’m working on a rectangle version of this album, but this will require 12 x 12 inch card for the basic album. It will however have more space for photos, quotes and journalling.

Although I love to swap, I have to admit I was a little sad when I had to say goodbye to this little beauty. I reflected on the reason why we create for others, we are sending them a piece of us, a project we created with love and when we send our projects to others we hope they will feel that love.

All the products that I used to create this project are from Stampin’ Up! and available in my online store. Click any of the product images below to go shopping. Please use the Host Code at the bottom of this post when you place your order, this will allow me to send you a little gift at the end of the current month to thank you for shopping with me. I really appreciate your order and love to send a thank you card and a small product gift to show you how much your custom means to me. I would love to create a Tutorial for this cute book in this size and a larger rectangle version, would you like to see me put this one together via Zoom or YouTube?

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