stamping therapy.

we officially kicked off what might be the 3rd (?)generation of a stamping group last night at karen's house. the idea is that we meet every other month or so at someone's house for a fun evening of making cards with stampin up and our wonderful demonstrator sharon. and lots of talking and laughter and making messes and generally being creative. and good food and wine. therapy for sure.

this photo shows a little bit of the mess (there were three 'stations' of cards - so three other tables that looked a lot like this one!) and karen, gratia and lisa. it was lisa's first time with stampin up. and she did great and got the therapy too, i think. joey and her friend beth were also there. anne, kelli and sally weren't able to attend, but we helped put together two of the cards for them and got the 3rd card ready for the glue dots.

one of the really good things about the stamp club is that sharon does all the designing and cutting for us - we just have to assemble, with a few creative options (maybe a different stamp, or slightly different assembly - say turning a horizontal design into a vertical one?). last night's cards were a great start - not as hard as "masking" (a technique i simply can't seem to master), but not so easy we finished before we got that full dose of therapy. sharon decided this was 'patterned paper and punches' (and glue dots!) - and featured the au chocolat paper from the spring mini catalog.

here are the three cards that sharon designed for last night:

and to give you a taste of our creative spin - here are two of our completed cards (sharon's original is on the right)