Nor-Cal Paper Crafters Shoebox Card Swap-Saturday June 26th

This past Saturday, the 26th, 13 ladies from Shoebox Card Swap group got together and made cards and ate some yummy food. The theme for the swap was "Summer Fun, 4th of July, etc." The first two cards are the ones I made. The images are from AMuse on both cards. I put clear twinkle stickers on the sparklers and red stickers in the "God Bless America". The designer cardstock was purchased at Michael's. This is one of the cards I did for Elizabeth only it is a bigger size. I also cut a strip of blue cardstock for the ocean which I didn't do for the card I made for her. That card base was from AMuse and it had a strip of blue at the bottom as part of the card. I drew in some waves on my card. The ladies actually had to stamp the sailboat and clouds as it is basically a one layer card. I provided the Copic markers for them to do the coloring.

Julie submitted this card sample with kits for everyone. She was the one that was going to host June's swap and then had a conflict. She wanted to still play so she dropped off her card and kits to me on Friday night.

Michelle's card. She also couldn't come but wanted to play. I loved this card and thought it was quite clever the way she has the ribbon going diagonally across the card.

Linda did two cards also. On this one, she stamped the fish and circles around it on white cardstock, colored the fish, then enclosed some hair gel in a small plastic bag and glued that on top of the fish image. How clever is that!!

Linda's second card.

Karen's card. Another neat card. I didn't get my cards finished so I hope I can figure out how to put this one together.

Joyce's card. She just returned from a five week trip to Kentucky and made her cards while she was visiting there. A side note, her friend that she visited, joined my card swap that I am hosting on Splitcoast Stampers and made the cutest cards.

This is Jenni's super cute card. This is the second shoebox swap Jenni came to, her first one was the one I hosted last year in August. Jenni lives in Vacaville.

Tyana's card. She and Jenni are bestest friends and this was her first Shoebox card swap of ours that she attended.

Renee's card. The popsicle slides out of the card. Renee lives in Woodland. Another cute card.

Renee brought her mom, Sue, and this is her card. She said Renee helped her. She is a quilter and does other sewing. I went to Renee's last year for a workshop she had and met Sue there. So it was nice to see her again. She is a really sweet lady and lives in Lincoln.

The next two cards were made by Rhonda. This was Rhonda's first shoebox card swap with us. She happened to be lurking on SCS and saw the thread for our swap and decided to sign up. Her husband was not sure that she should do that because she didn't know "those people". She assured her husband we were good people because we're "stampers". She lives in Antelope, not too very far from me and shops at the same Bel Air as I do.

Lisa's card. This was her first time also. She and Candice, our fearless leader, are good friends and the two of them hosted a Stamp Retreat earlier this year. They are planning another one in September.

Pat did this adorable card...a popiscle on a stick. So clever!

The next two cards were made by Bonnie. Bonnie is such a neat person. She has had an overflowing plate with dealing with health issues of her husband. He is home now after being in the hospital having surgery and in a nursing facility. She works full time too. I was so happy to see her name on the sign up list and she mentioned that she really needed to play.

An adorable card!

And this last one is Candice's card. I love the color combination on her card. So very nice!!

L to R: Pat, Joyce and Linda.

L to R: Rhonda, Lisa and Candice.

L to R: Bonnie, in purple, and Karen.

Sue, Renee's mom.

L to R: Renee, Tyana and Jenni.

Well, we can't make awesome cards without yummy food to enjoy. This is Karen's chicken salad. YUM!!

Bonnie brought 2 salads. This is cole slaw with raisins. YUM!!

And her fruit salad.

Joyce's macaroni salad.

Tyana's pasta salad. This was so good!!

Jenni brought brownies. Gotta have chocolate! YUM!

My sliced fresh strawberries...

And pound cake slices from Bel Air to put the strawberries on top. I also had some Cool Whip.

Lisa's banana bread. I wanted to have some of this, however by the time I finished what I had on my plate, I had no room for dessert. It looked so moist and smelt incredible.

This is an oops. Didn't realize I had two pictures of Jenni's brownies. She left a few pieces and I brought them home to enjoy. Very good!!

Linda's pulled pork. She put root beer in with the pork when it was cooking then pours in a whole bottle of bbq sauce after it is cooked. She had rolls to put it on. This was incredible!!

Renee's incredible pasta casserole. It had sausage in it. She was driving us all crazy while she had it in the oven cooking. It was very good.

I realized that I forgot to get a picture of Sue's pulled pork dish, which was also wonderful; Rhonda brought a veggie tray with dip and Candice brought salsa with chips. We did not leave hungry.

We all had an amazing time. Our next shoebox swap is in August and Julie will be hosting.

I want to thank everyone who stayed to help clean up, put the tables back and the chairs around them, put the table cloths and centerpieces back on the tables and helped me carry all my stuff out to the van and made sure we left the clubhouse as we found it. We have an awesome group of ladies.