Rubber Stamp Expo update

Yesterday was the rubber stamp expo in Riverside. At 7am, I drove up to Julie's and then she drove over to Riverside. Thank god she drove. That traffic sucks. We had purchased tickets ahead of time so we could get in at 9:30am instead of 10. We met up with Tami and Heather, our friends from the Stamp Shack. From the time we got inside, I was in rubber heaven! OMG, so many stamps - unmounted and mounted. Our favorite companies, and a few new friends now. I think we are in love with Magenta! Our favorite "find" of the day is Micro Glaze by JudiKins. You can use it as a mask or as a protective coating for your art. It's a pasty/vaseline type of consistency that you put on with stipple brush. We love it! Watch for cards made with this stuff. This card was made with one of the Magenta stamps I got. Oh, before I continue, I need to tell you something exciting and fun..... The ATC contest. When we got inside the hall, Julie and I turned in our ATC's for the contest. Turns out, there were less than 10 entrants to the contest, and we were the only ones who followed the theme! We were pretty excited to learn that. The winner of the contest was to be announced at 4:30 so we hung out until then. When the announcer said, "the winner of the ATC contest is Debbie Scheunemann" I freaked! Julie and I high-fived and screamed! Julie held on to my stamps while I went up front to the announcer to collect my $25 in expo credits. I spent those credits in the Magenta booth. So how fun is that to win the contest? I'm jazzed, and we know that Julie got 2nd place. That is cool, too! So, back to the cards.... Here's the one I made with one of the Magenta stamps I bought. Their example was colored with Prismas in yellows/golds, so I thought I'd try my first try in blues. This card took me about 3 hours to finish. I really took my time and did a lot of blending and feathering. This card is done using one of the many Paula Best stamps. I love her stuff. I had never seen her stamps before, but now I am in love. I stamped the image on Stampbord, masked the sun and colored the background with dye inks. Since I covered up the stars, I just scratched the stampbord away until I got a white surface again. Colored the sun and stars with Prismas. Edged the image with adhesive foil. That stuff is cool! After we left the expo, we met another Shackie, Tonii, and her cousin, at El Torito for dinner. It was fun to meet Tonii in person. We got back to Julie's around 9 and I left for home. Got home around 10, checked my email and went to bed. I was exhausted!