The Big Day is here!!!

Hello blog tour passengers! This part of your tour brings you down Interstate 24 though Tennessee. You will notice the dogwoods blooming and lots of green grass and leaves as we are fully into spring. Welcome to the Stampin’ Up! Blog of Elaine Wright, tour # 4, stop #12. I’m showcasing the Choo Choo stamp set and companion Right On Track wheel from page 18 of the Occasions Mini Catalog. I’ve made 2 cards and a scrapbook page to share with you today. The first card is a sliding card but if you want to see another fun, interactive card, visit Saturday’s blog post for a spiral pop-up card. Both are fun cards to send to anyone, but a child will really enjoy them when made using the Choo Choo set from the Occasions Mini Catalog.

Just a quick tip here, when you get a stamp that has a lot of solid parts, sand it with a fine grain sanding block or even an emeory board before stamping with it. This gives the rubber some "tooth" and you will get smoother, more evenly colored images.

The trains for the sliding card are stamped on the new window sheets; I thought that would be best since it is sturdy enough for the many times little fingers are sure to want to pull it back and forth! You could certainly do it on cardstock also but Stampin’ Up! now has acetate they call window sheets in medium and heavy weight. The medium will be heavy enough for this card. The heavy weight is thick enough to make mini albums out of. These are shown on page 10 of the Occasions Mini catalog as well as a printed window sheet.

I want to keep the post short today so you will have plenty of time to check out the other blogs on the tour but I will post a tutorial for the sliding card tomorrow so check back if you want to see how to make the train move back and forth on the card. Fun, fun!

Don’t forget the Get Connected special Stampin Up has going on this month. If you buy $40 from the Occasions Mini Catalog you get one of the stamps on page 208 of the Spring and Summer Catalog free. I’m adding to that special, if you order $40 from my website today I will send you either a classic stamp pad or a 24 sheet pack of 8 ½ X 11 cardstock in the color of your choice. This will not be added to your order if you order online, you will need to email me wrightplace4@mindspring.com your preference and I will send it to you separately. It's your choice, a free stamp and ink pad or a free stamp and paper!

I had to do a scrapbook page for those precious train pictures. I used the Bashful Blue Designer Series Paper, Pacific Point and Very Vanilla Cardstock, 1 ½” Twill Tape, Choo Choo Stamp set, Right on Track Wheel, and the Big Shot Top Note Die.

I punched out the trains with the 1 3/4" circle punch just to get out of cutting out the individual trains. I added some "coal" to the flat cars with the smoke cloud stamp that comes with the stamp set. I thought it looked a lot like a pile of coal! With the Basic Black ink cartridge I rolled the Right on Track Wheel on the twill before attaching it to the bottom of the page. I also used the Enjoy Life stamp set for the title. Now I just need to get the pictures printed and add some journaling to one of the top note dies. I included a close up so you could see some of the detail and the beautiful designer paper.

***Blog Candy *** I have 2 stamp sets I'm going to be giving away today. I will actually have the drawing tomorrow so leave a comment for me (be sure to include your email address so I can get in touch with you if you win) and you will be entered in the drawing.

I made this last card Saturday and haven't decided if I like it or not. I think it needs some of the train squares to be orange also. What do you think?

I hope you enjoyed your visit to my blog. Don't forget to leave a comment with your email address for the blog candy! Thanks for stopping by and come back soon, you know how that Southern hospitality is, yall are welcome to stop by anytime, I’ll leave the back door open for you!