Jul 17 2012

On the Road to Convention

We are on our way to Salt Lake City for the Stampin’ Up! Convention — 5 women, 5 huge suitcases, 5 carryons and purses… Think we will make it?

Watch for updates this week about all the excitement!

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Jul 12 2012

Play Date at My House

Here’s the sight that greeted me earlier this week:

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Think I might have some new toys to play with? I tell you, I love my job!!

And next week I’m off to Salt Lake City to attend the Stampin’ Up! Convention with my friends. We have SO much fun!!  It’s a great chance to spend time with friends from home who I don’t get to see nearly enough, and to catch up with friends from all over the US and Canada — friends that I would never have had the chance to meet, if not for Stampin’ Up!

I’ve been working on little gifts for my team members who are attending — here’s a sneak peek. I’m not showing the whole project til next week. I don’t want to ruin the surprise!

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Happy Stamping!


To Order Stampin’ Up! Products On-Line 24/7, CLICK HERE!


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Posted under Convention |
Apr 17 2012

What Will You Miss Most? Upsy Daisy?

While I’m excited for NEW stamps in the Stampin’ Up! Catalog that comes out on June 1st (yes, Demonstrators get to see it early!!), I am of course going to miss some of my favorite stamps from the past. I’ve been making a list, and I think Upsy Daisy (see it online) is at the top.

Remember that Upsy Daisy retires on May 31st, and that when you place an online order in my store during April,  you’ll be getting your copy of the new catalog mailed to you for free!

This is an idea shared at the Stampin’ Up! Convention in 2008…a blast from the past!

Instead of inking the stamp with an ink pad, the presenter used Sponge Daubers to apply the ink colors, in Pink Pirouette, Real Red and Tangerine Tango.

What a great technique to use on bold stamp sets like Inspired By Nature (see it online) and Upsy Daisy (sniff, sniff, both are retiring!). Be sure to check the lists of retiring stamp sets for favs from your Wish List!

Want to see more Upsy Daisy project ideas?  Here are a few on my blog, or here’s a link to my Technique Video tutorial featuring Upsy Daisy.

Happy Stamping!


To Order Stampin’ Up! Products On-Line 24/7, CLICK HERE!


Jul 21 2011

Convention 2011: More Ideas & Samples

I was planning to show you the project we’re going to make tomorrow night at my New Catalog Idea Blitz Party (let me know if you can join us!), but I realized I wasn’t quite finished showing my favorite projects from Convention yet!  So hang in there, and I’ll bring you the Showcase Party projects tomorrow.

Here’s a cute medallion, made into a birthday card, using the new Up, Up & Away stamp set (see it online).

For more directions on Medallions like this, check my blog post from this month.  Oh, and I meant to show you the updated Scallop Circle Medallion that we made at Stamp Club in July.  I added the Pennant Builder Punch and Pennant Parade stamp set (appearing in my Stamps in the Mail Club kits in August!).


To Order Stampin’ Up! Products On-Line 24/7, CLICK HERE!


Jul 18 2011

Convention 2011: Day 2, stamping, stamping and more stamping ideas!

Want to guess how many pictures I took at Convention this year?  300?  500?  1000? Keep going: I took about 1200.  And I know demonstrators who took TWICE as many! There were so many ideas shared, and Day 2 of the Stampin’ Up! Convention started out with classes and ideas.

Here’s a great idea using the Milk Carton Die for the Big Shot to make a 6-sided box.  Donna Griffith showed this one, created by cutting two Milk Carton pieces and trimming one panel from each.

Here’s another idea, using the corner of the Decorative Label Punch to create an ornate corner for layering.

There were several more stage walks, to celebrate demonstrators for their achievements in sales, recruiting and helping the demonstrators in your group to promote, and I was excited to be honored in each category.  Here’s a shot of me walking across the stage with my stamping friend Lynsay Mahon.  Stampin’ Up! has been a great way to make some fabulous friends!

We also spend time visiting display boards and touring the displays set up by Stampin’ Up!, highlighting each of the new Product Suites in the new Stampin’ Up! Catalog (debuted July 1st).  The detail and creativity astounded us!


The evening wrapped up with a “+Fun” class.  The one I selected was the My Digital Studio Hybrid Class.  We made a terrific calendar–watch for my Class & “To Go” Kit later this fall.  Drop me an email if you’d like the details when they’re ready!

One last chance to hang out until way past bedtime.  We gathered in the room of several fellow demonstrators to talk about the Holiday Mini Catalog (yay!) and all the creative ideas we could come up with for the new products!


Jul 15 2011

Convention 2011: Can this really be Day 1?

For sure, how is it possible that this day was packed with so much, and it was only the first day! Okay, here goes my fast photo tour of the Stampin’ Up! Convention, Day 1… (which was yesterday, if you’re losing track of the days like me!)

Here’s the Main Stage display–Stampin Up does a fabulous job of putting their stamp on everything (ha, bad pun intended), including the stage background.

One of the highlights of the morning was a chance to walk across the stage and be recognized for all the demonstrators who shared Stampin Up with a friend this year. Each of these Green Hat Girls had at least one person sign up to be a demonstrator with them. Way to go!! Just think, you could be one of us next year, if you wanted to take advantage of the $99 special before the end of July!

We also saw several fabulous projects created with the supplies from the Christmas Keepsake Box Kit that comes as a bonus with the July Demo Starter Kit special.

Next surprise? New Holiday Mini Catalog! We saw more of the incredible product suites from the upcoming Mini Catalog (customers begin ordering Sept 1, but demonstrators get to preorder Aug 1!). Then we got our very own copy of the new Mini!! See everyone with their heads in the mini? Those are looks of concentration!!

Then at lunch we had a Sneak Peek of one of the products coming up later this fall… (got a guess?) yum!

After lunch we worked on our own Make N Take projects, this stamping thing sure is fun! Hee hee… We didn’t quite finish the beautiful projects, so you’ll have to hold off for pictures of those. But here is a shot of my mom and Theresa working out the details of one of the projects.

The Annual Awards were held in the evening, announcing and honoring the demonstrators who earned the Incentive Trip to Disneyworld next spring. We also learned the locations for next year’s trips. Drumroll please… Hilton Head Island for the Getaway Trip and FIJI for the Grand Vacation!!

Interested?! Let me know if you have any questions about how Stampin Up can send you and a guest to Hilton Head Island or….FIJI! (can you tell I’m still excited about that one?)

Lastly, the Demonstrator of the Year awards were announced. I was thrilled to be recognized this year as the #35 demonstrator out of roughly 45,000 in the US. Very exciting, plus wonderful to be surrounded by my demo family!

Whee… Can’t wait to see all that is in store for us the rest of the week. I just need to figure out how to stay awake for it!

Happy stamping!
Meg


Jul 14 2011

Convention 2011: Registration and Shopping!

We’re here!  It’s here!  Convention officially opened today, and if you remember my posts from Conventions past, you might recall that my demonstrator group usually wears some kind of fun green hat, so that we can find each other easily among the 3000+ demonstrators at Convention.  Well this year is no different, so here we are, getting our green hats for this year!  I think Kim did a great job finding these hats–they’re actually pretty cute!

To head from our hotel over to the Convention center, we have a short walk.  But in Salt Lake City they have these fun traffic flags!  You pick one up on one side of the street, then carry it with you across to the far side.  I haven’t quite decided if the flags are really just a joke to mark us tourists or not, but until we figure it out, we have fun impersonating elementary school crossing guards!

My first stop of the day was Momento Mall, and who doesn’t love to shop for cute things created with Stampin’ Up! exclusive artwork and the Stampin’ Up! logo?  Each year the Momento Mall is filled with all the things I “need”.  And the displays this year really top all past years.  Here is the wave of umbrellas, sculpted on a wall:

Did you seen the rain boots, too?  They were filled with paper flowers in Stampin’ Up! colors!

On Registration Day we also get to visit the Awards Booth to pick up the free stamp sets and pins we’ve earned for the year.  Most excitingly, I received a Founder’s Circle pin and exclusive purse this year again, which means that I’ll be in the top 100 for the Demonstrator of the Year Award.  Wow!  Very exciting, and you can probably see how happy we are — my friend Missy and I, posing here with our purses.

Finally, after a busy day and a fabulous Garden Party with Stampin’ Up! to cap off the official events of Convention Registration Day, we ended up at a nice dinner with our group.

I’d like to say that I headed straight home to the hotel and then directly to bed, but of course I had to write up some photos of the day for you all!  What a fun way to kick off Convention 2011.  But now I really do need to head to sleep so I’ll be bright-eyed and bushy-tailed for the *actual* beginning of Convention tomorrow.

Happy Stamping!


To Order Stampin’ Up! Products On-Line 24/7, CLICK HERE!


Jul 12 2011

Convention 2011: why wait for SLC?

When I talk about the card swaps I’ve been working on for Convention, the idea is to take them to the Convention with me and trade them with other demonstrators.

But if I meet demonstrators in the middle of o’Hare airport in Chicago, doesn’t it make sense to start swapping now??! Okay, it confuses our fellow passengers, but you never know when you might inspire a new stamper!

Or it just might be a new demonstrator friend like dawn!

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Jul 12 2011

Convention 2011: early start

My Convention travel day started out early when our phone rang not once but four times at 4:45. No, my flight’s not til much later, but a demonstrator friend (who shall remain unnamed ;) was up and her phone accidentally dialed us.

Hmmmm, or maybe she just wanted to share her excitement with me over being up early to head to Salt Lake City!!

In any case, it was probably good because it wiped out my “I overslept” excuse for not exercising this morning.

Now I’m taking the chance to work on my swaps on a big table–much more comfortable than the tray table on the plane!

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Jul 11 2011

Convention is coming: sneak peek

Here’s a quick post, since I already mentioned that I’m behind for getting ready!

Each year I’ve made Bag Tags for the demonstrators in our group, since Stampin’ Up! gives us a fabulous bag each year, but then we all have exactly the same bag.

Solution? Bag tags! Here’s a sneak peek, since I’m handing them out tomorrow as we arrive for Convention.

Yes, that’s the new Fabric on those butterflies, cut from the butterfly big shot die!

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