Unfrogettable Stamping!

Leadership displays, part 1

There are always tons of displays with fabulous projects at Stampin' Up! events!  The displays were a little different this year in San Antonio... most of the cards and scrapbook pages were hung on clothes lines.  It was a little difficult snapping pictures because you had to take individual shots, but I wanted to share some of them with you.  Here is one of the displays in the room where we did our Make-n-Takes.

This was just one of several sessions... check out how many of us were stamping!  Rachel, Patty, Kristyne and I all worked together.  Below you will find some close-ups of some of my favorite projects on display featuring the Blossom Builders kit, Twitterpated DSP, Mixed Bunch and Loving Memories stamp sets and Blossom punch - all products that we used on our make-n-take projects.  Hope you find some inspiration here - these products can all be purchased from the Occasions mini catalog.  Enjoy!

And I saved the best one for last... one of our make-n-takes was an 8" x 8" scrapbook page.  Kristyne just so happened to have a beautiful photo of her baby girl Ava that she dropped onto the page.  It's as if the page was designed for this picture!

Thanks for visiting!  I'll be sharing even more samples with you in the coming days as I took photos of so many!!

Leadership highlights - fun with friends

I *love* going to the Stampin' Up! Leadership Conference every January - it is a great time to de-stress from the Holidays, learn new ways to build my business and mentor my downline, get tons of great samples for the Occasions Mini catalog and Sale-a-Bration brochure and, most importantly for me, hang out with my friends from all over that I only get to see at these types of events.  I also look forward to making new demonstrator friends, too!  Here is a photo of the group that I was with for most of the trip: back row, left to right - my new friend Kristen Dutko-Grove from Northern Virginia (downline of Dawn's), Dawn Rapsas of New Jersey, me; front row, left to right - Patty Chenail of Connecticut, Rachel Yurkanin of Pennsylvania and Kristyne Brandt of Winnipeg, Manitoba in Canada.

Here is a photo of our Sisters in Stamping design team (minus Jacque, who wasn't able to attend this year) with Rachel Yurkanin and Karla Anders.

Here I am at one of the General Sessions with Dawn Griffith, Dawn Rapsas, Kristyne Brandt and Patty Chenail. 

I just love Patty Bennett and always try to catch up with her at events.

And the same goes for Missy Shipman - one of the kindest and most positive women I know.

Rachel and I got a chance to take a picture with Robin Merriman, who was a roving reporter for the event for the Stampin' Up! Facebook page, during the Business Share Fair.

As I was trading my Angry Birds card I kept hearing that there was someone else at the event who was also trading one... I was bound and determined to find her.  Lo and behold I ended up sitting right next to her during one of the sessions - what are the chances of that with over 1,000 people there?!  This is Jennifer Turoff of New York and a picture of her trade.

Here is another new friend that I made, Angie Dimenna.  I was so impressed that she lives in the U.S. for part of the year and is a demonstrator who has a successful enough business to attend Leadership but also lives for part of the year in France and has a demonstratorship there as well.  Impressive!

And if you saw my post on Thursday you will have seen this photo of my new friend Brandy Cox of North Carolina.

This group shot also includes Katie Johnson, Barb Gornick and Robin (did not get her last name).

Here we are at Casa Rio - our group at dinner that night included Jamie Adcock, a new friend from Texas, along with Rachel, Dawn, Barb, Katie and Kristen.

And you know I had to include a picture of The Alamo from San Antonio... Dawn had bought us all tiaras earlier so here are the stamping Princesses!!

As you can see, I had such a wonderful time reconnecting with friends and making new ones!  You, too, can attend awesome events like this by becoming a demonstrator and building a business.  If you'd like to join my team, contact me to find out how!  The starter kit is on sale for $125 during Sale-a-Bration... there is no better time to join than NOW!!!

 

 

Sale-a-Bration is HERE!!!!

Today marks the beginning of Sale-a-Bration - the BEST promotion that Stampin' Up! holds every year.  During Jan. 24th - Mar. 31st you can earn exclusive FREE product of your choice with a qualifying $50 order, by hosting a $150+ workshop or by starting your own business with a $125 starter kit!!  Click here for more details or contact me!

I am hosting an Open House to kick off this fantastic promotion in two sessions this weekend... Friday night from 7-9 pm and Saturday afternoon from 1-3 pm.  If you are local and can attend, please RSVP by Thursday so I have enough time to prep the materials for the make-n-takes.  You'll be able to get your hands on the fabulous new products being offered in the Occasions Mini catalog as well as the great Sale-a-Bration items.  I'll have displays of many of the products along with awesome samples that I brought back from Leadership.  Here are photos of the gorgeous displays that Stampin' Up! put together of the Sale-a-Bration products... enjoy!

 

Angry Bird punch art

One of the most fun things to do while attending a Stampin' Up! event is swapping cards with other demonstrators... I made a few of these Angry Bird punch art cards to trade and wanted to show you how easily you can create this fun angry bird.

It was inspired by my son Brandon's pillow that he got for his birthday recently... Brandon is OBSESSED with this game!  I also used this punch art on the front of the goodie bags that I made for my roommates - it was filled with some fun earrings that I made using our new Sweet Shoppe jelly bean brads, chocolates (a must-have for these events), my swaps and an Angry Bird bag tag. 

Here are the step-by-step instructions for making this punch art...

1) Use the Circle Clear Bigz die and your Big Shot to cut out a circle from crumb cake and poppy parade card stock.  Run the poppy parade circle back through the Big Shot as shown so that you cut away this bottom piece.

2) Use the Heart-to-Heart punch with poppy parade and punch out the middle-sized heart.

3) Use the 1-3/8" and 1" square punches with daffodil delight card stock to cut out two squares.  Use your paper snips to cut them in half diagonally so you have two triangles.

4) Use the modern label and 1/2" circle punches with basic black card stock for the eyes.  Trim off the ends from the modern label punches as shown.  Use the 1-3/8" circle punch with whisper white card stock for the eyeballs (sorry, forgot to take a photo!).

 

5) Sponge the edges of the poppy parade and daffodil delight pieces to give them more depth and dimension (if you want even more contrast use real red and more mustard ink).

6) Begin to assemble your bird by assembling your eyes and attaching using Tombow multipurpose adhesive - be careful, a little goes a LONG way!

7) Attach the heart to the back of the poppy parade and then attach that to the crumb cake base.

8) Create the beak by first attaching the larger triangle half right by the eyes and then the smaller triangle underneath.

9) Add the eyebrow pieces and now he's an Angry Bird!!!

And here is my finished card and gift bag!  Sorry for the weird color on the card - I took the photo in our hotel room and the lighting was off...

Have a great day - I am off to the final day of our Leadership event... I totally forgot about submitting my Fabulous Friday project for the Sisters in Stamping blog but go and check it out today if you get a chance... they're featuring projects made with the new Big Shot Framelits.

Greetings from San Antonio, TX!!

I apologize for neglecting my blog for the last few days, but I was busy holding my Diva Day event for my Top 3 downline on Saturday, a birthday party for my son on Sunday and getting ready for my trip to the Stampin' Up! Leadership Conference in San Antonio, TX!!  I'm so happy to be here, hanging out with friends that I don't get to see very often.  The photo above is of a sign in the airport and the first of many that I will be taking over the next few days.

Nothing official is starting until tomorrow, so a couple of us (Dawn Rapsas - NJ, Rachel Yurkanin - PA, Kristyne Brandt - Winnepeg and me) went down to the Riverwalk area and walked around.  We heard about a great Italian restaurant so ended up at Luciano's and ate outside because the weather was so nice.

I had a yummy eggplant dish that was recommended by Heather Summers and she was right - it was so delicious!  But, I was only able to eat half of it because the portion was so big... guess what they say is right - things are bigger in Texas!!

Because we were sitting outside, there were a lot of birds coming around and this particular raven really wigged poor Kristyne out... so I had to get a picture for her.  Our waiter said that the birds come and get the sugar packets out of the containers on the table and eat them - it was really weird to see.  I love this picture - it's like he's posing for me!

I can't wait for tomorrow... check-in is at 9 am and then we head to our Make-n-Take session. Tomorrow evening is the Manager's Reception so it's going to be a full day.  I'll share pictures of my swaps with you tomorrow along with step-by-step instructions for the punch art one... be sure and check back! 

Thanks for visiting... have a great day!  And if you're here in San Antonio I hope to see you!!