Home Safe and Sound

Well, I made it home safe and sound from the craziest three days I've ever spent.  I'm pretty exhausted but thrilled to have had the experience of the Rising Star trip.  If you are a Stampin' Up Demonstrator in your first FULL year, check out the requirements and go for it!  If you're not a demonstrator yet, join my team and I can help you get to Rising Star yourself.  You'll never regret it.

Here's what awaited me on my return:

This card from my hubby was stamped with the images from the Dude, You're Welcome kit!  Stampin' for the guys! My guy really likes his kit and actually uses it quite a bit.











Here's another new promotion, in conjunction with My Digital Studio, Stampin' Up!'s digital scrapbooking and papercrafting software:

If you enter by November 22, by going to My Digital Studio's Facebook Page,  

you could be one of Ten GRAND PRIZE winners who will receive 

November’s bonus My Digital Class! 

It comes with a kit that has all the supplies you need to create fabulous projects plus a guided video training.

Just one more thing before I go:

Tuesday night in Salt Lake City, we went to dinner and a movie, only the dinner was served DURING the movie.  Stampin' Up! rented the whole little theatre and you could order a meal and they would bring it to your comfy recliner.  We ate while watching "Thor: The Dark World!"  Not a bad movie either.  It was a great way to end our Rising Star Trip!

Now, it's back to reality tomorrow, with a card for As You See It Challenges 011!  Here's a sneak peek:

Official Day One of Rising Star Trip

I was up bright and early this morning to begin the first official day of our Rising Star Trip.  We were met at 7:20 am in the hotel lobby by our driver and taken to Stampin' Up! Headquarters where we were warmly greeted by the staff and treated to an amazing crepe breakfast!

Here are 4 of the 5 Rising Stars.  One of the stars was injured at work and couldn't come.  Pictured here is Brian King in the back and myself, Julie Skotzke and Janet Holmes in the front.

The beautiful table setting as only Stampin' Up!  can do it!  And a yummy crepe breakfast.

Look what was waiting on our chairs for us!

Then we went on an amazing tour of Home Office where we were able to work on the line picking products and putting them in the shipping boxes.  It is such a great system - amazing really, though it's a good thing that I don't have to make my living doing this, because I would slow everyone down!

We saw Shelli Gardner's office:

And then spent the day getting valuable training and providing feedback to the Stampin' Up! staff.

But the highlight of the whole day was having Shelli herself join us for dinner at Carver's.  Some of you may remember hearing that Shelli was in a very serious accident, being thrown from her horse and having her horse then roll over her.  It has taken months of recovery and Shelli still has a long road ahead.  We were really not expecting that she would be able to be there.  But she was determined to come and it was wonderful to spend some time with this amazing lady and to feel so comfortable around here.  In fact, that was my impression of the whole Stampin' Up! staff.  Comfortable, approachable and very, very passionate about what they do!  We belong to an amazing company!

I can hardly wait to see what they have in store for us today!

Salt Lake City for the Rising Star Trip

Well, I'm here in Salt Lake City for the Rising Star Trip!  So far it's been a blast and we haven't even officially started yet!  Stampin' Up really knows how to treat it's demonstrators, for sure!  I hate to sound provincial, but I travelled first class for the first time ever!  I'm not sure if that was planned or not, but it was...roomy!

We're staying at a Hilton hotel in Sandy, Utah, which is close to Stampin' Up Head Office, where we'll be training for the next two days.  Look what I got all to myself:  Woo hoo!

It's a small suite!  Two TVs. Separate sitting room.














And Stampin' Up left us some milk and cookies as a welcome gift.  And they were welcome after a day of flying with not much to eat except those desicated airline peanuts!


I met the other Rising Stars after I arrived. (I was the last one to get here.) We all went out to dinner and got to know one another.  I felt comfortable right away!  Such friendly people!

Tomorrow we are up early and at the head office all day!  More on that later!

I brought a gift for my fellow Rising Stars and I used the same design (different DSP) as I did for my roomie gifts at Convention in July.  Here's a photo or two:

Sorry for the bad photos, but I don't have my usual editing program on my hubby's laptop.  You get the picture though.  I used Season of Style DSP for these.  A whole 12 x 12 sheet!  No cutting, just scoring and folding and it is easy peasy!

The cool thing is, you can store it flat for travelling, and then open up the folds to create the box and add the belly band once you fill it with whatever! (See picture below!)

I have to sign off to get ready for my day of training!  Talk to you soon!

Stamps:  Label Love (w130619; c130622); ABC123 - Sketched Alphabet (c130565)
Paper: Season of Style DSP (132340); Old Olive (100702) and Whisper White (100730) cardstock
Ink:  Classic Stampin' Pad in Baked Brown Sugar (131174) and Cherry Cobbler (126966)
Accessories:  White Tea Lace Paper Doilies (129399); Cherry Cobbler 1" Stitched Edge Grosgrain Ribbon (132135), Sticky Strip Adhesive (104294)
Tools:  Simply Scored Scoring Tool (122334); Artisan Label Punch (130920)

Illuminate the Holidays

Just a very quick blog post today, as I am preparing to leave tomorrow for my Rising Star trip.  I wanted to update you on some family happenings.  First, I finally completed a crib quilt and crib skirt for my youngest grandson, Wyatt.  Poor little guy has been in his crib for a while now without any special bedding for it, so I was so relieved to have it finished and sent away to him.  Here's how it looks:

Second bit of news is that I'm going to be a Grandma again, twice over and both within 3 days of each other in May 2014!  I know my girls like to do things together, but this is a bit much!  I mean, where do I go? Who do I help?  I guess we'll have to play it by ear. Here are their creative birth announcements:

How cute are those?

I wanted to share with you my last swap card for the Rising Star trip.  It is a version of this card, so you can watch the video tutorial for advice on how to make it.  It is an illuminated easel card that features a vellum window through which you can see a flickering battery-powered votive candle! (Don't use a real one! lol)

• This card features the new Endless Wishes Photopolymer stamp set which I absolutely LOVE!!  It was so easy to use and get perfect placement of all the images.  
• I used gobs of silver embossing powder on this one!
• I like the combination of Midnight Muse and Coastal Cabana.

• There's a little closer look at the "stop" that keeps the easel in place.  I used a verse from the stamp set, Christmas Messages, found in the Holiday Mini catalogue.

• Here you can see that it folds flat for mailing.  But how you're going to fit that battery-powered votive in the envelope, I don't know!

Well, I've got lots more to do before I go so I'll post again from Salt Lake City!  Thanks for dropping by.

Creative Escape

As I mentioned before, I'm spending the weekend blissfully crafting and enjoying the outdoors at this fabulous facility!  My upline, Desiree Spenst, organized this creative retreat, and I'm so happy to have this escape at this time.  My life has been crazy busy all fall and I've been feeling like I'm missing out on life's important stuff, so this will be a chance to chill out and get back on an even keel.

Here, all together, are the projects I've been showing you all week that I designed for the products in the goodie bags everyone gets.

That was a lot of fun!  If you want more details on any of these projects, scroll back through this week's posts.

And, speaking of exciting, look what arrived in the mail recently:

Ticket information and itineraries and some homework for my Rising Star trip to Salt Lake City, coming up Nov. 11 - 13!  I'm really excited about that.  The training we will get will be priceless!

You still have three more days to take advantage of this huge sale - 25 stamp sets at 25% off to celebrated Stampin' Up's 25th Anniversary, which was officially yesterday.  I thought I'd share some of my favourite sets and some projects I've done with them today and tomorrow. (By the way, you can still email me your orders while I'm away.  I will have internet access.)  It's also Mystery Hostess Week so your orders will give you an entry in the draw for hostess rewards.  Extra entries for every $25 you spend.  I must have your orders by Monday at noon.

Here are some samples:

                                      

Snowflake Soiree (w127922; c127925) (on the right)

Gently Falling (w128430; c123804)

Oh, Hello (w131931; c130733)

Hearts a Flutter (w131922; c129252)

Apothecary Art (w128415; c125527)

Oh, Hello (w131931; c130733)

Happy Day (w130924; c130927)

Oh, Hello (w131931; c130733)

Zoo Babies (w130453; c130456)

Cuddles and Kisses  (131913; c127314)

There's a few samples.  I'll have a few more for you tomorrow.  Which sets are you going to order?