Convention 2013 Highlights

 I have been to convention but this really was the best ever.  I got to hang with my dearest stampin' friends, Mercedes, Margery and Sandy and I laughed so much at every turn, I am glad I brought extra panties, if you know what I mean.  And with Shelly and Sara presenting,  you knew with all the beautiful stories, you were gonna just cry your eyes out.   I just never suspected I would choke up with Ronald McDonald but I did. 

 After having attended convention all this time, you'd think I visited the main office, but No.  So I took the opportunity to do so at this one.  The lines were long to get there and it was a dreadfully hot day but I got to see where it all happens.

 This is us melting in front of the campus after the long bus ride but it was really fun to see it all. I found that waiting in line with other stampers was so much fun, and we mets hoards of people from all over who were just as nice as the friends I came with.  The tag hanging from Mercede's bag was made by Margery.  She made one for each of us and everywhere we went people were like-"can we take a picture?"  - I am so blessed to have such talented and generous people in my life!

 We got to tour the place and I thought this was kind of fun.  I never thought to stick flowers on the wall but lookit here!  How fun for a little girl's room.  Never mind the next people who owned the house who'll be hollering and cursing to get those dimensionals off the wall....

 At each turn there was a little surprise for your eyes.  I love this little chabby chic display of sewing do dads....

 There was this big room lined with a writing wall where you could just write down your ideas and I loved seeing this vision for Stampin' Up laid out like this. It makes now some more sense as to why they are doing some of the things there are doing.  I now understand better that for the company to survive that they have to innovate and that requires you to reach out to new people and try out new ideas.

 We toured through the workroom of the staff and they all had these little displays of cards and things which were just all too cute.  I started to run out of battery, I was taking too many pictures.

 This was another display at one of the staff desks.  I just loved it.

 Shelly demo'd some new ideas and products. This is using the Karen Burniston Deco Label pop n cuts that I had been debating getting but look how cute it is. She turned it sideways to make a popout card and I thought it so cute and so many ideas using the die- now I have to get it!  (Did you notice how the main theme of the convention- at the top-  used the same die shape?)

 They also had Karen run a demo booth and she had gazillion samples using the dress up die - so-so cute. 

 And then the envelope liner die- what the heck am I going to use it for?  Yah, yah, liner is cute but what else?   Well this cinched it for me.  They used the envelope die to make a cute little pocket, easy peasy.  I just loved that too.  I am always looking for new ways to give that birthday or some other special event gift cards so this is right up my alley.

 And talking about dies, would you check this out?   die for making flip cards.  They are releasing 2 different dies, one with this shape, another with the circle with cute little diecuts that go with it - the one that says thnx is one I want. Some people won the die- I was so Green!

Speaking of winning, they have prize patrol, and those of you who know me, know that I NEVER and I mean NEVER win anything that is chance related.  But what do you know? I actually won the very first prize patrol.

I could not believe it and when I did, I commented that if I won that usually means everyone will win something - and you know what That's what really happened.  Everyone in the end got something-  I have to laugh- but I have to say, my streak still holds!

This opened my eyes to possibilities I never considered.  Using the personalized stamps for a saying ( I thought of you Chrissy when I saw this- in case you are reading this).

 And my WOW of the whole meeting was this- Undefined stamps- it is basically carve your own stamps set- You gotta love it.  One of the staff demonstrated this and we just cracked up..  She made the bacon strips right on stage - it took her 3 minutes start to finish.  She said that it was her breakfast set.  It is not so unhealthy since the coke had some lime and the donuts had strawberry sprinkles.....

 Convention has what seems like miles and miles of card samples, old and new and I found my card that I submitted last year for the scoring challenge on display.  Oh, joy at seeing my little card on display....

 But the biggest joy of the meeting was being privileged to room with -yes- drum roll------- Stampin Up Artisan  Mercedes Weber.  My heart was pounding, I was SO excited for you- we screamed like those crazy contestants on Let's make a deal- for those of you old enough to remember- She got this beautiful box with her personalized Artisan stamp-  I don't know anyone more deserving.   When I first got to my room, I saw this beautiful Stampin Up wall hanging.  I had seen hotel gifts from Stampin up and I thought "Wow this is fantastic- Stampin' Up is doing this for managers now?"  then realized it was from Mercedes- I am such an idiot!  then next night another little box with deliciously scented body wash and stuff with the most adorable tag on it. I swear I got a gift every night.  I hand carried those precious gifts and now they adorn my kitchen front and center.  I SO LOVE IT!  

 On the last night, my upline Tami hosted a dinner and swap at the Roof which was fabulous.  This is the view of the church from the window of the restaurant which was fantastic.

( Gosh, I keep using these words- love fantastic cute- but it really was!)

 The party that Stampin' Up hosted was a ball!  People were dancing and the musicians played lots of dance music from the 80's and 90's and it really was a blast!  They had tables and tables of cupcakes decorated with our - what else?- In-Colors and they had aerial acrobats and hip hop dancers mixing with the crowd- just an absolute ball.

One of the things they showed was this banner kit decorated with the snow flakes.  I had been debating about the snowflake stamp and die bundle but I loved nestling them together to get the piece she is holding.  And for those of you thinking about signing up to be a demonstrator, if you do it before end of August, you can get a banner kit ( up to 29.90 value) for FREE!

They also announced that for New signups the Paper pumpkin will be only $10 for the first two months.  Just use promocode Pumpkindeal and designate me your demonstrator when you sign up.

Offer Dates: July 18, 2013 -August 31, 2013
Offer Details: Use the promotion code PUMPKINDEAL to join Paper Pumpkin before August 31, 2013, and pay only $10 a month* for the first two months.  You must join by Saturday, August 31, 2013; 11:50 PM (MT)
*plus tax, where applicable. Shipping included!

visit mypaperpumpkin.com to join.

You must click "Add Promo Code" and then enter the promo code PUMPKINDEAL in the "Promo Code" field when you sign up on the mypaperpumpkin.com website to take advantage of this promotion.

My head is spinning from all the whirlwind of products and ideas coming down from Stampin' Up but OH SO EXCITED!  Now I can't wait to go to Leadership!

My Conventions Swap

 I have a swap with my upline's downline group and the requested was it be a full card that could be demo'ed at a workshop so this is my card.  Embossed the Coastal Cabana Cardstock using the new very "in" Alphabet Press EF part way as shown.  I am also in love with the Tape It set that mimics washi tape.  The tag from the Notable Notions set matches the Chalk Talk dies perfectly and would you not know it? My favorite sentiment from the Yippee-skipee set fits inside perfectly.  Stamp the tapes using Smoky Slate, Calypso coral and the sentiment using the same color markers adn cut it out.
The tag is stamped using Coastal Cabana too- better to stamp the sentiment and then center the tag image around sentiment then diecut.

Now I made a bunch of these ribbons copying the idea from page 152 of the catalog but the center was too much of a pain to make and I did not have the matching DSP in Coastal Cabana so I made my own.

You need a three inch strip and 2 inch strip of 1/2 CS strips with the Tape It image stamped in center- the side parts get tucked under so you can't see it anyway so don't worry.  Fold then in half and free cut them as shown.  Use multimono on each of the 2 block dots and fold over to make the ribbon body.  Use Glue dot to adhere the back part of the ribbon to the paper clip - the glue dot peeks through the paper clip, sticking to the ribbon body.  Use glue dot to stick on the button from Notable Notions set stamped in Calypso coral and punched out using 1/2 circle punch.  Just attach to the tag using the clip and mount the tag with dimensionals .  This card just feels so "summer" with its beach colors.  Love It!

Animal Talk Bird in a tree card

I do peruse the catalogue when it comes out front to back then back to front.  Why?  I find that when I reverse the process, I sometimes see details that I miss just flipping the pages as it is laid out for me in order.  Like this Animal Talk set-  The sample in the catalog was intriguing.  It used rather unconventional colors but what caught my eye was their use of the little leaves peaking out to extend the theme of tree and wood.  So I took that idea and embossed wood grain onto 1" strip of Soft Suede cardstock.  Stamped the sentiment below in Cherry Cobbler.  Stamped the image using Cherry Cobbler, Marina Mist and soft Suede markers, punched it out using the large oval.  Diecut 2 little leaves in Old Olive and assemble as shown.  I mounted the oval using dimensionals and a pretty easy card that would not be mistaken for a CASE per se but I will call it an IBI card- Inspired By an Idea. This will be one of the cards we will be making at my next party.  I think it is so sweet!

A masculine Chalk Talk

 I wanted to make a masculine background so took a night of navy CS, embossed it with houndstooth EF after braying some black ink onto one of the sides and this is what came out-  (Warning: wash out the folder right away with black ink as it will permanently stain it if you leave it out overnight....) I punched the large oval in the embossed paper .  I originally stamped the sentiment in the black oval but it came out crooked so I just stamped a piece of scrap Vanilla CS with the sentiment and punched it out and laid it in the hole and it looked a lot better.  Wrap a piece of natural trim around to the front . 

Now the button is made from the button & blossoms simply pressed mold using the nautral clay color which is white.  I tried a whole bunch of different buttons but none of it "felt right".  I took this white one, and using the side of the brush end of the marker, just colored it in leaving it to touch just the elevated edges and it left this stitch like accent in white which I just loved.  Because it is paperclay, you can color, emboss, whatever you do to paper you can do to this.  Isn't it fabulous?    Now I am not going to worry about mixing in colors, and just make the buttons in the natural color and color it to the color I need when I need it!    I put the seambinding ribbon through 2 of the holes and tied it loosely and glued the whole thing down with gluedots which is really secure. 

Coordination Hello

This was a card we made at one of my stamp parties I forgot to post earlier. Base card is crumbcake. then Rose red Coordination Cardstock, sanded after embossing with Lacy Brocade EF using the Sanding system.  I cut the delicate details lace tape in half to edge the rose red cardstock then wrapped the Pool party ribbon around to the front behind the label. 
stamp the Oval from Oh, Hello on white CS stamping off the Pool Party, then stamp Hello with crumbcake marker,  and the flower in rose red and leaves in olive marker.  Add a little sparkle and you are finished.

The Dog days of Summer

 There has been a heatwave in the bay area and it was just way too hot to do anything outside so much of Fourth of July weekend as spent inside allowing me time to do some catch-up stampin.  One of my boys are so into dogs, I thought this was just so "him".  Very simple card.  Take a Soft Suede basecard and diecut a circle larger than 2 1/2 inches.  Stamp the image onto a verfy vanilla CS with soft suede ink then use crumbcake marker to color in the eye and buttock of dog.  Punch it out with 2 1/2 in circle punch and mount with dimensionals on the inside of the card.  Stamp the sentiment on the inside using Soft Suede - the little paw print is from the retired "C is for cat" set.  Tie a 7/16 in natural trim  around the card as shown. 

I punched the bone using the 4 sided flower from the Itty Bitty Shapes punch pack.  You have to cut a piece of paper like a barbell and then run it through the punch one side at a time but it was just perfect size.  I guess you could use a heart punch too but the heart from the owl is smalle enough to use it for something this size.  Wrap the bone with linen thread and mount it with dimensional cut in half to make it dangle.