A Touch From the Heart

Convention: Day Two (General Session #1)

Thursday was the first official day of Convention.  As I mentioned yesterday, the theme of this year's Convention was "Grow".   Convention always starts with a General Session where all 3000+ demos are all in the same room.  Wow!  The room is electric.  There's so much energy and excitement amongst all of us.  Some demos are dancing, some are talking so fast we have a hard time catching all the words, but we all have a smile on our face spanning from ear to ear.  

Before Shelli Gardner, the founder and CEO of the company, takes the stage, there's always a performance with the year's theme song.  It was a catchy tune, and the dancers were so talented!  My daughter Amanda would've loved it as she is a dancer.

Shelli then took the stage for her opening remarks!!!  She is such a caring and genuine person.  I love this about her!!!

Then it was the moment we were all waiting for!  The unveiling of the Holiday Mini products.  Let me tell you! If you thought last year's Holiday Mini was amazing, your jaw is going to drop over this one.  In fact, Stampin' Up! gifted everyone in the room with an 8 pack of Holiday Mini catalogs to share with our customers!

Are you curious about what's in it??????

Stampin' Up! is debuting a new scoring board.  It's called Simply Scored, and it's wonderful.  I've played with it while I was at Convention.  I have a contraband scoring board, and this one beats it by a mile.  There's no jumping of the grooves on this baby!!!  It's heaven.  

We will carry cookies stamps.  Yup, you heard me right!  There's a wooden handle with interchangeable stamps to stamp your sugar and shortbread cookies.  What fun!!!!

 While I can't show you pictures of the products themselves, I can give you a few sneak peeks of projects made with those products.  Would you care to see a few?  (these photos are of a big screen in the room....so they are a bit fuzzy).

 

How about a coordinating set of products to create a Countdown to Christmas calenday.   That's right....there's a new Bigz die to create the shapes with flaps, stamp set with the images and numbers and a coordinating punch.  Wowza!

Stockings are definitely a big theme this year.  There's a new Bigz die that can cut fabric as well as cardstock.  The die allows you to cut and have faux stitch marks on the toe and heel.  Love this!  The stocking theme is also found in a new stamp set with coordinating punch (that also cuts cuffs, toe and heel shapes).  Woo hoo!  Here's a sample of a card made with the stamp set.  I had to crop the picture so not to include the wood stamps that were displayed with the card.  

See those little jingle bells?  Cute, huh?

No worries if you love the other Fall holidays too!  Halloween and Thanksgiving are well taken care of too!  

Here's a sample of a fabulous new stamp set called Gently Falling.  It's a gorgeous two step stamp set of leaves and acorns.  I learned that I will be getting this stamp set (as well as some dsp and fabric) for FREE because of my title within the company.  Have I thanked Stampin' Up! today for all the wonderful opportunities it offers to it's demonstrators?  Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

This is just a tiny snippet of all the fabulous new products.  I don't want to give it all away!  I want you to be surprised when you look at it yourself.  If you've ordered from me over the past year, you'll receive your very own copy in August.  There's still time to get on my mailing list.  Just place an online order through my demonstrator website.  I pride myself on tip-top customer service!!!!

Of course, Convention is not Convention without the surprises.  We were all gifted with a brand new Simply Sent card kit.  These are perfect for brand new stampers or when you need to make a card within a minute!!!

I'll be back with more photos and stories of my Convention adventure!!!  Hope to see you back here soon!!!

 

While this year's Convention is over, you can start planning to attend next year's Convention with me!!!  I would love to have you join my team of demonstrators.  Did you know that there's a $99 starter kit special going on until the end of July?  

Whether you want a discount on your favorite stamping products or want to earn income by building your own business, I would love to share the Stampin' Up! opportunity with you.  If you send me an email with your phone number, I would love to call you so you can ask all your questions about what it means to be a Stampin' Up! demonstrator.  

If you know that you already want to join, click HERE to go to my demonstrator website.  Click on the "Join the Fun" tab to start your journey as a Stampin' Up! demonstrator.  It's a decision you will not regret!!!!

 

Convention Updates

Hello from Salt Lake City, UT!!!  It's Sunday morning, and my roommates are on their planes.  My flight isn't until 2:15pm so I thought I would share some of my Convention 2011 memories.

As much as I love to receive free stamping goodies, Convention has a deeper meaning for me.  It allows me to be with 3000+ people who are as passionate about this company as I am.  

I haven't been to Convention in three years, and all I can say is "wow"!  What an amazing experience.  Stampin' Up! has outdone itself!!

This year's theme was "Grow".  We reflected on ourselves and learned ways to grow personally and professionally.  

Let me show you what I experienced at Convention.......

On Wednesday, we could pick up our Convention bags and four free stamp sets to use during our make-n-takes later in the week.  Here's a photo of me and my BFF Jenn showing off our amazing bags.  Jenn was in love.....that's why she looks deliriously goofy in this photo.  Hey Jenn!  Do you love your bag?  (inside joke......she told us every 15 minutes how much she adored this bag).

Next, we headed to Memento Mall.  It's a Stampin' Up! shopping mecca.  There's lots and lots of Stampin' Up! logo merchandise for us to choose from.   We were waiting on line for over an hour, but that's okay.  It's fun to chit chat with demonstrators and learn more about them. 

Once we were inside Memento Mall, the room was a vision of loveliness......

There were Lucky Limeade umbrellas.........lots of umbrellas.

There was also laptop stickers, mouse pads, shirts, cardigan sweater, ribbon samplers, dsp samplers, catalog tabs and stickers, stretchy SNAIL adhesive clip, drink tumblers, insulated lunch bags, playing cards, collapsible garbage cans and so much more!!!!

After we spent a chunk of change at Memento Mall, I was invited to participate in a focus group.  I am sworn to secrecy, but it's very comforting to know that this company REALLY cares about what its demonstrators think.  They record our session so our input can be used to make this fabulous company even better!  How cool is that?

We then headed to check out all the displays Stampin' Up! created using current merchandise from the catalogs.  This is all new since the last time I've been to Convention....so I enjoyed this immensely.  I'm going to do a separate post on the displays, but I will give you a taste to whet your appetites.  

After checking out all the displays, we came back to the hotel to drop off all our goodies.  We enjoyed a yummy dinner at The Plum restaurant.  I had crab cakes that was sitting in a creamy corn sauce with a avocado and red pepper relish on top.  Delish!!!

After dinner, it was time for the Opening Party.  There was music, games and lots of fun!!!  They also had prizes.  Each attendee is given a wristband in their Convention bag.  Mine was pink stripes.  Guess what was called during the Opening Night party?  You guessed it!  Pink Stripes!  

 Yay!!!!  I won the Hello Doily background stamp and a roll of Pink Pirouette Taffeta ribbon!  I can't wait to start stamping with these beauties!!!  Thank you Stampin' Up!

Some of the demos get really inventive with the Grow theme of this opening night garden party!!  Check out these awesome gnomes.

My favorite part of the Opening Party was watching the demo demonstrations.  Stampin' Up! selects some demonstrators to teach us some cool stamping tips and techniques.  They never fail to impress!!!  These women are SO talented!!!  Thank you for your inspiration.

I also had the opportunity to meet a new friend.  Her name is Diana Eichfeld, and she happened to sit at the same table we were.  We exchanged names, and she got very excited.  She follows my blog, and she called me a rock star.  Oh Diana, you totally made my night!!!!   Here's a photo of us together......

After the Opening Night party, I had my first organized swap.  We had to make 47 full cards for this swap.  I hate to make more than one of the same card, so this was a struggle for me.  But, I now have 47 awesome samples to show my stamping friends when they come to my next class.  Oh, they are going to fall in love!!!!

Well, that about covers the first day.  I'll be back with some memories of my second day of Convention!!!  

While this year's Convention is over, you can start planning to attend next year's Convention with me!!!  I would love to have you join my team of demonstrators.  Did you know that there's a $99 starter kit special going on until the end of July?  

Whether you want a discount on your favorite stamping products or want to earn income by building your own business, I would love to share the Stampin' Up! opportunity with you.  If you send me an email with your phone number, I would love to call you so you can ask all your questions about what it means to be a Stampin' Up! demonstrator.  

If you know that you already want to join, click HERE to go to my demonstrator website.  Click on the "Join the Fun" tab to start your journey as a Stampin' Up! demonstrator.  It's a decision you will not regret!!!!