Houston is lovely and so are the people. Everyone smiles and says hello and the weather is a touch rainy but cool and wonderful. I’m here at the Stampin’ Up Leadership convention with around 1000 demonstrators. So nice to see friends, swap our stamped cards and learn new stuff!

Shelli Gardner (CEO) is lucky to be here after her horse accident and we all cheered as she came onstage. If you haven’t read the story, you can read it on her blog, www.soshelli.com

I’m waaaaayyyy up in the top row bleachers, so pics may be fuzzy hereand there but at least you can catch a bit of what we are doing here.

SU had some exciting new products coming soon! New personalized stamps that you are going to love! And REALLY exciting new markers coming called Blendabilities I think. If you like Copic markers but don’t like the price, you will love these. Alcohol markers that blend beautifully and even a marker that removes color if you make a mistake. The chart shows the 12 color groups that will come in sets of 3 for 11.95 (US) So each dot you see below represents the 3 gradient colors that blend together. There is a set of 6 skin tones, and the color remover pen also. They are not refillable at this time so they can be a lower price point than other alcohol markers. They will not replace our regular markers – the alcohol markers dry too fast to use on your stamps or to use aquapainters with. Think of these as another color tool to add to your tool box. They are square and won’t roll off your table, bullet tip on one end, brush tip on the other. They recommend using the Memento Tuxedo Black pad (which we will carry also) and NOT using StazOn, which is an alcohol based pad.

When are they available? Not sure. They said this quarter, so maybe March? I’ll keep you posted.

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Cute Georgia Giguere models the bag we received.

Smoky Slate, shiny, patent finish. It has an embossed chevron on the front, too.

2 new Photopolymer sets coming out and some news about SU manufacturing them in our Kanab facility. They can be stinky to make and even opening my package at home requires some airing out but they stamp so nicely! Sara on stage said they found a photopolymer that doesn’t fume out the employees to manufacture it AND maybe smells a little like chocolate 🙂 Photopolymer stamps will be included in the annual catalog as well as be available in our clear mount cases!

The display artists are listed above but the samples I’m posting here from the displays don’t have the individual artist’s name on them.

Loved the hexagon shaped card

Donut anyone?

One of the Sale a bration sets and banner punch. Created by Jeanna Bohanon

The Watercolor Wonder paper makes a beautiful page. It was created by Cathy Caines

Ok, off to the Manager’s reception at the Houston Aquarium! Can’t wait to see some sharks up close…

I’m posting on the blog just once a day but if you want more updates, watch my Stamping School Facebook page