Sep 19, 2014 |
I’m having a relaxing time here in St. George, Utah, at the Stampin’ Up Founder’s Circle retreat!
I’m grateful to have earned it again this year and it’s a way that SU rewards those in the top 100 demonstrators in US and Canada.
The theme this year is Home for the Holidays and it feels like 30 degrees inside (even though it’s 93 outside here!)
Lots of decorated pine trees and wintery displays!
LOTS of treats, a mug to choose and of course stamping!
My good friend and up, upline Karen Titus catching up and showing off our prize.
Quite the spread SU put out for us while we were stamping!
We do have permission to share these sneak peeks from our pillow gifts last night! These 4 word thinlits and the photopolymer stamp set will be in the next mini catalog (about 3 months from now)
Here are our make and takes today. The 3 tags are in little pouches 🙂
The THANKS is cut with the thinlit from white cs, then under it is another white cs that I scribbled with 3 colors of the Blendies, so the color pops thru.
Tonight was our PJ party and Swap night!
After the swap we all got sugared up on cookies and milk, then we sat around and went through our 113 swaps!
Swapping in our PJs is a tradition. Jill Olsen and I obviously have great taste in PJ’s:)
Good times, good friends….Thanks for the laughs Frenchie!
And yes, our first guy at Founders, donned PJs too! I’ve already gotten 2 texts asking what Brian wore so he struck a pose:
113 swaps all piled on my bed.
I can’t wait to really look through them all again! Just gorgeous, each and every one!
Tomorrow we tour the Kanab manufacturing plant. It’s always a treat to see how stamps are born from start to finish. I never get tired of seeing the magic happen!
Go stamp something!
Linda
Sep 20, 2013 |
Before I go into day three, I need to back up about 12 hours and update you on the pajama party last night along with our swap & share event.
We lined up in a string of about 115 people, Winding up and down the hotel halls to swap our creations.
I can’t wait to spend some time to go through each one and look at them more closely!
>
Oh my gosh, these ice cream sandwiches were amazing! Salted caramel ice cream with red velvet cookies….yep, amazing.
I love this pic (thanks, Dena!) since we are in our pjs, probably on a sugar high, and reminding me of why I’m still doing this after 14 years. Mary Ellen, Robin, Dena and Susan- you girls are awesome.
Ok, on to Day 3, which began bright and early with our Annual Trip to Kanab, which is Stampin’ Up’s manufacturing facility. All of the employees Look forward to us coming over for the day and wave us in!
We load us 2 big buses for a 2 hour trip filled with lively ‘discussions’ with corporate team. Great time for us to tell them our ideas and feedback!
For the first time ever, they allowed us to take pictures of what happens in the facility to get all of the product to us. It’s so much fun to see how the ink pads are made, how the stamp sets are burned and created and all of the hard work that goes into getting everything we need to stamp ready for us.
See the huge mountain of pool party card stock? After they cut it to size, there are huge bins of large scraps that I know we would never throw out but they do recycle it. I wanted to dive in the bin and save them from certain demise:)
Brandy Cox got a lesson on burning the rubber images, cutting them apart and peeling them out of the molds. She did a proper job and has a good back up plan if her demonstrator gig doesn’t work out lol
My Florida buddy, Lisa Curcio, worked the line assembling stamps in their cases. She wasn’t as fast as her neighbor on the line who had been there 16 years. She was going so fast I couldn’t believe how many she made in just 5 minutes!
They were so generous and gave us many gifts as we walk through the different departments. We are always just happy to be there and gifts aren’t necessary but thank you Stampin’ Up for the extra goodies!
This year they even had 2 cute little make & takes for us, two easy cards with washy tape:
(Since there is usually no professional photography studio in a dimly lit hotel room at these events, so you will have to pardon my iPhone pictures)
Lunchtime was at the facility with
grilled hamburgers, hot dogs, and chicken along with potato salad, baked beans and a really nice salad. Then we headed outside to the Rock, a place to get our picture each year. It’s a tradition as long as I earn the trip!
We always stop on the way back at the Kanab Park where the playground is filled with our recycled rubber chips!
I believe that Shelli and Sterling donated the funds to renovate the park in memory of Sterling’s father. It’s really pretty there and I can’t help taking off my shoes and feeling it barefoot!
This picture doesn’t even come close to experiencing the park but the confetti looking stuff in the air is really rubber bits I was throwing around.
Great hanging out with old and new friends like Brandy today!
After a 2 Hour bus ride home and a short nap, a few of us went to a lovely Italian place called Piccolo Mondo’s.
The food was wonderful but lots of laughter was the best part! Chef Alfredo (yes that is his real name) was quite a charmer! Thanks Tami, Mary and Dawn for the entertainment:)
And to top off an amazing day, I came in to my hotel room to find this pretty package!
It’s a pretty corduroy pouch and a brand-new pair of craft scissors!
This was a long one today- if you read all the way to the end, well done!
Tomorrow will be a lazy day of finishing my make and takes and a surprise dinner event! The only clues they have given up is a dress code of ‘cowgirl optional’, pet dander and dust. Hmmm…… Petting zoo? Horses?
I’ll find out tomorrow night!
Linda
Sep 19, 2013 |
This morning they opened up the hospitality room so we could work on our make and takes. It’s always a delight to see how they do the displays.
They have a granola station this year:
Here’s a peek at our make and takes using our pillow gift from last night. See if you can spot the new stamps and accessories coming soon!
I just finished my swaps thanks to Susan and Dawn’s assistance- thanks, girls!
Stampin’ Up has some fun little vignettes around the room:
I’m saving bunches of the other ideas for classes so I’ll resist posting all of it now:)
Off to stamp my projects. Hope you find time to stamp today!
Linda
Sep 18, 2013 |
I arrived in St. George Utah this morning for the Founder’s Circle Incentive event. (Stampin’ Up honors the top demos each year for 5 days of rest, inspiration and a little spoiling:)
After just getting home from San Diego the day before yesterday, I wasn’t too excited to get back on a plane again.
Once I got here and visiting with friends, I’m getting my energy back!
This cute little chalkboard plaque was hanging on our hotel room doors with our names. Stampin’ Up always decorates the doors in some way and now we can leave each other notes!
There seems to be a burlap-country kind of theme this year. Usually they reveal more as the event goes on.
They had a little horseshoe pit in the hospitality room and surprisingly I got a ringer and won all three prizes! Let’s see if I can do that again tomorrow.
The three prizes I won included the season of style journaling tags, Which I was wanting to get and play with anyway so I will have fun using those.
The red vines candy is my team name and I had to find my other teammates so we could get a prize. We also sat together at dinner and enjoyed getting to know each other better.
Angie Juda, me, Karina, Catherine Pooler, Mary Polcin, Natalie Travis and Tina Weller. We had a nice dinner and the tables were beautiful.
If you were wondering what was on the charger plate wrapped up in the burlap ribbon, it’s a jar of homemade peach jam.
After a wonderful dinner like that I wasn’t expecting to find a pillow gift when I got back to the room!
Because this gift is all new product that’s not available till the next seasonal catalog, I am not supposed to post what was inside but I can tell you that I squealed with delight and truly love love love it all! I’m hoping we will use the stamp set for our make and take projects so I can show you a few of those.
Many demonstrators were working on their swaps today for our big 120 card swap tomorrow night. I still need to assemble mine but added some silver glitter glue to the insides before dinner so they could all dry!
Even the window ledges are full of cards! Tomorrow will be a lazy day of assembling swaps, chatting with friends and relaxing a bit before our pajama party tomorrow night!
Thanks for stopping by
Linda
May 4, 2013 |
Bula! I’m posting from my phone so pardon any ‘less than perfect’ photos and fonts.
As we finally made I back to the US, 3G Internet is such a treat! We have 8 hours in LA before finally boarding a plane to get back to Florida. We had to leave our friends at another terminal and while I’m ready to go home it’s hard to say goodbye.
Thursday night we were treated to a Fijian reception on the lawn with entertainment and dinner. Jan saw the hotel workers cutting leaves off of trees for our dinner placemats. 
The next morning we picked up our swaps (will post those later) and Stampin’ Up organized a Share hour with 10 demonstrators showing fun projects. It was a little packed to get to all the tables but here is a sampling:
Diana Gibbs is always adorable and so are her cards:
Look at all the extra details she adds to make it extra special.
Stampin’ Up displayed our swaps on boards so we could see them all. We swapped in groups of 25 so we didn’t get to keep them all. Here are a few favs and I don’t know who stamped them since we could not see the artist’s name. (If one of these is yours, let me know):
Classic and Simply pretty
Sharp color combo
Lots to look at on this one- fun use of the little accessories
I met a wonderful stamper, Gail Lowe, and she had decorated her This n That book cover just so cute! Here is one of the inside pages:
After the 9.5 hour flight from Fiji, Matt and i still had a 8 hr layover in LA. We decided it was too pretty here in California to stay in so we grabbed a cab to Santa Monica Pier. Gorgeous weather and breeze, a ride on the Ferris Wheel, funnel cake and of course, Zoltar!
7 more hours and home!
Linda
Ps- don’t forget to check out the new Best Of stamp set for May called Brides and Babies.
Apr 30, 2013 |
Bula from Fiji!
The weather was a bit rainy but that didn’t stop anyone from seeing the local offerings. Shopping, eating, shopping, ice cream….it’s certainly not a healthy vacation 🙂 We bought a Bula Bus pass and rode around the city, getting off here and there. It’s pretty pricey to eat here but we found Mama’s pizza and it was freshly handmade & delish!
Wednesday we rented our driver, Kit Kat again. He drove us out past Suva, about 45 minutes away, to a gorgeous white sand beach. We had a private cabana hut and patch of paradise. There was a camera crew in view filming Beauty and the Geeks reality show, supposedly on a deserted island lol
After the beach he dropped us off at a Chinese place where we had an amazing feast!
We had our General Session meeting last night. Stampin’ Up Arranged a lovely welcome reception in the breezy lobby with live music. As our session began, Fijian dancers entertained us.
The guests/husbands received a thank you gift in one of the new wood mount stamp cases. A Survival kit, and Matt was most impressed that a Snickers bar for in there!
The guys/guests also got a “Dude, You’re Welcome” boxed stamp set.
The demos were thrilled to get the new catalog and a 12×12 paper stack of the new Prints patterns! Then we listened to the corporate team giving company updates.
When we got back to the room, another Pillow gift arrived!
The hat for me, the backpack for Matt!
Today we went into town for a service project at the local hospital here in Fiji. This will take the place of our make and take time this year. I’ll admit when they first suggested it and I knew we would be giving up stamping time, I was a bit grumbly. It was optional to go but I’m so glad we did.
It really helped me to appreciate our hospitals in the states. The waiting room was filled with people and no air conditioning. Even though 200 of us invaded their area, every person smiled as we worked.
We split into teams of yard or painting. We had to remove all the blue paint off the poles with sandpaper down to the silver metal, then repaint them. ( that was the team I was on, team Grit:). Lots of poles!
Shelli and Sterling and family were right in there, working just as hard as anyone.
Matt was on the Green Team, grabbing a weed wacker. No mowers, so very tedious to get the grounds looking good. Lots of rakes, weed pullers and garbage pick up.
A team also painted the front of the hospital!
It touched my heart that so many of the demonstrators took time from their vacation to work so hard. As I write this, many are still there working right up til the last bus brings them back.
No stamping to show you yet, we turned our swaps in but haven’t gotten them back yet. On Saturday we have a share event and 10 demos will be presenting ideas!
By the way, if you tried to call our toll free Stamping School line, it’s not transferring here. We had forwarded the lines but it won’t connect here in Fiji. So email us if you need help at Info@stampingschool.com
I’m off for now, switching to vacation mode!
Linda
(Less than 1% of all demonstrators earn the incentive trip each year so I am so very grateful to my team and customers!)
Apr 29, 2013 |
BULA!
Matt and I are in beautiful Fiji on the Stampin’ Up incentive trip. I think it took about 25 hours to get here but we made it! The internet is crazy expensive here so we may only post a few times. We get 30 minutes of free wifi BUT only 30 MB allowed so uploading pics really eats that up like pac man!
(Stamping School members, videos are up and posting as usual while we are gone so login and see what’s new!)
Here is the view from the resort we are staying at, compliments of Stampin’ Up! We decided to come in 3 days early to make up for all the jet lag we were predicting. Our room is gorgeous and even a view of the ocean!
So good to meet up with my good buddies, Georgia and Deb. That’s the best part of these trips!
On Day 2, 10 of us rented Kit Kat, a Fijian driver, who took us all over Nadi to see some local sights.
Our first stop was Nadi Temple, a Hindu temple that is the largest in the southern hemisphere and designed by architects from India. We had to take our shoes off before entering and be very quiet. We couldn’t take pics inside of course but it was beautiful.
I had read about the Garden of The Sleeping Giant before we left and wanted to see it so we all went there next. It was originally started by Raymond Burr who loved orchids and had a huge collection. We saw stunning, lush gardens with over 2000 orchids as we walked on trails through and even saw mongoose.
There is much discussion over how to tally up and convert Fijian money!
Patsy and Jan enjoying the breeze
Day 3 we booked an all day Island Tour Cruise to Tivua Island, which is about 1 1/2 hours from Port Denarau. Snorkling, white sandy beaches, a Kava ceremony and feast and sunburn 🙂
few of us girls spent some time with our feet up – we were all still swollen from the long flights!
As we returned back to the room late after dinner, our first PILLOW GIFT arrived! A fijian mat and fabric agenda holder!
The other 250 demonstrators arrived this am (the ones who didn’t come in early) and the SU Hospitality room opened! They have the room set up so cute! We threw the bean bag for a prize, which is a fun accessory from the new catalog.
The guys are off to golf and the girls will be pool side, in the shade, recovering from sunburns!
Ni Sa Moce (goodbye!)
Linda (and Matt)
(Less than 1% of all demonstrators earn the incentive trip each year so I am so very grateful to my team and customers! )
Sep 13, 2012 |
Having a hotel room all to myself feels a bit strange but I managed to sleep in and then saunter down to the breakfast buffet by 8 am. Matt will be surprised that I skipped the waffle maker this morning but I’m still full from dinner last night!
They expanded our hospitality room today! They take down the walls and then add a lots of sofas and chairs for us to lounge around in.
We can work on or make & takes any time today or tomorrow at our leisure. There is a display board with our projects, which I’m allowed to share with you since they are completed projects (can’t show the raw product like sets that are not available until next Occasions catalog)
I don’t have any details yet on what the techniques are or how the projects are put together since I have not made them yet. But I’ll share ’em with you for your visual enjoyment!
***update! These are NOT our projects, just samples using our new set. We actually are making a whole 8×8 scrapbook! More later 🙂
Tonight is our pajama party and share night. It’s my favorite night since I get to see 125 of the swaps and also get to chat about business ideas and hear about what other people are doing. Have a great day and go stamp something! Linda
May 4, 2012 |
Off to the Magic Kingdom today! I thought you may want to see some more swaps to get you inspired to start your own stamping today!
(if any of these are yours, let me know and I’ll edit post to include your credit)
Ice cream by Diana Gibbs
Daring Adventure by Sharon McNeely
