Apr 25, 2010 |
We finally made it aboard the Adventure Of The Sea for our Stampin’ Up incentive trip! It was a smooth transition to our cabin (with a little balcony) and we already found a little gift in our room!
Matt and I found the hospitality room and spun the prize wheel. I won a Simply Adorned bracelet! AND a special bonus stamp set ( a current one called FYI) if you noticed clue on their name tags.
Less than 1% of all demonstrators earn the incentive trip each year so I am so very grateful to my team and customers!
(see bottom for pics)
Off to muster, eat and a SU Big Hello Party to say hello to Shelli and family.
Linda
Apr 25, 2010 |
Matt and I are still in San Juan today to see some of the sights before getting on the ship for the Stampin’ Up cruise. We had a great time today hanging out with Jan Burnett and her fun hubby, Darryl. We had signed up for a rainforest tour, drove an hour in a van, only to find out that the rainforest had been closed for the first time ever! Apparently a landslide had occurred 20 minutes before we arrived. So change of plans and the driver offered another tour of something completely different! For those of you that like to keep up with our non-stamping sightseeing, Matt will finish the rest of the story on his page here.
We all caught up with Deb and Kevin Valder and had a fabulous dinner at Cafe Del Angel. I love Mofongo, a Puerto Rican dish with plantains. Yum! Anyway, I was sad to hear Deb’s good friend, Sue Hyer, couldn’t make it this year BUT she was with us…well, sort of:
Deb had a little cutout of Sue so she wouldn’t miss anything. Sue, we miss you and hope you enjoyed the virtual Pina colada!
For those that love stamping, I’m sharing a beautiful gift I received from my good friend, Connie Hobbs. She turned an ordinary candle container into something so pretty to look at!
Here is a close up of the lid that she spruced up using the Sizzix Daisy Die.
We board the ship around 2 or 3 pm so I won’t post again til after the muster and getting settled.
Have fun and take time to stamp something today!
Linda
Apr 24, 2010 |
Hola! Matt and I landed in San Juan, Puerto Rico, this morning at 10:30. I couldn’t get over how HOT it is here and the humidity is off the charts! (and we are Floridians who know how to handle the wet air!) Other than the heat, it is very pretty here. We came in a few days early to enjoy the sights before setting sail on the Adventure of the Seas, Royal Caribbean ship, to the Southern Caribbean. I’m grateful to have earned this trip again this year and look forward to seeing what Stampin’ Up has in store for us. They certainly know how to put on an event!
We set sail on Sunday! I get seasick so I asked many of you what to take and I picked up a mini drug store to try. This morning I took a Bonine and I’ve been sleepy all day! As soon as we got to the hotel and I just collapsed on the bed and I was out cold. I just couldn’t keep my eyes open. I’ve got to get this under control before we sail. There is a midnight stamping time for a few make and takes, so I’ve got to be awake for that!
I’ll be updating the blog with stampin’ updates when possible. I may post several, smaller posts a day with my phone – quicker than having to do it all at night. We have a Facebook page for Stamping School and I may use that since it is a quick way to fill you in. (sign up on the right sidebar for that) Matt will be updating his page (see tab up top for Matt) for all the personal stuff if you’d like to tag along on our adventures! We did see quite a bit today already and more tomorrow. We are already seeing other demonstrators here who came in early so it will be a fun day!
Sea ya! Linda
Apr 12, 2010 |
I’m jumping up and down and the Fed EX man is looking at me like I have 3 heads! I just got my box from Stampin’ Up that has my travels docs in it for the Stampin’ Up Southern Caribbean cruise! I’m so grateful to have earned it because of my fun customers and promotions in my downline. Matt and I will be going in early to Puerto Rico in just a week to spend a few days there and then on the ship! (and by the way, if you know of a good sea sickness cure other than wristbands, ginger or patches, please leave me a comment! I get SO seasick but wouldn’t miss it for the world!)
Here is what was inside the Fed Ex box! Stampin’ Up has the best presentation for the ordinary itinerary papers:
A shiny, patent leather teal wallet that holds our tickets and info! And inside
filled with luggage tags and tropical fabric that looks just like designer paper that is coming out in the Summer Mini Catalog!
How did they know Taken With Teal is one of my favorite colors?! The embossed luggage tags are going to get a lot of use beyond this trip.
I’ll try to keep you posted with our activities while I’m on the ship – let you know my plan for how I’m going to do that soon! Linda
Dec 10, 2009 |
Another NEW and cool product coming out in the Stampin’ Up 2010 Occasions Mini Catalog and Sale-A-Bration Catalog is a new punch. Actually, 4 punches. There are 2 new corner punches and coordinating edge punches, so you can punch a border all around your project!
Stampin’ Up is supposed to be creating a video for demonstrators to show us how to use it, but it’s not out yet and I had to hunker down and play with them. It seemed to work great for me using specific sizes of paper but I wanted it to work with any size of paper. So in walks Matt ( my stampin’ husband aka Man Card Man and Big Shot Hero guy) and he gets intrigued to help me figure it out. Within about 10 minutes he does as I look on amazed and wonder why HE isn’t the demonstrator! Anyway, in this video I show you part One and he shows you part Two with his method:
Dec 10, 2009 |
Photo by Stampin' Up and Images Copyright Stampin' Up!
(there are 2 posts and 2 videos so if viewing from a feed in your email, you will need to come to the blog here to view videos)
The new Stampin’ Up Occasions Mini Catalog opens up on January 5th, 2010! As demonstrators, we can preorder those to play with and tease you with sneak peeks during December. If you would like a copy of this mini catalog and the Sale-A-Bration mini catalog (and you don’t have a demonstrator already or are a demonstrator) click here to send me your mailing address and I’ll pop one in the mail asap!
Oh, and by the way – Stampin’ Up is going to have12 days of GREAT sales starting Friday, December 11th, so stay tuned here for info as they release the details!
On to showing you something NEW and FUN!
Stampin’ Up has a new option to mount our rubber stamps! They are not getting rid of the wood blocks but offering another option for those that prefer the space saving solution of clear blocks. We are not selling clear stamps but rather a clever way to mount the rubber temporarily to a clear block and then remove to store in a slim, DVD type cases. SU will be offering the new clear mounts and well as wood mounted for all new stamps coming out!
Those of you that saw my ‘just out of the box’ video with my Occasions Mini Catalog goodies know that I owe you a new video for mounting our unmounted stamps! I didn’t read any directions and just went for it but didn’t do it exactly as the instructions showed. So far, I’ve noticed 2 ways to mount these so I made a quick video for you:
I’ve received a bunch of emails about whether I’m changing over to all clear mounts. I don’t think so at this point. I love the wood blocks and will probably keep using the wood blocks. I do like the option of spending less and saving room so I will buy some clear mounts also. I like being able to stamp fast, each stamp having it’s own block all the time. I think stamping in big groups and classes can get tricky with sharing the acrylic blocks. but I’ll give it a go and see what happens! If I were just stamping at home for fun by myself or a few friends and needed the extra space, then I’d probably switch over. I like the idea of spending less, especially on sets I buy that I might use less or for one occasion. I guess once I use them more, I’ll make a decision!
Linda
Sep 20, 2009 |
I had another relaxing day ( a girl could really get used to this) of eating, talking, eating, laughing, eating, sharing ideas, eating….you get the idea. Oh, and I did get my MDS (My Digital Studio) certification and class done today!
At 5ish, we hopped on buses and headed off to our suprise location. We pulled into The Ledges, a golf club in St. George. Before we got off the bus they told us that there was a box at our table and NOT to touch it!
About that box….
(p.s. see the table cloth? Cottage Wall DS, of course)
Shelli spoke for a few minutes before we were allowed to open the boxes. She spoke about our theme this week, blooms and growth and butterflies…
and on the count of 3, we all opened our boxes and released our LIVE butterflies! It was magical to see them all flying in the air!
Some stayed a while when they found a shoulder to lean on, like the fabulous Joann Weimers at my table. Some butterflies were a little confused with Jan Burnett’s Big Shot flower!
Lisa Schmid was truly the butterfly whisperer as her hung around quite a while and even drank a bit of fruit juice from her finger!
Then if ALL that wonderful-ness wasn’t enough, this was on my pillow when I returned to my room:
I’m sad to leave my friends and my new friends but home is a wonderful place, too! I miss Matt like crazy and can’t wait to see him. (poor guy has to pick me up from the airport at midnight and then I’ll be hungry so he’ll have to take me to eat, too!)
Thanks for stopping by and sharing the trip with me! Linda
Sep 19, 2009 |
Earlier tonight and after a relaxing day, Jan Burnett and I were walking through the lobby to grab a bite to eat at a nearby restaurant. Shelli Gardner (cofounder of Stampin’ Up) and her daughter, Sara, were looking for someone to eat dinner with. We were delighted to spend time with them and they are both so easy and pleasant to be around. We walked next door to Iggy’s and had a nice meal together. We didn’t talk about stamping much. It was nice to get to know them on a personal level!
After dinner, we rushed back to our rooms to put our pjs on, grab our cards for the big line swap! We made 125 card fronts and I think I had 6 leftover, so a few short but wow! Wait till you see ’em!
After the swap, we went into the gathering room to take our group photo. Trying to get 120 women to sit still and practically on top of one another to fit into a camera frame is close to impossible but we did it! I was sitting cross legged on the floor and I could hear the groans and cracking of knees around me as everyone tried to bend and squeeze in!
They made up for the pain and increased blood flow by feeding us mammoth butterfly cupcakes and tropical drinks with paper umbrellas:
They also gave us a special notebook and pen to take notes during the Share:
The microphone was in the hand of Bonnie Thurber who was like Oprah in the old days where she went out into the audience and encouraged participation. Demonstrators got up, introduced themselves and shared a business tip. As the night went on, I knew she was coming my way but I just kept my head down, doodled and avoided eye contact! (I’m not the most comfortable at getting up in front of 100 people in my pjs) I took great notes with my new pen and book.
We raced up to our room to see tonight’s pillow gift, which I thought the notebook and pen gift was already enough for today. I heard squeals of delight in the halls so I couldn’t wait to get to my room to see what the SU fairies left on my bed:
Too fun! Garden boots with our Cottage Wall DSP on them!
Sep 18, 2009 |
I’m SO excited! I just talked to Bonnie Thurber who said we are now allowed to post our new stamp sets and samples we received here! They will be making a formal announcement tonight – yay! I really love sharing what we see with you and it made me sad that I had to keep in under wraps. This will be the same for the cruise in April, so that will be great, too! I’m glad they listened to our requests.
Here are the 2 new stamp sets and I think both will be in the Occasions mini in January along with what we made!
I’m adding the display samples, too. Those start with the lattice picture.
Click on pics to enlarge…
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GARDEN FROM THE HEART (all images copyright Stampin’ Up!)
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TINY TAGS (all images copyright Stampin’ Up!)
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SET OF 6 ENVELOPES ROLLED OUT WITH BIG SHOT (all images copyright Stampin’ Up!)
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CLOSE UP OF LITTLE ENVELOPE AND CARD (all images copyright Stampin’ Up!)
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LITTLE VANILLA CARD STOCK BOX AND TAG (all images copyright Stampin’ Up!)
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INSIDE BOX – FLOWER DIE CUT (all images copyright Stampin’ Up!)
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FLOWER OPEN (all images copyright Stampin’ Up!)
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