Stampin' Up! Leadership Conference - last day :-(

Last days always make me sad! We'd had so much fun and my brain was totally spinning from all the information I'd received and tried to absorb. I went to some terrific classes - the one I'm going to use the most wasn't even stamping related, go figure, it was about the Agile organization system presented by a fellow demonstrator Dena. Super simple and no equipment required apart from a pile of post-it notes.              Being super disorganized and a terrible procrastinator I think it's really going to help me!   My other favorite classes were Lynsay Mahon's class about helping your downline, Connie Stewart's youtube class and all the stamping demonstrations.  Stampin' Up! events are SO FUN and you always learn so much... I'm already looking forward to convention, it promises to be a great one! Join my BLISS team of demonstrators and you could come with us! 

Here's a shot from the big screen as Shelli Gardner was stamping on the stage... We all got this stamp set, Oh Hello, and lots of great ideas on how to use it!

There were dozens of display boards with literally thousands of ideas, really overwhelming!

Here are my friends Jenn & Diana showing off the "silver" we received to celebrate Stampin' Up's 25th year!

Saying goodbye, sniff, sniff!

Traveling home and snacking on Canadian chocolate, yum! 

Since I got back I've held several classes so I have some great things to share with you and I'm working on a new video! Check back soon :-)

Stampin' Up! Leadership Conference - Pajama Party and more!

How long is it since you went to a pajama party? Well, we went to one last week with 1,500 people! I was so happy to wear my pajamas being as I'd only had a couple of hours sleep!

 Teresa (far left) came to leadership for the first time, it was the first time I'd had a member of my team come and it was really fun to get to share the fun with somebody. Arlene next to me was from California, we just met her walking over, one of my favorite things about SU events is it's so easy to make friends with people from all over the US & Canada!

Brian Pilling showed us how to make this cute card, love that baby whale clip!

It cracks me up how everybody goes crazy when they get free stuff! We came home with a big pile of stamps and accessories, and I have certificates to redeem for 2 more stamp sets that I can choose, yippee! The only trouble  is I saw so many cute ideas I kind of want everything (that's why I'm a demonstrator I suppose!)

This is my lovely friend Kristine from Canada, aren't her jammies so cute?!

Here's my upline, Tara (2nd from right) and some of her friends. I don't know where they got their balloon hats but they're sure looking good!!

Hope you're having a great week, Brenda

Wizarding World of Harry Potter with Stampin' Up! Manager's Reception

Well, apart from a 4 hour trip to the Orlando ER, we had a FABULOUS time at the Manager's reception at Harry Potter! (My friend needed to see a Dr. and she was fine in the end but we stayed up all night for all the wrong reasons!)

Here we are in line for the buses to come and take us to Hogwarts! This is when I found out I'd left my camera memory card in my computer at the hotel ACK!!! So, thank you Rachel for the photo's!

Here we are in the village of Hogsmeade standing in front of the Hogwart's Express

 Ollivander's Wand Shop - where the wand chooses the wizard as you know.

  The Food! The Food! These are cauldron cakes (of course.) Somebody had been slaving away with their wands to make mountains of yummy stuff. I know I'm predictable but I loved that it had such an English theme (Apparently a lot of the food at Hogwarts is inspired by English muggles. So I ate fish and chips, shepherd's pie, treacle pudding and custard, a LOT of pickled onions (my favorite!) really good English cheese, beet and onion salad, drank pumpkin juice and butterbeer and THEN I went on a really extreme roller coaster.... TWICE! What was I thinking? Am I EIGHT YEARS OLD? Of course I got terrible motion sickness and couldn't go on anything else all night... sigh.

 Here's the sorting hat. It didn't ACTUALLY sort me but we all know I would have been in Griffindor OF COURSE!

 Rachel and I hanging with Hermione & students from Dumstrang and Beauxbaton (notice I pushed Rachel out the way so I could stand nearer to the Viktor Krum lookalike.

And here we are in the ER. I think we look pretty good considering it was FOUR AM!!! I think their policy was to make you wait so long you either died or got better. Thankfully Rachel did the latter!

We had a fabulous time, thank you Stampin' Up! for an awesome night!
More tomorrow :-)

Brenda

Stampin' Up! Leadership Conference... this time last week!

I have been in a whirlwind since I got back from the Stampin' Up! leadership conference in Orlando... but I would love to share a little of the excitement with you! I am going to write a series of posts over the next few days so you can get a little peek of the fun!

 I got stuck at my hometown airport for ages AS USUAL which gave me chance to work on my swaps, last minute as usual! My poor friend Krista who gave me a ride to the airport ended up stamping my info on all my cards for me... remember never to offer me a ride someplace, I might give you a job!

Finally in the air and flying over Durango

 Arrived in the dark but in the morning we found this strange upside down building by our hotel - please note: CAPRI'S and SHORT SLEEVES!!! Yay! It was WARM AND HUMID. SO nice after leaving freezing cold Colorado.

 This was the first swap I received, didn't Wanda Smith do a great job! These are the new dress up dies, stamp set and framelits... I didn't want them UNTIL I started to see the cute things gals are making with them!

Here is my friend Lyssa and her friend stuffing bags for teachers. Stampin' Up! bought down a truckload of crafting supplies to donate to local schools in Florida. You should see the cool stuff that went into the bags! Card kits, markers, card stock, beautiful designer series paper, My Digital Studio software, punches, notebooks, chapstick (this is like that game where they show you a tray filled with things, cover it up, and ask you to remember it!) um... stamp sets, ribbon, buttons etc! Together we stuffed over TWO THOUSAND bags and they delivered them to 138 schools! SU is just so generous, they are always donating money or product to different causes. It was lovely to be able to help out and see all the cool stuff. I just wished we could take the bags to our local teachers too, I know some wonderful teachers who would love these in their classrooms :-) 

Catching up with some lovely friends Susan & Rachel at a "British" pub. I loved how there were lots of British things around, candy and crisps at the hotel, I suppose they're catering to all the British tourists. I was happy because I was able to buy a cup of tea all over the place, perfect! 

Tomorrow I'll be sharing more so check back! Have a great day, Brenda

Great tip for using the new edgelit die!

Hi!

Have you seen the new edgelits and their matching embossing folders in the Occasions Mini? They are so cool but I was having trouble getting my embossing to line up with my cut edge... watch this short video to give you some great hints on how to use these two pieces together. (Wish I'd known this sooner!)



Another idea I learned at Leadership was to place the edgelit where you want it on your card and then use a post-it note to hold it in place. Saves a LOT of fiddling around! (Another tip I wished I'd known before I made 40 cards using these dies for my Leadership Swaps!)