Quick and Easy

For today it has to be something quick & easy. Time is limited today because I am doing so much to get ready for my Customer Appreciation Event...Are you excited for it? I know I am. Fun make n takes, give-a-ways & fun fun fun. I can't wait. Ok so today's quick & easy card comes (of course) from Leadership.

The stamp set for the buttons is of course button button from the occasions mini. The material is also found in the occasions mini. They are both part of the sew suite collection. The material is adhered to the card base using (of all things) a glue stick. How easy is that. All of the buttons are punched out with our assortment of circle punches. Then the words you could use anything. Now how easy was that?

I also wanted to share a picture of the lovely group of ladies that I had dinner with the first night that I was at Leadership. Many of them I spent time with over the next two days. They are a fabulous group of ladies with so much talent. Now you will notice that I am in the picture (at the far end of the table). That is because my new friend Lisa Kim took the picture. Thanks Lisa for sharing it. (To see Lisa's blog stop by Here)

Thanks Ladies for helping to make my Leadership Experience an awesome one. See you all at Convention!

Sharing some Candy in time for Valentine's Day!

So the shares from Leadership continue. These two yummy cards were on the Stampin' Up walls of ideas. So I have no idea who designed them. First up is this yummy card using the Eat Chocolate Stamp Set in the Occasions Mini Catalog.

It includes 3 of my most favorite things. 1. The ribbon, I just love our 1 1/4" striped grosgrain ribbon. I don't think you can ever have enough of it. 2. Embossing folders. I never meet an embossing folder that I didn't love. 3. Ghirardelli chocolate. Yum is all I can say to that.

The next card would be great for any age. As a matter of fact it is probably going to be my 4 year old, Robert's Valentine's Day cards for his pre-school.

It is so simple. The card base (real red) gets run through the big shot on one side. Then punch out 2 hearts using the full size heart punch out of our new real red glimmer paper (just love it - hoping for lots more colors) & out of the Love Impressions Designer Paper. Glue them down & glue the smarties candy down using glue dots. Then the words are stamped on whisper white cardstock with real red ink. Then punched out with the designer label punch. Then the edges are slightly sponged with the real red ink. Attached to the card probably with dimensionals. One more little heart punch out of the glimmer red paper & the card is done.

As a reminder Sale-A-Bration started yesterday. The catalog (in case you don't have one) can be found on my blog or email me to get a copy.

New friends & something warm

Happy Sunday to All. Boy this weekend is just flying by. I have been working on all kinds of great goodies & give-a-ways for my Customer Appreciation Event next Saturday (the 29th). Make sure you are registered. Registration ends today at 5 pm. OK now on to the good stuff.

As most of you know I went to Leadership by myself (well kinda, my husband, Craig did travel with me). But I did not know a single person when I got there. The night before Leadership started (since I didn't qualify to go to Manager's Reception - just wait next year I will be there) I ate dinner with a group of great ladies from an online Demonstrator group that I am on. These two ladies with me were part of that group. Denise is on my right & Isis on my left. They were actually roommates whom had never meet before getting to Leadership. The funny thing is Denise is a local girl. Originally from Pekin, Illinois, just on the other side of Peoria from me. Small world huh. These two ladies I spent almost all of the next two days with & can honestly now call them my friends.

So as for stamping...I don't know how they weather is where you are...if you are my new friend Isis (who is from Miami) you are warm. But here in Central Illinois it is extremely cold. So to help warm us up how about a nice cup of Hot Chocolate?

I am not sure who designed this cute gift card. I took a picture of it when someone was holding it during one of our general sessions. So that means it could be one of 999 people (not 1,000 because I know I didn't make it). It uses one of the neat single stamp images out of the new occasions mini catalog.

One of my new favorite this that I just got for Christmas (Thanks Santa Mom) is My Digital Studio. Here is a picture of just a few of the neat things you can make using this awesome program. (After all the items from Leadership be on the look-out for me to post some items that I am making using My Digital Studio).

No more having someplace make our Christmas cards. I will be able to make them all by myself. Just love it.

Well I must get back to my gifts for next Saturday. I hope to see you there.

New favorites from Leadership

This year's theme at Leadership was + One. It is the idea that we can do just one more thing in our business or personal life and the ripple effect will be big. For my business I came back with more than one. But the one that you are noticing right away is my determination to post to my blog often (my goal is at least 4 times a week - 7 would be great but probably not an on going realistic goal). For my personal life, this was much harder, I have decided to make a commitment for us to eat together as a family 4 days a week. Again I would love for it to be 7 days a week but with everyone's schedules that is not possible. Below is a picture of me our 1st morning before our opening session with Shelli. Yes I know, what a cheesy smile.

Another thing from Leadership that I got was a love for a couple of the new items in the Occasions Mini Catalog. The 1st one is the Build A Blossom set & coordinating punch. When I saw these items in the catalog I thought they were neat (I love stamp sets with coordinating punches - how easy). But while I thought they were neat & that the flowers were pretty I thought, "hmmm I don't know." Well I saw so many beautiful items made with this that I had to have it. You saw one in my post the other day with the card all done in real red. But check this one out.

Pretty Pretty. This card also uses one of my favorite stamp sets out of the Sale-A-Bration Catalog (which of course starts on Tuesday) plus it also uses my new favorite embossing folder "framed Tulips" (found in the new occasions mini).

Now the next thing that I saw tons of stuff done with I really didn't think much at all about it. Boy was I not thinking out of the box. It's possibilities are endless.

This cute little gift holder was made using the petal cone die (in the Occasions mini). It is holding a super cute pin cushion that was made with the Sweet Stitches fabric. The button & the ribbon on the petal cone die are also in the Occasions mini. In a few days I will show you another project using the petal cone die that changed a sucker into a flower in a pot.

I hope you are all having a good weekend & that it is not as cold where you are as it is where I am. : )

More from Leadership!

Aren't you just loving all of the great ideas that I have been sharing from Leadership? These are just the tip of the iceberg of what I have to share. So for Day 3 (can you believe I have posted 3 days in a row...no me either but it is one of my + Ones that I have planned for myself). Leadership was such a awe inspiring experience, so many great ideas & so many great people. One of those great people is Ronda Wade, another of Stampin' Up's Top Demonstrators. I have done some training with Ronda over the phone for the last few months & it was fantastic to get to meet her in person.

She is such a friendly and warm person who just makes everyone around her smile. She also is one heck of a demonstrator & trainer (and this coming from someone who used to train people for a living). If you would like to stop by her blog click Here.

Now on to some stamping...These two projects are using one of the Fabulous stamp sets from the up coming Sale-A-Bration catalog. If you have not got yours yet call, email, text or message me on Facebook. Sale-A-Bration starts on Tuesday the 25th. This stamp set is called "So Happy for You." The first one is a card that I will definitely be duplicating for St. Patrick's Day. Me being Irish this card just screams "Luck of the Irish" to me.

Love Love Love the ribbon. The next project using the "So Happy for you" Sale-A-Bration Set and the Sweet Stitches DSP.

I totally love the ribbon on the top of these tags. So many uses for this same tag just by changing the saying that you use from the "So Happy for You."

Ok, as a reminder you will see these & so many other shares at my Customer Appreciation Workshop on January 29th. If you have not yet registered, you are running quickly out of time. The cut off for registration is this Sunday at 5 pm. Tons of give-a-ways & fun make n takes too. Don't miss it. Remember there is not any cost to you for this workshop just come & have a ton of fun.

More great Leadership things!

So many great items to share from Leadership! The first morning we all checked in to get our bag of goodies (the first of a lot of goodies that we got). The bag is just the cutest ever. Ready to see it?

Love LOVE LOVE it! Now obviously this is not my bag (as you can tell by the name tag). But I liked how unknowingly this person made their name tag ahead of time & it ended up matching perfectly. I was even able to buy a matching wallet at the memento mall.The ribbon on the outside & inside are Stampin' Up ribbons that are 2 of my favorites. As a matter of fact when my husband & I checked into the Oprayland Resort the lady in front of us had the 1 1/4" striped grosgrain ribbon in basic black & very vanilla on her bags. I said to her excuse me is that Stampin' Up ribbon (because I had told my husband it was & he didn't believe that I would know it on site - I don't know what was he thinking?). She says "Yes, are you here for Leadership?" To which I replied "Yes, I am a Stampin' UP Demonstrator." She told me "That is great. This is one of my products . I am from the Home Office Product Design." There were are whole group of Stampin' Up Home Office employees checking in a head of us. Love it!

So on to today's stamping...which of course is from one of Stampin' Up's wonderful Home Office Employees during one of our break-out classes. This one was on the importance of color. She showed how just some slight changes can totally change the look.

I personally love the top card. Everything was done in Real Red (one of my favorite colors). I love the whole mono-color look. Then by just changing the outside two levels of petals (which were done with the new Build a Blossom stamp set & coordinating punch) it totally changes the look of the card.
Just wait until you see what is in store for tomorrow.

My 1st Leadership!!!

There is just no good way to describe how awesome Stampin' Up Leadership was. I had such a great time, meet so many awesome people, learned a ton & got A LOT of great ideas. Many of these great ideas came from the awesome swaps I got from other demonstrators. I will be sharing these with you slowly but surely. I wish I could share everyone but I have over 120 swaps. So I will try to share some of my favorites. Some will also be appearing in some of my upcoming events. For my Customer Appreciation Workshop on January 29th we will be making a few of these. By the way, are you signed up? The deadline for registration is this Sunday January 23rd at 5 PM. Don't miss out. You will get so see tons of the items that I brought back from Leadership. At some point I will also share my swaps but since some of them are also going with me in February to Stampin' Up Regional in Minneapolis (shout out to my new friends from Minnesota - Don't you know) I probably will not share them until I get back. Ok so to pick one of my favorites from Leadership. Are you ready?

Ok well instead of a swap I decided to share an awesome little trinket box that fellow Demonstrator & #1 Demonstrator of the Year for 2010, Kimberly Van Diepen shared. I was lucky enough to get to meet & speak with Kim. She is as fun & real as she appears on her blog (to visit click Here). She used so many wonderful products including the crown trinkets, rosettes & the "You're a Gem" stamp set out of the new mini. Love Love Love it.

One of the highlights of Leadership for me was getting to walk across the stage as a Senior Supervisor. I was blessed to be promoted right at the end of the year. Here is a picture of me and one of my new friends Denise walking the stage with the new Senior Supervisors (& Senior Consultants from Canada).

One of the other wonderful people that I got a chance to meet & speak with is Stampin' Up Co-Founder, Shelli Gardner.

Talk about one fantastic lady. Her wonderful husband Sterling was kind enough to take the picture for me. Kindly he took the picture from the chest up so there was no way you could tell in the picture that I don't have any shoes on. Yes Yes the first time I got to meet Shelli I left my 3" high heeled shoes at the table. My feet just wouldn't function in them any more. We had a nice laugh at it and she even said that she had admired them as I walked the stage earlier in the day. Wasn't that sweet?

Ok so be on the look out for other great pictures in the days to come. I will also be sharing the awesome make n takes that we made the 2nd night (once I get them all done - but that is another story).