Highlights from the Stampin' Up! on stage event!

Hellooooo out there!!!  I had very grand intentions to blog everyday when I was in Salt Lake City but the event schedule was JAM PACKED so I had almost no time to myself. 
I actually had no time to go to my favourite, tried and true restaurants that I love to visit when I am in Salt Lake City.  No Cheesecake Factory, No PF Changs, no Mexican food. 
That's how busy I was!  If you know me, you know how I love to eat out so missing those restaurants was a real loss.

However, there were so many exciting things that I can't dwell on missing cheesecake.  I'm hoping pictures will be worth a thousand words so here we go....

The first thing to know about Stampin' Up! events is that they are fun!  Being a Stampin' Up! demonstrator is so much about fun, friendship and stamping. Sometimes it seems like the business side of it is forgotten because we are having so much fun! 
Can you imagine begin among 2000 people all who love stamping as much as you?  I am considered completely normal when I gasp at a swap card or get short of breath when I new stamping tool is announced.  (if you think I belong in an insane asylum then maybe you had better stop reading this blog post now) If you can relate a little bit to what I am sharing then carry on...

There are Prize Patrols where new, not yet released stamp sets are given away depending on the colour button you received at check in.   (in case you missed it...I'll say it again: NEW, NOT YET RELASED STAMP SETS)

There is card swapping and seeing friends that you've met at previous events.  It is a very common story that you'll meet new friends just standing around.

This group of people are all part of a training group led by demonstrator Ronda Wade.  We learn together about stampin business stuff and we encourage each other.  It was very cool to meet people that I had only seen online.

Here's Carrie from the Canadian office.  She handles so much...including product exchanges for us and more!

 Here's my friend Linda Yamamoto.  People often mix us up. It must be the asian connection and the fact that we both have rehab backgrounds.  (she's a physiotherapist while I was an occupational therapist)

On one evening someone organized an Advisory Board Alumni dinner.   (Read about when I was appointed to the advisory board HERE)  Although there is no more Advisory board since Stampin' Up! has gone to a model with different leadership councils, all of us past Advisory Board members sort of feel a special sisterhood.  I suppose it would be like being members in a special club or sorority. 

Here's Jennifer Cotton and I.  We served together on the Advisory board in the same year.  She's one of my closest stamping friends now although we mostly only keep in touch by text.

Here's myself with Dawn Griffith and Jennifer.  We are missing 3 of our group who served with us in the same year but it was so nice to visit together. 

Here's Missy Shipman.  One of the sweetest ladies I know.  

 The thing that's awesome about getting together with these ladies is that we all understand the amount of passion and perseverance that goes into our Stampin' business.  We can be honest about the ups and downs and so it was a wonderful evening of connection and friendship.

The convention sessions are super fun.  I may be biased but I think the Canadian business manager Dale Hampshire was the most fun emcee of the entire event.   So proud to be Canadian.

 When I say the event is fun.  I mean it's fun!  There's rocking music where you can dance around and swap cards.  You can take photos with Stampin' Up! staff.  It's perfectly acceptable to wear Paper Pumpkin Scrap bin containers on your head. 
Yeah  it's that kind of fun.

It was so awesome that 7 of the Team S.T.I.C girls also flew in for the On Stage event.  We had to get a purple shirt photo of course!  It's so great to enjoy the event as a group.

One of the most memorable experiences of the event was the recognition.  I felt like a very proud Mama bird when Team S.T.I.C girl Zahra was named #5 demonstrator in Canada and #87 globally.  There are about 49,000 demonstrators in the world so being in the top 100 is an amazing achievement. 

This grandma bird also felt very proud of Selina who earned a performance bonus for her leadership and earned her first incentive trip! 

I was humbled to learn that for the second year in a row I ranked #1 in Canada.  Simply a miracle and shocking. 

I was also surprised to learn that I was #15 in the world.  This was unbelievable to me.  

All these top Canadian demonstrators inspire me and many are dear friends

This photo says it all! 

Team S.T.I.C incentive trip earners!

A photo with the CEO Sara and co-founder Shelli

I can not say enough how thankful I am to God for the amazing experience of being a Stampin' Up! demonstrator.  I'm thankful for all you wonderful people who stamp with me and the amazing Team S.T.I.C. who inspire me everyday. 

I shall carry on doing the best I can to serve my team, friends and customers!  Thank you for your support! 

Home Sweet Home

Now that I'm back home, I thought I'd share some more photos from the final day at the Stampin' Up! onstage live convention.  The fun and friendship just continued on.

More prizes...

Dinner with wonderful friends.  The gentleman in the back is Dale Hampshire, manager of Stampin' Up! Canada.  I invited him to join our final evening dinner because he is so much fun to talk with and he loves demonstrator chatter.
He was also the talk of the convention since he came on stage rocking a hawaiian shirt and danced his heart out before his appointed job of announcing various recognition awards.
Us Canadian demonstrators were pretty proud as it was clear that he was one of the coolest stampin' up staff members around!

I was so happy to meet Hattie.  She had connected with me over email a while back and I was so happy to meet her in person as we share the common profession of Occupational Therapy.  It was so fun to talk with her.  We could talk about stamping and switch over to O.T. all in one conversation.

Alas, all good things must come to an end and I had to say farewell to On stage 2016.  There was a challenge to come up with a 6 month stampin' goal to add a new event each month.  I was trying really hard to come up with a goal but as you can see all I had was a blank piece of paper and chips.

I was so happy to return home to my craft cave and do some stamping.  It's practically torture to go to a stampin' convention and be surrounded by so much inspiration and not be able to sit down and start stamping whatever I want.

I was also happy to be home so I could see my daughter at her basketball game.  I missed her first game when I was away.  There was no way I was missing her next game!

As a perk of attending the convention, I was able to preorder some new catalogue product ahead of other demonstrators.  As you can see, I expedited my parcel and it just arrived earlier this week.  Somebody knew i would be very happy to receive this box.  Check out the happy face that someone drew!
Stay tuned, I'm sure I will be playing with the new goodies soon!

For this week's Watch it Wednesday, enjoy the highlights video.  If you don't blink, you'll see a message I wrote on the home office inspiration white board! 

Hope you can come enjoy some stamping with me soon!  Make sure to check out my events! 

On Stage Happenings

So much has happened since the Stampin Up convention (called On Stage) has started. Here's some pictures to give you a feel of what it's like.

First on the agenda was a home office tour.  This is where big decisions are made...like what stamps will not make the new catalogue, or what the new in colours will be.

This is also where there warehouse is so all those beautiful stampin up boxes filled with stampin' supplies are shipped from here.  

In case you thought the home office would be an industrial, cold looking facility, here's some pictures.

Just like Stampin' Up! products, the office is beautiful and makes you feel right at home.

  After the home office tour we had the afternoon to ourselves.  Mindy and I had decided to go for spa treatments.  Since Mindy owns a spa in Owen Sound, I left it to her to select an appropriate spa in Salt Lake City.  Her research led her to an extravagant hotel called the Grand America.  Everything at that hotel speaks of luxury.  I joked with her that we could pretend to live the life of the rich and famous.  Before our spa treatments, we went for lunch.  Absolutely delicious! 

  The hotel grounds were gorgeous and the gardens were groomed to perfection. 

The spa was clean and tranquil.  We enjoyed the steam room, sauna and services.  Mindy and I were both very very relaxed after our spa services. 

The spa even had a special shower with 17 shower heads.  The staff member said it was like a human car wash.  I couldn't help but try it of course.  I ended up laughing hysterically because there were so many jets and so many knobs to control each jet, I was overwhelmed and stunned as I didn't know which knob would activate which jet and water would come spraying unexpectedly at me.  

Okay.  You just had to be there. It's too hard to describe the hysterical laughing. 

The next day the general session began.  It's not a boring or dry experience.  It is exactly the opposite.  There was a live band to welcome us.  We dance to the energetic music as we mingle around and swap cards with others.  We find old friends and squeal and hug and exchange handmade gifts and cards.  We meet new friends too! 
There is a whole crazy Stampin' culture.  It's quite common to see girls on the same team wearing team shirts.  These team shirts cracked me up.  In case you can't read it, it says:
I'm so crafty I sweat glitter.

It's absolutely impossible to be unhappy at a Stampin' Up! convention.

Speaking of meeting old friends, I saw the camera man that was working when I was presenting at the convention last July.  Having done my presentation over and over again last July, I sure saw Dennis the camera man a lot.
We both immediately recognized each other!

What's a Stampin' Up! event without prize patrol?  We all got a button with a Stampin' Up! colour.  My colour was called first so I won the very first prize patrol!  (Sorry I'm bound by policy to not show any new catalogue stuff so I can't show my prize!)

Myself with Mindy and my friend Linda from Kansas who I've dubbed honourary Team S.T.I.C  :-)

The evening was a beautiful formal dinner at the Grand America hotel. 

Last night someone organized a dinner just for those who have served on Stampin' Up!'s  Advisory Board over the years. It was a fun 70's theme.  Check out the cute treat box favours using the beautiful ride stamp set in the spring catalogue. 

Can't forget the swapping....I got some amazing samples!  Can't wait to show you!

Myself and Dawn Griffith holding up numbers to represent the year we served on the Advisory board.

Today is the last day, I'll be heading home tomorrow armed with the new catalogue and loads of project ideas.  If you want to be one of the first to see the new catalogue and play with the goodies, make sure to sign up for the June New Catalogue stamp camp.  

Also, club members and past hostesses, mark your calendar for June 5th for the annual Hostess appreciation event!

Inspire. Create. Share. 2015 Highlights

So here's the truth.  It's kind of hard to come back to reality after being in a Stampin' Up! bubble last week.  Among stampin' peeps I can be myself and turn to whoever is next to me and tell them how much I love the glimmer ribbon in the holiday catalogue.  I can even wave my hands around in great excitement as I explain the plan to colour the glimmer ribbon rich razzleberry in color.  The person will probably squeal in reply and then discuss other glimmery products.

If I do that back home in reality people will think I am really really crazy.

The other thing is that in the Stampin' Up! bubble everyone smiles and is kind and happy.  Of course we are happy since we all have a common fun activity that we do to help us cope with the stress of life.  As we were flying home we encountered more than one airport staff member that really needed a more fun job.  They really did not seem very happy.  I had an intense need to teach them how to stamp.  :-)

Anyway, coming back home is great because I get to see my family.  I have been kissing and hugging my kids a lot.  However, I miss the stampin' up bubble just a little bit.  So, to help with the transition back to reality, I watch the convention highlights video.

Hope this video gives you a taste of the convention experience.  If you don't blink, you might see me!

Enjoy!

Highlights from my heart

Well, I'm now home from what I felt was one of the best Stampin' Up! conventions EVER!  I was so tired at the end of each day I know I didn't blog much or explain very much so now that I am home I thought I would share a little bit more if you are interested.

There were so many wonderful things about this experience.  One was having so many Team S.T.I.C girls coming along this time. I could tell my dear friend Zahra was loving the excitment and energy of the atmosphere and since she had earned an annual award, she was eligible to go into a special little room for award achievers where we received a small bucketful of treats that included candy, stamp set, and embellishments.  The room also had snacks and a soda fountain where we could get unlimited drinks.   I was so excited that she qualified that I said we must go to the room together.  I'm glad we did because we bumped into Brandy Cox who is famous in the stamping world for her ideas and stamping videos.  I was able to introduce Zahra to Brandy and get a great picture.

Another wonderful highlight was awards night.  I know I briefly mentioned it before but my heart is full of amazement that in Canada I ranked number 1 in the leadership category and number 2 in both the sales and sr. associate promotions category.  Crazy right?  It's true! Nothing is impossible with God.  It was a thrill to be honoured and being one of the top three in any of those categories guaranteed me a spot in the coveted Founders Circle Retreat in September.  I was really wanting a spot in that pampering retreat because it is such a relaxing, luxurious getaway and especially because it's the perfect vacation with a few of my very special stamping friends.  Because Stampin' Up! is changing up their rewards program, this will be the last Founders Circle retreat.  This was the retreat two years ago that I met my friend Christi Beck.  (read some posts about our friendship HERE ).  We are so thrilled that we both get to enjoy the retreat.  

Awards night is also a time to celebrate achievements of friends so I spent a lot of time hollering and cheering for my fellow demonstrator friends. 

Other very special moments is hearing from my husband that he received a hand stamped card from Stampin' Up! home office staff member Donna Griffith.  I haven't worked with very many companies in my life but Stampin' Up! is the first to send my husband a card letting him know how his support for me is appreciated.  Yes.  He feels pretty great and it's true.  I was pretty busy getting ready for my stamping presentation at convention so Kevin definitely deserved that card. 

I have some new holiday catalogue product in my hot hands and I will bring it to class on Thursday to give you a tiny sneak peek. 

If you want to get the holiday catalogue product in your hands early, then purchase the starter kit in August because you can fill your starter kit with anything from the main catalogue and the holiday catalogue.  Yup.  That's getting the new goodies one full month before anyone else. 

Not ready to join the fun of the Stampin' Up! family?  Then be the first to see the new product by scheduling a party with me! I can't wait to show you everything! 

Thank you for all the fun and friendship you bring to my life!