It begins with swaps

I have arrived at salt lake city in preparation for the stampin up annual convention. Flights were smooth, weather was great, met with my roomie Linda at the airport as our flights arrived almost simultaneously. So far a great beginning to another stampin up adventure. Linda and I visited the new, large amazing shopping mall next to our hotel and then took a nap. After that: swaps.
I had been working on my swaps a little bit here and there for the past two weeks but still didn't finish in time. Therefore, today my mission was to finish swap cards which I just managed to do. I had to improvise a bit in the end since I ran out of ribbon. Here's a picture of the card. I really like how the layered labels has this image where the oval inside matches the large oval punch.
Tommorrow is check in day where we get our bags and stamp sets. Can't wait! I'll keep you posted.

A Reason to Smile

My friends Joanne and Lynda invited me to come and share at their Stampin' Up! team meeting tonight.  I jumped at the opportunity because I always thought it was silly that we only saw each other at Stampin' Up! events in the United States yet we live only about 2 hours from each other (Joanne and Lynda are in the Hamilton-ish area)  I couldn't wait to see them.  Pretty much one of the first things I wanted to see was Joanne's stamp room.  I loved it!  It was so spacious but also it was decorated in such an inspiring way.  There were samples everywhere.  The pictures don't adequately capture everything but hopefully you get the idea.  She has a room where she stores her stamps and stamps for herself, and then a larger adjacent room where she has her classes.

Joanne had prepared different samples using the soon to be released Reason to Smile stamp set.  This stamp set will only be available in July and the best part is that it's only $5 with a $60 order.  A $5 stamp set?! YES!  That's a reason to smile for sure!

Pretty funky with tempting turquoise heat embossing! Check out the new argyle emobssing folder.

Contact me to come to a class where you can place your $60 order to get your $5 stamp set! (Or of course you can always shop online!  www.genevieve.stampinup.net)

Playing with the new

Finally got a chance to break out my new goodies!  I promised the team girls I would have new things for them to stamp with at our upcoming get together so I've started creating and playing.  Here's one card I made.  I'm not sure if it'll make the cut as a make n take but it sure was fun playing.  What I was most intrigued by is the new ink pads.  I knew they were changing their ink pads.  I was fine with their old ink pads but I suppose stampin' up is always looking to improve their product and this is their newest improvement.

What I can say is that I am VERY interested in these new stamp pads.  They are very noticeably different in how they stamp and how they look.  I will have to play more but what catches my attention is that the colour sits on the rubber better.  If you can see on the card, the stamped flowers/leaves on the bottom of the card have excellent ink coverage.  None of that uneven look that I get with new stamps.  Also, the ink is very juicy which makes me wonder whether, if I act fast, I can use this ink to heat emboss.  I will try it one day and let you know!

Anyway, just wanted to share as I was so thrilled I finally got to break out my goodies.  (I had wanted to hibernate in the basement on mother's day to stamp but couldn't resist the great weather and was out biking with the kids instead)

Stay tuned for more stamping with new things. I'm on a roll!

By the way, I spoke to Stampin' Up! and for the following colours, the ink refills are not compatible with the new ink pads so keep that in mind with the final weeks of the retiring list:

basic black

basic grey

marina mist

perfect plum

tempting turquoise