Convention was AWESOME!!!!!!

I can't say it enough! We had such a great time! I came back loaded with ideas that I can't wait to share with you....as the tagline for convention says, "inspire, create, share". That was the theme throughout the convention. The first thing we did when we entered the hall was to pick up our bags. One of my best former customers, and now downline, and always great friend, Amy N. attended with me this year.

Our bags were filled with goodies - 4 stamp sets to be used during our make and takes including #116722 Tree Trimmings, #116471 Sweet Season, #115229 Things I Love, and #113780 Hello Again! Great sets - and I love that they focused on Christmas. Believe it or not, Amy and I decided not to actually do the make and takes there -I know you think we're crazy! But once the projects are put together, they are harder to pack and since we had several days of travel left on our vacations, we didn't want them to get "smooshed"! So we opted to come home and finish them here. That gave us an extra afternoon to walk around, look at all the displays many times (you know how you always see something new each time you look in the catalog...same way with the displays!) and take many more photos!




Here is what we were taking photos of! Board after board of project displays from the previous year submissions. They were all aranged by color family and some of them were amazing! To see all of the close up photos I took, you'll have to attend one of my upcoming stamp camps, or host a workshop soon! It's a great way to get some inspiration for new ideas.







The "Gathering Place" was the main hall where we ate lunch, swapped cards, and saw all the displays. They had marketing reps there to answer questions about upcoming products. One of my favorite, and I know it will be yours - is our new "My Digital Studio" that unveils this fall. There is a teaser about it in the Mini Holiday Catalog. This product is amazing! It will be compatible with both PC and Mac, and will have the majority of the product line available for digital creation of scrapbooks, cards, and dvd slideshows etc...I'm talking all our papers, ribbons, punches, stamp images, embellishments...you name it! I saw it demonstrated and it is SO easy to use. There are custom templates included for quick creations, or they can be modified to be your own, or you can develop your creations from scratch! Then, once done you can print it on your own computer, download to dvd, or send if off to our professional printer to have a hardbound book created. The samples at convention were great to see in person because it was proof that the Stampin UP! quality was there! I can't wait to get started on my scrapbooks!




Also at the display areas were opportunities to try out our new Big Shot dies that unveil in the Holiday mini catalog. Just as a teaser, we have a pop up Christmas tree, a collection of dies in partnership with Build-A-Bear workshops, and many others. Check out my stamp camp offerings at my Stampin UP! website - you won't believe how many I've listed all the way through Christmas! And keep checking because I'll be adding more asap.



These are the swaps I made to trade at convention. As you can see, I did a variety of things - but not nearly enough! They were gone within the first half hour of swapping! I wish I'd made more, but there just wasn't time. Amy did go back to the hotel the first night and make more for the next day, but I was whooped! She's a diehard!

Notice that I made a treat holder with the skateboard image from #115179 Extreme Skateboard. This was way out of my comfort zone - I told my husband it was all I could do not to put a bow on it! But like me, many of you may find yourselves in a new phase of life with teenagers! Stampin UP! has filled that need with some fabulous teen-appealing stamps that are under $10 and allows you to get only the image that suits your particular teen! I love that they didn't package them so that I don't have to pay more for stamps I don't need!




This is a difficult place to capture a good photo, but this is the main stage where all the action took place! Each day we sat in a general session which provided company information, demonstrations of new products by some of Stampin UP!'s tops executives - including Shelli herself! There were dancers, singers, gameshows...and of course everyones favorite....the Prize Patrol!!!! Unfortunately, true to form, I didn't win anything. Some of the lucky prizes included free copies of My Digital Studio (when released), Big Shot dies, Stamp sets in packages and my favorite, one of our new jewelry - yes you heard me - jewelry charms that become available Sept. 1, with an insert made by Shelli herself! Now, with 3000 stampers there, the prizes were given randomly by the color of your wristband, which were included in your bag at registration, so it was totally random.

And finally, here Amy and I are in front of the photo op tagline sign. Shelli would sit here for photo ops at different times throughout the day, but we kept missing her! I think the tagline is so appropriate for how I felt after leaving convention - I felt inspired, I long to create everything I saw, and I can't wait to share these ideas with you!

So, now that I've shared my inspiration, I'm off to create some projects for my upcoming workshops and stamp camps. Please visit my business website at any time to place orders, but soon to view all the upcoming classes I've listed. They WILL fill up soon! Make sure to click on them for a description of each class. I will be posting photos of the projects on my blog as time approaches. I'll be back soon (yes, you nay-sayers, I will be updating my blog more often!!!!) with photos of some projects for this months workshops as well as camps. My goal is to be able to share them with you by Sunday, so please visit me again!