Stampin' Up! Holidays at Half Off!!

Thanks for reading my blog!  I hope you're enjoying it, I sure am!

Click Here to see a special just for my Blog readers and Customers!

You can combine this with the Holidays at Half-Off promotion too!  For this promotion Stampin' Up! is offering six stamp sets at half of their regular price when you order $30 in non-promotional merchandise!  The stamp sets and prices are as follows:

• Love Ya Bunches, page 80, Regular Price: $17.95 Now: $8.98



• Rough Edges Alphabets, page 197, Regular Pice: $19.95 Now: $9.98



• Merry, page 49, Regular Price: $22.95 Now: $11.48



• Tag Time, page 24, Regular Price: $26.95 Now: $13.48



• Mini Mates, page 62, Regular Price: $29.95 Now: $14.98



• Sketch It, page 25, Regular Price: $34.95 Now: $17.48

You can buy one of these sets or one of each of them for the discounted price!  Just click on the link for the online catalog to view them and then email me with your order!

Stampin' In the Dark!

Last night I had a group of friends over to make recipe albums.  I've attached a photo of mine, but these ladies had even better color combinations!  I wrapped my album here with twill tape but we used the Prep School Ribbon Originals on one of the albums and it turned out so cute!  Well, we had just finished the album covers and were moving on to work on some of the inside pages and the lights went out!  So, we lit a bunch of candles and stamped in the dark!  Now, that is how you know you're really into stamping!!!   

Founders Circle Farewell Dinner

After our jeep tour there was some time to relax and enjoy the scenery around Zion.  Then, we boarded the busses again and left for a secret destination for a farewell dinner.  But, on the way our bus was held up by two cowboys!  We got off the bus and were herded onto their hay wagon and taken to a Ghost Town for dinner!  What fun!  I didn't ride the hay wagon though, I was able to get back in the saddle and ride a horse to dinner!   

Once we reached the ghost town we were treated to the sounds of a western band and a home cooked dinner.  Here I am with two Canadian demonstrators, including Josee Smuck from Canada!  I'm thrilled to be going to Canada in May to speak at her group meeting!  At dinner we received another thank-you gift, a great frame thanking us for everything that we do.  It was a very nice touch and very appreciated!

After dinner we had the pleasure of listening to a cowboy poet share his stories with us.  His name is Colen Sweeten and one of his stories called Taps brought tears to my eyes.  It was about an old horse he once owned and it brought back many memories of my horseback riding days.  Here's a photo of Colen, Glenda and I.   

After dinner was over and the sky was dark, we boarded the hay wagon again in groups to head back to the busses and back to hotel.  I looked up while on the wagon and in Southern Utah the sky at night is just beautiful!  You can see the milky way in all it's glory and that sight was the perfect ending to a wonderful day! 

The next day we boarded the busses again and went back to Salt Lake City for our trip home.  This Founder's Circle trip was one that I won't soon forget!  I made a bunch of new friends, learned a lot and had a wonderful time!  Thanks for letting me share a little about this amazing trip with you! 

Founders Circle Day 3

Day three of my Founder's Circle retreat was a free day.  So, a large group of us boarded two jeeps and took a tour of the Utah wilderness!  We drove up Goosebury mesa and the views were beautiful no matter which way you looked!  Our tour guide kept pointing out various plant species including Choke Cherry trees (that choke out other vegetation), "killer" mistletoe (that kills the trees it grows on) and something called a Prince's Plume that was also dangerous.  By the end of the jeep tour I came to the conclusion that Utah is a very dangerous place to live!!! 

Here is a picture of my upline, Glenda and I standing at the edge of Goosebury Mesa (but not too close to the edge).  And, no, that's not a bug on my shirt, it's a sticky piece of a plant that I thought looked funny as a broach (think burrs here in the Midwest). 

Once our tour was done, we sped back down the mesa and back to town.  I tried to get some pictures of the local, dangerous vegetation but Glenda and I determined that killer mistletoe and choke cherries only grow in places where you go speeding by!

Founders Circle Day 2

The second full day of the Founder's Circle retreat we drove through Zion National Park on our way to Stampin' Up!'s manufacturing facility in Kanab, UT.  I was on the Real Red bus and sat with a demonstrator from Minnesota.  It turned out that all of us on this bus were first time Founder's Circle members and it was fun to get to know one another!   

Once we reached the manufacturing facility we split up into groups for a tour.  There were no photos allowed inside the factory but it was fascinating to see the stamps actually being made and get to talk with the people making them.  I got to use the diecutting machine and assemble a box of stamps!  I've include d a photo here of the sign that hangs over the employee entrance door. 

After we finished our tour we received a free stamp set (Carte  Postale from the Winter mini catalog) and made some cards and a scrapbook page.  I sat with some of the other rising stars and two Canadian Demonstrators for the make and take and it was fun getting to know them! 

After we finished the make and take, we boarded the buses again and drove into the city of Kanab, UT to have lunch.  We went to City Park which is a park that Shelli helped to build to give back to the community where she grew up.  One of the cool things about this park was that the playground was surrounded by ground up pieces of rubber - the extra that is left when the stamps are manufactured.  They were able to donate the rubber to make a soft surface under the equipment that the children play on and keep the rubber out of the landfill.  What a win-win situation for the children, environment and the company!  I am very proud to be a part of a company that looks for opportunites like this! 

I've attached a photo of two of my fellow rising stars and I in the playground area.  You can see the ground around us is red from the rubber with bits of purple mixed in.  The purple is the leftover rubber  from the hostess stamp sets and makes for a very colorful playground! 

SU Pajama Party!

This is a photo of the hotel that we stayed at in Zion.  I loved the view of the red rocks outside my hotel room window each morning!  Once we reached Zion we had some time to unpack and eat dinner and then come back to our rooms to get ready for the Pajama Party!  And, as an added bonus, upon coming back to the room after dinner there was a Founder's circle pillow there with my initials on it!  This was one of many gifts that we received during our trip! 

That night we all "dressed up" in our PJ's and met to swap cards and share ideas.  I've included a photo here of me with Shelli, Stampin' Up!'s CEO and co-founder.  The theme of our swap was the upcoming Holidays so I came home with a bunch of holiday themed cards to share! 

It was so wonderful to be inspired by some of the great ideas that other demonstrators shared.  Some were small things and some were big ideas.  Most of all it was just a lot of fun to get to spend time with fellow stampers and businesswomen! 

Founders Circle!

As part of my reward for being the #4 Rising Star for last year I was able to attend the Founder's Circle retreat in September!  This retreat was with Shelli, SU's co-founder and CEO and included the top demonstrators in all categories.  I can home with a ton of great new ideas!  One of my uplines, Glenda also was able to attend and we had a great time together!  We went to Zion, Utah after a welcome dinner in Salt Lake City!  We boarded the buses and had beautiful scenery and fun games on the drive down!