Sketch Frenzy Friday - July 30

Welcome to Sketch Frenzy Friday!  Today's sketch is brought to us by Tess Davis.  I really liked making this card today.  You'll notice, I actually followed this sketch.  It doesn't happen often, does it?  :-)

This card is all Rich Razzelberry, one of my favorite colors in the Brights family.  The card base is 3" x 6", a size that I don't play with as often as I should.  Did you know we even carry envelopes for cards this size?  I have a couple packs that I had tucked away but they're giong to be getting lots of use pretty soon!  This card size would be great if you're giving a cash gift!  It's just perfect.

I created the button using a Big Shot die.  The button was just the right size for this card.  I layered three card stock buttons together using Tombo adhesive and tied the center up with some Linen Thread.  To add some fun accents, I pulled out my new Illuminate Top Coat and covered my new button and accented the stamped berries.  This new product is a lot cooler than I thought it would be.  It's made its way to my accessory bag so I have a feeling you'll be seeing lots more of it in my upcoming creations.

Card Recipe
Stamps - Just Believe
Ink - Rich Razzelberry
Paper - Rich Razzelberry Card Stock, Whisper White, Card Stock, Brights Designer Series Paper Stack
Accessories - Scallop Square Punch, Scallop Rectangle Clearlit, Buttons #5 Sizzlit, Big Shot, SNAIL, Stampin' Dimensionals, Smooch Pearlized Accent Ink Illuminate Top Coat, Linen Thread, Stampin Sponge

Be sure to continue to follow along with the rest of the Sketch Frenzy Friday bloggers!  Kim's blog is next on the list.

Simply Square

Square is the place to be :)  I love this note card set.  It's totally simple, quick and easy!  The new Newsprint Designer Series paper makes for a great, old time look to the cards.  Of course, they're mounted on my new favorite color, Cherry Cobbler!!  The box is my own design.  It holds all six of these cards with envelopes or will hold 10 cards nicely without the knot.  Enjoy the box design.  The starting page size is 8-1/4" x 11".  I'd love to see how you're able to make it work into your own card set designs!!

Card Box

Convention 2010 Blog Scavenger Hunt - WIN PRIZES!!

My adventure in Salt Lake City is finally over. I don’t say finally in a bad way, it just feels like I was gone from home for a month instead of a week  I had an incredible trip. I met so many people and saw hundreds, possibly thousands of new ideas and projects from demonstrators from across the continent. I leave the 2010 Stampin’ Up! Convention excited, rejuvenated, and full of ideas that I’m thrilled to share with all of you!!

So, I promised some goodies, didn’t I? Well, I’m living up to that promise but all good things come to those who work for it!! Are you ready for a blog scavenger hunt? If you’ve been a loyal blog reader while I’ve been away on my trip, this should be a piece of cake! If not, you may have to make some guesses because I’ve done a sneaky thing…I’ve blocked off some of the information on my blog!! If you’re a Feedburner subscriber, you should have all of my blog posts in your email. If you’re not a subscriber, you may want to go to the right sidebar on my blog and sign up. It’s free and easy! You’ll get notified by email every time I post a new message on my blog. You’ll never miss a special blog scavenger hunt question again!

Here’s how it’s going to work. Answer ALL of the questions in the scavenger hunt. If you don’t know the answer, guess! What’s the worst thing that can happen? There are bonus activities, too! You can get extra credit points by participating in the challenges and activities. Entries need to be in my email box by Saturday, July 31 at Noon. The person with the most points will win this fun Stampin’ Up! gift PLUS $25 in merchandise from the 2010 Holiday Mini Catalog that launches on September 1!! How fun is that? In the event of a tie, a winner will be selected using a random number generator. Demonstrators outside of the Korner Krazy Stamper group are not eligible to enter. I encourage all customers to play along!! I will also draw a second place winner from all entries for a special “consolation prize”!!

Are you ready to scavenge my blog? On your mark…Get set…GO!!!  Convention 2010 Blog Scavenger Hunt

Prize Pack – SU! expandable trash basket, SU! Ruler, SU! Key Chain, Level One Hostess Set from the Summer Mini, $25 Merchandise Certificate for the Holiday Mini

This is a picture of...

my hotel from the front of the convention center.  It was an absolutely wonderful location.  It's a little old but you can't beat the walk on a 100 degree day!  You know the only problem with this photo?  I took it right about the time my flight should have been taking off from Salt Lake City.  Thanks to weather in Birmingham, AL, (huh?) the plane that was supposed to leave Salt Lake City at 6:50pm was running late and wouldn't get me to Denver before my connecting flight left.  Southwest gave me the option of flying out at 3:45, leaving convention over 2 hours early or rebook for tomorrow.  So guess where I am?  You guessed it!  I'm in Salt Lake City until tomorrow morning.  Oh well. I got to spend another evening with Linda and some new and old stampin' friends alike.  I'll be honest, girls, I'm ready to lay my head on my own pillow, curl up in my own bed, hug my children and pet my dogs.  This has been an incredible experience.  I'm so glad I've been able to experience so many new and wonderful things.  I'm done now :-)

My plan for tonight's post was going to be details on how to play along with Kelli's convention experience blog scavenger hunt.  But, since I had no airplane ride to write it, I can't post it!  That will be tomorrow's post instead.  I'll bring out all of my wonderful goodies and post info on how my downline and my customers can win some cute prizes!!

Off to bed. I'll be dreaming of stamping IN MY OWN STAMP ROOM :-)

Sweet sweet paper

Another day down in fabulous Salt Lake City.  I can hardly believe I've been here nearly a week!  Time has flown by so quickly.  I just finished packing my bags...and gosh am I glad I brought an empty suitcase because it is officially FULL!!  Tomorrow morning I'll be checking out of my hotel, spending my last day at my very first Stampin' Up! Convention and heading home to see my kids...who I miss dearly!!  This has truly been a wonderful experience, one I will not soon forget.  I can't wait to see what tomorrow brings!  I'm sure it will be more wonderful, amazing things!

Today was packed full of learning. (Read - not a heavy picture day for the events but I've got other good stuff to share!)  My day started out with breakfast for the Recruit Crew.  Supervisors and Senior Supervisors were invited to join a program focused on helping us grow and build our businesses.  Because we met certain milestones (growing our teams), we were invited to have breakfast with the SU! corporate team.  Shelli was there as were Dale Fillmore, Jill Kocherhans, Mark Jessen, Carrie Cudney and a host of other members of the SU! team.  It was nice to hear the experiences of other demonstrators with the Recruit Crew and share successes and learnings.  I finally met another demonstrator from the Chicago area during breakfast! I was kind of starting to think we were the only ones here!

The morning general session was really very cool.  Brent Steele, the Creative Services "guy", came out strumming a banjo, ready to show us some amazing projects.  He focused on Halloween projects from the new Holiday Mini Catalog.  Seriously, people, this is some cool stuff!!  There are amazing products launching on September 1.  I'm generally not a big Halloween decorator but these projects really made me start to rethink my "only decorate for Christmas" philosophy!  Brent made a cool skeleton garland and some super cute luminaries.  There were pumpkins and trees and favors, oh my!

Pam Morgan shared some really great workshop projects with us next.  I can't wait to be able to implement some of these great projects in some upcoming workshops (remember the extra $25 you get in August?)  I really love the Christmas gift tags she showed as a fabulous workshop make-n-take.  Again, more items from the upcoming Holiday Mini catalog were showcased and wouldn't you know...I fell in love with ALL OF THEM!  I'm pretty sure you're all going to love this mini.  It's one of the best yet, full of brillian new designs and tons of new product!  Demonstrators, you can preorder all of these awesome new products on August 1.  Everybody else, you've got to wait until September 1...sorry!

After lunch, we learned lots of great tricks and tips for using some of our wonderful colors and products.  One of my favorite presentations was by Kristin Kortonick, a demonstrator from New Jersey.  She had some awesome projects made exclusively from the new starter kit.  Stampin' Up! has really done a great job bundling up some great products to give a new stamper or aspiring demonstrator a wonderful array of supplies to make lots and lots of beautiful cards. Simple and elegant was the name of the game. Anybody could make these cards and I think that's what appealed to me so much.  I really wish I was in my stamp room right now because I'd be whipping up these exact samples right now!!

So, who is that playing kissy face on the sample board?  It's none other than our very own Linda and husband David on their 10 year anniversary!  During all of SU!'s events, they put up wonderful inspiration boards featuring displays of cards, scrapbook pages, and all sorts of 3-D items.  People from all around the country send in samples and SU! takes the best of the lot and puts them up for everyone to see.  And as you can see, my very favorite upline is featured on the sample board :)

One of the awesome displays at this year's convention is the Color Confections product showcase.  This amazing display is full of yummy, tempting treats...all made from paper!!  These cupcakes are my favorite, I think.  Seriously, how cool is this?  I can absolutely envision turning thse beautiful and elegant pearl adorned cupcakes into fun bold and bright party favors.  The very first photo in this post is a set of candies made from cute little boxes, ribbons, and our Simply Adorned charms.  These are also on my list of things to make as soon as I get home.  It's really too bad I'll have house chores and things to take care of.  My to do  list from convention is getting pretty long!  All of the creative inspiration that's been overflowing my brain this week will keep me busy for months!!  It's a good thing I took lots of pictures so I can remember some of this inspiration!

Tomorrow is another early morning.  We have really grown fond of our seating arrangements for General Session. If we're not there waiting when the doors open, we may actually have to sit somewhere else!  So, it's a muffin, yogurt and coffee to go.  I am really excited to find out what the last day of convention will bring for us.  I hope it's filled with wonderful surprises...and free stamps :-)

Nightie night all!  Happy Stamping!!

Sketch Frenzy Friday - July 23

It's Sketch Frenzy Friday once again.  Today, I'm sketching from Salt Lake City, Utah at the annual Stampin' Up! Convention!!

Today's sketch was provided to us by Kim Innis.  If' you'd like to move forward to Kim's blog, go ahead and click here.

I've pulled an old favorite out for this week's sketch.  This Vintage Vogue card is a regular go to for me.  I made this card as one of my swaps at Leadership back in January.  It's become a regular go to design for me.  I've always loved the Versamark Resist technique and I think this card really shows off the technique well.  If you missed the tutorial, click here to see exactly how I made the background for this card and give it a try yourself!!

Share What You Love

...is the theme of this year's convention.  It's been all about sharing, caring, learning and having a wonderful time swith friends new and old.  Today was the first day of classes and the general convention session.  Linda and I got the nose shot to commemorate the start of a grand day! The day was packed full of learning so it's not been a heavy picture day.  I did get to go back to Momento Mall and grab some goodies for my customers, my downline, and some special treats for some special people!

Just announced today by Shelli, an amazing Hostess Special for the month of August.  When you host a $350 workshop, anytime between July 27 and August 31, you will receive an additional $25 in FREE hostess credit!  That means you'll get a MINIMUM of $65 in FREE hostess merchandise, a Level 1 or Level 2 Hostess Set of your choice, and all of the fun that comes with spending an evening with your friends and family.  I booked two workshops this afternoon while I was here at Convention.  August is going to be a busy month!!

Sadly, it's going to be a really short post tonight.  I'm beat.  I'm off to bed very early tonight.  I have a big day ahead of me tomorrow that again starts before the crack of dawn. (Have I mentioned I'm really not a morning person?)  I won't head to bed without leaving you a little inspiration.  Check out these cupcakes made entirely out of paper!  How stinking cute are they?  I can't wait to get home so I can grab my punches, my paper and my glitter and start creating some of the yummy things I've seen.

I'm having breakfast with the Recruit Crew first thing tomorrow morning.  I need to be bright eyed for that adventure!  So, until tomorrow night...Happy Stamping!!