My First Stampin' Up Leadership Conference

I qualified to attend the Stampin' Up Leadership Conference this year and decided that since it was going to be in San Antonio (a short plane ride from Dallas) that I would attend and pick up some business tips and get back together with my Pals.  I attended the Stampin' Up Convention in 2010 in Salt Lake City and I had a blast!  I was excited to come, but also a little nervous to leave Saige for the first time.  I was mainly nervous that she'd cry a lot and be difficult for my dad and Matt to watch.  However....each night I received a text video of her just laughing up a storm in her highchair (isn't technology amazing?).  It was such a relief.

The opening session was great.  They gave us a free stamp set from the upcoming catalog, large pearls, a MDS content CD, regular pearls, rhinestones, Pool Party ruffled ribbon and a pack of 4 Occasions Mini Catalogs and 4 Sale-A-Bration catalogs (anyone need one?)  They had great announcements about the catalogs and new products.  After a delicious lunch there were breakout sessions.  I attended a session by Brian Pilling (from the Stampin' Up office) on how to Share the Stampin' Up Opportunity.  I saw him present at Convention and enjoyed it so I really wanted to see what he had to say.  He gave me some great ideas on how to share why I love Stampin' Up and how to create opportunities to share my story.  It was a good presentation and I'm glad I was able to get in it.  They tried something new and had several break-out mini sessions in the afternoon by seasoned demonstrators.  I attended one on workshop tips, recruiting, effective business tips and customer service.  I'm hoping to take small nuggets from each presentation and apply them to my business.  It was such a refreshing day and I'm so glad I was able to attend.

Day 2 of Leadership was another great day.  We had two general sessions where we heard presentations on the State of Stampin' Up!  They really are a great company to work for and I feel like they do very ethical business.  We were able to choose our break-out sessions and I attended one on Why Women Buy presented by Carrie Cudney.  I really got a kick out of her "mall map" showing how guys buy (they go in, straight to the store, spend $35 and 15 minutes) versus women (who go in, stop at almost every store, spend $376 and 3 1/2 hours).  It was a really fun session.  I thoroughly enjoyed my Title Benfits session with Bonnie Thurber focused on my current Stampin' Up title.  I always enjoy her presentations and her humor.  (Bonnie, if you're reading this- I'd really like a project sheet for all the great video tutorials that you provide.  Just something with a photo of the project and a list of supplies used.)  They ended the day with a project session with Shellie and I won the prize patrol!  I won the Apothecary Art stamp set and the Labels Framelits!  We all received a pack of the Everyday Vintage Designer Series Paper and the coordinating stamp set.  It was a great way to end the conference!  They always spoil us with goodies.

Overall, I'm so glad I went and I'm looking forward to next year.  Here's a photo of me and my roomies.  I love how Stampin' Up can connect you to fabulous people from around the country.

L to R: Ginger Tiovonen (Montana), Ann Schach (Iowa) and me.

Pals Valentine Blog Hop

Love is in the air as the Stampin' Pretty Pals share the love with cards and projects for today's Pals Blog Hop!

You've probably hopped over from Frenchiee Hum at Frenchiee's Spot, I'm stop number 12 on the Pals Hop and I'm glad you hopped in! I'll help you "hop along" from blog to blog where you'll find great ideas for love themed paper projects from the Stampin' Pretty Pals! Should you hop off course, simply click on any of the links in the Pals Hop Line-up below and you'll be back on track

My project is the February page of my upcoming Birthday Calendar class.  These calendars are available in the main catalog and allow you to write in birthdays and other special dates so you have them handy each year and don't miss a date (they aren't year specific so they'll last a long time).  I used the I {Heart} Heart set and the new Outlined Occasions Sale-A-Bration stamp set and I stamped them in Rose Red.  I think the I {Heart} Heart stamp set might be one of my favorites in the entire catalog.  I love the clean heart images and how well they layer with one another.  I'll be sure to post photos of the other 11 months after my class.  I hope you'll stop back by to see them!

1. Linda Fisher at Linda's Stampin Loft
2. Maggie Mata at MaggieMadeCards
3. Kim Luithle at Kim's Stampin Stuff
4. Barb Furlong at The Love of Stamping
5. Dawn Tidd at My Stampin' Blog
6. Maxine Conrad at Stamp to the MAX!
7. Susan Lankford at Stampin' Crafty Corner
8. Nina Dee at Deesigns by Nina Dee
9. Kim Czenszak at Live Love Stamp
10. Cindy Hall at Pretty Impact
11. Frenchiee Hum at Frenchiee's Spot.
12. Kylie Nicolosi at Kylie's Crafty Corner
13. Jennifer Takacs at My Stampin' Blog
14. Angie Blake at Angie's Musings
15. Nicole Watt at Impressions By Nicole
16. Mary Fish at Stampin' Pretty
17. Rae Harper at Wild West Paper Arts
18. Amanda Cramer at Mrs. C with Style!
19. Sandie Conner at Pretty Provisions
20. Nancy Gleason at My Stampin' Space
21. Sue Bendinsky at My Color Creations
22. Leah O'Brien at Leah's Stampin' Corner
23. Patti MacLeith at Papercrafts by Patti
24. Diane Roberts at Score at Four and a Quarter
25. Emily Steggell at Em's Creations
26. Julie Trevett-Smith at The Stampin' Affair!
27. Beth Beard at My Little Craft Blog
28. Jessica Ying at YoYoStamping Studio
29. Leslie Davis at Ellalicious Elements
30. Joan Norris at My Creative Impressions
31. Mikki Sarkisyan at Mikki's Creative Corner

Now hop along for more inspiring ideas from Jennifer Takacs at My Stampin' Blog, stop number 13 on the Love Is In The Air Pals Blog Hop! Thanks for "hopping" by! 

PPA 126- Color Challenge

Today's card is a 1st birthday card for one of Saige's friends.  This will be her 4th birthday party and she's only 9 months old!  I think she has a better social calendar than I do. :)  In all honesty, we've been extremely blessed with a mommy group that formed out of the hospital where she was born.  I think staying home with her would not be nearly as enjoyable if we hadn't met so many great new friends.  Most of her group is girls, but there are a couple of boys and I needed a boy birthday card.  I thought the PPA color challenge was great for a boy birthday card.  Let me know what you think. 

Be sure to stop back by on Tuesday for the Pals Valentine Blog hop.  It's going to be one of the biggest yet!

PPA 124 Sketch Challenge

It's amazing that it's the holiday season and I'm finding more time to sit down and work on projects.  I enjoyed playing along with this week's sketch challenge (isn't Margaret great?  I get to meet her in January and I'm really looking forward to it).  Here's what I pulled together for the challenge.  I had to turn my card the other direction, but it still works.  I used my color coach to come up with the color combo for this card- Pear Pizzazz, Peach Parfait and Not Quite Navy.

Here's a quick picture of my little elf!  She's such a cutie (and so hard to get her to smile sometimes).

 MERRY CHRISTMAS!

December Pals Blog Hop

Welcome to the December Pals Hop! This month, we're featuring Birthday themed cards and projects! I hope you enjoy the hop and the amazing creations that the Pals have come up with.
You've likely hopped over from Angie's blog, http://www.angiesmusings.com, (Max got sick and couldn't play so we're skipping stop #3, sorry). I'm stop number 4 on the Pals Hop and I'm glad you hopped in! I'll help you "hop along" from blog to blog where you'll find great ideas for Birthday paper projects from the Stampin' Pretty Pals! Should you hop off course, simply click on any of the links in the Pals Hop Line-up below and you'll be back on track!

I have two cards to share with you for this birthday inspired hop (because we always need lots of birthday card options!).  The first one plays along with this week's PPA challenge "puttin' on the ritz".  If you've never played the PPA challenge you should.  It's always lots of fun.  I glitzed this card up with dazzling diamonds (Stampin' Up's take on stickles- they're great!) and some rhinestones. 

(Melon Mambo, Basic Black and Whisper White)

This card uses one of my all-time favorite stamp sets, Fifth Avenue Floral.  It was inspired by a cardigan I have hanging in my closet.  I've recently had to move my crafting space into our bedroom closet because I came to the realization that I can't share a room with Saige :).  It's kinda hard to tell from the photo, but it's Pretty in Pink and Crumb Cake for the flower stamping.  The "Happy Birthday" sentiment is stamped in Early Espresso.

Speaking of Saige....here are some photos from Thanksgiving.  I won her adorable little onesie at our church MOMS group.  She's getting so big!  She started crawling on Saturday and now has her two bottom teeth.

Here she is with her two cousins from Boston, Alexandra and Spencer.  They came (with their parents) and spent the week with us.  We had a great time.

Ok....back to the hop...
Hop along for more inspiring ideas from Melanie, at http://www.oopsadaisy.typepad.com, stop number 5 on the December Pals Hop! Thanks for "hopping" by!

PALS LINE-UP:
1. Patti MacLeith at http://www.papercraftsbypatti.blogspot.com

2. Angie Blake at http://www.angiesmusings.com

3. Maxine Conrad at http://www.stamptothemax.com/- she's sick so she's not hopping today- sorry!

4. Kylie Nicolosi at http://www.kyliescraftycorner.blogspot.com/
5. Melanie Collins at http://www.oopsadaisy.typepad.com

6. Angela Richwine at http://stampinawaywithangela.blogspot.com

7. Mikki Sarkisyan at http://www.mikkiscreativecorner.blogspot.com/
8. Barb Furlong at http://www.theloveofstamping.com/
9. Jennifer Takacs at http://www.stampinup.net/esuite/home/jenntakacs/blog

10. Linda Fisher at http://lindas-stampinloft.blogspot.com

11. Julie Trevett-Smith at http://www.thestampinaffair.com/
12. Nancy Gleason at http://www.stampinup.net/esuite/home/mystampinspace/blog
13. Nicole Watt at http://www.impressionsbynicole.com/
14. Mary Fish at at http://www.stampinpretty.com/
15. Rae Harper at http://wildwestpaperarts.com/
16. Nina Dee at http://www.deesignsbyninadee.blogspot.com/

17. Cindy Hall at http://prettyimpact.com/
18. Benjamin Turner at http://hestamps.blogspot.com

Happy Thanksgiving and a PPA Challenge (#121)

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving.  We had family in town all week and really enjoyed our time visiting.  One of my visitors was interested in stamping and begged me to get out some of my stuff.  I, of course, was happy to oblige and tried to only bring out a few things so I wouldn't overwhelm her.  (I know all of you stampers/scrapbookers know that this hobby is at least 50% collecting pretty things to someday use on some project).  We had a mini-challenge session.  I had her choose a stamp set, a color of card stock and I knew I wanted to use pearls to play along with this week's PPA challenge.  After I had all of the elements I thought for a bit and came up with this card...     

She chose The Sounding Joy stamp set and Concord Crush paper.  I love the rich look of the card.  It was a fun night stamping and I think she really enjoyed herself and was so proud of her cards.  Thanks for stopping by.

PPA 119- Christmas inspiration

This week is a great challenge over at the Pals Paper Arts.  It's Christmas!  I can't believe it's the middle of November all ready.  Where has the time gone?  I'm really looking forward to Saige's first Christmas (but I could use some fall weather- it was 83 degrees in Texas today!)  Here's a Christmas card idea for the challenge.

 Thanks for stopping by.  Let me know if you have any questions about supplies used.