I LOVE having group meetings! It’s just so much fun to get together with other demonstrators to giggle, swap stories and ideas and enjoy friendships! These are the things that make being a demonstrator so much fun! Check out the fabulous photos below if you ever wondered what one of these meetings was like. If you’d like to join us as a demonstrator, I’d love share the information with you, too! Our discounted Demonstrator Starter kit special for Sale-A-Bration ends in less than a week, so let’s talk!

I’ve had several inquiries on how the big meeting with Pam Morgan, (Stampin’ Up! VP of Demonstrator Services) went so I thought I’d share our fabulous day along with some photos. My group, the Tampa Stamp Vamps, Lisa Curcio’s group, Hawaii Ink, and local Susy Miller Suzy’s Doozies demos, all got together Sat., March 20, for our March Into Spring meeting to share, learn and laugh with Pam.

The day started with the usual registration formalities (1st photo is Carolyn Sharkas registering for the evening of fun with Michelle Kernodle — thanks for your bang up job Michelle. And Lisa, watch out–I’m still going to try and steal her  ) During registration, attendees could check out the array of samples we had on display. Many demonstrators brought projects to share. Thanks so much gals!

We then moved on to one of the favorite parts of any stamping event, SWAPPING!!!

We even had a swap contest! Lisa Curcio set up a display board to post all the swaps. Later in the meeting we voted to determine the winners!

After registration, swapping and introduction. We ate dinner while sharing ideas. Camaraderie was everywhere!

Finally, the moment we were all waiting for, Pam Morgan’s presentation!

She had a funny M&M analogy story that equated M&Ms to guests at a workshop vs. club members. Workshop M&Ms multiplied faster than club member M&Ms in her hilarious story of a Tale of Two Demonstrators. It really hit home how important a workshop is to our business.

Pam demonstrated our Simply Adorned line of charms and jewerly and enthralled the crowd with her creativity. She even gave a lesson to Linda Jones on using the Stamp-A-Ma-Jig for perfect Monogram letter placement for the charm inserts.

From here we moved on to the five station rotation between three make & takes, displays and swap voting and a chat with Pam! Attendees rotated in small groups to spend 10 minutes at each station.

The favorite station was a cozy chat with Pam Morgan.

Stay tuned to tomorrow when I’ll share some of the project shares, swaps, the contest winners and more photos of the meeting with Pam! It’s almost as fun walking down memory lane as it was being there! Wish you could have been there, too!

Until tomorrow!

 You’ve hit the creative mother lode if you purchase this set! Not only is it just absolutely gorgeous, it”s got tons ove versatility. Here we’ve worked with Mellow Moss, Pale Plum, Perfect Plum and Crushed Curry to create a beautiful background for the card and scrapbook strip.

This card and layout is the 2nd out of three that I designed for my Crop ‘n Cards class–a big customer favorite! Come a little closer to the screen and I’ll let you in on a little secret….

I still haven’t designed the third one yet and the class is Tues. ….aaaaakkkkkk!

I’m hoping to get some stampin’ time in Sunday to post on Monday. No rest for the weary!

 This page offers room for lots of journaling and a 5×7 photo. While the layout below allows more photos.

Here’s a close up of the cool accent made with the 1 3/8" circle and Scallop circle punches.

Hope you’ll forgive me for making this short tonight. I’m beat! The day was full and the meeting was INCREDIBLE! So many lovely ladies to share with, lots of smiling faces and oodles of talent in one room can be overwhelming in a happy way! We all enjoyed ourselves tremendously and have great photos to share as soon as we can dowload them  off our cameras. We’ll share the glory of it all soon, promise!

Off to a well-deserved sleep! Take care and stamp something this weekend!

Looking at this cutie patootie Easter layout I finished on Wed. for my Crop N’ Cards class next Tues. and Sat., I wish I had time to print out my Easter photos from last year! I’ve got the cutest photos of my nieces and nephews looking for Easter eggs! Ranging in ages from 1 1/2 to 15 years old at the time, it was so fun helping the little ones and playing the "hot/cold" game with the older ones! And the colors would be perfect for the photos!

Why can’t we have four more hours in our day? )

 Here’s the left page of the 2-page spread. I used the Baskets and Blooms die for the bag die cut and the wide oval punch for the Easter eggs in the basket.

Below is a close up of the page’s adorable basket focal point!

 Here’s the right side of the 2-page spread.

 Here’s a close up of the flower accents. The white flower accents came as part of the Baskets and Blooms die. Just the colored layers are punched out with the XL Fancy Flower punch. I accessorized with pieces from the Sweet Peat Stitched felt and an pumpkin corduroy button.

Sorry, but the center of the right flower slipped some. I did fix it. …I promise I’m not losing it! ) ha ha! Below is the card option forthe Crop n’ Cards class. I LOVE the Chocolate Bunny stamp that’s in our Occasions mini. So cute!

Okay–I’ve gotta go to bed. Just finished my Fri. night workshop and have to get up in the morning and clean up and set up FINALLY for my Eggcoutrements class with the Eggscellent Eggs kit at 10 am tomorrow morning. After class, I get to head on over to the BIG executive meeting at 4 ish. So, another busy day ahead.

Going to get my beauty sleep. Night!

 Opened up my mail Tuesday, and found a wonderful surprise! Woo hoo! I get to dine with the Prez!

The president of Stampin’ Up! that is! Every year on the SU! Incentive trip, a few lucky demonstrators are selected to dine with members of Stampin’ Up!’s Executive team. We get their ear all through dinner! This card is the invitation:

Kinda cool, huh? Love that texture from the Elegant Bouquet Impressions folder. Here’s a close up of it:

But what I like best is the way the card opens into a semi-tri-fold kinda matchbook card:

Really pretty! Here’s a closeup of the invitation:

Man, I feel so lucky and honored, let me tell you! Kinda nervous, too. But he sure does seem nice and I’m not shy so I’m sure I’ll be fine! ha haha!

You wanna know the funny thing…I got just as excited about the invitation’s style. It was an idea I could use right away as it came just in time to CASE for a Make & Take at a BIG MEETING I’ve kinda kept under wraps for the last three weeks or so!

Ready for my next "Executive" surprise!?

Pam Morgan, Vice President of Demonstrator Training at Stampin’ Up! is coming to my group meeting on Saturday! HOLY SMOKES!! I got a call from her in late February saying she was going to be in the Orlando area doing a group meeting for a couple demos (hey Catherine and Linda!) and then will be in Bradenton/Sarasota for the other one and would I like her to come to mine in Tampa!?

Uhhh…DUHHHH…I’d LOVE to have her come! So, I got on the phone lines and e-mails and invited other area demos (Hey Hawaii Ink and Susy’s Doozies!) as well as my Tampa Stamp Vamps group and we’re having a big meeting with Pam Morgan. I still can’t believe it! How lucky am I?

So, the day the dinner invite came I’d known I needed to come up and prep a very QUICK Make 2 Take 1 Ronald McDonald House thank you card (I’m the Tampa Lead for the local RMH here).  We’re having 10-minute rotations to various stations at this meeting so I needed something quick for them to be able to make two cards in that time frame. The upcoming dine-with-the-prez invitation’s style was a PERFECT FIT!! Something new and unique but quick, too.

Don’t you love it when that happens? I always say it’s "A GOD THING!" :O) 

So here’s what I came up with (Here’s your meeting sneak peek girls! ):

I was pleasantly surprised how nice a monocramatic Rich Razzleberry color scheme looks on Kraft card stock. But–for me–the best part of this card is how it opens (and hey, don’t make fun of the sponging pattern on that bottom part–this was an outside meeting display card only that I did in a hurry–I promise I’m gonna fix it!):

Then it opens into this cool tri-fold card:

I have a friend of mine who has converted to Judaism and is getting remarried into her new faith that is going to love this for her wedding invitation! (Hey Dena!) This design has endless possibilities, doncha think?

So now you can see that things have been exciting and very busy around here! I LOVE THIS JOB! You can, too, just let me know and I’ll get you signed up right quick to join in on this fun and rewarding Stampin’ Up! venture (or should I say ADVENTURE!?)

Well…gotta go clean my stamp room. Gotta workshop Fri. night and a class Sat. morning before all the Sat. night meeting fun! Wish you could be there with me. Hope you have a lovely day anyway!

Ta!

Okay, okay..I’ve made you wait long enough!

Drum Roll  please……

The winner of the Guess-The-Die contest is……

MARSHA CRAIG!

Congrats, Marsha! You’ve got yourself a Variety Bling Pack!

Thanks to everyone for playing and taking your time out to post about my latest die discovery.

YES…several of you guessed it right, but Marsha was the first to post the right answer.

It’s the Milk Carton die!

Wanna know how I did?

Sorry…gotta wait until after I have the last class on March 30! )

Ahh…but never fear, I won’t let you leave disappointed with no eye candy!

Here’s a card I designed at the beginning of the year to swap at Leadership but I never made anymore. I had all these Two Tags leftovers and thought it would be cool to put two of  them together to create a belly band on a card. I had done this years ago with our old Stampin’ Up! bookmarks and thought I’d resurrect the idea.Vintage Vogue is a beautiful set and I’ve been playiing with it more lately and have a gorgeous scrapbook layout to share next week that I created for my Crop ‘n Cards class.

In this card, the color combination for the inks are Lavendar Lace, So Saffron and Mellow Moss. The card is Mellow Moss, So Saffron and Whisper White. The ribbon is our new Celery Satin ribbon in the Occasions Mini catalog! If you look real close, I also used the Perfect Details Embossing Plate and the punch is the Scallop Trim Border– free with a purchase of $50 or through the end of this month! Makes ya sad it’s so close already, doesn’t it? WELL…quit PROCRATINATING and put your $50 order in and get your FREE GIFT! E-mail me…you’ll be glad ya did!

Ta for now!

 …plus, GUESS-THE-DIE BLOG CANDY GIVEAWAY!

By far, this adorable basket is my absolute favorite project in my Eggcoutrements class that’s scheduled for 10 am to 1 pm this Sat., March 20!

Still one more day to register! Wanna come? Just go to http://eggcoutrements.eventbrite.com TODAY’S THE LAST DAY!! I will be repeating this class from 10 am to 1 pm on Tues., March 30 and then that’s it! Our exploration into the beauty of the Eggcellent Eggs kit will be over!

Bet you can’t guess what Stampin’ Up! Big Shot die I used? I dare you to post your guesses! In fact, I’ll give away a Bling variety pack of our new Epoxy Brads if you guess it right! How about that! So get to guessing! Post your guess on this blog. First winner gets it. If I stump you, I’ll have a random winner drawn from all the posts just for you trying! That’s fair, right?

While I can’t give you step-by-step instructions yet as I haven’t had the class, I can tell you that I used a texture plate to get it to look like basket weave. Of course, the beautiful flowers and celery swirl were die cuts from the egg kit.

Is it cute with the packaging fill on the inside, or what? It’s just the prefect size to throw in some Cadbury eggs and Easter foiled eggs and even a mini chocolate bunny if you want! My 4 and 5 year-old neices will love the girlie look of it! I’ll definitely have to think of something a little less feminine for my fabulous nephews. All my  local munchkins get treats for whatever holiday it is. I used to mail some to the out-of-town kiddos, too, but they’re all grown up now! Little do they know that Aunt Amanda has much more fun making them then they do getting them! )

Here’s a close up of the bottom of the basket:

So pretty with that egg kit bling, no? Have you guessed which die I used yet? Hee hee!

Here’s a close up of the handle accents on the basket:

I really adore the Beautiful Wings Embosslit die and used it on many of the projects in this class. And our dreamy satin ribbons in the Occasions Mini have been a perfect fit for my style of stamping! Can’t wait to get my hands on some more. Any one else out there besides me wish they would have put a purple shade of this ribbon in this catalog? Anyway, You can also see that I tucked one more of the pretty flower rosettes on the handle and stamped and punched out the Bashful Blue tag from the Eggcoutrements stamp set. The handle’s being held on by the 5/8" brads that I’m addicted to!

Guess the die I used for the basket yet? Snicker……

Well, I’m sad to say this is my last Eggcellent Eggs kit post for now. So all you have to do is sign up for the class and come experience these projects for yourself. Such a steal at $35 as here’s what you get:

• 1/2 of an Eggcellent Eggs Kit
• Unmounted Eggcoutrements Stamp Set
• All Five projects I’ve posted in the last five days!

What was I thinking?

My euphoria over this kit is your gain! Sign up today!

 Are you bored with my expedition down Eggcellent Eggs lane yet? I hope not — it is just a joy to create with and I hope by now I’ve converted you to a fan, too!

In this next project, I’d been dying to ink up my Abundant Hope stamp set from the Occasions Mini catalog and decided to combine it with the pretty pieces in the Eggcellent Eggs kit.

First, the card’s color combination was determined by the kit’s color scheme and I’m enamoured on how the elegance of the lily image was enhanced by the beautiful bling and soft die-cut flowers and border strips in the egg kit.

As you can see from the close-up, the bottom of the card’s dainty scallop strip topped by the pretty white rub ons from the kit are really the highlight of this card, which can be for any occasion. No matter if this was being utilized for the joyous celebration of a wedding or anniversary or the comfort of a sympathy or Get Well Soon card, the person who gets this card will feel very loved! Don’t you think?

Well, only one more Eggcellent Eggs project left to unveil–and I’ve saved the best for last!

Aaahhh…I’m not going to tell.

You gotta wait!

Ha!

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Ta!

 I wasn’t sure what to call this beautiful creation when I’ve advertised the class. All I know is that is sure was fun to make!  I started out with a 12 x 12 sheet of Designer Paper and folded, tucked, snipped and wa-la it was ready to be decorated. (C’mon I can’t give you the step-by-step instructions…I haven’t had the class yet!) )

Here’s what this beauty looks like opened:

 You see how the flower clip bookmark and belly band came off to open it up?

Here’s a close up of the last page. Can you see how the flowers and rub ons were used from the Eggcellent Eggs kit? (see the previous two postings for more projects with this kit)

And surprise!! There’s actually a pocket behind the bouquet that holds a pull-out bookmark. Sweet, huh?

I think the thing that surprises me the most about this Eggcellent Eggs kit is just how many flower and leaf die cuts come in the pack. I’ve shown three projects so far with two more to go. And, with all five projects, I only used HALF of the kit’s flower and leaf stash! AMAZING!

Stay tuned for the last two projects to be unveiled this weekend! Hope yours is fun and relaxing!

 I just LOVE the new Milk Carton die! I have so many ideas for it with so little time. I’m actually debating on having a Milk Carton week! Every day with a different idea with the milk carton. Wouldn’t that be fun!? Well, volunteers…step up to the plate and prep for my Stamp A Stack, group meeting and clean up my house and I can be FREE to just play, play, PLAY! )

This adorable idea came to me when one of my milk carton projects wouldn’t stay shut and I looked at it and said, that could make a cute lil’ pitcher if I just added a handle. I just couldn’t wait to try it. Then, of course, I had to put something in there. Luckily I had some small skewers on hand that were the perfect size for the little die cuts that come from the Eggcellent Eggs kit.

So, the polka dot green base that is layered on the bottom of the Bashful Blue milk carton is one of the strips that make the egg stand. The flower die cuts are mulit-colored layers with just a little of the bling in the center and the leaves (there’s a gazillion of them in the kit!) add just the right pop. Again, it was fun embellishing with the kit’s white rub-ons and I just had to add a Beautiful Wings Embosslit butterfly to add to the project’s whimsy.

The flowers and leaves were easily adhered to the skewers with our mini glue dots and are back-to-back so it doesn’t matter which way the skewers face. And yes, there’s bling in the middle of the flowers, too!

Time’s running out to sign up for this FAB class. Just go to http://eggcoutrements.eventbrite.com to sign up! Hope to see you there on either Sat., March 20 or Tues., March 30 — 10 am to 1 pm either day!

Hope to see your smilin’ face at my stampin’ table soon!

 Egg-traodinary things can be done with the adorable Egg-cellent Eggs Kit! I had a blast playing with this kit last week as I designed some projects for my Eggcoutrements Spring Fling coming up in a couple weeks.

One of the projects will be this adorable notecards box created with the Big Shot and Party Favor die.

Stay tuned as I feature more projects with this kit this week and next! I’ll show you what comes in the kit and share some outside-the-box things that you can do with it! As you can see from this closeup, the die cuts, rub-ons and bling add dainty touches that give a BIG impression:

The white accents on the Certainly Celery front panel are the rub-ons that come in the kit, including that sweet polka dot border on the bottom and the trio dot touches around the main focal point. For the focal point, I stamped the For You on Easter Designer Label stamp from the Eggcoutrements stamp set in So Saffron on Whisper White card stock and punched it out with the coordinating punch. It was then layered with the cute little flower die cuts that come in the Egg Kit (Only $9.95 See it on p 23 in the Occasions Mini catalog) Some Stampin’ Dimensionals added height and interest and the Pretty In Pink Satin ribbon from the mini really jazzed it up! Of course, I couldn’t resist the little butterfly touch created with the Beautiful Wings Embosslit die and a little bling that comes in the Egg kit! So pretty!

Inside the Party Favor box are four 3×3 notecards and envelopes. Cute for any springtime gift occasion or a baby gift. The notecards are lined at the bottom with the strips that came in the egg kit (traditionally used would be turned into egg display cups). I lined the tops of these with the bling strips that are in the kit and stamped the Bashful Blue birdie and Pretty in Pink bunny Eggcoutrements stamp set images. Coordinating tafetta ribbon added just the right touch to these simple but elegant note cards. And, just for fun,, I ran the 3×3 envelopes through the Perfect Polka Dots Embossing folder (also in the mini) to add cute embossed polka dot texture.

This class is a steal for only $35! You get the unmounted Eggcoutrements stamp set, a half of a Eggs-cellent Eggs kit and all the supplies to make FIVE projects using the stamp set and egg kit! The class is slated for 10 am to 1 pm, Sat., March 20 and 10 am to 1 pm, Tues., March 30! Go to http://Eggcoutrements.eventbrite.com to register NOW! You’ll be so glad you did!