August 14, 2015 by monikastamp

Instagram Themed Roommate Gifts

When we travel to a Stampin’ Up! event and share a room with friends it is a fun treat to make roommate gifts for one another.

I’ve made a variety of things over the years and always want something unique. I try to find something that is my main inspiration for the gift which is usually an assortment of related items. This year I started with a set of vintage style Instagram pens that I was able to buy at the Facebook store when we visited Kyle earlier in the summer. I should have taken a photo of just the set of pens – each one in the package was different colors – so I based each roommate gift one of of the color combinations. And I made one set for myself – that’s the one I photographed.

For my set the colors were Sahara Sand and So Saffron. I’m trying to remember the other colors – one was Marina Mist and So Saffron, one was Marina Mist and Whisper White and the fourth one was Sahara Sand and Lost Lagoon. I think that’s what they were – so each note pad and the bag tag matched the pen. Everyone had the same little photo book.

I used some little black canvas bags to hold everything and clipped a little bag tag on each one. When we go to a Stampin’ Up! Event everyone receives a bag – so all 2000+ of us end up with the same bag and it’s a good idea to bring a unique tag to attach to yours. So I made these as part of my gift and then we were able to clip them to our SU bags for the week.

I also included a little Everyday Notes set. I used index cards that I cut into 2″ pieces and punched them with the Ornate Tag Topper punch. I made several of these for myself and I’m actually using them for little notes in my craft room as I’m working and need to remember things or replenish supplies. But my thought was writing notes about photos you take or things you want to remember to add to your scrapbook.

And then I made this fun little mini scrapbook that resembles the Instagram logo. It’s a 4×4 size so it’s perfect for your real Instagram photos – add in photos as pages or trim and attach to a card stock page. I thought it would be a fun little album. I found the idea on Pinterest I believe it was another Stampin’ Up! demo in Europe that made some like these.

That was what I gave to each of my roommates. I haven’t photographed what they gave me – and in some cases have already used (or eaten) what was inside!

Thanks for stopping by today!

August 10, 2015 by monikastamp

A quick treat for someone sweet

When I go to the Stampin’ Up! Convention I like to have a little treat for my long distance friends that I get to see. I’m not really wanting to swap anything but I want to give them something sweet to let them know I am so happy to see them in person. Or it might be something I give to someone I’ve met for the first time – a new friend. I give them not only to demonstrators but also the Stampin’ Up! staff those that I have come to know over the years and those that I’m meeting for the first time.

If I’m making a lot it needs to be quick but still cute. Each year I do something different and it normally involves candy. Years ago it was common to cover the little round York Peppermint patties but they changed their packaging and it is no longer round but I did find another mint patty company that still has the round foil wrapped mints so that is what I went with this year.

I used the Crazy About You stamp set for this little treat. I stamped the flower in the new Delightful Dijon and punched it out with my Scallop Circle punch. Punched out another Delightful Dijon Scalloped circle for the back. I’ve been saving all my 1/4″ strips that I cut off when prepping card layers so I pulled out a stack of those and stamped them with HELLO. I punched them first with the Word Window punch (I could have stopped with that) and then with the Triple Banner Punch to flag the end.

Punch a hole in the end of the tag and the front of the flower and put them together with a tiny Silver Brad. Then glue the pieces to each side of the mint. I made a whole punch and carried them with me around convention. It was fun to give people a sweet little treat.

Here are a few photos of me with some of the Stampin’ Up! staff.

Lunch with with concept artists, with Bonnie Farley at the Roaring 20s party, with Shannon West, with Pam Morgan near the Paper Pumpkin booth, and also Brandi Barnard, with Donna Griffith in her training class, twinning with Brian Pilling and with Sara Douglas. I know I’ll get to see Brandi in Newport Beach next month but I’m not sure about any of the others.

Stampin’ Up! people are the best! I love them all.

Thanks for stopping by today!

August 3, 2015 by monikastamp

Swaps from Convention 2015

I love going to the Stampin’ Up! convention and seeing my friends from all over the country. From my very first one when I met my roommate Michele Schmidt until now my little group has grown as we include others we meet along the way. Last year and this year I decided to organize a dinner and swap with those friends that wanted to join me. Not everyone came to convention this year but for those that did we had a fun dinner at Red Rock Brewery the night before convention started.

Here are a few pictures of our group

and look at all the swaps we shared

And this time I decided to try out making a little video showing those swap cards. So here it is

I hope you like it. I wasn’t able to get my editing software on my new computer so this has no edits! And I don’t like the way I sound but maybe to everyone else I sound normal.

You can find more on my card at this post here.

Thanks for stopping by today.

July 30, 2015 by monikastamp

Inspire, Create, Share Convention

Last week was the Stampin’ Up! 2015 Inspire, Create, Share Convention. It’s one of my favorite trips each year getting to see friends that I have made that live all over the country and catching up with Stampin’ Up! employees that I have met over the years. Making new friends each year and seeing new products that will be coming out in the next catalog. This time of year the focus was the upcoming Holiday Catalog – packed full of lots of new products for all different types of crafters and stampers. There is something for every style in there! Demonstrators that attended got a special pre preorder and the rest of the demonstrators will get to preorder on August 4th. Not a demonstrator yet? Then join my team and you can be part of the preorder too! The catalog goes live for everyone on September 1st!

Throughout the convention I was posting on my Facebook page – mostly on my business page and some on my personal page. But here are some photos that I took during the week.

The had welcome banners along the street in front of the convention center.

Cindy and I took a peek in the convention center the day we arrived – this is what it looks like empty.

we took a tour of the Stampin’ Up! home office in Riverton Utah. Here are some photos from that.

Wednesday night I had a dinner for my friends and a card swap –

Convention started with check in and our new bags!

And this is what the convention center looks like full of demonstrators!

Here we are waiting for one of the general sessions to start.

Awards night was followed with a 1920s After Party

A group photo and wanted of the Photo Ops they had set up in the Convention center.

And Diane Squires and I got to walk across the stage for earning the Getaway Trip.

Saturday afternoon there was a Leadership session – here is the group at our table. Diane, me, Karen from CA, Linda and Jeanna from Vegas. Diane and Linda live here in Georgia not too far from me but I actually met them at convention in previous years. Well I met Linda on the plane we happened to end up in the same row together. It’s funny how you can fly to another state to meet someone living just a few minutes down the road!

That was a glimpse of some of our fun at convention – check out my Facebook pages if you want to see more.

Thanks for stopping by today. I need to get back on track with my blogging!

July 23, 2015 by monikastamp

It’s time for Convention!!

The Stampin’ Up! Convention starts today! Inspire, Create, Share 2015 is here. We have check in and bag pick up this morning and then we start! A fun time with friends from all over the US and Canada – I’m not sure if any of our European or South Pacific friends will be here this year. It will be a busy day. Check my Facebook business page for any updates, news and photos.

Part of the fun of convention is swapping – last night I had a dinner and card swap with some of my SU friends and this was the card I made to swap with all of them –

I’ve posted this card already on my blog.

I also have a group swap tomorrow and made this one –

It’s also one you’ve seen before. After I made each of these I was really excited about how they turned out and decided back then that I wanted to use them as my convention swaps.

I have another one I’ll share in a different post and also roommate gifts and some little friend treats – I need to get photos of all of those before I post about them.

If you are a demo a convention come find me and say hi!

Thanks for visiting today!

August 5, 2014 by monikastamp

Utah Mountain Make & Takes

Yesterday I shared about my trip to stamp in the Utah Mountains with my upline’s. We made four cards that evening. Here they are –

This one uses Work of Art stamp set for the background.

This one features a lot of silver and the spiral flower die

this one shows off our stamp set with coordinating punches

This one is a box card.

Here is the open box..

Thanks for visiting. I’m heading out the door for a card class.

Stamping night in Utah Mountains

Thursday night during convention I had the special privilege of being invited to stamp with my 4th level upline (Sandy Hancock) and my 5th level upline’s (Margaret Goodfellow) house. And when I got there my second level upline (Kathy Thorn) was there too! What an exciting chance to be with them all. It’s my Stampin’ Up! Family and its always exciting to me to think it goes directly to the top. Margaret is demo #1 and Shelli’s Aunt – she is the first demonstrator! Also there was demo #2 Janet Baker – she is also Shelli’s Aunt.

She has a beautiful home in the Utah mountains and there were about 20 of us there. We had a wonderful dinner and then went down to her stamp room for some card making fun. Everybody made 4 different cards. I’ll get photos of those and post later. For now here are some pictures from the evening.

most of the group – it seems a few more people arrived after we took this group photo.

View from the porch

one side of the craft room. One card station was on the counter under the quilt. Another was at the table on the left. The Big Shots were under the window on the right.

The other side of the craft room. two more tables with card projects on them. And a wall full of display shelves and baskets of supplies.

I wanted to catch the sunset over the mountains but got busy stamping and forgot – so I was a little late…

Kathy Thorn and me

Janet, me and Margaret

Sandy and me

It was getting dark but the flowers were beautiful at the front of the house

We had quite the adventure driving and returning the rental car. Sandy rented the car and took 7 of us in it. I navigated on the way home and then got us through downtown Salt Lake City and through the concert traffic from Pioneer Park, over to the Radisson to drop off a few of the girls, then back to find a gas station and the rental car place. Then we walked from there back to the hotel.

It was a fun evening and I hope to be invited back again. I wish I had taken a picture of dinner – it was delicious and also of everyone stamping.

Thanks for stopping by come back again!

August 1, 2014 by monikastamp

Day 1 of Convention

I love going to convention and seeing my friends that I have made over the years. I went to my very first convention only having met one person – that was my upline and I just barely knew her at the time. My family thought I was crazy to stay in a hotel with a stranger someone I met on the internet – in a Stampin’ Up! demonstrator group – but still. And let’s say I was a little bit nervous about it when I went to that hotel room all those years ago. But I walked in and met Michele from Iowa and we are still friends now and while we didn’t room together these last couple of years we usually stay in the same hotel and spend time together during convention. This year one of Michele’s downline – Kelly – stayed in my room. A new friend! I’m sure she was a little unsure staying in a room with 3 people she hadn’t met but I think she had a great time – made lots of new friends and we will see each other for years to come.

Then there is the Stampin’ Up! part of convention – the opening general session, on stage presentations, stamping presentations and variety of classes and things we get to do. Convention always starts with an opening General Session – all the Stampin’ up! staff come to the convention center and line up for all the demonstrators to walk through – it’s such an energy charged happy time – music playing, people clapping, and high-fives, cheering, dancing and more! And this year we had fireworks!! Convention is now called Inspire, Create, Share – and this was the main stage. The side panels flashed photos that were taken throughout the event.

We started with all the various departments coming up on the stage and then Shelli came out and welcomed us. Then we got to hear Pam Morgan as she introduced us to the new Holiday Catalog. They will be mailing out this month and you can also pick one up at my classes starting around middle of August. Here is a peek at the cover!

We also heard from Becky Higgins as she and Shelli talked about the new partnership and our new product line Project Life by Stampin’ Up! – a simple, quick, easy, guilt-free way of memory keeping!

Then everyone dispersed and did various things throughout the afternoon. I went to a few quick little classes and then a group of friends and headed to the Stampin’ Up! corporate office in Riverton, Utah. One of the things we always do is get a photo out by the Stampin’ Up! rock – Oh – as our group finished up one of the Stampin’ Up! photographers came out and combined us with a few other demos and took pictures of us – one of those was on the Stampin’ Up! Facebook page – did you see it?

Inside we get to tour through the Legacy Room – which is like a display area and has some of the displays that you see photographed in the catalogs, through the Idea Room, the warehouse and Demonstrator Support areas.

It’s Michele – leaving a note on the wall for Stampin’ Up!

Once we finished up we got on the return bus and headed back to the convention center. But first a photo of the beautiful mountains behind the office.

I’ll share more about my evening adventures in a different post. Thanks for stopping by.

July 30, 2014 by monikastamp

A little bit of convention

Are you ready for some convention posts? We arrived in Salt Lake City on Wednesday and while it wasn’t an official convention day Stampin’ Up! did have a few things going on. I also planned my own dinner with a bunch of friends at the Red Rock Brewery. It’s good and we seem to go there every year – I even went twice this year – we had lunch on Sunday before we left.

Dinner at Red Rock – table 1 Monika, Connie, Cindy, Fran, Linda, Lisa (photo bombing from the other table), Diane and Fran

Dinner at Red Rock – table 2 Diane, Lisa, Marla, Sue, Tammy, Chris, Michele, Kelly

There were close to 20 of us so we were at two tables. Missing were Diane and Jeanna who were at another event prior to dinner and it ran late. Plus we all swapped cards – I’ll have to get pictures of all of them to share on another day.

We left and headed over to the convention center to check in and get our bags and stamp sets and stuff – and I don’t even have a picture!

Next we dropped in at the Paper Pumpkin Party that was going on. And shortly after we got inside I noticed Shelli over to the side – so I grabbed my girls and we waited to talk to her and take photos. Sometimes the lines to meet Shelli are so long – but this one was short. This is my downline and I with Shelli.

Diane, Sue, Shelli, Monika at the Paper Pumpkin Night Out Party

Stampin’ Up! had a make & take project for us – a sneak peek of the September Paper Pumpkin kit!! A fun Halloween treat project. So this is a sneak peek for the September kit….

You can join Paper Pumpkin now for half off for 2 months! So the August and September kits would only be $10 each! I think that is worth trying out. Join by August 10 to start in August and by September 10 to start in September. use the code HALFOFF2 when you join. To join with me as your demonstrator go to this link – www.mypaperpumpkin.com

At the party I also found my friend Karen – we met in Houston at Leadership in January – she is from California –

The party also included snacks and prize drawings and lots of fun. I stayed a little longer than planned. So we were a bit late heading over the Sandy Hancock’s Udderly Awesome Team meeting. We did make it over there but I didn’t get any pictures there either. Once that was over we walked back to our hotel and got ready for the next day and the official start of convention.

I’ll be back with more later.

July 19, 2014 by monikastamp

Cheveron Bag Pouch Downline Gifts

I’m very excited this year to have two of my downline going to the Stampin’ Up! Convention with me! And since they aren’t staying in the room with me (so I didn’t make them roommate gifts) I decided to make them special downline gifts.

This little pouch idea was something I saw on Pinterest and the idea book was something I got as a swap many years ago at convention and decided to make them each one for their pouch. I also included a “ticket” for dinner – my treat during convention.

I actually pulled out my little sewing machine and stitched the piece of designer paper to the front of the folded bag. That creates several pockets and one has the idea booklet in it and the other has their dinner ticket.

i did go back and add a flower to the Mossy Meadow ribbon on the front – but forgot to take another picture. I’ll try to do that when I get them back out of my suitcase. As I write this they are packed away. Look for another picture on my Facebook Page.

I did use a retired set of dies to cut my letters but you could use whatever you have or even and e-cutter to add the letters to the front. The covers are a piece of heavy card board cut to size and covered with some Designer paper – the Park Lane paper is what I used for this project.