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Stampin' Up! Cruise! A Slice of Heaven!

Hello Stampers!
I know I've been MIA for awhile, but it's been for a good cause! I just returned yesterday morning (3 a.m. to be exact!) from the Stampin' Up! Southern Caribbean Cruise with my daughter, Jessica! SU! gives all of their demonstrators the chance to earn an Incentive Trip each year, and when you do earn it, it includes airfare for the demo and one guest to the chosen destination or port of embarkation (in this year's case, San Juan, Puerto Rico!), then it's all-expenses paid while onboard the ship! They even pre-pay the tips you are expected to tip the waiters and cabin steward for you! The only expenses the demonstrator incurs are if they purchase excursions in the different ports and souvenirs! I'm going to post a few pics from our trip over the next few days, along with a couple of cool card ideas I either swapped for or took pics of during the cruise! Here we go:

2010 Cruise on bus to pier in San Juan 04-25-10
This is myself & Jessica on the bus heading to the Cruise ship pier in San Juan!

2010 Southern Caribbean Cruise on deck 4-26-10
Here we are on the deck of the ship! Do we look more relaxed? I know we are more wind-blown!

2010 Southern Caribbean Cruise barbados 4-27-10 atlantis submarine 2
Here we are onboard the submarine "Atlantis" in Barbados! The pics out the portholes didn't turn out well, but we were down 138ft below the surface!

2010 Southern Caribbean Cruise barbados 4-27-10 atlantis submarine 6


There wasn't much space between our seat and the outside edge of the sub! This was definitely NOT an excursion for claustrophobics! (those are MY knees, by the way, but NOT the hairy one! lol!)

Now for a couple of stamping ideas!

2010 Southern Caribbean Cruise pam morgan 3
This was on display in the Stampin' Up! Hospitality room! It's the new Old Olive Polka-Dot 6x6 album just now featured in the new Summer Mini catalog with the Small White "Eat" Decor Element applied and Old Olive 1 1/4" Striped grosgrain ribbon tied on! A GREAT recipe book idea!

2010 Southern Caribbean Cruise pam morgan 6
Planning a festive outdoor party this spring or summer? With Stampin' Up! Big Shot flower dies you can dress up your drinks easily!

2010 Southern Caribbean Cruise printed petals 1
Lastly for today, here is part of the display board showing ideas for the brand-new stamp set we received for our cruise M&T's, "Printed Petals"! I will be using this set ALOT  once the new catalog comes out on July 1st!

That's it for today! I will be back tomorrow with more!


Convention: The BEST of Times!

Every summer I look forward to one of my favorite times of the Stampin' Up! year, (yes, the new catalog is great, but even better is going to the Stampin' UP! Convention in Salt Lake City every August!)
Convention stage


Last year there were 7 of us who went to convention: Linda, me, Jan, Melinda, Janice, Cathy, & Lorelei!

We swapped great swaps:


Convention 4 


Did fun Make n' Takes:


Conventio 08 1 


Received FREE stamps!


Convention 08 3

Had great fun eating out together in the evening! (Here we are at Benihana's!)

Convention benihannas

Took lots of pictures of sample boards:


Convention 9

and enjoyed meeting up with old friends!


Convention 5

Convention is the BEST! I can't wait to go again this year!

Paynesiggy


Founder's Circle 2008-Fun Times as a Demo!

I guess I am just playing catch-up with everything that has been going on Stampin' Up!-wise for the past year in my life this week! Today I am taking a walk down Memory Lane to Founder's Circle in September 2008!

Founders circle 3

After flying us in to Las Vegas, Stampin' Up! boarded us onto this bus for the ride into beautiful St. George, Utah, in the heart of Red Rock country! During the ride I had a chance to talk to other top-level demos who had earned this getaway too!

I had opportunities to get lots of great ideas and take lots of pictures for class ideas:
Founders on the bus
©Stampin'Up!™1990-2009


We each had our OWN ROOM at the hotel in St. George, and had plenty of good food time to relax! One day we took a bus trip to Kanab, Utah, to visit the stamp manufacturing plant:
Founders circle 6


We were able to tour the plant floor (no pictures allowed), but we were allowed to take pictures in Shelli's private apartment upstairs. Here's me sitting on Shelli's bed!

Founders circle 7


Beautiful, although the pic is fuzzy!
The entire apartment was decorated exactly as I would expect Shelli's home to be, elegant yet comfortable, and filled with unique antiques! Here's her kitchen:


Founders 8

We ended our day at Kanab with lunch at the local park where Stampin' Up! has donated all the playground equipment and the surface under the jungle-gym was ground-up stamps! Stampin' Up! doesn't like to waste anything!


Founders circle 1

Of course, there were pillow gifts every night:


Founders circle 5

And of course a fun new stamp set for our Make n' Takes:


Founders 2

One new thing I learned is that is you put a piece of DSP inside a cello bag so you can punch it with an oval punch!


Founders

Our swap & share night in our jammies was great fun! The best holiday swaps ever!


Founders swapping

And of course new stampin' friends: Kristina, Deb, Martha, me, & Barb!

Founders circle 4

All in all it was a wonderful trip and a great experience, something I would never had had the opportunity to do without Stampin' Up!

Paynesiggy


Another Perk of Being a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator!

I LOVE being a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator! Bet you couldn't tell that already from looking at my blog, can you??? Well, I love every minute of it, even after 6 1/2 years of running my own Stampin' Up! business, I can't begin to tell you the satisfaction and pleasure I get out of teaching stamping techniques to both new stampers and more experienced gals!

Another perk I have comes from the fact that I have been blessed to be able to continue to earn the Stampin' Up! Incentive Trip every year. I get to take a fabulous all-expenses-paid trip every spring  with my wonderful husband, Mark! Here we are at the beautiful Hilton Waikaoloa Village Resort on the Big Island of Hawaii:
Mark and I at wakiola
This was our "Beach Day"!
Beach day
The Stampin' Up! Hospitality Room had lots of great swaps on display:
Flight of the butterfly

Parfect
©Stampin'Up!™1990-2009

Stampin' Up! is SO accomodating that when I asked if we could fly in early to visit Pearl Harbor, they allowed the travel agency to book our flight a couple of days ahead and PAID for it! Here's our view from our hotel room just a block away from Wakiki Beach:
Wakiki hotel window
And here's the gorgeous sunset we watched while sitting on a pier at the beach!
Wakiki sunset 2

Stampin' Up! had a great breakfast and fun Opening General Session for us the first full day in Hawaii, but after that our time was our own!

We took a 10 hour bus tour around the Big Island one day which included a visit to this volcano crater!
Volcano

Of course, there were pillow gifts every night:
Pillow gifts

And a "Share Night" where demos brought projects from camps, classes, and workshops that have really been enjoyed by their stampers, and we had loads of time to browse, take pictures, and "talk shop"!
Share night 2

©Stampin'Up!™1990-2009

One of the best things about the Incentive Trip is making new friends! Here I am with Heather, who I swapped some great swaps with at the final night luau!
Heather and I luau

The Stampin' Up! Incentive Trip is one perk of being a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator I hope to help many of my downline achieve!

Paynesiggy


My Swaps for Founder's Circle!

Today I am on a plane bound for Southern Utah! At convention this year I was shocked, surprised, and reduced to tears to find out I earned the honor of attending Founder's Circle! What is Founder's Circle? It is an honor Stampin' Up! gives to the top 145 demonstrators for the previous stampin' year, and is based on personal sales, recruiting, down-line promotions, leadership, etc. After I found out I had received Founder's and had cried off all my make-up, THEN they say, "Come over here and get your picture taken for the Founder's Circle yearbook"! Oh well, I didn't care, it was such an honor and all 6 of my downline who went to convention with me were so happy for me!

Anyway, the SWAP this year for Founder's Circle is Holiday-themed, and I can't wait to see what everyone else is bringing! Here's mine, two versions, one with Riding Hood Red taffeta, and the other with Kraft taffeta ribbon! Let me know which one you like best!
Web 1
Web 2 You can't really see it in the pics, but I stamped the "Snow Swirled" tree (on sale this month for 15% off!) first in Creamy Caramel, stamped the snowflakes in Riding Hood Red, then used the Stamp-a-ma-jig to stamp the tree again in Versamark, sprinkled with Heat & Stick powder, heated just until the powder melted, then sprinkled with Dazzling Diamonds glitter. A quick swipe with a Swiffer cloth to remove the excess diamonds and there you go! I also use the Top Note Bigz Die in my brand-new Big Shot die-cutting machine from Stampin' Up! to cut the Whisper White and Riding Hood Red mats for the tree!