Fun week with family and friends

The Sheraton was invaded by excited Stampers yesterday. It was the last stop for the Stampin' Up! Open Houses hosted by Stampin' Up! Canada across Newfoundland this week. I was lucky enough to get to attend the event with family and friends at 3 different locations throughout the week. For many of my family and friends this was their first experience with Stampin' Up! and I was happy to share it with them. It's been a crazy, but fun, week!

The focus of these events was to introduce the Stampin' Up! 2015 Annual Catalogue. Each attendee was presented with a physical copy of the catalogue and given the chance to try out some of the product from the catalogue.

Every year Stampin' Up! introduces five new colours to their collection. These In-Colours are only available for two years. One of the activities at the Open Houses gave the attendees a chance to try out some of the product that is available in the new colours. In the Stampin' Up bag that each attendee received was a sheet for them to take to the In-Colour station and use to make themselves an In-Colour product sample guide. I loved this activity! Here's the completed sheet of one of my guests.

To complete the chart we used the 2015-2017 In Colour Cardstock and Classic Stampin' Pads, along with the Itty Bitty Accents punches, stamps from the Over the Rainbow stamp set and the 2015-2017 In Colour Stampin' Write Markers. 

It has been a great week getting to meet other stampers and getting to share Stampin' Up! with my family and friends. I'm looking forward to lots more stampin' fun together.

It was especially nice to meet Dale and Carrie from Stampin' Up! Canada, and Melody from the Stampin' Up! head office in Utah. I think they enjoyed their visit to Newfoundland and I hope they'll come back to visit again.

Fun at the First Stampin' Up! Open House

The Riverwood Inn banquet room was packed with excited stampers last night. It was so much fun!

I finally got to meet Kay, our fearless Newfoundland Stampin' Up! leader. I had meet her virtually through FaceBook and she has sent me a number of nice cards since I joined the Stampin' Up! group but it was nice to finally meet her in person.

It was nice to see Lola and Deidre, a couple of fellow demonstrators that I knew before they were demonstrators. They both have great groups of stampers to have fun with.

I also got to met Dale, from Stampin' Up ! Canada. I had received emails from him before but had never met him. Here's a funny true confession, because Dale is one of those gender neutral names (I personally know both males and females named Dale) I wasn't sure if Dale was male or female, until I met him at the event last night.

There was even a lady there from Stampin' Up! head office in Utah! This is her first trip to Canada and she came all the way to Newfoundland. I didn't get a chance to talk to her last night.

I was, however, talking to another really nice lady from the Stampin' Up! Canada head office but I've been wrecking my brain and I can't remember her name! She was super nice.

I was happy to have a few of my friends join me at the event and the photo above shows what we left with - a neat Stampin' Up! bag and three projects that we made at the event, using products from the new Annual Catalogue. The photo below shows our messy table and my friends busy hands at work.

The new Catalogue went live yesterday. Click on the words to download a PDF version of the Stampin' Up! 2015-2016 Annual Catalogue or browse through the categories at the Stampin' Up! online store.

One thing that I'm sad about, I missed posting to my blog yesterday! I had a mishap in the morning and did something to my foot. I spent the rest of the day in agony and pulled myself together enough to go to the event and hit the bed as soon as I got home from it. I was bummed that I didn't get a post done but life happens.

I finally went and had my foot looked at today. I wouldn't go yesterday because I was afraid I would end up missing the event last night, so I borrowed crutches and hobbled to the event. Tonight there is an event in Corner Brook and I will be sporting lovely new footwear, along with the crutches.

I'm looking forward to the event tonight. It should be another packed room full of happy stampers.

Simple, functional bookmark

I made these bookmarks tonight to give to my guests at Stampin' Up! Open Houses across Newfoundland this week. It's going to be a busy week!

At the events, guests will receive a copy of the 2015-2016 Stampin' Up! Annual Catalogue. I heard that demonstrators often make bookmarks to give to their customers along with their catalogues, so I set of to research what these bookmarks might look like. I've seen some beautiful bookmarks during my research.

I've been debating with myself for weeks about the design of my bookmarks. Should I go for function or beauty? Should I feature the new In-Colours? Should I feature a new stamp set, maybe the RMHC stamp set? Should I use some punches, dies, layers?

I finally decided that I would make my bookmarks functional. The purpose of the bookmark is to mark pages and help you find your favourite things, so I decided to go with a "These are a few of my Favourite Things" theme.

I decided to make one side of the bookmark a wish list with space for customers to record their favourite things, along with the pages they are found on.

The other side of the bookmark contains my contact information so that they can easily contact me with any questions.

Using the word processing program on my printer, I played around with textboxes and placement until I had something that worked. I printed that on Whisper White Cardstock and then cut the bookmarks. They measure 2 x 8 1/2. Then I used the Tag Topper Scalloped Punch on the top and rounded the bottom edges using the Envelope Punch Board.

Stamps from two of my favourite stamp sets (Butterfly Basics and Lovely as a Tree) were used in the design of the bookmarks, and I also used one of my favourite techniques - sponging. I tied a 6 inch piece of my favourite colour lace to the top of the bookmark for the final touch.

The 2015-2016 will go live online tomorrow, so be sure to check it out. If you would like to have a paper copy of the catalogue, along with one of my bookmarks, let me know.

Simple card with matching envelope

A fast, simple card today. Can't seem to get the time or the mojo to do much more than that at the moment.

Remember when I told you I got the New Catalogue, new product? This simple card is made using stamps from this new hostess set in the new catalogue.

This set is one of five stamp sets that are only available to hosts. It is a very pretty set and I'd love to help you become eligible to purchase it. Invite some friends over and I'll come show you all how to make this card, along with some others, and you'll be able to purchase this stamp set.

The ink I used for the card above is one of the new In Colour inks. Here are all of the new In Colour ink pads, card stock, embellishments and envelope paper.

Yes, I said envelope paper. Envelope Paper is a new product coming in the new catalogue. I used my Envelope Punch Board and a sheet of the Envelope Paper to make the envelope pictured with the card above.

The new catalogue will going live online June 2nd, and this is just a small sample of some of the great product that will be available.

If you are interested in receiving a physical copy of the new catalogue let me know.

For the card above I simply stamped the image with Watermelon Wonder and then used my blender pen to draw some colour from the stamped image into the flower. So simple, and yet so nice.

New Catalogue, new product

The Stampin' Up! 2015-2016 Annual Catalogue arrived at my door today, along with a few goodies that I had ordered from it. The catalogue will be available online for the general public on June 2, but demonstrators got a sneak peek of the catalogue earlier and were allowed to order some of the new product.

I didn't have much time to play today, but I had to try the punch and stamp set that I had ordered. Here's what I made

Using this punch and stamp set

This stamp set is actually extra special because it is the 2015-2016 Ronald McDonald House Charity (RMHC) stamp set. Each year Stampin' Up! designs an exclusive stamp set that is dedicated the RMHC stamp set and a portion of the sale of that set is donated to RMHC. I'm looking forward to play with this set some more, when I get more time to play.

I'm devouring the new catalogue

No new creations today. I've spent the day drooling over the new catalogue. While the 2015-2016 Annual Catalogue will not be available to the general public online until June 2, demonstrators got a sneak peek at it today. I downloaded it to my iPad as soon as I could and I have been spending every minute I could pouring over it.

I have a ritual I go through when a new catalogue comes out. I go through the catalogue one page at a time, recording the contents in a note book under pages for different categories - photopolymer stamps, clear stamps, bundles, etc. I know, it's weird, but it helps me to get a better handle on what's in the catalogue. I haven't managed to make my way through the whole catalogue yet but I'm getting there. Here's a sneak peek of what I've been doing.

That's my iPad with part of the catalogue front showing and my note book showing part of my list of clear stamp sets. I record what each set co-ordinates with too so I can get a better handle on what goes together.

I can't wait to be able to share more with you! But guidelines say that's as much as I can share yet. Stay tuned for more.

If you'd like to get your own copy of the new catalogue when it becomes available, drop me a line before May 7 and I'll tell you how you can get one delivered to your door.