2011 Stampin' Up! Convention
I can't believe it's already been a week since Convention ended. As usual, Convention was a exhausting whirlwind of people, projects, ideas, and excitement. I don't think it's possible to really understand Convention unless you've been there. Try to picture 3,000 plus women (and about 10 men!) crammed into the Salt Palace's main stage. The music is blaring - usually classic rock with a good beat and fun tunes like YMCA. Some of them are running around in funny, matching hats or costumes and everyone is scurrying around trading swap cards like their lives depended on it. Then, the star of the show, our company's founder Shelli Gardiner comes out and graciously receives a rock star-quality welcome. THAT'S a familiar Convention moment.
This was my fifth Stampin' Up! Convention and I never get tired of moments like those. I think the one thing Stampin' Up! does best is to put on wonderful events and find ways to make their demonstrators feel special and this year was no exception. We had some wonderful surprises, got a LOT of free stuff, and generally had a fabulous time. Here is a sneak peek at some of the goodies I came home with:
If you look closely, you can see some of the fun stuff we got - (some freebies and some that I bought from Memento Mall). Our Convention bag was gorgeous this year, we got a catalog in a binder, a workshop in a bag (hostess gift, demo project & 10 M&T's), a very pretty umbrella in our Lucky Limeade color, a digital calendar from our hybrid MDS (My Digital Studio - our digital scrapbooking program) class, our typical four free stamp sets, plus two other surprise ones, pop up litter bags, two MDS CD's (one of them with content that isn't available to anyone else!), our Workshop Wow DVD, and do you see that gorgeous grey cardigan with the flowers on it for our "Grow" theme? And there was a ton of other stuff there that I didn't buy - they had some really nice selections this year.
Something very cool happened with some of this stuff. The first day, I had made my purchases at Memento Mall - more than $100 worth of merchandise. I was going around looking at the awesome displays and somewhere I left my bag. Before I even realized I had lost it, I got a call on my cell phone. Some nice Canadian demo had found it and turned it into the Info Booth. There was a receipt inside with my Demo ID, so they looked me up in the system and found my cell phone number and called me to come and get it. I think our ladies are just the nicest in the world! Yay Canada!
And of course, there is swapping. I only had about 72 hours between the Evo Conference and the start of the SU Convention, so I was really scrambling to get some swaps made in time. I even had to call on some of my customers to help me finish them and we managed to pull together about 100 swaps - a lot of people bring 400-500, but I was happy to have even that many. Here are a couple of my swap designs:
The triangle boxes were a big hit, although I was embarrassed when someone told me that this set had retired this year. I checked and check and thought I'd gotten them all weeded out. At least I used our new Wisteria Wonder colors.
This one with the fancy folds and the crocheted twine was a big hit. You can't see it very well in this picture, but the medallion holds down the fold and you can tuck your message in there.
This one was the only technique I tried - faux silk. I used that glittery tissue paper you get at Christmas, but it wasn't all that popular. That's the interesting thing when you let people pick from different designs. You find out which ones are the most popular, which is usually different from the ones you like best.
The surprise winner was this "Lion King" design. That one was a much bigger hit than I expected, considering I threw it in as a last minute idea. Figures. I did get some very cute swaps in return including some awesome MDS hybrid cards.
But then again, the best part of Convention is always the people for me. We always have a great bunch of my Utah Divas group that come in from all over the country. This year, the group was a bit smaller than usual, but we still have a great time together.
Here's all the girls, except for Sue who was off showing Selene something cool on her MDS program.
Here are Kellie and Kim in their hats for the Garden Party.
Here we are at dinner. Our dear friend Ruthie couldn't come to Convention because she is caring for her sister, who is ill. So we had Flat Ruthie and Flat Fay join us for dinner and at various points around the Convention. Someone asked if she was married to Flat Stanley, but I said they were just dating.
Sue from Alaska and I have been through several Conventions together and she used to be my Diva Sister, so we hung out a lot. Christine (below) used to be my Diva Sister too from Maryland. Her husband Milt came to Salt Lake with her and was amusing himself by visiting the various Air Force bases and tourist attractions while we were having fun. I pointed out some sites I thought he might like.
Here are Sue and Christine walking the stage for their 10 year anniversaries.
Well, that's the end of another Convention. The trick now is try to and retain at least a fraction of the stuff I've learned and try to put it to good use to grow my business throughout the year.
By TwitterButtons.com
This was my fifth Stampin' Up! Convention and I never get tired of moments like those. I think the one thing Stampin' Up! does best is to put on wonderful events and find ways to make their demonstrators feel special and this year was no exception. We had some wonderful surprises, got a LOT of free stuff, and generally had a fabulous time. Here is a sneak peek at some of the goodies I came home with:
If you look closely, you can see some of the fun stuff we got - (some freebies and some that I bought from Memento Mall). Our Convention bag was gorgeous this year, we got a catalog in a binder, a workshop in a bag (hostess gift, demo project & 10 M&T's), a very pretty umbrella in our Lucky Limeade color, a digital calendar from our hybrid MDS (My Digital Studio - our digital scrapbooking program) class, our typical four free stamp sets, plus two other surprise ones, pop up litter bags, two MDS CD's (one of them with content that isn't available to anyone else!), our Workshop Wow DVD, and do you see that gorgeous grey cardigan with the flowers on it for our "Grow" theme? And there was a ton of other stuff there that I didn't buy - they had some really nice selections this year.
Something very cool happened with some of this stuff. The first day, I had made my purchases at Memento Mall - more than $100 worth of merchandise. I was going around looking at the awesome displays and somewhere I left my bag. Before I even realized I had lost it, I got a call on my cell phone. Some nice Canadian demo had found it and turned it into the Info Booth. There was a receipt inside with my Demo ID, so they looked me up in the system and found my cell phone number and called me to come and get it. I think our ladies are just the nicest in the world! Yay Canada!
And of course, there is swapping. I only had about 72 hours between the Evo Conference and the start of the SU Convention, so I was really scrambling to get some swaps made in time. I even had to call on some of my customers to help me finish them and we managed to pull together about 100 swaps - a lot of people bring 400-500, but I was happy to have even that many. Here are a couple of my swap designs:
The surprise winner was this "Lion King" design. That one was a much bigger hit than I expected, considering I threw it in as a last minute idea. Figures. I did get some very cute swaps in return including some awesome MDS hybrid cards.
But then again, the best part of Convention is always the people for me. We always have a great bunch of my Utah Divas group that come in from all over the country. This year, the group was a bit smaller than usual, but we still have a great time together.
Here are Kellie and Kim in their hats for the Garden Party.
Here we are at dinner. Our dear friend Ruthie couldn't come to Convention because she is caring for her sister, who is ill. So we had Flat Ruthie and Flat Fay join us for dinner and at various points around the Convention. Someone asked if she was married to Flat Stanley, but I said they were just dating.
Sue from Alaska and I have been through several Conventions together and she used to be my Diva Sister, so we hung out a lot. Christine (below) used to be my Diva Sister too from Maryland. Her husband Milt came to Salt Lake with her and was amusing himself by visiting the various Air Force bases and tourist attractions while we were having fun. I pointed out some sites I thought he might like.
Here are Sue and Christine walking the stage for their 10 year anniversaries.
Well, that's the end of another Convention. The trick now is try to and retain at least a fraction of the stuff I've learned and try to put it to good use to grow my business throughout the year.
By TwitterButtons.com 
