Flowerbug's Inkspot

Fiji Trip Photos

Here are a few of the photos of our Stampin Up trip to Fiji last week.  We spent lots of our time relaxing by the pool or beach and visiting with old and new friends.  It was a fantastic dream vacation!

We seemed to gravitate towards the pool and beach.  My husband and I love the water!  So beautiful; peaceful and relaxing.

This is the Hospitality room where we were invited to come and relax, play for door prizes and gather candy and cold water.

Each day we played for a different 'prize' - Stampin' Up! products usually!  So fun!

And this may be my favorite photo of all.  We enjoyed the beach front so much.  Sunset on the beach with my husband and best friend. 

Extra FREE Product for Hostesses & New Demonstrators!!

SU just announced a new promotion for both  Hostesses & New Demonstrators! 

Dates: April 15-May 30, 2013 (yes, it ends the day before the last day of the month)

The Offers:

• New recruits: You'll get an extra $30 for their Starter Kit! That means your new recruit will get to choose $155 worth of ANY products they choose for only $99!
• Hostess offer: If they host a $350 party they'll earn an additional $30 in FREE products!

So now you all have something to think about!  Whether it's hosting a party (or even a book party) or signing up to be a Demonstrator!  I will be offering free benefits with product orders while I am away in Fiji in a few weeks. Stay tuned for more info on that next week. 

I'd love to have you on my team!  Go here to read about it and to sign up too.  And if you like to have fun, attend Convention with me this year for Stampin' Up!'s 25th Anniversary on July 18th - 20th.  They're giving away over 25,000 prizes this year!  We always have sooo much fun!  We get to register this week! 

25th Anniversary Monthly 'Best of' Stamp Sets!

As part of Stampin' Up!'s 25-year anniversary celebration, we're bringing back some of our favorite stamp images from the last quarter century and combining them into 12 sets, which will be released - one set per month - during 2013. Even better, along with some great classic images, each "Best of" set will also include a never-before-seen image!

• All Best of stamp sets will include 3-5 images, including a never-before seen image, and will be priced at $14.95.
• While we are releasing just one Best of stamp set per month (with a new theme each month), all of the Best of sets will be available until March 31, 2014.
• A new flyer will be released every month for each new Best of set.
• All Best of stamp sets are available in Clear-Mount only.

As a special incentive to collect the Best of stamps, starting in February we're including a collector's card and 25-year proof of purchase sticker with every Best of set. Collect six stickers, and send it in to redeem a FREE set of your choice valued up to $14.95! Free sets must be redeemed no later than April 30, 2014.

 Best of Birthdays flyer

I got it!!!!!

I am so excited to be able to tell you that I did earn the next Stampin' Up! incentive trip in November.  Thank you so much to each of you who helped make it happen!  It is so neat that I can take my husband on a trip to the Western Caribbean in 2014 courtesy of SU.  He deserves it so much; especially after the last year and a half since the Minot, ND flood where we lost our home. 

I haven't shared our progress on that in quite awhile so here is the news:

We are getting very  close to getting back home!  We have walls up, mostly painted too!  And some light switches that actually work!  Here are a few pics:

This is the kitchen and dining room wall and what it looked like for much of the summer and fall.  My husband is doing almost all of the work himself on his days or nights off, including the plumbing, wiring and heating.  My son has also been a huge help to him.  I help when they need an untrained weakling! 

And this is about the same view now - our galley kitchen with some of the cabinets in place.  You can see one wall of my studio in the background.  Remember Cool Caribbean??!   I love it! 

This is my dining room wall behind the kitchen; just waiting for the built in china cabinets under and beside the pass through window. 

This week we've been painting and working on lighting and switches.  Next comes flooring and plumbing while we wait for the rest of our cabinets that should arrive next week. Yes; we're doing the flooring ourself too.  My husband likes to do as much as he can himself! 

We're getting soooo excited to get back home!  Maybe for Christmas or at least New Years we hope. 

Last of the Convention Pics

Here are the last of the photos I have to share from the Stampin' Up! Convention.  Remember that many of these are made by other Demonstrators but the crafters' names are not shared on most of the boards.  So if any of these are yours or you know who's they are, let me know so I can give credit!  

Most of these are so incredible I just had to remember them with a photo. 

Such a cute circle tent made from the World Spectacular designer series paper.  I found out Jason Casper made this great project!   

Cute!  Made from our Essentials Designer Fabric. 

Such pretty containers and homemade boxes.  Many use the new Floral Framelits. Jason Casper also made the covered jar second from the left. 

An adorable little girls dress made from our Floral Distric fabric. 

I love this banner!  Made with the Pennant die and the Floral Framelits.

Such a cute owl pillow!

Can you believe they made a bird from the Smooches Fabric!  I got an e-mail with the creator of this amazing project!  Her name is Jenice Schnell from Elgin, TX.  It was part of her Artisan Design Team project.  So creative!  I absolutely love it!!

I was so impressed with this bag - I asked a fellow demonstrator if I could take a photo of it.  She used it as her purse while at Convention. 

And last is a candle that was 'rolled' over an inked background stamp.  This was demonstrated on stage by Pam Morgan.  She even made the candle holder!  It's a 1" strip of Glimmer cardstock glued in a circle and then adhered to a flat circle. The leaves are cut out from card stock and our newest Champagne glimmer card stock with the new Autumn Accents leaves die in the Holiday catalog.  

More Convention pics

Here are a few more photos of the displays at Convention:

In Color Dahlias. 

So many beautiful display boards! 

3d flowers

I found out who make this!  It's Kristy Rooney. A wreath featuring gorgeous flowers made with a small flower punch. Check out more of her projects here. 

The product display boards are amazing aren't they?  We could visit these daily and find something new each time. 

Convention pics

Okay; things have settled down just a bit today so I'll share a few more convention photos with you.

First off I have to share that I received a few awards this year again.  I am so very grateful to each and every one of my customers who make it all happen for me.  I would not be here without each of you!  Thanks so much for supporting me and sharing your love of stamping with me!  I love our products and this wonderful craft and I get so much joy out of sharing that with you. 

I earned Founder's Circle again!  Woo hoo!  That means I am in the top 100 in the company in the United States.  I also earned a position in one of the top 10 categories too.  I am so thrilled to be where I am and it always amazes me because I absolutely love this job!  To be successful at something you love is truly a gift from God and makes me very, very grateful. 

The Convention Theme this year was:  I am.....  We were supposed to mentally fill in the rest.  For me?   Grateful, Determined, Content are a few I came up with. 

Here are some of the photos I took of the displays there.

More photos later! 

 

Stampin' Up! Convention Theme Song video

I LOVED this year's theme song at Convention.  So fun and catchy.  You can see the staff at SU Riverton sing it on this video.

Fun to sing and watch, isn't it??

Whew - I'm back!

I just returned from the fabulous 2012 Stampin' Up! Convention last night.  We had a wonderful time as usual.  I had three of my downline with me this year and expect many, many more to come with  next year!

I have 6 boxes of SU club orders waiting to be unpacked and sorted today plus I have to answer dozens of e-mails and I work at the Free Clinic tonight too!  I did not have my laptop or camera accessories with me while I was there so I couldn't share during the last week.  So prepare yourself to see lots in the next week or so! 

Here are a few pictures to hold you over until I have more time.  These are mostly from Memento Mall, a place we can shop for fun SU Logo gifts.  I love the way they decorate our shopping space - so fun!

And here are a few pics from our last night out with friends.  We went to the awesome restaurant Rodizio Grill. 

From left to right - Susie, myself, Robyn, Kari, Carey, Chris, Donna, Marguerite, Linda, Hanna.  This is one of our favorite things about Convention - getting together with our friends! 

This restaurant is fun and unique because they bring grilled food items around to your table as long as you want them too.  We had Sirloin steak, marinated and spicy chicken, swordfish, pork loin, wild boar!, tri-tip steak and lots more.  Plus they have a fabulous salad bar and breads to round off the meal. They even gave us a ride from our hotels on their shuttle.  Here's Robyn getting on:

 

Hostess Appreciation Party!

Last week I honored my Hostesses!  These gals held workshops for me in the last year, helping me meet new customers and keep my business growing.  I am so grateful to them. 

I made them dinner and dessert and gave them some gifts and prizes too.

Here are a few of the items they received that night:

I made them each a journal or notebook in a clear stamping case.

Here's a view of the inside.  It holds a notebook and pen plus a covered open envelope for receipts, cards or notes on the left. This project is fun and easy and a great way to use your pretty Designer Paper.  Did you know you can order these clear stamp cases in a pack of 4 for just $5.95?   You can get a stack of these notebooks at your local discount or office store.  They may need to be cut down in size by the office store to fit inside the cases.  

I also gave them some grab bags of assorted ribbons:

Besides an extra free stamp set of their choice and a pack of designer series paper or Simply Scrappin' kit they each got a new spiral bound catalog and this new In Color bookmark:

 

Here is the template for the bookmark if you want to make your own.  It has In Colors on one side and a calendar on the back. 

Some people had an issue downloading this file so I switched it to a pdf. 

BOOK MARK- In Color 2012-2014

Thanks so much for hosting a workshop for me gals!  The requested recipes will be sent to you very soon. 

New Catalog Open House

I held my Annual New Catalog Open House yesterday.  Thank you to everyone who came!  I forgot my camera of course so I don't have photos of it all.  But I was so pleased with the turnout where I was able to give over 50 beautiful new catalogs out!  If you missed it you are welcome to stop by to pick up yours.  Just give me a call or e-mail to be sure I am home. 

Besides the displays, food, prizes and catalogs I also offered a free Make & Take.  Here's what they made:

Very pretty isn't it?  It features two of our newest In Colors - Gumball Green and Primrose Petals along with a brand new stamp set called Papaya Collage. 

Two other new products on this card are our new In Color Satin Stitched ribbon and the Fancy Fan embossing folder. 

When making this card you'd be surprized to know that you only need to ink both of these images once.  For example, ink the leaves stamp in Gumball Green and stamp once, then move over a bit and stamp again (without re-inking) and again one last time to achieve three different colors of ink and a beautiful and soft feel.  The butterfly was inked once and stamped four times without re-inking, offsetting the stamp a bit to give the apprearance of butterfly movement.

I had fun baking for this event too.  I used to do tons of cooking and baking when I was catering, but lately not so much.  So it was a pleasure for me to try some new recipes for this event.  The treats I made were a big hit and I promised I'd share the recipes for them. All of these recipes were found on Pinterest.

I made Donut Muffins (taste just like the mini donuts at the fair), Mini Fruit Pizzas (yum!), and Peanut Butter Brownie Bites that are amazing and easy.

Donut Muffins

• 1/2 c. white sugar
• 1/4 c. melted butter
• 1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
• 1/2 c. milk
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1 c. flour

Mix sugar & butter together, add milk.  Stir in the baking powder with the flour until just combines.  Fill in greased mini muffin pans 1/2 full. Bake at 350 for about 13 -15 minutes. Have the following ready for when they come out of the oven. 

Melt 1/4 cup butter in one bowl and stir together 1/2 cup sugar with 1 tsp. cinnamon in another bowl.  Dip the tops of the still warm muffins in the butter and roll in sugar.  Let cool (not too long!) and enjoy. 

 

Mini Fruit Pizzas

• 1 roll of refrigerated cookie dough
• 1 8 oz pkg of cream cheese, softened
• 1 large container Cool Whip
• 4 cups fruit, diced

Roll pieces of cookie dough into 3/4" balls and place in mini muffin pans.  Bake at 350 for 6-7 minutes.  Cool and remove from pan.  Place on cookie sheet. 

Mix cool whip with softened cream cheese and place in a piping bag or a large baggie.  Cut off a corner of the baggie and pipe onto the little cookies.  Top with fruit and chill before serving.  These are sooo good!

Peanut Butter Brownie Bites

• 1 box brownie mix (any will work)
• 1/2 cup peanut butter/chocolate swirled chips ( or half & half of peanut butter with chocolate chips)
• 3/4 cup peanut butter

Prepare brownie batter as directed on package.  Spoon into a greased mini muffin pan filling with 1 heaping teaspoon each.  Bake at 350 for 13 minutes.  If the centers do not fall while cooling, press them in with a spoon.  Remove from pan now.

Microwave the peanut butter to soften 40 seconds. Stir and spoon into the center depressions of the brownies.  Top with a few chips. Cool.  

These are so good and taste like a famous candy bar yet they aren't as sweet and you get that burst of real peanut butter in the center.

 

The other recipe people requested was the Cheddar Bacon dip. No photo of that, but it was very tasty!

Cheddar Bacon Dip

• 16 oz sour cream
• 1 pkg. dry Ranch dressing mix
•  3 oz Bacon Bits (in the bag, not jar)
• 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Mix together and chill 24 hours. Serve with crackers, chips or veggies. 

 

If you have been waiting for me to share this month's Technique Class, I am sorry but there isn't one.  My schedule just didn't leave room for it this month.  I will have one in June however and I hope to share it with you soon. 

I have many more new items to share with you since I have been working on lots of display items for the Open House.  Keep posted so you don't miss any of it! 

 

More Disney Event photos

They surprised us for our final Disney event last Thursday night by taking us to see the Indiana Jones show at Hollywood Studios. 

After we saw half of the show Shelli got up to say a few words (I got a big, happy surprise I will tell you all about later - when I can tell!) and the Indiana Jones stage was pulled off to the side to reveal this! 

They had tons of tables, chairs and food buffets there for us.  We actually enjoyed dinner on the stage!  So unique and absolutely fun!

They had 'green screens' so we could have our photos taken as part of some of the movie scenes.  So cool!  We were able to pick ours up within the hour to take home with us.  I haven't scanned ours in yet and may not - we're pretty funny looking! 

While we were eating and visiting they had a DJ and quite a few belly dancers entertained us. 

It was such a fun last night.  Stampin' Up! always does it up right!

Disney Photos

Well we are back from our trip and now I have my usualy computer to work with.  I am definitely in need of a new laptop when I am away on trips!

Here are the rest of the pillow gifts we received from Stampin' Up! on the last few nights:

We got a neat Stampin' Up! backpack one night. 

And on the last night we had this waiting in our room.  That flower is about 10" wide!  Inside this box was a Thomas Kincade Sleeping Beauty canvas print!  Yes; we are very lucky people to work for Stampin' Up!

One night we received a new stamp set and other product from the new catalog coming out in less than a month!  I cannot show those items 'yet'. 

Next are some of the photos we took of the amazing and beautiful Disney World. 

These flowers were growing in huge floating containers in the water that would move slightly with the wind.

These beautiful fountains would dance to the music nearby the famous Epcot icon.

Of course I had to take a close up photo of my favorite Winnie the Pooh character - Tigger!  (That's why I named my cat 'Tigger').

We spent one fun day at the Typhoon Lagoon.  This lazy river ride took 20 minutes to complete. It went around this entire park. So relaxing!

And this was one of our very favorite things at Typhoon Lagoon. The huge wave pool! 

Every few minutes a huge wave comes at you so powerful it knocks you over and sends you quite a few feet. It must start out about 8' tall - just like a good surfing wave would.  If you were in shallow water you could jump up when the wave hit and stay upright.  But in the deeper water you were basically mowed over. 

I will share the final event photos in a day or so.  It was amazing!   

Occasions Mini Carryover & other news

Stampin Up! announced that they are carrying over some of the products in this catalog ending today.  Click here to see which ones we get to keep for sure.   Download CarryOver_Occassions_0412_US 

Also see what's left on the Retiring Accessories list here. Download Retired accessories 2012

And now I thought I'd share a bit of our trip here in Disney World.  Below are some photos of our balcony view and other photos of our first pillow gifts.

We got the cutest Disney canvas bag.  Inside it were these fun snacks:
And today we received a set of Stampin' Up! sippin cups and a sun visor.

Unfortunately I am having issues with my laptop so photos and comments during this fun incentive trip will be at a minimum.

Stampin' Up! Makes a Difference

This is just one more reason I am so proud to be a part of this company.........

At Stampin' Up!, we believe in making a difference in the lives of others--whether they're our demonstrators, our employees, the people who use our products, or children in need of a way to express their creativity.

Since 2005, Stampin' Up! has been honored to participate in the TODAY Show's Holiday Toy Drive. This year, Stampin' Up! will be donating over $500,000 worth of stamping and paper crafting products to the following organizations:

• Action for Boston Community Development Inc.
• Alliance for Children's Rights
• Boys & Girls Clubs Harford County
• Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of New York
• Community Partners of Dallas - Rainbow Room
• Diocese of Saint Augustine
• Friendship Project
• Help USA
• Interfaith Nutrition Network (INN)
• Kids In Need Foundation
• National Council of Jewish Women, Cleveland Section - The Dignity Project
• Operation Homefront
• Puerto Rican Family Institute
• St. Luke's Roosevelt Hospital
• Stephen Siller Foundation/Katrina Fund
• Welcome House
• Youthbuild USA

In conjunction with the donation, Stampin' Up!'s Shelli Gardner will make an appearance on NBC's TODAY Show on Tuesday, December 6. We are honored and excited to once again participate in this annual holiday tradition of giving back and making a difference!