2 Cards and a Smoothie!

Hello friendly friends!
Today I have 3 fun things to show you! First - I got this cute card from my BDA, Ashley (hi Ashley! Can you see me waving to you?) Let me back up a bit. For those of you that are not hip to Stampin' Up lingo, a BDA is a Business Development Advisor , sort of a business coach, but mostly someone to brainstorm with and an accountability buddy. Well Ashley is mine and she is great!! Always encouraging and supportive, but has a way of asking just the right questions to help hammer out my plans. She sent this card to me  for my 20th Year Anniversary! ( Maybe you haven't heard, but I just celebrated my 20th year as a Stampin' Up demonstrator! lol :)) Isn't that just too sweet of her?! Thank you Ashley! Love ya!!!

Ashley's Card

The next fun card is one that I made to hand out to my neighbors with the March of Dimes donation envelope. I thought I could combine 2 of my favorite things - Valentine's cards and healthy babies! I have been the Mother's March volunteer for my block for the last 4 or 5 years, but haven't had great success in bringing in donations. When the March of Dimes folks called again this year I told them I didn't seem to do well in the past but I'll try again. The nice lady on the other end of the phone said it was important to get donations, of course, but the most important thing is to bring awareness and get the information out about the steps women can take to increase the odds of a healthy baby. So this year I'm adding this cute little 3x3 Valentine with a note saying, "Give this Valentine Love Note to someone you love that started out life as a baby!" teehee  I hope this increases the number of people that will read the info and make a donation. Keep you finger crossed (if you were lucky enough to be born with all of them).

Celebrating 20 Years of Stamping with You!

Woohoo! I'm ready to party like it's 1992! That's the year I sign my contract to become a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator - 20 YEARS AGO TODAY!!! Of course, all I wanted was everything in the catalog, and at a discount. (That's how it goes when you are indecisive. lol) I embossed those 3 little angels in gold EP and I was hooked for life, and...well...the rest is history.

I am humbled and tremendously blessed by the friendships, experiences, and growth I have gained by being a stamping business owner. How fun it is that I get to create lovely things and help others create and grow, AND all the while we keep learning and sharing with each other. Not a bad way to make a living, huh?

I am filled with gratitude and thankfulness that this opportunity has allowed me to be a stay-at-home mom. Not that it was always easy or without sacrifice, like the time I loaded my car to head out for a workshop and I had a crying toddler cling-on. We managed to carve him off of me only to have him escape the arms of an older sibling, cut thru the back yards and meet me as I left the neighborhood. Oh my, that determined little guy is now leaving my nest and I have the same urge to wrap myself around his leg and beg him to stay. Maybe I will cut through the backyards and meet HIM as he leaves the neighborhood. <sigh>

Looking back over the years I realize the growth and experiences I would have missed by not staying the course. Having no real business skills, I found a niche in Stampin' Up where I could learn to be a business women, enjoy creativity, share the experience with many diverse women and become successful in what I do. I am again humbled to think that I have achieved some pretty neat milestones throughout these 20 years. One such milestone was being named number 53 in the top 100 demonstrators and invited to attend Founder's Circle. Wow! That was an experience of a lifetime! I also have gotten to take my sweetie to Hawaii and Alaska (oh he earned it just as much as I did! haha!)
and we are currently working on Fiji!! I hope I don't sound like I'm bragging. I truly am not. As I recollect these events I am struck by the thought that if I can do this - anyone can do this!

Well I have rambled on long enough. Thanks for indulging me a few minutes and reading this. At the end of the day I just hope and pray that I have made a positive impact in someone else' life. If I have had even half the impact that you, my friends, loyal customers, partners in stamping crime, have had on me - job well done! 

More Leaders and a card!

I want to recognize some of my leaders that were at Leadership. I love that Stampin' Up lets us parade across the stage when we accomplish a promotion, or earn a trip, or achieve some other milestone in our career. At Leadership 2012, these girls got to "strut their stuff" across the stage.

Julia Gass & Shelia deCordova got to walk (and talk) together for earning a promotion to Senior Supervisor. Congrats ladies!

 

Senior Supervisor is the first title that qualifies you to go to Leadership. Here is Shelia and Julia showing off their title badges. I think if you asked them they would say Leadership is totally worth the effort to promote to go. Cuties!!

The girl in the middle in the blue sweater is Monica Wood. Monica promoted to Manager and was part of that march. Yay Monica - Way to go!!!

This is Kim Wilson, who also promoted to Manager!!! Woohoo, Kim!!!

Here are Sherri Peters and Meg Daves. These two leaders got to take part in the Executive march. At this level you must have 14 demonstrators in your first level and rolling sales of $14,400. Sherri and Meg are well on their way to joining me at the Senior Executive level. Congratulations girls!!!

This is my SU mama, Janet Baker (demo #2) getting a hug from Shelli. Janet was honored for achieving the highest level in the company - Senior Advisor! Janet also got to go on an all-expense paid trip to the West Indies. Wow!! I love this company!

I also want to congratulate Tamzin Cochrane, Wendi Sands, Jeri Mazur, and Celia Cawthon for marching at Leadership. Since my photography skills are not stellar I did not get a picture of these girls. If you have a picture of them send it to me, won't you.

Leadership was AMAZING! and then I had a cold.

I had simply an amazing time at Leadership in San Antonio!! Learned so much and am so excited about the future of paper crafting and Stampin' Up!
Somewhere between Dallas and Edmond I found a cold bug and he has made me hurt all over. Bad bug!! Thankfully, today is better and I am getting some of my favorites from Leadership posted. Thank you for your patience.

Me and Stampin' Up President & COO, Rich Jutkins

Imagine! Sitting in a room with the President & COO and the Vice President, over Demonstrator and Employee Development, and 50 or 60 top level demonstrators and instructed to explore, question, imagine and dream about what is needed to help enable us to be the very best we can be. It was such a productive day and I can't wait to see what changes take place because of it. Thank you, Stampin' Up for listening. This, I'm convinced is what sets this company apart and why I am so proud and thankful to be associated with Stampin' Up!

More beautiful cards samples to share.

I mentioned earlier about the INK Demos Virtual Meeting we had this weekend. It was such a fun thing to do, especially seeing everyone's beautiful samples. So here are some for your to enjoy!

Margaret Raburn

Anne Copeland

Celia Cawthon

Connie Stewart

Julia Gass

Mikel Adkins

Bev Kissler

Deborah Elvers

Shelia deCordova

Angi Lay

Gayle Enouen

These are all done by my wonderful stamping friends in INK the Beginning. I know you will agree with me, these are some very talented girls! I love them!!

Hello 2012!!!

Happy New Year!
I had the best time this morning. "What did I do", you ask? Well, let me tell you about it. I got to spend the morning with an amazing group of creative women - and we were all in our PJs!
Instead of have our regular monthly meeting of my Stampin' Up! family, we had a Virtual Meeting. I called it "INK 'n PJs". We had lots of sharing and chatting and even several challenges. I asked everyone to tell me one thing they would like to accomplish in their Stampin' Up! business by the end or our year, which ends June 30, and one action step they will take to get there. Wow! What great goals, and I believe everyone is willing to work hard to achieve them. Together we will encourage each other and hold each other accountable to do our best. Just doesn't get any better than that!

One of my goals is to NOT NEGLECT MY BLOG. So, I am really going to try to post at least once a week (or more often, when I can) and show more stamped art. Let me know what you think. I love to hear from you!!

I mentioned  the challenges we had today, well here is one of them.

 My dear friend, Margaret found this sketch for us to use as inspiration for our own work. There were some really great cards created.

This is the card I created from the sketch. I changed the shape from rectangle to square and used the Scallop Square Clear die in my Big Shot to create the card base in Marina Mist. (I love my Big Shot!!) I just got my new Pennant Builder Wheel and decided that would make a cute piece in place of the solid strip across the middle. I wheeled 3 times, each in a different color- Marina Mist, Wild Wasabi & Melon Mambo. Then cut it out and layered the different color pennants. I used the Perfect Polka Dots Embossing Folder (I love my Big Shot!!) on the white square to give it fun texture and layered that on a piece of Wild Wasabi. Then I stamped the birthday cake and sentiment from Bring On the Cake stamp set and layered those on top. I think it turned out pretty cute, don't you? If you would like to try this sketch I'd love to see what you come up with. Shoot me a picture and I'll feature it on my blog and "reward" you. 

Well, I don't want to over do it, so that's all for now. Please leave me a comment if you like my card. I love to hear from you!!

Thanks for visiting My Stamping Table.
jann