Last couple SSS gifts this month

Today I want to share the last two Secret Sister gifts - this first one was from Virginia's Secret Sister - an absolutely adorable magnetic message board.

Here's a close up of the flowers and the cute little button magnets.

Finally - here are the beautiful cards that Kathy B received from her not-so-secret sister, Theresa.  The two of them decided they could not commit to SSS for the year, but would exchange cards with each other as time permitted - so nice!!

Thanks for checking out these great gifts.  Stop back soon! ~Maureen

Better pictures of gifts - off to a great start!!

Here is a close up of the box of candy and the little fold up tote - how cute is that tag and note the little bauble -

 

But as I mentioned - it matched our Leadership bag - here are Theresa and Heidi with it.  The bottom of the bag unbuttons and is reversible to all of the red pattern and the entire back is reversible to show the entire blue pattern - so you can use the bag many ways.  All of this was to go with the theme of "My Way" for Leadership and SU will be using it through out the year.  You could have chocolate (my way) and your bag (my way) - so cute!!

~Maureen

Hi all from San Antonio - Just a quick post to let you know what an amazing time we're having here. My downlines Heidi and Theresa are here with me for Stampin' Ups! Leadership conference - and we are having an amazing time. THe hotel internet is not great - and I've struggled with getting on - so not photos, but I have a ton to blog about when I get home. We had a great day today with a ton of great training. Donna Griffith and Pasty Waggoner taught a great class called retaining and engaging your downline. Patsy had some great tips on encouragement and how to help your downline want to stay active. Then we attended a class with Shannon West about our title benefits. She went over all the amazing perks of being a manager and what is to come with the next few promotions. The last class today was with Amy Swartz and Paula Critchlow on including a new generation in your stamping business. It was a great class, and featured a video of Heidi sharing on "Empower" the empowering beneftit of crafting. We have Regionals tomorrow and I am looking forward to a great day of information and stamping! I'll be home soon and back to stamping with lots to share. I am inspired and ready to grow my stamping team and business.

Secret Sister Gifts - Part 6

A couple more Secret Sister gifts to share with you today.  The first was from Theresa to Julie.  Unfortunately Julie could not be with us - but I am sure when she got her gift -she loved it.  It was this beautiful cake stand, mix and look at that cute cupcake kit!

Theresa with her gift for Julie.

 Next I have the gift that WOWED us all for the day.  This beautiful Christmas tree that Heidi made for Sandy. It is made out of squares of SU's newsprint DSP.  She modeled it after a tree she had seen at Anthropology.  It was even more amazing in person. 

Sandy with her Christmas tree.

 She also made Sandy this giant Christmas Cracker using one of our Decor Elements tubes as the base.  I think it was filled with chocolates.  Very, very adorable!

Sandy and Theresa.

But we're not done yet - be sure to stop back tomorrow for more ideas!! -Maureen

Downline Christmas Party

Yesterday was our annual Crazy Stamping Lady Christmas Party and as usual we had a great time.  Several of our regulars couldn't make it due to a family death; family illnesses and illness of one of the ladies - so our group was a little small - but those of us who were there made the best of it.  So for today I'm going to share a few pictures of all the goodies we had to eat - everyone brought something, and the food was WONDERFUL!!

Looks Yummy Huh!

More goodies!

Virginia, Theresa, Lois and Annette working on their project.

Kathy and Theresa.

Kathy, Heidi and Bobbie (Kathy in the background)

Elaine, Bobbie, Sandy, Kathy and Diane working away!

Virginia and Heidi getting the perfect embellishments!

 

And here is our final project - a rolled paper Christmas tree - this was mine, but each lady had an assortment of papers to roll and could add whatever embellishments they wanted.  If they send me pictures - I'll post their final projects!  The paper sizes are all 1 1/2" top to bottom rolled around a pencil and taped closed - the lengths were   4 1/2", 4", 3 1/2", 3", 2 1/2", 2", 1 1/2", 1" and 3/4" from bottom to top; but you could adjust for any size.  I think they turned out so cute - we put them on a paint can lid as the frame.  Let me know what you think! 

I'll be adding more pictures of some of the great Secret Sister gifts we exchanged through out the week so be sure to check back!  Thanks for stopping by.  ~Maureen

Convention - Wonderful Prize Patrol

I wanted to share with you the wonderful prize I won at Convention from Prize Patrol - it was this great bundle of products with a long piece of lace ribbon. In the bundle were Perfectly Penned wood set, Under the Big Top DSP, and the Big Top Birthday Quick Accents. It was soooo exciting to win. One other person in our group, Theresa, also won a prize - she had warned us that if she won she was going to be excited - and she was :)
She won a bundle of new Holiday products from the upcoming mini - so I can't show - but it is all very lovely!! Convention is wonderful and if you'd like to join us next year, think about signing up under the wonderful $99 special SU has going right now. Full details are in this post -
http://crazystampinglady.blogspot.com/2011/07/join-my-team-now-and-have-some-fun.html but you only have till Sunday to go to my website - http://www.stampingwithmaureen.stampinup.net/ to sign up under this deal.
In fact check out this video from Shelli Gardner, the founder of Stampin' Up! regarding this deal, and let me know if you have any questions!! ~Maureen

Convention - Amazing Convention!!

July 13 - 16 a group of us "Crazy Stamping" ladies flew to Salt Lake City for the annual convention and what a great time we had - Julie, Christel, Theresa, Heidi, Maria and I all roomed at the same hotel and that meant very little sleep :) The first thing we did as soon as we arrived is SLC and dropped our luggage off was head to the Convention Center and get our bags - we're always excited to see what SU is giving us - and this year they did fantastic. Look at this beautiful bag - it's solid and slight squared off so is perfect for a tote or even lunch. And look at the beautiful embroidery on the front to match our "Grow" theme, and I love the "Grow" tag hanging from the zipper.We all just sat directly down on the floor and went through it - sooooo much fun! Here are Heidi and Maria getting out their nametags, etc. As I mentioned earlier the theme was "Grow" - here is the stage the first day - every day the colors on the stage changed, and additional flowers and foliage were added to the stage. It was amazing and beautiful to watch. The only other "Crazy Stamping" lady to attend was Diane and she was fortunate enough to be a Make and Take helper. Here she is helping out at our session and sharing a laugh with Heidi and Christel.

Secret Sister June - Part V

So her are the wonderful cards I got from My Secret Sister last Saturday - she knows my favorite color is yellow - and these are soooo bright and cheery - thank you!!This next gift was for Theresa - looks at that beautiful use of a collage frame - and then she did her card to match that layout -nice job!

Finally - here is Bobbie's gift from her Secret Sister - an adorable decorated pail filled with a set of lovely 3x3" cards.

I think that's it for now - great job everyone!!!

Secret Sister Gifts...

Here's our next group of SSS gifts - this lovely, flowery, vintage box was from Bobbie to her Secret Sis Julie - how lovely is that -and inside - a bottle of Merlot - what a great presentation idea - Next was the set of cute cards that Virginia made for her Secret Sister Sandy - these bright and cheery Happy Birthday cards are all the same and ready for Sandy to use. This is great - I never have enough birthday cards - Last but not least for today are these beautiful cards made by Maria for her Secret Sister Theresa - I love the way she used the border embossing folder and inked it for that vintage look. Lovely cards. More her great work here - http://stampinista.blogspot.com/

Still a couple more to show so stop by soon. --Maureen

Secret Sister TIme...

First a "Happy Birthday" shout out to my daughter, Jenee - hope your day is fantastic!!

So this year the group of CSL's (my downline) decided they wanted to do Secret Sister a little different - instead of waiting all year we'd just do it quarter by quarter and each quarter you'd draw someone new. So here is the first of our first quater reveals. I'm just going clockwise around the room that we were in, as there are a lot to show - so watch for more posts. This first AMAZING topiary tree was Heidi's gift from Theresa - here is a close up so you can see all the work in there - Here is the full impact of the entire tree - see what I mean by amazing -

And here is a close up of the card she gave her - absolutely lovely -

You can see more of Theresa's work at her blog - http://thecardkitchenblog.blogspot.com/

At this meeting the group decided to modify our decision. Some felt that just giving a gift the one time didn't have the same feel of a real Secret Sister where you have to keep your identity hidden, so we drew names again, but for the rest of the year - gifts will be given at our quarterly "all downline" meetings, and our reveal will be at our December 3rd party! Check back for more of what the ladies got the rest of this week.

More goodies from the Secret Sis's -

Our next secret sister gift went to Theresa - her SS was Karen and she made her this adorable set of OWL coasters - so cute. And you see just and ear and part of an eye of my grand-daughter Makai to the right. She decided that Theresa was her bestest friend during our Holiday party :)Heidi's Secret Sis Julie gave two cool gifts - first this amazing clockthat she purchased at home goods - was able to open, remove the hands and decorate with our fabrics and antique brads - is that beautiful.And she also made her this coin purse - you can see the detail, but the leather was run through the big shot with our embossing folder, cut out in flowers and added to the front of the purse- it's just so cute. And yes, that is my Heidi with a broken hand - she lost her balance when Makai was tugging on her shirt, and she didn't want to fall on her, so she twisted and fell on her hand - and the rest is history ....