Embellish

Flirtatious Suite presentation up on Stampin' Connection for Demos

http://www.stampinconnection.com/photo/albums/lyssa-s-flirtatious-suite

At long last, demonstrators will be able to see what I have been working on since 6/14. (You must be logged on to Stampin' Connection for this link to work).

I have gotten everything uploaded (except the four scrapbook pages). There is a limit of 50 uploads per day, so I will have to do the pages tomorrow! Yes, fifty photos--I told you I was busy!! I wasn't just goofing off in the stamp room.

The best way to view them all is probably the slideshow option--you can hit "pause" if you want to look at one more closely. And I'd be very honored if you'd choose to take a moment out of your busy day and leave a comment!

For the rest of my non-demonstrator blog fans, I will be able to start to post my creations here once everything is uploaded to the demonstrator site. So just a bit longer!

Stampin' Connection is just one of the MANY incredible perks of being a demonstrator--there are hundreds of projects uploaded every day to this amazing resource. You would never ever have to come up with a single idea of your own if you didn't want to! Ask me today about becoming a demonstrator. It is a decision you won't regret!

 

Convention Fun with Designer Series Fabrics

I just loved the displays of items made with our new Designer Series Fabric line at Convention 2011. There were also a lot of adorable fabric totes and flower brooches, lanyards, name badge holders, coin purses, sun hats, you name it! Stampin' Up fabric was everywhere! And who is to wonder, looking at the cute patterns that coordinate with our DSP and stamps?

Candy Cane Christmas

Flirtatious (new this July)

Spice Cake (coming in the Holiday Mini 2011!!)

Sweet Stitches

 
Beau Chateau (new this July)
Didn't know Stampin' Up carried fabric? I am having so much fun both sewing traditional fabric projects, and also incorporating fabrics into my paper crafting for both cards and scrapbooking. Stay tuned for a class this fall on making a Scallop Square Rag Bag in just two hours, using the Big Shot and simple straight stitching. Will include instruction in making a flower brooch, adding pockets, and adapting the square shape into a round one!

Great punch art cards from Convention 2011

I swear, some people are just too clever for their own good. Punch art has exploded these past few years. There were about six display boards just of punch art this year at convention! I especially love the Pac Man card in the center of this display.

My downline Cristy had a card featured this year--the one with the olives in the center is hers. You're famous, girlfriend! I also love the little truck made from Top Notes--wow!! And check out the penguins made with the owl punch, complete with a little igloo.

 
I took this photo for the Lego card and the little bride on the top row, but be sure to check out the little Wild West owl and the swinging saloon doors in the bottom right corner. TOO CUTE!

And here is THE Jackie Topa, standing next to one of her many cards on display (the one that looks like a handheld mirror). If you are a fan of punch art, chances are something you have made recently began as a twinkle in Jackie's eye! Just another one of the many fun perks of going to convention and getting to rub shoulders with famous people.

Christmas Club registration open!

This is the perfect, short-term club commitment for anyone who wants to send lovely handmade Christmas cards but doesn’t feel like they have the time.  We will be meeting once a month during August, September, October and November to create 12 Christmas cards each month—4 each of three designs—for a grand total of 48 beautiful holiday cards at the end of the four sessions.

The cards will be able to be more advanced than the ones we do in one big long day at my annual Stamp A Stack, because we’ll be able to take a little more time with them (like this one from last year, above). So be prepared for some more advanced techniques, fun folds, and lots of Christmas bling! I will be designing a variety of styles and color schemes so there will be something for everyone.  We will be using AMAZING new products from the 2011 Holiday Mini Catalog, revealed at convention this past week! Holy cow is there some cool stuff in there!! Can anyone say new punches?? New dies?? new folders??

 Our club sessions will be on the third Monday night of the month. The dates are August 15^th, September 19^th, October 17^th, and November 21^st. Cost is just $15 per person per month for the four month commitment. If you pay in full at the first meeting, I will throw in a package of envelopes totally free and you can stamp those to match each month. Fun!

 If you’d like to join me in being prepared in advance this year for the holidays, be all done with your cards by Thanksgiving, and have a fun night out once a month, call or email me today to reserve your spot! (920) 261-3962 or [email protected]

 PS--PLEASE FORWARD THIS LINK TO YOUR FRIENDS!! If one of them RSVP’s, I will have a gift for you both at the first club! : )

"Feeling Flirty" Stamp Camp

It’s stamp camp time with products from the new “Flirtatious” suite, featuring Hello, Doily, Flirtatious DSP, Delicate Doilies and more! Join us for a fun evening of stampin', hearing convention news, and seeing new products in action!

This gorgeous new suite of products will be the subject of a fun and flirty stamp camp on Thursday, August 4th, from six thirty to eight thirty. We’ll make five intermediate to advanced projects that were featured in my presentation at the Stampin’ Up 2011 national convention, all using the adorable Flirtatious suite of products (see them on pages 126-7.)

Cost is just $15 per person and includes everything except adhesive. Bring your own SNAIL runner, or pre-order one when you RSVP for just $5. Please reserve your spot no later than August 1st. JUST TWO SPACES LEFT!

Place an order of at least $50 that evening and get your stamp camp for just five bucks! And I'll warn you right now, you are not going to be able to resist : ) Call me to RSVP! (920) 261-3962

 

Big Top Suite

It was so fun to finally meet my online friend Brandi Wiggins from Quebec, in person. Our presentation booths were next to each other at the opening night party of Convention 2011. We got a little rivalry going with the demos on the other two sides to see who could elicit the biggest cheers from their audience!

The only problem with being a presenter is that you don't get to "go" to the party and see everyone's spiels. Brandi's projects are completely unique and she has an excellent sense of her own style. It is sharp and clean, yet whimsical, and packs a lot of color-ka-pow. Here are some closeups of her display. One of her signature touches is hand-drawn doodling, making each project 100% unique.

Every Little Detail +Fun Class from Convention

Ok, so you know me, like a dork I didn't take a picture of the entire completely finished project we made at the evening +Fun event at Convention 2011. I did, however, take pictures of each of the individual sections of the flat wooden photo tray project that we worked on (and didn't complete) during this optional class. Since mine will probably never wind up looking exactly like Carrie Cudney's, and I know there was a lot of interest in this class among demos (it filled up practically instantly upon registration), enjoy these photos of what it is supposed to look like!

Random awesomeness from convention

Two new convention traditions

 
 
On our last night in SLC, our group did two activities that we all agreed needed to become a convention tradition! One was to take a carriage ride on the last evening. It was so relaxing and restful after a long day on our feet.

And the other is to go to Tucanos Brazilian Grill! This place was amazing! You go through a world-class salad bar to get your choice of veggies, salads, soups and even dessert, and then they bring around two-and-a-half-foot-long skewers of all different kinds of meat and you just have them carve off slices of whatever you want. We tried all different kinds of beef, chicken, turkey, pork, even sausage, fish and pineapple. My favorite was the garlic-infused sirlon. WOW... Everything was absolutely scrumptious. It rivalled anything I have eaten on a cruise.

You knew there had to be food pictures sometime, right? Most of the time we didn't eat anything too fancy, or we were so hungry we just dug right in, but I had to get my traditional food pictures in!! And watching the grill staff and servers was very entertaining.

So--who is with me next year? My first-timer roomies kept commenting on how nothing had prepared them for convention. Diane was way out of her comfort zone with the flying especially, and yet enjoying every minute of it. And it was delightful to me to watch their horizons expand over the course of the five days as they truly caught the vision of what is possible with Stampin' Up. Convention went from being a nice, once-in-a-lifetime trip to being a "can't miss it every again gotta go every year from now on" experience.

I am offering a fantastic sign up special right now and it is good on either the full $175 Starter Kit or Digital Plus Starter Kit, AND good on the $99 Starter Kit. How would you like to select and additional ANY PRICE stamp set from the new catalog or the upcoming Holiday Mini catalog to go with your personalizable kit? Yeah, I thought so! Contact me today for details and we can chat about what it's like to be a demonstrator, either just as a hobby or to make some money or even replace a job. I do this full time now and I am literally loving every minute. The sky is the limit!

Me and assorted famous people

 
  Gonna shamelessly name-drop here for a few photos! This is me and Pam Morgan, one of the Vice Presidents of SU and one of my favorite people. I had one with Rich Jutkins, too (president and COO of Stampin' Up) but it is all blurry, so I'll spare your eyes...
 

My inspiring friend Stella, Advisory Board member and all-around rockstar.

Shalae Gardner Brown and Sara Gardner Douglass (your presentations ROCKED my world!)

My Advisory Board friend Robin Merriman, who truly has the gift of encouragement.

My cutie-patootie regionals Workshop Wow buddy Dena Renkow.

My dinner partner from the South Caribbean cruise, super-star Mary Fish.

My talented roomie Diane Vander Galien, and the very sweet Lisa Fast, the second person in SU history to sell a million dollars.

My friend Susan Campfield, a fellow Founder's Circle acheiver and also my fellow presenter for Convention 2011.

My favorite swap card of the day

One quick card tonight as my slap-happy roomies have finally betaken themselves to bed for some much-needed zzz's... I will be following their example very shortly here, but couldn't leave you without seeing this "AMAZING with-a-capital-everything" card by Laura Fernsler. Hers was my favorite card of today's Convention Quality Swap #10, arranged on Splitcoaststampers.com over the past two months.

I will be posting all 90 of the cards (six groups of 15 each) in the next week or so, and in the meantime, be sure to contact me if you would like to order the Medallion stamp, clear embossing powder and heat tool, seam binding, lace, antique brads and other goodies Laura used on this beauty. Click here to shop (or just browse and dream): www.lyssa.stampinup.net

Demonstrator of the Year #83

Wow, wow, wow... what a day! I just got back from the after party at Awards Night 2011 and I don't know that I will be able to sleep very well tonight, only partially due to the amount of chocolate I just consumed. I didn't really realize that earning Founder's Circle meant I was also one of the top 100 demonstrators of the year for the United States. I guess I thought that goal was still far enough away that I didn't need to worry about details just yet, know what I mean? Turns out that goal was attained today! I ended up ranked 83. Another thing no one mentioned to me is that there's a bonus associated with this!! Whoo hoo!!

Here I am on stage with the other nine who fell in the eighties range--I'm the blonde in the bright blue layered dress kind of dead center. And Shelli said she liked my Brilliant Blue dress! And when I got off the stage my dear friend Max and my sweet SAM Felicia were waiting for me. It was just the coolest experience. Everything happened SO fast, there are not really good pictures, unfortunately. If you were there and reading this, I'd love for you to email me any you happened to catch for my scrapbook-thanks!

  

It was quite the night--very roller coaster-y for me, though. Fiji is the next incentive trip, which is just indescribably cool. I had already learned the Grand Vacation destination by accident that afternoon so I was just desperate to know the dates. And as I feared, they are bad for us... it will be graduation week for Mike again. But I am not giving up. I am going to earn that trip and then I am going to move heaven and earth to get the school to allow Mike to come! I absolutely refuse to go to FIJI without my honey!!

The Getaway Weekend option is Hilton Head Island, which would also be cool! I am hoping some of my girls will be incentivized by the thought of a three day vacation with airfare included to that gorgeous destination!

This is my encouraging and supportive fellow Founder's Circle member, Dena! She was my Workshop Wow buddy at the Milwaukee regionals last April.

I also have the honor of announcing the number 10 Rising Star of the Year is my downline, Allana Brunk. That means that based on a variety of points, she was the tenth best overall new demonstrator in the entire United States. I am pleased as punch that Allana will be going to the Founder's Circle retreat with me in September. I am almost more excited and proud of that than of my own award! Way to go, girlfriend!! Wish you were here! We cheered when they called your name anyway!!

That's me doing "the march" for earning the Disney trip. It's probably a good thing I forgot and left my Minnie Mouse ears at the hotel, huh...

Well, I guess that, chocolate notwithstanding, I am tired enough to actually sleep tonight. Especially since we are getting up around five these days. Two more full days of solid fun--I don't know if I can handle it! : ) Chat with you soon!

I did it! Whew!

Whew! My convention presentation is over, and it went awesomely! I am so relieved. And it was SO MUCH FUN!!! I just loved it. Everyone seemed very appreciative and asked a lot of questions, so I thought that was a good sign. I can't wait to share these projects at my Feeling Flirty stamp camp in August!

Lookie here, I got my very own sign... and it's in the trunk of my car waiting to come home with me--fun! I'm wearing the free Memento Mall t-shirt the presenters got--here's a picture that shows the design a little better. It's very pretty!

Hmm... having problems with Typepad, so I guess I'll hit the hay for tonight and show the display boards tomorrow. Thank you all for rootin' for me. WHAT A DAY!! It's been so encouraging to hear from friend after friend that you believed in me. I'll refrain from singing "The Wind Beneath My Wings" (nobody wants to hear that!) but please know I appreciate you! I hope my little successes encourage you to dream big for yourselves.

Holy Founder's Circle, Batman! Opening Day of Convention

WOW. You could have knocked me over with a Watercolor Wonder Crayon when I went to pick up my stuff at the awards booth and they handed me this gorgeous silver bag. Founder's Circle is about the highest honor a demonstrator can acheive. There is an exclusive retreat in St. George, Utah, every year for like the top 150 demos in the US and Canada. It's a HUGE deal. It's on my bucket list. . . well, it WAS on my bucket list!! Just another dream come true with Stampin' Up.

I'm still trembling as I type this an hour after the fact! Not only did I completely out of the blue acheive this honor, God graciously saw fit to arrange the dates so that I can actually attend. A couple of days ago I was joking that of course this would be the year I'd get it, because I will be in Vietnam and Cambodia for two weeks in September. I will be home for two days before Founder's! So WHOO HOO!!!

Ok, well, pull yourself together here, Lyssa... your public wants to know what else you did today! Presenters got to go into Momento Mall early, so here's my haul...I must have looked ridiculous, walking the five long blocks back to the hotel just now with all this stuff and an idiotic grin on my face!

The convention bag is super awesome... really practical, very well made. I love that it is black and will go with my other totes and stuff. And it was full of stamps!!

Some of these are prizes for recruting and sales, too. Oooh, I also got nifty pins for those, too. I'll have to take a photo later when I get organized.

First thing I did, of course, was open the convention booklet and look for my photo! That's me!! Thanks again for the head shot, Kathleen! Since turquoise is my favorite color, I am fitting in just perfectly with the decor around here. More pictures of that later!

The reuseable shopping bags this year are the cutest yet. They also had a laptop wrap and matching mousepad, an umbrella and those totally awesome pop-up trash cans! Love those!

 
This was the BEST Memento Mall ever, hands down... look at this adorable insulated lunch tote and matching cup! Too cute! There is also a pretty cardigan, a men's polo, and a really cool looking three-quarter length sleeved v-neck t-shirt, which you will see on me in the presentation pictures... I got one free!

They had an awesome variety of little doo-jobbies this year like patterned pens, catalog tabs, playing cards, SNAIL holders, card holders, and even something I have lusted after that my Partylite friend has--lap boards. Very happy to have those and they SUPER cute. And Cristy, see that banner? That's yours, my friend!

Ok! I have to go pet my FC bag now... back later!

Scrap A Stack pages for July 2011

I'm all set here in Salt Lake City for the opening of the Stampin' Up convention. I "think" I remembered everything, my roomies all got here fine, our hotel is really awesome, and my dad's car is still unscathed. And, thankfully, the touch of food poisoning I got in South Dakota seems to have gone on its merry way. That was unpleasant! So I think I'm all ready now. I haven't really taken any photos yet, so here are the projects from our last Scrap a Stack Club to keep you occupied until the deluge of photos begins tomorrow : )

This patriotic page uses the new Pennant Parade and coordinating punch--LOVE that. I used Real Red with Pacific Point and Whisper White, the Varsity Alphabet and Numbers sets, and the new Baker's Twine. I sparkled it all up with liberal does of Shimmer Spray and some Basic Rhinestones.

I had a lot of scrap pieces of Beyond the Garden DSP from another project, so I came up with this page to use those up. I used Perfectly Penned for a fun repeating headline in a tone-on-tone pattern. The flower is cut with the Fun Flowers die for the Big Shot, melted in the center with the embossing gun. Oh and there's that cute new scalloped dotted Melon Mambo ribbon!

This double-page spread was made with the Just Add Cake DSP, which has a great pattern that looks like notebook paper as well as other fun gender-neutral patterns with letters and stripes. The base color here is the pretty new Island Indigo. I paired it with both Real Red and Poppy Parade, coordinating reds that add some nice variation in intensity when used together.

Ok! Hitting the hay early so we can be bright-eyed and bushy-tailed tomorrow morning! Stay tuned for so much fun you can't stand it!

Down to the wire

Running on pure caffiene here, this last day before I leave for Convention 2011!! I've been up since the crack of dawn finalizing orders, finishing a couple last-minute tweaks to my presentation, measurements typed up, and getting everything ready for my demonstration. It's all carefully packed now (at least I hope it is all packed!) I keep telling myself it is not the end of the world if I forget anything, since I'll be just minutes away from the place where I order it all from anyway and they can get me another one!

I did manage to squeeze in some open swap cards for non-organized swapping at convention. I hope everyone likes them! They are made with The Best of Everything and Sweets for the Sweet stamp sets. This one uses the Just Add Cake DSP and the new dotted scallop ribbon (backside) along with the Scallop Squares Duo die for the Big Shot.

This second one is a just a quick workshop card, using the new printed Designer Brads in Island Indigo, along with Calypso Coral and Pool Party. Loving those new In Colors!!

Like a crazy woman, I am planning to try to make a few more swaps tonight after I get the family and house and everything all squared away... it's so tempting to bring "work' along since I have to bring a lot of supplies with me this time anyway!

Still have to pack but feeling much better about the presentation part of things. I really do have some cute and practical things to show, and of course the ADORABLE supplies they gave me to work with will really be center stage, not me! And I'll be fine once I get started! Wish me luck!

I'll do my best to keep you posted on all the amazing convention happenings!! Visit the Song of My Heart Stampers on Facebook (link on right sidebar) and leave a comment if you need anything--my able assistant Penni will be checking there daily. otherwise you can email me at [email protected] but our away-email is not as reliable as it should be, I will warn you.

Ok! Much, much, MUCH to do before the morning comes! So exciting! Thank you again to all my amazing customer friends who make this fantastic hobby-job possible for me. I am having the time of my LIFE! And you guys make it happen. GROUP HUG!!

My Digital Studio--St. Maarten pages

Looking forward to getting a bunch of digital scrapping done on our annual Wyoming road trip here in a couple of days! I thought this summer would be full of digital scrapbooking but it has just really been insanely crazy so far and I haven't even opened MDS except to download some more yummy new papers and the new In Colors! Check them out at my shopping website, www.lyssa.stampinup.net, to see the newest ones released just this morning.

I made these breezy seaside pages in about two minutes using Whisper White cardstock, pieces from the Urban Garden collection, and the Medallion stamp in a reduced intensity of Baja Breeze. I love the Urban Garden papers and pieces--the colors are just gorgeous! Baja Breeze, Old Olive, Not Quite Navy and Basic Gray. Oh and I also used the dotted scallop frame, enlarged, from Frames with a Flourish, on this two page layout. The perfect complement to the perfectly blue sky and the perfectly turquoise Caribbean sea.

Hello Pretty

Think pink!! Monochromatic doesn't have to be boring when you pair Melon Mambo with Pretty in Pink, the Lace Ribbon punch, some lucious wide satin and Clear Rhinestone Circle brads... I used the Hello Doily background stamp together with Delicate Doilies to make some quick DSP for the background of this card, and topped it off with a sentiment from Perfectly Penned.

We'll be making this pretty card at my friend Kathy's workshop tonight--my first party of the new catalog year! I'm super excited, but it's so hard to know what to focus on--the adorable Summer Mini? The new In Colors? The Flirtatious suite? There's just so many awesome things going on with Stampin' Up right now! I do know I'll be talking about the amazing $99 Starter Kit and how you can join Stampin' Up right now either as a hobby or as a business, for such a great price. Honestly, for what you get in the kit, which is completely personalizable, by the way-- I don't know why anyone WOULDN'T take a second look at the offer!

If you want to hear more about the $99 deal, or if you'd like to schedule your own show and get together with your friends for some much-needed girl time, contact me today! [email protected]

Celebrate Today --almost one layer

Sharing some more of my convention swaps made with the Perfectly Penned stamp set. I'm so glad you have been enjoying the ones I have posted thus far. I have been a swap-making-machine again lately and I have several more to photograph for you.

This one uses Delicate Doilies and Vintage Vogue in addition to the number one sentiment set on my list this year, Perfectly Penned. I just LOVE Perfectly Penned! I am calling this as one of the best sellers this catalog. It is just so well designed and so different.

I stamped the largest openwork doily in River Rock on Very Vanilla, then the vine flourish in Always Artichoke. The sentiment and the largest flower were stamped in Concord Crush, with a second large flower stamped using the rock n' roll technique in Concord Crush and Wisteria Wonder and cut out. The little flower is Wisteria Wonder, too.

I kept this card kind of vintage nouveau, but you could easily distress, texture, sponge and splatter to your heart's content and add some ribbon. I did add Basic Rhinestones in clusters, sealed with Crystal Effects, and to me it looks a little like a vintage button or pin.

OOOoooo I think I may have sunburned my shins today at the parade... I think a nice iced coffee and scrapbooking with my feet up is the cure for that, don't you? God bless you all on the birthday of our nation. Thank a vet or send a card to a soldier in between your barbeque and your fireworks today. And don't forget to scrapbook your red, white & blue pictures from today! Check out the Varsity Alpha and Numbers on page 170--too perfect for the Fourth!

Three Perfectly Penned Thank Yous

Tonight I sat down to make swap cards for Convention. We leave one week from today, and my to-do list is still half a legal pad thick. But this quickly turned into one of those "this might be the only one" cards--ever have those? Where you realize very early on that this is going to be a limited edition due to the amount of work involved?

Well, there ended up being three total out of eight that I started with that made it to the finish line. I needed a wowie-kazaam thank you card for Shelli and Stampin' Up to express my appreciation for the Alaska cruise, so I decided this was probably as good as it gets.

I am also sending one to my sweet Service Account Manager at Stampin' Up, Felicia, whose encouraging phone chats I will miss very much as that program is ending. Can't wait for the new business-builders program to start, though! And I am sending one to the lovely and talented Carrie Cudney, too, to thank her for the opportunity to present at convention.

I used the brand new Hello Doily background stamp together with the Delicate Doilies set to create the background, partially embossed and partially stamped (I look like I've been playing in gunpowder). The Paper Daisies are painted with Champagne Mist Shimmer Paint, dried in a flash with the heat tool, and topped with a matted circle punch with the smallest of the doilies. Liberal use of Basic Black wide satin in the "cumberbund" knot, and two Basic Pearls, with an antiquey airbrush splatter with the Color Spritzer Tool, completed the card.

We'll be making lovely things like this from the brand new Flirtatious suite of products (pages 126-7 of the new Idea Book & Catalog) at my "Feeling Flirty" Stamp Camp on Thursday, August 4th. Cost is just $15 per person or $20 if you pre-order adhesive. RSVP right away as I expect this one to fill up pronto!