Don't you just want to dive in??? I would have cheerfully taken home a couple of boxes of Stampin' Up's cardstock scraps from the cutting area of the warehouse! Yesterday during our visit to the manufacturing facility in Kanab, Utah, the Founder's Circle ladies were treated to a VIP tour and got to see all kinds of fun stuff. I'll continue yesterday's blog tour so you can see it, too.
I really enjoyed seeing the amazingly precise cutting equipment, talking to the workers, and gazing at the pallet-fuls of Coastal Cabana.... check this out! These are called "parent" sheets, and these are "counted" by weight, before heading into the cutter to be trimmed into perfect stacks of 8.5x11.
We also got to watch an ink pad go from start to finish--super cool. This gal is putting the Firm Foam pads into the mixing bowls and then she adds the ink by weight. It goes into giant industrial mixers for a preset amount of time, so that each pad is completely saturated. It looks fun--and MESSY : )
This gal is inserting the wet foam pads into the labeled cases on top of adhesive that another person added. Then it gets tamped down with a special press, the case is closed, and it goes into a heat sealer for shrink-wrapping.
Everything was super interesting to see. This is me at the station where the lids are put onto the ink pad bases! It was tricky...
Look at this fun thingymabob! It's making multi-packs of In Color cardstock. Just think, I might have seen yours or mine getting sorted yesterday. And when we got to the end of this section of the facility, they gave us each a pack of paper hot off the press!
I am so glad they let us take some photos during the tour, because I have been wanting to share this with you. This is where they grind up the excess rubber that gets trimmed off after the molds come out of the oven. The rubber gets donated to a charitable institution that turns around and sells it for playground materials! So our rubber is getting used to the MAX, and for good causes all around. Love that! We demos had a little too much fun getting goofy photos at one of the parks with rubber mulch.
What an amazing day... we topped it off with a trip to the astoundingly gorgeous Tuacahn outdoor theater to see Mary Poppins, which was fantastic. The little Jane and Michael Banks totally stole the show. It was a late night, but one of the best days I've ever had. Thank you Stampin' Up!! And thank you all my wonderful customer friends and the supportive and encouraging Song of My Heart Stampers.
Thanks for the pics Lyssa! I could work here cutting the paper as they use the exact same machines they used at a printing company I worked at! It was cool and I was excited when I turned 18 because I could then use the machine! Guess minors couldn't from the cutting risk (which was low due to having to hold both hands on the safety buttons)! Anyway, it was fun to see that!
Posted by: Mindy Backes | 09/30/2013 at 03:26 PM