An Exciting Day!

First - here's a quiz:

What do all of these things have in common???

Fiji Water

Old Spice Fiji

A Vintage Fiji Travel Pennant I found in an antique store

A photo of a beautiful Fiji beach

The Stampin' Up! Fiji Incentive Trip Logo

Any guesses??

Well, if you guessed FIJI - you would be right! AND.......

If you guessed that I have earned the Stampin' Up! Incentive Trip to FIJI - you would also be right!!

Yes, it's true, at 9:47 pm on March 5th, I entered the client order that put me over the top for this AMAZING trip! I was a little stunned at first that it had happened, and waited until yesterday morning to see it appear on my morning stats report.
But, when I read the words "Congratulations! You have earned the Grand Vacation", I was doing the Fiji happy dance! It's much like the stampers happy dance, but with a little more stomping. Sorry, no video! Ha!

I just have to say that I am humbled and blessed to have been given this gift. It's all because of my amazing downline team and my fantastic, loyal clients - without them, I'd still be dreaming of crossing this off my bucket list.
We serve an awesome God, don't we?? He loves to give us good gifts and to see us smile and I give Him all the glory!

Have a wonderful day friends - thanks for letting me celebrate a bit with you!
~~Robin

SU! Demos Know What's Important!

Hey stampin' peeps!
Here's something funny for Friday.

For each Stampin' Up! convention, demos are encouraged to send in "commercials" about SU! events for a contest. This one was the winner for the SU! South Pacific Division (Australia/New Zealand) and was so hilarious I had to share it with you.

Enjoy!
~~Robin

A Special Gift for Some Special Friends

If you've been reading my blog for a while, you know how I feel about the wonderful friendships I've formed through my Stampin' Up! business. It really, truly is the BEST by-product of being part of this company. There are special people in my life now that I NEVER would have even crossed paths with outside of Stampin' Up! These folks are ones that I couldn't imagine NOT having in my life now. And it's all because we share a love of beautiful, handcrafted from the heart art.

At our Leadership Conference last month, I made a few gifts for some of these special people so I thought I'd share it with you guys today.

Each of these beautiful ladies received this necklace in a pouch I made from the Petite Pocket Die and my Big Shot.
The necklace itself was purchased at Forever 21 (I can't wear the clothes there, but I sure love the jewelry!). I transferred the pendant from the chain it came with onto this multi-strand cord necklace that brought out the black engraved words in the pendant. It was attached to a piece of Riding Hood Red cardstock that slid down into the decorated pocket.

The pocket itself was created with Island Indigo cardstock and decorated with a piece of Twitterpated Designer Series Paper. I used Tombow Multi Adhesive to assemble all the seams and layers.

I used Crumb Cake cardstock and Gold Brads for the envelope closures and they were tied up with some Linen Thread. The bow was made of Crumb Cake Seam Binding and was attached with Mini Glue Dots.

This was a fun and quick project to create and I think all my friends loved them!

Want to make a few of these cute pockets yourself?
Well, you can find all the supplies you need in my Online Stampin' Store!

#123121 - Petite Pocket Die - $42.95

#125406 - Twitterpated Designer Series Paper - $10.95

#122332 - Crumb Cake Seam Binding - $6.95

#104199 - Linen Thread - $4.50

#104337 - Gold Brads (200) - $6.95

Thanks so much for stopping by today! I'll be back tomorrow with another new project for you, so be sure to visit again, ok?
Stamped blessings,
~~Robin

Place your order for Stampin' Up! supplies at this link here: Robin's Online Stampin' Store
Simply click the SHOP NOW button at the top right corner to get started!

Leadership Secret Sister! Twitterpated Gift Ensemble

Note: I started this post last Wednesday morning (1/25), but Blogger was acting up and I lost most of my text that I'd spent a half-hour writing. So instead of throwing my computer out the window in frustration, I walked away intending to finish it when I returned, but well, my week kind of got away from me.
So just pretend it's last Wednesday, ok? haha!

Good morning stampers!!
It's appropriate to show you my Twitterpated Gift Set that I made for my Secret Sister at leadership today.
Wanna know why???
Because I'm a little Twitterpated this morning!
I woke up to discover that my Stampin' Fools put me over the top last night for earning the Hilton Head trip! Isn't that a great way to wake up??
Next stop - Fiji!! WooHoo!!

Now, let me show you the gift set, ok?
We had optional Secret Sisters at Leadership in my upline, Jan Wakeland's RemARKable Dreambuilders group. We had a list of things to create for our sister based on their likes. This bag and box are just part of what I made for her.

The bag is a simple kraft cubby bag that I decorated. I first attached a piece of Riding Hood Red cardstock that I'd stamped all over with the floral spray from the Bordering on Romance stamp set.
Next, I adhered a piece of Twitterpated Designer Series Paper to it. I chose the stripes as a contrast to the florals and waffle paper ruffles.

The Whisper White Waffle paper was cut into 1" strips and adhered with SNAIL adhesive to the bag front. I simply hand pleated it along the adhesive. I cut a length of Riding Hood Red Pleated Satin Ribbon to cover the top edge and wrapped it around the Designer Paper, hiding the edges. It's attached with Mini Glue Dots.

The flowers were punched out using the new Blossom Punch from the Occasions Mini. I punched them out of different designs of the Twitterpated Designer Paper then sprayed them with a little Stampin' Mist to wet them. I scrunched them all up in a ball to dry, then smoothed them out a bit and added the Antique Brad to the center of the flower. It was attached over the ribbon with Stampin' Dimensionals.

Here's a close up of the Kraft Box.
I actually opened up the seam of the box and used my Vintage Wallpaper Textured Embossing Folder to emboss the sides of the box. I sponged it all over with Riding Hood Red ink to make the embossing stand out. Because of the size restrictions of the box in the machine, it left a blank corner, so I took a piece of Riding Hood Red cardstock and embossed it to use in covering the blank corner. I punched the edges with my Eyelet Lace Border Punch before adhering it with Tombow Adhesive.

I added a piece of Blushing Bride Pleated Satin Ribbon around the belly of the box and added another paper flower to cover the seam.
The design on the top of the box was a piece of Riding Hood Red cardstock, again embossed with the Vintage Wallpaper folder and sponged a bit with matching ink.
I cut a piece of DSP with one of the Framelits Labels Dies and stamped an image from the Apothecary Art stamp set in Pear Pizazz ink before using another Labels Die to cut it out. I cleaned the stamp and inked it again in Riding Hood Red, stamped on a scrap of Whisper White and punched it out with the 1" Circle Punch. All pieces were sponged with Crumb Cake ink and then popped up on Stampin' Dimensionals.

My secret sister was Kathy Hamrick - who gave me some super cute things AND chocolate too! I hope she liked her gift set. There were some project inside it as well, I'll show you those later this week.

As always, you can order all the supplies (except the bag) from my Online Stampin' Store. And remember, Sale-A-Bration is in full swing, so that means for each $50 in merchandise you purchase, you get a FREE product from the exclusive Sale-A-Bration Brochure! LOVE FREE stuff!

Happy Stampin' friends!
~~Robin

Place your order for your Stampin' Up! supplies at this link here: Robin's Online Stampin' Store
Simply click the SHOP NOW button at the top right corner to get started!

Leadership - Fun with Friends!

I had such an amazing time at our Leadership Conference last week in San Antonio, TX. The best part of any Stampin' Up! event is being able to spend time with friends that I love dearly and only get to see a couple of times a year. Today's photos are all about the friends!

This photo was before we went in to the Manager's Reception:
L to R - Michelle Theriault, Tara Bazata, Tiffany Bauer, Me, Patti Chesky
(side note - the food I'm holding in my hand never was consumed - I just plain talk too much!! Good thing we had appetizers in the hotel restaurant before the event!)

Here I am with my roomies at breakfast the next morning - note the large cups of coffee being consumed.
L to R - Michelle Theriault, Michelle Suit (her 1st Leadership!), me, Tara Bazata.

This is a photo of my wonderful group of swappers, the GoDivas. Amy Caraluzzi, who is to my left in the photo named our group because of my well known love of all things chocolate. She's the bomb! These girls are all hand picked by me because of their style and the quality of their work. We have all different styles in our group so we always get a great variety of cards, but all are the best quality. Love these girls! Do you recognize any of them??

Here's my BFF Tiffany showing off one of the All-Attendee prize giveaways! We can't show the stamp set - it's coming out in June with the New Catalog!
No matter how many times we attend an SU! event, we still LOVE getting FREE stuff!! And the best part - Stampin' Up! never disappoints!

Here I am with two good friends, Debbie Naylor and Rachel Yurkanin. Debbie and I met at her first Founder's Circle and I met Rachel and her husband on our Hawaii Incentive Trip. They are two of the sweetest girls I know!

Me with my roomies on the Riverwalk at night. Not the greatest photo, but trust me, it's so beautiful down there!
My upline, Jan Wakeland, held a little get together in her room for her Dreambuilders Group. We somehow all managed to pile on the bed for this photo. Cathie Gaspart is not pictured because she is taking the photo for us.
I'm truly surprised that we didn't collapse that bed!

Me with Jan, my upline and fellow Advisory Board alumni.

Me with my secret sister, Kathy Hamrick.

We ate at a restaurant called Casa Rio down on the Riverwalk two nights in a row! The mexican food was authentic and oh, so yummy! This photo is of our last night there. We picked up a few more friends along the way that night. Next to Tara is Brenda Marshall, Tammy Morgan and across from her, Diana Eichfeld.

Waving goodbye to the Cindy, my fellow Facebook reporter for the event. It was so much fun, but it was time to go.
Did you follow our photo journey on Facebook?

Like I said before, my SU! friends are dear to me. I love that our company has brought me together with ladies I'd probably never have met otherwise, but are truly my sisters. It's the best part of my job!
I'd love to have you join me. Starting today, our Demonstrator Starter Kit is on SALE for just $125! Plus you get a whole year of FREE Designer Series Paper as Stampin' Up!'s gift to you!
Want to know more??
Check out this link here: Join the Fun with Robin!
Or you can e-mail me at stampwithrobin@yahoo.com - I'd love to chat with you!
We've already had one new stampers join our team with this special - last night at 3:15 am! She just couldn't wait to get started - how about you??

Stamped blessings,
~~Robin

Time to Get Moving Again!

Well, the Christmas break is well and truly over today.
My house is so quiet right now. Mark is back to work. Emma is back to school. Aaah......love the sound of quiet.
Don't get me wrong, I LOVE having my family home and getting to spend time with them, BUT, I also love the absolute peace in this house when it's just me and the dogs. I feel like I can think again. Know what I mean?
Since my "office" is in the house, sometimes my work life and home life get muddied and frankly I struggle with that. I think it would be easier sometimes to have an "office" to go to. That I have to physically leave the house to get to. But, then I remember why I work from home in the first place and I'm grateful all over again for that HUGE blessing.
Yes, sometimes it's true. I am the blogger sitting at the computer in my pj's. Ha!
And NO, I won't post a picture of that! I'll spare you, k? :)

So, now that Christmas and New Years are behind us, I'm checking out my January calendar. It's kinda like December all over again! We have skating travel to Boston this weekend, leaving Thursday. (Emma is ecstatic that she only has school two days this week!)
We have skating travel to Hershey, PA at the end of the month for four days and I'll be traveling to San Antonio, Texas for four days for the Stampin' Up! Leadership conference.
Add into that mix, six Stampin' Up! events, skating practice galore and being part of a new church plant in our area, I've got a busy month ahead!
Maybe I'll schedule in some Naps!!

One of the highlights of my trip to San Antonio is the annual Advisory Board Reunion meal. This year, it's a luncheon, which pretty much guarantees that I won't oversleep and be late for it.
Oh, yes......I did.......sigh.
Here's the gorgeous invitation that came in the mail a few weeks ago. It has a little sneak peek of a new Occasions Mini product on it too:

Isn't it gorgeous?
So, can you guess the sneak peek product? If you have your new mini, you should be able to figure it out pretty quickly!

If you don't have your new mini catalog yet, let me know and if you're not working with a local demonstrator, I'd be happy to send you one!
My Product Shares begin tomorrow too. I have four different options to choose from: Ribbon; Buttons, Brads and DoDads; Designer Series Paper and the "I Want It All" Collection.
The "I Want It All" Collection contains everything in the other three shares for only $33.82!! (shipping to you is $2 extra)
My clients received the information in an e-mail over the weekend and those who attended my Open House last week got to see the new products up close and personal. So, needless to say, share groups are filling fast so don't miss your chance to get a fun sampling of the great new accessories in the Occasions Mini!
I'll be posting complete details and photos tomorrow, but if you want the info today, simply e-mail me at stampwithrobin@yahoo.com and I'll forward my client newsletter to you.

Happy back to work and school day everyone!
Here's a fun video to help you get up and moving today. It's a cool, toe-tappin' song collaboration by Mandisa and TobyMac. You'll love it!
Happy Stampin',
~~Robin

Convention - Day 1

Hi everyone!
Just wanted to share a few photos from our first day of Convention last week. I don't have all my photos yet - usually my bff Tiffany sends me lots and lots of them since she takes most of them! but she had a rough journey home and is still recuperating! So, here's just a few to give you a glimpse of the fun of it all.

When we enter the Salt Palace Convention Center, the doors have Decor Elements artwork on them. These doors in the "salt shaker" entrance had our logo with some fun 'growth' that fit our "Grow" theme this year.

Wednesday morning - which is check-in day, I was invited to participate in a Focus Group. I can't tell you what we talked about or I'd have to kill you - top secret stuff ya know!
Everyone loved their Convention Bags! Here's a group of my friends showing off theirs: from L to R: Emily Haug, Tiffany Bauer, Sheila Cooper, Selene Kempton, Shelley Raines and April Sinclair.
Here I am with Tiffany and some of the girls in her downline team. See all the ladies around us? Well, that's just a small sampling of all the demonstrators who were spread out in the lobby. They were all ooohing and aaahing over their Convention Catalog Binders and the fun things in their Convention Bags!
I got to meet a ton of fun stamping friends from my upline Jan Wakeland's group, the RemARKable Stampers. I'm not sure of all the names in this photo, but Becky Evans is in yellow, Cathy Seals (I think) is in brown, Ruth Murphy is to my left in the photo and Michele Rey is in blue on my other side. Becky was named #2 Rising Star this year and I was especially happy for her. I remember being the #1 Rising Star at the 2007 Dream Big Convention in Denver and it was a very surreal experience. Such an honor and a surprise too!
Just look at this lunch room! A little bit bigger than my high school! This area was called the Gathering Place as we gathered here many times during Convention. It's set up to accomodate over 3000 of us and in this photo especially, it seems to go on and on. When you've walked all day, believe me it feels like it too! LOL!

It took all day the first day, but my bff Tara Bazata and I finally found each other during the Opening Night Party. Tara lives in the Denver area and even though we talk on the phone quite a bit, we don't get to see each other nearly enough! I was thrilled for Tara as she earned Founder's Circle again this year!
I had to include this fun shot from the Opening Night Party. My newest downline, Diana, is right in the middle of this crowd waiting with the others to rush forward for something! See her with the glasses and long blonde hair? This was her first convention and it was super special for her - she got to attend with her daughter, Della, who was also at her first convention and is her upline! How fun is that?!
So, you've already seen the photo of me with my Advisory Board Girls at our little party that night. Here are a couple photos of Shelli with Sara. Shelli is opening her gifts from us - some jewelry from Dear Lizzie (which she wore on two different days of convention!);
and a My Digital Studio 12 x 12 memory book of our year. We each have one and all signed each others for a very special memory! Shelli seems excited, don't you think?
So, that's all for today - I'll have more photos to share with you in the coming days - there was so much going on and I spent time with so many friends, it's going to take a few posts to get it all in!

Happy stamping~

~~Robin

Convention 2011 - AH-May-Zing!!

Hello everyone!

Just a quick post today to let you know that I'm back from absolutely the BEST Stampin' Up! Convention ever!! If you weren't there this year - PLEASE plan to go next year! It was truly the best party/training/creating fun time we've had all year long!

You can even join my Trinity Design Stampers team for just $99 through July ONLY!!
Here's a photo of me with my team members who enjoyed Convention with me:

From L to R: April Sinclair, Della Duerksen and her Mom, Diana Hickey, Michelle Suit and Stephanie Fitch. Awesome ladies, all; and I'm so proud of them for making the commitment to their businesses and their future with Stampin' Up! by attending this year. My downline team is fantastic and I'd love to have you be a part of them! Here's the link to find more information: Join Robin's Team!

Here's one more photo for today -
It's me with Shelli and the other Advisory Board girls during our "farewell" party.

It has truly been an honor, a privilege and a blessing to be part of the Advisory Board for the past two years. I love these ladies - and those I served with last year - with all my heart. The new Board was announced on Thursday night and I have several friends who were named. I am so happy for and proud of them - they will make an awesome Board!

More photos tomorrow, and a project for you as well. Right now, I have a mountain of laundry to do and a lot of rearranging in the studio to do so I can put away all my Convention loot!

Have a great day!
~~Robin