Rising Star Trip Day 3

The last 3 days have been a whirlwind. Attending the Stampin’ Up! Rising Star Trip for the 2015 Rising Star recipients has been more amazing than I ever could have imagined. Today I’m on a plane back home to the good old O-hi-o, but I wanted to share a few pictures from yesterday.

First off, if you haven’t seen my posts for Day 1 and Day 2 of the trip, you should check them out.

Here was the welcome sign at the hotel. It made me feel special 🙂

I’ve been talking about Terri, our driver. Here she is holding the sign she had when she picked me up at the airport. I’m going to frame that sign!

So yesterday morning, Terri picked us up and dropped us off at the Stampin’ Up! Home Office. Isn’t it (and the scenery) beautiful? I have some great pictures of my tour of the facility and fun stories to share whenever I get around to getting them posted!

Here we are by the front doors.

This is Donna Griffith, the wonderful organizer of our trip. She made us feel so welcomed and comfortable… and pampered.

During the day we got to meet with some more great Stampin’ Up! folks and learn about different areas of the business. The Paper Pumpkin team shared great information with us and then gave us a Paper Pumpkin Party Pack including the materials for four Paper Pumpkin kits! That’s good news for my customers because now I’m going to have to plan a class to use it! If you don’t know what Paper Pumpkin is, check it out here.

We got some info about posting videos to YouTube (which if you aren’t a subscriber to my YouTube channel, click here to see videos and subscribe). Then we received the pieces for a camera stand to help get us started! I won’t need this since I’m already set up to make videos, so I’m going to pass it along to one of my team members who has expressed interest in making videos.

This right here…it’s as good as gold. It’s filled with tips from Stampin’ Up’s top 100 performing demonstrators. I can’t wait to dig in and read through them all.

Just like the day before, we received a bag full of stamping supplies. I sooo wish I could show them to you, but they won’t be released until the 2016 Occasions Catalog comes out. I will say this…the product collection is AWESOME. It is a totally different concept from anything Stampin’ Up! has offered before. It is super cool and I can’t wait to start creating projects with it and to share them with you. I’ll share as soon as I’m allowed to, I promise!

Before we left the Home Office for the last time, we had to get pictures by the famous rock! Aren’t the mountains beautiful in the background?

And here is the group of us together. My five new best friends from across the country.

We headed back to the hotel to start packing to leave the next day and get some rest before dinner. Every time I get back to my room, something fun is waiting for me. This time it was cookies. Adorable cookies. Every part of this experience has been so personal and heartfelt, including the cookies waiting in my room.

Next it was off to dinner with Sara Douglass, interim CEO of Stampin’ Up!, and Pam Morgan, the Vice President of Demonstrator and Employee Development. Here is a picture of Sara and I. It was the second time in a month I got to eat dinner with her. The first time was on my incentive trip to Newport Beach, California.

Here are all six Rising Stars with Sara and Pam.

When we sat down at the table, our menu for the evening was in this adorable little envelope.

The restaurant was very nice. I looked over at Candy sitting next to me and said, “I’m not sure I’m qualified to eat here.” After some delicious and fancy appetizers, we received our meals. I got halibut with some sort of mango salsa, asparagus, squash puree with a carrot hunk (I’m using different terminology than the menu did) and potatoes. I saw those potatoes and my heart sank. The menu had said ‘creamy mashed potatoes.’ Come on, where are my ‘creamy mashed potatoes?’ We got the issue settled (other people at the table wanted their creamy mashed potatoes too) and they came out as well. The food was delicious. We ate, talked, ate, talked, ate…you get the idea.

At some point we decided to open our gift for the evening. What do you think it will be this time?

It was a beautiful business card holder and some personalized business cards!

Here is the business card holder opened up, and look at the back of those business cards! How cool!

Here’s one last picture to leave you with. You can’t take yourself too seriously in life.

Ok, so I won’t bother you with pictures of my trip any more (for a few days at least)! I’ll get back to some crafting projects, because that’s what we all love, right?

I haven’t said it for a while, but I want to thank my customers and team members from the bottom of my heart. Becoming a Stampin’ Up! demonstrator has been somewhat life changing for me, and without customers and team members, I would just be accumulating a lot of craft supplies and a lot of debt! I really appreciate all of you who support my business and helped me earn this trip. Now it’s time to start earning the next one!

If you need to order, visit my online store here. Use hostess code MUYP9EGY and I will send you a free gift! Even better, sign up for stamp club and you will get free projects and free stamps!