OnStage Shares!

Man, did I have a great time in Shreveport with my team last weekend! This bunch of ladies is crazy-fun and I'm so blessed to know them! Even the three-hour car ride was fun because of all the chatting, games, and music we had going on!

My single-income family (because Stampin' Up is "just a hobby" right? wink wink) means I don't get too many vacations, so I truly made the most of this day and a half trip with my friends! Four of us carpooled together and split a room for one night in the Hilton. The hotel was attached to the convention center where OnStage took place, so it was really convenient and we were able to just walk where we needed to go. They also had a heated pool on the top floor, as well as a hot tub, which I couldn't resist!

My teammates are awesome so I made little goodies to give them!

I made this gator with our scallop circle dies and some circle punches for eyes. I used the negative from Timeless Tags dies for the teeth.

When I die cut with Timeless Tags, I carefully took the whole piece off the big shot without letting the small pieces fall out and laid it onto a piece of press-n-seal food wrap, sticky side up. I pressed all the "teeth" down and lifted the rest. Then I applied a drop of liquid glue to each tooth and laid a die-cut oval on top! Viola! Insta-gator mouth! (haha instigator)

A Peekaboo Peach ruched ribbon bow and some penned nostrils topped it off!

I decorated the inside of our little clear boxes with Festive Birthday designer paper and a fun sentiment from Garden in Bloom. Inside, I put some mints, some chocolates, some sponge daubers, and a piece of sponge!

I also got some amazing pillow gifts from my teammates!

These are those awesome post-it-notes that are covered completely with sticky - perfect for masking! How cute is that little purse to hold them? Stephanie Robie made this for me.

A creative and elegant tag from Kris Trimmier featuring Dragonfly Dreams and her own hand lettering!

A cute and fun label from Landa Cartwright featuring the Designer Tee products as well as some retired letter dies. I LOVE this tag!!

Alicia provided some beauty care products in sample size - all part of the luxurious vacation feel of this event!

Jessica Strange went all out and gave me this cute bag with a new catalog survival kit! There was everthing in there, from bandaids to highlighters! Unfortunately I wasn't able to photograph all of it together before using some of it up!! Super helpful.

My AMAZING upline Jennifer Cotton of the Stamp Therapists had this bag made for each of us with a little name tag. It's the best!

I also made these little purses for Jessica and Jennifer, for being my two fearless leaders who have taught me everything I know! It was great fun making these little treats and receiving some as well!

I'm pretty sure I took pictures of those but I can't find them at the moment! I'll add them later if I do!

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On Night One a bunch of us went to eat at Ralph and Kacoo's. They had great service and everyone was in the mood for Cajun, what with being in LA. Not to mention it accommodated our no-meat Friday pretty easily! I drank an alcoholic beverage for the first time in probably two years - on my MS diet it's a no-no. But I decided to live a little!



Of course, we got some generous gifts from Stampin' Up - including a new logo bag, two cute logo pens with styluses, a planner with coordinating sticky notes, promo buttons and more!

This little fold-out booklet is post-its that coordinate with the planner!

 They served us lunch during the event, we got to see BRAND NEW products from the upcoming catalog... and A LOT MORE! I won't be able to fit it all into one post, so I'll just wrap up with the "vacation" part with share more again another time!

For supper that night, a few of us went to The Blind Tiger, which had a lot of down-home charm and was PACKED to the brim! I got a long island iced tea, which had a different fancy name I don't remember now. They served delicious food - I got the crawfish etouffee even though it was made with a roux and I am gluten free. I admit I'm paying for it now, but I enjoyed every bite that day! 

Much to our dismay, they weren't serving dessert that day, so we went in search of something sweet at the Louisiana Boardwalk Outlets, and found the Chocolate Crocodile. There was also a beautiful carousel there that we considered riding in the PERFECT weather.

It was a loooooooong car ride home and I was grateful I wasn't the one driving. The trip had been SO WONDERFUL for me, a real break and vacation that I needed. Girl time away. I admit it was very nice to see my children's faces when I came home though! And get a big hug from hubby!

There is a LOT more to talk about! I'll share with you in the next blog post!

Since I'm a demonstrator, I got to see all the new stuff and take home a new annual catalog. You can see all the new products online starting June 1st - or get your own copy of the catalog at my Sneak Peek event on May 26th! Click here to register by May 16th!

Happy creating!
Your demonstrator,
Rachel