Sale-a-bration Started Yesterday!!!

Our most exciting promotion of the year has begun! You can earn free paper crafting supplies (including stamps, paper, ribbons, buttons, digital content, or decor elements) for every $50 you purchase.

You earn FREE merchandise as a customer, hostess, and/or demonstrator. Click the link in the sidebar to view all of the details.

More Leadership Photos

One of the best parts of Leadership (or any Stampin' Up! event) is seeing other amazing demonstrators that you only see once or twice per year. Brenda Cardinal is one of those great demonstrators (and friends) for me. Even though you only see them for a few days per year, they always greet you with a wonderful smile and lots of friendship.

I had to share Brenda's photo here because she took the time to make a skirt and purse using the new Springtime Vintage Designer Fabric from the new Occasions Mini Catalog. It was absolutely adorable on her. I can't wait to make one for myself!
Here is a close-up version of her purse. I just love her attention to detail!
Her creativity flows in her paper creations also. I was lucky enough to get one of her adorable swaps too!

A Fun Day in Nashville

We enjoyed a wonderful brunch together this morning. I made my ham and omelet roll and we gathered fruit, toast, juice, and more to make a very filling and yummy meal. Our group enjoyed it so much that they asked me to post the recipe.

Ham & Cheese Omelet Roll

4 oz. cream cheese, softened
3/4 c. milk
2 T. all-purpose flour
1/4 t. salt
12 eggs
1 1/2 c. ham (finely chopped - 8 0z.)
1 1/2 c. cheddar or swiss cheese (shredded)
1/4 c. green onions with tops (thinly sliced)
2 T. Dijon mustard

Preheat oven to 375. Combine cream cheese and milk; whisk until smooth. Add four and salt; whisk to combine. In another bowl, whisk eggs until blended. Add cream cheese mixture; mix well. Line large stoneware bar pan with parchment paper pinching corners. Pour egg mixture into bottom of bar pan and bake 30-33 minutes or until omelet is puffy and golden.

Meanwhile, finely chop ham, shred cheese, and thinly slice green onions.

Remove omelet from oven; immediately spread with Dijon mustard, sprinkle with half of cheese, top with ham and green onions, then sprinkle with remaining cheese. Starting at one short side, roll up jelly-roll fashion, removing parchment paper as you roll. Garnish top with additional cheese and green onion, if desired. Let stand 5 minutes to allow cheese to melt. Slice and serve.

Last Day of Leadership

Because I couldn't decide on a favorite swap, I'm posting the top three. There are so many creative stampers here at Leadership. The following cards were created by:

Katrina Merryman

Raedean Shibata

Nancy Thompson

We were lucky enough to get a group photo with Shelli (the founder of Stampin' Up!) at the make and take party.
Here is my group of wonderful friends at lunch today. We are having such a great time.
The desserts today were fabulous - twix tart, and
cheesecake with fresh fruit.
We did enjoy real food today too. We had southwest chicken salad for lunch and dinner was a chicken breast with a wine sauce with mashed potatoes, steamed asparagus, and roasted tomatoes. The food has been incredible.

First Day of Leadership

I have to make this a quick post because I'm thoroughly exhausted - it's already 11:34 (past midnight at home)!!! It was a very busy, full, and exciting day today. We heard lots of great information, swapped with some amazing stampers, and learned about big changes that make being a demonstrator even more profitable and rewarding. By 9:30 (10:30 at home), we were getting quite slap happy - the photo below is proof of that!
My favorite item in the Stampin' Up! displays was a set of towels embellished with some of our new fabric and pom pom trim - cute, cute, cute!!!
Look at the adorable purse Stampin' Up! gave us as our Leadership bag - I even bought the coordinating wallet at Momento Mall! I took the photo to show off the gorgeous pin that a very talented demonstrator made - it uses our Antique Brads.
I had the most delicious fajitas with my friend Joey for lunch at Solario, but was soooo hungry I forgot to take a photo. I did remember at dinner though. This is the first Stampin' Up! event I've attended where they provided dinner (usually it's lunch and we're on our own for dinner). We had the wonderful salad below,
a crusted baked chicken with wild rice, steamed asparagus, and roasted tomato, and
the most delicious cheesecake for dessert!
Here is my favorite swap of the day - it was created by a demonstrator named Allison Okamitsu. I love how she used the designer paper, seam binding, embossing folder, and stamp set to create a vintage feel on this card.
Well, that's all I can share for tonight. I'll try to share even more tomorrow night.

St Jude Children's Research Hospital Visit

I arrived in Tennessee today, but spent most of the day waiting in airports, flying, or driving the 3 1/2 hours between Memphis and Nashville.

The highlight of my day was visiting St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. I was greeted at the door by four members of the Fund Raising Department. They were all very grateful to have a Math-a-thon Coordinator come for a tour of the campus.

I was extremely impressed by the entire facility. I didn't realize how large the campus was and how much was housed internally - they have short, intermediate, and long term housing, dental and vision care for patients, their own blood bank, their own pharmacy, two research buildings, amazing play rooms, counseling programs, a chapel with three different religious services, an amazing "cafeteria" with everything you could ask for to eat - including an ice cream shop and a Starbucks! And that's just a short list of the things I saw while I was there.
One of the things that touched me the most was the volume and quality of artwork they have displayed throughout the facility that was created by patients. I will try to share more photos over the next few days (but I have to get to sleep soon so I will be ready to go to Leadership Conference at 7:30 in the morning - it's 11:49 now).

I think this was my favorite piece of artwork. The patients wrote about the bad parts of their illnesses on the white side and the good parts on the black side. I cried as I read some of the things they wrote.
Here is a close-up of part of the white side:

This is Alexis, my personal tour guide! She was so incredibly thorough in her tour and her explanation of the different departments and parts of the hospital. She also made me feel very welcome and proud to be a part of the fund raising efforts for this special place.
I saw this bus at the airport picking up a patient. Alexis says that they provide airfare, transportation, housing, ect. for families that need it.
I've always felt a huge deal of pride, but now feel so much more pride in West Ward's fund raising efforts for the children at St. Jude after my visit.

You can learn more and also learn how you can help the children at St. Jude by visiting their website - www.stjude.org

Finally - A Post

I was so busy with Christmas, spending time with Rich who was also on vacation, and preparing for upcoming swaps that I didn't really have time to post much over Christmas Break.

Now that I am back in school (and working hard on report cards every night), I feel like I have even less time. I'm working so hard because I leave next week to go to Leadership in Nashville so I have to try to complete testing and recording for report cards before I leave.

I did get a chance to stamp a little over break and this is one of the cards I created. I will be doing this cool pop-up card with my club ladies on Thursday.


Stay tuned at the end of next week for many posts from Leadership. I will try to post the best cards and projects that I see, the fun activities we enjoy, and as always the decadent food that I eat while on these type of trips.