Hi, Stampers. I have to tell you how much fun Sunday was! Stampin’ Up! had a “Unite & Excite” event in Livermore, CA. That is NOT close to my house. I drove 2.5 hours to Fairfield and met up with fellow Stampin’ Pretty Pal, Maggie Mata of Maggie Made Cards. I was anxious to check out her stamping space but then we got in her car and drove 1.5 hours to Livermore. We were so excited we arrived 2 hours early. LOL That’s OK, we found an IHOP and did even more talking over breakfast. It was so much fun, just spending time with Maggie. (photo of us below)
The event was a great Networking opportunity. There were 75 Stampin’ Up! demonstrators in attendance. There was food, fun, a make & take, lots of display boards and examples to view, an ice breaker event and then speakers! I was honored to be one of the five speakers at our event. I had a 7 minute talk on how to make the most of promotions. It was nerve wracking to speak in front of all those other demos, but really fun to see how well received my talk was. Two other demos actually asked to have their photo taken with me. With me? How funny is that?!?

This is our group of Stampin’ Pretty Pals that attended the event, don’t they look like a fun bunch?
After the even was over, Maggie and I drove back to her house and she helped me make a window sticker for my car:
I then drove the other 2.5 hours home and got in about 10pm. It was a full day – but totally worth it! Oh, and it was a Stampin’ Up! event, so of course there was a free gift (the everyday occasions card kit – $29.95 value) for attending and door prizes. I also received a free stamp set as a thank you for speaking. I just love Stampin’ Up!!

Yes, I have a card for you today… This is another custom order. It uses multiple Stampin’ Up! stamp sets, which I normally don’t do. But, I wanted to show you how you can use the stamps you have in your inventory and mix them together to get the result you need for a card. This was a congratulations card for a guy who just graduated from the police academy and joined the Ukiah Police Department.
This started with a Night of Navy card base (8.5″ x 5.5″, scored at 4.25″). next is a 5.25″ x 4″ layer of Gold foil paper and then a 5″ x 3.75″ layer of Whisper White. The sun (from the Stampin’ Up! Kinda Eclectic stamp set) and the Celebrate (from the Stampin’ Up! Starburst Sayings Stamp set) were stamped in Daffodil Delight ink. The go confidently in the direction of your dreams (from the retired Stampin’ Up! Word Play stamp set) and the Congratulations (from the Stampin’ Up! Zoo Babies stamp set) were stamped in Night of Navy ink. For the badge, I downloaded the police department badge from their website and printed it with my printer onto Whisper White cardstock and cut out with paper snips, then adhered with dimensionals.

Take a look at your inventory and see how you can combine stamp sets! In case you need more inventory – Stampin’ Up! always has wonderful deals to share with us!

Speaking of wonderful – they just released a new Photopolymer stamp set called You’re Wonderful. We got to see some beautiful cards made with this set at the Unite & Excite event.
It’s also a Tuesday, and Tuesday mean sales! We have new “weekly deals”…
There was more news, but this post is long enough and I have a newsletter to work on and get out to you too. You are signed up for my newsletter, aren’t you?