I am so excited to be going to my FIRST Leadership Training with Stampin’ Up! next week.  I’m actually busting at the seams!  It’s going to be in one of my favorite cities, Nashsville, TN, and being held at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel. I’ve been to the hotel to visit many times but not since it’s been redone and never to actually stay as a guest!  Stampin’ Up! events are always the best and getting to enjoy them with 400 other demonstrators — many who are among the Top Demos in the country — just makes it that much better!  I have a whole list of ladies whose blogs and projects I admire that I’m hoping to get to actually meet and swap with!  Anyone who knows me knows I LOVE to take pictures!  I’ve even been called a paparazzi by my daughters so I’m not going to mention who those gals are for fear they will run the opposite direction! (j/k).  I have always found Stampin’ Up! demonstrators to be some of the most incredibly sweet and personable ladies I know.  I leave early next Wednesday and will have my laptop with me (YIPEE for my new laptop) so be sure and check back often because I’m planning to post alot while I’m there!!

One of the fun things about ANY SU Events is SWAPPING!  I absolutely love it! It’s a great way to meet other demonstrators and trade ideas!  I also come home with lots of new amazing samples to share with all of you and knowing how talented all these ladies are, I know these are going to be the best of the best!!  Since this is my first Leadership, I decided to not only make swaps for general swapping (somewhere around 50-60), I decided to try my hand at several organized swaps thru two of the online groups I belong to (LateNightStampers and Sudsol).  I choose 3 different ones: on LNS — Simply Adorned and All Occassions Mini, and on Sudsol – Any Current Catalog Set — where I get to make 51  (wow) of the same card to swap.

I thought the Simply Adorned would be fun and outside my comfort level since I’ve never done anything with them!  One of my roomies, Tammy, is hostessing it and assured me I’d do fine!  I was given one of the charms as an incentive gift by my upline so I had an idea of what they entailed but was a bit worried anything I came up with wouldn’t be Leadership worthy!   So after some thought I decided to use one of my favorites stamp sets, Artistic Etchings and this is what I came up with:

The back panel is on the left and the front on the right.  I personalized each one and love how they turned over.  The pictures really don’t do it just.  Let me put it in the charm and show you what it looks like:

Sorry they are a tad blurry (that’s what I get for trying to zoom to close) but what do you think?  I am loving the way these turned out and hope the ladies in the swap do too!

Supplies: Artistic Etchings Stamp Set Clear, Simple Adorned 1 x 1 1/4 charm, Newsprint DSP, Heart to Heart Extra Large Punch, Billboard Alphabet, Big Shot, Basic Black Ink and Cardstock, Cherry Cobbler Ink and Cardstock, Crumb Cake Ink, and Basic Rhinestones.

If you’d like to learn more about making this product, or would like to place an order, just let me know!

Till next time…