Okay, I technically never left “home” for Convention, since I am from Salt Lake, but I am back at my house. 
It was an uber chaotic week of switching between mommy & demonstrator. I’d leave the convention center and come home, so while others were resting their tired bodies in their hotel rooms or over dinner, I was making dinner, giving baths, singing bedtime songs, staying up late and waking up early … and you know what?? I can’t WAIT to do it again next year! It was SO WORTH IT!!! It would have been impossible without some help from our fabulous family willing to babysit.
Hold on to your hats, I have a lot to share here!
I did stay downtown 1 night, since the entertainment didn’t end until about 11:30 pm. If you don’t know, I am married to one of the Stampin’ Up photographers, so I had a room to stay in for the night. Man, you should have seen the looks we got when we walked back to our room together! Ha!! Some scandelous rumors began, I’m sure. And do you know what I just realized?? The whole time at Convention, I never got my picture taken with my husband! Ah! What?!? 
Well duh, that would have been fun to have, especially from my 1st convention. (Click here to see an example of how all the other demos got their picture with him. ) Oh well, here we are around Christmas time.
I did remember to get a picture with my upline, though! This is Max. Love her — and you have to hear her accent! So fun!
So remember my swaps that I showed you? Swaps are just what they sound like … you swap your card for someone else’s. Look what I came home with!
It’s been so fun to rummage through those! They aren’t all swaps, though. For example, see the matching little packages in the top left corner? Those are darling little shirts for my girls from our good friend Carrie. Sooooo cute!!! Are we spoiled or what??
I surprised myself by actually not taking a lot of pictures at Convention. Well, not of people, anyway. I’ll have to do that more next year. But I did take a lot of product photos, since we were surrounded in every direction by inspiration.
Did you notice the cute wreath at the top of that display?
One of the new exciting things we have available starting in September (in our Holiday Mini Catalog, whee!) is a whole line of Build-a-Bear products! Excited? Just wait, you’ll be even more excited when you see these. I sure was!! 
That is a metal board with magnetic bears to play with! Looks complicated, right? Not … at … ALL. I was amazed. In fact, I made some of these this morning for my 3-year-old! (I’ll take pictures of my own to post soon.) Those were simply made with our Big Shot dies cut out of magnets. The clothes were cut out separately (also on magnets), so kids can play dress-up with them. Can we say quiet church idea??
Here is another idea that I plan to use very soon.
So how much does a box of crayons cost right now with back-to-school sales? About $.025 or less, right? So all they did here was cut out the bears (again, with the Big Shot and dies, super fast & easy) on iron-on material (Wonder Under), ironed them onto a bag from a dollar store, prettied it up with some ribbon, and added a box of crayons. Then they stamped a few images from one of our Build-a-Bear stamp sets (Beary Best Friends), put them on a ring, and voila! Cute bag and coloring pages! I’m totally going to use that idea for a cheap gift for my daughter’s friends, so act surprised if you get this from me.
I fell in love with this stuff, can you tell? Here are a few more shots.
Can’t you see yourself giving someone that cute gift bag? I know I will — and unless they see my blog, they’ll ooh and ahh and think I spent a lot! Bwaa ha haaa!
Okay, you get the idea … the cuteness factor is outta control, and the possibilities are endless.
So what else is new?
You need to click on this Halloween shot to see all the cute details.
These are some magnet boards that Shelli demonstrated. Love them. Easy and cheap for holidays!
Do you see the cute jewelry in there, too?
I don’t even know where to begin with this next one. This is HUGE. My Digital Studio. Yup, digital. Our software will be coming on this fall. Did you know this? Holy schmoly!! And not just scrapbooking, but cards, calendars, all sorts of stuff!! Wow!
Those are all digitally made!
So picture this. You print off this card, quickity quick, easy peasy.
You stick a button on the front over the picture of one, or maybe some dazzling diamonds glitter on that stem, and voila! You have a darling 3D card that will make someone grin. Cool, eh?
You can print single pages, send them to our printer for bound books, etc, etc. This software (for Mac or PC) is awesome, and I’ll get into more details later. Oh, I almost forgot a calendar picture.
I told you there was a lot of fun stuff here! Look at these awesome butterflies mixed & matched?
Those are vinyl from our Definitely Decorative catalog.
Or just a simple way to use our punches! This is a great idea. This is our Jumbo Snowflake punch, simply punched in different colors (could even be scraps of paper), and adhered to a piece of fabric and framed. Easy, inexpensive, darling holiday decor! I love easy.
I had a great time. I hope I have more of my friends there with me next year to run around like crazy ladies! Oh, speaking of which, if you are thinking of signing up to do what I do, right NOW is an awesome time. Our starter kit is usually $199 (an amazing deal with I think $335 worth of product?), and you can sign up anytime for that price. Honestly, you can pay off your initial investment very quickly. BUT get this … right now, through the end of August, there is a mini starter kit available for only $85. You can start your business, do what I do, get a discount on your favorite products, etc, etc, for $85. 
Dude! Why WOULDN’T you do this? There is, literally, no risk here. I’ve never seen a deal like that! Where was that deal when I signed up?? If you are thinking of making a little extra money, getting to know amazing people, getting to preorder goodies (at a discount), and other benefits that I could go on and on about, contact me. I’ll answer any questions you may have.
So fun! I love my job!!
Laura
