OnStage April 2018 - oh what fun we had

There were over 5000 Stampin' Up! demonstrators meeting up all over the world at their OnStage Locals this weekend.

I travelled up to Telford on Friday afternoon to attend the Centre Stage event in the evening with fellow Silver Elites and above.

Me on left and Natalie (my upline) on the right.

OnStage April 2018 - oh what fun we had

There were over 5000 Stampin’ Up! demonstrators meeting up all over the world at their OnStage Locals this weekend.

I travelled up to Telford on Friday afternoon to attend the Centre Stage event in the evening with fellow Silver Elites and above.

Me on left and Natalie (my upline) on the right.

The theme for CentreStage was to dress 1980s style.  My teenage years were in the 1970s so I really had to use my imagination (and the internet) to come up with an idea. In the end I went for a kind of Bananarama look!

On Saturday we attended the OnStage Local, where there were just over 500 excited demonstrators who just couldn’t wait to get their hands on the 2018-19 Annual Catalogue. This will be available to customers from 1 June. I’m sure that sneak peeks will be appearing long before then though.

Crafting Acorns on tour – Telford April 2018

Getting our hands on the catalogue early is just one of the many perks we receive for attending the event. There are also prize patrols, make n takes using some of the new products and a great bag to hold it all. Of course there’s some business talk too.

OnStage also gives me the opportunity to meet up with other demonstrators from around the UK and catch up on all their news and generally have a great time. The social side is in my books just as important. 

We had 80s music blasting out during the breaks and everyone had a great time singing along to some old favourites.

Just under 4 mins to go

This year Stampin’ Up! are celebrating their 30th Anniversary so these OnStage Locals were the kick off events. I’m sure that Stampin’ Up! have lots of secrets and surprises up their sleeves. The whole anniversary year will culminate in a very large OnStage Live event in November, which is being held in Orlando, Florida.

Chocolate cupcake (yum) sitting on my new
notebook (also yum!)

It was a full on day, starting at 9.30 am and ending at 5.30 pm. There were video recordings with news/messages and stamp/product showcases from Sara & Shelli, and recognition of demonstrators who reached Stampin’ Up milestones since the last Stampin’ Up! event. There were also live stamping showcases from UK demonstrators and 4 make n takes for us to do. Of course there was a lunch break, and mid afternoon we stopped for another break and a celebratory cupcake. 

I arrived back home last night and as always came back with lots more than I took.  The bag on the left is the one we were given and it contains all of my hoard of goodies! The bag on the right contains all of the WOW swaps that I received and I will share these with you later in the week once I’ve had a chance to take a photo of them all. I also had an overnight bag but that’s boring so I didn’t bother to take a photo of it.

I’ll be back tomorrow with some photos of the WOW swap that I made.

Happy stamping.

Fiona xx

Catch Up on the events of the weekend

This past weekend was a little manic for me with OnStage Local and a Craft Fair.

On Friday I drove up to Telford to share the Stampin' Up! OnStage Local with 11 of my team. I know I've already mentioned the event, but what I haven't shared with you was that I was presenting some of the new products from the 2017 Spring/Summer Catalogue (it goes live on  4 January 2017).

Doing a presentation to 400 demonstrators from all over the UK (and a few from the USA, Canada, and other European countries) was a little daunting. But the fact that I was sharing what I love to do, made it so much easier.

The coming catalogue is amazing and I'll share ideas and sneak peeks over the coming weeks. I'm not going to share them today, but I am sharing some of the photos that people have sent me (and a couple taken on my phone).

This is me with Bonnie Thurber Farley.

Bonnie works at the Stampin' Up! home office in Salt Lake City.   She put me right at ease with her lovely bubbly attitude. I (and all the other SU demos around the world) love Bonnie's presentations and you can see her on some of the Stampin' Up! You Tube videos.

I didn't think to take a photo from the stage. LOL.

I am up there honest - the screens say so!

I received six of the new products from one of the new product suites, so I am a happy bunny because I already have a lot of goodies to try out. Having said that, one of the benefits of attending an OnStage event is that attendees are able to take part in the Product Purchase Premier (PPP). My PPP order is placed and should be with me by the end of the week (fingers crossed).

One of the other great things about Stampin' Up! is how they reward their demonstrators. As well as the discount on products, we can all earn points that can be put towards other rewards. The big reward is an all expenses trip for two (2017 will be to Thailand and 2018 is Alaska). This year I earned enough points for an iPad Air  and it arrived just hours after I left for Telford, typical.

I have you all, both customers and my team to thank for helping me achieve the rewards and also the recognition ribbons. THANK YOU. 

There was a lot of bobbing up and down on my part when it came to recognition time because we just had to stand. I was supposed to walk the stage twice, but I only managed it once because I was otherwise engaged the second time (getting a coffee).

I received some fabulous gifts from my team. Most involved chocolate or sweet treats, but two were items of jewellery made using Stampin' Up! stamps and punches. The bracelet was made by Helen Winsper - she used the Acorny Thank You stamp set, the co-ordinating punch and some shrink plastic. The cute eskimo necklace was made by Helen Jordan using the Cookie Cutter Christmas stamp set,  co-ordinating punch and shrink plastic. I think you will agree, they are very cute.

I drove back from Telford on Saturday night, arriving back at about 11.45pm. Sunday morning I was up early (would like to say bright eyed but I can't) to attend a Craft Fair over in Clewer (Windsor, Berkshire). This was the first time that I have had a stall at this particular fair and I'll be there again on 11 December. If you are in the area please pop along because it's free to get in.

The picture frame holds the 12" x 12" sampler we made in October

That's it for today. I'll be back tomorrow with a post for the latest CAS Colours & Sketches Challenge.

Fiona xx

Sampler Swap

Thought I'd share the sampler that I made using the sampler swaps I received.  There was an organised swap at the recent OnStage event in Telford.

We each had to make nine 8 cm x 8 cm pieces of "artwork" using a set selection of colours. The colours we had to work with were Crumb Cake, Early Espresso, Very Vanilla, Soft Sky, Pool Party, Smoky Slate, Bermuda Bay, Island Indigo, Silver and Gold.

Going left to right and starting at the top row, the contributors were :

Christine Cunliffe, Fiona Whitten (me), Elaine Higham, Jackie Hall, Gill Moore, Diane Marlow, Jan Frances, Sarah Wickins and Emma O'Bryne.

I have the samplers popped on Dimensionals onto a piece of 12" x 12" Soft Sky cardstock and the whole thing is in a 12" x 12" white box frame.

The framed sampler is going to have pride of place on one of the walls in my craft studio.

#lovethestampinacorns

Last weekend the OnStage Live and OnStage Local were held. The Live event was in Salt Lake City which meant that the Local events were in Europe and the South Pacific.

Some of my team (the Stampin' Acorns) went to Telford but I was on holiday in Australia with my husband. I did manage to go to an OnStage Local event but it was not really that local as it was on the Gold Coast. I'll post more details and photos another day.

It's usual for uplines to give Team Gifts to downlines going to a Stampin' Up! event with you. In theory we went to the same OnStage Local event, because they are global events where everyone gets to see and do the same thing. In practise, they weren't even on the same continent so I left mine behind with one of my team to give out to people. It's not their fault I wasn't there.

Anyway, here's the gift packages that I left with Esther.

I love the acorns from the Acorny Thank You stamp set. So cute and apt for my team.  Can you spot the dimensional backing that managed to creep into the photo!? They get everywhere, LOL.

Here's a closer look at the packaging.

I'm not sure that people were able to get to the contents without ripping the bag because a fair amount of the Tear & Tape Adhesive was used.

The bag itself was embossed using the Woodgrain Textured Impression Embossing Folder that I had brayered Soft Suede ink over. The embossing folder didn't quite meet the end of the bag but I disguised this by running some of the Botanical Washi Tape around it. Guess this means the secret is out now.

I used the acorns as tags so that I could write people's names on.

Details of some of the products used are as follows:

I'm really hoping that the stamp set and punch make it into the new Annual Catalogue, but if they don't I certainly won't be parting with them.

Fiona x