Back from convention and so much to share...and show!

Okay disclosure time...I took over 350 pictures at Stampin' Up! Convention!  This post will be long but I have done my best to narrow down the pictures and only post the most informative ones.  First things first.  I went to Salt Lake City with my downline (the Nicole's).  We left on tuesday evening and got back sunday afternoon.  By the time we came home our heads were full of ideas and fun techniques we can't wait to try and share.  I don't know about the Nicole's but I had to take a break and didn't touch my stamps yet!  But I am planning on it this weekend before I forget everything.

 

 

If you have never been to a huge event like this, there is a tradition to make card fronts to swap.  I met so many women while I was swapping my 100 or so cards.  In future posts I will feature some of the swaps I got.  Some card makers did an awesome job and they did it over and over and over again.   Here is one of my swaps.  I used one of the triple punches to make the flower and then used Lucky Limeade, Rich Razzleberry, Whisper White and Basic Black Cardstock.  I also stamped the sentiment in Rich Razzleberry ink.  It is a fun phrase from the huge birthday set, Bring on the Cake.  Don't forget the bling in the middle of the flower!

 

The Kick Off Party was themed "Picnic in the Park" or something like that!  There was a make your own hat contest.  I made some hair flowers for Nicole and I, but as you can see Nicki went all out.  Her hat was ALL STAMPIN' UP!  This sign was in the lobby of our hotel.  We were still full of energy at this point.  The pictures got less fun and eventually turned into documenting ideas versus ourselves!

 

 

This is a woman we met from the midwest.  Her hat had every color of cardstock and all hand made embellishments.  We all agreed it was a first place finisher!  She hand carried it the entire way to Salt Lake City!

 

Here is Nicole with our very first Convention friend, Pam.  We met her in the airport and then saw her several times a day as she we were all in the same hotel.  She also gave us the cutest "I love stamps" pins.  We have to make her something really fun and mail to her...all the way in Missouri!

 

The main stage was quite a spectacle.  The colors changed with every presentation and event.  The flowers even grew in the back ground as convention went on.   One of my absolute favorite things was when they presented products from the upcoming holiday mini catalog.  In the picture above you can see that they hid the products under large boxes with fabulous paper flowers on top.  It was just like the Oprah show!  They would "unveil" the products one by one by removing the boxes.  All of us attendees would scream and squeal.  Even more so if they gave something away as a prize.  A women by us won a prize and she jumped up and down like it was a new car!  

 

After awards night there was an after party.  Don't you all love the "pocket sillhouettes" stamp images projected on the walls?  We had so much fun dancing the night away.  Too bad we had to get up sooo early for the First timers breakfast the next day!

Another place where I spent a lot of time was at the super creative vignettes that were set up in "Product Park".  Look on and drool.  There were also rows and rows of card and scrapbook samples.  This is where my camera really went to work.  I will post several of these card ideas at a later time.

The make-n-take session was like nothing I have ever seen before.  With 5,000+ attendees and only four make-n-take sessions you can imagine how many people were in each section!  We got lucky and sat by some lovely ladies that seemed to work at our same pace.  I had a great time but finished none of the projects! 

 

After the make-n-take session we went to lunch to meet our Idaho sisters!  Originally I joined Stampin' Up! through a friend of mine in Idaho.  However, I moved right after and never got to meet any of my upper upline.  We had fun making two cards and doing a swap of 20+.  The swap went fast, sorry for the blurry picture!  The little snowman card was one of our projects. 

Over all I had a great time and would go back to another convention tomorrow!  Okay maybe not tomorrow  but seriously considering next year!

Another Stampin' Up! Special!!!

 

Have you ever wanted patterned paper that exactly matches your cardstock, ink, and ribbon colors?  Now is the deal your won't want to miss.  For the month of August if you buy three packages of Designer Series Paper you get one free...AND there is no limit!  eeeeeee!  To shop you can contact me or go directly to my site wendyhalverson.stampinup.net

Stay tuned for my convention posts.  It is hard to sort through the 300+ pictures! 

CONVENTION!!!!

I am so excited.  I get to go to my very first Stampin' Up! Covention today!  I have been a demonstrator for five years last month.  So check back for postings of my swaps and pictures of the fun.  EEEEE!  So excited.
While I'm gone check out the brand new catalog.  It has roughly 65 stamp sets that I MUST have!  You can search it online by clicking HERE

Scrapbook in a day fun!

We had a great time making scrapbooks!  Even scrapbooking virgins made beautiful pages and were so pleased!  Here is my cover page and a layout I contributed.  Happy summer!

Where it all began!

One summer in 1988  I got to take art classes from a woman in her home.  We did all sorts of art projects and in the very end we all got to paint a picture on her front window.  Mine was the penguin on the ice block.  I was a little 9 year old, with shorts up to my armpits, but I already knew I loved doing crafty, artistic things.  Have a great summer and do something crafty!

Scrapbook In a Day Class!

Hi all.  To kick off summer my friends and I are having a scrapbook in a day class.  The class will use the Playful polkadots scrappin' kit from the Summer mini catalog.  For further details check out my site wendyhalverson.stampinup.net  The scrapbook will be 6x6, the perfect size for a fun gift or to keep for scrappin' a summer trip!  Let me know if you would like to come by June 3rd!
Happy stampin' scrappin' and craftin'!
Wendy

Clearance Rack Love!

st

Happy Friday Everyone.  I am unfortunately home sick today but I have never been too sick to surf the net and look for deals.  Some of you who have been to my apartment around the holidays know I am obsessed with Christmas decor!  Last year I used these large felt snowflakes, that come in three colors, to make garland.  GUESS WHAT...THEY ARE ON THE CLEARANCE RACK for only $4.99 and you get more than 25 of them!  I made the garland with small silver cording and simply tying each snowflake to the other.  I hung my garland over the big doorway in our dinning room but it would be great on the tree too.  To look at all of the Clearance Rack check out my site here and then click on the "shop now" logo.  Have a great weekend!

Photoshop tippies!

Hi All!  So yesterday was my last day of photoshop class.  I feel like I could take at least 10 more weeks of class and still not learn it all.  Today I thought I would share a tool that I find very helpful in photoshop called an adjustment layer.  By adding an adjustment layer it is possible to lighten or darken a photo and make it more vibrant.  I use it a lot because I accidently don't use flash or I use too much flash!  This is really helpful when photographing cards and projects too.  My favorite is an adjustment called "curves".  I realize that I am ill equipped to explain this completely but I found this great tutorial here:
http://photoshoptips.net/2005/09/16/adjustment-layers/ 
Give it a go.  I think you'll like it too!   Here is a version of my final photoshop project.  Hope you like it!  Just a hint this is far from what I ended up turning in.  I'll show that sometime soon!

Graphic design fun!

Happy thursday everyone! Some of you are aware that I am working on my new career. Graphic Design! It has been a blast and a little surreal to finally be in these classes. Be watching the blog for assignments like the one above from my photoshop class and also for ways to sharpen your skills as I sharpen mine.
Some things that I have in the works are simple, EASY TO FOLLOW photoshop tutorials. To help improve your pictures or even improve your pictures of your projects that you might be posting on your own blog or community sites. Stay Tuned!

Spring is Blossoming at Stampin' Up!

Anyone who has known me for more than a year knows that my most FAVORITE time of year is when Stampin' Up! comes out with their new catalog. It happens every JULY! This year Stampin' Up! is letting us have a sneak peek of two new products before the new catalog is out. There is a new stamp set that is called Four Frames and of course, awesome new designer series paper. The best part of this sneak peek is that you can get them now! We don't have to wait until July!
Check out my site at wendyhalverson.stampinup.net to find the particulars including all of the items necessary to make these beautiful Stampin' Up! samples. Just click on the promotion section or shop section of my site.



Another exciting thing that I must tell you all is that I am going to CONVENTION this year!!! It is in July in Salt Lake city. Talk to me right away if you would like to sign up to get all of the perks of being a demonstrator and the chance to attend convention with me and thousands of other awesome stampers!

Hiya! To shop the Sale-A-Bration event click here and go to "SHOP NOW"

Happy Spring!

Today I have been spending a lot of time planning a fun trip to Utah for Stampin' Up! Convention. For those of you who don't know, it is like the superbowl of stamping...or Christmas time! It is an exciting and huge event! I am going with my fellow Stampin' Up! Demonstrators Nicole and Nicole. Keep watch for pictures of cards I will be making to swap and postings about the fun times we will be having. Okay okay it is in July but I am pumped so had to tell you about it now! If anyone is interested in joining us you just have to sign up to be a demonstrator. Which is an AWESOME deal right now because it is sale-a-bration and that means tons of free stuff for signing up. If you are interested email me for more details!

Also for all you shoppers out there: Sale-a-bration ends in a few weeks! This is the huge Stampin' Up! sale where you get a free item of your choosing for every $50 purchase you make. It is my favorite time of year! visit wendyhalverson.stampinup.net to shop it up!

So this is the beginning of Spring? If you live around here you are experiencing, first hand, how spring "comes in like a lion"! Just wanted to a post a few of my latest creations. These are simple little cards that pack a whole lotta heart. Enjoy!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Hi everyone! Remember Me? Can you guess what my first New Year resolution is? Yep to start blogging again! hooray! I wanted to kick off the year by showing you a few cards I made for Christmas.
The first card (above) is one of my favorites. I love the "2 Step Bird Punch" (#117191). Here I punched the bird body in Riding Hood Red and then the tree branch and leaves in Chocolate Chip and Old Olive. I then used my 2Way Glue Pen and glitter to bling up the wing a bit. When I pieced the bird together I also used a Stampin' Dimensional dot to pop up the wing. The floral designs are from the stamp set Season of Joy (#110384). I have to admit the "Joy" stamp is not Stampin' Up!

I was really loving the "Season of Joy" stamp set and the swirl design on this card is also from that set. The Christmas tree and sentiment are from the set "Jolliest Time of the Year " (#116584). I used Stampin' Write markers to color in the tree and added glitter with my 2Way glue pen. I have a bling addiction so get used to this theme as you look on!

Okay so this stamp set cracks me up and lends itself too one of my favorite coloring techniques. I use this design element a lot. Stamp the image in black ink and only color in certain aspects of the design. This technique also works great with Stampin' Round wheels and their images. On this card I used a MUST HAVE stampin' up product...GLITTER GLASS! It is basically old fashioned, chunky glitter. Watch my site here for the new color being introduced in a few weeks.

At the request of one of my stamping buddies I made these snowman tags for a swap this holiday season. The snowman body is made out of "White Circle Aluminum Edge Metal Tags" from the Clearance Rack on my Stampin' Up! site. They are on sale for only $1.49 a package and you get both sizes! For the top hat I used the "Round Tab Extra Large" punch (#119864). It works perfectly when you fold it in half. I have also seen really cute purses made with this punch. Then I used the "1 3/4 scallop circle" punch in Pumpkin Pie cardstock to make the noses. I simply cut triangles like cake slices out of the scalloped circle. I used silver cord to hook the head to the body and grosgrain ribbon to make the bow tie and tag holder. I had some little jingle bells which I thought were a perfect addition. The sentiment on the snow man is from a Paper Source stamp.

Gear up all you stampers because SALE-A-BRATION 2011 is coming soon! You can always find great techniques and project ideas on my Stampin' Up! site, not to mention shop directly from the site and have products on your doorstep in a matter of days!