Leadership Recap & Sale-a-Brations Kick Off a Success! - Tina Zinck, Stampin' Up! Demonstrator

Hi Everyone! I hope you had a good weekend! My weekend was awesome! On Saturday I held my “Leadership Recap and Sale-a-Bration Kick Off Event” and it was such a fun time! Over 20 ladies attended (despite the snow), some driving over an hour to be here (thanks Joy and Nora!). We began at 10am and I shared news and updates from the Stampin’ Up! Leadership Conference I attended in San Antonio, Texas last month. One of the announcements I made was that our 2012-2013 Catalogue is going to be changing AND it will be out a MONTH earlier! YAY! I can’t wait! This is one of the reasons I’m having my Annual Hostess VIP Event and Appreciation Dinner at the BEGINNING of June this year. If you’ve never been to this exclusive event, you’re seriously missing out on a LOT of FUN! All you have to do to qualify is to be one of my hostesses! Gather your friends together for a couple of hours of stamping fun (I’ll provide EVERYTHING) and you’ll also get great hostess benefits (free stamps, accessories, etc). So contact me today to book your date and if your party is during February or March you’ll even get MORE for free, during Sale-a-Bration!

Without further ado, here are some photos from Saturday’s event:

Bernice and Chrissy helped me get all the make & take projects ready for the event ~ thanks SO MUCH ladies!

Lots of inspiration at the display tables

A party favour I made for everyone – inside was a yummy gluten-free sugar cookie (click HERE for the recipe) and some chocolate.

I used the new Occasions Sweet Pressed Cookie Stamps and I LOVE them! So much fun! The box was made with the Fancy Favor Die and I used the 1 3/8″ circle punch in the middle and the new Blossom Punch and Sprinkled Expression Sale-a-Bration Stamp set (a little dazzling diamonds made it complete!).

Some of the card samples I brought back from the Leadership Conference.

I displayed the card swaps from Leadership the same way Stampin’ Up! did – with clothespegs! Worked great and actually, it was my sweet, sweet husband that set up the display for me (he was a huge help in getting set up and then taking everything down. Lord I love that man).

Let’s STAMP!

There were 6 make and take projects: 5 cards and 1 book mark. Everyone received half a Blossom Builders Designer Kit, a sheet of stampin’ dimensionals, ribbon, new designer brads and more in their goodie bags to use on their make and takes, and then take the rest home for their own projects.

Kim did a terrific demonstration on how to make a scrapbook ‘progressive’ page using the new Spring Fever Simply Scrappin’ Kit. She began with a 6×6 page, then turned it into a 8 1/2″ x 11″ page and finally a 12″ x 12″ page. This is such a versatile kit – everything is die-cut and self-adhesive and you can make super cute cards with this kit too! If memory serves me, Kim said you could make twenty-six 4″ x 4″ cards out of ONE kit! WOW! Talk about quick and easy! Kim also demonstrated how to use our new maze games! Super cute and now I just ‘have to‘ order some for my card making projects – I’ll just ‘have to‘ get the co-coordinating ‘Totally A-Maze-Ing’ stamp set too…hee hee.

This was one of the cards Shelli Gardner, Stampin’ Up!’s Co-Founder and CEO, demonstrated at the Leadership Conference. I loved it so much that I had to make it too, and demonstrate it at my Leadership event! I used the Elegant Bird die (which I love love LOVE), the new Apothecary Art Stamp Set and co-ordinating Framelit Labels Collection (also love love love). The fabulous Simply Scored was used to make the lolly flower (I revealed that Stampin’ Up! is releasing a Diagonal Plate for the Simply Scored too!). Kim won the raffle and took home her brand new Simply Scored to play with (I think it’s safe to say she was pretty pleased about that!). I also had door prizes of stamp sets, markers, 12×12 Designer Series Paper and more.

The other project I demonstrated was this frame, using a print from My Digital Studio. This was one of our make and take projects from the Leadership Conference and I’ve been saving it to demonstrate to the lovely ladies that came out on Saturday. The print is an exclusive digital download template just for Leadership attendees (click HERE to see more templates), the frame is from the dollar store and the embellishments are from the Blossom Builders Designer Kit. Wouldn’t this make a great gift? Super fast to make and you could personalize your quote for the recipient! My Digital Studio makes it really easy and you can even download this versatile program for a FREE 30 day trial! CLICK HERE!

Our Leadership Recap & Sale-a-Bration Event also included lunch and I received TONS of compliments on the soup and had many requests for the recipe. You can find the Chicken Rice Soup recipe by clicking HERE. The only thing I did differently than the recipe is I made the chicken stock from scratch (which I think is KEY to any good soup!). I also added bok choy to the soup.

Be sure to come back tomorrow – I’ll be posting a really great Sale-a-Bration package (wait until you see this DEAL!) and I’ll also be featuring a card & gift item I made using the Apothecary Art stamp set!

HAPPY STAMPING!