Convention 2018

I have just recently attended a most unforgettable event. As a consultant for over 11 years, I have never attended an annual corporate convention. This year it was held so close to home that I could not pass up the opportunity!

I knew that I was in for a treat, but still was caught up in such a whirlwind of excitement, entertainment, information, and inspiration! I think that now almost a week after completion I am finally digesting it all.

The opening entertainment was all set to a Greatest Showman theme, which happened to be my favorite movie of 2017! Our Founder and CEO Jeanette Lynton welcomed us all and boy what a fantastic kick off to this party it was! I can't quite share everything from this extraordinary event yet, you will have to wait unfortunately. I can, however share with you the cards I created to trade with other attendees. I made a total of 7 different designs.

For these first three cards I felt they were a good representation of who I am and where I'm from. The card on the left is a cricut cut of some mountains with a sun burst pattern of Fresh Air papers. This is to represent that convention was held at Red Rock Hotel and Casino. If attendees were lucky there hotel room had a view of the gorgeous Red Rock mountains in the distance. One of our favorite nearby places to hike. The cards in the center feature a succulent flower, some of my favorites and a chalkboard technique as my "normal" job is instructing in a classroom. There are two versions only because I ran out of ribbon! Finally, the card on the right is a darling bicycle. I enjoy riding my cruiser with the family on vacations or for a more grueling ride my husband and I venture out on various trails on our mountain bikes.

These next cards are all about my passion for Close To My Heart. I love creating with my own hands, making beautiful art and preserving my family memories. Some cards were just a standard card, some contained a bookmark, one of them was a holder for the bookmark and the last card at first look appears normal, but fold up like an easel to display the best sentiment ever! {Look for that stamp in August!}

The theme of this entire convention was CREATE! I love the meaning of it too, check it out~

C~ community
R~ renew
E~ elevate
A~ achieve
T~ tell your story
E~ empower

Good reminders of why I chose to represent this company 11 years ago and hope to continue for many more!

Adventure with Mini State Stamps

Have you seen the M-sized state stamps in the new Idea Book. You can find a couple examples on page103, however you can see all of the United States and the Canadian provinces and territories online. I knew immediately which states I wanted to collect first and what I would use them for!

Our family embarked on a pretty epic vacation this Summer! We traveled through three states making multiple destinations. This was also the furthest North we have ever traveled on the West coast. At the end of our almost 4 week adventure I brought back plenty of photographs to fill an entire album. From the moment I saw the new state stamps in the Idea Book I knew exactly how I wanted to design the introduction layout.

 This layout will be at the start of our Summer Vacation album. It really introduces the journey showing where we started and giving just a glimpse of the entire trip to the last destination.

I also used lots of brand new Artistry Cricut cuts which were a ton of fun to cut and add into the layout!

Just look at those cute little state stamps!

 Here is a collage of some close-ups of the stamped images throughout the layout!

 Now those adorable mini-stamps can all be contained in the mini organizer! This newest organizer is found on page 155 in the Annual Inspirations. It holds up to 28 My Acrylix M-size stamp sets or use it for those smaller embellishment packages, they fit great in here too!

I had a customer tell me that she wanted to collect all 50 of the United States stamps and if she got anything for such a purchase. Well I suppose if you got all 50, I would have to throw in a mini stamp organizer for free!!

What would you use these mini state stamps for?!! See them all online here.