Happiness is... FREE STAMPS!

We came to Utah so Mom and I could attend the Stampin' Up convention at the Salt Palace in downtown Salt Lake.  It was three days of non-stop fun, great ideas and inspiration, hands-on stamping , a peek at new products, thousands of card and scrapbook samples to view, and of course swapping 'til you drop.  This was my 7th convention, and Mom's 2nd.  They are always SO FABULOUS and they get better every every year!  This year there were over 7,000 ladies and a handful of men at convention. The theme was "Celebrate '08" because Stampin' Up! is celebrating it's 20th anniversary.  I started demonstrating for SU during it's 10 year anniversary, and the company has come so far in those 10 years.
 These are my swaps that I made to bring to convention.  I made almost 200 cards and notebooks to trade with other demonstrators.  I thought my cards were really cute, and I had so much fun collecting all those cards from other ladies.  Swapping is pure madness - people stop right in the middle of the hallways, drop their stuff, and swap!

Here are just a few of the many items we stamped at convention.  The Make and Takes are so much fun, and even better because they gave us 3 great stamp sets to use and keep.  The silhouette daisy set "Inspired by Nature" is my new favorite.

At our first Make and Take class we met a new friend, Diana Crowshaw, who is also LDS from Springville, Utah.  She was darling and we really hit it off right away - like we'd know each other forever.  Diana has 3 little boys, so we speak the same language.  We hung out with Diana for the rest of the conference, and everything was even more fun with her there, right mom?

Notice my darling bag that they gave us, full of stamps and products at check-in.  It is really cute with flowers embroidered on the flap.  Very fun!

Also notice the sample boards behind us in the background.  There were literally thousands of beautiful card and scrapbook samples sent in by demonstrators and SU artists for us to view and photograph.  We got so many fun ideas from those samples.  Amazing how creative people can be!
Beside the 3 free sets we got at check-in, mom was super lucky to win this terrific set as a door prize.  It is always so exciting when they give away FREE STAMPS!  Go Mom!!!

 Then, at the very last session of the convention, right before it was all over,  a UPS delivery guy came on stage with a SU box and said he had a delivery - Free Stamps for everyone!!!  The gals went crazy as a couple UPS trucks drove onto the stage, through the smoke and sparkle of pyrotechnics, and cute UPS guys jumped out and started delivering free, and darling, I might add, stamps sets to all 7 thousand of us.  It was the perfect ending to a great convention!

Diana and I thrilled about our Free Stamps.  I am so easy to please - just a bit of rubber and wood.  Then we had to say good-by to convention, and our new friend Diana.  We'll see Diana here next convention - same place, same fun, different free stamps!!!