Convention - Day 1

Well I am safely back home and extremely inspired from an AMAZING week in Salt Lake City! I wish I could take another week of vacation from “the day job” to just create in my stamp room. Over the next couple of days I want to pass along to you some of my experiences I had, projects I saw, and tips I learned. I hope you enjoy this and please post to let me know so I don’t feel like I wasted my time sharing!

Day 1 – Wednesday

I stayed in the Hotel Monaco and despite a few issues at the beginning; it is a wonderful, comfortable hotel that is just a 3 minute walk to the convention center.

The first day is a day of checking in, seeing displays, meeting with friends, swapping, and the kickoff party. This year’s theme was GROW and everywhere you turned and everything you heard was thoroughly wrapped in this theme. Stampin’ Up! does and amazing job with their themes! I started out by checking in to get my convention bag, 4 stamp sets, and the binder catalog!

I walked around and got tons of pictures of Product Park. The ideas and creations were just incredible. To see pictures of Product Park, see my earlier post. I then headed to Memento Mall where I spent a great deal of money!

I then decided I was carrying WAY too much so headed to my room to unload and then out to find lunch. I found the cute little tea house called Bee House Tea Room. The food was incredible and the tea selection expansive.

I then headed back to the convention center for some more pictures and two organized swaps that I signed up for on Stampin’ Connection (a “facebook”/Discussion board for Demonstrators only). My two swaps were All Occasion cards and Punch Swaps where you make a 6”x6” page with a punch art character and the directions to do it. I walked away with 40 great ideas! So much fun! I then headed in to the Kickoff Party!

From Left to Right this is me, my roommate Kari, and her upline Jan. Kari and I actually met on Stampin’ Connection when we were looking for a roommate. We got along GREAT and I now have a new good friend in Stampin’ Up! Thanks Kari for such a great time!

Part of the kickoff party was a Best Decorated Sunhat contest. Sadly I ran out of time so I had no sun hat to bring but the sunhats there were incredible. This, I think, was my favorite.

There was lots going on; games, demonstrations, food, and more. Here are some pictures of the “Dig for Worms” game in which demonstrators dug in dirt to find product and what they found the kept!

Another game was a pie eating contest. First round was demonstrators and the second round was corporate workers. Lots of fun to watch!

There were two prize patrols (Jan won one!) and they had a game that when a certain song came on you had to run to a butterfly on the ground and if you were touching the winning number you won product! Overall the night was a huge success and lots of fun!

Check in tomorrow for Day 2!