Build-a Bear Workshop

On Sept. 12 I'll be presenting my first Build-a-Bear Workshop. Instead of going to the Build-a-Bear store and making your own stuffed animal the attendees get to create several fun papercraft products. I'm still busy working on my projects but here is a sample I from convention which is a great inspiration. I will post my projects when I get them completed. There will be a $5 fee for each attendee and this first class is hosted by my 9 1/2 year old niece Audrey. We hope to have a room full of giggly little girls! Keep this in mind for birthday parties, scout meetings, daycare projects and whatever else you think will work with these fun new products.

College Kitchen

Here's a picture of the canisters Alexis and I made for her college apartment kitchen. The vinyl art work is the hostess level one set in the Decor' Elements line from Stampin' Up!. These were super easy to make. Bought the containers at a local outlet store for around $10 for all three.
The vinyl images also included "coffee" & "tea"....which she didn't want so we just used the artwork without the words for the one canister and her and her roommate can use it for candy or hot cocoa etc. Thanks to my hostess free items these girls might have one of the most stylish kitchens at Univ.-Nebr.Lincoln! :-) Go HUSKERS! :-)
Jennifer Thomas

Adorable train project

I think this is just about the most adorable train project I have seen with this train set. This is from the convention displays in Salt Lake City earlier this month so I don't even know who made it so I can't list any names. I think this is just adorable. What a fun idea for decorating a baby's room or for a baby gift. You could even personalize it to make it extra special.
Happy stamping,
Jennifer Thomas

My Convention Swaps

I made 2 different cards to swap at convention this year. Here is a sample of those cards and also a variation of each card. I made each card simple and then a little more "involved" using either a jumbo grommet or adding designer papers, both which would make great upsell items.
I love all the new embossing items for our Big Shot Machine. I used the Elegant Bouquet Embossing Folder on the Bermuda Bay & Melon Mambo card. The Rich Razzleberry card used the "HI" Embosslit Die. Both are on page 195 of the Stampin' Up! catalog.

Artisan Award Finalist!

One of the highlights for my convention was finding out I was one of the 30 finalists for the annual SU! Artisan Award. To enter that contest you have to create and send in 10 items (5 cards, 3 scrapbook pages & two 3-d items). When I was first considering entering this annual contest again this past year my first idea was this fun 3-D Santa's Pants favor. So once I dreamed up the pattern for this (the bottom of each leg uses the die cut piece from "Baskets & Blooms") I decided I needed to create the other 9 projects to enter this fun Christmas project for that contest. The pants are complete with suspenders, belt and a barn door on the back! :-)This project was also on the display boards at convention this year.

I think this pattern would also be fun as blue jean overalls: with a little boy theme and fill with gummy worms. Or complete as red overalls and fill with corn (pop corn, corn nuts etc.) for all those HERBY HUSKER NEBRASKA CORNHUSKER FANS!
GO BIG RED!,

Jennifer

One of my favorite parts of Stampin' Up! Convention is the display boards. I could spend hours (and I did!) looking at all the samples on these displays. They are color coordinated or grouped by new set samples and it is kind of tricky to fight the crowds to get in close enough for a photo. Since I spend alot of time throughout the year creating ideas for monthly/yearly contest and stamping challenges it is always a THRILL to see your artwork up on display! I found 9 different projects of mine on the display boards so I was thrilled! :-)Here is 12x12 scrapbook page that I entered in the Artisan Award this past year. I'll tell you more about that in a future post. :-) These are my kids, photo taken back in February, and they look very similar but Kaleb just got his braces off so now I can scrapbook him without the "tin grin". LOL!
Jennifer

Build-a-Bear products!

We have so many new products including the Build a Bear Workshop line and the company mascot came to Salt Lake City for our convention. We got to pose for a photo with the mascot. That new product line will be fun for kiddy workshops and scrapbooking layouts. Last year I was excited to see the Sizzix/Big Shot product line and I'll continue to be excited about the Big Shot with fun new dies like these. I'll be setting up some scrapbooking and card making classes with this theme so look for future details on that.

Jennifer

Stampin' Up! Convention 2009 was awesome. The theme for convention was Inspire,Create, Share. We saw fun logos at the Gathering Place and at the Stampin' Up! Headquarters. Here are my roomies (we had a big fun suite!) left to right: Holly, Laurie, me, Lynne, Kyle, Kim, Joanne.
Look for samples in future posts of all the fun things I saw at convention,

Jennifer