I met a wonderful demonstrator by the name of Stacy Helm on the plane coming home from Stampin' Up!'s annual convention a few weeks ago. She has a beautiful Bed & Breakfast called English Valley Bed & Breakfast near Montezuma, IA. It is only about 1hour & 30 minutes away from Waterloo, IA. I have added the link below if you want to check it out.

Stacy invited my roommate Diane & I to come along with any of our downline to a Mini Convention. Diane & I both took her up on it. The picture to the left is 2 of my downline checking out the display area to get ideas. Good thing I told them to bring cameras.
This is Stacy at the start of the Mini Convention after the swapping. She showed many neat ideas. One of which was a card like one demonstrated at convention where things popped out at you a bit when you open it. She also demonstrated the new Big Shot we will begin selling in September. We made a Santa ornament & a little mini envelope with the Big Shot. The mini envelope was used with a very easy double pocket card she taught. I can't wait to show you. You really might want to sign up for the September Stamp Camp. Hint! Hint!
Here I am demonstrating a box we had made at convention. I had changed my box up a bit but showed them the original. I then demonstrated a card using the same ribbon flower used on the box but using a smaller width grosgrain ribbon. The card will be posted on my blog in the near future as I am using it as one of the 10 cards for my September Stamp Camp. I also demonstrated the Faux Silk technique along with my take on it.
This is one of Diane's demonstrations. Diane is a master of 3D items like little boxes & gifts. She also loves designer paper & showed us some really fun things to make with them. I now have a few more ideas for upcoming events.
I wish I would have taken a picture of lunch. Stacy does catering for weddings & other groups. We had a chicken breast in a pastry with herbed cream cheese, mandarin lettuce salad, fresh fruit & praline apple pie with ice cream. It was all delicious.
Before we left for home we got a tour of the bed & breakfast rooms & common areas. It would be a great place to have a stamping weekend if we could ever get enough people interested. Thanks so much for inviting us Stacy.
You can check Stacy's place out here: www.englishvalleybnb.com.