I received this beautiful accordion file at my Hostess Appreciation. Kelli made it just for me. Make sure to check out the inside also. This uses retired designer series paper, brads, Basic Pearls, buttons, ribbon & several punches.
Kelli always does a beautiful job. Thanks so much for the beautiful gift.
Michele Schmidt, Waterloo, IA
My Hostess Appreciation is suppose to be about me thanking my Hostesses but I received a couple gifts that day. This treat box or gift box is one of them. Thanks Barb.
Make sure you check out the next picture to see what is inside.
Barb used a couple retired Stampin' Up! stamp sets. Did some sponging, used Basic Pearls, the oval punch, scallop punch & scallop border punch along with some dazzling diamond glitter. Just beautiful.
Michele Schmidt, Waterloo, IA
I forgot to show you the little box I had for everyone to play the Left Right game. I was just a simple box using the Big Shot & the Fancy Favor bigz xl Die. I really didn't decorate it much but had little gifts like eyelets, chipboard & ribbon in them. I then punched holes & used a ribbon to make a bow & close them so everything wouldn't fall out if it fell as they passed them back & forth.
You could add punched pieces to them or use designer paper to dress them up more & use them for birthday favors at a birthday party, for May Day, a gift for Mothers Day or Fathers Day, Christmas, a Wedding Favor or any occasion? How about a just because?
Here is the last of my pictures of the Hostess Apreciation Event. Seemed to be another successful day. At the end is the projects we made.
Here is the start of STAMP (bingo). We played 3 games each with 3 winners. Then we played Blackout for a larger prize. Boy did I get lucky. With all the Stampin' Up! items they could make their card out of it came down to 2 or 3 left when we finally got a STAMP Blackout. We almost had 20 Blackouts at the same time. I would have had to quickly come up with some prizes if that had happened.
Sometimes I would really like to know what is going on in these pictures but this is just 2 fun loving & crazy ladies having a little fun.
Project 1: Card with large Paper Clip bookmark
Kelli Hansen & Nancy Carpenter were over one night & asked if I needed any help with anything as they knew I was a bit behind. I asked if they would want to come up with a card using a 4 in paper clip to be made into a bookmark. They worked very well together. Came up with the card & even cut all the pieces & bagged them up for each person. I just had to have the Snail adhesive, stamps & ink ready. Thank you both so much.
This used the following Stampin' Up! products:
Big Shot, Perfect Polka Dots textured impressions embossing folder, Beautiful Wings embosslit die, retired cardstock, retired grosgrain ribbon & retired designer series paper, Teeny Tiny Wishes stamp set, Scallop Edge Border punch, Fancy Flower punch, couple small circle punches & flower punches, Fun Flowers Bigz L Die.
The second project was an Inspiration Tin that could also be made into a little scrapbook or brag book if they would like instead.
Each side had 4 spots to fill. I thought it would make a good Graduation gift which I am using mine for but I also think it would be a great Mother's Day gift also. I am even making some using other retired designers series papers to sell this year.
Stampin' Up! products uses: Current & retired cardstock & Designers Series Paper. Big Shot, Perfect Polka Dots textured impressions embossing folder, Beautiful Wings embosslit die, Corner Punch, Decorative Label Punch, Photo Corners Punch, Dotted Scallop Ribbon Dotted Punch, Fancy Flower Punch, Modern Label Punch, Scallop Oval Punch, Define Your Life stamp set, Smarty Pants stamp set, God's Blessing stamp set, Word Play stamp set, some retired Stampin' Up! word stamp sets, sponges & inks.
Thank you to all my Hostessess. I could not do what I do without all of you. I also want to thank my mother, Kathleen Hansen, for all her help over the years with a place for me to have all of you over and all the punching & cardstock and ribbon cutting she has done for me. I love you all.
Michele Schmidt, Waterloo, IA
As promised here are pictures from the "Minute to Win it" Stampin' Up! style game.
Junk in the Trunk
This game didn't go exactly as planned. I didn't have very good thought on this. I had Stampin' Up! rubber stamps in them but I think the boxes were too deep that no one got any stamps out. Tracy happened to have had a ping pong ball in hers also that came out so she became our winner. An afterthought would have been to have them redo it with only ping pong balls in there. Oh well. They were all really good sports. Thanks girls.
Ribbon Rolling
One person helped each of the contestants by holding on to the full roll of ribbon. The end of the ribbon was taped to a Stampin' Write marker. The contestant had to unroll the whole roll of ribbon on to the marker. Whoever finished first was the winner & moved on to the final round.
Blow the Card
This game they had to blow the card accross the table & finish with 1/2 the card hangin over the edge of the table without it falling off. If they blew it off the table they could pick it up & start over. We finally did have a winner after several restarts.
The final game: Bounce the Ping Pong Ball into the Stampin' Up! trash bin.
The finalists listening to directions.
They each had a helper to gather the balls for them as they had to get all 5 in to win.
I won. I won.
Here are a few girls who won a stamp set & had to pick from a pile of sets. What a decision!
They next did their stamping projects: a beautiful card with a paper clip bookmark on it that was designed by 2 of my hostesses and a little tin designed by myself.
I found it was a bit too hard for some working on the tin project even though I had left plenty of time for all of them to work on it. Since it frustrated a few I will have to rethink my projects for next years event, maybe just spread all the supplies over 2 tables with stations set up for different parts of it.
I had some working on each project but the card did not take as long as the tin.
Someone decided to snap a picture of me while I was watching everyone work on the projects. Wait until you see the pin made by a customer just for me. I will show a close up another day. It was just beautiful. Thanks, Linda
Dessert was eaten as they finished their projects & while playing STAMP (bingo). My mom made brownies from scratch with her favorite, Blue Bunny ice cream on it.
Seems once again I probably put too many pictures up so will wait until another day to post some more. I just couldn't decide which ones to use.
Michele Schmidt, Waterloo, IA
Here are some of the pictures from last weekend at my Hostess Appreciation Event. I had 21 very fun & loved ladies there. They were from Waterloo, Cedar Falls, Garner, Grimes, Ankeny, West Des Moines, LaPorte City and Waverly Iowa. I also even have one Hostess that came from Missouri. Wished I could have had all 35 I invited but I understand.
Here is all the happy ladies right after they arrived.
This year we started with the food first: Build your own subs. Doesn't it look yummy. The bread was just baked that morning by the Hyvee Bakery.
Next was our Left Right Game where I gave them a little box made with the Big Shot and the Fancy Favor bigz xl die. It was filled with retired Stampin' Up! goodies. They passed these around to the left & right as I read a little stamping story I write every year. They keep the box they end up with.
Sorry for the blurring picture.
They are trying so intently to listen to the story but somehow someone always messes up & someone ends up with 2 in their hand & someone else in none which is easily remedied. This just makes every one laugh.
Here they are looking inside for a punched flower saying "Minute to Win it" on it. There are 9 of them and those that have it will be the contestants & will win additional prizes.
Come back tomorrow to see pictures of the game "Minute to Win it" Stampin' Up! style and see what else they got to do.
Michele Schmidt, Waterloo, IA is blessed.
So I told you about the blind stamping a couple ladies did at my Hostess Appreciation. Here I am sharing my card & then what they did blindfolded with the verbal direction of 2 assistants. I did have all the pieces cut & punched for them & tried to make it as easy as possible.
Supplies used: Itty Bitty Backgrounds stamp set, Smarty Pants word stamp set, Extra Large Fancy Flower punch, 1 inch circle punch, 5 petal flower punch, retired colored button, mini glue dot.
My card.
Regal Rose, Rose Red & Old Olive cardstock.
Regal Rose & Rose Red ink.
Jackie's card.
My card.
Orchid Opulence, Elegant Eggplant & Old Olive cardstock.
Orchid Opulence & Elegant Eggplant ink.
Kelli's card.
I am so glad my customer blindly trust me at these events as it makes it so much fun. Thanks to both of you for being such good sports about this.
Michele Schmidt is off to Open Stamping in Waterloo, IA
The first project was this box that I had made a few years ago at either Stampin' Up! Convention or Leadership. I had purchased the boxes at that time & had not used them yet. The original box was slightly different & I tried to make it a bit easier for my hostessess. This uses a Stampin' Up! stamp set called Think Happy Thoughts. We also used On Board Chipboard, Sizzix Big Shot, Textured Impressions Folder Perfect Polka Dots, Chocolate Chip Tafetta ribbon, clear rhinestone brad, 1 3/8 Circle punch, 1 1/4 circle punch, 3/4 inch circle punch, paper piercer & mat pack.
This Easel card uses the Stampin' Up! stamp set called Inspired by Nature that was colored using sponge daubers in Lovely Lilac, Almost Amethyst & Certainly Celery Classic inks. Also used was Almost Amethyst designer series paper, clear Rhinestone brads, white jumbo grommet, black grosgrain ribbon, stampin dimensionals, Sizzix Big Shot, Textured Impressions Folder Perfect Polka Dots
Thanks to Renee who helped motivate me Thursday night while trying to come up with my Easel card.
Michele Schmidt, Waterloo, IA
Well my long awaited day came & went and all went well. I wish more of my hostessess could have made it this year but those that did had a great time.
My nephew & niece Travis & Stacie once again helped by grilling & serving my customers. My mom once again came through with a wonderful ice cream dessert.
We then played the Left Right Game using some little matchboxes I made with the Big Shot & topped with paper flowers & rhinestone, corduroy & designer brads. I will show you a close up picture another day.
They then had to dig for a gem using either the shovel & pail or their hands in a baby pool filled with sand.
Tammie was the big winner for the Gem Dig. She received a Simply Scrappin Kit, a couple packages of tags, a package of Rubons, Metal Magic tags, Almost Amythest ink pad & a stamp set. Everyone received a prize depending on what color of gem they found.
On to the 2 stamping projects they all made. One was a box that had a Giradelli Chocolate put in it after assembled & the other was an easel card I came up with last Thursday night.
I will show you closeups of the projects tomorrow night.
I briefly showed them the projects & let them figure out the rest. They all worked together & helped each other out even though most had just met each other that day. This is what I love about stampers.
I then had a surprise for them. I drew 2 names of people to come up & stamp in front of everyone. Each of the 2 stampers had 2 assistants. The fun part was the assistants could only verbally assist & the stampers were blindfolded. Below are a few pictures. They all won stamp sets for being good sports.
I know it was really hard for the assistants to not open the stamp pads and move items around for the stampers.
Here they are done with their cards:
They then finished up playing STAMP Bingo & won even more prizes. I can truly say a good time was had by all. I can't wait to start planning next years event.
Michele Schmidt is so sad her fun party in Waterloo, IA for all her customers is over for another year.
