My Stampin' Up! Journey

If you've followed me for any length of time, you know I've been a Stampin' Up! demonstrator for a LOOOONNNGGG time - I started on January 31, 1991!

Over the years, as I've sorted thru the "stuff" I've accummulated,  I've saved a few things (ahem!), with the idea of making a scrapbook for all of it at some point in time...

When I got my This & That Bundle in April, (it came with the Designer Series Paper, the die cut adhesives, the MDS download, and the date stamp)  I decided THIS would be my scrap book, documenting my Stampin' Up! Journey.

 

Here's the cover... I used quite a few of the elements from  MDS for it.  The cool thing about MDS is that you can CHANGE THE SIZE of the item, and then print it out on your computer.  

I struggled with the "JOURNEY" portion - I originally had it the size it prints and filled in the letters in a size 12 font.  After I adhered it to the front, I decided it was way too small!  So, back to the drawing board...  This time I enlarged the pennants and used something like a 24 font.  I'm happier with it now.

I also covered some of the cover with DSP,  then added the "True Story" and the "Rewind" items printed out much larger than the sticker versions.

Then I used the Top Note punch from MDS, enlarged it, and filled it with Calypso Coral CS.   I added some verbiage, printed it and hand cut it.  It was too large to use the matching framelit...

I have, at this point, left the inside two pages blank, choosing instead to go to the page AFTER the pocket (love those pockets!  They'll be stuffed soon!).

A few years ago, I sat down and wrote out "my story" for another event, so I just copied and pasted it into a page in MDS.  I used the Calypso Coral CS as the background, lightening the opacity of it, since I knew it would readily match all the pages in the smash book, which meant I could plop it down on any of the pages with little worry... 

Notice the difference in hue between Calypso Coral on this page versus how it looked on my cover?  That's another cool thing about MDS  - you can lighten almost everything to give it a somewhat "washed out" look, if you're of a mind to...

  

These two pages are photos of one of the first Conventions I attended as a demonstrator.  If you look closely, there's Shelli on the left side of the lefthand photo, with LaVonne right beside her.  There are several people in this picture that are still SU demonstrators, as well! I can pick out Carol Bartle, and Denise Jorgenson for sure.  I guess we could consider ourselves "lifers"!  LOL

Shelli's also on the left of the the topmost photo on the right, along with LaVonne and someone I don't know. And in the bottom photo, there are Shelli & LaVonne again. 

While there's always a theme for convention, back in those days the themes were geared more to fantasy - the theme for this convention was "At The Hop".  We were all encouraged to dress up to fit the theme - and a lot of people did.  Made it a lot of fun.

Of course, there were a lot FEWER people at convention in those days!  I think there might have been 100-150 people at the first one I attended in 1991.  And I knew none of them!  "At The Hop" was held in 1994, so I'm sure we had about 300 people there by then. 

In the beginning of my journey, all conventions were held in Las Vegas, since Shelli & LaVonne lived in Boulder City, NV at the time.  I sure do miss going to Vegas for convention every year these days!  Maybe one year soon, we'll get to return...

Have you gotten the This & That smash books and all the goodies?  If you have, what are you doing with yours?  Inquiring minds want to know...

I'll show you more of My SU Journey next time, so be sure to come back and visit!

Thanks for stopping by...