Yesterday was another busy day out here in St. George for Founder’s Circle. It is all I can do to take it all in and not only soak up the experiences but also try to figure out how I can use this time to better focus & make sure I have the right perspective for my stamping business.
I also have been trying to find ways to use my time and exposure to some of the Stampin’ Up! corporate team to help share the feelings, needs, and opinions of my customers and fellow demonstrators who may not be in the top 100 in the company but are just wanting to enjoy the Stampin’ Up! experience and begin to build a fun business that makes them happy, fufilled, and makes money to boot! This is just such a powerful thing to be able to create amazing things and share that experience and heartfelt feelings with others.
If you can’t tell, coming to Founder’s Circle has turned out to be a more powerful and emotional experience than I expected!
Anyway, I’m sure you are here for the pictures, so let me share a bit of what Day 3 was like!
So, we started out bright and early to do a 90 min drive to Kanab, UT where Stampin’ Up! has their manufacturing facility. When we arrived, there were employees waiting for us outside with signs and amazing smiling faces.
On of the other demos commented that one of the heartwarming parts for her was the Kanab employees cheering for us when we arrived. It felt great, but I have to say I felt like we ought to be cheering for them! 
They are the ones making and packaging the products we love and I am so grateful they love doing it because I love using everything!
Once inside we got to do Make & Takes, visit the Gardner apartment, and take a tour of the facility.
I was so greatful for the kind Josee Smuck who adopted me for the day and made sure I always had friends to hang out with. So, I hung out a lot with some fabulous Canadian Demonstrators.
The Gardner apartment is a good sized apartment above the facility for when Shelli and her family are visiting Kanab, or if any of the home office employees are traveling to Kanab, they can stay here as well. It was the cutest!
And while Shelli couldn’t be here due to her injury, Sara Douglas (her daughter and up-and-coming face for Stampin’ Up!) was here and always so open and willing to chat about just about anything!
Then our tour for making stamps, ink pads, ink refills and paper!
Fun Fact – To make an ink pad, they start with the foam bases and then dump 100 of them into a big mixing bowl. Then they pour in the ink liquid and then put it in a big mixer… like your Kitchen Aid mixer at home! Mix for 2 minutes and you have an inked pad!
I took so many pictures of the manufacturing processes that I’ll be creating another post to share that experience another time.
Then we had a delicious BBQ lunch and then were off to a nearby park where many of the rubber scrap pieces have been chopped up and used for mulch under the play structures.
You can even see some stamp impressions still in the rubber!
Then it was back on the bus for a brief shopping stop and then the 90 minute drive back to Kanab. We had a brainstorming session on the way to Kanab and so the way back was all about fun and prizes! We played Bingo and I won Talking Tags (which I had totally forgotten we had!)
All of this took most of the day and by the time we got back to the hotel, we had just a little bit of time to freshen up and grab dinner before the optional theater excursion to Tuacahn.
I originally hadn’t signed up to go to the show (Mary Poppins) but everyone kept telling me how amazing the theater was that I just had to find a ticket and go.
They were right! The experience was so different and so cool from what you typically see at the big theaters at home. Plus, they could even shoot off fireworks during the performance to add to the emersive effect!
We got back to our hotel rooms around midnight and I was completely toast. But there was another adorable pillow gift waiting for us.
I hadn’t checked a bag on the way here but its looking like I’m going to be checking a bag home! I don’t have these Stampin’ Up! craft scissors but I’ve been wanting to get some for a while. So there is NO WAY I’m going to leave them here, so looks like I’m checking a bag home.
Now its time to take more project pictures, finish my Founder’s Circle make & takes, and get ready for our last big (surprise) event tonight. So, until then, have a great day!
Don’t forget! Founder’s Circle Specials this week!
**Receive DOUBLE your reward punches for each purchase!
That is right! For every $40 you order, you will receive two punches on your punch card and be that much closer to receiving a free stamp set of your choice! See how Northwest Stamper Reward Punches work
and as an extra thank you,
**Everyone who places an order by 9/22 will be entered to win a free Christmas Star stamp and package of rhinestones!
And once I got here, it was even neater than I expected. So, I wanted to share with you some of the fun I’ve experienced all ready so you can live the experience with me.
Thank you so much for joining us for the September Stylin’ Stampin’ Squad Blog Hop! This month we are focusing on the tools of the stampin’ trade. Specifically, each of our favorite stamping tools. It’s amazing the kinds of tools that have been created to help us along in our paper-crafting addictions. This month’s blog hop will showcase many of the Stampin’ Up! tools that are now available to us in the 2013-2014 Stampin’ Up! Idea Book and Holiday Catalog and even a couple of products that are so new they aren’t in either catalog. We hope you enjoy seeing how we use the old and new tools and are inspired to come up with some great projects of your own.
Keep reading to see if you caught them all!
) Then we glued the labels together so the Coastal Cabana peeked through!
