The Chicago Supershow is SUPER!!!

Today was another AWESOME freakin' day in Chicago!! These krafty gals are krazy!! haha!! I got to see tons more peeps and take lots more pictures, in between my shifts helping out at the Flower Soft booth! Wanna see some????

This sweet gal is my girlfriend, Colleen Schaan! We have 'known' each other through SCS and online, and then through blogging, etc. It was so amazing to finally meet in person....I love her! What a doll!

Me and Beate....she said she LOVES my stamps!! heehee!


Since the picture from yesterday sucked so bad, I took another one with my MFT pal, Joanne Basile!


Here's me with the sweet Christina Fischer...we are pals from my CCDesigns design team days! And Kerry Johnson....we live only a couple of hours from each other but had to come all the way to Chicago to hang out!!



There is a hilarious story behind these pictures....short version, Kerry and I got bamboozled into doing an 'American's Next Top Krafter' contest! Haha! We were lured into the challenge, which included a loud speaker, a photographer and videotaper and judges....*eyeroll*....under the pretense of prizes!!! We both decided the humiliation was worth the gift cards and free titanium trimmers!! Baaaahahaaaaa!


Me an' Mercy!!! Man, this woman makes me pee my pants.....NOT kidding!


The SUPER sweet Pam Varnell!


Ask me how much I love Jessica Diedrich!!!


The hugger.....Sara Henton!


How beautiful is Cammie?? We were on MFT together....such a fun girl and I'm thrilled we've finally met...and hugged!


And Tori Wild and I practically screamed and we DID jump up and down when we saw each other!!! We were on CCDesigns dt way back when! She's so adorable!!!

Can't wait to see who else we run into tomorrow. It's our very last day here in Chicago and we'll be sorry to say goodbye to everyone but Andrea and I are missin' our families!! Can't wait to see them!

Day 2 of the Chicago Trade Show!!

It was another super fun day at the trade show yesterday!! We were up and at 'em early yesterday and toured the convention center, checkin' out the booths we didn't get to see on Wednesday.

We met up with LOTS more krafty friends!!! What a hoot! It's just so incredible to meet up with girls I've known online for years, literally, and we finally get to hug it out!! Heehee!

Unfortunately, my camera would not cooperate yesterday so all of my pictures are blurry....I mean, seriously blurry. It COULD be the operator....(Andrea).....but I'm not pointin' fingers! So I'll post the best ones out of the crappy pics!! hehe! Hopefully today's pics will be better!!

Andrea and I with our pal, Suzanne Dean

Finally got to hug Joanne Basile...we've known each other since our days on MFT together!


The lovely Jenn Balcer...love that girl!


The sweet and adorable Joy Kennedy from Our Craft Lounge!!


These girls are the BEST!!! We got along like a house on fire!! You know those people that you just meet and instantly hit it off and have a connection?? That's these ladies!! We were so LOUD and laughing so HARD!! Then we had lunch together......I pity the people sitting around us!! hehe!
Pam Varnell, Mercy Kerin, me and Jessica Diedrich!!


Crazy bunch!

Hopefully I'll get lots more pics today....and hopefully they won't be BLURRY.....ANDREA!!! *giggle*

Thank YOU!!

What a fantastic weekend! I know it's almost the weekend again, but I'm only now getting a chance to post pictures!!

Sunday was the Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps release party at Scrappin' Great Deals and it was so much fun!! A bunch of the Krafty Girls were there, Crissy Armstrong was there, there were make and takes and snacks and refreshments....and of course, the new stamps were there!!!



There were SO many stampin' ladies there, coming to help us celebrate and to get their inky fingers on new rubber.....my kinda gals!! heehee! We had a beautiful display of sample cards made by the design team, along with printed copies of cards that the Krafty Girls who live far away had sent me, so we ooohed and aaahed over them all afternoon! Everything was beautiful!!

Lots of people did the make and takes....in fact, there were none left after all was said and done! They must have had fun playing with all the new images! Thank you SO much to Andrea for preparing all the supplies and stampin' up all the images....you did a great job, girl!

Crissy, Moi and Andrea

Crissy did a couple of colouring demonstrations....one with Copics and one watercolouring with Tombows. Everyone was crowded around her table the whole time. Thank you SO much Crissy for sharing your time and talent with everyone. You make it all look so easy! I am SO grateful to be working with of the most fantastic illustrators, helping to make my visions turn into rubber stamps!! Crissy and Annie, you are both oozing with talent and it's such a joy to work with both of you! I count myself very blessed!!

Tracey, Nicky, Brenda, Mom and Me

It was fabulous to spend the afternoon with so many wonderful ladies that came out to celebrate with us!! There were some old friends, some bloggin' friends that I finally got to meet in person, and some brand new friends!! My pals Nicky, Brenda and Tracey came from far and wide just to see little ol' me.....well, and maybe my new rubber goodies too!

And thank you to the local (and not so local) Krafty Girls that travelled to come and hang with us at the party!! Tara, Vicki, Diana and Andrea....you all mean the world to me!! We have got to get together more often for some serious stampin' time!!

Andrea, Tara, Mom (Diana), Vicki, Me, Sheila and Crissy!!

Thanks so much to my entire design team of Krafty Girls.....Andrea, Diana, Elaine, Jeanne, Niki, Tara, Vicki....I cannot put into words how much I appreciate the generosity of your time, your talent and your spirits! It's been such a joy to share this with you. I want to especially 'shout out' to my girl Jeanne, who is my right AND left hand gal! I could not have figured out half of this stuff on my own. I love ya, girl!

Thank you to my family....Al and Emileigh are my 'employees' and will cut or package whenever I put scissors in their hands and they are so into the whole stamp company thing! They are having as much fun with it as I am, I think! Mom and Dad, you are so supportive and I appreciate that more than words can say.



But the biggest thanks has to go to Sheila for offering to throw me this awesome launch party to help kick off my new company!! It truly was an amazing afternoon of fun, laughter, new friends, old friends and lots of inky goodness!! I absolutely adore you Sheila and can't thank you enough for being such a loyal and supportive friend in helping me start Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps!!

*sniff, sniff* Okay...enough sappiness....I gotta hit the hay!

Copic Certification Day!!

So I left you on the last post, as we were just about to fall asleep after a fabulous but looooong day of stampin' fun. Well, sleep came well to three of the ladies in our hotel room....one was not so fortunate!!! One poor soul was awake alllllll night long, listening to the CONSTANT rumbling noises of a freight train beside her in the bed. She tossed and turned, she tried sleeping with the pillow over her head, she tried plugging her ears with her fingers, she tried plugging her ears with the bed sheets....all were fruitless efforts. Eventually she put on a sweatshirt and fuzzy socks and crept into the bathroom. She brought in two pillows and laid down several of the bath towels and curled up on the hard, cold floor!!! STILL, she could hear the freight train but eventually she did get a half hour's sleep. When she woke up, her back was killing her, so she had to get back in bed beside the freight train but she was SO exhausted that she finally fell asleep for an hour and a half before she had to get up to start the day!!

I tell you all this, so that when you look at all the pictures below, you will excuse my disheveled, exhausted look. In most of them, I look like a deer caught in the headlights and my hair was not cooperating (plus I was simply past the point of caring by then) and the headlights are bouncing off my gigantic forehead. There...that's my disclaimer!!

Anyhoo, we got up (some of us more slowly than others) and had Timmie's for breakfast, then headed to the hotel ballroom for the Copic workshop. It was fabulous meeting so many of the wonderful gals that I've 'known' through blogging and emailing for the last couple of years!!



The first one I met was Kerry Johnson!! What a fun and vivacious gal!! We're instant friends, I'm tellin' ya!! OH and she's up for the MFT Idol right now and her week two project is an AMAZING children's counting book! I got to see it in real life, so be SURE to go and vote for her before 10pm EST tonight!!! You're a shoe-in Kerry!!! *wave*




Then my pal Tara arrived!!! It was so fun to finally meet after months and months of yakking and emailing and doing our challenges together!! Tara is exactly how I imagined her to be....so sweet and lovely!! Tara just got invited to be a Guest Designer for Whiff of Joy and I'm so excited for her!!! Way to go Tara!!! *hugs*




Of course here are the High Hopes Divas that all made a loooooong trip in order to meet up with each other.....oh and of course the Copic thing too! haha!!!



Janette is from Buffalo, NY and even though there was a Copic workshop right where she lives, she made the trip to Toronto just to meet Crissy and I!! It was her first trip away from her kiddos and her first to Toronto!! I'm SO proud of her! Janette is SUCH a super sweetie!! Love you, Janette!!

I already told you that Crissy came the night before and she and Andrea and I hung out in the hotel room and coloured. I ran down the hotel hallway to grab her and hug her when she arrived! What a doll! She is truly an awesome artist, both in her drawing and her colouring. (I'm not gushing though!) She showed us some cool tricks that I've been practicing. I SO wish we could have spent more time together! Love you, Crissy!!




Julia Stainton and I FINALLY got to meet! After two years of talking back and forth through emails and blogging, we finally met! Can you believe that we live only about 20 mins apart and we had to travel all the way to Toronto to meet?? Crazy, right?! She's so sweet!



And Sherrie Siemens and I were on a Design Team together briefly a while back, so we know each other too! She was a co-teacher of the Copic workshop and it was fabulous to watch her work and learn from her. Sherrie is a fantabulous artist!!!



The workshop was awesome and we learned lots. We got some cool stuff to take home and got to play with different techniques that we'll be using for sure! Here are Janine and Amy workin' away!!

Overall it was an awesome day, I just wish it could have lasted longer. I have a beautiful new Copic Designer certificate that will be proudly displayed on my wall and now I can add that little Copic badge to my blog. I'd better do that before I forget.

Let me leave you with one last pic. If you haven't figured out who the noisy freight train is....here is a shot of her trying to apologize and make it up to me!!! Love ya girl!! *giggle*

Bella Heaven!!

Could we BE having any more fun??? I think NOT!!! What a super fantabulous day!!

We started fairly early (after a night of SOMEONE snoring.....wasn't me, that's all I'm sayin')...here's me waiting for Andrea....



Andrea was a super navigator and kept me calm while driving through Toronto to our favourite place.......Stampingbella.....it's our 'happy place'!! We arrived in the morning to warm hugs from Emily and she had tables all set up for us to play on. Of COURSE we went shopping first!! Nicky came in a little bit later and we got MORE big warm hugs!! We stamped and coloured and took LOTS of pictures!!!



Here's me and Em (she's stressin' over a big show she's leaving for in Boston and I think at this moment she caught sight of some rather non-crafty business cards she ordered....*yipes*). Of course, her 'stubby' (stampin' hubby) Ryan is hard at work on the phone over there too. Let's just say that he and I got to know each other well, during several trips to the cash register throughout the day!!! *wink*



Here's me and the colouring goddess, Nicky!! I spent all day learning at the hand of the master!! I sat beside her all day and just watched her colour with her Lyra pencils. And I shared some of my Copic techniques with her....not that I'm any better, she just wanted to see how I do things, like faces and hair. heehee! Nicky is such a wonderful, generous person and such a good teacher! She came in to work even though she was feeling pretty rough from a sickie weekend, JUST to hang out with us!!I love you , Nicky!!! I miss you already! Mwah!!




Some of our friends from home came too! If you are from London and have ever attended any classes at Stamp Art, you may having learned from another colouring genius, Janine!!! She just looooooooves getting her picture taken, don't you Janine??!! *giggle*

Then our brave girl Amy, (who showed up after all the picture taking) drove all the way to downtown Toronto to go to Curry's!! She'd NEVER been to Toronto before and she braved the traffic of downtown TO!! What a girl!!!

The peeps at Bella ordered in pizza and pop for us, to keep us energized for many hours of stampin', colourin' and gigglin'!!! Heehee! SUCH a fun day.....really....couldn't have asked for more!!

We drove back to the hotel and Crissy and Janette arrived! Crissy had met up with Janette in St. Catherines and we got back to the hotel and there they were!!! Hugs all around....again! Then we went out to Casey's for dinnah!! (I'll have pics of them tomorrow!)

We came back to the room FULL of food ....... and ready to stamp! We spent a couple of hours trading images and stamping out hearts out!! After a long day, we turned in. What a night!!! Well....I'll save that story for tomorrow! Along with many more pictures!!

To be continued......

We're Heeeeeeeeere!!!

Just thought I'd give you a quick update and let you know that we arrived in Toronto safely!! I was a bit worried as I've never driven here before, but it was noooo sweat!!!

We got to our hotel about 4:30 or so this afternoon and we were thrilled to find that our hotel parking lot is shared with a movie theatre, a Casey's restaurant, an Applebee's restaurant, a Wendy's and a Tim Horton's!!! How awesome is that??? We can run out for coffee and cappucinos whenever we feel the need for caffeine!!!

So we got to our room and dropped everything off (only took us two trips...haha!) and then we went over to Applebee's for a wonderful supper! Now we are back in the room stampin' and colouring our little hearts out!!! Would you like to see??





Well, that's all for now! I think we're going to head over for some coffee and do some more stampin'! Then we're getting up early to go visit da Bellas!!!! Will post more tomorrow!!!

What a Day!!!

Well, I'm back from my little overnight getaway with my honey! Didja miss me??? Heehee! We had a great time at IKEA on Sunday! I got some wonderful organizational thingies for my craft room, including some of those towel bars for my punches. So I'm excited to get organizing this week ('cause remember, I'm off from work...yippee!). But the best part of the weekend was yesterday morning!!

We woke up in our nice hotel room after sleeping in...aaaaahhhh! Then my wonderful, amazing husband took me to........Stampingbella!!! Emily and I have 'known' each other online and through emails since she first opened her shop about two years ago, but we had never met. Well, the trip was a last minute thing and I emailed her the night before to see if she would be at the store and she was so excited I was coming! (Not nearly as excited as I was to finally be going, I'm sure!)



So we walked into the store and we got the warmest greeting from everyone!!! Emily gave me a huge hug and we met the super talented Nicky and of course, Emily's adorable husband Ryan. And as if that wasn't enough, Pinky66 (aka Lori Brown) from SCS was there!!!!! Hi Lori!! *waving* It was so much fun! Al took a bunch of pictures of us with everyone's cameras and then, the sweetheart that he is, he took off and left me there!! Haha! He went to a little mall nearby and shopped for a bit....a long bit.



Well, we all visited and chatted and SHOPPED!!! The store is a rubber haven....walls and walls of pink packages of Bellas and Stellas and sentiments and of course the new Ketto stamps went on sale on Friday, so most of them were sold out BUT while I was there, a new shipment arrived! Woohoooooo! We all crowded around Emily while she lovingly handcut them out of the rubber for us! I picked up just about one of everything!! I LOVE KETTOS!!! Then Nicky, Lori and I coloured for a little bit and chatted about Copics, ink, paper, etc. *sigh*







When Al came back, he had gotten the photos printed for EVERYONE!!! How sweet is he??? The girls all love him....I knew they would! He also brought me lunch and we sat and ate while chatting with the gals!



Sadly, we had to leave....Al had let me stay for about two and a half hours and although I could have stayed ALL day, we had to go. I can't WAIT to go back in two weeks! YEP! When we go down for the Copic Certification workshop, we'll be spending the WHOLE day in Bellaland!!! Heehee!!!

Okay, I will be back later with an actual card, but I just wanted to share my wonderful day with you!