Wow! What a trip!

I just got back from a wonderful OnStage convention in Orlando, Florida, and what a week it was!  I want to share a few of my experiences and some of the new products that will be coming soon.  I was so happy to travel to Florida with 6 of my Ink Masters team members, and we had such a good time.

I was so fortunate this year to have been promoted to Silver Elite, a special designation of Stampin' UP! demonstrators who have achieved sales and recruiting milestones.  So as one of the "perks" of this position, I was given a free day at Epcot at Walt Disney World.  What a gift!  And my teammate, Bonnie, was also part of this group, so on our first day in Florida, we boarded a bus to the park:

Here we are in the bus line.  And the person photo-bombing us with bunny ears is Karie, another Stampin' UP! demo whom I met several years ago.  It was great to catch up!

Once at Epcot, Bonnie and I walked around the entire perimeter of the park, waiting for our roommates to arrive.  It was super hot and extremely humid, but we were enjoying ourselves anyway.  And finally, Tani and Melanie arrived to meet us:

We explored Epcot and ate our way around the "world", walking over 8.5 miles in the sunshine.  Wilting, but having a blast!

Bonnie and I got to enjoy a special evening of fabulous desserts and karaoke before the spectacular fireworks show, and then we made our way back to the hotel to meet up with our friends.

Thursday was the opening day of OnStage Live.  As it was the 30th anniversary of Stampin' UP!'s beginning, it was quite a party!  There were over 6000 demonstrators from all over the world, and the energy level was high!

Throughout our three days there were lots of Prize Patrol give-aways (woohoo!); here was my team with one of them, a fabulous fabric case with the 30th anniversary logo that can hold a variety of our crafting tools.

There was an array of displays all around the convention center.  A timeline of Stampin' UP!'s history was located in the large lunch/Make & Take room, and I found the year that I joined:

There was a cute "30" on the table, and we had fun posing with it:

Here's Tani and me, laughing about whether the 30 would be backwards in our selfie...and check out this one of Bonnie and Gail trying to figure it out:

One more:

Then we all lined up (in our team T's) to grab a photo with the company CEO, Sara Douglass:

There was another photo op, and of course we took advantage of it:

And we had projects to make using new products from the upcoming Occasions Catalog:

And as we left the hall, there were photos of past conventions.  Look who Tani found:

That's me, from several years ago!

I came home with loot!  Take a look at all the prizes/gifts that Stampin' UP! spoiled me with:

Here was our convention bag, which came in a beautiful box:

And finally, here are the gifts from my team mates:

Bonnie decorated an adorable plastic box (perfect for storing embellishments) and filled it with mini candies...YUM!

Gail had her husband drink lots of Frappuccinos so she had enough of these bottles to fill and decorate for each of us.

And Melanie made these cute "suitcases" out of stamp boxes:

They were perfect for holding my supplies for projects:

It was such a fun event, and we laughed until we cried!  Tomorrow I'll share the gifts I made for my team.