CRAFT & CHAT – EPISODE 19
Last weekend was Stampin’ Up!’s OnStage event – an annual convention for any demonstrator who wants to attend. And it was… AWESOME! Think of spending 2.5 days seeing new paper crafting toys with thousands of your best friends. The energy is so fun and it’s a not-to-be-missed event!
Every Saturday, I share a YouTube video that I call Craft & Chat. While I’m not crafting in today’s video, I did want to show off what I brought home from OnStage. Check it out below!
OnStage this year was in Raleigh, North Carolina. I was so grateful to escape the Minnesota cold for warmth! Mother Nature had different ideas, and one day it was 60 degree in NC while it was 74 in MN… oh well!
Below is a photo of the stairs in the convention center, and a few photos of me pointing to my name in the recognition area.
And here are a few more pictures from the event (yes, I was a lucky recipient of a t-shirt cannon!):
TEAM GIFTS & FRIEND GIFTS
I was absolutely thrilled this year to have three of my Inkredible Crafters team members attend OnStage with me! My mom, Kim, was there as well as my team member Jean. Unfortunately Ann was not able to make the trip, but I still had presents for her!
I bought these cute telescoping pencil cases from Amazon (affiliate link) and used permanent vinyl with my Brother Scan N Cut machine to add each person’s name. I also made a bag for myself, my upline Sue, and my up-upline Kristen. Each bag was filled with some goodies. For my team members I also had some acrylic blocks engraved with their names and the OnStage logo (thanks Tamra!).
Here are a few team pictures… selfie! 😉
For gifts for other demo friends, I made up these Fruit Adventure Tic Tac holders (affiliate link) with the now retired Fruit Salad Sale-a-Bration paper. This design was inspired by Julie Davison and it was so easy to put together. And no glue!!
I used a whole pack of Fruit Salad DSP to make these, so I made 48 total. I just thought they were so cute!!
STUFF FROM STAMPIN’ UP & GIFTS
Along with getting stuff from Stampin’ Up! (at checkin, in the Leaders Lounge, from prize patrol, etc.), I was also super duper fortunate to have received SO many gifts! I cherish these so much and am so grateful for the generosity. Take a look at these below:
These are the items I got from Stampin’ Up! I show them off better in the video, but I am so grateful! And it was obviously so much that it extended past my photo backdrops, lol!
Here’s a look at the gifts from so many stampin’ friends! Plus, quite a few people gave me a swap card, even though I didn’t make swaps this time. So sweet!
THE PEOPLE!
While the product is nice, these events fill my cup so much because of the PEOPLE! Some of them I met for the first time in person just a few years ago, others we met for the first time at OnStage. No matter where you go, you can always find a friend! ❤️
TRAVELING HOME
We travelled into Raleigh on Wednesday and it was time to go home bright and early (or really, dark and early!) on Sunday morning. We had a 6a flight home and luckily beat out the storms that were headed into NC. With the time change, we got home before 7:30a and I was up for 21 hours on Sunday. I’m still tired! 😉
Here are just a few more photos of our travels home.
Some light reading on the way home, lol!
I am already so excited for OnStage 2026 in Long Beach, California in March 2026. I hope you’ll join me there!