My Local Team Christmas Party

A couple of weeks ago, I held our local team Christmas Party.  I wish I could meet with my entire team, but unfortunately we're spread all across the United States.  I have a group of about 30 local here in the Boise area, so we gathered to enjoy an evening celebrating Christmas and enjoying each other's company. 

I rented out Cacicia's Old World Sicilian Food Restaurant in the Village here in Boise.  Jake and Donna were wonderful to work with!  They allowed me to come in and decorate and set up the place to suit our needs.

 

 

These were the centerpieces for all the tables.  I stamped on the little chalkboards and then embossed with white embossing powder.  I have an whole set of both of these books from my parents and there just happen to be enough for all the tables!  I always wondered what I might do with them! LOL!

 

 

We had a gift exchange and a card swap. The gift exchange was a $5 maximum cost because it was all about the wrap - the Stampin' Up! wrap!  We had some gorgeous creative gift packaging - WOW!

 

 

First place gift exchange swap went to Kozzette Bennett with her Tiny Treat Box Advent Calendar.

 

Second place gift exchange swap went to Sabine Swanson with this really cool mason jar covered in twine (and filled with beautiful paper flowers).  It had a magnet in it and all the little seasonal pieces that magnet to it throughout the year.

 

Third place gift exchange swap went to Cathy Stephenson and her adorable punch art snowman box.

 

First place card swap went to Cathy Stephenson.

 

 

Second place card swap went to Vicki Eisenbeisz.

 

 

Third place card swap went to Jennifer Thomas.

 

These two are photos of the gift exchange right/left game we played.  I had to stop in the middle to take a picture it was so funny...and I was laughing, but maybe they are blurry to protect the innocent! *Ü*

 

 

 

For the 'entertainment' portion of the party, I invited a special guest to join us - Sarah Foutz of Sarah Pearl Studios.  She gave us a lesson on Brush Lettering.  

 

We used our Stampin' Up! Stampin' Write Brush Markers and a couple of others she has me order to learn the proper way of lettering. Sarah provided these amazing booklets for everyone all packaged in the Home For Holidays Designer Series Paper.

 

I asked her to focus on creative writing on envelopes since we make and send cards all the time.  She used my address on all the envelope samples - that was such a surprise!  Then she gave everyone an envelope to take home with them.

Beginning the lesson - skinny upstrokes and heavy down strokes. This is harder than it looks folks!

We all practiced in our booklets first.

 

Look at this concentration! 

 

I did good, huh!  Just kidding, this is Sarah's work and we're supposed to trace over it on paper to learn the lettering at first. *Ü*

 

We had such a fun time, Sarah was so gracious in making sure everyone understood and had at least a small grasp on her enormous talent before the evening ended.  Thank you Sarah and thank you to my wonderful local team for a very fun evening!

 

This week's Weekly Deals

 

This years 12 Days of Christmas 2015 Edition tutorial is now available.  The link to purchase is on my sidebar and the tutorial page of this blog.  Thank YOU!

 

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