Stampin' UP! Artisan Blog Hop - Watercolor Feather

HOORAY is right!!! I am so blessed and extremely honored to have been selected to be on the 2014-2015 Artisan Design Team for Stampin' UP!  My dream continues! WAHOO!

Here is a quick recap of the story on how I got "the CALL"
Wednesday June 11th around noon. Driving to Chick-fil-A for lunch after Vacation Bible School with my daughter Allison and dear friend Turner. Cell phone hooked up to the Bluetooth in my car rings. Dash display reads a number and Turner says "odd, that is a Utah number" SAY WHAT? I nearly wrecked!  It was Gwen, Christina and Melody from the Stampin' UP! home office! Panic sets in and I accidentally hang up on them! Seriously! They call me back right away and I pull over. "You have been selected to be on the 2014-2015 Artisan Design Team!" ME? NO WAY! A couple of thousand thank you's over and over again. Couple of hellos to everyone on the call. Little business on keeping it a secret totally or not until Convention. Said goodbyes and a chat soon. Jumped out of car in the Chick-fil-A parking lot and started jumping and screaming like a crazy woman! Turner and Allison had a good chuckle. My husband and other daughter Megan met us in the restaurant. I shared with them my news. My hubby was so happy and so proud of me that he had tears in his eyes. A DAY TO REMEMBER FOREVER!

Now remember I was told not to say anything until Awards Night at Convention! ARE YOU KIDDING ME? It was SO hard but I did my best. The most awesome part of Awards night was having all my stamping besties all around me and when they saw my name on that screen, they were the ones completely surprised this year!  That was fun for me!  I also did not know how many made the team or who else was on the team. They announced all the international members first and my mouth dropped to the floor! No way was I on an INTERNATIONAL DESIGN TEAM this big! I was so excited to see Mercedes and Becky from the 2013 Artisan team returning with me as well as some faces of super talented ladies that I have admired for some time. This year is going to be AMAZING!

The North American members of the 2014-2015 Artisan Design Team with Shelly Gardner shown on stage at Awards Night. (L to R; Shelly, Lisa, me, Sarah, Mercedes, Becky, Krista, Kaitlyn and Allison) Oh how I wish the other 8 members from South Pacific, Europe and Hispanic Market could have been on stage with us! 

We got a "specially made for us" Artisan box as we walked off stage. Inside the box was a Tiffany's bracelet with an engraved heart, our contracts, a rubber stamp with my name on it, and a welcome booklet with details on what is next. I also won $500 cash prize and $500 in products! Seriously amazing!!!!! 
THANK YOU STAMPIN' UP!

The next part of this story is what you all came here for... THE 1st ARTISAN BOX! It seriously compares to Christmas morning but way better!

It was packed full of essential products like adhesive, cardstock, inks, etc. Also it had some NEW Designer Series Papers and NEW stamps from the Annual Catalog! You will get to see more of it in the weeks to come.
I quickly pulled the stamp set A Happy Hooray from page 146 in the catalog. It was on my wish list and I was so excited to create with it. Just love the feathers! I also pulled the Watercolor Paper which a favorite of mine and got down to work! So here it is...

I first used Hello Honey Classic Ink Pad and my Aqua Painter to paint my background. I wanted a wash look but with a little bohek effect to it. I then stamped the feathers with Rich Razzleberry, Blackberry Bliss, Soft Suede and Hello Honey on the Watercolor paper. Some of them are direct stamped, or stamped off or even watercolored after stamping. I roughed the edges with the Stampin Distress Tool and cut some slits with my Paper Snips. The rest is Linen Thread and Hooray stamped in Blackberry Bliss on Very Vanilla.

Well, you as a reader are in for a special year on our Stampin' UP! International Artisan Blog Hop! Check back EACH Thursday on our blogs! You are surely to be inspired by all of us 16 lovely ladies from all around the world! Be kind and give us a comment or shot out when you are just crazy in love with our projects! We love to read them in any language!

Thanks for stopping by! I hope this inspire you today to reach for your dreams and create something from your heart!

Cindy

So you saw my buddy Becky Cowley before me and now move on to my new friend Helene Legrand in beautiful France by clicking on the next button below!

The 2014-2015 Artisan Design Team Members

Allison Okamitsu – http://nicepeoplestamp.blogspot.ca/
Barbara Meyer - http://barbaras-kreativ-studio.blogspot.com/ 
Becky Cowley - http://scrapjunkie-becky.blogspot.com/ 
Cindy Schuster - http://www.nutmegcreations.blogspot.com/ 
Helene Legrand - http://stamp2linotte.blogspot.com/ 
Inge Groot - http://patternedpapercrafts.blogspot.com/ 
Kaitlyn Zumbach - http://createwithkaitlyn.blogspot.com/ 
Keith Rueda - http://paperlandcreations.blogspot.com/ 
Kerstin Kreis - http://scraparound.de/ 
Krista Frattin - http://www.stampindolce.com/ 
Lisa Harlow - http://dwelldelightfully.com/ 
Mercedes Weber - http://mercedesweber.blogspot.com/ 
Sarah Sagert - www.sarahsagert.stampinup.net/blog 
Susan Wong - http://stampingsusan.blogspot.com/ 
Teneale Williams - http://tenealewilliams.com.au/ 
Victoria Hayes - http://craftingclare.blogspot.com/