Happy Sunday everyone! I can’t believe a week ago I was finishing my 2016 Incentive Trip adventure, but yes a whole week has gone already! I know you all want to know what we got up to and have probably seen the stash photo I posted on Facebook – I was so thoroughly spoilt and felt very humbled and amazingly loved by this company – more than any other company I’ve ever worked with before, they really do love their demonstrators! This is going to be a bit of a longer post than normal – so please bear with me – and please comment – it’s worth it!

I achieved the 2016 Incentive Trip back in September last year, so t’s been a long time coming, but boy was it worth it! We arrived in Barcelona a couple of days early as we’d never been and wanted to have a look around, and stayed at the fabulous Rey Juan Carlos hotel. I must say we loved the city and would certainly go back! The ship departed Sunday afternoon, and it was all aboard and a bit of a welcome session in the Bliss Lounge exclusively for Stampin’ Up! They had set up a hospitality area where we could go and chill out every day, plus some exclusive events throughout the week – I’ll just say Stampin’ Up! have some amazingly talented singers from around the world and leave it to you to work out how I know that! Plus we got to play Spin the Wheel every day for free giveaways!

We had General Session on the Monday where we got to meet a lot of the Corporate team, had amazng demonstrations of new products and also Sara and Shelli spoke to us and gave a huge thank you to our “guest” for their support of us in our jobs, since we all know that without our partners and helpers we wouldn’t be able to do what we do – Shaun was chuffed with his applause & hat! There was of course prize patrol for some and an all attendee giveaway! We are so easily pleased! Free product and we’re anyone’s!

During the Incentive Trip Stampin’ Up! also gave us 2 free Evening events – Cirque Dreams and Burn the Floor – Cirque Dreams was my favourite especially as Shelli & Sterling were at our show and were totally set up by their grand-children! Just ask Shelli about the cow bells next time you see her!

Of course we also had shore excursions, and my album will be bursting with the photos we took in Pompeii, Rome and Florence! It was so fabulous to be able to be on holiday with my favourite “family” – my Stampin’ Up! fellow demonstrators from around the world!

All amazing and beautiful in different ways – but we were very pleased we got to be in Rome with Paula (head of Stampin’ Up! UK) as she speaks Italian (so lunch was easy) and helped us be able to cross the road – man those guys take no prisoners, Zebra crossings?!!? nope more like guidelines to say “you might want to try to cross here – but on your own head be it”!!! Here she is with me, Julie and Sarah from Oz! (no idea who the bloke was – just a passerby!)

You may remember a small challenge being set by Paula to me back in 2014 – if you make the cruise Pip I’ll be your Hair Twin! Well, she did it – just for the first day – but everyone liked it so much, she might just do it again! Here’s the proof – looks good eh?

Friday we had Make & Takes on the ship! A fabulous experience, crafting with my friends and having Shaun my trusty photographer on hand to shoot us and my creations – with of course a mushroom! Yes we brought the mushroom with us so we could take a proper blog post photo on board! I would have posted it last weekend but had no wifi!! He’s so amazing, I’m so grateful I got to share my first Incentive Trip with him! I have fallen in love with this stamp set too!

Sadly we couldn’t get off the ship in Marseilles because of strikers and there was no guarantee to get back to the ship, so we decided to stay onboard and try to sort out the luggage!

I had received so many amazing pillow gifts, spin the wheel and general session giveaways (we got a gift every night in our cabin, all displayed in these fab recyclable containers, with beautiful sayings on the front & tied with ribbon!) that we had to leave behind a few non stamping, non essential things (like our travel kettle – although that smarted just a little for Shaun!) and we had 3 cases to start with! It was worth the sacrifice though!

All of these amazing giveaways to me just made me realise more and more that I’d never have got the chance to be on this incredible Incentive Trip if it wasn’t for you my customers and my amazing team – so please, please if you’re a UK customer comment below and I’ll add your name to my free draw to get yourself a new stamp set from me to say thank you for helping me get on this Incentive Trip. I’m running a separate giveaway for my team, so don’t worry, they’re not missing out! If you’ve commented on my Facebook post, or Wednesday’s post then yes you’ll get added in too – but I want to give away stuff to YOU – so don’t be shy, leave a comment and you never know everyone might just all get a little something!! We’ll never forget this trip – a massive thank you to everyone who has helped me really, truly “live the dream” (my ex work colleagues will know what I mean by that!).

So now it’s back to reality and a little more giving back. As you know from previous postings I used the RMHC stamp set on the inside back cover of the catalogue for my Incentive Trip swap and this month I’m really doing a push to raise awareness of this charity in the UK, I have 2 Ronald MacDonald House Charity events organised on the 16th & 18th June. On the 16th we’ll be at the John Radcliffe Children’s Hospital in Oxford all day from 10am – 3pm with Make & Takes, card sales and of course the new catalogue to raise money for this amazing charity.

On the 18th I’ve got my combined launch event and RMHC charity event – with MORE make & takes, play time tables, added guest sellers from Stella & Dot and Neal’s Yard, plus of course your catalogue and cake! You can RSVP for my Launch day HERE and just come & say Hi in Oxford if you can on the 16th! If you’d like to make my 2016 Incentive Trip swap then all of the product details are shown below – the ruched ribbon is gorgeous and this stamp set is handy for all occasions throughout the year! For all my events, check out my new layout Stampin’ Up! calendar HERE it’s looking very pretty!

So, phew – that’s me done, until I see or chat with you next, take care, happy stamping and comment below! Hugs, Pip x

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