I spent the weekend having a blast with my sister Peggy and 93 of my favorite people at our Stampin’ Sisters Retreat.  This is our 13th year of hosting this event in Rockford Illinois.  Peggy and I designed 8 classes which included cards, framed art, scrapbook and 3-D items.  this all adds up to a wonderful fun filled weekend.

The fun for all began Friday evening, when our 93 guests came into our weekend Stampin’ Studio!

Each year we have a theme, so this year, with all the very cold wintry weather we’ve been having here in the Midwest, we went with “Think Spring” and carried out the theme with lots of flowers and butterflies.  Each table was decorated with a flower& butterfly bouquet and a goodie bag for everyone with flowers and their name printed on them.

So, if you’re like most people, you’re wondering what’s in the goodie bags?  The project packs for each of the 8 classes we had for them, as well as the Lovely Lattice stamp set, Stampin’ Dimensionals, Multi-Purpose Tombo Glue, Mini Glue Dots, Tear & Tape, a Blander Pen,and a Sponge

Each year we like to recognize those that have never attended our retreat before.  We affectionately call them our “Newbies”.  We had 16 newbies this year!

Keeping with the theme, I made little flower pot treats for each of the Newbies.

The flower portion slides out of the pot and reveals a sweet sentiment which is attached to a package of gum. 

We also like to honor our team members that attend retreat.  We had 26 in attendance this year.

And of course we want each of them to have a special little gift from us, so I made these sweet little doily packages.  Small gifts are so much more special when they’re packaged up cute!

Registration for our retreat starts the end of June.  Monthly payments can be made, but it’s a lot for us to keep track of, so we offer a special incentive for those who choose to prepay the entire fee upfront.

I made these butterfly containers that each held a roll of Night of Navy Bakers Twine.  I had many requests at retreat for directions for making the Flower Pots, the Doily Holders and the Butterfly containers, so I plan on doing a Facebook Live later this week.  I’ll give directions and sizes, so you can recreate them yourselves.

Be sure to come back tomorrow and for the next week or so as I share all the details of our fabulous Stampin’ Sisters retreat!