Here is the notice we got today about the effectiveness of the Strength and Hope Campaign. If you have forgotten about it, it is what they called the efforts to raise money for the Brest Cancer Research Foundation by the sale of the Strength and Hope stamp set that was in the Summer Mini Catalog.

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You Did It! Results of the Strength & Hope Campaign

October 13, 2011
The Strength & Hope Campaign, benefiting The Breast Cancer Research Foundation^®(BCRF), came to an end on August 31. We thank you and your customers for your amazing support of this global philanthropic campaign. Each of you did your part to make a difference, and by doing so, we raised nearly $60,000, which will go toward helping BCRF "achieve prevention and a cure for breast cancer in our lifetime" (BCRF Mission Statement).

Again, thank you for living Stampin' Up!'s Statement of the Heart and doing your part to make a positive difference in the lives of others.

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I love that Stampin' Up is always looking for ways to help people out. They also have the cute set called Turtle & Co. on page 16 of the big catalog with the proceeds going to the Ronald McDonald house.

Here are 2 of the projects we made at the half-day regional in Birmingham, Alabama last weekend. It was a wonderful day for me. Even getting up early to make the trip was nice since the morning was beautiful.

I love the stamp set we used for these projects. It will be in the upcoming Occasions Mini catalog so you have to wait until January to order it. I still haven't ordered everything I want from the Holiday Mini catalog though so I can wait. I love how we always decorate the envelopes at Stampin' Up events. I always forget this detail and I really like how you can get a preview of the love and attention that went into the card before you open it.

Since the conference was only 3 hours long we only actually made these 2 projects. There were also several demonstrators who showed us fun ideas, one was my good friend Mary Robinson who is in the same team I'm in. She did a great job and I know she was nervous but you couldn't tell by watching her. I need to find the time to try the technique she did as well as the other ones that were demonstrated. Everyone in attendance also received a card keeper box to decorate, an art journal and kit that they challenged us to create in, along with a sheet of prompts to keep us going and give ideas for the pages. We also got an extra mini scrapbook project plus to make at home. Maybe I'll get time to make that today.

If you have never been to Alabama you might not know that they have huge fields of cotton. We saw quite a few along the freeway so I took a couple of pictures with my phone. You can tell by how blue the sky was that it was a beautiful day. It's not a great picture since it is the phone, through a window, going about 75 MPH but you get the idea of how white the fields are. Cotton is an interesting crop - I reckon I'm glad I don't have to pick all this cotton though!.