Hello all! I have just returned from the cruise and as amazing as it was, I am still glad to be home! The kids spent last night tucked into their own little beds and all is well in the Heady household once again!
Needless to say, the last few weeks have been full of fun, laughs, new friends, new places and almost more excitement than one person can hold! I thought it would be best to break the trip down into nice little bite size pieces...
October 15th: After a late night with the release party, we left a bit later than we originally intended, 2:30pm. We had a u-haul trailer packed to the gills with boxes of supplies for the cruise. Seven of us embarked on the drive from Tennessee to Florida in our family mini van; myself, David, all three kids and my in-laws. It was quite cozy! (*wink*). Several bathroom breaks later (and a picnic dinner) we arrived at our designated stop in Georgia at 11pm to stop for the night.
October 16th: We got back on the road early and got to Port Canaveral, Florida around 5pm. We grabbed some dinner at a beautiful little Italian place with an outdoor patio. Had a brief phone conversation with Gina & Emily after they arrived and made plans to meet in the morning.
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October 17th: An early morning start was in order as we had TONS of final preparations to do for the cruise. David and I met up with Gina, Emily & Nicky. Arrangements had been made for Gina to get a very large suite so we could use it to work in during the the final days leading up to the main event. (Here's a photo that Gina took as David and I prepped class kits). Even though we were dedicating ourselves to the task at hand, we had fun telling stories and making each other laugh. Emily and I jokingly coined the phrase "This is all Gina's fault!".
One of the biggest jobs was filling all of the goody bags. David, Gina & I took on that task as Emily & Nicky completed the monstrous job of filling their adorable pink *Bella Boxes* to be included in the bags too. (This is a photo Gina took of them working through the stacks and stacks of pink boxes!) All of us worked into the wee hours of the morning.
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October 18th: We went back to work early to finish all the prep work needed and re-pack & seal the boxes that needed to be taken to the ship. David took Gina to the local u-haul facility at 11am to pick up our rental truck. Ryan & Joe (Emily & Nicky's hubsters) arrived shortly thereafter and all the *boys* began loading the truck. I think the final count was around 70 boxes! (This is a photo Emily took of the final loading of the truck! Ryan & Joe are *supervising*) We finished a bit earlier than expected, so David an I took some time out to take Owen & Hannah to the Kennedy Space Center. The compound was much bigger than we expected. The kids were in awe of the sheer size of everything and had a complete blast! (no pun intended!)
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October 19th: The big day had finally arrived! The kids especially were so excited to finally get on board the ship! See that necklace Hannah is wearing? Emily & Nicky helped her to make it, and it quickly became one of Hannah's most prized possessions. Hannah loved *Miss Emily* because they shared a love of the color pink and all things rainbow!
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This was the view from our stateroom, overlooking Port Canaveral. It was a beautiful sunny day and couldn't have been more picture perfect. David surprised all of us and had a bottle of champagne waiting in the room when we arrived. We stood on the balcony as he gave a toast to the upcoming week and all the fun that was in store.
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The Meet & Greet was scheduled for that evening, where all of the stampers got to pick up their goody bags and we got to meet everyone for the first time in person. Even though I was not feeling well due to a case of motion sickness, I had an absolute blast. There isn't anything more gratifying than hearing grown women scream at the sight of a goody bag that you participated in preparing! Emily, Gina & I took the opportunity to serenade the very first registered guest of the stamp + cruise with our own special rendition of Row, Row, Row your Boat.
The generous sponsors for the AMAZING Goody Bags for this cruise were as follows...
-Scor-Pal: a Scor-Pal for EVERY Stamp + Cruise guest
-JustRite Stampers: a monogram alphabet set
-Stewart Superior: black Memories ink pad, white embossing powder, BOTH gold & silver Metallic Mists
-Coredinations: cardstock sampler pack
-Marvy Uchida: extra jumbo snowflake punch & my personal favorite opaque white fine tip paint pen
-Spellbinders: various dies
-Peerless Transparent Watercolors: a special cruisin' color pack
-Fiskars: the new fabulous finger knife and a set of foam dimensionals
-Gina K. Designs: 8 all-new stamp sets, blending stumps and orderless mineral spirits, set of 24 Koh-i-noor Woodless Colour Pencils, finger grip acrylic block
-Stamping Bella: Over 30 new stamp images, a dozen various baubles & em-bella-shments, all packed in ADORABLE pink cupckae boxes!
-Papertrey Ink: 5 stamp sets, 1 yard each of every ribbon carried before October's release (50 yards total!), and a collection of 10 ink cubes in all our exclusive colors.
-and of course an incredible bag to carry it all in and a coordinating water bottle!
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October 20th: Our first day at sea and the first full day of stamping classes. David and I dedicated the entire day to teaching a class entitled Shimmer & Shine, which explored different options for adding sparkle to their projects.
Using our White Shimmer cardstock and a circle punch to create bold & trendy polka dots.
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Learning about Metallic Mists (Stewart Superior donated some for EVERY person to take home in their goody bags) and how to transform ordinary cardstocks.
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Utilizing a Xyron Sticker Maker and glitter to create custom sugar-coated accents. They also got to try out one of Lauren's new templates, Music Makeover!
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October 21st: We arrived at Labadee, Haiti first thing in the morning. It was a fabulously sunny day, so we knew we wanted to go ashore and spend the day on the beach. The entire family took one of the tenders to the island. David took this shot of the ship shortly after we arrived. It is SO much bigger than I anticipated! There were about 3,400 guests and 1,300 crew members on board along with us!
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Owen & Hannah spent the day in the water while David, his parents, Ethan and I made ourselves at home on the beach. The views were wonderful and the weather couldn't have been more perfect. That evening after returning to the ship, David and I taught two more classes (a bit more about those later). Hannah really wanted to attend one of my classes, so she tagged along that night. Julie Masse was kind enough to take Hannah under her wing and help her to complete all of the projects as I taught. It meant SO much to Hannah and I can't thank Julie enough for her kindness!
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October 22nd: This time we awoke to Ocho Rios, Jamaica, pulling right in, going pier-side. It was absolutely fascinating to watch the crew prepare for the passengers to disembark there. They obviously had it down to a science. We decided to go into town to do some shopping.
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Here's a family shot taken by the ship's photographer of us setting foot on Jamaican soil for the first time. Hannah and Owen were beyond excited! While in Jamaica, Hannah got her hair braided & beaded. We spent the afternoon at Margaritaville which had a huge water slide that went from the second story down to the first story pool. The kids had an amazing time. Later that night once back on the ship, David and I taught the same two classes as the previous night (projects to follow).
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October 23rd: Another day, another port! We arrived at Grand Cayman, unfortunately along with a rainy & overcast day. We decided to just stay on board the ship and hang out since we hadn't really gotten the opportunity to do that yet. We attended an ice show that evening before dinner, courtesy of arrangements made by Gail from Cruise One. Hannah & Owen thoroughly enjoyed that! Hannah even got asked to participate in the show, but she declined; her shyness overpowering her desire to do it! That night after dinner, David and I taught the last rotation of the same class we had been teaching the previous two nights, entitled "Scor-Pal Accents", obviously sponsored by Scor-Pal.
Using score lines to define a patterned strip on the front of a card.
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Exploring the flexibility of adding a dashed score line in as a decorative border.
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Creating embossed grids as background elements.
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October 24th: We arrived in Cozumel, Mexico mid-morning. We were glad to see the sun again; a nice day was a welcome change from the day before. Mexico was just like something from a book or a movie. This was one of the shots from the ship of a peninsula jutting out from the shoreline. The white sandy beaches, blue sky and aquamarine water are just as vivid as one might imagine.
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The ship's photographer took a group shot of us with a little local history as we disembarked in Mexico. We were heading in for a day of shopping & culture and a little bit of beach time on the side!
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After exploring the downtown area for a bit, we settled into a beautiful local restaurant for lunch. It was probably one of the most picture perfect settings of our trip. The entire perimeter of the restaurant was made of french doors, which were all opened to the sea. The combination of ceiling fans and a sea breeze made the climate perfect. The view of the ocean through the palm trees was amazing. Fresh food and drink could not have tasted any better. And we got serenaded by a local group of musicians who played some traditional Mexican tunes. It was fabulous.
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After lunch we decided to wander down to the beach, and I am so glad we did. It was my favorite beach that we visited. It was almost a cliche with how perfect everything was.
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The *skyline* was wonderful, with the scattered palm trees filtering the sunlight so that it wasn't too intense. I remember thinking that I wouldn't mind staying right there in my chair for a few more days!
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Owen, Hannah & David spent our designated beach time out in the water on the inflatables that were set up. The water trampoline was a big hit with Owen and Hannah, and my dear husband, who is just a big kid at heart (in the blue shorts) enjoyed climbing the *rock wall* and going down the slide on the opposite side.
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That night on the ship was what we called pot luck night. All of the guests had some challenges from each of the three companies to try to complete within the allotted time. Emily, Gina and I mingled between the three rooms as they worked. I got to have some fabulous one on one conversations with SO many people. I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it! This is Michelle, and she was one of the five people that celebrated their birthday while onboard with us. (Photo courtesy of Gina) We surprised Michelle and the others with a special rendition of Happy Birthday, sung in our best operatic voices! And of course you cannot have a birthday without a gift, so we gave each of them a Scor-Mat, courtesy of Scor-Pal!
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October 25th: This was the final day at sea, and also the last stamping day. David and I taught the same class to all six groups of 25 from 8am-5pm. I was a little over zealous in my planning and the class was coined "Nichole's Boot Camp" by the third class, but everyone REALLY enjoyed it. The projects that we did were based on an original design by Michelle Wooderson. We called the class "PDQ Gifts"...
They each made a junior legal pad cover, tote and set of notecards to fit in the tote. Everyone said that it was their favorite Papertrey class of the week.
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After dinner was the scheduled Mix & Mingle night (photo by Gina). We gave away door prizes to everyone in attendance and even a grand prize, a QuicKutz Revolution (nearly a $200 retail value) to one lucky winner. There were a lot of laughs and fun as we had the opportunity to interact with everyone this last time. It was a wonderful way to end the week. I am still amazed at the appreciation and gratitude that each of the guests extended towards David & I, along with the other hostesses. Stampers are such amazingly genuine people, who really share from the heart. I met so many of you who let me know how much you enjoy the projects and products brought to you each month from Papertrey Ink, and it meant the world to me to have validation from some of the most thoughtful people involved in this hobby.
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That night I also got to reflect a bit on how amazing my co-hosts were. There was so much planning and preparation involved with getting ready for this event, and I couldn't have imagined doing it with anyone else. Gina, Emily & Nicky (and their husbands!) made this such a pleasant experience. They were all as dedicated as I was to make this event one of the best in the industry, and I don't think it could have possibly been more successful.
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So that's everything in a nutshell! Many people have asked if we will be doing another cruise any time soon. The short answer is that there isn't anything currently scheduled, but the three companies may indeed end up working together again on an event soon. We will be sure to keep you posted! Thanks for reading this long-winded post, and I am looking forward to getting back into the swing of things around here!
Oh, and one more thing... I just so happened to end up with
TWO extra Stamp + Cruise Papertrey stamp collections
These are the Papertrey stamps that we gave away to each Stamp + Cruise guest while on board the ship! The collections included the following...
-Snowfall
-Snowfall Additions
-Warm Happiness
-Out to Sea (released to the public summer of 2009)
-Men of Life (released to the public November 15th)
This stamp package has over a $100 value! I will randomly pick two of the comments left on this post to win this special Stamp & Cruise Collection! You have until noon EST on October 31st to play and the winner will be announced shortly thereafter. Good luck! And thanks for stopping by!
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ETA: This contest is now closed!
Random Integer Generator
Here are your random numbers:
100 1041
Timestamp: 2008-10-31 17:15:35 UTC
Comment #100 belongs to:
Comment #1041 belongs to:
Congratulations to both Mary K & Chris! Please email customer service with your shipping information and we will get your prize package right out to you! And thanks to everyone for playing! It's good to be home!
You can read all of the details about where to send your cards and technical suggestions for readability of your creations here 
I thought I would share what my latest packet of donations included. I made a batch of five of these cards. I was careful to choose a color scheme that would be appropriate for either a male or a female. I thought the sentiment from Quilter's Sampler was perfect as well:
The quilt blocks are from the new Quilter's Sampler Additions set. I just love all the new blocks and have really enjoyed playing with them! In case you didn't catch it on the website, did you notice the quilt block reference chart that we created for you as a companion to this set? I really like using it to make fun choices that might have names that go along with the theme of my project. And just in case this is the first time you've seen this set, all the quilt blocks contained in both sets coordinate perfectly with a 3/4" square punch, making it super easy to utilize the set.
Stamps: Quilter's Sampler & Quilter's Sampler Additions
Sounds like you all had a great time. I wish I could've joined you. Maybe next time. Until then I would be more than happy to win one of those stamp collections. :-) Thanks Nichole!
Posted by: Mary K | October 29, 2008 at 11:14 AM