Tuesday 25 May 2010

Convention part 2

These happy flowers greeted us all at the Registration desk - simple but effective, yes?

The whole SU! crew is incredibly talented and creative - little touches like this everywhere made for a very inspiring experience.

Finally I have sufficient space for photos again!   Here is a picture of the Convention bag we all recieved:

Here are my Roomies, Linda, Bec and Steph, and Linda's baby Sophia.  They were heaps of fun to stay with, and made the weekend fantastic.  Even with the dramas of two full evacuation from our hotel in three hours in the middle of the night!   Our first night (Thursday, before Convention officially started) was spent helping Steph finish her swaps, with the lovely Marelle Taylor, Teneale Williams, Joanna Wassens, and Jayne Mercer!   Marelle brought a bottle of champagne with her too, which was very much appreciated.

Some terrible snaps of Memento Mall from my iPhone!  



 

Here are pictures of the projects the presenters showed us on stage:


The Awards Night Dinner was fantastic.   Here are more of Steph's team:  Trish Hollis and Lyanna George, Shelli Gardner and ME, and Bec and Steph!

 
Next year's Convention will be in Melbourne and will run for 3 days.  I'm going to start saving from today!

I have a busy week ahead of me, so I am not sure if I will get back on here before the weekend, so have a fabulous week.

Monday 24 May 2010

More Convention News!

While I'm waiting for the extra photo storage issue to resolve (I've purchased 20GB extra storage for the princely sum of $5 and it might not process for 24 hours) I can let you know about the exciting promotion that was announced at Convention - from now until 31 July, 2010, the Starter Kit price is reduced by 20% !

That means the Starter Kit (the one in the back of the Catalogue with $560 worth of products and business supplies in it) will be only $259 instead of  $324 for a limited time!!!!!

If you have been considering signing up for the discount, or are looking for an opportunity to earn some money while you have little kids at home, or want to make a career change - now is the perfect time to dive in!

Let me know if this is an opportunity you think you might like to take up!

Be back later, after I've fed the Gang of Four.

Back home! Convention Wrap-Up! (part 1)

I am feeling really tired (of course), but inspired, motivated and positive after Convention.  If you are a Demo, you really should mark it in your calendar for next year and start saving a little each week.  It really is worth it!  Not only do you listen to fabulous presenters, get some business training and ideas, workshop ideas and meet the talented and funny team from Home Office and Head Office in Sydney, but you get to meet, swap with, network with and socialise with other Demonstrators.  I've made so many friends all over Australia through Stampin' Up!  and really enjoy seeing them again at Convention.  The other fun things about Convention are the sample boards, Prize Patrol (random free stamp sets!), the NEW stamp sets we got in our Convention bags, Memento Mall, not having to cook, or clean, or worry about school lunchboxes for a few days.....LOL!

I hope my blog updates weren't too sparse!  My iPhone's battery was getting very drained so I wasn't able to do as much as I'd have liked - also I was trying to soak in the experience, which is hard to do if you are texting/tweeting/blogging at the same time!

Anyway, here are the highlights:


The swaps - always fun (though time consuming to make).  I prepared 50 swap cards, and gave them all away.  Here are the cards I made:

I used my Big Shot and the exclusive Top Note die (from the Mini) to make both these cards and am pleased with the way they turned out.  Very different looks.  I also used the Labels die and the dotty embossing folder in makes an appearance in both cards.  



There was a basket for all the attendees to place a swap card in, and some of them ended up on sample boards - some will end up on the Stampin' Up! Demo website too.
Here are some photos of the sample boards (you can click on them to enlarge them).

The only "rules" with swaps are that you use current (not retired) SU! product and most also put a little "project recipe" on the back with their name, contact details, and a list of the products/technique they used.   It is a great icebreaker and really fun!

You can then use the swaps you have received as inspiration for your own work, or for display in your workshops, especially if they showcase a technique or stamp set you haven't tried.

The Convention Bag


This is different for every Convention, and is always highly prized!  You recieve it upon registration.  the girls from the head Office in Sydney did a beautiful job - they are seriously lovely.    The bag this year contained a SU! hap (very cute!), a pen, the programme of events, and 2 NEW stamp sets from the upcoming 2010-2011 Catalogue!!!!!!  They are called Printed Petals, and Party This Way, and if you look closely on the display boards coming up you might catch a glimpse!


Here is a picture of my bag:

Ack!  I'm getting an error message saying I've exceeded some photo limit!  How's that for a cliff hanger?  I'll try to figure out how to fix that.

In the meantime, I'll  continue to give you the highlights.

The Presenters
Shelli herself speaks at Convention, and gives a stamping demonstration, this year's being her interpretation of "Vintage."  Which was fabulous, of course!  She showed us how distressing, natural fibres, neutrals instead of white, spritzing, tearing, pearls, collaged images, can all lend a "vintage" look to your project.  She used Vintage vogue, of course!  She also made us all laugh by licking one of her stamps clean in lieu of a stampin' scrub!

Pam Morgan from home Office also gave a fabulous Big Shop Presentation with a hilarious new excersise programme and we learned that the exclusive Top Note die was originally designed as a Bag Topper.  It fits our cello bags precisely for that purpose, and when folded lengthways, fits the larger cello bags!  Of course, we have all found many other uses for it.

Bonnie from Home office had lost her voice, but still had us all entertained with her steady stream of banter as she showed us some cute projects using products from the Mini catalogue.

The gorgeous Shannon West used the Circle Scissors to create some fabulous scrap pages and cards.  She is so charming, beautiful and witty - the kind of person you instantly warm to.

In addition to the imported presenters, we heard from successful Aussie/NZ Demos, such as Ngaire Anderson,  Jaqui Pederson, and others whose names I have momentarily forgotten, so I'll come back later with those, LOL.

Prize Patrol
Everyone gets a different coloured wristband in their Convention Bag, and it must be worn at all times in the General Sessions, because they pick a colour at various times throughout the proceedings, and give away stamp sets!  Woo-Hoo!  On the last day they even handed everyone a NEW Catty stampset called Perfect Punches!  Awesome!

I'll be back with more convention highlights tonight most likely as I need to feed my cranky 2 year old, then go to a pampering session run by my 5 year old - should be interesting!


Friday 21 May 2010

Sample boards at convention... is that a sneak peek of new Catalogue I spy?

Using the stamp sets we got in our convention bag!

A glimpse of Shelli

Through the throng at Memento Mall

Bonnie's speechless presentation

Poor Bonnie from head office in Utah has lost her voice but not her
sense of humour or her wit. She is such a fun, witty, talented lady,
and she had us all laughing despite the fact that she had to whisper.
Here are some gorgeous projects she made from the Winter Mini.

Shannon's projects cont

Another gorgeous 12 x 12 page

Shannon's circle scissor projects

This mornings session by Shannon showed gorgeous projects she made
with the circle scissor which I must admit I have barely used. Not
any more!
12 x 12 page 1

Shelli onstage

Waiting for the doors to open

Convention badge

More cool stuff to follow!

Convention fun!

Here is my first blog post from the Stampin' Up! Convention in
Sydney. One of my roommates, Steph, is a manager, and was at the
Manager's reception last night with Shelli ( the founder of SU!) and
other Stampin' Up! peeps. The managers allgot the cute coffee cup
stamp from the mini in a giant coffee cup! I have snagged a photo
while Steph is in the shower, hee! Off to memento mall soon!
Sent from my iPhone
Louise Sutton
Ph 0414 671 290

Thursday 20 May 2010

Leaving on a jet plane!

Bags are packed and I'm off! I only managed 50 swaps in the end and
will have to make do with that. See you in Sydney!

Sunday 16 May 2010

Birthday Ponies!

I have been trying to make sure I have everything covered for next
weekend when I'm in Sydney, and it just so happens that my 5 year old
daughter has been invited to two birthday parties that weekend. I
guess the downside to having 4 kids is that most weekends have at
least one child social event scheduled! Anyway, I know one of the
girls especially wanted a card with lollies in it like I had made her
big brother last month (I will have to edit a link later) so I made a
girly card and then duplicated it for the other birthday girl. When
you are on a good thing, stick to it! Both cards have a tab to lift
so the child can access the lollies without destroying the card ( I
messed up one and put the tab inside!). I hope they love them!

Saturday 15 May 2010

Mother's Day part 2

And here is the other card. Pretty much the same but with certainly
celery - why am I only now enjoying these colour combinations?

I think this stamp set lends itself beautifully to collage.  The picture quality from my iPhone isn't fabulous, but you can see that I wheeled the Vanilla piece in Barely Banana ink first (Very Vintage wheel), then stamped the large flower in Lavender Lace in the corner, and stamped the small flowers in Barely Banana (and stamped extra flowers on scrap and cut them out), and finally the vine image in certainly celery.  I roughed the edges of each layer with the edge distressing tool and put a clear diamond brad in the cut out flower for some bling factor.  The sentiment is stamped in Chocolate chip ink, and the ribbon is chocolate chip taffeta.

Mother's Day part 1

I forgot to show you the Vintage Vogue cards I made for my own Mum and
my MIL . It appears I can only post one photo per email so the other
card will be on the next post.
I made both of these cards with leftover scraps from the Mother's Day
class last month.  I am trying to use up some of the colours that
will retire soon such as Lavender Lace and Barely Banana.

Looks like the line spacing and paragraphs are a little iffy with the iPhone, but nothing I can't edit later when back with the computer, right?

On another note - I finished 50 swaps last night!  Woot!  I am unsure how many more I will do, but at least I have a respectable start.   I'll post pictures of my swaps later so I can keep the element of surprise for any Convention-going Demo buddies  who may follow my blog.

Karen Thomas, if you are reading - I got a lovely letter from you which says I am not allowed to open until my birthday!  You meanie!  LOL.

Friday 14 May 2010

Picture test

Here is a photo from my Big Shot class yesterday with boxes made with
the Fancy Favor die, aren't they sweet?

yay!  This means I can post photos to my Blog from my iPhone!  Look out, world!

Test post

Just trying to see if I have figured out how to post to my blog by
email on my phone. Fingers crossed!
Now I need to see if I can also post a picture....hmm.
Sent from my iPhone
Louise Sutton
 yes!  it worked!

Wednesday 12 May 2010

Another Blog Renovation

Yes, I have a million jobs to do today, so of course, I'm procrastinating by playing with my blog!

It was feeling a little cluttered along the sidebar there, so I've made a number of tabs along the top for Stampin' Up! Stuff, catalogues, promotions, etc.

No doubt I'll be tinkering again soon!

Hope you are having a productive day.......unlike me!

Tuesday 11 May 2010

A Public Service Announcement

Just a quick note regarding the Colour Renovation (refer to my earlier post on the subject).    The colours in our current catalogue are supposed to be available until the end of the catalogue (31 August 2010).

However, in the US, where the new catalogue is coming in July,  Stampin' Up! has experienced a totally unexpected and unprecedented demand for the retiring colours in cardstock and ink refills/ink pads.  They are now saying "until stocks last" over there, even though Stampin' Up! originally said it would have enough stock to last until the end of the catalogue period.  They have actually run out of certain colours already.

I have no way of knowing whether the same panic will happen in the Australian market , but I thought I would put it out there that if you are thinking about waiting until July/August to order  Blush Blossom cardstock, or Close to Cocoa (or any of the retiring colours), it may be wise to order them sooner rather than later.

Let me know if you wish to place any orders.

Oh, and if anyone wishes to get updates on the goings-on at Convention in Sydney next weekend, I'll be posting updates on Twitter!

Saturday 8 May 2010

Another week bites the dust...

Hello weekend!

Have you had a crazy week too?  I've had a travelling husband, school Craft Fair meeting (always fun, and we get heaps done!),  early starts for school excursion and Fencing lessons,  a few late nights finishing off Mother's Day projects, frantic working on swaps for Convention, a lovely Mother's Morning Tea function yesterday, Rugby training, and now......peace.  Until my daughter emerges from the shower and I have to start combing her hair for nits!  Argh!

But enough about me, on to the cards!   If you missed my Mother's Day Class the other week, this is what you missed:



I forgot to take a photo of the matching boxes!
I just love how everyone made their cards just a little differently and added their own touches.
Great work girls!
We used the clear mount Vintage Vogue set - everyone loved using them!

Monday 3 May 2010

The Mini Launch ....a little late

Remember the Launch of the Autumn Winter Mini my friends and sisters in Stampin' Up! (Linda, Bec and Steph) held last month?  Finally uploaded and edited the photos.  Phew!

It was a fun day, with 50 enthusiastic stampers and as you can imagine, lots of laughter and chatting!  Ever wondered what goes on at such a day, and whether you might like to come along?  Well, here are some photos of what you missed:

First - the projects.  The girls and I designed projects based around the Autumn-Winter Mini - and we did a pretty good job I think!  The photo shows Bec's design using Party Pony (a must for those with young girls in the family), and then  her Pillow Box (in Soft        
Suede)  using the Big Shot.  Isn't that flower gorgeous?  This project was a big hit.

Next is Linda's gorgeous Monkey Card featuring the Fox & Friends stamp set.

After that is my Birdy card, using the new punch.  Love, love love that punch!
Next is my Medallion card (it was stamped in Versamark, so it is a little difficult to see in the photo)  which also uses the Labels Die for the Big Shot.  Aren't these colours gorgeous together?
 After that is Steph's lovely card using the new in-colour  which is staying!  Yay!) Rich Razzleberry, and her elegant card using Vintage Vogue.

The only one I didn't get a picture of is the Top Note Box designed by Linda.  Hopefully I'll be able to show you that soon.

As well as the projects, we had a Raffle, Lucky Door Prizes, Display Boards and a table full of 3D displays.







Recognise anyone in these photos?  

Getting closer....

It's nearly that time of year, where the retirement list comes out.  That means the in-colours we've loved the past 2 years are leav...