Convention was masses of FUN!

Yes, I have just spent 3 days in Canberra with other stamping-mad women (and several men, 2 of them actual demonstrators!) at the annual Stampin' Up Convention. It was packed with all kinds of inspiration, from a huge packet of Make n Take projects, to on-stage demonstrations of all kinds of stamping talent and fabulous ideas.

For those of us who are business minded, there were heaps of great ideas to make our workshops more exciting and interesting for you, our friends and guests.

One very interesting point I'd like to share with you was the official banning, by Stampin' Up! Head Office, of the term "JUST" as applied in the phrase "I'm JUST a hobby demonstrator" It was made abundantly clear during the event that each and every one of us is valued immensely, regardless of whether we joined to fund our habit or build a home-based business empire, and anything inbetween. All together now, AAAAWWWWWWW! It's always been what I've loved about SU, the freedom to do what suits me, but knowing that the level of support available to me and my small group of lovely girls is the same as to the demonstrators with hundreds in their teams. See the post below for the great sign-up special if you would like to join this fabulous company with heart.

For now, here is a pic of my swap card - the other thing I love about Stampin' Up! events is the opportunity to meet and exchange ideas with like-minded people from all around Australia. Swaps are where we each make a batch of a card, and mill around oohing and aahing over the stunning selection, and it's a great way to collect ideas and samples with a wide variety of stamp sets and styles.
I made my card in two different colourways, shown in the image above.

On the left, the card is made with a Sahara Sand base, stamped with Sahara Sand using Sahara Sand ink and the Damask stamp from the Friends 24-7 set. The bird is stamped in Sahara Sand onto Whisper White, and coloured using a Blender Pen and Watercolor Wonder Crayons. This is matted on Kraft and Kiwi Kiss cardstocks. The ribbon is dyed to match, by using the Kiwi Kiss reinker on white Tafetta ribbon - easy to do, look out for an upcoming tutorial. The greeting is from Friends 24-7, stamped in Kiwi Kiss, onto a stamp from the Curly Label punch bundle set. I simply used markers with this particular stamp, to ink up the frame without the sentiment, and added my own using the Stamp-a-ma-jig.

The card on the right is the same design, with some alternative colours. I used Kraft for the background, and changed the matting to Riding Hood Red and Kiwi Kiss. The ribbon on this card is custom-coloured white grosgrain ribbon, and the label frame is inked up in Ruby Red.

I hope my swappees liked my card, I have a gorgeous pile here in return, and I'll show some of them in future posts.

Time to meet the school bus now, back later.....