There's a kind of hush .............

all over the Stampin' Up!® world!!

Some very lucky USA/Canadian demonstrators are enjoying the thrills and spills at Convention in Salt Lake City - it wasnt that long ago we had ours in April in Brisbane ... what an awesome experience it is to go and such a blessing to be able to go too!

I am sure all the Diva's will update us when they return - well after they all recover!! I doubt there is much sleeping happening at the Diva Convention House!

Today is the calm before the release of the Australian/New Zealand Spring Mini Catalogue and I tell you it will warm you up from the cold snap we are currently having!

One of the gorgeous new sets in our Mini will be the very noice True Friend stamp set - I just love this set and used it in a 6x6 Mini Catalogue Swap for our team. Here is the layout I made and do you see the resemblance in those two gals?? well they do happen to be sisters and one of them is ME!! You have to guess which one!! lol

I have made my own patterened paper using the True Friend set and some pastel popping! I've also used a flower from the pretties kit which I dyed to Bashful Blue to match the layout.

Keeping in the 'blue' theme I thought I'd also share this card I recently made for a challenge on an Aussie Demonstrator group.

This one is made using One of a Kind stamp set and the flower centres are from In the Spotlight which is a lovely Hostess Set. I've used Soft Sky, Pretting in Pink and Close to Cocoa.

If you are in Australia and would like your own copy of the Spring Mini Catalogue then please leave a comment including your email address and I will get in touch with you to send you one.

I hope you all have a great day and look forward to seeing some sharing from all thats being revealed at Convention!

Leonie

with love from Down Under!

Well what an absolute thrill it was when Max asked if I'd like to be a regular contributor to this blog and what a great idea to have this blog to share and encourage each other in our creativity and its my pleasure to hopefully inspire you all the way from Sydney Australia!

I will be here every Wednesday (well as long as Max allows me to - although I do believe I have to pay her in Cadbury's chocolate!) to share and get those creative juices flowing. Now for a little about me ... I am Leonie and am a mum to 2 girls & wife to Neil and we live about an hours drive south west of Sydney Australia. I have been with UDI for about 6 months I think and was introduced to it by the lovely Maggie (my Aussie SU Sister!). I have been with Stampin' Up!® now for 17 months and its done nothing but bless me since I've started!

I thought I'd start off with sharing a set of goodies that are easy to make and in time for Valentine's Day which is next week Thursday (girls send the link to this post to your hubbies/boyfriends to remind them!!)

Now Stampin' Up!® has only been in Australia for just under 2 years so we have a lot of catching up to do!

We are currently have a gorgeous Summer (yes its summer here) mini catalogue which I've used papers from the "Loves Me" Designer Series Paper pack - well there was nothing better for Valentine's day! The set consists of a Coaster Gift Box, 'Gluggie' (Sour Cream Container) and a Clip stand Calender which I adapted from several I saw on Split Coast Stampers. You can find the tutorials for the gift box and sour cream container at Split Coast Stampers Projects page.

These items were all easy to make and would make a great workshop for your customers if you're a demo and if you're a customer see your local demo or email me for the instructions.

The supplies I used:
Stamp set: Lots of Thoughts (Sale-a-bration set), Wonderful Words
Paper: Loves Me Designer Series Paper, Chocolate Chip cardstock
Accessories: Coasters, On-board Chipboard, ribbon, silver cord, Pretty in Pink Brads, scissors, scalloped circle punch, 1 1/4" circle punch, Crop-a-dile, sticky strip, Crystal Effects, Paper Piercing Mat, Anywhere Glue Stick, Large Paper Clip, paper trimmer, sanding block and pencil

Now remember I called the 'sour cream container' a 'Gluggie'?? well I'll tell you why .... when I went to school (surely it wasnt that long ago ... mmm well maybe) we had these frozen ice blocks in containers that exact shape and they were called Glugs (cola flavour), Razz (Raspberry flavour) and Sunny Boys (orange flavour) and these were the things I bought the most from the canteen at school! Hmm ... should I say I started school very early??

Our sour cream here in Australia comes in a round tub or in a small milk carton shaped container. So there you go - thats your cultural lesson for the day!

Have a great Wednesday everyone and dont forget to take some time out for YOU!