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

Stampin' Up! Convention - Brisbane Australia - Totally Awesome!

All I can say is WOW!! What a Weekend! Convention went for 2 days but I had 4 wonderful days!

It started with meeting Maggie and her entourage at the airport on Thursday afternoon and we all jumped into a maxi-cab and made our way to our apartments we were staying in - talk about loverly! Only drawback was we were on the top floor and there was NO lift .. ugh .. my body reminded me every time I went up an down those stairs that I have fibromyalgia and that my knees didn't like those stairs!

I do hope you like Maggie's shirt here and I'm thinking I might need to get me one too!

Friday morning started with check-in and Memento Mall and you do have to go spend here right - its like a pre-requisite for convention isn't it and all the lovely goodies inside.

I got some magnets which I'll use as hostess thank you's and the like, a mini catalogue bag (which also doubles as a swap bag) and 3 loverly new insulated coffee mugs. They have a stainless steel rim and do keep your coffee warm for ages. Now why 3 you say? well one to use, another to use when the first one is dirty and you always need a spare one right?? You'd never guess I love my coffee would you???

You can see the magnets & coffee cup here in this picture. It also shows the stamp sets I came home with ... what a stash! Fast & Fun Notes and the Happiness Background were in our lovely blue convention bags. Those attending the Leadership session also received the Garden Whimsy set. I won (yippee) the Fabulous Flowers in the Prize Patrol - so very happy about that as my name wasn't called last year.

The Short & Sweet set was part of my recruiting award and here I am getting my award.

Shelli is such a lady full of grace. In her opening she talked about 'dreaming' and the theme of the convention was Dream Big. An email was sent out to random demonstrators prior to convention asking for their SU stories and how SU has changed their lives or how it has impacted on them. Well I sent my story back and I shared more than I normally do. I mention about the Bank Robbery I was in and about losing our little baby Daniel and she shared all this. I wasn't told she was going to use any of my story so I was a little unprepared for what was about to be said as I dont tell everyone about these things in my life. Well after her talk there were a few tears shed (and not all were mine!) and I had a lot of friends come up and hug me and one of them was Bernadette from our Demo Support and I told her it would have been nice to be forewarned. Apparently she mentioned this to Shelli and when I did go and say hello to her she gave me the biggest hug and apologised profusely for not letting me know and thanked me for being so open and sharing so much.

We had sessions led by Pam Morgan, Linda Hansen, Carrie Cudrey, Bernadette Gamo and Shannon West. We also had the general sessions run by Shelli and Aaron Scott and Shelli also had a demonstration for us. I could just sit and watch Shelli, Pam and Linda for days!

We also had a great time doing the make and takes. Here you can see the finished products with the forever scrap booking layout, gift box, water coloured note cards and the friend card.

I am a little sad that its all over so quickly but know I have come away with a lot of ideas I can implement in my business and hopefully some will improve what I already do.

I also know that its a lot of money to spend on two days but it really is sooooo very worth every penny! You not only bring home a bag of loot and some great ideas to share and implement but also with alot of new friends who share the same passion you do. I really did enjoy this year's convention more so than last year - maybe a little of that is because I didnt know what to expect last year and this year I had more of an idea of the format and such.

After the Awards dinner on the Saturday night my brother picked me up from the city and took me back to his place and I got to spend a nice relaxing day with him and his family - something that I normally wouldn't have the chance to do.

I am feeling rather blessed with all the friends I have met through Stampin' Up! and I dont doubt for a moment that God has had a very big hand in all of this. I have grown so much since joining Stampin' Up! and my stamping has developed as has my scrapping and I have all these Diva friends as well - life is good and it really doesnt hurt to "Dream Big!"

do you hear the buzzzzzzzzzzz .....

Well it is Wednesday yet again and I am so excitement I don't think I'll be able to sleep tonight!!

Our 2nd Australian Stampin' Up! convention is this week! It starts Friday in Brisbane, Australia. If you live in Australia or know any Australian demonstrators then you have heard the buzzzzzzz of excitement all over the country!

Last year's convention (and the first in Australia) was held in beautiful Sydney (no guessing where I live huh?) and it was such an awesome experience and to have Shelli & Stirling Gardner with us and they both really do have the patience of saints! Shelli waited until every demo wanted to say hello to her did and smiled thru millions of photo's cos we all wanted one! Last year there was around 180 demonstrators who attended and at the time I think there was around 600 demonstrators throughout Australia. This year its gunna be bigger and better as we now have over 2000 demonstrators in Australia and I'm sure there will be just a couple more attending this year's convention.

I am flying up to Brisbane in the morning and catching up with some of the girls in the team that Tracey, Maggie and myself are in. Actually Maggie and I are sharing accommodation and it will be so good to catch up with her again - face to face.

OK enough of that .... I thought for today's post I would share some of the swaps I have made for this year's convention.

I think this last one is my favourite but I do have a think about purple! Have you noticed?? It helped I got my free sets from Sale-a-Bration redemption which I chose Wild Rose and Life Definitions. I've also used the Linen Background stamp to give it that 'tapestry' look and I am so happy that we also now have the photo corner punch!

I hope you like my swaps and if you would like to swap one of these just leave a comment with your email address and I'll contact you next week to arrange the trade.

I will also fill you in next Wednesday with all the fun and exciting things that happened at convention ... I might even remember to take a picture or three.

Have a great weekend and don't forget to take a little time for yourself & do some creating!

Leonie