Hostess Gift

At a recent class we made a variety of boxes using the Big Shot Fancy Favor die.  In amongst all the "card guts" left over was the bottom half of one of the boxes which I put together to form a small rectangular box.  I used some Tombow to glue some Old Olive ribbon around it and made a variety of tags to fit inside.  The end result was a cute and handy little hostess gift that I gave to Judy who hosted a demonstration yesterday.

And here are the tags and cards for inside.

Stamp Sets:  French Foliage ( a beeoootiful set!)
Card:  Autumn Spice DSP, Cajun Craze, More Mustard, Soft Suede, Old Olive
Ink:  Cajun Craze, More Mustard, Soft Suede, Old Olive
Tools:  Big Shot, Fancy Favor Bigz xl Die, Extra Large Tag Punch, Large Tag Punch
Accessories:  Old Olive 1.6cm Grosgrain Ribbon, Vintage Trinkets,, Tombow Glue

Fantastic Promotion!

If you host a party, hold a catalogue party (where you gather orders from friends) or place an individual order that reaches $450, you will receive...

• a Level One Hostess set
• $40 worth of free merchandise
• PLUS and EXTRA $70 worth of free merchandise

That's a total of $110 worth of free merchandise!!

The $450 requirements includes GST and Shipping!  Contact me today if you would like to place an order or book a demonstration. 

Australia's Biggest Afternoon Tea

I had a lovely afternoon on Saturday with fifteen lovely customers attending an afternoon tea to raise money for the Cancer Council.  It was a chance to relax, make some cards and help out a worthy cause.  Thanks so much to everyone who attended and to those who donated even when they couldn't come along.

A display table of the wonderful swaps from Convention.  Lots of ideas here.

Samples from the Autumn-Winter catalogue.

A close up of the 'Eat Chocolate' set.  Makes me want to!

The Top Note and Oh Sew Suite components go so sew well together.

These samples use our Strength and Hope set.  Stampin' Up! donates $2 from the purchase of this set to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.

The raffle - many wonderful prizes donated by Stampin' Up!  Raffle ticket purchases raised $160 for the Cancer Council.

My mum and an anonymous guest working on a Make and Leave for Cards for Troops.  We made 25 in the afternoon.

Ladies working on their Make and Takes.

In total we raised $253 for Cancer Reasearch.  Thanks so much to everyone for joining in the spirit of the afternoon.  Thanks too to Stampin' Up! for donating the wonderful prizes!

My Dad's 80th

Dad has reached his 80th birthday.  What a milestone.  We had a quiet family dinner at his favourite restaurant.  This is the card I made for him.

Lots of sponging.  Love French Foliage!

And the inside.  These leaves look so beautiful and delicate.

And with the present.  Brown paper stamped to match.

Stamps:  French Foliage, Rough Type

Cardstock:  Cajun Craze, More Mustard, Whisper White

Ink:  Cajun Craze, More Mustard, Old Oliver and Soft Suede - a great combo for Autumn

Tools:  Big Shot!

Accessories:  Hemp Twine, Old Olive Striped Grosgrain Ribbon

Convention 2011 and a couple of announcements

Convention in Melbourne was a blast.  Three days focussing entirely on cardmaking and all things Stampin Up!  No matter what your level of interest, Convention is so inspiring for Hobby Demonstrators and Career demonstrators alike.  Scroll down to see some photos and some fantastic announcements!

This is a little gift from one of my roomies, Felicity.  Our group of demonstrators is called the Paper Angels so she found these cute angel pendants.  Isn't the packaging adorable?

A shot of the stage.  See the huge wooden stamps?  This is Shelli, the CEO of Stampin' Up! who is a wonderful, warm and generous lady.  The motto for this year's convention was "Share what you love" which was very fitting!

This is Bonnie Thurber, Director of Demonstrator training.  It's worth going to Convention just to see her!  At this stage she was demonstrating her version of Eugenie's wedding hat.  She is the funniest presenter you'll ever meet.

Me, Liz (head Paper Angel), Felicity, Gaye and Colleen.  These were my roomies (except for Liz who was next door.)

This was our dessert at the yummy dinner on the final night.  SU! has been in Australia for five years now, hence the chocolate 5 on top.

Next year's Convention will be in Canberra from May 31 to June 2nd.  If you would like to be part of this inspiring event start putting your pennies aside.  It's worth every cent and you'll come away inspired creatively, personally and professionally.  If you'd like a smaller version of Convention, Regional Training will be in Brisbane on November 5th.  Want to join Stampin' Up!?  Why wouldn't you?  Email me on wheatonanna@hotmail.com or phone me on 07 55 765 469.

NOW onto two special announcements....

ABNs no longer needed
One of the best pieces of news from Convention is that effective immediately, new recruits will no longer need an ABN (Australian Business Number) to become a demonstrator.  (Once a demonstrator starts getting bonus cheques over $500 a month, an ABN will be required.)  Easy!  I know that for many people the ABN caused much hesitation to those wanting to sign up. 


Would you like an extra $70 in hostess benefits?
Host or place a workshop order between 23rd May and the end of June 2011 that reaches $450 in sales (before shipping & handling).  You will receive the usual Level 1 hostess stamp set and $40 to spend on anything you like PLUS a bonus $70 to spend too. So that's a total of $110 of product for free.

Contact me if you would like to place an order or if you want some information about joining.

Convention Swap

One of the fun parts of Convention..no wait...everything is fun!  A fun start to Convention is the swaps.  This is optional but most people do it.  You prepare a card front many times over and include a 'recipe' of the products and colours you used.  You then swap these with other demonstrators and get a whole bunch of ideas back.  Make 50 swaps, get 50 back.  Some people make 300...but I do not want that many card fronts in return!  Instead of a card front, I made a 3D item this year.

These cute little handbags were surprisingly quick to make.

After I had made them, I decided to add the tag on the side.  I am glad I did as I think it finishes it off nicely.

Inside is a little Dove chocolate.

Convention Shoe Box Swap

Today I am in Melbourne as Convention begins on Thursday.  I belong to a group called the Paper Angels, most of whom are staying in the same hotel.  Tonight we are having a shoe box swap.  You design a card and put all the bits and pices into a shoe box, along with a finished sample.  The boxes get passed around and you make one of each of everyone's cards.  This is my design.  I kept it pretty simple and I love white on white.  The butterfly is stamped in Versamark and gold embossed.

Check back on Friday for my Convention swap.

Kids' Workshops for Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day!

I run the occasional workshop for kids.  It's so much fun because they absolutely love to stamp and are delighted with the results.  Some kids stamp their cards backwards and upside down but walk away with inky fingers and a smile.  Here are some shots of the kids at work.

Here's a photo of the finished products!  These were my son's, made for his Nanna although the card is my sample because his is sealed in an envelope.

And a close up of the owl's eyes, Zac's version.

The handbag had a couple of stamped and wrapped chocolates in it.

French Foliage

This is one of the beautiful sets in the new Autumn-Winter mini.  I have used it to create a simple one layer card. 

Stamps:  French Foliage, Thank You Kindly
Card:  Confetti Cream
Ink:  Old Olive, Cajun Craze, More Mustard, Soft Suede
Tools:  Corner Rounder Punch

RAK

That stands for random Acts of Kindness.  I helped another demonstrator out by sending her some ribbon she needed for a workshop.  She sent me this beautiful card in return.  The colour combinations are just gorgeous.  I think there are a lot of people hoping that this Aviary set returns in the next big catalogue.

If you are a blog hopper, you might like to have a look at Wendy's blog.