Further swaps from Convention in Brisbane

I have shared a lot of my favourite swaps from the South Pacific Convention in Brisbane.  I hope that you have gotten some inspiration from the amazingly talented and creative demonstrators who went to the trouble of swapping over the three days of Convention. I was really impressed with the standard of this year's swaps.

Anyone who knows me, knows how much I love Circle Circus and while this set is not that set it comes pretty close - Lacy & Lovely is an underutilised set; possibly because Circle Circus has been around for so long. . . Love this swap - nice colours and layout.

This photo does not do Cheryll Miller's swap justice. . . it is so nice and the darker parts of the chevron are actually fussy cut out and dimensionalised.  Such a nice clean and simple design.

I love the simplicity of the colour combination and the clean embossed image of Summer Silhouettes thistle - perfect. Trish Myers did a great job with this swap.

Narelle Hodges made this lovely pink set which uses the Sent with Love set which is only available until this Saturday; so if you like it get in and buy it.  The lovely cloud embossing gives it a childish feel and the pink colouring with the Baby Prints set means it can only be a girl baby card! Lovely!

Back later
Shanni

Animal Swaps from Convention

I wanted to share some more of the swaps that I received at Convention 2013.  There were so many lovely ones this year but I wanted to feature some of my faves.

I love this whimsical card which would be great for any age group and so easy to do!  Bug Me is such a cute set and this stamped image has obviously been stamped using Stampin' Write Markers.  I am not sure who did it as it was received by one of my downlines.

This is the cutest little punch art card made by Pat Carr. Gorgeous how she has daubed the edges of the card stock with white to give the shape depth.

Gaye Schrader's swap has a fair bit of big shotting with the Labels Collection Framelit dies.  Love the combination of Cherry Cobbler, First Edition Specialty DSP and Basic Black.  You might be able to see that the card behind the butterfly is embossed with the Square Lattice Embossing Folder.  The butterfly from Papillion Potpourri is the perfect image.

Love it, share it!
Shanni

Some Fave Swaps from South Pacific Convention 2013

There were so many amazing swaps this year at Brisbane for the Stampin' Up! South Pacific Convention - it was wonderful to see the effort that people went to. . .

Here are a few of my favourites.

Emboss resist is always stunning but the simplicity of this tag is just lovely!





The Open Sea is such a gorgeous set and I love this combination of colours - Old Olive, Midnight Muse and Cherry Cobbler!

This card is colourful but at the same time quite simple in its design - the Secret Garden stamp set and Framelit Dies have been used to advantage here ~ and it is nice to see that this demonstrator loves her Crystal Effects as much as me!

In some instances I have lost the Demonstrator details off the rear of the cards so apologies if I am posting your card without your details.

Cute huh?
Shanni

Da Bag

Stampin' Up! 25th Anniversary "Be the Difference" Convention bag was the best bag I think that we have ever received at a convention.

Not only was it filled with beautiful stamp sets (to be released in the new Catalogue come 2 July 2013), make and take kits and some other little treasures. . . but it is completely practical for day to day use.

 

Because close to 700 people received the same bag I make a bag tag each year for the Paper Belles to put on their bag to make them easier to identify.  This year I chose a combination of materials - bottle caps, stamped images with crystal effects, Daffodil Delight seam binding ribbon and putty stamped and painted with acrylic paints. I also cut tags with the Apothecary Accents Framelite Dies and included everyone's first initial.



 

Kim also organised Bag Tags for those attending Leadership Day from the INKcredibles Team - lovely DSP and shimmer mist (made with Shimmer Paint and rubbing alcohol).



 

So all in all very fancy bags. . . not too bad at all!

 

Later

Shanni x

 

Convention in Bris-Vegas was Awesome!

I had the best week away. . . I missed my kids and hubby but it is so much fun to be with creative, inspiring, energetic people.

Brisbane Convention ROCKED!

Stampin' Up! did it again! They surpassed themselves with the 25th Anniversary "Be the Difference" Convention. We had the best time, got the best give aways and partied and celebrated our way through four days.

I had a wonderful time. There were about 40 of our Paper Belles Team in attendance, which was so inspiring to see. I love it when we all get together because we all speak "craftese" the language of paper crafting!

Leadership Day was a new event this year. Managers and above were treated to special classes and addresses, a fantastic meal and a wonderful surprise gift.  Very exciting.

This year I was lucky enough to take out third place in Recruiting and third place in Leadership for Australian Demonstrators ~ this was amazing given the number of high achievers in the company and the incentives for working with the programs that the company offer. In recognition of these achievements I was lucky enough to be able to select a number of prizes from the Performance Bonus Momento Mall. More on that later!

One of the highlights of the Awards Ceremony was the announcement of the Grand Vacation Achievers - being amongst some of the BIG names in Australian and New Zealand stamping circles was very inspiring. The week following Convention I received this awesome certificate in the post.

The standard of swaps was really high this year. I didn't take as many swaps as I historically do which is ironic given that there were so many beautiful ones to receive this year. But here are the designs that I came up with:

First one features Stipple Blossoms stamp set and Twitterpated DSP.

My second swap was made using the Lovely as a Tree stamp set. This card was quite involved by the time I had embossed, distressed and daubed every surface. And of course I stamped using Stampin' Write Markers direct to stamp - a very time consuming exercise.

So a wonderful time had by all and you will be pleased to know that I have done a Smash Book for the event which I will share aspects of in future posts.

If you are interested in joining us next year in Melbourne, please email me today. I would love you to consider joining my team. For more information you can also visit the link to my Stampin' Up! website on the right hand margin.

Chat soon
Shanni xx

Computer Game Console Card

I am sure that I am not the only one who has troubles coming up with cards for boys at that in between age where they go from loving puppies and tonka trucks to loving motor bikes and V8 Fords. . . my 10 year old #2 son asked me to "whip up a card for EJ [his bestie] for his birthday - anything to do with the xBox will be fine".

Picture me looking at the xBox with blank look and trying to figure out how to make something into a card. Light bulb moment - not always about the xBox ie it needs a console to make it work!

Next picture me tracing said console to get an idea of how big it needs to be and drawing wonky circles where controls need to be and the colours of the buttons. . . enough to make a grown man cry tears of laughter.

Here is the outcome:

Here is a close up on the controls so that you get an idea of my attention to detail lol:

And finally so that you can see how I curved the card stock to make it concave:

Gotta love Punches, Crystal Effects and Dimensionals!

Hope you like it,
Shanni