Stampin' Up Convention 2012 Canberra

I have spent the last few days away at the Australian Stampin' Up Convention, this year held in our national capital, Canberra. It has been many years since I visited Canberra and I was surprised that it still has the feel of a small regional city. On the whole, I find the architecture there uninspiring, but the Australian War Memorial was worth a visit. I walked there on a sunny afternoon before Convention began and spent several hours there, enthralled by the displays, especially World War 1 and the aircraft.

 

 

Then it was time to collect my bag and name tag at the Convention Centre before beginning a jam- packed three days with everyone from Stampin' Up. There were more than 450 demonstartors from all over Australia and New Zealand, the staff from Sydney and a number of the US staff, including Shelli Gardner. She inspired us with her enthusiasm and energy. She wrote on her blog about how she not only learned a new phrase in Australia, ("stuffed it") she did it, but it wasn't really as bad as that. She was demonstrating some gorgeous items and was told we don't have those items in the South Pacific. We often get "sneak peeks" at new product during convention and we thought we might be getting these items too, but poor Shelli was flustered. Hopefully she realises that we were laughing with her, not at her.

Shelli Gardner

The days were filled with lots of motivating talks, and sneak peeks of new product during demonstrations of projects and different techniques presented by the very talented Stampin' Up staff. After a staff member finishes their demo, it is time for Prize Patrol, very exciting. We are issued with coloured bands when we check in and we have to wear them all the time, if we want to win. Sadly, my band was not one of the many featured up on the screen. Not that I came away empty-handed, far from it. Stampin' Up were very generous and we received designer series paper, fabric and a number of NEW stamp sets that I can't show you until our catalogue is released on 1st September. I'm sure there will be plenty in the new catalogue to excite you! Just letting you know too, the catalogue will be 30 pages longer this year, imagine how much more they can fit on those 30 pages! The Holiday catalogue will also be released at the same time and will run until the end of January, and next year we will get our main catalogue on 1st July, only one month after North America!!

I also took part in an optional class on the Friday night, when we again received heaps of product. There was a whole roll of ribbon for each person, Jewels Basic Rhinestones,Sticky Strip, a packet of the new Christmas DSP, 2 sheets of Glimmer paper and more. Below is a photo of the bag and name tag I picked up when I checked in.It is a really nice bag with a pale green lining and lots of pockets. The centre section is very roomy, so I can see myself using it for quite a while.

WOW workshops were presented on stage by demonstrators who willingly shared their knowledge of special techniques and the resulting cards, layouts and 3D projects. I have filled pages and pages in my notebook with scribbled ideas, sketches and random measurements, plus I took lots of photos. I hope I can make sense of it all when I try to decipher what the scribble means!! Here are just a couple that took my fancy.

Teresa Dabrowski, a demonstrator from Canberra showed us this cute sign she made for a 60th birthday cake and also showed us a version without the inking and then this one, and how she achieved the 'boards' - oh, what a difference! The card with the butterfly was also made by Teresa and she inked the lace border at the bottom of the card using the punched strip as a template.

I am a little tired, too tired to think any more, so I will post this and see if I come up with more later. Thanks for looking in, happy stamping.

Rachel