Stampin' Up! South Pacific Convention - Melbourne - 2014 Part Two

Continuing on with part two of this tale, Stampin' Up! is very much like a family, especially here in the South Pacific (Australia & New Zealand) where the numbers attending Convention are more manageable (<700), unlike the US where Convention is HUGE! Demonstrators help and support each other through online forums, team meetings and we love a chance to meet up face to face once a year. Thursday afternoon was a very full one with six experienced demonstrators sharing business tips. We were also able to participate in three mini Make & Take sessions, two of them using the Kinda Eclectic stamp set we had been given in the morning. You can see two cards in my previous post. The project above resulted in another lovely stamp set to bring home, and you can see a couple of the new In Colors here too. I think they will be a nice addition to the range, although they are fairly subdued, except for the orange.

In our down time, not that there's much of it, we can admire gorgeous displays of new products (the fans are made from a new Designer Series Paper) and all the cards and projects made on stage, are displayed. Demonstrators usually hang one of their swap cards on the display board too and there is always a crowd around these boards snapping away madly.

On Friday, Shelli Gardener showed the NEW photopolymer stamps which must be stored away from light. They are a bit cheaper than the red rubber stamps but not quite as durable. However, the see-through aspect of these stamps is great for placement, and one of our Prize Patrols was a set of letter and number stamps in photopolymer from the upcoming catalogue. Shelli stamped some cards for us, her daughter Sara Douglass shared her Project Life albums and some hints on putting photos into them and getting the journalling done while the memories are still fresh!
I can imagine how useful this system will be for my travel photos too, I'm still working on the trip I took to the UK & Paris last August!

I know that I can order a limited number of items next Friday, and customers can start ordering from that range too on 10th June, before the catalogue goes live on 1st July, when the whole range is available to us all. Its even available on MDS if that's your 'thing' and you'd like to print original cards for the pockets.
Hop on over to my online shop after 10th June to check out Project Life.

Another point Sara brought up, it's a great activity to do with your children of any age. She said that she was having her five children pick out their favourite baby photos even, and getting them into albums so she can catch up with the back log.

Another new and rather exciting product we had a chance to try at Convention was Blendabilities. Like the Stampin' Write Markers, they are a dual tip, color coordinated to the Stampin' Up color range & acid free, but they are also alcohol-based (like a rather well-known alternative brand). This means they don't soak the paper and break up the fibres, they don't 'bleed' and they're permanent. Available in packs of three tones of the same shade they have simplified the process of choosing toning colours. We tried it out on a very small floral stamp, but in a later Prize Patrol we received Blended Bloom and a set of three Calypso Coral Blendabilities. I can't really try it out until I can buy a Memento stamp pad, although if I have time to experiment, I think heat embossing might work just as well.
In case you're wondering, Prize Patrols are one of the perks of going to Convention. That is when they announce that they are going to hand out free product to everyone, to give us a chance to try it before we offer it to you. It really is a terrific bonus, because every stamp set I received this Convention, was one I would have ordered anyway. I love that it saves me dollars.

There will be at least one more part to the Convention Tales so stay tuned...
Rachel