Onstage Swaps Melbourne November 2017 (Long Post)

I have been a Stampin' Up! demonstrator for almost 7 years. I joined up during Sale-A-Bration, which runs every year from early January through to the end of March. We had recently moved and I finally had a large craft studio, and I wanted/needed supplies. I thought it would be fun to get several of the SAB free stamp sets while earning a discount off my own scrap booking and card-making supplies. I didn't do much the first year, I was busy getting my head around everything. Saying that, I did have friends over to stamp and I began making cards for everyone, but in my second year I attended a Stampin' Up! convention and began to see that I might take this a little further.

November 2016, Brisbane with Natalie from Stampin' Up Demonstrator Support

The format of these gatherings has changed and they tend to be 1-day events now, held every six months in November and April. They tie in with a release of a new catalogue, in April the new Annual catalogue (customers don't see it till 1st July) and in November it is the Occasions and SAB catalogues which begin in January. This is so we can plan our upcoming events, and make samples for those. If you'd like to be a part of this and you live in Australia and aren't already working with a demo, I'd love you to join my team. You can join for the discount, or to see and purchase new product ahead of every one else. You might have a big plan to try running your own business, or maybe supplement the family income. Another great reason to join Stampin' Up! is for the joy of friendships with others who love crafting as much as you do. Below is the fabulous Jackie Noble from New Zealand and a like me, a member of the CASE-ing The Catty crew and also Colour INKspiration.

Jackie Noble demonstrating in person & via the big screen 

As this post goes live, I am at the Melbourne event. LIKE my Facebook page if you want any live updates through the day. The event goes from 8am-5pm and will be a full-on day of chatter, crafting, meeting up with on-line friends, a much-needed break for a supplied boxed lunch and an opportunity to see some other very experienced demonstrators introduce some new products. Even better, we walk away with some new free product in our hands and a 3 day period when we can order ahead of everyone else. Swapping card fronts is another part of the day and it begins early, outside the venue anytime from 7a.m. onwards. This is the full card version of the swap I made, I will pin this on the display board.

There are two stamp sets here designed by Million Dollar Sales achievers, Mediterranean Moments and Half Full. These stamp sets seem to complement each other perfectly and I began stamping the card front quite a while back. Stampin' Up! hasn't yet contracted anyone to produce a Precision Stamping Tool (apart from the Stamp-a-ma-jig) so I gave in, and ordered one from another supplier after I saw it wasn't in the Annual catalogue. Very handy for repeat stamping projects like swaps, and also makes it easy to restamp if the image is a bit faint.

EDIT: Little did I know that at this Onstage they announced the release of the STAMPARATUS, which looks heaps better than this one I used. It is very, very popular and I didn't manage to pre-order one for myself during the first pre-order period. Another will take place on 6th December at 8 a.m. You are actually reserving it at that stage as, they won't bill you until it is available to ship (probably April).

I began by stamping the scene from Mediterranean Moments in the upper right corner. Mine is a wood mount stamp, so I had to do these the traditional way and there is some variation in the placement. I had a few dummy runs with the placement of Half Full, to get them straight mainly.

You can use the grid lines on the lid to help line things up straighter, but I also had to move them in closer together.

The most time-consuming part of the procedure is changing the card front (it is held down with magnets) and inking up the stamps. Despite this, it didn't really take too long to stamp 40 card fronts.

Next step along was to colour them and I had only just started with ink and an Aquapainter, when it was announced that alcohol-based Stampin' Blends were available for Demonstrators to pre-order. I was a big fan of the previous product which had unceremoniously been withdrawn after quality issues, so I ordered the colours I needed to work on these cards. Can I just say, I love them!!!

The glass of wine in this picture has been coloured using ink and an Aquapainter and those already done, I left as they were, so they are a brighter (rosè) shade. Rich Razzleberry, Light and Dark were for the wine. Old Olive light and dark for the lid of the bottle. The tablecloth was outlined in Pool Party light, and the greenery was coloured using mainly light Old Olive and some had yellow added too. The board was outlined in bronze and the label of the bottle and the paper on the board are Ivory.

I ended up with 32 swaps which met my standards. I love the 'infinity shot' an idea I have copied from US demonstrator Brian King. It gives you an idea of the amount of work there is in making swaps!!! Originally my husband should have had surgery at the end of October but the surgeon post-poned and it is still to happen. I was going to colour these while sitting with him, but I've managed to do a little after work each day instead. I skewed the art piece on the textured embossed piece to give a slightly better view of the texture, or I could have saved myself the trouble and used plain Fresh Fig card. It is cut 10 cm by 14.3cm so it can be mounted easily onto a standard Australian card base.

We place a 'recipe' on the back of swaps and I over-stamped mine with a bunch of grapes from Tuscan Vineyard.

There were some where I coloured too close to the line with Rich Razzleberry and I have made a couple of stepped up cards after cutting the wine bottle or glasses out. I don't mind as I have a couple of demonstrator friends who I'd like to give a 'stepped up' version of the card.

The wine bottles 'overflowed' so I've cut around them and trimmed the panel narrower which gives a much better view of all that texture embossing I did with the Garden Trellis TIEF. I like the glimpse of brighter Melon Mambo too.

This stepped up version had a leaking wine glass, so I covered that up with a couple of other glasses, hand-trimmed and raised on dimensionals. This one is a bit more like the original swap which had a tab punched in olive and a stamped piece from Tabs For Everything, and a friendly 'hello'.

One last shot to show you the fun I had raising a couple of elements on the card. If you've swapped with me and come here for more details, thank you, I appreciated the chance to swap with you. If you receive an email letting you know when I have a new post, it's good to see you here today too. If you've just stumbled onto my post, it's good to meet you. Any questions, about joining my team, having a party, products used etc., feel free to ask. I really enjoy my stamping time and I'd like to share it with you too.

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Any orders in my online shop with the Host code receive a gift from me in the post. Since November is my birthday month, I am adding a handmade birthday card as well, for you to send to someone else.