I am a bad bad blogger! I have been very slack, so here’s a quick card to try and make up for it!!

I used this one as an engagement card for my cousin Mellissa and her fiance Cary - I don’t have it anymore obviously, and the computer I’m working at hasn’t got GREAT colour, so… I’m guessing really, as I can’t remember which colours I used. Oooops.

 

I think, knowing me, that it’s most likely Pale Plum and Perfect Plum, and the heart is embossed in white. The stamp set is Priceless, and I’ve stamped the little flower in Whisper White craft ink on the background. The ‘Happy Together’ greeting is from the Everyday Flexible Phrases. A bit of white grosgrain tied and it’s done!

Very simple, but elegant? I hope so!!!

Thanks for looking!

 

 

 

Hooray it’s back to posting normally again - it was fun to relive the convention experience, but boy it was hard too!

This is a card I made late in May, for my niece’s 18th birthday.

The colours are Wild Wasabi, Groovy Guava and Very Vanilla - it’s a trifold card I guess. The large circle window was made using our Round Tab Punch, which all of our other circles and scallops can nest inside of…. I love that!

On the inside is an envelope that I’ve punched a half circle out of, to make a little folder to put some money in for her birthday - attached with a paperclip and some more double stitched ribbon.

Whoa! The flash came on for that one!

The stamp sets I’ve used are, Oh So Lovely, It’s Your Birthday and Think Happy Thoughts.

I hope she liked it! I hope YOU like it!

Thanks for looking!

 

 

 

Yay, time to announce the next promotions from Stampin’ Up!

Break free from the ‘e’! 

(That’s the internet kind of ‘e’, not ahem, the other one - although the other one is worthy of breaking free from also… but I digress)

Stampin’ Up! has designated 25 June 2008 as eScape day — a day to put away your mobile phones and laptops and focus on reconnecting with your “wireless network.”

To that end, I’ll be holding an eScape event here at my home in Gisborne, Victoria, to help us all rediscover the joy of making a personal connection that can’t be found in a text message or e-mail - and lets face it, who doesn’t like getting a nice card in the mail? Sooo much better than those horrible bills!

My eScape event will be on June 28th, between 10am and 2pm, and you’ll make three items for only $5.00!!

Yes, all three items for $5.00!

During June, Stampin’ Up! is also offering a terrific eScape Bundle with products at 25 percent off, including a few of the essentials to create your own cards!

eScape Bundle (item 113705):

Love Notes assortment                p. 132              $13.50
Circle of Friendship stamp set      p. 112              $33.95
1-1/4″ Circle punch                    p. 142              $30.95

Total (non-bundled)                                          $78.40
eScape Bundle price                                      $58.80 - you save nearly $20!

If you’d like more details on either ordering the eScape bundle, or attending my eScape day, then please contact me at jenni.oliver@hotkey.net.au, or mobile 0403 023707. Bookings are essential for the eScape day…. so I have enough cardmaking goodies to go around!

Hope to see you there!

 

 

 

 

And about time too I hear you grumble!!

I’m wishing I’d written this earlier too, because all the funny little details have faded away darn it!! Don’t let me take so long next time

Day 2 was pretty scary for some of my downlines, Kerri and Yvonne - they were both asked to speak during our sessions, and if it had been me, well the chemist’s around the convention centre would have all sold out of Poise. BUT those girls were GREAT! Well at least I know from being an eyewitness that Yvonne was amazing - she’s a natural in front of a crowd. Kerri managed to work it out that she was presenting to a different group to what I was in, but others said she was fab too.

It wasn’t all just group sessions about building our businesses though…. we had some hands on fun as well. There was a session called Pad Paper Marker, where we all made up our own colour charts. Some poor blighter had cut up teeny squares of every colour cardstock for us, and we had to go along tables that seemed a mile long, adhering the right cardstock, stamping the right colour, and scribbling the right marker onto our sheets in the right spots. It was a challenge actually LOL! Especially as there was a lot of talking and laughing going on. I saw more than one poor stamper start again at the beginning when she’d stamped the wrong colour! It was organised chaos!

Then there was a watercolouring session - aha! now we got to use the Aquapainter that came in our Convention bags. These are the cute little cards we made, using Love Notes sized cardstock and matching envelopes. The stamps were from Fast and Fun Notes, and I am loving that hedgehog!

Now see in the right hand lower corner of the photo - that’s the detailed pic of the embroidery on the white shirt I bought! It’s the image from Baroque Motifs! That shirt was one of the last impulse buys from Memento Mall, and I’m so glad I got it now, it’s so cute!

Now my memory is getting fuzzy about the sequence of events, but I think we had a lunchbreak, then after gorging ourselves on that (and being of the ‘waste not want not’ persuasion I ate EVERYTHING in that lunch box ) there was another general session with all of us there, to sort of wrap things up. I am pretty sure this was the day that Tracey won a door prize from Prize Patrol, and set the benchmark for over the top reaction to this - she was the last woman standing, and the prize patrol girl had to run from the other side of the huge room we were in to reach her. And all the time Tracey was jumping and jiving and yelling and generally going OFF. I was impressed to say the least. (And thanking my lucky stars that the prize patrol girl was standing near me when my name came up on the screen the day before - I wouldn’t have had the stamina!)

We all drifted away after that, to go and make ourselves beautiful for the Awards Dinner - (for some of us this took longer than others, and with the frozen slushies awaiting us in our room, I’m not sure we achieved it to be honest!) *Note to self - do makeup BEFORE the slushies next time*.

Just as I expected, the dinner was delicious, and there was plenty of laughing and chatting with everyone - it’s ’sit where you want’ at convention dinner, so everyone was mixed up according to how early they got there! There was a weird moment when half the people in the room got up and went to one side to have a photo taken - I’m one of Angela Sargeant’s downlines, and she has a large team now so when we went to get our pic taken, it was a big event, and thanks to Roz for organising us!

The Awards part of the dinner was SO exciting! There were so many names of people that I knew, so I was hoarse from shouting by the end of it. And there was my own little moment in the sun….

Shelli gives a great hug - I was up there for a recruiting award, for recruiting 5 demonstrators in the last year. Apart from the stage walk, I got a recruiting pin, and a stamp set… Short and Sweet for this.

I was pretty chuffed when Shelli said ‘I’ve been watching you swish by in your dress all night’ - this is me turning back to swish at her LOL!

And here’s Tracey swanking across the stage - I was so proud for her, she was up there for a recruiting award too!

Now something weird happened to the photo’s I took of Kerri, Claire and Yvonne up on stage for Demonstrator of the Year. I think perhaps there was something in the *water* on our table, but somehow my photo’s are too blurry. Either that or my camera was playing up . But anyway…. Drumroll please…… Kerri Hunter…. No. 24! Claire Daly…. No. 20! and Yvonne Campbell…. No. 15!! How cool are they! VERY proud upline moments there! And a great big congrats to Linda Higgins for being No. 6 - she really deserved it! Of course there were others up there from my wider Stampin’ Up sisterhood, Jayne, Alisa, Ness and on and on.

AND Claire and Yvonne were up on stage again for earning the Incentive Trip! Way to go for both of them!

This is a photo of Kerri after she’d been up on stage for the Demonstrator of the Year awards, with Leonie, one of Tracey’s lovely downlines.

And one of Tracey, Fleur, Michelle and Maggie…

It was SUCH a great night!

Ahem but it didn’t end there! After we staggered back to the apartment, we noticed that the bar across the road was still open, so we went over there for a while (read - until they kicked us out), then it was back to our apartment balcony to finish the night. Or so we thought. At about 1.30am when Roz left, Tracey, Carol and I realised we wouldn’t be up early enough to say goodbye to Roz’s roomate Jani - downstairs we all traipsed, to jump on her and say goodbye.

Somehow Carol seemed to go into a deep sleep across Roz’s bed, and somehow it came to me that it would be a great joke to draw a moustache on her, and somehow Roz found an eyeliner pencil for me, and somehow she didn’t even stir while I drew it, and a goatie on her. Must have been some deep sleep huh. I can’t believe I didn’t have my camera with me, it was SO funny I nearly needed the Poise again. Well funny for us anyway, and it had rubbed off by morning so Carol didn’t see it, tee hee!

I think it was about 3am by the time we did get to bed, and HOOPLA it was Sunday the next day, and even the keenest labourer doesn’t get up to use his jackhammer on a Sunday, so we got a tiny sleep in. Poor Jani and Roz had to be up for pickup at 7am I think. Oops.

And now it’s Sunday morning… so technically Convention is over, phew!

I’m already planning on going next year, which will be in Canberra! And I think I’ll take notes next time so I can update better LOL!

I’ll be back just one more time with a holiday update - we went up to the Redcliffe Peninsula after convention, for four days, and there is a fantastic photo of us on one of the rides at Movie World. It’s a total crack up!

And then my friends, its back to posting pics of my cards and creations, which I hope you’ll enjoy as well!!

 

 

 

It’s all well and good to update about Convention, and yes, I will finish Day 2! But I haven’t posted a card in FOREVER!

This is one I made for Mother’s Day (obviously ) with my freebie set from convention, Fabulous Flowers. The colours are River Rock, Cameo Coral and Ruby Red. I’ve attached a tiny green rhinestone brad from the Ice coloured Circle Rhinestone selection, to the middle of the flower, but you probably can’t tell its colour from the photo.

The sentiment is one from the new set Occasional Greetings, which replaced All Year Cheer for me, I do miss that set, but this one is fast becoming a favourite!

Those are Ruby Red brads on the Cameo Coral tabs on each side - I used the Word Window to create those.

 

 

Aaaaaaaah. That felt GOOD!

And now that I’ve managed to upload a photo from my new computer, and do this post a million times faster than I used to be able to on my old relic, I will be back soon to do my convention update for Day 2!

 

Hoopla!

 

 

This is turning out to be quite an epic! And it was a MONTH ago now!! How the time has flown.

Anyhoo, Day 1 started out with visits to Memento Mall after we collected our bags…

I absolutely LOVE my Stampin’ Up! insulated mug - I have used it in the car a few times, but I think it’s really going to come into it’s own in my stamping room. Imagine how much LESS tea staining will occur when I clumsily knock it over instead of my usual cup. As I know I will.

And the cap… well the embroidery was so pretty I had to have it. It’s just like the pattern from the Scribble jumbo wheel. And I got my daughters one each too *blush*.

Of course there is the black Mini Catalogue bag as well, which I mentioned in Part I, but I’m LOVING the Papaya coloured shirt I got, and the white one too - the white has a tiny little embroidered bit on it down at the hem, which you’ll see better in another photo later, it’s the swirly stamp image from Baroque Motifs!

For someone who swore they wouldn’t be getting much at all…. I went back three times!!

After Memento Mall there was the mad mad phenomenon of swapping. It’s kind of strange how you can go up to absolute complete strangers at functions like this, and swap your work for something they’ve made. Imagine trying to get away with this on the street! “Here’s a glove I made… I’ll swap you for a sock or tie!” They’d lock you away! (And rightly so). I think I had about 50 swaps made in the end, so I came home with about 50 new card samples from other demonstrators! The quality of the swaps was fantastic again this year - everyone I swapped with ROCKED!

In comparison to Memento Mall and the swapping, the actual seminar stuff is not blogworthy so I will gloss over it here - if you’re a demonstrator it was all really good information, and very helpful, insightful and full of great tips, but I’m sure you’re not the least bit interested out there!

BUT! There was a photo opportunity at the end of one of the sessions, so Tracey and I went for it!

Yep, Shelli and us! This is one of the highlights of the whole trip - Shelli is so inspiring and just oozes loveliness…. it’s hard not to bask in her glow!

One of the other GREAT things about convention is what they call Prize Patrol. About 5 times a day they stop and put up the names of 10 demonstrators who’ve won a random prize! And I got one!!!!!!! I won the set Fabulous Flowers, which I hadn’t really considered buying, but now that I have it….. I adore it! Here it is, amongst the other stamp sets I came home with from Convention.

We all got Fast and Fun Notes and the Happiness background in our Convention bags, and I won Fabulous Flowers in the Prize Patrol….. more on the other two sets later!

Then of course there were Make & Takes at one of the sessions - we made a 12 x 12 scrapbook page, a card using chipboard and a really cute gable box, and got to sample some of the stunning new taffeta ribbon, and use our Happiness stamp - this one is going to very handy!

The two little cards were from a session on Day 2, so pretend you can’t see them here!

And a close up of the box we made…

At the end of Day 1 we had an hour or so to kill while some of us waited for the Leadership session to begin in the evening, so we grabbed a quick dinner at an Italian style restaurant at Southbank. Everyone who was Senior Supervisor or above got to go to this session, and learn how to be fabulous uplines. And I have to say that I was surprised, and inspired, and relieved by what they told us. It’s not the huge hard job I was thinking it was!! Phew.

We all got a little surprise at the end of this hour long session - the biggest, richest, chocolatiest (hmmmm new word!) brownie style cake with fresh cream I have EVER seen. I confess I couldn’t eat it all !  AND that’s not all they had for us…. that’s how I got the Garden Whimsy stamp set in the photo above! Everyone at Leadership training got the set! How generous is this company!?

I won’t bore you with the late night swapmaking antics, and how the frozen slushies chock full of vodka tasted…. but I will share with you the tattoo I went and got after Leadership training, down at the Southbank Night markets….

And before you ask… YES it’s real.

It’s a real spray on tattoo! You can probably guess where it was…. I couldn’t be too risque as we were out in the open with spectators gazing on!

Much drinking and talking and stamping and not much sleeping followed this expedition to the markets… Day 2 to follow soon!

 

 

 

 

 

Dad’s ok! I finally got a text message on my way to work that the surgery was over and looked like being a success. I was so glad to hear that news! Of course he overdid it the first day after the surgery and was exhausted by Day 2, but he was discharged from the hospital on Friday last week, and now that he’s actually getting some sleep, he’s doing really well.  Hospitals really aren’t the best place to be when you are sick.

Thankyou so much for all your comments and emails wishing him well, it really helps to know that others are sending positive vibes

Now where was I??? That’s right…… convention……

 

 

 

 

 

My Dad is in surgery right now, having an operation on his spine, and I’ve tried doing housework to keep busy and distracted while I wait for news, but it is just not cutting it! The thing with housework is that it is so mindlessly BORING that your brain actually has MORE time to think about other stuff ie. Why haven’t I heard yet? …. what’s going on down there? ….. when will we know if it’s been a success??

I don’t feel the least bit like stamping, then it hit me! My blog! My poor neglected blog! How can I think about Dad’s surgery while I’m writing a post hey? Brilliant!

What this means for you is….. you will finally get the next update in the Convention 2008 Trilogy!

HOOPLA!

OK so where were we…. I think we had just been awakened by the dulcet tones of a jackhammer somewhere around 5.30am ish - we leapt immediately from bed and started to sing that old song from a Judy Garland movie “Good morning! Good morning! It’s great to stay up late….” And if you believe that you’ll believe anything!

Actually, we eventually dragged ourselves out of bed for a quick brekkie and shower, got dressed and packed our swaps ready to go. Registration started at 8am and there was no way we were going to be late! We had shopping to do at Memento Mall for goodness sakes!

Thanks to Tracey, we only had a short stroll down to the Convention Centre where we joined the queue to register… there were some excited squeals from the front of the queue - Kerri, Claire and Yvonne had all received Demonstrator of the Year pins! Pride swelled my chest like the infamous waterbra could never achieve… definitely a proud Mum moment to see your downlines achieve so much! I didn’t make the cut this year *sob* but never fear, I am working hard to get up there with them next year!

Now, this seems like it’s getting a bit long and not a photo to be seen! I can’t have you straining your eyes all this time without some photographic reward for reading my drivel can I?

 This is our Bashful Blue convention bag - I love the clear window at the front for displaying the catalogue or scrapbook page or selection of cards. My convention name tag is on there too, along with my Recruiting Pin yay! The big E on the tag was made by one of the girls from the wider group I belong to, Elite Stampers. We wore them so we could identify each other, as mostly we’ve only met online before! Thanks Teneale for making them so beautiful!

The little black bag beside it is one I bought in Memento Mall, and it also has a clear pocket at the front for putting a Mini Catalogue into - it’s my handbag at the moment

And can you believe I have to get ready for work now? AND I STILL HAVEN’T HEARD ABOUT DAD!   Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh.

I’ll be back to post Convention Day 1 Part II in the next few days….

 

 

 

Convention was totally fantastic… but I fully expected it to be!

I’ve wanted to pop in and update you all on how things went, but I thought I should probably avoid WWIII by spending some time with the family first….. but now they are back at school and work and my time is my own today…. and what they don’t know won’t hurt them. Muahahahahahahaaaa!

I will start at the beginning, the very beginning. We all went up as a family on the Tuesday before convention, and stayed at my Sister In Law’s place out near Mt Cout-Tha for a couple of nights. We did some touristy stuff at the Botanical Gardens, like feeding the ducks, and playing spot the lizard….

OK so the big one is not real, but the other two are - and these things were EVERYWHERE.

This photo cracks me up - Amy was feeding some birds, and one came right up and snatched the bread from her hand…

We also took a drive in to Southbank, and walked the whole length of it. What an awesome place! The kids loved the ‘real’ beach up in the park bit, quite unexpected to find a beach complete with sand in that spot! We went to the Museum, which was a big hit - how big do the bugs get in Queensland for goodness sakes! Ewwwwwwwwwwww.

And another funny pic - this one is Quinn and Amy. You know the boards where you stick your head in the hole, and on the other side you are a strongman, or chick in a bikini? They were dinosaurs. Convincing hey.

So FINALLY we had killed enough time doing family stuff. It was Thursday and time to get to the real purpose of the trip up North. David and the kids dropped me off at the apartments Tracey had booked, and I must say that my knees went weak when I saw that we were right over the road from a snazzy little place called the Melbourne Bar. Yes, our balcony looked out at nirvana! It was fate I think.

I bagsed my bed, and then decided to go and scope out the Convention Centre (after all it was only 2.30pm and the others weren’t arriving for hours). As luck would have it, I ran into Tina, Jacqui and Di on the bottom floor, and they convinced me to go to the bar with them. I fought the suggestion with everything I had…. but in the end, evil prevailed and I went along. Gosh could it really have been 10pm when I stumbled back over the threshold of the apartment? Must be a time difference thing in Queensland perhaps? *looking innocent* I should have synchonised watches or something.

It was an absolute blast to catch up with so many demonstrators that night, many from my team who had made the trip up - it’s this part that I love the best about these gatherings. How else would we ever see each other? We’re all over the country!

Tracey, Carol and I had quite a few visitors in our room that night (and the next and the next), so I think it was about 2am when we finally crashed into bed…. alarm set for 7am so we wouldn’t be late for registration. OHO! Little did we know that not only was there a lovely bar over the road, but a nice big development - and in Queensland it is A-OK to start construction work at 6am. Ye gods! (Of course 6am is for slackers, I believe our guys started at 5.30am like the good industrious souls they were.)

Never mind, it meant we were definitely NOT late for registration!

Back with more later…. including some bragging about members of my team achieving great things, so be prepared!!!!

 

Crikey, how organised am I?! I uploaded this pic before I left, so I could do a quick update while I am away…. it’s the last of my convention swaps. I ended up making 52 in all so I was pretty chuffed with myself! (Not 52 of these, 52 in total of all my swaps… I’m not THAT good! )

This one uses Garden Whimsy, a really cute set, and one we got for free at the Leadership training on Friday night - how cool is that!

The colours I’ve used are Bashful Blue, Cameo Coral, Certainly Celery and Apricot Appeal - I think anyway, I haven’t got one with me to check it properly, as I managed to swap them all. I’ll correct this post if I’m wrong when I get home. I also used the paper piercing tool, and added some Bashful Blue brads to finish it off. I must say I LOVE the colour combo, it’s so fresh looking!

Anyhoo, hope you like it… I’ll be updating all about convention when I get home later this week.