Stampin' Up! European Convention - Manchester 2013

Last week I was lucky enough to spend a few days with my fellow Stampin' Up! Demonstrators at the European Convention in Manchester.  It was so much fun spending time with my 'Pinkie' friends, and we got to see lots of sneak peaks of upcoming products and samples.

It was held at the Manchester Central Convention Complex, and was a great location to do a bit of Christmas Shopping at the German Market.

We were lucky enough to stay at the beautiful Midland Hotel, which was absolutely amazing - the breakfast was lovely and a great way to start our busy days!

Swaps

Now swaps are a traditional part of any Stampin' Up! Event, and as I am so busy at the moment with normal everyday life/work, I decided that I needed to do something simple, but effective.  This is what I came up with:-

They're just little 'Vodka Jelly Shot' pots that I found on the internet, and I just decorated them with a punch of Modern Medley Designer Series Paper and one of my favourite little stamp sets 'A Fitting Occasion'.  I just filled them up with some small sweeties (for that quick sugar rush at convention), and everyone seemed to like them!!

I only made 50 of them in total, but I came home with 50 swaps back and each and every one different to the next!

I was lucky enough to win a PRIZE PATROL during Convention, but unfortunately im not able to share the product with you just yet, as its part of a new Valentines promotion that Stampin' Up! will be running from 1st December........watch this space!!

I've got loads more swaps and photos to share with you, so come back at the weekend to see my next instalment!

Until next time.......

Pinkies Weekend in Birmingham!

I cant believe that this time last week I was getting myself ready for a day out in Birmingham.  I was off to join my fellow Pinkies, and attend the final day of the Pinkies Weekend that my lovely Upline Michelle Last had organised.

Catherine (a fellow Pinkie) had found a great venue in Birmingham that was very close to the Bull Ring shopping centre, so it was handy for everyone who had stayed over.  The BVSC Centre is definitely an ideal venue if anyone is considering organising a conference or venue in that area.

Anyway, there were some individual classes that you could attend if you wished, or you could just craft for the whole weekend.  The classes were held my Michelle, Nicky Dexter, Catherine Carroll and myself, and we each did a different themed class.

Michelle did the business talks, Nicky did a Big Shot Technique class, Catherine did a Blogging class and a Technique Keyring class and I specialised in Business Tools to help your SU Business (more information and photos to follow).

Here is Catherine Carroll - such a great teacher!!

Lovely attendees...

And of course the lovely Michelle Last!

Anyway, now onto the swaps!!  Swapping is a great part of the SU tradition, each event whether it be a Pinkies event or organised by Stampin Up, everyone has the opportunity to make a number of either card fronts or 3D items (all the same) and swap them with the other attendees, that way you get to bring home an array of ideas and techniques from other demonstrators.

This was my swap:-

And the back which contains the recipe of the items I used to make it:-

A very simple card, but when you have 20 of them to make, you need sometimes to make it quite simple as otherwise they can take forever ;o)

Hope you like it anyway?

Until next time.....

My Swaps for Quarterly Training - Bicester

Now that the day is over, I think I can share my Swaps with you all!! I had a bit of a dilema as this was my first training day I had been too, and I wasnt exactly sure what to do!

I had asked my lovely Upline Michelle for some advice, and with that I went away and found a project that I could do quite quickly (considering there were 20 to be made).

Unfortunately I cant take the credit for the idea, as I did 'pinch' it from the very talented Dawn Griffith (see here)

Here is my version anyway:-





I also received 15 swaps from the other Demos and customers that attended the day.

I had a wonderful day and learnt such a lot! I took loads of photos from all of the Inspiration Stations and of Michelle's samples!

Most of all, I met some wonderful ladies who share the same Stampin' Up! passion as me!!