WHEW! What a weekend I had! I whisked off to Sydney for a VERY quick weekend trip for Stampin Up!’s Heartfelt Regional Event. My head is still swarming with creative ideas, and I’m wondering just HOW I’m going to get them all done before Christmas???
In the morning, we had a series of classes. Four to be exact. The first one was Sophie Zadeh presenting on Decorations. Check these out!
That Snowflake Ball is my favourite one, and I have plans to try it out just as soon as I can get to the craft shop and buy a styrofoam ball!
Next up we had a presentation by Marelle Taylor on Heartfelt Cards. She showed us how to use the Snow Festival Tags in the Holiday Catalogue to create some very quick and easy cards, both for Christmas and other occasions. Let’s just say I have a FEW packs of those on my next order!
Our third presentation was by Donna Williams (I think!) and I can’t seem to find a blog for her. She showed us Gift Wrapping ideas!! She made a fabulous and sturdy gift bag out of Cardstock, a tower of the Kraft Gift boxes wrapped in Tulle ribbon and an amazing flower topped big shot storage box. I am planning to try and recreate some of her projects so stay tuned for those. I found this photo of her Big Shot Box topper on the Stampin Up South Pacific Facebook page, so I “borrowed” it.
Last, and certainly not least was Ann Craig. She showed us some beautiful Handmade gifts including a Paperbag mini album made from the brown paper that comes in our order boxes! She made a lovely set of coasters, and a cone tree with pleated paper. Check these out!
After the classes had finished, we had lunch, then had the afternoon to go at our own pace. There was the product playground, where we could check out, and get tips on how to use some of our tools, like the Big Shot, Stampin Mat, Brayer, Heat Tool, and others. My favourite was the Brayer table, not only because my friend Tracey Eaton was presenting there, but because I REALLY wanted to learn how to use the brayer better. It’s one of my LEAST used tools. Lets just say, that I learned a lot and I’ll be using it way more often in the future. SOme of my samples that I made for Tracey were on display at the event and you will be seeing those coming up soon.
There was also two demonstration booths running all day. Different demonstrators were showing us different things at different times of the day. Teresa Dabrowski showed the lattice die (which I missed unfortunately, but I’d sure like to have seen her present!) Linda Higgins showed us some great ideas for Window Sheets too, and all of these things are not on my “I have to try” list!
There was also the Make and Take Tables. I spent all my time learning that afternoon that I ran out of time to do my Make and Takes. BUT, the nicest part it, they all include pre-cut pieces and instructions so I can just make them at home! You will be seeing those soon too!
We were asked to blog about what was our favourite part of the event. That’s the easiest question of all. While I love stamping, and learning more about my business, the number one reason that I stay in this business is the people. My friends in Stampin Up now stretch around the globe, both here and in Canada. Any chance I get to catch up with those friends and spend time with them, doing what we love, that time is priceless to me.
I was lucky enough to be invited to stay at the home of my friend Tracey Eaton, to meet her children and her husband, and even better, spend some time in her craft room. We shared a lovely dinner on Darling Harbour at Plate Restaurant. Had a few cocktails too!
I love Sydney too, and the sight of Darling Harbour are always gorgeous:
The weekend was way too short, but it was nice to get away. I look forward to the next Stampin Up event in Brisbane next year. Convention, Here I come!!!
