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With all the hype about Sale-a-bration, the Summer Mini catalogue was sort of in danger of being thought of as rather the red-headed step-child (absolutely no offense intended to red-headed step-children), but with so many lovely things contained within its 23 pages, it’s entirely unfair not to shine a bit of light on it, my particular favourite item being the Spice Cake Designer Fabric.
Here is a little (fully reversible) tote bag that I made up using a tutorial that I found {HERE}. The original pattern for a full sized tote was a bit too large for the fat quarter sized pieces of fabric that make up the pack of Spice Cake, so I shrunk the pattern by half, which makes it just big enough for a wallet, phone, sunglasses and keys.
I know this first hand, as I was so excited when I finished it (which took a couple of hours one evening in front of the sewing machine and TV simultaneously) that I loaded it up the very next day and took it along when I dropped my girls to school 
Here’s a peek at the fully lined inside…
And a closer look at the medallion-style embellishment…
I glued a pin onto the back of the embellishment, so that it can be removed and re-pinned in case I want to turn the bag inside out and use the other pattern, or even take it off entirely and pin it to a scarf or jacket
The plaid pattern in the very back is actually a pair of cotton shorts that I found in an op-shop for a couple of dollars and pounced on because the colours were exactly right to co-ordinate with the fabric. Win!
The only other non Stampin’ Up! product is the circle of felt with notches cut out of it that you can see peeking out from under the jumbo Pear Pizzazz Designer Button. If Stampin’ Up! had felt in colours that matched the colour collections, I’d be all over it in a second, but until they do (perhaps we can all work on them together 
) I will have to source it elsewhere…
I’m SO very excited that Stampin’ Up! is now carrying Designer Fabrics (just WAIT until you see the one coming in the Autumn/Winter Mini *drool*) – it allows me to combine my love of all things Stampin’ Up! with my old and re-emerging love of sewing.
Can’t be unhappy with that
Have you experienced the Stampin’ Up! fabrics first hand yet? Tell me what you’ve made, I’d love to know!
PS. If you don’t get my newsletter, you would have missed this vitally important advertisement
Tags: Bags, Buttons, Designer Fabric, Summer Mini 2012{ 5 comments }
With Sale-a-bration coming swiftly to a close, it’s time you knew (in case you didn’t already) why it’s absolutely the best ever time to join Stampin’ Up! as a demonstrator.
In dollar terms, joining Stampin’ Up! before this coming Saturday, will score you a $40 discount off the standard price of $289, plus an additional free stamp set from the catalogue on top of the ones you already get (and can choose for yourself!) in your kit. This gives you well over $600 of value for less than half of the retail cost of purchasing it all individually.
Keeping with the dollar terms for a moment, come April 1st, Stampin’ Up! is implementing a brand new Career Plan – the structure under which all demonstrators get paid – and there are more ways to earn money and incentives than ever before. For new demonstrators especially, the all new Stampin’ Start program gives you the opportunity to earn free stamp sets, a cash bonus, and even the cost of the Starter Kit back within your first six months.
And if dollars float your boat, steam your pudding and make your skirt fly up, then you can’t argue with the minimum 20% discount on all of your own purchases, and 30% on your very first workshop order immediately after you become a demonstrator.
You might be wondering what the catch is, and truthfully, there isn’t one.
Certainly if you want to remain active as a demonstrator, there are particular targets you will need to meet, but these are set at such a level that a single workshop only as frequently as every three months will see you over the line. If you’re an avid stamper and/or scrapbooker, with a group of friends that would occasionally purchase from you, then your minimums can easily be met in this way.
If ever there comes a time when you don’t see yourself being able to continue as a demonstrator, be it weeks, months or years down the track, you simply stop placing orders – there are no penalties or anything to pay back.
Of course, if you’re a go-getter, then the sky is the limit in terms of what you can do with a business like this, and I’d love to discuss those possibilities with you!
These are all the reasons why you have absolutely nothing to lose in making the decision to sign up as a Stampin’ Up! demonstrator, but for me, it’s all about what I have gained in these past six years that really define my time as a demonstrator.
Personally, I have gained hundreds of friends across the country and even the world – all tied together by a mutual love of making pretty things out of paper. I am inspired daily by the amazing people that I have come across, both in a creative fashion and also because so many of them share similar life values and aspirations to me.
SJ and Lou-Lou sharing the love at a catalogue launch!
Closer to home, I have a fabulous team of demonstrators that have joined me along the way, and it never ceases to amaze me that I have all of these gorgeous girls in my life, purely because I made a decision six odd years ago that “I might as well get myself a discount on this stuff, since I pretty much want the whole catalogue anyway…”
That is quite literally how it started for me.
At the time of joining, I had an almost three year old daughter and was six months away from having my second one. It wasn’t great timing to start a business, but at the time, I didn’t consider that I was starting a business – all I did was show a few of my nearest and dearest “all this great stamping stuff” that I had and what I could do with it, and pretty soon, they wanted me to show their nearest and dearest and the rest, my friends, is history!
The result is that six years on, both of my girls are in full-time school and I have been able to stay at home with them up until this point in time rather than go out and get an alternative part-time job. Now that they’re at school, I could get myself another job, but the way I figure it, I rather love the one I already have, and it allows me to be on pre-primary roster, watch them swim and run in their sports carnivals, drop them off and pick them up each day and be there in case they ever need me to be during the day.
I have, without a single doubt, had the time of my life since joining up as a demonstrator, and consider it up there amongst some of the best life decisions I have ever made.
If you have ever, even fleetingly wondered if it might be the right move for you, I would implore you to look into it further. There is nothing to lose and so very much to gain and I would love to be part of your Stampin’ Up! adventure…
Of course, any time is a good time to take the plunge, but in terms of simple logistics and dollars, there’s never been a better time than right now – and most definitely before March 31st!
I would love to hear from you with any questions, concerns, comments or queries that you might have about being a demonstrator – please don’t hesitate to call me on 0411 717 213 or shoot me an email and we can discuss it in more detail in relation to your own personal situation
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As the post title would suggest, today is my thirty-somethingth birthday (actually it’s ticked over to midnight since starting to write, so technically it isn’t anymore…) and after a lovely day having lunch and pottering at a garden centre with my handsome man this afternoon and hanging out with my girls this evening, this post is going up much later than I had planned, but I’m here now and have things to share!
Before I launch into the details of the delightful early birthday surprise that some of my stampin’ team members sprung on me exactly a week ago, I thought I’d expand on the second half of the post title…
As you are most likely aware, Sale-a-bration is coming to a close after two “enchanting” months and come March 31st it will be all over red rover for another year. If you have yet to capitalise on the freebies available with this promotion, or you have capitalised and you rather feel like doing so again, then I have a great opportunity for you!
Here’s how it will go down…*
• 10 people each place a $100 order (before shipping)
• Everybody chooses a free Sale-a-bration item
• Drawn randomly, everybody shares in the hostess benefits amounts to spend as they choose on exclusive hostess stamp sets or catalogue merchandise as follows:
- One amount of $30
- Three amounts of $20
- Four amounts of $15
- One amount of $10
- One additional Sale-a-bration reward
In addition to the bonuses listed above, the person whose order total is the highest will also have the opportunity to purchase any catalogue item at half price**
DON’T FORGET: WITH THE NEW HOSTESS PLAN, THE HOSTESS DOLLARS ARE ABLE TO BE SPENT ON ANY COMBINATION OF EXCLUSIVE HOSTESS SETS AND CATALOGUE MERCHANDISE THAT YOU LIKE, SO ANY OF THE AMOUNTS LISTED ABOVE COULD GO TOWARDS GETTING YOUR HANDS ON ONE OF THE STUNNING HOSTESS-ONLY STAMP SETS AVAILABLE!
Contact me asap to reserve a spot in the last gasp virtual workshop!!
* hostess amounts may change according to the number of people and order totals submitted
** cannot form part of the initial $100 order
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Righto, the next fun order of business is to allow you a peek into what it’s like to have a crew of beautiful hearted stampin’ team members descend on your house of a Thursday evening to throw you a surprise birthday stampin’ session.
We had actually pre-planned a casual gathering to take our Autumn-Winter Mini catalogue pre-order purchases (hello demonstrator perk!) for a test run, so I knew that there would be eight of us at my place that night. What I didn’t know was that they had been covertly messaging each other for almost a month with plans for a surprise birthday bash, and my suggestion of a play over at my house was all the encouragement needed to swing their delightful plans into action!
Cut to 7.30pm last Thursday night (after I had sufficiently shifted around every item of furniture in my teeny lounge room to make way for two trestle tables) when I heard a car door out the front. After a little while without a knock at the door, I headed out to my porch to see if anybody needed help up my front steps with their stampin’ supplies. The sight that greeted me still makes me giggle when I think of it now – picture six grown ladies, all carrying a varied array of stamping equipment, bags and plates of food all crouched in your front garden in an attempt to escape the glare of the motion-sensor security light that popped on as they all converged on my front door. The sight of me up on the porch galvanized them into action, with Lou springing up to hold up the above birthday banner, SJ with her camera around her neck trying in vain to catch the frivolity on film and Michelle still crouched in the garden doing her best to hide in my hedge. Bloody hilarious I tell you!
We all proceeded inside where I was informed that I need do nothing – everything was planned, from refreshments to make and takes and the most glorious array of gifts and cards. Stunned is an understatement. My face hurt from smiling and I’m pretty sure I spent much of the evening squirming and flapping with joy
Alrighty, enough talking, who wants to see some pictures…?!
Here is the party hat I was presented with at the start of the evening, and there is photographic evidence of it perched jauntily on my head, but it’s out of focus and blurry, quite likely due to the aforementioned squirming and flapping…
There are loads more to see – just hover over the thumbnails for a description and click on the thumbnails for the big picture:
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Am I not the luckiest stamper in the world? Such a fun night surrounded by some of the loveliest gals you could hope to meet, and all because one day six years or so ago, I thought to myself “That Stampin’ Up! thing looks like fun…”
So there I will leave you as it is now way past my bedtime and the birthday festivities continue tomorrow today, with a shopping trip into the city with my lovely mum.
Although I will say that if you like the idea of making new and gorgeous friends with a similar penchant for all things paper and ink, I would encourage you to consider the demonstrator opportunity, particularly since the Sale-a-bration promotion means the starter kit is discounted by $40 and you get an extra stamp set thrown in too! But you’ll have to be quick, because the offer ends on March 31…
Feel free to contact me with any questions about the opportunity or have a browse of the Join My Team section of my blog
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