It is with much excitement (and rather bleary eyeballs – it’s way past my bedtime…) that I can tell you that the all new, delicious and delightful, gorgeous and stunning 2010-11 Idea Book and Catalogue is now live!

You can see the new catalogue and flick its virtual pages by clicking on the image above, at which point it will open in a groovy new Flash Player, which allows you to bookmark pages, take notes and zoom in for extra detail, all while providing you with a delightful page flipping sound effect, making it seem like the real thing but without the paper cuts and dog-earedness that usually accompanies a hard copy catalogue.

How fun is THAT?!

You can also save the entire catalogue as a pdf to your computer by clicking –>HERE<–

Then when you’re done flicking and perusing and salivating – likely some time next week – and you’re ready to tackle some of the gorgeous projects found within, you can download the Stampin’ Supplies list – otherwise known as the project ‘recipes’ – by clicking –>HERE<–

And then when you can’t stand it any longer and want, no need, your very own hard copy of the catalogue to place lovingly by your bed – the very best place for a Stampin’ Up! catalogue – then you can contact me to book into my catalogue launch party this coming Saturday where for the bargain price of $5 you can come along and join in the stampin’ fun and take your catalogue home at the end!

I have SO much more to tell you, including how you can join in with my new product shares and why now is a GREAT time to join the In-crowd (aka become a demonstrator) but if I don’t go to bed soon, I won’t be in the race to get my big girl to school before lunch time tomorrow, and that’s just not the responsible thing to do…

Bye for now!

Just a quick post to let you know that if you’re local to Perth, have a couple of hours free in the afternoon of Saturday September 4th and have a vague interest in knowing what’s in the upcoming 2010-11 Idea Book & Catalogue AND the desire to own your very own copy, then you might might be interested to know about my catalogue launch party…

My last launch party for the Autumn-Winter mini catalogue was a very cosy affair -  cramped if you want to get technical – largely owing to the fact that I had it in my shoe-box sized house and was overwhelmed with people wanting to come!

This time I have hired a meeting room in a local Community Centre, so we can spread out a bit more, but places are still limited, so if you want to come along you’ll need to be quick!

Many places have already been taken by those on my customer mailing list – they get first go at everything that  I do in the way of events, so if you want to have first dibs on events, special offers and other fun stuff and you don’t already get my newsletter, then I suggest you rectify that immediately before moving on…

Here are the details for the launch…

When: Saturday September 4th
Time: 2 – 4.30pm
Where: Rivervale Community Centre
Cost: $5
What: A party in honour of the oh-so-beautiful 2010/11 Idea Book & Catalogue, inclusive of your own copy to take home, make and takes, fun novelties, chances to win prizes and an exciting (and YUMMY) surprise that I am super-duper excited about!

But if you want to come, you MUST book and pay for your place first, which you can do by emailing me and I will send you bank account details for transfer, or if you’d prefer to pay by credit card, hit the little button below and away you go!

I can’t believe it’s already three weeks on from convention – although having said that, it feels a whole lot longer ago – and if you’re into reading stampin’ blogs at all, there’s a very good chance that you’ve already found out all the good bits about Sydney 2010!

I’ve finally had a chance to edit some photos from our time away, having received our camera back in the mail last week (thanks again Mr Businessman!), so if you’re at all inclined to know what goes on at a Stampin’ Up! convention (and don’t mind wading through some happy snaps from the family holiday that followed…), read on for my version of Sydney 2010!

We decided that we would make this year another family holiday/convention extravaganza, the last one being Brisbane two years ago and let me tell you, the two years difference between travelling with an 18 month old as opposed to a 3.5 year is vast.

In a very good way!

The customary pre-flight photo. Daddy and his girls

The first day of convention – in fact the first five minutes – is quite often the most fun for me, as it’s when I get to see many of my gorgeous stampin’ friends again for the first time in a year.  I am so lucky to have expanded my circle of friends by huge amounts through nothing other than a mutual association with Stampin’ Up! and for that, I will be forever thankful.

This year, convention kind of started the evening before the official beginning, at the Managers’ Reception.  It’s a chance for a number of demonstrators titled Manager and above to get together in a smaller setting with each other and also with Shelli.

Following a brief talk from Shelli herself, we were ushered into a room where there was a table filled with fish bowl sized mugs adorned with the sweet Share a Cup stamp image from the Autumn/Winter mini.

Alongside the table were several convention centre staff ladling melted chocolate and warm milk into the fish bowl sized mugs and handing them out to us all…

Despite the fact that the cup posed a couple of social issues in that taking a sip from it obscured the immediate area and any conversation partners from view, as well as the more cosmetic concern of having chocolate deposited across one’s forehead and through one’s eyebrows, the number one topic of conversation in the room was how we could lick them clean enough to tuck in our bags to take home…

Thankfully, this conundrum was solved upon leaving the room where there was another table filled with the mugs, this time gift wrapped in cellophane and with the matching stamp tucked inside

The first official day of convention started with the usual throng of demonstrators lining up to register, as well as mad swapping, hugging, chatting, photographing and general merriment.

The gorgeous Sarah-Jane Kalé was there for her first convention and it was great to hang out with her all weekend.  I’m lucky enough to live just a couple of suburbs from SJ in Perth, so we have got together on several occasions, kids and all.  During convention weekend she was without her own precious poppets, so mine were happy stand in whenever SJ felt the need for some poppet love

SJ was an honourary member of my A Klass Act team for the weekend, speaking of which, here are the rest of the team gals that came along….

Clockwise from left: Barb, Me, Hayley, Natalie, Louise

Louise is holding one of the little bags that I made up for my girls that attended convention this year – sort of a convention survival kit – something I love to do as a little token.

Here’s what was inside:

Tissues; Mentos & Fruit Tingles; lip balm; a nail file; a bag tag - a necessity with 500 other demonstrators walking around with a bag JUST like yours!

The two days of convention went by in a blur of fun and informative classes, fantastic presentations by both the home office staff and our local star demonstrators, gorgeous make and takes (that I can’t actually show you as they involve stamp sets from the  upcoming Idea Book & Catalogue!) and more than a smattering of wonderful new friendships formed.

The weekend culminated in the awards dinner which is always a highlight and a great opportunity to get into a bit of finery and celebrate some amazing achievements by Australian and New Zealand Demonstrators.

One of the things that I love about convention is how much of a production it is, with a theme running through the whole weekend, and sound, lighting, video and photography all professionally taken care of.

The awards dinner was no exception and was set up as an Oscars type event, complete with a red carpet, paparazzi and screaming fans (aka Stampin’ Up! staff) upon our arrival.

A paparazzo caught at his own game...

With SJ in our finery

With the gorgeous (and still blog-less) Teresa!

Sitting with Marelle at dinner

Of course, no Stampin’ Up! event would be complete without a photo opportunity with the ever gracious and smiling Shelli…

And not to be outdone, Tim simply wouldn’t rest until he had managed to get ‘Sterlo’ in a picture…

By the end of the awards, I was hoarse from screaming and my hands were raw from clapping – there were some amazing achievements.

My dear friend Marelle Taylor stormed the stage on at least five occasions, one of which saw her named the number four demonstrator in Australia, and the wonderfully talented and all-around lovely Claire Daly was popularly announced as number one!

Go Claire!

I was equal parts surprised and delighted to have been called out at number 13.

At the end of the night, we hit the stage for a shot of our whole posse, including Fiona at the far left, who was SJ’s roomie and part of our crew for the weekend.

After the awards dinner, we headed out into Darling Harbour, which was for the most part uneventful, aside from SJ being picked up at a bar, but that’s a story for another time

Here we are doing our best Sex and the City movie poster impersonation…

As ever, it was over far too quickly, so the news that next year’s convention would be three days instead of two was met with rapturous applause!

Do YOU want to join me for three days of stampin’ fun in Melbourne next year?!

There’s a FANTABULOUS promotion on at the moment with 20% off the Starter Kit, which is great value considering what you get in the kit, and better yet, what you get out of being a demonstrator.

Head to the Join My Team section , or contact me for more information!

Alrighty, if you’re still with me, still conscious, and vaguely interested here are a few snaps of what my family and I got up to once the stampin’ was done…

Hannah had been entranced by the Jessica Watson story, so was delighted to have a photo with Ella's Pink Lady. Truth be told, she doesn't actually look all that delighted - possibly due to a look of concentration as she plans her own circumnavigation of the world in nine years time...

The girls and Nanny after hitting the Sydney aquarium gift store. They each chose a furry manatee, having been quite taken with the real ones in the aquarium, but Sophie kept getting mixed up and calling them 'panadols'!

Having a ride on the gorgeous carousel in Darling Harbour

I love this pic that Tim took of the ferris wheel, also in Darling Harbour

Just one of a great many snaps of our mini tourists..

Taronga scored itself some new inmates...

The girls in my uncle's beautiful 'secret garden' in the Blue Mountains

...and again

As a stained glass window artist, the way my uncle Rod stores his sheets of glass...

..is quite interestingly similar to the way I store my paper...

...the only difference is the resulting art work. This is one of the many beautiful windows in the Queen Victoria Building that my uncle created.

With each day jam packed with adventures of all varieties, this is how each evening ended for my angels...

... and this photo of me with my beautiful big girl is included for no other reason than because I love it. So there.

And here ends my not so quick account of what was a wonderful week in Sydney!

If you’re still with me, I commend you on your stamina and hope you enjoyed reading my account of our Sydney 2010 adventures

Not that I’ve written 56 previous posts detailing the various things I love about what I do, but I think if I were to add them all up, I could probably get to at least 57…

My big girl is at home from school with a cold today.  Despite being in fairly high spirits considering the snot factor, I thought it best to keep her at home so as not to spread the joy around.

How is this something that I love about my job…?!

Any previous job that I have had would have required me to take the day off work myself, or alternatively send her to school laden with the aforementioned snot.

Today, and every day for the past almost four years since I started this stampin’ thing, I have had no such decision to make, as taking a day off for me now requires nothing more than stepping away from my stamping desk for a while, and truth be told, I don’t even really have to do that, as she’s sensible enough to take herself off for a rest when she feels she needs it, or play quietly or read when she feels up to it.  And I’m right here with all the mummy love she needs, which is the thing that always got me through any childhood afflictions

Does that sound like a job that appeals to you?

As an added bonus, until the end of this month, all new demonstrators signing up have the opportunity to choose an additional stamp set for free on top of the already amazing value of the starter kit.

Head to the Join my Team section for more information on the demonstrator opportunity and feel free to contact me if you have any questions or queries.

Many of you would already be aware that we are smack bang in the middle of the most fun time of the Stampin’ Up! year – Sale-a-bration!

Other than put a little advertisement up to the top right there, I haven’t done much in the way of shouting it from the rooftops, so I hope to rectify that today by sharing a couple of cards I made with my favourite of the stamp selections available in the Sale-a-bration brochure.

I loved all the stamp sets on sight, but my favourite one is Happy Moments.  I reckon you can’t go wrong with a stamp set that contains four images that could be used for pretty much any occasion, PLUS three greeting stamps into the bargain as well.

And it is a bargain, ’cause it’s free!

It – or any of the other three sets in the catalogue – can be yours for free with any order of $100.  Spend $200, choose two sets.  Spend $300, choose three sets plus the associated hostess benefits.

Spend more than that, and you and I need to have a serious chat about the Stampin’ Up! demonstrator opportunity…  Oh and did I mention that if you take up that particular opportunity during Sale-a-bration you get to choose a free stamp set from the Idea Book & Catalogue too…?

Yep, you do.

See I told you Sale-a-bration was fun!

Ok, onto the cards.  They both use the stack of gifts stamp from the Happy Moments stamp set, which I love because you can colour it all girly and pretty, or make it more boy-ish colours too – both of which I have done in the following examples…

This first card was for a little school friend of my big girl, whose 7th birthday party was just this morning.

The cutest thing was that when Hannah gave her the card, as she was ripping into it, she said “I know what this is – this is a card that your mum made”.

They’re onto me…..!

Here’s a close up of the watercolouring on the stamped image, and I also wanted to point out something else about this part too.

See the scalloped border around the edge of the circle?

Well that circle is the 1-3/4″ Circle Punch and we don’t actually have a corresponding scallop circle punch in the catalogue.  Check out this post on Marelle Taylor’s blog for a nifty little trick to get different sized circles out of your original Scallop Circle Punch…

“Happy 7th Birthday Madelen”
Stamps: Happy Moments
Paper: Kiwi Kiss, So Saffron, Watercolour Paper, Regal Rose Patterns DSP (Level 1 Hostess)
Ink: StazOn Jet Black, Kiwi Kiss, So Saffron, Regal Rose, Tangerine Tango, Baja Breeze
Accessories: 1-3/4″ Circle Punch, Scallop Circle Punch, Aquapainter, Tangerine Tango striped ribbon, Stampin’ Dimensionals

The next card was for the principal at school after I noticed a couple of weeks ago that his birthday was listed in the school newsletter.  It’s such a lovely school that my big girl goes to (and next year, so will the little one…!) with just one class for each year level and the teachers and the principal know each and every one of the kids by name.

Here’s his card…

The image on this one is also watercoloured, but this time I first stamped and embossed with White Embossing Powder, so it gives the image quite a different look.

So that’s just two simple examples of the many different looks that you could get out of this one stamp, never mind that you have three other image stamps in the set to play around with as well.

Sale-a-bration runs until the end of March, so get in on the free stamps action by contacting me and letting me know what you’d like for your $100 (or $200 or $300!) order

“Happy Birthday Mr Martin”
Stamps: Happy Moments, Short & Sweet
Paper: Chocolate Chip, Naturals Ivory, Kiwi Kiss, Watercolour Paper, Urban Garden DSP
Ink: Kiwi Kiss, Baja Breeze, Close to Cocoa, Creamy Caramel, Sahara Sand
Accessories: Chocolate Chip side double stitched ribbon, Aquapainter, Stampin’ Sponges, 1-3/4″ Circle Punch, Stampin’ Dimensionals

At the end of May, the quarterly team stamping day for my team A Klass Act was held and was the usual wonderful mix of friends, food and a little bit of stampin’!

What I love most about the team is that aside from the very few of us that knew each other prior, we have all been brought together due to each of us having become Stampin’ Up! demonstrators and we always have SUCH a fabulous time together!

As usual, there was swapping, business discussions, a ‘workshop wow’ demonstration, this time by Narelle, and 3 stamping projects for everybody to complete.

There was also home-baked scones (thanks Janny!), a 40th birthday celebration (hip hip hooray Chantell and thanks for the yummy cake Sue!) and enough chocolate to sink the Titanic!

Here are the projects we completed on the day….

This card project was provided by Jaz and was a wonderful example of the chalkboard technique.

This Explosion Box project was courtesy of Chantell, who has a never ending supply of 3D project ideas to keep us all busily entertained!

Here it is all neat and closed….

This is what happens when you take off the lid…

… and then this is what it looks like post-explosion…

Pretty cool huh?!

Everybody also completed a 12×12 scrapbooking layout of my design, but I have saved that for a post of its own as I have already included photo’s on mine, along with which goes a bit of a fun story, so I thought I’d make a bit of a feature of it…

You might recall my Trinny and Susannah reference of a couple of days ago…?

Stay tuned for the story!

If you like the sound of team day and have ever considered the opportunity to become a Stampin’ Up! demonstrator yourself, I encourage you to check 0ut the Join my Team information right here on my blog, and contact me if you’d like further information.

I’m always ready to welcome new members into my team -perhaps the next one will be YOU!

When I started this crazy stampin’ caper just over 3 years ago now, never in my wildest dreams could  I have expected that I could turn my paper nerd-dom into a real live job.

And to be honest, it still sometimes takes me by surprise and I find myself frequently flying by the seat of my pants and not really knowing what I’m doing!  Sure the stamping is fun, and I LOVE that aspect, but as for how to run it as a business……like I said, flying by the seat of my pants seemed to be the order of the day!

Recently I discovered the Business Stampers Coaching Group – you may have noticed the graphic over on the side bar there (scroll right down!).  This is a group that is run by a guy whose business it is to know what he is talking about with regard to running a stamping business.

And he really does!

Since joining this group, I have noticed a good number of positive changes to my business and I am learning so many new things!

So to any Stampin’ Up! demonstrators that happen across this here post….  If you would like to step up your business a level or twelve and really see where it can take you, or if you’re not running it as a business but would like to, I encourage you to click on that graphic and take the FREE 7 day trial.

Here is a little bit of information from the group forum, just so you know what it’s about and what sorts of things you stand to gain by being involved with the group:

• NEWSLETTER EVALUATION VIDEOS - each month, we’ll look at a Members’ newsletter and evaluate it for content, design and revenue-generating effectiveness
• FACEBOOK EVALUATION VIDEOS – each month, we’ll look at a Members’ Facebook business page and evaluate it for effectiveness in terms of generating both interest and profit for your stamping business
• TWITTER EVALUATION VIDEOS – each month, we’ll look at a Members’ Twitter page and evaluate the content of their Tweets, offering suggestions to make them a more effective business-building tool
• 12-MONTH BUSINESS SUCCESS PROGRAM - starting in June, this 12-month program will take a formulaic approach to helping you get from Point A to Point B, whatever that may be for you, in a specific period of time.

Of course, this is in addition to the benefits already in place:

• Monday Morning Motivational Audio Message
• Tuesday Coaching Challenge
• Wednesday Business-Building Traning Video
• Thursday Blog Evaluation Video
• Friday/Weekend Coaching Challenge
• Monthly Members-Only Conference Call
• BSCG Message Board
• Members-only discounts on SIMB products and services

All for US$19.95/month! 67 cents/day!

Even if you decide that it’s not for you, you have seven days to check it out at no cost and to see for yourself whether it could help you in your business.

You really have nothing to lose!