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

Before I start regaling you with tales from the wild ride that was Stampin’ Up! convention this year, I would love to take a moment to thank those of you who left a comment or got in touch with me after my previous blog post.  It’s so gratifying to be among friends when you’re feeling less than dandy, so thank you friends xo

~~~

Right, so with the weather over in the West this week being a tad on the chilly side and the wind chill factor and rain this week being much more reminiscent of Melbourne than Perth, I figured it was a perfect time to properly relive the events of this year’s convention.

See, I just needed to get myself into the zone.  Or something…

This year was my fifth Stampin’ Up! convention and after attending the first one waaaay back in Sydney in 2007, I was determined never to miss one and so far have managed to keep up that determination.

I’ve said it many times before, but there truly is nothing like being surrounded by 450 fellow stamp crazed, ink affected chicks (and the very occasional bloke – yes really) for three days in a convention centre.  Not to mention meeting up with those same folk sporting the exact same orange and pink polka dot convention bag as you on the streets around the convention centre and sharing a knowing smile or a friendly wave.

Yep, Stampin’ Up! demonstrators are certainly a breed unto themselves and I’m grateful every day to be one of them!

Here I am with two of them now, just as we were checking in at the airport- the gorgeous gals that I shared row 18 with on the plane over to Melbourne and back again…

Sarah Jane Kalé on the left (affectionately known as SJ) is such a lovely friend and I’m so glad that I got to cross paths with her as a result of this stampin’ thing!  Lee Pelosi (aka Lulla) on the right is another gorgeous gal that I was so happy to get to know better during our time in Melbourne.

Having left behind the balmy Perth weather to arrive in Melbourne on their coldest day in a millionty squillion or so years (which was compounded by waiting for over an hour for the transfer to our hotel), we arrived just in time to drop our bags and head off at a cracking pace to the Crown Casino complex for dinner with our team mates Lou and Jan who had arrived earlier.

Who should I meet on the way there but the gorgeous Teresa Dabrowksi – my hug-buddy for every convention that we’ve ever been to.  Our squeals of excitement and disbelief at our chance meeting on the street had some nearby bar patrons on a pavement cigarette break likely wondering if they needed to intervene for the safety of all in the immediate surrounds, but we assured them that it was a friendly meeting and after a brief chat and promise to catch up in the coming days, we continued on our separate ways.

Here’s Teresa on the occasion of one of our many hug intervals throughout the weekend.  Gosh I love this chick!  We were at Manager’s Reception at the time, a special event for demonstrators titled Manager and above to meet as a smaller group, eat yummy food and get extra special gifts from Stampin’ Up!

An event worth going to for sure

Also at Manager’s Reception were one of my SU! besties and all-round gorgeous person Marelle…

…the effervescent and ever so slightly deranged but delightful Madonna (at one point during the weekend, Mads took it upon herself to come up beside me and blow into my ear, hence the slightly deranged reference, but I do love her )…

Then there was the lovely Claire, who I just love to catch up with each year…

Manager’s Reception followed the first day of convention proceedings, which had begun with with frantic swapping, old friendships re-kindled, new friendships started and of course, the first appearance of the lady herself, Shelli Gardner…

As always, there were no details left out in the setting up of the stage, with giant sized stamps and enormous “papercrafted” bits and pieces adorning the set.  Shelli herself was divine as usual, with her amazing style, ever-present smile and calm grace.

Oh, aside from her reference to tweezers and forests, but that’s a story for another time (and perhaps another blog…!)

The first day saw us taking in some fabulous demonstrations, checking out the new and upcoming In-colors for 2012/13 (YUM!) and trying out for a Minute to Win It style game show that was to be held on stage in the following days.   I was terrible at the try outs, but was happy to cheer on the fabulous Meges as she took to the stage for the various challenges and ended up taking out the whole thing! Woo hoo!

One of the most exciting things about convention (other than catching up with new and old friends, watching amazing demonstrations, stamping with new and never seen before stamp sets, swapping, laughing, shopping and general merriment), is the opportunity to win additional new and never seen before stamp sets and prizes.

This year, Prize Patrol was bigger than ever, with products being given out as bundles, and as luck would have it, the second day of convention saw my wrist band design being flashed up on the screen announcing that I was one of several winners.

I can’t show you what I got (it’s coming in September!), but I can show you how delighted I was to GET it, and let you know that it was a stamp set and matching Designer Series Paper that is nothing short of STUNNING!

It ended up being one of six new stamp sets that came home with me – two from our convention check in bags, two from awards night, one from Manager’s Reception and another one that was handed out on the last day to every single person at convention, along with a new Simply Sent Card Kit.  Amazing!!

Here is another familiar face (and name!) that I was delighted to rub shoulders with on the very first morning at check in.  The super talented and  just plain lovely Kirsty Brown.  She did a fabulous demonstration up on stage on the last day, which we whooped and hollered for – mostly because her demo was amazing but also partly because it can be slightly terrifying to be on stage in front of so many of your peers, so we wanted her to know she was among friends

One of the fabulous things about being in Melbourne was the food factor.  We had some amazing breakfasts and some fabulous dinners, but almost all were overshadowed by the fact that there was a Krispy Kreme outlet just around the corner from our hotel.  There is no such thing as Krispy Kreme in Perth, so on the evening after convention day 2, we headed there to procure ourselves a couple of donuts and a hot drink each.

Can you see how excited I was to have one in my possession…?!

Not quite as excited as Lulla, who posed delightedly in front of the entire display

After making our selections, we all hopped into our jammies and gathered in mine and Tracey’s room to devour our donuts and watch The Notebook – a perfectly timed chick flick.

I updated my Facebook status to this effect:

Sarah Klass…is wearing jammies in a Melbourne hotel room, drinking hot chocolate and eating Krispy Kremes with my best stampin’ buddies and watching The Notebook. Hello perfect Friday evening…!

I am eating a steak and watching the Ultimate Fighter …..we are so in sync my darling.

Indeed…

I am suddenly aware that there’s not an awful lot more I can actually show you about convention, being that so very much of it was sneaky peeks of products from our upcoming September Idea Book & Catalogue.  So if it’s ok with you, I’m going to continue in the vein of friends and food…

The final evening of convention was set aside for the Awards Dinner, which is always a highlight and a fabulous opportunity to frock up.

SJ looked a treat in her enormous flower head-piece, which was also practical in that it made her easy to spot across the crowded room when I first arrived

I absolutely adore this photo of Lou and I, almost as much as I adore that girl herself.  She is an absolute treasure and I love her to bits and pieces.

Speaking of treasures, here are a couple more of the gals from my team – Michelle (aka Ministamper) and Jan (of Stamping Elegance) looking stunning at dinner.

I don’t have a photo of our team as a whole from my own camera, but we were advised during convention that the professional photo’s that were taken would be available for us to download for free after the event, so knowing that he had one of us that would be far superior to anything from my camera, I’m patiently awaiting that, plus any others that I can get my hands on!

After dinner we headed back to the theatre where that fabulous stage was all set up and got ready to cheer on our fellow stampers that received awards for the stampin’ year.  Having found a Demonstrator of the Year pin in my check in bag indicating that I had earned a place in the Top 25 demonstrators, I was surprised and so very happy to be called out at number 16.

I have such an amazing team of stampers and wonderful customers (who have also become friends), plus my beautiful and supportive family, without all of whom, such an exciting award would never come in my direction, so thank you to all of you for making this “job” so fun and rewarding

One of the announcements that is always keenly anticipated is where the Incentive Trip for the following year would take the demonstrators who were lucky and hardworking enough to achieve it.  The announcement itself is always more of a sideshow than a plain old statement and this year was no exception…

Aaron and Emma, the Australian and New Zealand country managers appeared aboard camels to advise us that next year’s trip would be to Broome!  Being that Broome itself is in my home state and only a few hours flight in a northerly direction from home, it might be assumed that us Perthites would find it not such an exotic location for an Incentive Trip.

Personally, I would camp in my own backyard if it meant I got to spend time with Shelli and the amazing bunch of stampers that achieve the trip each year, so I will certainly be trying my hardest to get there.  I’ll have to see how I go

Once the festivities were over, a few of us had an extra day to play tourists, which was great since the preceding days had been so completely scheduled with activities.

On Sunday morning, SJ, Lulla, Lou and I jumped on a tram and headed to St Kilda, where Lou knew of a whole street of cake shops “just like Birthday Bakery“!  We started out with breakfast, with plans to hit the cake shops later on.

Quite ridiculously, my camera came home with more than a handful of food photo’s on it, one of them being this particularly pretty coffee from breakfast that morning…

After breakfast, we hit the St Kilda markets and froze our bits and pieces off in the windy seaside location.  Lulla looked particularly fetching in this hat and we all thought she should buy it, but she didn’t, so the photo will have to suffice…

My absolute favourite stall was one called two green pears, were I could happily have purchased one of everything…

In contrast, my least favourite stall was one that was run by a lady who asked me not to take pictures of her stall, when in fact I was lining up a similar shot to this one of a lovely clock tower…

I don’t have any recollection of what she even had at her stall, but I can tell you I didn’t like it

After perusing the stalls and managing not to buy a cute fabric owl in every available colour, we headed to Acland Street, where the cake shops awaited…

The entire street was lined with windows like this, so it was particularly difficult to decide which one to grace with our custom.  Which was also decided by which one we could actually get a table at.  We stalked a group of four until they left (no, not really, I’m pretty sure they were leaving anyway.  I think…) and ordered ourselves more coffee and some sugary delicacies.  Amazingly enough, none of which I have pictures of, possibly as they didn’t last long enough to be photographed..

Lou’s flight was later that afternoon, so post coffee and cake, we headed back on the tram to see her off, after which SJ, Lee and I continued to play tourists…

We walked around all afternoon and evening, finishing up at Chinatown for a delicious dinner, followed by Max Brenner’s for an amazing chocolatey experience.

Our flight was the following day, so we settled back into row 18 for our early afternoon flight, arriving home to excited small folk fresh out of school and wondering quietly what delights might be contained in my bulging suitcase for them (a tiny treat each!)

So here ends my Melbourne convention adventure, a good long time after the adventure itself, but hopefully mildly entertaining anyway.

I hope to be back in a much shorter time span with things to show you that I have been creating in recent (and not so recent!) times…

If you’ve ever been unsure about the difference between network marketing/direct sales and a pyramid scheme, then this little video is for you!

If you like the idea of making money doing something that you love, are not an incompetent moron and don’t have any brothers-in-law, then I’d love to give you more information on what the Stampin’ Up! demonstrator opportunity can offer you

Head to the Join my Team section for the low down, or contact me for further information!

I promised I would be back yesterday with information on how you could get my tutorial from Friday’s post and thoroughly intended that I would be, but between dropping my girls off at the theatre to see the Nutcracker ballet with their grandparents – somewhat of a Klass family Christmas tradition – doing a spot of Christmas shopping while I waited for them to come out again, going home to check out the newly painted bathroom floor that is the final stage of our three month long bathroom renovation, picking up clothes and heading to Nanny’s for the night so that we didn’t have a need to disturb the newly painted bathroom floor, packing two exhausted but elated girls off to bed then discovering that Anne of Green Gables the sequel was on TV (Oh Gilbert!), I sort of ran out of hours in the day.

But I’m here now and surely it’s still Saturday somewhere

So if you’re interested in a pdf tutorial so you too can create a little boxed gift set of ten love notes and envelopes, all you need to do is subscribe to my email newsletter and it’s yours as my gift to you for signing up!

And as an added bonus, signing up to my mailing list means you will score a monthly newsletter in your inbox containing information on Stampin’ Up! promotions, classes and workshops, special offers just from me plus loads of stampin’ inspiration!

You can even elect to tick a box for the month of your birthday so you will receive a special gift from me when your big day rolls around

Sounds like fun, right?

If you already subscribe to my mailing list, then you would have received your December newsletter late last week with information on how to update your preferences so that you could include your birthday month in your subscription and many of you have already done just that.

If you’re not already on my mailing list but would like to be, click on the image below to enter your details and complete the sign up process…

I look forward to turning up in YOUR inbox soon!

In my previous post, I made mention of the fact that I had recently held a catalogue launch for my lovely customers, to show them some of the gorgeous new products in the 2010/11 Idea Book & Catalogue  and to celebrate the arrival of this long awaited publication!

And celebrate we did, with demonstrations, displays, make and takes, special offers, prizes, freebies and best of all, a some baked delight from my dear friend Julie from Queen of Cakes.

Check THIS out…

Believe it or not, this “stack of catalogues” is actually a delicious white chocolate mud cake, complete with assorted icing buttons, stamps and embossed papers.

A couple of weeks earlier we had been at a dinner party of another dear friend of ours, and Julie had made a cake for his birthday featuring a photo of him that has long been the butt of jokes amongst that particular group of friends.

The “photo as cake decoration” idea got me started to thinking about doing a similar thing with the catalogue cover and so this idea sprouted wings, and in the capable and amazing hands of Julie, was turned into a creation that went beyond my wildest imaginings!

And it was SO delicious!

If you’d like to be informed of future events that I hold, be they classes, launch events, opportunity nights or anything else, be sure to sign up for my mailing list and you’ll be kept updated with any future offerings that may or may not involve an incredible baked creation

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