Well I have returned from the Stampin’ Up!® Convention in Brisbane and what a great time we all had. Most of us arrived at sometime or another on the Thursday and after settling at the apartments we stayed in we all met up around the corner and it was great to finally put faces to names we normally just talk to via the internet and to catch up with old friends met at last year’s convention.

We started early on Friday morning - well ok some of us were earlier than others as they just had to be the first in line at check in (Hi Fleur!!) After check in we all lined up for Memento Mall and had plastic in hand for our purchases! You could hear the ‘whoosh’ as the doors opened!

The picture on the right shows my stash from Convention. In Memento Mall I got two different designs of magnets to use for booking incentives & hostess thank you’s, mini catalogue bag (which incidently doubles perfectly as a swap bag) and that gorgeous blue coffee cup - its insulated so keeps my brew warm while I work.

The stamp sets you see there are the two we got in our convention bag - Happiness background and Fast & Fun notes. The others are Fabulous Flowers which I won as part of the prize patrol (bit like a lucky door prize), Garden Whimsy which all those who qualified for the leadership session received and Short & Sweet which was part of my Recruiting Award.

I was over the moon when I realised I was getting this award as this means I was going to walk the stage as everyone does who received an award be it for recruiting, sales or top 25 demonstrators of the year.

I not only received the recruiting award pin but I also got a free stamp set and that hug from Shelli Gardner (CEO & Co Founder of Stampin’ Up®) - this woman is such a lovely lady and grace just oozes from her!! She really is a living form of the ‘woman of grace’ talked about in the Bible. This photo was taken half way thru my ’stage walk’ and I know that I will treasure this memory for a very long time to come.

She is so giving and patient - so patient that she will wait and see and talk to anyone who wants to talk to her at convention - and with a crowd of 300 odd stamp crazy women in one place well that really deserves a medal! It really was an awesome 2 days and all those who spoke or led the sessions were great - so well spoken and versed in their topic.

They too were more than happy to answer any questions and talk to anyone wanting to see or talk to them. Even Mrs Soursoup!! It was so great to hear her story and see her demonstration - what a bunch of great ladies - man I bet their room would have been a hoot to stay in!!

These are the make n takes we made over the 2 days. I love the heart set we used for the scrapbook layout. I really want to get that set - so many hearts and a beautiful saying too!

The watercolouring class we did was great. I love those little love notes we used and the Stampin’ Up! water colour paper is just heaven to work with.

When I first heard we were getting the happiness background stamp to use at convention I wasnt overly impressed but after seeing all the sample boards and what people have done with it I can see that it is very versatile after all!

I had such a great time at this year’s convention I really didnt want it to end - although i did want to get home and fix my swollen feet. I enjoyed this year’s convention more so than last years - maybe I knew what to expect or there were more of my team there this time or maybe it was catching up with old friends and making new ones - or maybe it was because I didnt have to get up at 5am each morning just to be in on time - or maybe it was the fact I had a break away from the kids and spent the days stamping & chatting to stampers.

Thanks to all who attended and a big thank you to Stmapin Up for coming out here and putting this great convention on …. next year we go to Canberra so I’m looking forward to the road trip and the sleep over!

Leonie