Convention 2012

I have just been to the Stampin' Up! annual Convention and wanted to share some of it with you all.  I was planning on updating my blog each day, but there was so much to do I just didn't get the chance.  I managed to catch the flu while I was there and have spent the last few days in bed, but feeling a bit better now and up to a blog post!

I am pretty sure this is the night before Convention officially started, we could go and collect our Convention bags and check in early this year which was great, I did a little bit of swapping and then off to the ESAD dinner.  It was wonderful to catch up with my on-line friends in person, some I have met before, and others I got to meet for the first time.  We went for Turkish banquet in the city and all left feeling very very full.

Here is a pic of me with the lovely Shelli Gardner, CEO and co-founder of Stampin' Up!  Shelli is such a wonderful person, always smiling and looks just amazing all of the time, she has such a lovely vintage style.  She did a demonstration for us on Main Stage, and it was refreshing to see that even the CEO can "stuff up" sometimes.  You can read more about that in Shelli's own words on her blog So Shelli.

I did three different swaps, I will do a tutorial on the butterfly card in the next couple of weeks, but for now the short version is that I used vellum and brayered one side of it, let it dry overnight, and then used the stamp from Mixed Blossoms embossed in silver on the non-brayered side.  I then cut out two of the petals to form the butterfly.  The body comes from Butterfly Prints stamp set.

My second swap was also made with the blossom punch and the Mixed Bunch stamp set.  This time I stamped and punched the same image out on Whisper White card-stock and then punched a solid flower from the matching colour card-stock - in this case Cherry Cobbler.  I used a Reese's Peanut Butter cup in the centre of the flower and popped the finished flower in a mini cello bag.  The topper was made using the Framelits Die in coordinating DSP with the Oval All stamp adhered over the staple that held the bag together.

I don't have a picture of my third swap but it is a re-sized version of the Two Pocket Treat Holder that I saw on Chic N Scratch.  I made mine using 5.5"x5.5" DSP and popped a little dinner mint in the front pocket, I also used one of the Four Frames stamps and Decorative Label Punch on the front of the pouch, with the Thanks sentiment from Kindness Matters set.  I might just have to make up another one so I can share a picture of my version with you!

I hope you have enjoyed my update of Convention. I am hoping that I will get back to posting more regularly in the next few weeks.  I do have a couple of projects that I haven't yet shown you and will schedule over the next few days.

Happy Stamping