Convention Make and Takes

No - I make no apology for going on- and on (and on!) about Convention!

It really is the highlight of the Stampin' Up! year and a chance to catch up with old friends and make new ones. For me its a very rare chance to catch up with my team mates in the Tartan Stampers who as you can probably guess from the name, are nearly all based in Scotland, the majority in Aberdeen so just about as far away from Kent as you can get!

One of the perks of going to the party is that you get quite a few freebies thrown into the package - starting off with the exclusive Convention Bag which is usually quite nice - but this year is obviously the one taste forgot and I'm afraid that I don't really LIKE the lurid Tangerine Tango/ Melon Mambo/ Whisper White plastic satchel we got this year - so I'm not going to show it to you - in any case - as it has been appropriated by Katy as her schoolbag - it isn't here to photograph!

However the contents of the bags are another matter - they contain TWO fabulous stamp sets from the current catalogue, and this year the sets were the beautiful Just Believe (116948W/120453C at £32.95 or £25.95 respectively) and the fun Party this Way (118744W/ 120609C at £15.95 and £12.95 respectively). The second morning of the Convention is spent doing a set of make and takes using these sets and here are the ones we made this year.....

First up is this beautiful card with its matching envelope.

To create this one we used the watercolour paper which arrived in this years catalogue and we used a new (to me anyway) technique on it. We coloured the stamp using markers, then spritzed the inked stamp with a mini mister, and then stamped onto the watercolour paper - that's what gives it the fabulous soft watercolour look! We also got a chance to use the new Colour Spritzer  - I can see this one being a demo or make and take at a workshop in the near future!

Now a fun little card using Party this Way - we used tone on tone ink and cardstock for this one along with one of the new square punches - and that arrow in the centre is actually a spinner

Back to Just Believe again and this time a lovely little gift pouch using Pear Pizzazz ink on the matching cardstock. Its finished off with that LUSH striped ribbon and a cute mini tag made using one of the flowers on a smaller stamp, coloured with the markers!

Open it up and inside are half a dozen mini cards to match!

Finally we made a 6x6 scrapbook page in the same colour palette - all I need to do now is find a photo to go on it I think one of the ones of my 50th will go with this perfectly as the green of the trees and the big yellow flowers on the dress i wore will go beautifully with these colours!

So that was it for another year - if you fancy joining me at next year's jamboree in Disneyland Paris (sorry - it will always be EuroDisney to me!) why not check out the fabulous starter kit (details on the Join my Team page) and get ready to PAAAAARRRRTTTTYYYYY!

Back soon with details of some of the lovely swaps i received!