2012 Regional Training Day

I may already have mentioned that a couple of weeks back I attended a Stampin' Up! Regional Training Day at Weetwood Hall in Leeds.  The photograph in this layout was taken by the training ladies at the end of the event, using an i-phone, whilst standing on a chair on the stage.  It shows the seventy five Independant Stampin' Up! demonstrators that attended the day.  The layout was make with one of the three make and take kits provided on the day and a few extra bits and bobs from my S.U. stash and some of my S.U. punches.  Instructions on how to make the suggested layout were provided but being a mad scrapbooker I had to change it all and do it "My Way" which was the theme of the training event.  The papers are from the Twitterpated designer paper range from the Stampin' Up! Summer Mini brochure and the gorgeous ruffled ribbon and baker's twine can also be found in the Summer Mini.

A Bag and A Box

I am still bouncing off the walls with inspiration from the Stampin' Up! Regional Training Day last Saturday.  In the photo is a little handbag I've seen a few times but never got around to making and a little box in the shape of a slice of cake.  The handbag is made from one sheet of 12" x 12" pink polka patterned paper from the Stampin' Up! Subtles Collection, one small piece of Wisteria Wonder cardstock, one small piece of Twitterpated designer paper, a small piece of ribbon and two velcro dots (not Stampin' Up!).  I die cut the Wisteria Wonder cardstock and Twitterpated paper using the Labels Collection Framelits Dies. 

The slice of cake box I made from a pattern in the wonderful Kadoosjes magazine, a copy of which I was given by the very lovely and very talented Jolanda Meurs.  I used the pink polka patterned paper from the Subtles collection again for the middle section of the cake and topped it with a piece of Twitterpated paper.  The white frills I punched from white cardstock using the Stampin' Up! Dotted Scallop Ribbon Border punch.  I punched a couple of circles and scalloped circles from the pink polka paper and the Twitterpated paper and cut them into spirals and then rolled them into flowers.

All At Sea

Today was Stampin' Up! Regional Training Day at Weetwood Hall, Leeds.  I collected Caroline and we arrived just before 10am.  We had been asked to bring along either a card front or a 6" x 6" scrapbook layout, made using products from the new Stampin' Up! Summer mini and other current products.  This layout was made using the gorgeous The Open Sea stamp set, some Linen Thread and crumb cake and very vanilla cardstock and stampin up classic stamp pads.  The title was made using letters I printed from Word and cut out and inked.  The photo is a tall ship that does cruises along the coast from Portimau in the Algarve.  The layouts or card fronts were stuck on a huge board in the conference room the event was held in and everyone took photos to use as inspiration. 

The training day was a mix of new product demonstrations and motivational talks about building your business, improving your sales, adding value and promoting your business.  We got a lovely free stamp set and three projects to make including a 12" x 12" scrapbook page and two cards.  At one point they read out the names of the newest and longest serving demonstrators in the room and apparently the newest  was me, how embarrassed was I?  Especially as we had been talking earlier to a lady who had only just become a demonstrator that week but was too late to register for the event but had been given a cancellation place so she deserved the round of applause and embarrassment, not me.  I hid my head in my hands and kept my head down near the table whilst everyone clapped, I was red for the next hour at least and Caroline was laughing her head off.  There were prizes given out and lucky me won a lovely set of papers from the next Summer mini, a full roll of ruffled ribbon, a pack of baker's twine and some Twitterpated material, which I might see if I can make into a lovely owl or two.  Lunch was a sandwich, crisps, chocolate, fruit and water and there were plenty of packets of biscuits around the room. 

A lot of the ladies did swaps of things they had designed, some card fronts, some tags, some little boxes and some little boxes with sweeties in.  I hadn't done any as I just didn't have the time, some ladies did seventy and some of the ladies who had spares were very kind and gave me one of theirs with just a thank you in return.  I met some lovely ladies there today and thoroughly enjoyed myself and soaked up lots of ideas and inspiration.



Anniversary Card

Caroline, Kathy, Theresa and myself went to a colouring class at Lili of The Valley in Leeds a couple of weeks ago and spent an hour learning colouring and shading from the wonderful Bev Rochester.  I've been buying and colouring L.O.T.V. images for years so I was amazed how much I learnt about colouring.  I thought the class would just improve  what I already did but it was like starting from scratch.  We coloured with Pro-markers, blending colours almost seamlessly then used Prismacolour pencils to add highlights or lowlights to hair and clothing.  I loved it and can't wait for them to do another open weekend with classes so that I can do the 3 hour advanced class.  Whilst we were at the class we were offered 10% discount on any purchases so of course I had to buy one or two or fourteen of their stamps to practise with, well it would have been rude not to!  They also had a small selection of pro-markers so I bought a few more to add to my collection.  I have about one hundred L.O.T.V. stamps now, I love them all and they get lots of use. 

The anniversary card above I made over a few days, I stamped it one day, coloured it the next, glitter glued it the next and then made it into a card today.  I used some patterned papers from my stash, I think it's Kaisercraft and Stampin' Up! crumb cake card stock.  The text is from the Marry Me stamp set from Stampin' Up!  I used a Nestability die to cut the scalloped square and a tiny circle punch to punch white, pink and rose circles which I then cut into spirals and rolled up to make the flowers, the base of the flowers I punched using the Stampin' Up! Boho Blossom punch.  I added a little piece of self-adhesive lace which I rubbed a crumb cake ink pad over to make it look a little less white and a little more like antique lace.  Hope my friends like the card, I have considered buying them one and keeping this but I have already hinted I have made them one.