On Saturday I attended the Stampin' Up! Heartfelt Stampin' Event in Sydney with my downline and very good friend, Sue. After checking in at the registration counter and picking up our bag of goodies, which had our Make and Take projects, the Clockworks stamp set, our meal ticket, wristband, and program guide, we waited for the doors to the main hall to open. I headed to the Inspiration board to pin my project and then we found a seat at the gathering place to listen to the welcome speech and housekeeping directions, before dispersing to our various destinations.
The morning was spent in the Bayside Terrace room attending the presentations by Sophie Zadeh: Decorations, Marelle Taylor: Heartfelt Cards, Donna Williams: Packaging and Wrapping Ideas and Ann Craig: Handmade Gifts.
Sophie's presentation on christmas decorations were exquisite and if I had the time, I would make myself one of those floral, buttoned wreaths and snowflake covered foam ball decorations.
The quick and easy Heartfelt cards demonstrated by Marelle will be quick and easy when I get my hands on those pre made tags.
Donna's wrapping and packaging ideas were fantastic, loved the enormous floral bows and Ann's use of brown stuffing paper to make scrap albums will be one I want to try my hand at.
So many talented and artistic demonstrators who were all willing to share their ideas and works of art.
After almost 4 hours of presentations, we had to replenish our energy with the supplied lunch, which we puzzled over.
What was the yellow slab with the asparagus on it? What type of meat was in the bread bun? Either way, it was wolfed down, there was no time to waste.
We spent the afternoon moving from the Make and Takes to the Product playgrounds to taking photos of the inspirational works on the Inspirational boards.
Didn't get time to look at the mini demonstrations taking place as they always seemed to be crowded. Whilst at the Make and Takes, we got told that if we went to the Christmas tree area and made an ornament for the tree, we'd get a special gift. We blitz through the first project, and headed straight over.
Whipped up a christmas ornament, hung it on the tree and waited for our gift: a Christmas greeting stamp - WOOHOO!
We tried our hand at using the wheels, got shown how the builder wheels worked and fell in love with more products. Also sat through a course on how to use the new clear mount stamps and the tools, positioning guides and foam mats that made using them easier.
The embossing station and brayer station always seemed to be full, but we managed to finally try our hand at brayering. It's amazing what you can do and learning that salt sprinkled on the cardstock and run through the big shot will give you a sky full of stars was pretty nifty.
We had a fantastic time. I took a lot of photos and picked up a lot of ideas, which I wish I could do now, but other things get in the way..like work.
