Have lollies, will travel

Today’s the day that we all head off to Germany for the annual Stampin’ Up!® Convention. We’re all very excited and hopefully all prepared.  Yesterday was spent putting the finishing touches to my swaps, responding to a frantic phonecall from Alison by rushing my Big Shot over to her house because she had broken hers (!) and then frantically calling Alison because my suitcase was too small so she dashed over with a huuuuuge one. We took one look at it and decided that I would be laughed out of Germany so it was back to squishing and folding.

In my defence, I have to say that the problem was largely caused by swaps and team gifts. When will I learn than SMALL items make the best team gifts when travelling abroad? You can see the gifts tomorrow – not risking anyone seeing them before we set off!

Today you can see some swaps. I made three batches of swaps, each in at least two colourways because I get bored quickly.

Just in case you don’t know, demonstrators like to swap projects. So we make a project, either 3D items or card fronts (we only do fronts to save on cardstock) in multiples and then swap with each other. It’s a fantastic way not only get to get really new ideas (it’s amazing what other people come up with!) and to meet other demonstrators.

These were started by a rare act of interest in Stampin' Up!® from my daughter. She returned from her school fair with load of lollipops, left over from her stall, and said: “I thought you could use them for your Convention swaps”, which really put the pressure on! I finally came up with these little flowers using the Blossom Punch and, at the back, the Apothecary Accents framelits. I used lots of different Brights cardstocks which, coincidentally, were the perfect colours! I was going to come up with some sort of leaf but ran out of steam and went with the project recipe instead.

Stamps: Mixed Bunch

Cardstock: Various brights

Paper: Patterns Designer Series Paper Stack – Brights

Ink: Various brights

Accessories: Blossom Punch, Apothecary Accents Dies, 1 ¼” scallop circle punch, ¾” circle punch

All products by Stampin' Up!®