Convention 2010 Awards & Recognition Banquet Night!

Like Hollywood Celebrities we entered the room on the Red Carpet with the Paparazzi snapping away and our fans awaiting our arrival and cheering us on! We were set from the start for a fabulous night!

The fans cheering us on being none other than the staff of Stampin' Up! of course! lol

The room was stunning, I loved the gorgeous candle centre pieces.

Glowing, Liz and Fiona who I shared a table with.

I also had the pleasure of sitting with Jeanette for the night.

We were well behaved of course... chuckle!

We had so many laughs, it was so much fun!

Ursula & Liz xo

Have a look at Ursula's amazing necklace, she is so talented, she made it herself.

Having a ball... Fiona & Trish!

After a very yummy ( and very classy) dinner, the awards and recognition began.

The stage was calling me... hee hee hee

This year each award recipient got to walk the stage and give a little bow or share their excitement with a little dance etc. Last year I didn't quite make it to the stage, so as you can imagine I got a bit excited the first time I got called up... here I am after receiving my award for sales over $20,000. Woo Hoo!

As well as receiving a pin & award recognition, we also received free stamps, this years stamps are not yet released ones... yep, we really got spoilt! lol. They were packed so nicely in gift bags. Here's Liz with one of her prize bags.

I was a very lucky girl this year receiving 2 awards. My second award being for recruiting. I have had 6 beautiful girls join my Inspiration Angels Group over the past year, and was recognised for this with a Recruiting Pin and yep, another stamp set. I didn't show off as much this time, but still had a grin from ear to ear as I took my second ever walk across the Stampin' Up! Stage.

Special Congratulations go to Paper Angels Bec & Liz for both achieving Top 25 Demonstrator Awards. Bec was awarded number 19 Top Demonstrator, and Liz came in at number 6! WOW!!!

Stampin' Up! gave us a fantastic presentation as they announced

Incentive Trip 2011 will be in FIJI!!!

The room was alive with excitement. A few people were invited to the stage, and really got into the spirit dancing Fiji Style!

Shelli's husband Sterling was one of the lucky ones invited on stage, and as you can see he loved every moment feeling the Fiji vibe and getting down with the groove!

Awards were then presented to those who have achieved Incentive Trip 2010 - Hamilton Island. Both Liz & Bec achieved Incentive this year, they both have worked so hard and deserve this amazing 5 star trip away! Well done Bec & Liz xo

All fun things come to an end, but not so quickly for the Paper Angels. We always some how make the fun last as long as possible. After the awards were over, we saw an opening to take to the stage and snap up a group photo or two!

You have may noticed a spunky looking fella amongst our fun Paper Angels Stage photos. That's Aaron Scott. Stampin' Up!s Regional Business Development Manager for Australia.

Looks like the Stampin' Up! staff thought they would have the same fun as the Paper Angels did on stage and snap up a group photo too!

Take Two, a little bit more sensible this time as we take the opportunity to have a Paper Angels Group Photo with SU CEO Shelli Gardner & SU Director Bonnie Thurber.

I was not leaving without a photo with Shelli of course! xo

Like I said, we never want such a fun night to end, so we stayed back until we were just about kicked out and chatted with Shelli & SU Vice President Pam Morgan. I just love that everyone always has the time for a chat.

Then that was that. Big hugs as we said bye til next time, and back to our rooms. No sleep for me though, all I could dream of was Stampin'! lol lol lol

Can't wait til next year.

Convention 2011 will be 3 days (we get an extra day, yey)

in Melbourne!

Who wants to join us in 2011?

Sydney Convention - Saturday!

Saturday started off with Make and Takes... YEY!

Who doesn't enjoy rubber and ink amongst this lot!? lol

We made some lovely projects this year that will make great workshop demos, and the best bit is they were with our NEW 'not yet released' Stamp Sets!

Bec & Melissa enjoying this years make and take projects.

Ellie & Fiona getting their dose of rubber & ink!

Saturday was a relaxing day as we had make & takes in the big hall in the morning session, and stayed in the big hall for Main Stage Workshop Elements for the afternoon. We made our cosy nesting spot for the day and settled right in!

Paper Angel Fiona

Paper Angel Sandra

Joining Stampin' Up! has meant that I have made many beautiful friendships through being part of the Paper Angels Group and through my workshops where I get the chance to meet new people each and every time and build wonderful relationships through our passion for Stampin'.

There is one very special friend that I have met, that I can say I would never had met if it wasn't for Stampin' Up!... and that is Jeanette. Jeanette is one of the amazing Demonstrator Support girls we have here in our Australian office. Of course I feel like now I know all the girls at Demonstrator Support like friends, they are all a wonderful bunch. Over the past 2 years, Jeanette has been a reassuring voice on the other end of the phone. Always there with answers to my queries, solutions to my problems, ready to listen to me when I have had a proud moment to share, without a doubt always having a chuckle with me as we get carried away in conversation about just about anything! We certainly have built a wonderful friendship, and being at Convention meant we could catch up in the flesh and enjoy more of the giggles etc together that we usually would only get to do over the phone.

Here's Jeanette and I posing for the first of what became a portfolio just about

of pics together over the weekend! xo

***SIRENS*** Did someone say "Prize Patrol" again?

Here's Kate smiling ear to ear as Cate from Demonstrator Support presents her with her Prize Patrol Stamp Set!

Now... never short of a laugh when amongst Stampers, this topped the lot for me. I loved it!!!

Pam Morgan, Vice President of Stampin' Up! took main stage to share with us 'The Big Shot!'. Her opening line was not what anyone could have ever expected, and had us rolling in stitches on the floor. Pam shared with us something along the lines of "Did you know that Stampin' is a great way to get fit?". As she did this, on came the music and she performed an aerobic workout using the Big Shot as weights!

What a cracker that was!!!!!

As the afternoon came to an end, it was a sad feeling knowing Convention was nearly over.

We headed back to our rooms with our Convention Bags, Make and Takes, New Stamp Sets, and many memories and stories of the wonderful experiences we'd had over the past couple of days, and got ourselves ready for our Fancy Dinner and Awards Night.

To be continued...

Convention Swaps that caught my eye!

Hundreds of demonstrators swapping hundreds of cards... the inspiration overwhelming... What a wonderful feeling! You can never get enough when it comes to seeing ideas and what other people create.

I'm busting at the seems to share with you some of the swaps that caught my eye.

Now, as I didn't personally swap, I don't have these at home to be able to refer to who created them, but I give credit to each and every creatively inspiring demonstrator who made these swaps I have photographed to share with you.

Enjoy...

This is not all, I will post more in the next few days.

I thought this might be enough though for now...

So the question is... Which one are you going to make first?????

Sydney Convention - Friday

After our crazy night with the fire evacuations, surprisingly we all woke up beaming with energy for a fun filled first day of Convention. It doesn't matter how little sleep you've had when it comes to stampin' fever in the air!

The morning started off with registrations, we all got our Funky 2010 Convention Bags, filled with goodies including 2 new stamp sets, not yet released... Oooooh!

Swaps were flying here there and everywhere. Ursula swapped 150 swaps in record time, and as I hadn't had time this year to make swaps, I helped Liz swap hers. I will share with you some photos of the swaps that were my personal favourites in the next few days, so stay tuned.

Then... the doors opened... and the fun kept rolling on!

What an amazing atmosphere in the General Session Hall.

Paper Angels Fiona, Ursula, & Liz

Gail & Jenny

The Beautiful Angel Ursula

Kate & Leonie (me!)

"Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work" Thomas Edison.

I tell you what, times like these with my Beautiful Paper Angel friends remind me how thankful I am that I was given the opportunity to be a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator with such a wonderful group of girls xo

In our convention bags we each got a Stampin' Up! hat...

how cute is Ursula trying hers on for size! giggle xo

"The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing" Stephen R Covey

The main thing for me is fun... I tell you what, Stampin' Up! Convention certainly takes that to the max.

Specially when Prize Patrol Appear.... Two of the Paper Angels were lucky to win New Stamp Sets from the Autumn Winter Mini. The Prize Patrol Siren goes off, the room rumbles, and the winners can't wipe the smiles off their faces!

Here's Anna proudly waiving her new Tiny Tags Set in the air!

Trish receiving her new set Pendant Park from Stampin' Up! presenter Shannon.

One of the most entertaining presenters is Bonnie from Stampin' Up! Home Office in Utah. I'm sure Bonnie is a comedian when she's not Stampin', she sure knows how to get the room laughing and shares wonderful ideas in her presentations. I could sit through Bonnie's workshops day in day out.

Bonnie & Ursula

With so many stories to share of our fun day, we headed over to the shops and placed ourselves in a cosy Corner of Gloria Jeans.

We finished off with a lovely Thai dinner overlooking the Harbour then headed home to bed. All with the same thoughts I am sure... "hopefully the fire alarms don't go off again", and "can't wait to see what's in store tomorrow!"