The Card In A Box is another design that’s hugely popular at the moment and I have no idea who to credit as its source.

One of the reasons it’s so popular is because it’s so stunning and yet so simple once you know how.

I made this one for one of my cousins who recently got engaged. The invitation to the engagement party was all in Vanilla and Black. I wanted to match their colour scheme but was struggling to make it work without a feature colour to make it pop. I settled on red and was so pleased when I got to the party to discover the bride-to-be had done exactly the same with her party decorations!

You can ‘fill’ the box part with whatever images you like, in as many layers as you like. This one has two layers, plus the back, as you can see from the bird’s eye view. 

And there’s plenty of room on the back to write your message.

The best thing about it is that if you design it well, it will all fold flat and fit inside a standard C6 envelope.

The Card In A Box is so popular and so many people have asked how they’re made that I’ll be including one of these in my April class. Keep an eye out for more details soon.

Cheers

Genna

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You can see how this punch can be used for decorative edges on tags and bookmarks, but what else can you do with it? 

Scallop Tag Topper Punch (Occasions p35)
(133324) $39.95
Also comes as an Angled Tag Topper Punch
(133323) $39.95

  What about a fantastic new way to create a closure for a card? This is not my idea and you might have seen it from many different sources like I have so I’m afraid I have no idea where the original idea came from. Whoever it was though is amazing! What a clever idea. 

How pretty does that look on the front of the card!

The idea to use the punch might not have been mine but these designs are. I’ve teamed a background piece of patterned paper with the simplicity of a greeting from the Label Love set. The coordinating punch makes this so easy. Stamp the greeting, punch it out. Punch out a second Artisan Label from coloured cardstock, cut it in half and adhere it behind the greeting. Done!

This one uses the colourful paper from the Watercolour Wonder pack in the Occasions Catalogue.

And I’ve used a bit of a trick with the ribbon. It might look like there’s one piece that goes across the card and then gets tied through the scalloped flaps but it’s actually done in two pieces. One is adhered flat to the card front, and only the small piece is tied to the closure.

Cheers

Genna

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Here’s our gorgeous stand at the GO Festival at the Royal Exhibition Buildings…

We met loads of lovely new ladies and introduced them to the art of stamping with some Make and Take mini cards.

Everyone who stopped by could choose to make a card using the Banner Blast Sale-a-bration stamp set and matching Banner Punch…

…or using the Petite Petals stamp set and matching punch.

There were lots of choices to be made with a bunch of greetings from the Occasions catalogue and a huge range of colours to mix and match.

It was so much fun chatting away all day and discovering that many had never stamped before. I loved seeing their faces when they made cards that looked just like the samples and couldn’t believe they’d done it by themselves with their own two hands. This is what my job is all about!

Cheers

Genna

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If you’re in Melbourne this coming weekend come and see our Stampin’ Up! stand at the GO (Girls Only) Women’s Expo…

(click image to view the official website)

We’ll have displays, demonstrations, prizes and the chance to make a free card. 

There’ll be a few designs to choose from and you can create with the Banner Blast set and matching punch from Sale-a-bration:

Or if florals are your thing you can use the Petite Petals stamp set and coordinating punch instead:

All in your choice of colours!

Which one is your favourite?

Cheers

Genna

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I love Valentine’s day! So does Wonder Husband. We know it can be overly commercial but just can’t resist the excuse to indulge in something that lets us demonstrate how we feel for each other. Not because we’re supposed to because it’s February 14th. Not because the marketers want us to splurge on presents. Not because we expect it or demand it of each other. But because it feels good. It’s an excuse to be happy. It’s a reason to stop and think and not let the daily routine be our focus. And we make sure our boys see us making a fuss of Valentine’s Day too so they see there’s nothing wrong with declaring your feelings and letting them show. So we took them with us for a special Valentine’s dinner out – an early sitting so as not to disturb those wanting a more traditionally romantic dinner. Well that, and because we had plans to cuddle up on the couch and revisit When Harry Met Sally once we’d got them into bed!

Here’s the card I made for His Awesomeness this year using a series of hearts cut from the Hearts Collection Framelits. His response when I gave it to him was ‘It’s a bit pink isn’t it!’ This was said with a smile but it was in all seriousness. Here I was deliberately going for blue/green shades so that despite the imagery it wasn’t overly feminine and his colour blindness left him thinking it was pink! Seriously. He sees this as pink. Just as well he likes pink!

And here’s a close-up of the of the details. There’s paper piercing using one of our fantastic templates, sanded back Core’dinations cardstock, sponged ink, strings of bling and the new metallic Baker’s Twine. I went to town on this one and enjoyed every second of it! 

The stamp is from an already much-used set from the new Occasions catalogue:

Love You To The Moon (Occasions p25)
Wood (133140) $42.95
Clear (133143) $33.95

And before I go I have to share the card His Awesomeness gave me. He saw it in the shop and couldn’t believe how apt he thought it was for the two of us!

Cheers

Genna

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And Awesome Swaps!

I took part in a card swap recently. This is where a group of demonstrators get together to create a number of copies of the same card on a particular theme and send them off to a coordinator who sends back a whole pile of different cards made by all the other participants. It’s a great way to get ideas and samples in different styles without having to buy all the products. This one was for the new Occasions and Sale-a-bration catalogues. Here’s my contribution:

I took my colour inspiration from the Retro Fresh suite of products in the new Occasions catalogue. And I used the Hardwood backround stamp along with the Cool Kid set that I HAD TO HAVE the moment I first saw it.

Cool Kid (Occasions p29)
Wood (133122) $41.95
Clear (133125) $33.95

I also used the new Scalloped Tag Topper Punch – a new favourite tool that can be used for soooo much more than making tags! More on that later.

Scalloped Tag Topper Punch (Occasions p35)
(133324) $39.95
Also available in an Angled Top shape

And now for one of the reasons I HAD TO HAVE the Cool Kid stamp set – I knew my boys would love it! I just didn’t know how much.

After I’d made my pile of swaps there were various bits of leftovers on my desk. The instant my boys saw them they were asking to have them. They often ask to have things that I’m creating and are used to getting a negative answer because they want things I’m making for a specific purpose. So their jaws dropped this time when I said yes. They weren’t going to wait for me to change my mind and pounced on my desk to set about creating something from their new-found treasure.

Here’s Devon’s… 

And Zane took advantage of being slower to get done and used up everything else he could find: 

It was one of those moments where my heart just swelled that they were getting so much enjoyment from joining in with something that I love to do.

Can you tell that I love my job?

Cheers

Genna

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Same card, 10 different looks!

You may have seen this card from my February class using the Sweet Sorbet DSP from the Sale-a-bration range…

Well here it is again, and again, and again…all I’ve done is changed the choice of patterned paper from the Sweet Sorbet pack. Believe it or not, all the patterns made it look like the card had been designed especially to coordinate with it.

There are 12 different patterns in the pack and only 2 of them didn’t work very well with this design – both were pretty monotone and didn’t include either the Pistachio Pudding of the card base or the Summer Starfruit in the thread and the scallop circle. But I thought 10 out of 12 was pretty amazing and it meant that my class attendees had lots of choices when making their cards. Can you spot the patterns I didn’t use?

Until 31st March you can get this 12″ x 12″ paper pack for free when you spend $90 on products from any catalogue!

Learn more about Sale-a-bration here.

Cheers

Genna

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Want to see what’s inside?

As promised, I’ve recorded a video to show you how the Thank You Flip Card from this month’s Sale-a-bration Class works. It’s pretty basic but it gives you an idea of what it’s like in real life. Thanks to Zane for being the extra pair of hands I needed! I’ll just need to turn off my Mummy Eyes for a moment and not notice the state of his fingernails!

Cheers

Genna

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Mega stamping event in support of

Ronald McDonald House Charities.

Unfortunately our planned event for November has had to be postponed. We apologise for any inconvenience.

 OUR NEW DATE IS

SUNDAY 9TH FEBRUARY 2014!

 2pm – 5pm

Mulgrave Scout Hall
Mulgrave Neighbourhood House
36-42 Mackie Road
Mulgrave, VIC 3170

Tickets only $10 per person

Who doesn’t want to take home a share of this stash? 
Kindly donated by Stampin’ Up!

 See this post for more information…

Click here to pre-book your place today.

Make sure you list Genna as your demonstrator

when you book so I can take good care of you!

Cheers

Genna

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Mega stamping event in support of

Ronald McDonald House Charities.

 Learn about stamping, win prizes, see demonstrations,

have fun AND support a great cause! 

Make 1 card for you

and 1 to donate to Ronald McDonald Houses!

Help the residents keep in touch with family and friends while their lives are on hold.

No experience necessary.

Silent auction of Stampin’ Up! products

you can no longer buy. 

Who doesn’t want to take home a share of this stash?
Kindly donated by Stampin’ Up!

Tickets only $10 per person

Bring your friends and be one of our hostesses!

All the benefits of being a hostess

without having anyone come to your house!

When you and your friends order at least $300 in product

you’ll get $50 to spend on any product you like.

Order more, get more, including half price products.

There are no limits!

I’ll be giving a 12-pack of Frosted Finishes jewels

to anyone who brings 3 or more friends.

I made some of mine into earrings!

Don’t have crafty friends?

That’s OK, come along and make some!

Join a table of other singles, make friends, make cards

and we’ll randomly select one of you to get the hostess rewards!

Click here to pre-book your place today. 

Make sure you list Genna as your demonstrator

when you book so I can take good care of you!

Cheers

Genna

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On the final night of the Grand Vacation we had a Grand Farewell Party at a working ranch in Utah.

Dinner was served in the stables… once again, superbly decorated down the finest detail.

Then we moved outside for a live band, line dancing lessons, smores and flaming donuts! A lovely, lovely way to end an amazing holiday.

I’ve talked about how spoiled we all were but one thing that I haven’t yet mentioned is the pillow gifts.

Each night when we got back to the hotel we’d find a new gift, wrapped in a hessian sack and tied with a ribbon and a tag.

The gifts included a logo jacket, a book on Utah, loads of product…

And this gorgeous bag…

It even has the Stampin’ Up! logo!

I had to add this little moose I bought in the local township of Park City. I love moose (what’s the plural of moose?) and they have them absolutely everywhere in Utah.

Would you believe that all of this came home from my trip? And there are only 2 items in the whole pile that I bought – from Memento Mall at Convention.

It was certainly a trip to remember. I may have been to Utah before. I may have been to Stampin’ Up! events before. But there is nothing that will ever compare to the excitement, wonder and pure indulgence of this trip. Thank you Stampin’ Up! And thank you to all my customers, hostesses and team members who helped me get there.

Cheers

Genna

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Almost as exciting as the Home Office was seeing the Stampin’ Up! factory. This is another purpose-built facility, this time in Kanab in Southern Utah, but it’s usually off-limits to demonstrators. It was fantastic to see how all our inks, stamps and cardstock are created. And once again they spoiled us rotten, allowing us to take home samples from almost every stop. An ink pad here, a stamp pad there!

They even let us have a go at various roles around the factory. This is me having a go at the puzzle that is picking all the right size wooden blocks and fitting them into the boxes. Someone out there now has a stamp set that I put together for them!

After the factory they took us on a surprise trip to a local playground. Why? To show us what happens to all the rubber off-cuts and seconds. It makes for a very bright and bouncy surface to play on – and it matches the scenery too!

Kanab is so far from Salt Lake City that Stampin’ Up! chartered a flight to take us there. And there were so many of us – somewhere in the region of 200 I think – that the charter plane broke records for being the largest passenger plane to ever land there. It even made the local news!

It was a long, hot day but true to form Stampin’ Up! took care of us by having beautifully presented packed dinners waiting for us at the airport in Salt Lake City so we wouldn’t be hungry on the coach ride back to the hotel. They even had senior staff members dotted around the airport to make sure none of us got lost!

I think there’s enough left to share for one more post so will be back again shortly with the final details.

Cheers

Genna

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Well it’s no surprise that THE most exciting day of the trip was our visit to the Home Office. This is the purpose-built Stampin’ Up! headquarters in Riverton, Utah. And this is where the magic happens.

I expected it to be exciting but I don’t think any of us were prepared for the welcome we got when we arrived. All of the staff lined the balconies and clapped and cheered continuously while we all stepped inside. It was breathtaking, and completely overwhelming. It was an incredible honour to be there, but to be applauded for being there is another thing altogether. And to be able to share it with Tanja was amazing. What a buzz!

Here are all the other lovely ladies from Australia who made it:

Shelli Gardner is the co-founder and CEO of the company and an amazing woman. Of course a highlight of anyone’s visit to SU HQ would be a photo opportunity with the lady herself. So glad I was brave enough to ask for one!

Next up was a tour of the building. We saw the creative engine rooms…

…and got to speak to the artists at work.

Then we headed across the atrium to the enormous warehouse…

…and got a rush seeing all those Big Brown Boxes whizzing by. How exciting knowing that they would soon be on their way to make someone’s day!

If you’ve ever seen any videos of the Home Office you’ll have seen the Legacy Room. This place is actually a series of rooms that they regularly update and revitalise. There are bits of Stampin’ Up! history as well as showcases of current and upcoming product. I could have stayed in there for hours and still not taken it all in.

I really love the sentiment behind everything Stampin’ Up! does. And the fact that they wear it so proudly:

Then it was time for lunch at the base of that stunning atrium. And who should Tanja and I get to share our table with? Not just Shelli, and husband Sterling, but their daughter Sara and her husband Sean as well. It was like dining with royalty and a rare opportunity for informal chat. We were so in awe we didn’t even take a photo!!!

After lunch we were ready to get creative and headed over to the Inspiration Room:

And what better space to get busy with our make and takes than these tables in the atrium. What an inspiring place! I’ll show you the projects we made in another post.

After everything we’d already been given, we were surprised by our parting gifts. We each received our very own personalised stamp:

It was such an amazing day that it almost made me forget I was suffering terribly from altitude sickness. I couldn’t decide if it was unfair that I was so sick on THAT day or if I was better off because there’s no way I could let feeling rotten get me down in a place like that. By the end of the day though I was struggling so they kindly arranged for a driver to take us back to the hotel and skip the arrangements for dinner. Our lovely driver stopped and took a picture of us by THE rock on our way out the drive. Yes, we’d definitely been there!

If you want to see more of the home office, check out this video included in my very first blog post!

That’s all for now. I’ll be back soon to show you our trip down to the Stampin’ Up! factory.

Cheers

Genna

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So after the chaos of Convention we headed out of Salt Lake City to the nearby mountains. This was the start of the Grand Vacation proper. My first, but hopefully not my last. Some of the more experienced girls told me these trips are addictive and they were right.

Perched on top of a mountain is the St. Regis Deer Valley. This is the most luxurious hotel I’ve ever seen, let alone had the privilege of staying in!

It was utterly breathtaking in every aspect.

And because it was built as a ski resort our room had it’s own fireplace. Shame it was up around 40 degrees most days!

I was flabbergasted to find this sign posted in our room. The rate is simply jawdropping!

But when you see that the hotel even had it’s own private funicular to take guests up and down to the street you can begin to understand why.

And on top of all that Stampin’ Up! pulled out all the stops to make us feel so welcome. We had a lounge to hang out in with yummy US lollies to try and daily games for prizes.

Our first night welcoming dinner on the terrace was sublime. The attention to detail was amazing, with centrepieces, cutlery holders, and even decorated chocolate boxes that matched the tablecloths!

Day one certainly gave us a taste of what was to come!

I’ll be back again soon with more.

Cheers

Genna

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Well I promised to share some of my adventures from my Grand Vacation and what better way to do than with a sampling of the huge number of photos I took. I’ll split it up into a few posts, but I’m warning you, none of them will be short.

For those who don’t know, I earned the Stampin’ Up! Grand Vacation. And this year, to celebrate the 25th Anniversary, all the South Pacific and European achievers were flown to Salt Lake City, Utah, the home of Stampin’ Up! We were also invited to attend this year’s US Convention in Salt Lake City before heading off to be spoiled rotten at a 5 star resort in the Utah mountains.

Wonder Hubby was unable to attend so I invited my friend, and former upline, Tanja. She was the one who introduced me to Stampin’ Up! so seemed the perfect choice to bring along.

When we were shown our options for flights one of them was via San Francisco. We jumped at the chance to add an extra couple of days exploring that beautiful city on our way to Salt Lake City.

Despite it being the middle of summer, the weather wasn’t kind to us in San Francisco. We even needed to buy jackets so we wouldn’t freeze on the boat over to Alcatraz.

It was a flying visit but we saw the major sights and had a ball. And it was so much nicer to break up the journey too.

We then headed over to Salt Lake City just in time for Convention. In Australia this year our Convention had around 700 people. This one had almost 6000!!!!

It was incredibly busy but the crowd was buzzing and it was so exciting to be a part of it. We international interlopers even got a special mention and welcome from Shelli herself at the opening session!

In addition to the general sessions there were all sorts of additional displays, classes and activities. And giveaways, did I mention giveaways! On the first night there was an expo with ongoing demonstrations, product playgrounds, and a karaoke competition to give the place a party atmosphere.

One of my favourite events was the attempt at a Guiness World Record for the most number of greeting cards sent from a single location. We only had three hours to participate but Tanja and I both managed to make it to the front of the queue and play our part. I sent a card to a lovely friend back home who’d been in an awful accident the week before. Tanja sent one home to her daughter who was having a birthday while we were away. This is us with the postie and his van before they headed off to get all those cards on their way!

And, yay! We set the record! I can’t remember the exact figure but I think it was in the region of 3000!

Everyone we met treated us so well and made a big fuss of us coming all that way. It was a really welcoming atmosphere.  We met lots of people while queuing for various activities and bizarely amongst all those people we managed to keep running into the same ones.

There was even an Achiever’s Room we could go to for a little break from the chaos of so many people. This is me with some new US demonstrator friends, Kristin Kortonick, Sherill Graff and Mary Ellen Byler.

Another exciting part of Convention was getting sneak peeks at some of the new products. Some of what we saw probably won’t make it to Australia but some of it definitely will. One of my favourites is the new Undefined kit. It has tools and rubber and some templates so you can really get creative and make your own custom stamps. With my first chance to play I made a door stamp for my team, The Stampers Next Door! I can’t show you any of the products yet but I can show you what I made with them.

I have so many more photos of the displays, the classes, the presentations, the people, and the spectacle of the whole event but I’ll finish up here with one of me and Tanja at the Awards after party. This event was amazing, there were acrobats hanging from the ceiling, a live band, delicious treats, all sorts of games and competitions, green screens for professional photo opportunities and so much more.

US Convention was three exhausting, action-packed days with thousands of like-minded and enthusiastic people having a ball. It’s an experience I’ll never forget. And it was just the beginning. The very next day we boarded a coach to begin the real Grand Vacation part of our trip!

Back soon with the next installment.

Cheers

Genna

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It’s now been 5 years since I joined the Stampin’ Up! family and I’m simply amazed at how fast it’s flown by and how far this journey has taken me! I would never have thought that I’d have the lovely team of demonstrators that I do, that fellow demonstrators and customers would become wonderful friends, that I’d be whisked away to the US to celebrate Stampin’ Up!s 25th Anniversary or that it would be such an important part of my day each and every day!

I’m also really thrilled that I managed to achieve a long held ambition to reach $100,000 in career sales by the time I’d been a demonstrator for 5 years. For the first three years I didn’t quite make the $20,000 mark so I’m so excited that the last couple of years I’ve been able to make up the difference.

Thanks so much to each and every one of you who has supported my business, as a customer, a hostess, a downline, an upline, a sideline, a friend. And thanks to his awesomeness and his two mini-me’s for enduring the interruptions that Stampin’ Up! regularly means for our family.

I love what I do and hope I can continue to share what I love for a long time to come!

Cheers

Genna

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I had an absolutely wonderful time on the 2013 Stampin’ Up! Incentive Trip to Utah, USA. I travelled with my friend, former upline and now downline Tanja! We had a couple of days in San Francisco then went on to Salt Lake City for the huge and overwhelming 25th Anniversary US Convention. Then we were whisked away to the mountains in Utah for a luxury all-expenses-paid trip. They put us up in a lovely hotel, gave us a tour of Stampin’ Up! headquarters and flew us to the Stampin’ Up! factory all the while treating us like royalty. It was an amazing trip and I plan to tell you all about it in more detail in the coming weeks.

But one of the best things about going away, is coming home. Especially when you have a lovely family ready and waiting for you.

One of the first signs that I wasn’t in the heat of Utah anymore was this glimpse of snow out the window of the plane from Sydney to Melbourne!

And then I came home to discover it was Christmas! His awesomeness lived up to his name and did an outstanding job of looking after things at home – the house was spotless, washing was done, cupboards stocked, happy boys, magical decorations and a wonderful Christmas dinner in the oven. How awesome is that!!!!

Wonder hubby is British to the core and loves to celebrate Christmas in July so he can feel at home celebrating in the cold. Can you spot his attempt at adding a roaring fire to our scene?

It was a really warm and fuzzy way to come home. It was an amazing trip but it felt so good to get back to my ‘hugging people’. Next time I’ll just have to take them with me.

Cheers

Genna

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I’ve been so busy with launches, convention, new catalogues, retiring lists, specials, workshops, classes, etc. that I haven’t yet posted here about my trip to Utah – what an oversight! This is an amazing ‘Grand Vacation’ that I earned with Stampin’ Up! for achievements in sales, recruiting and leadership. I cut it very fine and only just qualified in time back in March. I actually got the official confirmation while in Arizona with my family in April! Can I use that as my excuse for not sharing? It was so surreal to be told I’d be going on another trip just up the road from where I was at the time. This ‘Grand Vacation’ is an all-expenses-paid stay in a stunning resort in Utah with visits to the Stampin’ Up! Headquarters and factory. You’ll understand how excited I am when you see these pictures:

I haven’t earned the trip before but when I heard last year that the 25th Anniversary trip was to Utah I just had to go. So thank you to everyone who has helped me achieve this goal – every purchase made, every class attended, every hostess booked, every guest invited, every new member and every achievement of my team has contributed. I wouldn’t be going without you and I am so very grateful.

I’m heading off today and if this beautiful travel packet is any kind of indication I can’t wait to see what’s in store for us when we get there!

And…if all of that wasn’t exciting enough, the trip has been timed so that we can also go to the US Convention in Salt Lake City! The Australian convention I went to in Brisbane in May was amazing and exciting so getting the chance to do it all again is wonderful but…the North American version is going to be like ours on steroids! We had about 700 people, this one is going to have around 6000 I believe! Wow! AND…it will mark THE official 25th Anniversary Celebration. How much excitement can be packed into two little weeks?

So off I go with the lovely friend, Tanja, who introduced me to Stampin’ Up!, for a look around San Francisco, a whirlwind at Convention and a combination of relaxation and excitement at the resort. The only down side is that I’ve never been away from my kids for so long. Wonder Husband will certainly have everything under control in my absence so there’s nothing to worry about except for how much I’ll miss the hugs when I’m halfway round the world! With everything going on I think I might just survive two weeks and I’ll be back again full of news before I know it!

Cheers

Genna

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Thanks to everyone who dropped by to help welcome the new catalogue this week. I had so much fun sharing all the new products with everyone and seeing all the oohing and ahhing over everything.

There was a mini card to make using the new Flower Shop stamp set and Pansy Punch bundle. And don’t you just love that greeting from A Dozen Thoughts!

The Simply Pressed Clay station was certainly popular with In Colour flowers blossoming everywhere…

And the card buffet was in constant operation as everyone chose which of the 8 cards they wanted to make…with some people managing to make five or six! I was impressed.

My poor boys were disappointed to find that the ‘Stampin’ Up! cookies were such a hit there weren’t many left over for scavengers afterwards. Oh well, at least there were some marshmallows!

This is the second time I’ve run a card buffet for my launch and it’s proving really popular so I think it might now become a regular fixture in my calendar. I’d love to see you there next time. It would be nice though if it didn’t happen in the same week as my trip to Utah. I’m going to sleep well on that plane tomorrow!

Cheers

Genna

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