As I mentioned in an earlier post, one of the special events at Convention each year is the Managers Reception. And this year Stampin' Up! took it to a whole new level.

A bus collected us from the Convention Centre after the sessions finished on Day 2 and took us to our mystery destination. We were told to bring photo ID and have no sharp tools or weapons on us! 🙂 Being Canberra, our nation's capital and home to many many government buildings, we had a good guess as to where we were going but it was a real treat to end up at Parliament House. Our function was in the Mural Hall, beneath the flagpole mast!

By daylight:

Boarding the bus to the 'mystery destination'

Back entrance. Beautiful at night:

We went through security and collected our pass (bags x-rayed, etc):

Managers Reception:

Each attendee received a handmade keepsake and a yet-to-be-released stamp set. Gorgeous, on both counts!

Thanks Stampin' Up for a great night.

I'll be back soon to share some gorgeous Convention swaps.

Wishing my fellow Aussies a lovely Queens Birthday long weekend.

Home from Canberra and the bags are (mostly) unpacked. Wow – what an amazing few days we had for our annual Stampin' Up! convention.

I don't think Canberra knew what hit it when nearly 500 Stampin' Up! demonstrators from Australia and New Zealand descended on the Convention Centre.

We had sneak peeks of new products that'll be hitting our catalogues in a few months, as well as fabulous and inspirational 'Workshop Wows' from fellow demonstrators.

We were treated to fascinating guest speakers that were not only informative but entertaining as well. (Note: if you ever get the opportunity to hear Michael McQueen speak, take it! I have a new-found understanding of my Gen Z son after that one!). There were make & takes (of course!) and I even finished a couple of projects this year which must be a record for me.

As always, it was a pleasure to be in the company of Shelli Gardner and the other fabulous Stampin' Up! team members who made the trek over here. 

One of the treats at Convention is attending the Managers Reception, and this year it was taken to a whole new level. Check back for tomorrow's post to read all about that.

Of course, the best part of attending Convention is catching up with old and new friends and getting to know fellow team members from all over the country.

The Convention experience finished on Saturday night with the Awards night. We are so lucky that we have a sitdown dinner at our Convention, which always includes delicious food and this year was no exception.

After dinner we returned to the Main Stage for the Awards presentation, and to celebrate the achievements of many demonstrators.

We also heard announcements such as the venue of next year's Convention (sunny Brisbane – woohoo) and the next destination of the Incentive Trip (now called 'Grand Vacation'). Can you imagine how thrilled beyond belief we were to learn that next year it'll be to Salt Lake City, Utah. The home of Stampin' Up!.

And not only that, it will be a combined trip with achieving demonstrators from Germany, France and the UK. Oh. Wow. We'll also have the opportunity to attend the US Convention, which will be a celebration of Stampin' Up!s 25th Anniversary. Ok, that's big.

I was so proud to celebrate the achievements of 3 team members who were all in the Top 25 Demonstrators of the Year. Such amazing women, all of them. Congrats to Maureen (13th), Juliana (9th) and Tracy (10th). I cheered on as the girls walked the stage many times for a variety of awards. Lots of happy tears.

I came #6 in the Demonstrator of the Year, and #2 for the Leadership Award. A very big thank you to Stampin' Up! for the Leadership Award gift – a gorgeous watch which I'll treasure forever. Even the packaging was stunning!

During the night I was given lovely flowers, yummy choccies and certificates for the the annual $30K+ sales award, $100K Milestone sales award and Incentive Trip Achiever. Can't wait to head to Broome later this year with a great bunch of demonstrators. And to top off an amazing night, we learned that one of our team members came third place in the Rising Star award, which recognises the efforts of demo's in their first year. Well done, Nicole!

A very humble and grateful THANK YOU to my wonderful customers, stamp club girls, stamping friends, team members and of course family. Your support and encouragement means more than any award.

Phew. Well it sure was an action-filled few days… no wonder it took a couple of days to recover. Nothing was quite as good as the huge cuddles I got from the kids when we got back to Melbourne though. Arms flung around my neck and big squeezes –  nothing beats that.

Happy stamping,

P.S.  If my computer doesn't have a meltdown from all the photos, I'll be back tomorrow with highlights from the Managers Reception. Then I'll follow up with a separate post on swaps. So much to share…

Oooh, a bit of excitement today. I got three lovely handmade cards. Two of them were part of a swap our team is doing during May and I'll be sharing those soon, but the third was a bit unexpected…

Something from Stampin' Up!? You should have seen how fast I got inside that envelope LOL, and I found this gorgeous card…

It was an invitation to the Manager's Reception to be held at our demonstrator Convention in Sydney in a couple of weeks. How exciting, and what a beautiful card.

I thought I'd share the card we got for last year's invitation too. It's just as gorgeous…

We are very lucky to be spoilt by Stampin' Up! – I bet the staff at Demonstrator Support had a lot of fun making all those cards! Thank you so much xxx

For more information on the benefits of becoming a demonstrator contact me and we can chat about how it can fit in with your life… or even change it!

Happy stamping,