Mid-week already! I spent a pleasant morning at my Coffee and Card Session at Bell's in Kingsthorpe, Northampton making birthday cards and the afternoon at my desk. Today I'm sharing the card that was my swap at the Stampin' Up! UK Onstage Local event that I attended with some of my team the weekend before last. The event itself was a blast! I thought it was about time I shared some photos with you, so here goes!

I was treated to a wonderful Centre Stage reception the evening before the main event with other Stampin' Up! leaders - here's a picture of the beautiful table settings:

I managed a quick selfie with my good friend Louise Sims, only to be right royally photo-bombed by the equally charming if mischievous Natalie O'Shea:

We got our hands on the new catalogue - here's me with mine courtesy of the lovely Dave Baugh, Stampin' Up!'s Vice President of Global Operations who came all the way from Utah to join us for the event:

It really is a good one! Here's also a photo of some of my team enjoying the day of presentations and new product reveals:

I could share a ton of new product 'spoilers' too, but with more than a month to go still until the new catalogue is officially released, I think I'll save those for nearer the time!

Anyway, onto today's creative make - my swap for this event, using some retiring accessories but featuring the 'Friendly Wishes' stamp set that I'm pleased to say will be carrying over to the new catalogue: 

I made these in a range of colourways - the one I've featured here is in Pumpkin Pie and Rich Razzleberry - read on for the low-down on this card:

Brights - I love the Brights colour collection and as I wanted my swap to be bright and colourful this family was the natural choice. I actually chose my colour combinations based on ... the candy dots I had most of in my part-used packets! I use lots of these, but find myself using some colours way more than others. I used a card base of Pumpkin Pie, then used accents in this colour and the contrasting Rich Razzleberry to highlight my black and white stamping, including a cotton seam binding ribbon bow.

Black and White Everyday Chic - I stamped my sentiment from the 'Friendly Wishes' stamp set in Archival Black on Whisper White cardstock, to give a clean, crisp design that was easy to replicate - an important consideration when you are mass-producing a design. To compliment this, I used two different patterns of the black and white Everyday Chic Designer Series Paper to border my focal sentiment, elements of which I highlighted with my Stampin' Write marker. This is a great way to add interest and makes this designer series paper very versatile.

Itty Bitty Flowers - My final embellishment was a pair of Itty Bitty Accents Punch Pack punched flowers, each finished with a contrasting candy dot. I can't quite believe that this punch pack is retiring - I've used all three of these little punches on many, many projects but I think it's this itty bitty flower I will miss the most.

Here is the visual summary of the key products used on today's project for you to pin for easy reference:

You can see all of my 'How To' summaries on my 'How To - Tips and Techniques' Pinterest board in case you've missed any. 

I had some lovely swaps in return which the ladies in my classes have 'ooh'd and ahh'd' over this week. I'll be back tomorrow with my card for this week's new challenge over at Create With Connie and Mary; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

Friendly Wishes Clear-Mount Stamp Set	Everyday Chic Designer Series Paper	Pumpkin Pie A4 Cardstock	Brights Stampin' Write Markers	Rich Razzleberry A4 Cardstock
Brights Candy Dots	Basic Black A4 Cardstock	Whisper White A4 Cardstock	Rich Razzleberry 1/4" Cotton Ribbon	Basic Black Archival Stampin’ Pad

Today I've been at a Stampin' Up! UK regional training event in Telford. These events are both exhilarating and exhausting at the same time! It's a great opportunity to get together with team members, other SU! demos and the Stampin' Up! UK and European Home Office teams, to see lots of new and exciting product and swap work with others as a means of creative inspiration. I love creating swaps for this type of event although they can be time-consuming and always seem to create something rather too elaborate for mass production, hence no post yesterday and a late one today. I made a card for this week's challenges over at The Paper Craft Crew and Colour Me! and then based my swap on this as it features a stamp that is new to us here in the UK so is an annual catalogue 'sneak peek', although if you are a USA reader this set will be familiar to you as it has been available as a photopolymer set for some time: Endless Birthday Wishes.

So here is my original challenge card:  

I stamped the sprinkles stamp on my base of Melon Mambo and used the challenge colours to create my own custom happy birthday DSP which I used for the right hand panel - thank heavens for photopolymer stamps, they made lining up a doddle! I then stamped the cake in Memento Black on Whisper White and coloured with my retired Blendabilities, before mounting on a starburst cut with the retiring Starburst framelits - still available and a bargain at only £11.48 for the set! I added a few sequins for sparkle and to tie in my gold button, and then added a strip with a few DSP banners and the second part of my sentiment (the stamp has these words side by side, so I stamped it in two separate goes, so that the words sat on top of each other and fitted my banner better). 

I liked this card so much I created a (only slightly!) simpler version as my swap for the Stampin' Up! regional event. Here it is in the same colours:

The background and DSP panel was the same, however to save on colouring I stamped the cake in a single colour and mounted on a combination of a 2" circle, 2 3/8" scallped circle and 2 1/2" circle instead and I left off the button and twine. I also created it in three other colour combinations, but totally forgot to take photos of the whole pile when finished! I do however have this 'work in progress' shot of the chaos on my office desk last week:

Well, organised chaos! Here are the other colour combinations: Tangerine Tango and Tempting Turquoise (top left), Calypso Coral and Bermuda Bay (bottom left) and Wisteria Wonder and Elegant Eggplant (bottom right).

Thanks to everyone who swapped with me - I have some lovely samples that I'm looking forward to sharing with my customers. Also, before I go here's another quick photo of some of my downline and team members who I was lucky enough to spend the day with:

Even the camera-shy Samantha doesn't look to cross to have been snapped in this one :-) Love you ladies!

I'm looking forward to sharing lots more of the new and fun things that we got to see and create with at our training in the coming weeks; only a couple more weeks until the new 2015 Stampin' Up! annual catalogue launches!

Back tomorrow with another project; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used (challenge card):

Melon Mambo Classic Stampin' Pad	Melon Mambo A4 Card Stock	Pear Pizzazz Classic Stampin' Pad	Card Stock A4 Pear Pizzazz	Whisper White A4 Card Stock
Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad	Big Shot Die-Cut Machine	Big Shot Magnetic Platform	Starburst Framelits Dies	Old Olive Baker's Twine
Gold Sequin Trim	Gold Basic Metal Buttons	Banner Punch

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used (swap card):

Melon Mambo Classic Stampin' Pad	Melon Mambo A4 Card Stock	Pear Pizzazz Classic Stampin' Pad	Card Stock A4 Pear Pizzazz	Whisper White A4 Card Stock
Banner Punch	2-3/8 Inch Scallop Circle Punch	2" Circle Punch	2-1/2 Inch Circle Punch