Team Training

On Saturday 21st March I attended my very first team meeting hosted by the lovely Amanda down in Fareham. It took me 3 hours in my mini tank courtesy car to get there and was a fairly easy drive.


There were 10 of us altogether and all of the ladies there were really lovely. I had only ever met Amanda before but they all made me feel very welcome (thank you lovely ladies!)


The first thing we did was exchange our swaps. Everyone had such a fantastic range of ideas and I loved all of them.

Inside this cute little handbag that Sue made were two cute little charms.

As you can see a beautiful collection of card fronts, full cards and 3D items.

Amanda had made us all little gift packs containing a notebook with some of the silver elastic cord and die cut flowers on. I've never used either of these before but they both really added that special something to what was originally a plain notebook. We also got a test tube of M & Ms using the new Oval All stamp set and 2 new oval punches - straight edged and scalloped. All of these can be found in the new mini catalogue which is released officially on 1st April.

I can now finish eating the M & Ms as I've finally had the time to photograph them!

Our first activity was to make a cute origami box using Very Vanilla and Pink Passion cardstock, the new Playful Petals stamp set (another mini catalogue preview for you!) and Pixie Pink, Pink Passion and Orchid Opulence (I think) inks.

Side View


Top View


Open View

This box will be perfect for a gift box and can obviously be made in so many different colours and styles to suit any occasion.

In the afternoon we had a teaching session on using reinkers. I have a couple of these but have never as yet used them so I was keen to see what we could do with them. Amanda showed us how to reink ink pads and wheel cartridges. OK fine...that's what I knew you could use them for.

But then she showed us so many more things that I never knew you could do with them!

She showed us how to dye ribbon and the flowers from the Pretties kit in a matter of seconds! This was fantastic - I can now make ribbon and flowers in ANY of the Stampin' Up colours. How cool is that! No more worrying about not having a ribbon to match - simply make your own instead! She also showed us how to dye the Dazzling Diamonds glitter in any of the SU colours as well. My next order is going to definately include a box of reinkers, lots of glitter and white ribbon to start building up my collection of other SU colours!

She then showed us how to do the baby wipe technique. This is simply folding an alcohol free baby wipe and adding a few drops of 3 different coloured reinkers to make a multi-coloured ink pad (a bit like the Kaleidoscope ones). We made this cute little triangular box using this technique. Look closely and you can see all the different colours on the dots.

Amanda also showed us how to make a shaving foam and reinker background - very messy but fun! And then a very odd technique I've never heard of before using reinkers, glitter and floor polish on a sheet of acetate with tissue paper. It looked really effective and I wish I had taken my camera to take a picture!


After this I learnt yet another new technique - smooching! Not the kissing kind mind you! Basically using a plastic wallet cut open you wipe 2 contrasting shades of the same colour on the plastic wallet, one on each side. We used 2 greens and 2 blues to create a grass/sky or sea/sky background. You squish (very technical term here) the plastic wallet together creating lots of air bubbles and create a wonderful background. So as not to waste all the ink we put 2 pieces of card in back to back. For the first card I used the Something Fishy wheel using Night of Navy ink and cardstock and Taken with Teal ink and cardstock. I also added some Night of Navy ribbon over the top.

This next one uses the new Choo Choo set and coordinating Track wheel, both in the new Mini out next week. I still need to mount this one but haven't had time yet.

Later on in the afternoon we played a game called Bunco. We had all been dying to know what the tins of dice were for and it was all revealed.

And just as we were getting ready to leave Amanda gave us all our homework assignment! Homework from team meeting?!! She has set all of us who attended a challenge. We had this bag of cardstock and the new So Saffron striped ribbon on our tables all day and never got to use them! We were all wondering if Amanda had forgotten something but she hadn't! We are to make a card using the contents in the bag (a large piece of Certainly Celery, a square of So Saffron, some Whisper White and Very Vanilla). We are allowed to add one more colour of cardstock if we wish, can use any punches and stamp sets and inks, but we can't add any more accessories - that means no glitter, no brads, no eyelets, no flowers, no more ribbon etc etc. I'm going to do mine on Saturday but have to have it emailed to Amanda by Sunday. She is going to get Paula from SU to judge and the winner gets a lovely prize - one of the Level 1 hostess sets, Hung Up on the Holidays or £15 worth of goodies from the catalogue! Definately worth doing THIS homework!!

I finally got home about 8pm (I left at 6:30 in the morning), so it was a long day but I thoroughly enjoyed it and can't wait for the next one in June.

A big thank you to Amanda for organising such a fantastic day! I learnt so much in such a short space of time!