The past month has been absolutely glorious. Mr. MauiStamper and I have been traveling in the South Pacific – first to the beautiful South Island of New Zealand, and then Australia – with our firstborn and her partner. Last weekend, I took the train to Brisbane to attend OnStage 2025, the Stampin’ Up! Annual Crafting/Friendship/See-New-Stuff event. I can’t begin to put it all into one post.

Let’s start with Friendship. I’ve been chatting online with Lou Kitzelman (on the right) since 2018, and we got to meet in person at OnStage. She introduced me to Peta Stephens (on the left) on Thursday when I arrived. We had a FANTASTIC time together. These are my type of women: warm, friendly, kind, and slightly snarky. I didn’t have to worry about a thing: they made me an honorary Australian and I honestly feel as though we’ve been friends since forever. It was such a joy and privilege to spend OnStage with them.

One of the perks of going to an event like OnStage is seeing things in advance. Stampin’ Up! didn’t waste any time in handing out the 2025-2026 Annual Catalog, and even halted the presentations for 10 minutes or so to give us all a chance to take it in. Trust me, there is something for everyone in this edition, and it’s going to be a wonderful year as we explore every bit of it!

We previewed the 2025-2027 Stampin’ Up! In Colors and oh, my goodness, are we in for a treat! They’re all glorious, but you’re going to see a lot of Cloud Cover (that first light blue/grey tone) and Secret Sea (the third color, a deep, dark, almost-black-blue).

We saw lots of new products, too, and I’ll be sharing some here and some on Facebook. We’re not home yet, but we’ll there soon. Give me a little time to unpack and check out my garden and I’ll be back here soon.

In the meantime, enjoy the Sydney Harbor approach from aboard the return ferry from Manly Beach: