Plainly for Jayne

Let's say, purely hypothetically, that you have an upline who has so much talent that it would take years to make a card that could impress her. One could embark on such a mission but the impact of the card would be seriously dulled by the fact that it had come five years too late!

So, I'd suggest using alphabet stamps. The great thing about these is that you can customise your papercraft project to suit its intended recipient. Use an alphabet set to create a card that is just for her by stamping her name so that there is no doubt that it's meant for her and no-one else. In doing so, I reckon that she would forgive you for not coming up with a truly amazing card that may have taken away whatever remaining youth you had, along with your hubby, children, house and, quite possibly, that box of chocolates that you had been keeping for a treat. Alphabet stamps or calamity - you've been warned!

Yesterday was Jayne's birthday and here is a picture of the card that I sent to her a couple of days ago - I'm sure that it would have made it to her by now but, if it hasn't, this may be the only record of its existence. I really hope that she liked it...

Stampin' Supplies
Ink:
Always Artichoke
So Saffron

Stamps:
Big Bold Birthday set
Baroque Motifs set
Defining alphabet
Lovely Letters alphabet

Paper:
Le Jardin DSP
Very Vanilla CS

Accessories:
Apricot Appeal Grosgrain Ribbon
Pretties Kit
Sponge Daubers
Theater Ribbon Originals

Happy Birthday Jayne

It is Jayne's birthday today! Jayne is my very talented and amazing upline who has a team called the INKlings who, in turn, are spread all over Australia. We are having a virtual birthday party to celebrate her special day.

Many happy returns, Jayne! May the stamping fairy bring you lots of smiles and supplies!

See what the other INKlings are bringing to the party:
Alana
Beth
Carol
Jo
Karen
Kari
Kim
Margaret
Merryl
Michelle
Susanne
Teneale

My contribution is a stand of flowers...I know it looks a little sad but I was getting a little nervous taking pictures in a shopping centre as it seemed like people were starting to suspect that I was some sort of terrorist casing the place!

Many thanks to the lovely Alana for organising the celebration!

Lucky as a door

I've just been wondering what it is about doors that make them so lucky that they are associated through the term "Lucky Door Prize". Perhaps luck was associated with doors after a large number of people survived an earthquake by staying in doorways...

And, strangely, even though this term is widely used, the phrase "lucky as a door" hasn't quite made it into the vernacular. I suppose it is yet another mystery to add to my list of things to Google when there's nothing else to do and I remember what is actually on this list.

This post is really a little teaser for the Papercrafts Festival being held at Canterbury Park Racecourse which starts this Friday (October 31) and finishes on Sunday (November 2). I'll be there with four amazing Stampin' Up! demonstrators to show off Stampin' Up!'s tremendous products along with various useful papercraft techniques. There will be Christmas make and takes, Pick-A-Prize with every bundle purchase and, of course, the ubiquitous Lucky Door Prize (in fact, six all up, as we are giving away two each day)! The prize pictured above is the one that I'm contributing. Please come to visit us there and, if you are as lucky as a door, you could go home with something smashing for your stash.

Short and sweet

In keeping with Short and Sweet, so is this post! Pssst...this set is 20% off this month with a $20 purchase (that's the sweet bit)!

Stampin' Supplies
Ink:
Basic Black

Stamps:
Short And Sweet set

Paper:
Berry Bliss DSP
Whisper White CS

Accessories:
Aqua Painter
1/2" Circle Punch
Pretty in Pink Grosgrain Ribbon
Stampin' Dimensionals
Watercolor Wonder Crayons in Bold Brights
Watercolor Wonder Crayons in Earth Elements
Word Window Punch

The same outfit

Have you ever turned up to an event and sported the same dress or outfit as someone else? People in uniform, of course, are excluded from this discussion! I am also sure that men do this all the time but probably don't even notice.

My first experience of this was as a university student doing Industrial Training. I remember being completely thrilled that I could buy a smart, partially lined cream jacket with contrasting navy buttons for only $49 (as a poor student, financing a formal work wardrobe was a bit of a burden). The very next day, I sashayed into the office with my brand new outfit and lo! one of the managers was wearing the same styled jacket in the same colour as mine. Like mirrored images, we looked at each other's clothes then each other's faces, turned red and returned the way we came. Synchronised shame - it should be made into an Olympic sport ... then I wouldn't still be feeling mortified in merely recounting this event! Anyway, we spent the rest of the day trying to look around corners to avoid being in the same room or corridor as each other and I don't think that I ever wore that jacket to that workplace again. I might have even burned it - just kidding...I was a poor Uni student, after all!

Well, I am feeling a little this way again today. On uploading my card made for Krafty Kylie's sketch challenge combined with Christmas colours for her colour challenge, I spotted this card on Ryemilan's Stamping & Scrapbooking. Our supply lists would be practically identical. Sorry, Sam - I promise I didn't copy it!

Stampin' Supplies
Ink:
Mellow Moss
Old Olive
Real Red
Sahara Sand

Stamp sets:
Big Bold Birthday
Occasional Greetings

Paper:
Dashing DSP
Old Olive CS
Real Red CS
Very Vanilla CS

Accessories:
1 1/4" Circle Punch
Gold Embossing Powder
Heat Tool
Red Gingham Ribbon
Stampin' Dimensional

I'll just end here with: Big Bold Birthday is 20% off for this month with a $20 purchase and you can use it for Christmas cards too (as Sam and I agree).

Krafty Kylie's christmassy cyberchallenge

Amazing! I haven't even finished posting my cards from last month's INKlings Cyberchallenge and it's here again already. It has been over a month so I can't say that I didn't have enough time to post the last card - oh well, I suppose I could have but none of you would believe me, anyway! I could say that I've submitted it for publication but that would just be delusional...and it'd be embarrassing a year down the road when people ask "where's the magazine with that card of yours waiting to be published?" How about the dog ate it? Wouldn't you know it? Don't have a dog. Been washing my hair? For a month?! Let me think about it and I'll get back to you...maybe...

Back to the brand spankin' new cyberchallenge hosted by the very crafty Krafty Kylie. Her first challenge was to make a pocket card for Christmas. All those rounded corners on the insert made me think of plastic cards and hey! how about putting a gift card in there?

Stampin' Supplies
Ink:
Always Artichoke

Stamp sets:
Many Merry Messages
Occasional Greetings
Party Punch

Paper:
River Rock CS
Sage Shadow CS
Wintergreen DSP

Accessories:
1" Circle Punch
Corner Rounder Punch
Silver Embossing Powder
Slit Punch
Stampin' Dimensional
Whisper White Grosgrain Ribbon
I like the idea of the whole thing unveiling itself in phases: first phase is the closed pocket card with the sentiment peeking over the flap, second phase is the present in the form of a gift card, and, lastly, the message for the recipient when the gift card is taken out. It's so Salome and the seven veils - thankfully, without any decapitations...

Simply delightfully uniform

I wouldn't be surprised if the runaway favourite Simply Sent Kit is Simple Delights. With its elaborate flourishes and rather delightful sentiments, who could resist? I know I didn't and that was way before the kits were briefly available at 20% off. So, even though the promotion is over, I thought I'd post the cards that I had made using one of them. After all, the fun really kicks in after you've made a couple of the predesigned cards and you're looking to do new things with what you've got. *cue MacGyver theme song* *gets Indiana Jones theme instead* Sorry but I can't remember the MacGyver song because it was sooooo long ago and I only recently watched Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull! Unfortunately, the latter is now well and truly lodged in my head.

Speaking of predesigned cards, I'll begin with the standard "I didn't design these but rather these are the ones that have instructions in the kit" just for completeness. Each kit has enough supplies to make five of each of the cards to the left.

I reckon that this particular kit cries out for uniformity and order. Those geometric patterns look tremendous when perfectly lined up and spaced out precisely - a bit like a military tattoo. Keep the kit happy and use a Stamp-A-Ma-Jig with it at least some of the time. Am I projecting here?

Another tool which really suits this kit is a square punch. The square stamp impressions are peeking out of square windows in this card but one can imagine them just as happy being layered on square cardstock. Am I projecting again?

Additional Stampin' Supplies
Cardstock:
Very Vanilla

Accessories:
1/16" Circle Punch
1 1/4" Square Punch
Chocolate Chip Satin Ribbon
Corner Rounder Punch
Stamp-A-Ma-Jig
Word Window Punch

Simply Sent three shorts

I promised to post my Simply Sent Three Thoughts projects today and I only have half an hour until the deadline! So, I'll keep the post short and talk about the shots. I know you are thinking "Thank Goodness! No banter!"

Cards on the right - you can make six of each with a Simply Sent Three Thoughts kit, ironically without much thought since these come with instructions!

The card to the left was made using the kit and a few extra supplies from my stash. I used Stampin' Write Markers in Mellow Moss and More Mustard to make my life easier but I could probably have just used the Stampin' Spots in the kit. If you got it, flaunt it. [Hey! What happened to no banter?!] But I have all this white space to fill...

Additional Stampin' Supplies
Accessories:
1 1/4" Square Punch
Mat Pack
Pewter Hodgepodge Hardware
Purely Pomegranate Double-Stitched Grosgrain Ribbon
Stamp-A-Ma-Jig




Thirdly, I thought that I'd do something a little different so I used the kit to put together a scrap page. The photo was taken by Hubby when we were living in Melbourne last year. Whenever I look at it, it makes me nostalgic *sniffle*

Additional Stampin' Supplies
Cardstock:
More Mustard Textured

Stamps:
Carte Postale set
Defining Alphabet set
Totally Tabs set

Accessories:
Clear Buttons
Corner Rounder Punch
Mellow Moss Taffeta Ribbon
Round Tab Punch
Stampin' Write Journaller

Ooooh! Just made the deadline. Make sure you make the deadline to save 20% of Simply Sent kits as it ends tomorrow night.

Just a thought...

and not much else! It was awesome Belinda's birthday recently and I gave her a gift bag and a card and that was it. Pretty bad, huh?

OK OK...I wasn't THAT awful. We had a delicious (although a tad salty) lunch of rigatoni and scallops followed by a refreshing strawberries and vanilla bean mascarpone dessert (which would have tasted rather strange if served in a gift bag). I also promised her an item that I'm expecting will be in the next Stampin' Up! mini catalogue.

For the matching gift bag and birthday card, I used a few non-Stampin' Up! supplies including Quickutz Blossom font, Fiskars Sunburst punch and Provocraft large eyelets with grommets. I also used just a thought out of the three in the Three Thoughts Simply Sent Kit. I have to say that whilst this is not the fanciest of the Simply Sent Kits, I think that it would be the most versatile because of its excellent sentiment stamps. I'll post what I make with the kit tomorrow - and of course, there's only two days and a bit to save 20% off these delightful packages!

Stampin' Supplies
Ink:
Close to Cocoa

Stamps:
Three Thoughts Simply Sent Kit

Paper:
Apple Cider DSP
Dashing DSP
Naturals Ivory CS
Very Vanilla CS

Accessories:
Crop-A-Dile
Double Rectangle Punch
Tangerine Grosgrain Ribbon
Wild Wasabi Double-Stitched Grosgrain Ribbon

Simply Sent-sational

Ever feel the need for a little bling? Just make a card with Dazzling Diamonds after you've put on your makeup and you'll have just the right amount of sparkle everywhere to attract attention. Cosmetics with creamy formulations help the dazzle to stay put while you dance the night away. Try using a glue dot dipped in Dazzling Diamonds for a blingy beauty spot that would make Cindy Crawford Certainly Celery with envy.

Get the kit with maximum shine: Sending Happy Thoughts with Dazzling Diamonds included. Going to a party? Get glammed up while assembling a card for the birthday girl. What can be a greater time saver than combining cardmaking with your beauty routine?? Nothing, nothing at all!
Because you take care ^TM - L'ornier

OK...silliness over...unless something comes over me... A Sending Happy Thoughts Simply Sent Kit has the instructions and supplies to make five of each of the following cards:

Don't you love that ribbon?

Here's my spin on the kit with a few extra supplies:

For the card on the left, I inked up one side of the square stamp to create the dotted stems. The Very Vanilla Cardstock is mounted on top of Old Olive Prints DSP and a couple of the flowers have Stampin' Up! buttons for centres and a little bit of hemp twine. For the card on the right, I've used Bashful Blue for a couple of the flowers to match the strip of Summer Picnic DSP. The flower centres are brads topped with glue dots dipped in Dazzling Diamonds (a trick I learnt from the Sydney Stampin' Up! Regional training). The sentiment, shaped using the Word Window punch, is from another item which is on sale this month - the Short & Sweet stamp set!

To make the most of the Simply Sent-sational 20% off kits and stamp sets, please contact me. Enjoy your Labour Day weekend - for those of you in the right places *grin*

Simply versatile

You've probably already seen these cards before - they are the two predesigned cards in the Lifelong Notes Simply Sent Kit. The kit includes enough supplies to make five of each of these styles and even has directions on how to assemble them. I think that the top card is great for men because of the colour scheme and the geometric design. No flowers - I'm sure that they'd be relieved about that! It must be just about every macho man's worst nightmare - to receive a really pretty floral card on their birthday in front of their friends accompanied by a "Here's your prezzie, Honey Bunny Sugar Puff!" *grin*

One of the things that I enjoy most about these kits is creating projects using the supplies to make something that is radically different from the predesigned cards - I suppose it is the MacGyver in me! I also like using things out of my existing stash with the items in the kit for maximum synergy.

The card on the left is a CASE of a card from the Stampin' Up! Sydney Regionals. I added some Certainly Celery DSP, used a stamp from Occasional Greetings and a mat pack and I reckon it looks nothing like the ones above. What do you think?

The card on the right is for the girly girls who would have looked at the other three cards and wondered whether you had confused them with your hubby. I punched out a scallop from a sheet of Summer Picnic DSP and created holes using my 1/16" circle punch, used Basic Black on vellum for the medallion centre, a couple of lengths of Bashful Blue Grosgrain Ribbon and a stamp from Cheer & Wishes. Stampin' Write Markers in Bashful Blue and Certainly Celery sure came in handy too. Pretty girly, huh?

Simply Sent Kits are 20% off for a very short time only (October 4-11) so please send in your orders early so that you don't miss out.

Stampin' Up! is turning 20...

...but not in Australia. Hmmmm...is this one of those time zone difference thingamys? You know, how it is Wednesday here but Tuesday over there for most of the day? Well, actually, it is Tuesday over there for the whole of the day...just not our Tuesday or Wednesday. Yah! Moving right along...

Stampin' Up! is celebrating its 20th birthday and its party favour is a 20% discount off selected stamp sets with any $20 product purchase. Once you qualify, you can choose to buy one or any number of the following stamp sets for inclusion in the same order for the listed promotion price:

Stamp Set	RRP*	Promo*	IB&C page	Item number
Big Bold Birthday	$53.95	$43.16	37	112594
Pretty Princess	$45.95	$36.76	38	108894
Birthday Best	$25.95	$20.76	51	108753
Crab & Company	$52.95	$42.36	55	110246
Short & Sweet	$29.95	$23.96	118	112318

* Excludes standard Stampin' Up! shipping and handling charges.

Team this up with the 20% off Simply Sent Kits during October 4-11 and the festivities of World Card Making Day and that's three great reasons to celebrate being a card maker this month.