Travel notebook

Hubby and I have just returned from a wonderful jaunt to Phillip Island to attend the wedding of a dear friend and his lady love. The weather was fine and hot (perhaps a little too warm as my decolletage now looks like I dropped a tub of red blush all over it) and the garden setting, with Westernport Bay as the backdrop, was beautiful. The highlight for me was their exchange of vows, which they composed themselves - touching, sweet and so very moving. I have to keep their names secret or I'd have to erase this blog after posting and, well, that'd just defeat the whole purpose of posting! But I'm wishing them lots of love and laughter as they head into their first holiday season in married bliss.

Accompanying me during this memorable trip was this little notebook that I decorated using a standard exercise book. After embellishing the cover, I slipped the book into a plastic cover to protect it from spills and stains. I then used White StazOn to stamp a damask pattern on the plastic cover to add a little more interest and light. Because I'm me, I used the Stamp-A-Ma-Jig and lots of ruled lines to make sure the pattern was even...

Stampin' Supplies
Ink:
Certainly Celery
Lavender Lace
Perfect Plum
StazOn Cotton White

Stamp sets:
24-7
All Scallops
Lovely Letters
No One Like You

Cardstock:
Certainly Celery
Whisper White
Pale Plum
Perfect Plum

Accessories: Scallop Edge Punch Stamp-A-Ma-Jig	[back of the notebook]
Stampin' Write Markers in:    Certainly Celery    Pale Plum    Perfect Plum

World Card Making Day 2009

World Card Making Day 2009 is on the 3rd of October but Stampin’ Up!® is celebrating all month long! From 1-31 October, when you purchase either Rock Star or Flower Power Simply Sent® Card Elements, you’ll get 20% off a co-ordinating stamp set.

Buy a Simply Sent Card Elements kit:

Item	Page	Description	Price
112028	140	Flower Power Card Elements	$30.95
112021	141	Rock Star Card Elements	$30.95

and get one of the following stamp sets at 20% off:

Item	Page	Description	Regular Price	Discount Price
116779	140	Wow Flowers stamp set	$24.95	$19.96
116777	141	Starring You stamp set	$24.95	$19.96

Prices do not include standard Stampin' Up! shipping and handling charges of $5.95 or 5% of product total per order (whichever is greater).

Simply sending off Simple Delights

I looked at my blog yesterday and realised that it is just a mass of lists! What happened to the crafty stuff?!

I have been really busy preparing for CraftFest 2009 but I wanted to post one of the cards that I made using my favourite Simply Sent kit: Simple Delights. Most of the supplies can be found in the kit excepting the wide satin Chocolate Chip that can be found in Theatre Ribbon Originals and the buckle which is from a tin of Antique Brass Hodgepodge. All three items are retiring *pout* but the good news is that you can save 25% off Simple Delights while it is in stock (now $59.96). Farewell Simple Delights - you were simply delightful.

Anyway, must run to finish a few things including a lucky door prize that will be presented at CraftFest.

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.

Simply Sent: Naked!

Ever wondered what exactly was in a Simple Delights Simply Sent Kit? Wonder no longer as the following picture reveals the full contents of one such kit:



To help celebrate World Card Making Day, Stampin' Up! is offering 20% of all Simply Sent Kits for one week only. So make sure that you get your orders in to me between October 4-11 so that you don't miss out! Come to my WCMD event to see what is in the kits for yourself, along with a couple of alternate card designs using the kits plus some additional Stampin' Up! supplies.