There's just one week left of the gorgeous Summer Mini Catalogue, and one week left of Sale-a-bration, our busiest and most exciting time of the year!

Orders for items from the Summer Mini Catalogue and your Sale-a-bration Freebies, must be finalised by 11pm Saturday 31st March. If you normally order from me, and have been holding off, please don't wait. Email me today, as I'd like to get your order in comfortably before Saturday!

I'd love to share with you another 12"x12" scrapbook layout, using some of the lovely bright products from the Summer Mini Catalogue.  I have used the Fabulous Florets Stamp Set and Beyond the Garden Designer Series Paper, teamed with Wild Wasabi & Very Vanilla Card stock.

This layout was inspired by a two week online class that I did earlier this year with Big Picture Classes, called Ten Tips for Better Type with Cathy Zielske. This was a great class to do on top of TWELVE as it freed me up from adding all sorts of embellishments. I really do like adding lots of layers and textures, but following this class I did three 12"x12" layouts without any of the frills.

The title and journalling were printed from the computer, which is also something I don't do often.

I have also just completed the other two layouts, so during the week I will bring them to you - you won't want to miss them, as both layouts contain sneak peak products from the brand new Autumn Winter Mini Catalogue which will be out on April 1st.

See you in a couple of days - and don't forget, if there was anything you wanted from the Summer Mini or Sale-a-bration, please let me know sooner rather than later!

Email: [email protected]

Have you ever tried Stampin' Up!'s Simply Sent Kits?

On pages 136 & 137 of our current Ideas Book & Catalogue you'll find three kits ranging in price from $19.95 up to $23.95 together with 3 small co-ordinating stamp sets for a variety of greetings.

The Everyday Elegance kit is a pleasure to use - the cards are so pretty with their fabulous die cut border and pretty printed background. And the great thing is, you can dress them up as much or as little as you like.

I needed a card for a brand new bouncing baby boy recently, and I found the Baja Breeze card in the Everyday Elegance kit was just the thing to team with the Baby Tees jumbo Stampin' Round Wheel for a fun, cute card.

Notice that I also roller wheeled the envelope?

For the card, I rolled Baby Tees wheel in Basic Grey ink onto Whisper White card and Baja Breeze Patterned Paper and then selected three of the tees to cut out for my card front. A couple of touches with the white gel pen and Baja Breeze Stampin' Write Marker gave the finishing touches.

Isn't that cute? You can make really great looking cards using these elegant pre-printed as your base. Why don't you give Simply Sent cards a go today?

Here's a really fun card, to celebrate a lovely family member who decided on a career change late last year and has just graduated from the Victorian Police Academy!  How proud are we, and how much fun was this card to make?!?

I started out trying to make police caps for them, but the weaving for the cheque band around the cap was so small as to even be ridiculous for someone like me to try! I know I am mad, but I am not THAT mad! LOL

So the compromise was a woven Night of Navy and Whisper White background which I then cut with the Top Note Die and the Big Shot.  Love it!

And of course, who doesn't love Stampin' Up's! Two Step Owl Punch!!

These ones are punched in Sahara Sand card stock with the edges just ever so slightly sponged with a dauber. I think I'd have a hard time keeping a straight face if these guys pulled me up for a random breath test!

If you're interested in making some cards similar to this, or learning some more advanced stamping techniques, why don't you consider joining my stamp club.  All the details are HERE and we kick off next Thursday night in Croydon North.  Send me an email if you have any questions! or would be interested to join in!  [email protected]

My little treat for you today is another layout I created in an Altered Book many long moons ago. This book from what I remember, was titled Myths & Fantasy and the project for the month had to contain Slits, Slots & Holders!

Wow, what a challenge!

I decided on the story of Elaine - or The Lady of Shalott.  If you're an Anne of Green Gables fan, you will know immediately who I mean!  If not, it's a sweet story that ties in with the Lancelot and Guinevere legends of King Arthurs day and there are thousands of different versions, probably the most famous of which was rendered into a haunting (very long) poem by Alfred Lord Tennyson - The Lady of Shalott.

I decided that slits & slots would be covered by making Elaine's River for her little boat to float down, just as it did - floating silently into Camelot.  I cut the slot through several pages of the book to strengthen it, then attached the boat in such a way that you could slide it up and down the river.

For holders, I created a ribbon holder for the tiny book which contains the words of Tennyson's poem (in tiny print you can barely read!), and a cd holder embedded into the facing page. I then burned a copy of a gorgeous, musical rendition of the poem onto the cd so that it could be listened too and placed it in the book.

The gorgeous floral image behind the clear cd holder is a sticker, and I printed a famous "Lilymaid" image onto a cd label to place on the cd.

A final touch was to create an extra pocket behind the layout into which I slipped another version of the story of Elaine, taken from the book "The Sacred Lake" which was largely about the love between Gunievere and Lancelot. Unfortunately it was so long ago, I can't remember the author of this book - but I will look into it!

Hope that inspires you today, and if you don't have to go to work today like I do, then I wish you just enough time in the day to also enjoy some happy creativity!

Hi Everyone!  Feels like ages since I saw you, but it was only a week ago!

Today I have a special little project to show you, that one of my newest team members, Samantha West is doing at a workshop today. She got lots of ideas from all the generous, sharing ladies on ESAD (Extremely Special Australasian Demonstrators) and then looked at what products we had between us to see what we could make. The punch art bunny card Samantha is using for her make & take project today comes with very special thanks to Marion Benfield, another Stampin' Up! demonstrator who very kindly sent Samantha the instructions - how nice are our fellow stampers??? I love it the way we all care and share!

Anyway, here's the two projects we put together for Samantha to take with her today.

The roller wheel  on the easter card is the valentine one from our Summer Mini Catalogue - so sweet! And there's just a bit of spongeing and highlighting with the white gel pen and the Sahara Sand Marker & Ink on the bunny. I adore Sahara Sand - not too dark and a kind of warmish pale grey.

The basket is created from four Scallop Envelopes cut using the Big Shot, and a handle created using the lovely Ribbon Lace punch. The stamped images are from Everybunny Stamp Set and have just a tiny touch of water colouring.

How cute is that chickee? The colours are Certainly Celery, Calypso Coral and Daffodil Delight.

My very best wishes for your workshop today Samantha! I wish I could be there to help. I do hope your guests love these little projects as much as we do and that you have a lovely time!