Ready...set...sale-a-brate

Today is the start of the most fantastic time of the Stampin' Up! year - yes, it's time to Sale-a-brate!
If you haven't experienced Sale-a-bration before, you're in for a real treat, as you can earn free, new & excusive stamps from now until 31 March.  How? Well, you can...

Spend
For every $100 order you place from the Idea Book or Summer Mini (before s&h), choose one of the 4 Sale-A-Bration set for free, no limits.
Host
Host your own Stampin' Up! workshop. For every $600 in workshop sales (before s&h), you can choose one Sale-a-bration set. This is in addition to the already fabulous hostess rewards you'll earn.
Join
Join Stampin' Up! & you can choose any stamp set from the Idea Book & Catalogue (valued up to $79.95) when you purchase the hugely discounted Starter Kit & become a demonstrator during Sale-a-bration.

Check out  the Sale-a-bration catalogue HERE & see some of the gorgeous ways you can use your free stamp sets. Just a note, Sale-a-bration stamp sets are only available during Sale-a-bration & will never be available again, so you won't want to miss them.

So how good does that all sound? If you'd like a copy of the catalogue, more information or to place an order just contact me.
Inky wishes, Di

Mini desk calendar instructions & template

Wow, it's been a busy few days here. I was totally speechless that the fabulous Nancy Riley selected my little owl calendar in her last ipicks round-up (& those who know me know that's really hard, LOL). I really love Nancy's work & look forward to seeing all the amazing ipicks creations each week. I have no idea how you found me Nancy, but I feel very privileged to be included. Thank you so much.

I've also had lots of visitors from Kim Score's fantastic Paper Punch Addiction site, which I can't believe I hadn't found before, given how much I love my punches. Thanks heaps for featuring my calendar Kim. Your work is totally amazing & have add it to my google reader feeds so I don't miss anything.

Instructions & Template for Calendar

I've had lots of requests for the instructions to make the calendar & have e-mailed them to those who've asked already.  This morning, my clever husband told me that I could load the template up on windows Live (who knew?) so you could download it yourself. Cool! So...

You can download the calendar instructions HERE.

& see all my calendar samples in this post.

If you do like the calendar or the instructions, I'd love if you could leave a comment to say hi!

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see you here again soon.

Inky wishes, Di

Scallop circle easel cards

Since it's school summer hols at the moment & we're about to start renovating our floor & kitchen, stamping time is a bit hard to find, so I'm trying to catch you up on some projects that I haven't blogged yet. Today's post goes back to August, to show you two scallop circle easel cards I made for friends of Cara. You might remember I went through an easel card phase here & here & decided to try a different shape, easpecially after seeing the lovely Liam make some lovely circle versions. First up is Sarah's ... bright, fun & girly.

And one for Taylah...

I was trying for a bit of a Twilight inspired theme with Taylah's as she's a bit of a Twi-fan (as am I).  Choosing the colours was easy, but I was a bit unsure about images until I remembered my all-time fave flourish from 'Baroque Motifs', which I think worked with the swirly butterfly stamp.

Both cards share some other similarities - the Timeless Type big shot alphabet for the letters (no more running out of certain letters - love it!) & butterflies, but I think the look is quite different due to the colours & stamps. I was pretty happy with how they both turned out & I think the girls liked them too. Hope you do too.

Well that's all for now. Thanks very much for stopping by. Leave a comment if you like what you see, or would like more info.

Inky wishes, Di

Supplies

Sarah

Stamps: Flight of the Butterfly

Card: pixie pink, so saffron, whisper white, Petal Party kit DSP

Ink: pixie pink

Accessories: clear rhinestone brad

Tools: butterfly punch, trio flower punch, circle scissor plus, big shot, scallop circle die, Timeless Type alphabet

Twilight Taylah

Stamps: Butterfly Prints, Baroque Motifs, Flight of the Butterfly

Card: whisper white, real red, basic black

Ink:  real red, basic black

Accessories: silver brads, 2 way glue pen, dazzling diamonds glitter

Tools: butterfly punch, trio flower punch, circle scissor plus, big shot, scallop circle die, Timeless Type alphabet

Something new for Cathy

Hi again. Today's project is one I made for Cathy, a lovely Diamond Stampers team member whose birthday was yesterday. Happy birthday again Cathy! I know Cathy has received her card, so I can safely show it to you now.

To make it, I inked up the heart flowers & stem (from 'Love Defined') with celery & rose red markers & added some cute punched flowers ('Itty Bitty Shapes') & basic pearls. Both the set & punches are new to the Summer Mini. Then, a first for me - I added some ruffled taffeta ribbon. I was happily surprised to see this is really simple to do & looks very effective I think. You can see it closer here:

If you'd like to try a bit of ruffling yourself, take some taffeta ribbon & pull one end until it starts to fray & expose the threads. Pull a centre thread & the ribbon will start to gather up. Push the gathers up the ribbon until you get the effect & length you want. Then, attach to your project with extra strong tape to hold it firm.

Oh & before I go, here's the inside of the card, which has some more flowers - this time with dry embossed centres.

Hope you liked today's card. If you have any questions about anything else, just drop me a line or leave a comment. Back soon with....

Inky wishes, Di

Supplies:Stamps: Love Defined (Summer Mini), Perfect Punches, On Your Birthday

Card: rose red, pretty in pink, whisper white, Brights Patterns DSP (olive)

Ink: certainly celery rose red markers, old olive ink pad

Accessories: olive/white taffeta ribbon (retired), basic pearls, dimensionals

Tools: Itty Bitty Shapes punches,  2 x 1 3/8 inch xl oval punch

A date or two...& some notes

Since it's my first post for the new year, I thought some little desk calendars would be a good place to start, (she says, casually trying to ignore that she hasn't posted any projects for a loooong time). I've made lots of these over the last couple of months, (some with matching post-it note books too).

The calendars fold so they can stand up by themselves & fold flat for posting. I used pre-printed mini calendars to make them, but you could easily print your own in a size to suit. The size of the front is 14.8cm x 7.5cm & you need only half an A4 sheet of card to make one. Anyhoo, here are some of the ones I've made. Hope you like them.

Do you love the little dressed up owl? My clever downline Sarah showed me how to make the little bow, eyes & wings. Thanks S!

  

You may notice that they all include retired DSP & some retired accessories, as I've been trying to use some of the TONS of retired goodies I have. (not to mention the TONS of current goodies too - the butterfly embosslit & owl punches are current favourites!

About the post-it notes......you may remember I have a bit of an obsession with post-its & always have heaps. I've made various boxes to hold them (scroll down this post to see one version) but hadn't gotten around to making any little books. Then, just at the right time, I saw this lovely one by Nikki Stalker. Nikki very thoughtfully provided instructions to make them, so I used these instructions to start me off. Then, inspired, I fiddled around with the measurements & design (as I do) for my own version. Thanks so much Nikki for generously sharing your excellent tutorial.

There's too many to give a full supply list, but if you'd like more information about anything or instructions for the calendars, just contact me. In the meantime, thanks muchly for visiting.

Inky wishes, Di

PS: I'm finally back in business with a new laptop & new version of Photoshop too (yay), so hopefully I can start to catch you up on some of my projects from the last few months too. Back soonish.

Edited: Wednesday 19 Jan
Thanks heaps everyone for your lovely comments and e-mails about the calendars. I have finished the instructions & have e-mailed them to anyone who has asked for them. If you haven't got them, check your junk mail box & e-mail me if you don't have them.

Edited: Thursday 20 Jan

I've worked out how to load the calendar instructions so you can download them yourself. Yay! You can Download them HERE.

I'd really love if you could leave a comment to say hi if you like the calendars & instructions too. Thanks heaps!

Happy New Year

Hi there! Just stopping by to wish a very special Happy New year to all my wonderful friends, family & my great Stampin' Up! Diamond Stampers team & customers. I hope 2011 brings you much love, happiness & success.....& of course lots of stamping time.
Inky hugs, Di
PS: I now have a fab new laptop & new Photoshop too (yaaay!) so hopefully I'll be back blogging soon.