{Me}

This card uses dry embossing and vellum. If you'd like to find out how to do it then simply subscribe to my newsletter over on the right hand side of this blog.

Artfully Asian is one of this month's Free Wheelin' special offer sets. Purchase the stamp set and you'll get the Watercolour Vine jumbo wheel for free. That's a saving of $15.95. Contact me today to place your order.

As soon as the new Idea Book & Catalogue came out I really liked this stamp set. This is the set that I've used to make my Christmas cards for this year. I also have cards coming up in a future issue Cardmaking, Stamping & Papercraft using it.

Purchase Merry, Merry before the end of September and Stampin' Up! will give you the jumbo wheel All About Christmas for free.

This card would make a great Christmas card to make in large numbers as you could do it in small parts and simply assemble it all at the end. This is one of my make and takes for this month - host a workshop and you'll get to make this card along with another for free.

Want to know what other sets are part of the fantastic Free Wheelin' special? Simply click here to find out.

Place an order with me before the end of today that includes one of the sets on special and you'll go into a draw to win a level 1 hostess set of my choice.

Here's another card using the very versatile Priceless set. This is one of my workshop make and takes for this month. The background is the So Swirly jumbo wheel. Purchase the Priceless set before the end of September and Stampin' Up! will give you the So Swirly Wheel for free.

Place an order with me that includes one of the Free Wheelin' special offer sets before Saturday and you go into the draw to win a level one hostess set of my choice.

Don't miss out, place your order today.

As promised here is another baby card. The design for these cards can be found on Lauren Meader's blog.

The cards are the standard A5 size but have the fold at the top. They use the very versatile Priceless stamp set and the matching So Swirly wheel. Order the Priceless set between the 1st and the 30th September and Stampin' Up! will throw in the matching wheel for free. That's a $15.95 saving.

There are 5 other stamp sets offering the same deal - check out the flyer below. My prediction is that this is going to be a very popular promotion so don't delay - contact me today to place your order.

Between my customers and my team members, August has seen the arrival of a few babies.

I decided to challenge myself to make some different cards. The one above is so cute but it did take a long time to make! I should have enlarged the template before I started. I thought I'd leave my hand in the photograph so you can see how small it is.

I go the template from here.

Check back tomorrow for another baby card.

Whilst away on the Incentive Trip it was Makeesha's birthday. I had taken some Whisper White cardstock with me so I borrowed the stamp set I had given Joanna and stamped the flowers in the vase image onto it. I then used markers and my aqua brush to colour in before mounting onto a piece of Pretty in Pink card (also borrowed from Jo!). If I'd been at home I'm sure I would have added some brads or ribbon too but I'm still happy with the final card.

As promised here are the photos and a daily diary of the 2008 Incentive Trip. Might be best to grab a cuppa before you start!

Wednesday 20th August

Caught the train early to the airport. Checked in to find out that as well as all the Sydney demonstrators those on flights from SA and VIC also connected with us. Shelli and Sterling were also flying with us - made for a fun flight.

Arrived at the Angsana Spa and Resort early afternoon. Checked into our amazing rooms - a two bedroomed suite for Joanna and myself. We had a large living area, which was perfect each evening for predinner drinks and great for late night chats.

In our rooms we were to find out what team we would be part of for the evenings entertainment. Joanna and I were Lovely Lilac.

Group dinner in the hotel. Got to say hello to lots of demonstrators I only see once a year at Convention. Had a BBQ dinner - not a sausage in sight! Then it was onto the buses to head to the Marlin Coast Bowling Club. Quick lesson in bowling (not that it helped me!) and we had a fun evening. Lovely Lilac were defeated by Brilliant Blue!

Returned to the resort to find a gorgeous white box tied up with gorgeous wide ribbon on our kitchen bench. Inside was a white hooded top with the Incentive Trip logo on it.

Thursday 21st August

The only morning we set the alarm as we had to be on a bus by 9am. Breakfast in the hotel with this gorgeous view. The resort is beach front and although the weather was very windy and overcast it was still beautiful and warm enough for shorts and tops.

The buses took us to the Freshwater railway station to catch the Kuranda Scenic Railway. It's an amazing ride up with gorgeous views. We had lots of time to catch up again with Robyn Lawton and get to know Makeesha Byl and Kim Gavarra. Thank you to all 3 of them (and their lovely husbands) for a wonderful trip up.

Once in Kuranda we had a couple of hours to wander, shop and eat and of course more time to get to know other demonstrators over lunch (Hi Cheryl, Ness & Ros).

We then returned down the hill by the Skyrail - an amazing cable car ride over beautiful scenery. We shared our cable car with Ngaire and Teresa and their husbands.

When we returned to our room we found the TV on and a DVD on pause. My initial reaction was panic as it said it was Workshop Wows - I really didn't want to see myself on TV presenting at Convention this year! I flipped over the DVD case to find it was lots of lovely US and Canadian Demonstrators presenting Workshop Wows with some great ideas.

Caught up with Marelle and Alisa and their husbands for predinner drinks then headed out for a pizza dinner with them.

Friday 22nd August

Friday was swapping and make and take morning. After another yummy breakfast we all got together to swap our cards.

Then it was time to have a sneak peak of new product for the Summer Mini catalogue coming out in December! Lots of squeals of happiness to find that we're getting a brand new stamp set and even more squeals when we were told that the punch we'd all spotted on the table for us to use during the make and takes would also make that mini. Which punch you ask? The punch that means you will no longer have to line up the slit punch or the corner rounder to make a scallop edge! You can see how great it looks in the sample lying down.

How cute is the bag that we got to keep too. It's plastic lined so can be used as a cooler bag or even a toiletry bag.

We headed outside for a group photograph with all 25 achieving demonstrators - 22 from Australia and 3 from New Zealand. Shelli joined us for the photo.

The rest of the day was ours to do what we wanted - so we did nothing! OK we had a lovely group lunch and then just relaxed, chatted, read a book. Dinner was a group banquet at a lovely Thai restaurant. On returning to our room there was a very large white box on our kitchen bench. Inside was the softest white robe with our initials on it.

Saturday 23rd August

Saturday was a free day. Last year Joanna and I went to the reef, this year we decided to have a complete day of rest. We got up late, had breakfast late, I got a hair cut, Joanna had a facial and manicure, we ate lunch late then Liz Collett organised a group shot in our new robes - lots of laughter as you can see from the photo we had a fun time. That's Aaron Scott, the Regional Business Director (Australia & New Zealand) lying across my lap!

When we returned to our rooms we found our final gift. A great bag themed to match our final night dinner.

Cocktails in the bar before heading off on the buses to the Cairns Wildlife Reserve Park for dinner with the lions. We were greeted with a fire display which gave me a chance to play with the settings on the camera.

Then we met the lions. We were sat inside a caged area and the lions were around us. Seeing such amazing animals so close up was fantastic. Watching them run towards us to find their food and listening to the sounds they made was amazing. The food was good too!

Sunday 24th August Breakfast in the hotel, before saying our farewells. A lunch time flight back to Sydney, more farewells to those travelling onwards and to Sydney demos heading home.

What else can I tell you?

Each day there were samples for us to photograph and get ideas from. On one table were some samples that looked really familiar. It took me a while to realise why they looked familiar was because they were the samples used to make the Idea Book & Catalogue! It was strange to see them in real life.

Each day we also got the opportunity to spin a prize wheel. The prizes were Stampin' Up! products or lollies. I managed to spin 3 product prizes and won Ribbon Originals, Rhinestone Brads and Pockets and Pieces. I also won a box of catalogues at the Bowling evening.

Stampin' Up! is an amazing company to work for. Shelli and Sterling's love of what they do is so inspiring that it filters all the way down through the company employees to us as demonstrators. I am very glad that two and a half years ago I made the decision to join the company - there are so many people that are now part of my life that I would never have met - something I just can't even imagine now.

Can't wait for Noosa 2009.

Here is another gift for Joanna. This time I used a rub on on a glass candle holder then added a ribbon. Darryl Lea kindly had strawberry fondant chocolates that matched the colours I wanted to use so I put a few into a small Stampin' Up! cellophane bag and added a co-ordinating topper.

I'll be home tomorrow - not sure I'll have time to sort out photos and post on here tomorrow but I'll certainly be online again by Monday! Let me know what you'd like to hear about so I can fill you all in.

A Stampin' Up! event without a swap wouldn't be right! Friday morning on the Incentive Trip is our time to swap and then make a few projects (hopefully using new Stampin' Up! product!).

This year we had all been chatting online and decided to go with a swap that had to use this year's in-colors and a new stamp set to this year. I decided to use Pick-a-Petal. It was quite a labour intensive swap but I used my son's twice weekly swimming lessons for the last few week to assemble parts of it! I'm sure that many of you can empathise with making swaps in strange locations! I love how bright and cheery they turned out.

If you'd like to receive a card, post a comment below telling me where's the strangest place you've stamped or assembled swaps and I'll pick a comment at random to send a card to.

Another notebook, this time I made one for Shelli as a small thank you gift. I decided to make a smaller notebook for her to write down any ideas she might have for her new blog.

You can check out her blog, so shelli here.

When I bought this notebook I didn't realise that the spirals weren't the same as our spiral punch, so I punched the holes with the crop-o-dile and snipped them to slide over the spirals.