We left the central coast at 6.30am... the driving down went so quick with a car full of women sharing our stamping stories. Made even better by having coffee at the Convention centre GJ's cafe... and anticipating the excitement of the day. 
I managed to get back for registration, collect my free stampset and enjoy a rush of card swaps just before 9.am and throughout the day meeting all those friendly people that I only ever get to talk to online ... or at group stamping nights.
Here's Felicity (who makes the most gorgous cards), myself and Linda Higgins (my stampin' up mentor and upline)... in the background is one of the stampin up big screens on either side of the stage.The make and takes are by far the most fun, but often theere is just too much socialising going on to get them all finished in time ... but I did eventually! Here's the hello card.
The "hello" box, which you can make in any size or shape you like just by changing the measurements, has a hinged lid and would fit a small set of stamps, a piece of jewellery or chocolates in it, just as it is.
The mini 6x6 scrapbook page: I have placed a photo of my daughter swimming at the rock pool at Terriga in it already... I tried to match the pink and green swimming costume to the rose red and old olive embellishments.
We used our square scallop punches with the new retro wheel... they make good journalling boxes for the date and short descriptions on a scrapbook page.
The stamping (below) was done in versamark for the Jj's and choc chip ink for the journey definition with a cute little flower overlapping the J.
The final project was the "hello hearts" frame folding card... held closed with that gorgeous little miniature silver clip at the top... the ribbon is tangerine tango striped grosgrain held on with a mini glue dot.
There were so many awesome speakers and exciting demonstrations of cards and scrapbook pages done on stage... If you live on the Central Coast you can probably recognise Georgina (second from the left) and Linda (third from the right).
Just can't wait for Convention in May 2010, next year!
Here are my two versions side by side.
And another two variations on the same theme, the same layout reversed and using different colours to contrast with the Pacific point and baja breeze.
On this one my embellishments were all mounted on basic black cardstock and then I stamped the best wishes on acetate with the white stazon ink. Love that contrast.
The chocolate corner is made from a scallop square punch cut in quarters, works nicely on photos too.
And for completeness here are the four versions just to show how much I like to photograph my cards... you can never have too many pictures can you?
Just reminding you that at the end of this month we say good bye to all the gorgous products in the Stampin' up Spring mini ....
The white stazon ink?
The too die for Parisian breeze textured cover weight papers that ooh, la la french tole pattern?
Forest friends with Bambi, thumper, wise old owl and the tree?
The real red, Old Olive, baja breeze and chocolate chip of Ski slope papers?
Great friend butterflies flitting across a field of grass... perhaps never to be seen again?
I will be placing an order at the end of the week... is there anything you've forgotten or wished for?
It is Christmas photo shoot time of year ... in the last week of November we have to get our photos taken to send to relatives and friends with their Chrismas letters. This is the quickest scrapbook page I have ever made... 3 photos, a square of Designer series paper, sticker embellishments, title and a ribbon bow. 
My daughter's quick wish list written in with the chocolate chip marker and some more sticker stars in real red ... why haven't I discovered these scrapping kits before.
My butterflies are embossed in silver embossing powder and attached behind the spine with dimensionals to lift them off the card. I have rolled the baja breeze strip with the friendly word wheel and then again on whisper white to emboss and feature as my sentiment.
I wanted to use the soft subtles colour family (for inspiration) on this one. Though, ended up using only Perfect plum, a dash of So saffron and Pink pirouette from the in-colours with black and white as my neutrals.
Not very exciting so I added some Crystal effects and superfine glitter and gave it a sparkly centre.
I trimmed the ribbon and used small saffron brads to hold down the cardstock. They seem to suit the mechanical workings of the clock and the little flower brad looks a bit like a cog?
Best things about using the kit to make cards?
The Old Olive card here, I have made with a strip of the patterned paper, two stickers layered on top of one another, a strip of red scalloped edge cardstock and a piece of chocolate chip ribbon.
For the second card I have used some real red cardstock, the pack comes with textured cardstock that you can cut to make your cards (but I am keeping them for my scrap book pages) and so I have used some real red cardstock, some more chocolate chip ribbon and a sentiment from the "Best yet" Hostess stampset, stamped on whisper white using the large oval punch. 
The medallion with the brown snowflake is a sticker from the kit that I have placed on a scallop circle of old olive and I have added the scallop edges for a bit of trimming.
What I have used to make these cards: