I am so excited!!! On Monday I achieved the Stampin' Up! Grand Vacation - an all-expenses-paid Mediterranean cruise for my husband and me in May next year. It is still a bit surreal but, as you can expect, I am really happy right now! It's been a lot of hard work to earn this trip, but I couldn't have done it without you.  Did you know that less than 1% of all demonstrators earn the Incentive Trip each year?

I want to offer a very large THANK YOU to everyone who has encouraged me, orders through me and is a part of my team - I am overwhelmed by everyone's support and am truly grateful to know you all.

In the last two weeks of this month I offered a promotion to help get my sales "over-the-line". Everyone who placed an order over $100 with me went into the draw for two $100 Stampin' Up! spending sprees. The names have been drawn and the winners are...

• K Prisk
• S Larsen

Congratulations ladies! I am excited to find out what you are planning to get for your $100 spending spree.

Another reason for my excitement is that my very, very good friend, Jackie, has also earned the trip and we will experience it together! This is the card that I sent to Jackie a few weeks ago to congratulate her on her achievement...

Stamps: Traveler (wood: 134510, clear: 134513), Watercolor Wash (wood: 138704, clear: 139538), Endless Birthday Wishes (photopolymer: 140273). Ink: Pool Party (126982), Real Red (126949), Tuxedo Black Memento (132708), Whisper White Craft (101731). Card/Paper: Pool Party (124391), Real Red (106578), Basic Black (121688), Shimmery White (121717). Accessories: Silver Metallic Thread (138402), Rhinestone Basic Jewels (119247), White Stampin' Emboss Powder (109132). Tools: Big Shot Die-Cutting Machine (113439), Circle Card Thinlits Die (133480), Circles Collection Framelits (130911), 2-1/2" Circle Punch (120906), Banner Triple Punch (138292), Banner Punch (133519), Itty Bitty Accents Punch Pack (133787), Aqua Painters (103954), Heat Tool (129056), Embossing Buddy (103083), Tombow Multipurpose Liquid Glue (110755), Stampin' Dimensionals (104430).

This card is a flip card, die-cut using the Circle Card Thinlits Dies...

Circle Card Thinlits Dies (133480) - $65.00
Makes 10.8 cm x 14 cm moveable card. 10 dies.

Here's a couple of creative tips...

• I used a fun trick with the Circle Card Thinlits Die to extend the card to include a fold-out flap. Click HERE to see a previous post with instructions on do this.
• The ocean liner from the Traveler stamp set is very appropriate for this celebration card. The image is quite large and wouldn't nicely fit into the circle on the card front. So, to make the ship emerge from the circle I stamped and then partially die-cut the image with a circle die. I then finished by fussy cutting the front of the ship to meet the die-cut circle.
• The map image from the Typeset Specialty Paper is also very appropriate, however the paper is Very Vanilla and I wanted white. So I loaded an Aqua Painter with watered-down Whisper White Craft ink, brushed it over the surface of the paper and then dried it with the Heat Tool.