Gold Medal for exemplary customer service awarded to " Pink Poppy "

I am very much a believer in excellent customer service, and it is something I try hard to provide myself.  However, every now and again, I come across service that goes so far above and beyond the norm that I feel proud to bestow my thanks in as public a way as possible - hence this unusual blog post:

The back-story - On Christmas afternoon my 9yo son unwrapped a gift from his auntie, which included a cool animal shaped "Balloon Ball Buddy"  Miss Soon To Be 6 also received one.  Of the assorted treasures they received, these toys were the most captivating, and were quickly extricated from their packaging and inflated.  For a short few minutes, there was much amusement and pleasure, but then Master 9's tore apart under very moderate inflation.  There were tears, quite a few of them, wrapped in much disappointment.  Miss STB6 very graciously offered to stem the flow by telling Master 9 that she would share hers with him, although she was now anxious that her toy would suffer the same fate.  I offered that I would try and find him a replacement as soon as possible, and so as not to forget, and before the packaging could be binned, I sent off an email explaining the story above to the distributor address on the packaging,  Yipose Trading Company P/L, who are most commonly known as "Pink Poppy" , purveyor of all things pink and girly.  You've almost certainly seen their stands of hair clips and bows and similar goodies on your shopping adventures, but I'd never seen the balloon toys before.

Scroll forward to 9am Boxing Day morning, when the doorbell sounds.  Expecting to find neigbouring children keen to play, imagine my stunned amazement to find a representative from Pink Poppy, with not one, but TWO replacement "Ball Buddies", and an additional gift for both Master 9 and Miss STB6 of a cool 'projector' pen, and a sturdy kid-sized shopping bag to boot.  There were a few more tears, of happiness this time, along with profuse thanks.  Mere hours after sending the enquiry, on a traditional family day, where no one would be expected to read work-related emails, let alone act upon them.  Quite simply amazing!

I am so very impressed at the speed and thoughtfullness with which the drama was resolved, and would like to congratulate the people responsible for their excellent service.  You certainly made our day, and restored a little faith in the commercial world as well.  A very well deserved "StampInkPaper Gold Medal of Service " is hereby bestowed upon you!  If you're reading this and have an outlet that suits their range, perhaps you should check them out as a supplier!!

Christmas Wishes

Merry Christmas everyone!
I thought I had succeeded in doing something new with my Demonstrator Business website, making an e-card in a different program and inserting it into the e-card editor in DBWS.  It looked fine in preview, and I was quite proud of my efforts!!  However, something is not quite right..... Apologies to everyone who receives an email with a little red x square....  I'll try again, perhaps another day though!

Santa is nearly here, hope you've been good enough to get what you most would like :)

Happy Birthday cards for kids with Printed Petals

Miss L has attended a rash of kindergarten birthday parties of late, about 5 in the last month.   Some were actual/close enough birthdays, others were kids who have birthdays during the upcoming holidays, so their wise parents moved the date up to ensure school mates would be around to attend.

I made a couple of  this card, using "Printed Petals"  I modelled it after this card, originally designed by Jayne Mercer as one of our team charity cards.  I made heaps with "Eastern Blooms" but I wanted to see if the larger flower from "Printed Petals" would work, and I quite like the effect.  Any stamp set with a largeish bold shape would work, and it's a great design for mass production.  Mmm, I feel inspired to go look in the cupboard to see what other stamps I might be able to use with this technique.  Simply, choose three or four monochromatic colours in varying shades.  Start with the lightest shade to avoid needing to clean in between, and stamp across the card, and off the sides.  Then switch to the next lightest shade, and so on, slightly overlapping the images.  Finish with a cut out of the darkest shade, popped up and glittered, with some leaves behind it to make it stand out.    This time I used the branch from the two step bird punch, but in the previous link I used the 5 petal flower through the crimper.  You could hand-cut them if you don't own the punch.  Standing by to take your order if you want one though!

The other great thing about this design is that it leaves a space for a greeting, that can be added at a later date to suit the occasion. Since the design is versatile, it could be pressed into service for anything from a birthday card, thank you, get well or note card.

The colours I used for this card are:  Melon Mambo base, Whisper White panel for stamping (essential for crisp images!), and the stamping is done in Pretty in Pink, Regal Rose, Melon Mambo and Rich Razzleberry.  The sentiment is from "Curly Cute", stamped in Melon Mambo and mounted on Rose Red.  The branches were punched in Old Olive.  Done!  I think I'll try it again without the mounted base, to see if no border gives the stamped panel more 'breathing space' What do you think??

All products are  Stampin' Up!, and all are available to order through me, just call (02) 9484 9447 or email me to place your order or join my mailing list here