A Summer Afternoon with Stampin' Up.

Summer is slowly disappearing in the Southern hemisphere and usually I would not be looking forward to winter, but this year I have a wonderful journey to the USA planned for our winter. So bring on winter!

It is quite a while since I've ridden a push bike, but this gorgeous stamp by Stampin' Up! has me thinking about borrowing one and having a go! The stamp is from the Hostess Only stamp set named SUMMER AFTERNOON and I used it to demonstrate the blender pen water-colouring technique to some of my customers. If you love that stamp set (Annual Catalogue) you will just have to host a Stampin' Up! party to get one, or you can email a qualifying order to me and I'll have it posted to your home address. Contact me via my Demonstrator Business Website

The BLENDER PEN  is very convenient to use for water-colouring - just squeeze your ink pad so there is some ink on the lid, pick up the colour with the Blender Pen and colour away. We all commented how it made us feel like we were back in Primary School, but we noted just how relaxing colouring is. 

Unfortunately, I didn't get a photo of the original colouring, but suffice it to say that I was less than happy with it, so showed the girls a little trick that helps to hide any flaws. You guessed it - you run your stamped image through the BIG SHOT  with an embossing folder. I used one of my most versatile folders - SQUARE LATTICE - I come back to that one over and over as it's great for male cards, backgrounds and covering mistakes!

Don't you just love that sentiment? It is from a wonderful Stampin' Up! set called FEEL GOODS and you will find it on page 21 of the Seasonal Catalogue.

I decided this card needed something more so stepped it up a bit with some embellishments and coloured matts. The detail shot shows one of the styles of brad from ANTIQUE BRADS teamed with my old favourite - LINEN THREAD.  The blue base card has been stamped with a texture stamp and the black and orange card help tie the composition together.

Did you also notice some light sponging over the greeting? That just takes away from the starkness of the white card background. The "faux stitching" is done freehand.

Here is the finished card:

Hope you enjoyed the card and that you will try out some of the featured products.

Until Next Time

Stay Crafty!