Sorry I've been away so long

I have been frantically busy at work - bringing work home most nights and sometimes over the weekend too - for the last month but I haven't been totally neglecting my stamping. I ran a workshop a couple of weeks ago and, at the host's request, we played with the Shaving Cream technique. This technique is a lot of fun and produces a great result but it is quite messy so be prepared for some clean up if you try it. Below are the 2 cards we made.

These cards use the background created with the Shaving Cream technique (ink colours Baja Breeze and Pacific Point) and the stamp set - Unchartered Territory. As Father's Day in Australia is this coming Sunday I challenged myself to use the Shaving Cream technique on cards for men. The top card adds texture to the edges of the Pacific Point mats using the distressing tool from the SU Cutter Kit. I used Paper Piecing for the lighthouse and cliff on the second card. I was really pleased with these two cards and so were the ladies at the workshop.

Stamp Camp Creations

I ran a Stamp Camp with a sister SU Demo, Natasha Murray, in June. We each presented 3 projects - a card, a 6"x6" scrapbook page and a 3-d item. Our theme was Paper, Ribbon and Punches. Here are mine (the first 2 are CASE'd from the current SU Idea Book and Catalogue here in Australia):

This card used a technique I had wanted to use for a while - bleaching. The Hippo was black embossed on Kiwi Kiss cardstock and then bleached was applied using a paintbrush. I was thrilled with the effect - the Kiwi Kiss turned to So Saffron. The "balloon" has Dazzlin' Diamonds over the Pumpkin Pie heart for some bling.

On this scrapbook page I managed to use all three of our theme items (DSP, Ribbon and a Punch (Crop-a-dile). The base is Certainly Celery textured cardstock (I love the textured cardstock). I used the Big Bold Birthday set to create the cupcake, using the Stamp-a-ma-jigto make sure everything was correctly aligned. The Crop-a-dile was used to emboss the dots down the right-hand side.

I have been wanting to make one of these Coaster boxes ever since I saw one on the blog of one of my SBS sisters, Karen Rogers. I sourced the coasters through Karen (thanks so much) and used a tutorial from SCS for the instructions. The stamp set is A Rose is A Rose, a 2-step set which I adore. The DSP comes from the Bella Rose pack (another favourite).

For the projects that Natasha contributed go to her blog Natasha's Creations.

I have been playing with the new sets from the Australia/NZ Spring Mini Catalogue so I'll have some more creations to show you soon.

Bye for now.