An apology and lots of creations!

I must apologise for my long absence. I have no excuse and not even a reason. However, I have been busy whilst not posting. So grab a cuppa and get comfortable. This is a long post.

1. This card is my first try at a new technique. I'm not sure what is called. First you brayer over a piece of vellum and then stamp with an uninked stamp to lift off some of the ink, leaving a lifhter image behind. I combined this with two-step stamping. The colours are Old Olive, Always Artichoke and Very Vanilla. The stamp set is A Beautiful Thing from our Spring Mini Catalogue.
2. When tidying my stamping cupboard I found three long, skinny tags made from Very Vanilla cardstock. Of course, I had to use them. I chose the hostess set In the Spotlight. The small flower was stamped on the tags using So Saffron ink and then on scrap Very Vanilla cardstock using More mustard. The sentiments are from another hostess set, So Many Sayings, and were inked with an Old Olive marker, stamped onto Very Vanilla and punched using the Word Window. The base card is Very Vanilla. Layered on that is old Olive DSP. The large flowers were More Mustard stamped on So Saffron cardstock. I layered one small flower on each large one with Stampin' Dimensionals and then adhered everything to the card.
3. Christmas cards are moving up my list of priorities. I am absolutely loving the Season of Joy set from the Spring Mini Catalogue. Both these card layouts were CASEd from the SU Demo page. The first one used Real Red, Bashful Blue and Confetti White cardstock with Certainly Celery ribbon.
These 2 are the same layout mirrored. The first time I stamped "joy!" it was not at all straight. So I started again. When I had completed the card I decided to make another, mirrored, so I could cover the crooked word. The colours are Old Olive and Bashful Blue with Confetti White cardstock.
4. A week or so ago we had a Demo get-together here to say goodbye to one of the girls who moves to QLD in a few weeks. These are the two cards Natasha had prepared for us to make. The first one use In the Spotlight with Cameo Coral, Ruby Red and Old Olive. What a fantastic colour combination. I think this one would do for any occasion, including Christmas.

This small, square card only uses stamps for the word. The shirt is folded from Spring Showers DSP. I placed faux buttons down the centre of the shirt, made with the Crop-a-dile.
5. Another card using In the Spotlight. I CASEd this one but I can't remember who from - sorry! The colours are Blue Bayou, Purely Pomegranate, Old Olive and More Mustard. Paper piercing around the inside of the Confetti White rectangle adds another dimension.

6. The next 2 cards resulted from me "playing" with the hostess set Oh So Lovely. I love this colour combination - Purely Pomegranate, Chocolate Chip and Very Vanilla - which was usggested by Angela Sargeant. I used the stipple background stamp to create the horizontal stripes. The DSP is from Berry Bliss (yummy!). There are 2 ribbons along the bottom - Purely Pomegranate wide satin and Chocolate Chip taffeta.

I also love this colour combination - Bravo Burgundy, Mellow Moss, Handsome Hunter and Apricot Appeal (thank you Colour Coach). I used by CM oval templates to cut the ovals. There is a lot of sponging on the edges of nearly every piece on this card - it gives a much richer look.

7. On the right are 2 brag books I made using the instructions from UStamp. Each of them will hold up to 8 photos. They are just so cute. Perfect for gifts for grandmas, aunts, etc. Below I have pictures of each of them open.

I'm really pleased with how these turned out.

Well, that's it. I hope you are satisfied with my output this week. I don't think next week will be so productive as my husband and daughter have been away this week and they come back tomorrow.

Thanks for looking.