Getting Relaxed!

Hi Everyone

I hope your Christmas celebrations were everything you hoped for. Mine was relaxing and low key, no stress and no mountain of leftovers to consume, thankfully! I'm fortunate enough to be relaxing for a few days before another year commences.  I can't believe it is the start of a new decade already - life hurtles along with or without us, so taking some time to smell the roses is essential to recharge the batteries. I can't say I've accomplished very much apart from some gardening, reading 'The Lost Symbol' novel that my husband got for Christmas and tidying up my craft room.

We went into the post Christmas sale melee to purchase my combined birthday/Christmas present - an air conditioner for my craft room.  I could do with it right now, as it is 37C in Melbourne at the moment and I've had to retreat to the bedroom to keep cool.  I need to organise the installation, but that will probably take a few weeks with so many people away on holiday.

Anyway, today I decided to try a technique that I read about recently in the Australian Cardmaking Stamping & Papercraft magazine. It involves bleaching coloured cardstock that has been stamped and then colouring it again with watercolour pencils or crayons. I experimented with Stampin' Up! cardstock and it is not suitable for this technique because the colour is solid all the way through. You will need to experiment with your supplies to find something suitable, but you only need to test a very small patch to know as it should remove the colour quite quickly.

I have used Stazon 'Timber Brown' on the Soft Summer stamp from the last Spring Mini and then clear embossed it on pink cardstock. I like this colour for outline images because it is softer than black.  I added a small amount of household bleach to my second Aqua painter and painted the image. The embossed edge helps, but you need to apply it carefully and not too close to the edges as it does spread. Make sure it is completely dry before attempting to re-colour the image. I used my Watercolour Wonder Crayons for this.  

The rest of the card is pretty simple, but I have used one of the new Sale-a-bration stamp sets called Vintage Labels for the sentiment. This is one of 4 great stamp sets that you can choose for FREE from 25 January 2010 when you make a purchase of Stampin' Up! products over $100 (excl. postage). Each of the label stamps in the Vintage Labels set matches existing Stampin' Up! punches and also includes 3 versatile sentiments. I have stamped the sentiment and then punched it out with a 7/8" circle punch (not SU), sponged the edge and popped it up on a dimensional in the centre of the label, which matches the scallop circle punch. The full detail of products used is at the bottom.

 

Card Details
Stamps	Soft Summer (retired), Vintage Labels
Cardstock & Papers	Close to Cocoa, Whisper White, Regal Rose, Pink Linen (not SU)
Ink	Stazon Timber Brown, Close to Cocoa, Regal Rose, Versamark
Accessories	Mellow Moss taffeta ribbon, Chocolate adhesive flat back pearls
Tools	‘Victoria’ embossing folder, Cuttlebug, 7/8”  Circle punch (not SU), Scallop circle punch, Scallop edge punch, Watercolour Crayons, Dimensionals, Aqua painter, Bleach, Clear embossing powder.

I'll be back in the New Year, stay safe and enjoy.

Judy.

Comments

[Miriam Thomas]

Very pretty card Judy! Just lovely!

[Christine Blain]

I LOVE your colouring on this card, Judy - just beautiful!