Play Date!

Hey everyone! I had such a lovely day, yesterday.

Steph & Julie playing

My very special friend Julie (my daughter’s mum-in-law and MY FIRST RECRUIT) came down from Sydney and we had a PLAY DAY! It is so long since I have just sat and had a good play! It was exceptionally satisfying just being able to sit and stamp to our hearts content! Julie taught me a “2-step watercolour effect” technique … and I taught her “emerging colour”. We swapped stamp sets & stamped a heap of line stamp images on our watercolour paper (so we can go back later and watercolour them). Julie showed me how to make the little tote bag & the little love note pack she made at regionals. (Remember, I missed regionals this year!) And … I also showed Julie how to do some “black magic” and how to make the “bagalopes” with the SU! envelopes! Are you all jealous??? We had sooooo much fun! I will share some of our projects in my posts soon! But … here are the bagalopes that Julie, me & Steph (Julie’s daughter arrived from uni around lunch time and joined in the fun – doing some scrapbooking … then also “playing” with us!) did. We decided to use the jumbo wheel stamps to stamp the envelopes … DON’T FORGET THE SEPTEMBER PROMO THAT ONLY HAS 3 MORE DAYS TO RUN! It is a great bargain! FREE JUMBO WHEEL STAMPS! … All the details are on my SU! PROMO page! Feel free to email me (ASAP) if you want to take advantage of this great offer! I have decided after playing with Julie’s Bodacious Bouquet … it definitely HAS to go on my “wish list”.

Julie has emailed me a photo of her finished “emerging colour” card this morning. So … I thought it was so lovely I just had to share it with you. We chose these colours from samples in the 2006/07 IB&C. Make sure if you need some colour inspiration that you get your IB&C out … I constantly am amazed at the gorgeous colour combinations in the IB&C. The colours used for this card were: Elegant Eggplant, Lavender Lace, Pale Plum & Certainly Celery. Julie has also stamped the “Warm Words” happiness phrase onto some ribbon and attached a pretty silver buckle from the “Hodgepodge” set in the Spring Mini Catalogue! I have to admit to being very envious of her Silver Hodgepodge! It is a really nice set of embellishments! Perhaps I need to add that to my wish list too!!!??? (Only available until Nov 30)

Here are some quick instructions for the Emerging Colour technique …

1. You need to choose a large solid image stamp for your main images. Julie has used the Bodacious Bouquet flowers. (One of the stamp sets / jumbo wheel combinations on special JUST DURING SEPT) This is a fantastic set for this technique! We were both thrilled with the result!
2. Plan where your main images are going to go on your card
3. Randomly stamp some smaller images (we used the Bodacious Bouquet small flowers & leaves) in a few different colours. Overlap your images if you like!
4. Using VERSAMARK … stamp the large bold images over the top of the coloured ones
5. Sprinkle Clear Embossing Powder onto these bold images & use your heat tool to “set” the embossing powder. (The embossing powder will go from grainy to shiny.)
6. Use a brayer to pick up colour from your stamp pad (Elegant Eggplant used here – a dark colour gives the best result) and roll across your whole white card … working more and more ink onto the card until you have an even colour across the card. Voila!

Isn’t this just beautiful!!! Now … I will have to go and mount my sample sometime soon … but I am sure that it won’t be a patch on Julie’s lovely design! Go Julie!!! 😀

My favourite place in the whole wide world!

Anyway … am off to … hhhmmm … maybe do some reading on the swing seat on my front verandah (my very favourite place in the whole wide world) … or perhaps I might put on a chick flick & have a coffee … I can do anything my heart desires … cos I am now officially on holidays!!! 😀 (The kids & Gav have gone off to play touch footy with friends from our two church teams … they are practising for the start of the summer season next week …

The view from my swing seat

so … ALL IS QUIET HERE! BLISS!!!!!)

Not sure when I will get here next …. but I hope you all have as lovely a weekend as I am planning to have! 😀

All images copyright © Stampin’ Up! ® 1997—2008. Artwork by Andrea Lowcock, Julie Andrews & Steph Andrews.

Stampin’ Hugs