The Show is Over....Thanks A Bunch

Well I had a blast at the Stitches and Craft Show at Rosehill Racecourse last week. If you're visiting my blog for the first time after meeting me at the Stampin' Up!® stand, welcome. Thank you to all of my friends who came to visit me. I trust you enjoyed looking at the displays, demonstrations and I'm glad some of you had time to make a card.

I also want to say sincere thanks to the other Stampin' Up!® demonstrators who worked on the stand with me. I really appreciate the company and support of Teneale, Marelle, Sharon, Tracey, Karen, Kirrily, Sue, Noreen, Robyn, Sam and Lorna. Teneale's Mum, Barbara, kept the make-and-take table running smoothly and made us all laugh. And my own Mum, Robyne, deserves a medal for looking after my sick son and stickering numerous catalogues and forms while I worked full-time. Ashley was off school with a nasty virus for the entire duration of the show so his care was not an easy task.


After the show closed, I was thrilled to receive this big bunch of flowers and beautiful card from Sharon and Marelle. It's been a while since I received flowers (hint hint hubby, not that he reads my craft blog). Such a lovely surprise when I was feeling a tad tired.


And here's a close up of my card, a creation from the very talented Marelle Taylor. It uses bleaching techniques to give it a coloured-in look on dark coloured card stock. Marelle has generously shared her instructions so you can read all about it.

Marelle stamped and embossed an image in black ink onto Elegant Eggplant, and bleached out sections of it, and then water-coloured the bleached areas. The image is from "Oh So Lovely". She 'painted' the flowers and stems with bleach. You can use an old paintbrush (find one with nylon bristles, as the bleach will eat away at natural bristles), but we recommend the use of an Aquapainter filled with bleach. The bleach is less smelly that way, and you are less likely to spill any on your clothes. I've got an dedicated Aquapainter for bleaching (i.e. written BLEACH on it in big letters!), but I rinse it out after use and store it empty. The image starts to bleach out before your eyes, but wait until it's completely dry before you start to water-colour it. Marelle water-coloured with an Aquapainter (without bleach in it!) and ink taken from the ink pad lids (Purely Pomegranate for the flower and Always Artichoke for the stem). She also used a cotton-bud (Q-tip) dipped into bleach and ran it around the edges of the Eggplant piece.


The background for this card has been done using the background block in the "Oh So Lovely" set. Purely Pomegranate ink was stamped onto Pale Plum cardstock; just stamped repeatedly in one direction, and then the cardstock was turned 90 degrees and stamped repeatedly in the other direction. Marelle then sponged around the edges in Pomegranate ink.

The Crop-A-Dile made easy work of the eyelet setting! Here, the shiny black eyelets echo the black embossed image, and add a touch of class. The little tag is just a small oval punch, with the edges sponged, and another eyelet set in it. Matching Elegant Eggplant grosgrain ribbon completed it ready for me to enjoy.

Now if you have any questions arising from anything you saw or heard at the Show, please don't hesitate to contact me. I'll be sharing some more cards and techniques from the Show stand but I better get back to Father's Day with another post later today. So, until then, thanks for reading.

Love from Crafty Kim