Friday, May 29, 2009

Watercolour Mothers Day Card

After we had a play with the water colouring, we went on to do a card for Mothers Day. The card at the top is the one that I created using the Fifth Avenue Floral stamp set and the background paper is from the Haiku pack of designer series paper. Everyone made their own card using colours and papers that they preferred and we ended up with some very different cards as you can see in the picture below.

Watercolouring - May Stamp Club

Water colour crayons, pencils, pens, ink pads and ink refills, there are so many different tools available for water colouring, it's often difficult to know which one suits you the best. So this month for stamp club we had a play with the different options. We started by stamping either the whale or the hippo from the Pun fun set onto watercolour paper and then practiced building up the colour to give our design a round look. I usually use three colours, starting with the lightest colour, then add a darker colour or more of the same colour to give a darker look. By building up the colour a bit at a time it is easier to get a more 3D look to the image rather than a flat look. I also showed how to use reinkers to do a colour wash background. I put a few drops of reinker into a paint palette and added water then using a brush gradually swiped each colour across until I had the effect I liked. I punched a small circle out of a post it note for the moon and stuck it on before I did the colour wash. Then I took it off and sponged a bit of colour on it to give it some texture. The grass is stamped with Inspired by Nature, one of my favourite sets from the new Stampin' Up! catalogue. I used 2 different green inks to give the grass a bit of difference. Eventually I will incorporate these practice samples into a card.

Andrea's visit

Hi all

It's been a while since I've posted but I have a good excuse. My girlfriend Andrea came to visit me from England and we spent 3 weeks being tourists. We had a wonderful time and as a local I was surprised how much we have to offer in Victoria. It had been a very long time since I had visited some of our wonderful attractions and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. In the time she was here we managed to visit St Kilda Esplanade market and Luna Park, Healseville Sanctuary, William Ricketts sanctuary, Melbourne city of course, Penguin Parade at Philip Island, Mornington Peninsula where Andrea went horse riding on the beach and we even went to Sydney for the day! The photo is of Andrea hand feeding the birds at Grants picnic ground in the Dandenongs.

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Kiara's Rainbow Fish birthday card

This is my attempt at a rainbow fish card for Kiara's 5th birthday. I embossed the outline of the fish in silver on watercolour paper. I used water colour crayons and inks to colour the fish and did a wash with reinkers on the background.

Monday, May 4, 2009

Stampin' Up! Annual Convention 2009


Hi all,

I have just returned from the Stampin' Up! annual Convention in Canberra and had an absolute ball. All of the 9 members of our team were able to attend so we had just as much fun socialising as attending the Convention Events. We spent 2 days learning how to be better demonstrators, leaders to our downlines and just having heaps of fun. I have come away with motivation and inspiration. Above is a photo of me with Shelli Gardner the cofounder and CEO of Stampin' Up!
Keep checking my blog for photos and more information on what we saw and did at Convention.