Stuff.....

Well, I have finally managed to find a few spare seconds to sit down and share some "stuff"! Don't you just love that word "stuff" it just encompasses so much! Well, as you can probably guess my "stuff" is all about the scrapping and the photos! We have just recovered from Scrapbook City's retreat (held over the Anzac Day weekend) which was lots of fun as usual. This year I was able to spend my time doing demos of various Distress Ink and Alcohol Ink techniques, and it is so much fun! I ended up doing a canvas of tags with lots of different techniques and I will show a couple of "sneak peeks" today but it looks like this will be turned into a class of its own which is exciting. The canvas is based on one done by Jennifer McGuire who along with Tim Holtz rule the airways as far as Distress Ink techniques go! In fact Tim did his own version of this canvas by Jennifer McGuire and we are on our way to turning this into a class also. I will be doing more of these techniques at the Scrapbook Convention over the June long weekend in Brisbane. So if you are there come and say hello and check it out! I have been enjoying playing with these inks so much that I am finding all sorts of interesting ways to use them in my scrapping. It is amazing just how versatile these inks are, not to mention addictive! I am now waiting on some new Hero Arts and Tim Holtz stamps to arrive so that I can do more! Over at Out of the Hat challenge I have come to my final month as a Mad Hatter. I cannot believe how quickly that 6 months went! But what fun it was, thanks to Amanda for giving me the chance to share my takes on each months criteria and to the other girls whose work was always fantastic! This month the criteria are:

1. Use sanding 2. Use triangles 3. Use a quote

Deceptively simple criteria!! But I had fun and even found a way to use my new found addiction for stamping and distress inks! I sanded the triangles which make up the banner after embossing them in the Cuttlebug, and the quote comes from Top Gun (if you didn't remember!). The car I cut using the Just Chillin' design card and my Slice (yes I still use this all the time!) and I embossed the car and inked the raised parts, stamped a flourish to use as the exhaust, used alcohol ink on clear buttons to colour them to match the car and then stamped the quote and journal spots using the same distress ink! Phew....there is a lot of inking going on there! See I told you I am rather obsessed! Talking about the Slice (like I needed an excuse!), I used the Calendar card to cut these cool Easter eggs and the word Easter to finish off my page about an Easter egg hunt. The eggs look really cool with the Kindy Glitz to jazz them up. And yes, that is a new border punch! It is the swirl one from EK Success, cool isn't it! I have been busy for the shop too, with all the new product that has come in over the past few weeks. I got the chance to play with some new Fancy Pants, the Rusted Sun line is really really nice! The colours are so rich and vibrant I can't wait to use my left overs on some more pages! Oh and the trim is simply beautiful, and yes, there is another new border punch on this page! The zipper one from EK Success, it is funky isn't it??!! So to wrap it up for today (and what a big post it seems to be today!), I have another page where I have been inking a lot, using my Slice, oh and border punches too! In other words the usual!! I just love how my lorikeet turned out. He is a "parrot" shape from the Under the Sea card for the Slice and I used the appropriate Distress Ink colours to "colour" him in to look like a lorikeet, then finished with a red pearl for the eye. Turned out alright too I thought. The journal block too was stamped and "aged" with distress inks and the tickets also stamped onto white cardstock and coloured to look like the old fashioned kind of tickets we all remember. And that is one of my favourite new border punches from EK, the bracket. Oh, I used some LillyBee papers which are really nice too. The first time I have got my hands on any of these! So, I think I have run out of things to say for now. So, until next time, scrap on!