Workshop time....

I have really been enjoying being relaxed and creative... Whilst I have had some workshops going on over the holidays, everything else has been in suspended animation, so I have had time to play....

At our team meeting last Thursday, Melissa from my team (check out her blog on the right there) taught us a new technique - Bleaching. We had a play with some different ideas, and I brought home some of the samples I made so I could create a card or 2 with them. And here is one!

The flower in the square (top centre) is the bleached image. Mel embossed the image from Carte Postale with versamark ink and clear embossing powder onto Chocolate Chip card stock. I used an aquapainter filled with bleach instead of water to bleach out certain aspects of the design. The middle had too much bleach, which ate through the embossing, and therefore blurred the detail here, so I hid it with a brad! (teehee!) The colour faded the longer I left it. At home, I cut out the square shape, and mounted it on Very Vanilla and Apricot Appeal card stock. Using a variation on a theme (see the Carte Postale card with choc and celery below), I scalloped a half circle of the Au Chocolat Double Sided Designer Series Paper with the corner rounder (guard removed) and layered it onto Very Vanilla. Next, I stuck it onto a folded piece of Apricot Appeal, which I stamped with some more images from the Carte Postale set in Apricot Appeal and Chocolate Chip. I repeated the square flower image on to Very Vanilla cs in Choc and Apricot, and cut them out, layering them onto some Chocolate grosgrain ribbon in the corners. The bleached image then was mounted as you see it.... and here is a close up of the bleached image.....

This next card is a simple design at the request of one of my lovely hostesses (Hi Sally!) for a wedding she is attending.... I think it is a great card for other occasions too! I am going to use it as a Christening card.

Things I used: Barely Banana, pretty in Pink and Very Vanilla Card Stock, Jet Black Stazon Ink, Apricot Appeal, Cameo Coral and Certainly Celery ink, aqua painters (NOT the ones I used for bleach!!) mat pack and paper piercer, light pink grosgrain ribbon, oval punches. The stamp sets are Warm Words and Bothway Blossoms. Bothway Blossoms is a level 2 hostess set, which means only hostesses are eligible to get it based on the workshop sales. So if you like this set, then you need to have a workshop! All it takes is a handful of friends or family, a place for them to sit, and a cuppa and a bikkie. It's the easiest way to get free stamps I can think of! So book your workshop right now - remember you have until the end of February to get great Sale-a-Bration deals too! Email me on cherylandrews@optusnet.com.au to book.