Every Moment gift box - water colour crayons and stazon ink

Ever have a project that is half done but just takes for ever to finish...

This little box is part of a project from the Regional training I went to last year. I finally watercoloured the little bird and made a tag for my gift box. 

 I have watercoloured this little bird using my water colour crayons.
The colours are soft suede, old olive, marina mist and Pacific point. I may have dabbed some Baja Breeze crayon in there too.
Water colouring with your aquapainter and water colour crayons is just the quickest way to colour in one of these line art images. No mess, no water dishes, no mixing paint or plastic pallettes.
I simply held the crayon in one hand and wiped my aquapainter brush tip over the crayon (to pick up the colour) and placed it on the paper, within the lines...
In watercolouring you can use layers of watercolour to build up several tones to the depth of colour you want.

 The tag is simply a rectangle of baja breeze cardstock with three corners rounded off with the "corner rounder" punch. Then I've placed a "lots of tags" shape in soft suede cardstock behind it.
The sentiment is from the Every moment stampset and i have stamped off the butterfly once to give a soft texture behind the black stazon words.

Notice that spattering of soft suede?

 It is meant to be there!

I learned a new trick the other day - you can get this effect with a spritzer tool,  

Or, you can hold your aqua painter a few centimetres away from the paper and flick ink ... I tapped the pen on my finger and let it splatter on the cardstock...

...just use a large piece of paper beneath you to catch any stray splatters.

Project Recipe:
Big shot, Fancy favour die, lots of tags sizzlit die.
Stampset: Every Moment $25.95 Clear. $31.95 wood. p72.
Cardstock: Very Vanilla, Baja breeze, Soft Suede.
Ink: Stazon black, baja breeze.
Watercolour Wonder crayons: Brights (10) and
Neutrals (10) $37.95 p.142 (IB&C2011)
Ribbon: Old Olive grossgrain, Crop-a-dile (to punch holes), aquapainter pen (2 for $19.95), twine.

Red daisy "Every Moment" card

Sharing another card that we made with the "Every Moment" stampset (at Regional training).
It is stamped in black stazon ink, water coloured with Riding Hood Red ink and a touch of Old Olive for the stem.
Then the highlighting is done with the signo white gel pen (it looks like sunlight glinting off the petals).

We made the grass using the scallop border punch:
Punch it once then slide the punch a smidgen to the right and punch again so you cut the grass in uneven half pointy bits... I know more pictures, less talk...
But don't you love that Old Olive thin taffeta ribbon?
 My sentiment is stamped on a circle of velum to give a transparent "moon" behind the daisy.
      And we stamped the front and back of the envelope too.

Card Recipe:
Stampset: Every Moment. (Page72) $31.95 wood, $25.95 clear mounted.

Baja Breeze textured cardstock; (7.6x15.2cm) folded in half.
Old Olive cardstock, water colour paper and velum paper.
Ink:Daffodil delight, Riding Hood Red, stazOn Jet black,
White uniball signo gel pen.
Accessories:
Mini white square envelope
Old Olive taffeta 1/8" ribbon,
Pearl basic jewels, Paper snips, Bone folder,
Aquapainter,  scallop edge punch,
1 3/4" circle punch
Stamp-a-ma-jig.

Idea swaps - Regional training

One of the fun things to do at Regional training is to meet other Demos and swap ideas.
Most Demos take with them somewhere between 15-30 swap cards to share.
It is a great conversation starter to discuss techniques, styles and ideas while making contact and sometimes new friends.
Here are the cards I took with me to Regional training.

 And next are some of the swaps I brought home with me: there was such a variety of styles and ideas from some really talented ladies. Time was against me this year I didnt nearly get around to as many people as I'd have liked.

 And check out the gorgeous earings that Denielle Bernauer made! she's a very crafty artistic woman this one: earings, quilting, hair she does it all. I can't wait to start wearing my new Stampin up earings.

 And Karen Cummings had these delightful chocolate coin decorations made with the Artistic Etchings crown and a circle of Cherry Cobbler cardstock dotted with crystal effects. What a great idea for the kids to hang on the Christmas tree or hand out to friends on the last week of school.

 Cherry Cobbler has been a favourite colour this Christmas and I really like this classic card by Gemma Hall.
She has used the Jolly Holiday DSP and clear rhinestones.
Felicity made the next card in Crumb cake and Wild wasabi using the woodland DSP and clear emossing I love all the textures on this card.

Barbara Laine made this vintage style card with Artistic Etchings - it features some lovely distressing on the Newsprint DSP.

Here is a swap from Tennielle she used the Green house gala DSP and sponged every layer. I love the dazzling diamonds on the sticky strip and the Merry Christmas.

And now to get crafting myself to finish off the make and takes from the day.

And, last night i had a go at making a Secret Slider card ... show you that soon.

Regional training Sydney display boards.

Regional training is a great day (not only for the morning tea and lunch), which were really special but for me its mostly about the exchanging of ideas and learning new ways to use our stamps, tools and accessories.

Here's a photo of another of the display boards.

All the cards and scrap pages and 3D items on here were made with the same stampset showing how versatile one stampset can be.

 One of the presentations was full of projects that you could make using the basic tools that you get with your starter kit.  We learned how to make some cool new boxes, folded cards, masking, the water spot technique and vintage style using spritz spray and lots of different things to do with shimmer paint and sponge daubers.
So much to remember, fortunately I took notes and lots of photos.

Not to mention the amazing Tenneale Williams who demonstrated a Work shop Wow card that just has to be seen to be believed.... I will be trying this one out for sure and will share them with you, because I know you will want to make them too.
Tomorrow I promise to share the swaps that I made and some of the best swaps I received.
So, until tomorrow then.

Regional training day, Sydney

We shared, we were inspired and we created!

What more could a group of Paper crafting women want?

It's Sunday afternoon, and I thought while it's quiet I'd upload a few photos of the Regional training day we enjoyed at the Soffitel Wentworth in Sydney on Saturday.

 Here are some of the Inksomniac's team: Denielle, Tennille, Linda and Nerida (that's me)... we got there just in time for coffee,  delicious pastries, and a quick chat before the day started.

We sat down at our tables for the general session. 

These are the ladies I spent the day with. You can see bits of our make and take projects scattered around the table. That is one of the best parts about training days: getting to make new cards, scrap pages, and  projects with a group of like minded women as passionate about stamping as you are.
The day went so fast with presentations by some very creative Australian demos and SU staff. Stampin' Up send over their training personnel to demonstrate new products, techniques and get us all inspired...

 At the end of the sessions the projects demonstrated go up on display boards so we can photograph them and ooh and ahh and wow over the art work that we saw created in vivid colour on the big screens during the demonstration and training.

You just have to be there to appreciate the creativity and energy that so many women inspire.
Some demos take guests with them, so ask me next time there's a stampin up event if you'd like to come along.

 You can see from the display boards we were treated to a vast array of new techniques, ideas and ways to use our stampin' up tools.
We received a new stampset that is available in the current catalogue: Every Moment.
It is perfectly designed for watercolouring so that is what we did for our make and takes. We had four projects to make and take home with us. So I have a heap of new ideas to experiment with for the upcoming Summer mini launch.
   I have yet to photograph my swaps... what I gave and what I received.
In the meantime you can pop over to Felicity's blog and see her gorgeous photos of the day.

I had such a lovely day on Saturday, Stampin' Up is a great business to be involved in plus I caught up with friends that I haven't seen since the last stampin' up convention and made a few new ones too.