Someone slow down the year! Party Time fun and some new Catalogues to browse

Hooley dooley!  Between kids school stuff, Rural Fire Brigade stuff and an unexpected bonus of full-time teaching work for this term, I was well and truly ready for a weekend away stamping with friends!

I visited scenic Canberra for the Party Time Event on Saturday just gone, it was held at the luxurious Hyatt Hotel.  I drove down with a couple of fellow demos and we had a great time!

We played with a few tools and techniques that I haven't worked with much on my own, so it was a nice opportunity to try something new.

One of the cards used Blendabilities, the new Stampin' Up! Alcohol ink markers.  They work in a very similar way to the Copic markers you may be more familiar with, but with colour trios carefully matched to our cardstock and water-based ink colours.  I now have the confidence to dig in and have a play with these amazing tools.  They can be used for colouring images like the flower above, but did you know they can also be used to colour pearls, buttons, rhinestones etc to  match your project?  Amazing!

And, you might notice I have put up links and cover images to the current Occasions Catalogue and Sale-a-bration catalogues (at long last, my bad!) - inside you can find new colours (in addition to the colours in the main catalogue) and there are a range of colours you can choose for FREE with any $90 spend in any catalogue.

Clicking the cover images to the catalogue will send you to my Mediafire account where you can download them.  Or, give me a call or drop me a message and I can post out hard copies.  Or, if you want to try the fabulous online shop, click the square 'shop now' button.  Don't forget to check the Weekly Deals and Clearance Rack sections for some super bargains.

My first attempt at the Blendabilities - a new product line coming in the 2014-15 catalogue.  I've dabbled very briefly with alcohol markers before, and have a few copics and kuretake markers, but because I didn't have 'enough' colours to blend with, it seemed more like standard colouring in!  And the colours didn't match the patterned papers, cardstock and embellishments I wanted to use them with.  So, like the forgotten scrapping photos, they have languished...
At the recent Inspire Create Share Convention in Melbourne,  a set of three Blendabilities markers and the Blended Bloom stamp were given away to every attendee.  I added Old Olive and Daffodil Delight marker trios to my Demonstrator Pre-order, and had a play.  I forgot to get the magical 'Color Lifter' though, so made do with another brand.  It gave a more 'rustic' look to the flower than I intended, or maybe it was the rusty applicator??  In any case, I simply built a rustic style card around it.  .  The colours are the new Mossy Meadow and Hello Honey, on a base of Naturals White.  The leaves and butterflies are from a new set called "Kinda Eclectic", which I think will be a new favourite.  As a finishing touch, I highlighted some leaves and stamens with Crystal Effects.

The greeting is from a set called "Gifts of Kindness"  Sorry about the tilta head requirement, I forgot to rotate the pic before uploading.