I'm back!!!

I know it's been a looooooong time since I've posted anything. All my time and energy has been taken up in the past few months with a few things that have been going on in my life. Such as packing up and moving two entire households within two weeks of each other!

Before that, the place I was living in was put on the market and there were numerous showings, which meant that I had to try to keep my "crafting clutter" to a minimum. It's stressful enough to go through the listing and showing process with a property you own yourself, and I think it's every bit, if not more, stressful when you are a renter. And you have pets. Well, the place was sold in December and my landlady/employer moved just after New Year's. The new owners were fabulous and I'm sure I would have been happy to continue living there, but at the end of January, my Mom was notified that she could move into the brand new senior's housing unit that has been under construction for a couple of years.

She had two weeks notice. So I had to give my notice right away to my new landlords. After we got my Mom moved, it was my turn. I moved into Mom's house, which I am in the process of buying from her, in the middle of February. Ever since then, I've been struggling with trying to figure out where I'm going to put everything in this tiny house. And since I don't have a dedicated crafting area - yet - I haven't been doing a lot.

Well, I finally just had to start hauling out supplies and taking over the kitchen table. I don't use it to eat at anyway! The next hurdle was to get inspired again. So, I decided I needed to organize another class, as I hadn't done one since November. After a lot of what I call "research" - otherwise known as blog surfing - I CASED (this stands for Copy And Share Everything) some projects for a basic stamping class. Stampin' Up demonstrators are extremely generous in sharing their talent, so my main resource is a web site for demos only.

Another resource for demos is a monthly magazine from Stampin' Up, called Stampin' Success. It is chock full of inspiration, tutorials and great advice. In the most recent issue was a project that caught my eye and inspired me to create my own take. It also gave me a chance to play with a new tool - a set of Framelits Labels Collection.

This is what I made:

Here's the supplies I used:

Cardstock: Crumb Cake, Watercolour paper, Whisper White

Stamps: Flower Soft (Hostess set), French Foliage, Teeny Tiny Wishes

Ink: Island Indigo, Pool Party

Accessories: Framelits Label Collection, Perfect Polka Dots Embossing Folder, Aqua Painter, Re-inkers, Word Window Punch, Baker's Twine, heat tool

This technique is a twist on watercolouring, which is one of my favourite things to do. I started with a piece of the Stampin' Up watercolour paper and spread moisture liberally all over it using the Aqua Painter. Then I dipped the Aqua Painter into drops of ink and then dropped the ink onto the moistened watercolour paper. It's like magic watching the ink spread and run in the water! Start with the lighter colour Pool Party and then do the same thing with the Island Indigo.

It does take a while for the ink to dry, but you can speed up the process with the heat tool. Once it was totally dry, I stamped images, again stamping some in Pool Party first, and then in Island Indigo.

The beauty of this technique is that it looks different every time because of the way the ink spreads in the water. What you end up with is something truly unique!

Tell me what you think. Is this a technique you would like to learn at a class?