Goodbye Fishy Friends

Hi all

Well I'm back again - I know its been a while since my last post but with all the devastation from the bushfires over in Victoria, I didn't feel up to doing much of anything and also February was pretty hectic for me with doing lots of workshops for Saleabration.

Anyway. SU's retirement list is now up and OMG it is massive! I was visiting my cousin down at Grass Patch when the list went on line - yes even us demos didn't know what was going until the same time as the public - so I went on Narelle's laptop late on the Sunday arvo (some 18 hours it went online here in WA) and printed off a couple of copies for us to have a look at! Picture this if you will - there was both of us sitting at her kitchen island bench with a couple of G&Ts and our catties going thru the Retirement List! The difference here was I also had a pen in my hand marking off what stamp sets & wheels I would be losing - okay, I was expecting quite a few of the older sets to go out and to lose quite a few but not as many as I have LOL! Anyway while I kept saying no over & over at what was going out, Narelle was getting very excited about all of the new stamp sets etc that we will be getting in the new cattie. I have no doubt the new cattie will be wonderful with a lots of fantastic stamp sets etc but it still is a bit hard to lose some old favourites of mine - but I'm up for the challenge of finding some new sets to love as much as the golden oldies!

One of my favourites going out is Fishy Friends - I've had this set from day one when I joined Stampin' Up! and I was fully expecting it to go out this year after it didn't last year! I think it is a great stamp set for kids or male cards, so as a farewell here are two cards I had made a while ago using my Fishies! The first one is one that I did for a swap at last year's Convention in Brissy and it uses the Salted Background technique which you can find the instructions for on Splitcoast Stampers' website. As you can see, it forms a wonderful background for your cards.

WHAT YOU'LL NEED IS:

CARD: Glossy White, Sage Shadow, Not Quite Navy & Whisper White

STAMP SETS : Fishy Friends & Its Your Birthday.

INKS : Not Quite Navy & Basic Black Classic Stamp Pads and Not Quite Navy, Sage Shadow & Bashful Blue Classic Ink Refills

ACCESSORIES : Aqua Painters or paint brushes, 3mm Handheld Circle Punch, White Gel Pen, 2 Way Glue Pen – 100425, Mat Pack or Crafters Tool Kit, Dazzling Diamonds, Sponge, Heat Tool (or your oven works even better!), Rock or Table Salt and Water!

My second card uses the water colouring technique which is brilliant with this stamp set. I have stamped the starfishes using a versamark stamp pad and my basic black stamp pad, and then clear embossed the images which gives them that little bit of a lift. It is another alternative if you don't have a stazon stamp pad to avoid the ink bleeding when watercolouring your images!

WHAT YOU'LL NEED IS :

CARD : River Rock, Soft Sky, Taken with Teal and Watercolor Card.

STAMP PADS : Versamark, Basic Black, Soft Sky and Taken with Teal.

STAMP SETS : Fishy Friends, It's Your Birthday & Polka Dot Background.

ACCESSORIES : Clear EP, Heat Gun, Scallop Edge Punch, Blender Pens, Taken with Teal and Tempting Turqoise Markers, and Sahara Sand Water Colour Crayon.

Hope you like these two cards and that they give you some inspiration!

Take care

Lynda x