I'm Back!

We had the most lovely relaxing week in the mountains. It was freezing (we even saw some snow falling!), but the house we were staying in had central heating, an open fireplace and a lovely outdoor spa, plus electric blankets on all the beds. So, we were probably warmer there than here in Sydney! We went on some lovely bushwalks, ate pumpkin soup and sourdough, toasted marshmallows by the fire, and played lots of boardgames. It's great to get away and have some precious family time. Check out the updated family pic ----->

I took just the bare minimum of stamping supplies with me, and had a nice time doing some "just for me" stamping using sets from the new mini.
This set "Bloomin' with Beauty" has been begging me to colour it in ever since I first saw it:

I decided to go with blues to start with (surprise, surprise!), and I had so much fun colouring this one. Watercolouring is such escapism. I swear everyone else disappears when I get engrossed in it. I've stamped in black Stazon on Watercolour paper, and coloured using my Watercolour crayons and Aquapainter (my favourite way to watercolour). I used various shades of blue and purple here...probably every single one there is! I've also outlined with Going Grey, to make the image 'pop'. I've mounted it on Ballet Blue, and distressed the edges using the Cutter Kit (I love the distressing tool for 'tidy' distressed edges!). The Almost Amethyst piece has been stamped in Linen for texture in Sahara Sand ink (stamped off once to make it nice and subtle), and then down the right-hand side I've stamped the 'bloom' definition from the set 4 times in Almost Amethyst ink (I used my stamp-a-ma-jig to line it up). The green is Mellow Moss, and I've stamped just the Hydrangea flowers on it in VersaMark ink, and sponged the edges in Mellow Moss ink. The ribbon is Kraft Taffeta, and the card base is also Kraft.
Here's a close-up of the watercolouring:

Now, back to reality! *sigh*