Into The Blue...

Hi everyone and welcome. So, it was another busy weekend demonstrating for IndigoBlu at Astbury Meadow Garden Centre, Congleton for the cheerful and enthusiastic stamping fans. It was great to see those fans coming along as we appear to be a dying breed in the UK at the moment! I was thrilled in particular that two of my very good friends, Anne Redfern and Tracy Evans were there to support me and pass on their collective wisdom to everyone too. It's always quite nerve-racking to be demonstrating in the presence of crafting royalty, hoping desperately to impart something that will inspire, but they seemed to enjoy it! Phew!

And so a new week begins. Don't forget, we are continuing to announce the awe-inspiring new line up for the International Design Team over on the IndigoBlu blog for the coming two weeks, so please do make sure you give them a huge welcome. I was quite overcome by the amazing comments you all posted about my own position on the team and thank you all from the bottom of my heart. As you can imagine, running two Design Teams and working in the industry full time now really doesn't give me the opportunity to get round to everyone's blogs in the same way I used to so for that I humbly apologise. I'm going to post some blog candy shortly to make up for it so do keep your eyes peeled for that.

And before I move on with today's offering how pleased was I to find out that my first ever journalling spread had been picked as a Top 3 badge winner!!! I'll be guesting there in the not too distant future as a result and can't thank Donna and the team enough for their award.

OK, on with today's card and this one is distinctly travel related...

(click on the image for a closer look)

Believe it or not this started life as a 'mop up' for this journalling! As something of a thrifty crafter I used the wet Distress Paint covered reverse of the Bubble and Splatters Layering Stencils to add some layering to this piece of 'Correspondence' paper stash. It didn't show up much on the predominantly white design but that got fixed with a good application of Faded Jeans Distress Ink (and a touch of Brushed Corduroy around the edges). And the stencilling kept on coming with Rays in Texture Paste, outlined with a Frayed Burlap Distress Marker.

There was already a lot going on in the background so then came the balancing act of adding more without overdoing it. I started with an old Tim stamp, the plane, stamped and embossed in gold on a piece of grungepaper. The Faded Jeans DI filled in the uncoloured areas and complimented the background. As well as the map (cut from the Correspondence collection) I needed some other travel related bits to layer under the plane. I was really pleased with the way the travel map from the 'Documented' set looked stamped in Cornflower Blue Archival Ink on more of the Correspondence paper and you should also be able to spot a travel ticket (Potting Soil Archival Ink on the same paper) from the same set. The tag was another mop up sat neglected in my scraps box and finally I added a die cut using the Thinlits Celebration Words (there's always a birthday in our family!!!)

Hopefully this card has given you some ideas for using these Tim Holtz sets and maybe setting off on a creative journey of your own. I'll be back with news of that blog candy in a few days, but in the meantime take care of yourselves and have a great week ahead, Jenny xxx