Creative Expressions Thursday and Huge Thanks to all... I'm Back.....

Hello to all my lovely Interwebby blog friends.

Before I start to ramble on about how I created my first card after being away from you all so long I want to say a huge in fact Massive Thank You to all you wonderful ladies and yes you all know who you are, from beautiful recovery cards and very special ladies emailing me regularly if not daily to keep up my spirits to messages left here worrying when you hadn't heard from me I really do feel very blessed and cared for and you all really helped brighten me on the really bad days.

I certainly never thought I would be away so long but I think I under estimated the recovery time and I truly am so thankful that I can now see light at the end of the tunnel as it were. I definitely didn't know I was going to be awake during the Op but maybe that's a good thing as I would only have worried before hand but Instead I was up at Kettering at Creative Expressions helping my lovely friend Tracey to get the room ready to start holding workshops etc and it certainly was a challenge but well worth it as the first workshop with Julia went brilliantly well and of course you can all pop over creative expressions website to see Photos of the ladies on that day if you haven't already seen it of course.
While I was away I saw there was a new site too with lots of craft goodies from CE and lots of the brands they sell at up to 85% off the regular price called Craft Clearance I am sure you have all seen it by now but I thought I would include it today and after I finish this post I am off to have a look for a bargain too, race ya there ... oh wait can't run on crutches can I haha.

So today I made my way into the craft room and climbed over all the gorgeous goodies that have been arriving while I was away and managed to get to my desk at that moment I realised just how much I have missed creating , I was opening paints and glues just to get the old familiar smell back in the room, I must say it was looking a little lost in there haha ( and dusty).

I opened my May DT stamps and decided to use one entitled Congratulations.

I could easily have used it to create a wedding card or engagement card but I thought I would do something in Blush and black card and leave it open almost so at the last minute you could add something that allows you to give it for the occasion you needed at the time, anyway I have so much to say , well 6 weeks worth so my fingers won't keep up with my mouth I am so sorry hehe...

The colours are not great but I used Blush card, black card and the piece with the congratulations stamp image on was coconut white card.

Here is a close up , I used perfect medium and Gold detail embossing powder to get my image ready to colour, Unfortunately the camera has not picked up the gorgeous new Matt Chalk Paints that I used with a water brush to colour the image , I did it quite subtle but not as light as this looks here , I must say these paints are sooo gorgeous and smooth to work with and over the next few weeks I hope to show you some techniques you can do with them and I am really looking forward to that.

Here are the colours I used on a white tile with my water brush, from left to right.

Shallow Sea Blue, Heritage Green, China Pink and Nude (love love love this nude colour depending on what colour you have near it it seems to look pink near pink or a peach  near warm colours and near earthy browns it looks very skin tone and they layer beautifully too.

 Here is my bow created form this gorgeous double sided satin ribbon, This is the one that Sue uses for her plait technique over on her blog where you need the two sides to contrast if you haven't seen it, it is well worth having a look. 

I also used Sues Faux Quilted Leaves Die which I  waited so long for as every where was out of stock, I finally got mine when I went with Julia and Sue to Birmingham NEC recently which was such a fab day and right at the end we were walking back to my car and a gorgeous lady of colour came running up so excited to see Sue that she forgot mine and Julia's names and just shouted "oh look! it's Sue and da da da and da da da"! it was such a funny moment that you had to be there to see really I guess. 

I snipped into the leaves and separated them into little stems of 3 and placed them some under the bow and some above it then I added a little twine bow too and one of the new gorgeous vintage bronze flat back buttons embellishments.

 This one shows also one of Sues embossing folders called Cascading Hearts which I love and have used over and over.Here I used it on the blush card and then lightly brought out the embossing with Spun Sugar distress Inks.

And here is the gorgeous 2 sided satin ribbon as you can see you may see more cards with it on as I have lots in this colour and the Blue colour way too.

Well I think maybe I should end this post and let you know I will be back tomorrow with a card I created with Sue Wilson's Spanish Collection Die Granada , I managed to see something in the die which is just so pretty and a little creative snipping and I had something a little different.

Thank you again for all your wonderful comments and I hope we can get back to normal again as I build up towards my next show which I am excited to say will be on 31st May 2014 at 10a.m and 4p.m subject to time changes of course on Create and craft so I hope you will be there with me to email in and support me if you can.

Lots and lots of hugs 

Love

 Kim 

xxxx