Happy New Year - I'm back!

Did you miss me?? - I can't believe it is a whole month since I've updated my blog!!.. I've lost all track of time, the holiday season tends to do that to me...I'm so out of routine and not at all motivated to do anything. However, I have managed to have a little play with my copic markers and completed a quick layout that I plan to frame. The photo is one I recently took of my daughters, I just love it! and I wanted to showcase the pic and not overwhelm it with too much"decoration". I really wanted to enhance the pretty pastels of their clothes but I had a hard time matching cardstock and embellishments. I finally found some peach and cocoa coloured cardstock in "my stash" and some pink and mauve flowers/buttons that matched Stacey's floral top....but to finish it off, I really needed to find some peach coloured enhancements too! I had some large paper flowers that have a lovely shape to them but they were not the most flattering colour (for this layout)...I flipped them over and discovered they were white on the back. This is when I reached for my "trusty" copic markers and decided the best option was to re-colour them, so that they could become the perfect peach colour! I chose YR02 and outlined the flower petals and the crease lines...then YR00 to colour in the rest of the flower and to blend the YR02 highlights. A pretty layout always deserves some bling and Mad for Markers stocks Adhesive Pearls and Rhinestones in packs of 100, that are ideal for this... these too can be coloured to co-ordinate with your photos and papers. Currently, Mad for Markers has 10% off all stock and this makes the packs of Pearls and Rhinestones $3.15 each - fabulous value and the perfect opportunity to add these to your own craft making stash!! I used both YR02 and E04 to colour my pearls, some I used in the centre of my flowers and some I just scattered around the flourishes. This is my finished layout and I think it will look best in a dark timber frame.

and here is a "close-up" of the large flowers

My plan this week is to get myself back into routine and out of holiday mode...if this all goes well, I should be back on track with my design team commitments & will re-enter the "blogging world" with some layouts and cards to share with you real soon ;)

Happy New Year xx