Balance

Hello, Cathi here with my first official post as a member of the Berry71Bleu design team! I am so honored Marivic chose me to be among this talented group of women! There has been so much incredible inspiration all month and here is my contribution!!

My word, like Dana, is Balance! I had an amazing year last year going from one challenge blog design team to ten design teams and guest design spots for challenge blogs, manufacturers and stores. I have been beyond lucky and am so grateful for that! But I definitely took on too much with all my excitement of being asked. This year I want to remember that I need to balance my life. I need to remember those two little girls in this photo and make sure they are my priority. I need to have a creative outlet and enjoy that too, but deadlines and projects can't be so many that they make me miss out on watching my girls grow and being with them doing fun things!! I think I am learning that balance now, and I will strive to keep that balance better this year.

The papers I used are Fabscraps Shabbylicious and the paper is piled up with tons of embellishments and flowers, including that gorgeous tag (the two birds on the tag reminded me of my two girls!) from Marivic, Prima and Manor House flowers and a gorgeous Prima metal chandelier. I used my Prima damask stencil and my newly won Prima script stamp, along with a Lindy's Stamp Gang Starburst spray for my background work.

I stitched around my photo for a bit of extra detail and distressed and layered my background papers with Black Soot Distress Ink. The title balance is done with Thickers.

I have done my layout starting out with the sketch from Once Upon a Sketch, it kinda took on a life of its own after a while though, but I used it as my starting point. Balance is my lesson learned, and one I need to keep learning, and there is lots of journaling on the kraft tags on the layout about balancing my children, my health and my creative needs and desires. I am sure I will be continuously learning how to balance my life when it comes to these!

Thank you so much for taking the time to look!!

Now onto the prizes...

Main Prize:

6x6 Gelli Arts Gel Printing Plate

 2 tubes of Green and Blue Speedball Block Printing Ink.

Random Prize:

$15 Gift Voucher AUD$15 to be used in our online store at www.flourishwithabling.com.au

Sponsors:  

Speedball Art Products Company

facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/SpeedballArt

A Tradition of Excellence: For more than 100 years, high quality art products from Speedball have created Unlimited Possibilities for Artists in both classrooms and professional studios around the world. Speedball is committed to artistic innovation and expression.

Printmaking Is A Time-Tested Craft That Is Ideal For Contemporary Art Expression:Today with the advent of new techniques and materials, Printmaking has gained renewed interest and unprecedented support. Printmaking begins with Speedball - America’s leading manufacturer of printmaking materials - unequaled for quality, safety and ease-of-use.

Economical and Time-Flexible: The Beauty of Printmaking is in its flexibility and economy. Projects can range from simple printmaking exercises lasting only for a short session to more complex projects that can be expanded to include advance detailed techniques. Printmaking is more popular than ever and Speedball Art Products is the artist’s choice!

Speedball Block Printing Inks: Give your creations all the brilliance they deserve with inks from Speedball. Speedball’s Water Soluble Block Printing Inks come in 18 brilliant colors available in 37cc, 75cc, 150cc tubes plus 8oz. and 16oz jars. These inks are easy to clean up with water, non-toxic, gluten free and super for printmaking with linoleum, wood, Flexible Printing Plate, Speedy-Carve™, Speedy-Cut™ and Polyprint. All Speedball inks are AP Non-Toxic and are excellent for use in the studio, school or home. Speedball also carries Oil-Based Block Printing Inks available in 10 brilliant colors in 37cc tubes or 7 colors available in 75cc tubes. Suitable for printing on papers and fabrics, they are non-darkening, waterproof and permanent.

We love gelatin printing and we've developed a better way to do it!

Our Gel Printing Plate looks and feels like gelatin, but is durable, reusable and stores at room temperature. It's easy to clean and always ready for printing. Monoprinting on a Gelli plate is simple and fun. The gratification is immediate, and the prints are too cool!

Flourish With A Bling

Flourish with a Bling is an Australian retail and wholesale company, owned by Lucy Patrick, Kate Settineri and Maggie Lloyd who are three passionate and avid crafting mums with a love for design, colour and everything Bling!

“Our aim is to bring more colour and variety into the world of flourishes and embellishments.With our unique designs and new materials we feel we are putting the ‘Bling into Scrapbooking.' We have a beautiful range of flourishes, vines, pearls, gems and more. And just recently, Flourish with a Bling has introduced their own range of gorgeous flowers.”

They also sell fabulous themed packs at amazing prices.They have flat rate postage within Australia and also post internationally (half price shipping for large orders).You can contact them and find all their products on their easy-to-use website www.flourishwithabling.com.au. Don’t forget to check out theirfacebook page for random giveaways, visit their blog to win monthly challenges and visit their gallery for inspiration and ideas! 


Please note that if the winner(s) of this challenge are international they will be responsible for shipping costs.

Make sure you follow our CHALLENGE RULES.

Thank you and we hope to see your beautiful creations this month!