Welcome to a very special edition of the Around the World on Wednesday blog hop for June. We are a group of Stampin’ Up! demonstrators who live in different time zones around the world. Every 2nd Wednesday of the month, we share inspiration with a particular theme which is organised by Angie Mckenzie each month. Today to help us on our creative journey, we have a VIP touring with us. His name is Benji.

Who is Benji?

Benji is Angie’s little Shih Tzu and she promised him she would take him on a trip around the world. Today that promise comes to fruition and Benji gets to go on some amazing adventures with us.

I wonder what he will expereience in this whirlwind 24 hours?

So, welcome Benji to our little town of Blind Bight which is a beautiful coastal town on the Mornington Peninsula in Victoria in Australia. We have a population of under 1500. First of all when you come to our home you would get to meet our 2 cats Dolce and Aria and our Bull Arab dog, Duke who is about 3 times the size of you but he is just a lanky guy who loves to play.

Down the road from our house is a beach (about a 5 minute walk). I hear it from a good source, Benji, that you do love a short walk but like to be carried on longer walks. The walk to the Blind Bight foreshore and boat ramp is a short one of about 600 metres and I reckon you’ll be able to do this, no worries.

The main beach is determined by the tides so swimming or boating is guided by those times. We also have a lovely lake which has been formed from the water that flows through, which we can swim in at any time (of course when the weather is warm). It is great for dogs to run and chase balls or sticks or just go for a walk around the trek. I’m sure Benji would love to run around the vast area here and maybe even play with some of the other dogs that are around. He may even have a play with my family who are enjoying a twilight swim in summer in this photo.

At this lake there are ducks and it’s so nice to see these duck families around the area. So that’s where my card theme came from. I bet you would make some new ducky friends here, Benji.

Last year there was a duck family that was walking the streets for a couple of months. We have a community FB page and someone would post ‘careful, duck family is on Channel Crescent’ and there would be updates all the time. They were just happy living the street life instead of waddling to the water which they were so close to. Here’s a photo of that little duck family walking the neighbourhood streets with Benji having a bit of a nosey.

This shadow box pop up fancy fold card I learned from our fellow AWOW team member, Mikaela Titheridge. I love a simple fancy fold and this one’s a nice and easy one. I’ll be sharing this on a FB Live tonight so make sure you check out this card there.

On the back window of the card, I added a lovely scene from the Lily Pond Lane Designer Series Paper with the sentiment stamped onto it. Doesn’t it feel like your’e on a holiday when looking at this?

Rather unusual for me is that this card is made up of mainly die cuts. The only stamping that is there is the sentiment.

I die cut the lotus leaves and shrubs from Basic White Cardstock, colouring them in with Stampin’ Blends and Watercolour Pencils. I wanted to create a little scene reminiscent of the mangroves and bushes we have around in Blind Bight. I reckon Benji would be sniffing his way through some of these as he gets familiar with his surroundings.

The mother duck was die cut directly from the DSP and I added a little bit of Early Espresso detail to this to tone down the brightness of it. The DSP has lots of images that you could use straight on your cards and like me, you could get away without any stamping at all!

I hope you have enjoyed your trip with us down in our little town Benji and have fun as you scamper through to South Australia to visit lovely Cheryll Miller.

Thanks for stopping by my blog today and travelling along my little part of the world with Benji. Make sure you continue Benji’s adventures by following our hop through by clicking the Next button to see Cheryll’s Miller’s lovely project.

• Leonie Stuart – AU
• Rochelle Laird-Smith – AU (you are here)
• Cheryll Miller – AU
• Aurélie Fabre – FR
• TIna Zinck-MacDonald – CA
• Angie McKenzie – US
• Chris Smith – US
• Theresa McEntee – US
• Lori Willcox – CA
• Bree Renwick – US

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