Escape!

It's cold, wet and miserable outside today and when my computer screensaver flicked up images of sandy beaches, blue waters and lots of sunshine - well, let's just say I was really keen to go there! Then I was browsing through MDS and found a stamp that sums up perfectly how I feel. Naturally, a card was born.

Here tis:

ROFLOL!

Materials used:

• stamps - Fantabulous You (MDS), Mosaic Madness
• card - whisper white, strawberry slush, coastal cabana
• other - dimensionals, rhinestones, mosaic punch

Do you notice some sneaky peeks in there? I've used a few new colours (strawberry slush, crisp cantaloupe, Bermuda bay, pear pizzazz, coastal cabana) as well as a new stamp set called Mosaic Madness and the matching mosaic punch.

I'm heading off to Melbourne tomorrow and I'm pretty sure the weather there is definitely not going to be in any way tropical, but they say a change is as good as a rest - and I get to spend a few days with my gorgeous DD21, so I know we will have a ball together even if it rains every day.

See you when I get back! Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers
Kez

Cheers!

A bright and breezy celebration card for you today as I've been having a play with some new colours. Take a lookie:

Materials used:

• stamps - Happy Hour, Fabulous Phrases
• card - whisper white, Bermuda bay, strawberry slush
• inks - baked brown sugar, Bermuda bay, strawberry slush, crushed curry, rich razzleberry
• other - apothecary accents die, jewellery tag punch, rhinestone, dimensionals, fancy fan embossing folder, Big Shot

The cards are strawberry slush (new in colour) and Bermuda bay (new colour) and the inks include crushed curry (new colour) and baked brown sugar (new in colour) as well as Bermuda and strawberry and "old" colour razzleberry. 

A bit of fussy cutting but don't they look good enough to drink for real? Yum! Which reminds me, I'm heading down to Melbourne at the end of next week to visit DD21 - so I'm pretty sure there'll be a similar drink of some kind on the horizon! LOL!

Hope the weather is being kind to you wherever you are and if you are in Aus, enjoy the long weekend.

Cheers

Kez

Edited to add: the larger die shape in Bermuda bay card is made by tracing around the outside of the apothecary accents die and cutting by hand. Thanks to Emillie for asking! 

15 Already? How Can That Be? (NSU)

It's my younger daughter's birthday today and as you can tell from my header, she is now 15. OMG just doesn't sum up how amazed I am at how many years have gone by so quickly. I can still recall quite clearly the day I went off to the doctor's to get a pregnancy test.

She has certainly turned out to be a wonderful young person. I just love her zany sense of humour, her compassion for others - well, pretty much everything about her really! I am a completely lucky mum in that my two daughters are my best friends and we love to spend time together, so I know I have to make the most of the next two years before DD15 finishes high school and is leaving home to go to uni .... anyone worked out how to make time stand still yet? Call me!

Well, naturally, I had to make a special card and the colour green was a given. The choice of stamps was a toss up - she loves tea but I've done that before, she loves Dr Who but I've done that too. Finally I settled on other "nerdy" past-times she enjoys - reading and her Apple laptop. Here is her card:

The front

the middle section

the last section

Materials used:

• card - lucky limeade, afternoon tea dsp, whisper white, so saffron
• other - chevron E/F, Big Shot, dimensionals, markers
• non SU - TSG Smarty Pants stamps, doily dies, circle dies

Later on today she'll be stomping around in her green Doc Martens! Sigh! Maybe Doctor Who can help me go back in time?

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kez

Where's The Fire?

Another commissioned card for you today, this time for a young lad who has spent much of his short life in hospital. I was told that he loves firemen and doctors, so I was keen to try out some punch art - always a hit with youngsters.

I found a great punch art fireman on Tina Gillespie's blog that she had cased from Ellen Kemper (click HERE for her list of punches used) so copied that. I didn't have the butterfly punch for the moustache, so used a heart shape instead, I used the owl punch for the eyes and substituted ribbon for the hose rather than card. To relieve the bland white background I added some clip art and printed it in greyscale, reducing the opacity to make it like a watermark. The fire engine image was printed again on the inside page.

Materials used:

• card - Pacific point, daffodil delight, whisper white, basic grey, real red, chocolate chip, blush blossom
• punches - see the link above
• other - computer and printer, clip art, dimensionals, real red grosgrain ribbon

It was great fun to make and I hope will be a big hit with wee Nathaniel.

Thanks for calling in.

Cheers
Kez

Shy and Retiring

The Retiring Lists are out for all the stamps and accessories we will be losing at the end of June - but they are going for a worthwhile cause - all the lovely new goodies we will get to play with!

If you wish to order anything from the Retiring Lists I advise getting in quick 'cos many of them disappear faster than hotcakes! You can call or email me or if you prefer, place an order online by clicking on my Shop Now button (over on the right there).

The links for the retiring lists are over on the right, just click on each one to get a pdf file to download.

Happy retirement shopping!

Cheers
Kez

Less Is More Humour

Making a clean and simple card can be a hard task for me - few layers, few embellishments and lots of white space - so occasionally I like to do a CAS challenge. Over at Simply Less is More this week their challenge theme is humour and as I have rather a well-rounded ... umm ... zany .... oh ok, it's a warped sense of humour, this rather appealed to me!

I chose this gorgeous Mo Manning image and teamed it with a SU sentiment that I thought went rather well. I had lots of fun with one of my favourite things - watercolouring - and kept my card very simple so this amazing lady would take centre stage!

Materials used:

• stamps - Jill is Two by Mo Manning, Smarty Pants by SU
• card - watercolour, so saffron, wisteria wonder
• other - aquapainter, inks, markers, stamp-a-ma-jig

Isn't she precious? Oh, that look takes me back a few years to when my girls were little! LOL!

Why not pop over to the challenge blog and have a look at some of the other entries - it will give you a good laugh!

Thanks for dropping by.

Cheers
Kez

Poppy Party

As I was a good girl yesterday and got my assignment work finished by lunchtime, I decided I was allowed to make a card. I was drawn to one of my favourite colour combos; pool party, white and black. Sooo elegant.

I stamped the poppies with Versamark and embossed with white, then painted the poppies with an aquapainter and whisper white ink, watered down slightly, to create a "base coat" that I could add colour to. Once that was dry (which didn't take long as I had the heater going in my craft room against the chill) I coloured using a blender pen.

Materials used:

• stamps - Pleasant Poppies
• card - pool party, basic black
• inks - pool party, whisper white, island indigo
• other - dimensionals, white embossing powder, heat tool, embossing buddy, scallop dotted ribbon, blender pen, aquapainter

Having made that one I was keen to try out another and I have to say that I absolutely LOVE how this one turned out:

Materials used:

• stamps - Pleasant Poppies
• card - crumb cake, whisper white, primrose petals
• inks - whisper white, primrose petals, cherry cobbler, old olive
• other - dimensionals, white embossing powder, heat tool, embossing buddy, blender pen, aquapainter, crumb cake seam binding, vintage faceted button, cherry cobbler bakers twine

Those poppies sure are addictive - as is this technique. Maybe for next month's class ... 

Thanks for calling in.

Cheers

Kez

Bye Bye Preppies

This week is DD21's last at the school she has been on placement at all semester and I know she is going to miss the cute little preppies she's been teaching. We were doing our usual browsing-Pinterest-together-while-on-Skype the other night and saw some adorable petite purses with Sesame St characters on. Knowing that her preppies would love them, I sat down last night/this morning and made a batch - without the purse though, as I had to send them safely to her in Melbourne!

Here are the faces all lined up:

Details as follows:

Big Bird:
head - 1 3/4" scallop circle in daffodil delight
beak - large oval in daffodil delight, small oval (the old retired one) in pumpkin pie
feathers - bird punch leaf in daffodil delight
eyes - 1/2" circle in white, 1/4" circle in black, 1/2" circle in pumpkin pie cut in half for lids

Cookie Monster:
head - 1 3/4" scallop circle in Pacific point and a second scallop circle punched twice slightly less than half way
mouth - 1 1/4" circle in black
eyes - 1/2" circle in white, 1/4" circle in black
cookie - 3/4" circle in early espresso, punched slightly with a scallop to make the "bites" and then the choc chips were drawn on with a black marker

Elmo:
head - 1 3/4" scallop circle in real red and a second scallop circle punched twice slightly less than half way
mouth - 1 1/4" circle in black
eyes - 1/2" circle in white, 1/4" circle in black
nose - 1/2" circle in pumpkin pie

Oscar the Grouch:
head - 1 3/4" scallop circle in old olive, then I punched a second scallop circle after first punching the edge with the scallop border punch (to make a straight across mouth, rather than smiling)
eyes - 1/2" circle in white, 1/4" circle in black
eyebrows - horizontal slot (retired) in early espresso

All of the white twinkles on the eyes are made with a white gel pen.

I bought some lollipops and attached the characters to those before bundling them in a box off to DD. Would be much easier if I lived in Melbourne!

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers
Kez   

Honey, Honey, How You Thrill Me

(OK, admit it, you sang that as the ABBA song now didn't you?)

For class tomorrow I've used honeycomb as a theme and made three completely different cards showcasing the versatility of this pattern.

First off I went "the whole hog" with dsp segments inside the honeycomb embossing folder. Black and vanilla have been teamed with returning colour Blushing Bride to create this gorgeous confection:

(I know my friend Robby will be salivating over this one; like me, she loves black and vanilla together.)

Materials used:

• stamps - Blooming with Kindness
• card - blushing bride, basic black, very vanilla, Love Letter dsp (retired)
• other - apothecary accents die, clear embossing powder, heat tool, sponge daubers, dimensionals, Big Shot, honeycomb E/F
• non SU - paper doily, Cheery Lynn honeycomb die

My second card is a bright and cheerful hybrid and features plenty of honeycomb shapes. The white honeycomb was cut with a (non SU) die and attached over bashful blue card, then the paper pieces added in.

Materials used:

• stamps - MDS
• card - whisper white, real red, bashful blue, various patterned papers in real red, so saffron, marina mist and Pacific point
• other - honeycomb E/F, Big Shot, dimensionals, real red ribbon, two way glue
• non SU - Cheery Lynn honeycomb die, tweezers

Our third card is one you've seen before; this one was a Top 3 Pick in the Colours and Sketches challenge a couple of weeks ago.

A little birdie tells me there just might be something honeycomb in the new catalogue that I will be happy to see - not long to wait now!

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kez

Gettin' Your Fingers Inky

As I mentioned a couple of weeks back, I was honoured to be asked to be a Guest Designer for the Inky Fingers Club. Inky Fingers is a club that each week gives you beautiful, exclusive projects using only Stampin' Up! materials, and they also have regular special sessions such as for a new catalogue, etc.

My project is being featured this week and it was such a fun challenge to come up with something completely new that the members would love to re-create. A little daunting, but very exciting! And I most certainly did enjoy getting my fingers inky!

Here's a sneak peek at my project:

Every project includes step by step instructions and a full list of the materials and tools you will need to re-create the card or 3D item. You can join the monthly membership and receive a new project each week or join a special session and get access to over 50 exclusive designs and daily tutorials from talented designers. Also included are daily challenges with prizes!

You can see the whole of my project by joining today, or sign up for the Summer 2013 Session beginning July 7th. Simply click HERE to register and have a ball gettin' your fingers inky!

Cheers
Kez

Midnight Thanks

Browsing around various blogs, I came across Just Add Ink's colour challenge for this week and was tempted to give it a try.

Although these colours are perfect for a masculine card, I wanted to avoid that to give myself more of a challenge. I had in mind using some silhouette stamps and embossing powder, so sat down to play and this is what I ended up with:

Materials used:

• stamps - Summer Silhouettes, Itty Bitty Banners
• card - crumb cake, whisper white, midnight muse
• other - white embossing powder, clear embossing powder, lucky limeade organza ribbon, bitty banners framelits, Big Shot, dimensionals, markers, Versamark ink, sponge daubers, spritzer tool

I embossed in both white and clear and the crumb cake card base was spritzed lightly with the matching marker colour. The two layers of midnight muse are raised above the white mat behind. All in all, I'm very happy with how my playing turned out!

Thanks for dropping in.

Cheers

Kez

Pink Poppies

I had a lot of fun the other day playing around with watercolouring. Here's the result:

I used my crumb cake marker to ink up just a portion of the stamp and then watercoloured with an aquapainter and regal rose ink. Afterwards I added a layer of plain water and soaked it up with a tissue, so that the colour became muted and "washed out" a little. I think it gives a nice soft, watercolour painting kind of effect - don't you? The background has a very light wash of Sahara sand and the seam binding I dyed using water and re-inker.

Materials used:

• stamps - Pleasant Poppies, En Francais, Teeny Tiny Sentiments
• card - regal rose, very vanilla, watercolour, crumb cake
• other - honeycomb E/F, Big Shot, very vanilla seam binding, jewellery tag punch, vintage trinket, dimensionals, sponge dauber, regal rose re-inker, soft suede marker

It will be sad to see Regal Rose go with the colour renovation, I like it much better than Melon Mambo. Ah well, such is life - supermarkets stop selling my favourite things constantly!

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kez

NSU - Giant Sized!

I was commissioned recently to make an A4 size card for one of our local ministers. As this is FOUR TIMES the regular card size (A6), it was a challenge to say the least! I was given the wording to be included and a request for the colour blue, but the rest was left up to my creativity.

As I had to buy A3 size card for the base I knew I would have to go browsing - and you know how much of a hardship it is to cruise the craft stores!!! LOL!

Anyway, I spied some papers I thought might suit and luckily they also had A3 card in a very similar colour - a close enough match to meet my obsessive exacting standards. I snapped them up and spent the next day or two thinking about how to fill the HUGE void that was my card front!

Here is what I ended up with:

Materials used:

• stamps - none
• card - whisper white, certainly celery, Christina Re paper, Canson cardstock
• other - bird punch, leaf die, leaf punch and E/F, flower dies, flower punch, pearls, white organza ribbon, oval accents bigz die, Big Shot, dimensionals, liquid glue, embossing stylus and shaping mat, bow tying machine, computer and printer, elegant lines E/F

And just to show you how big this card is, here it is with a normal sized card:

Luckily my customer just loves it and hopefully the recipients will too!

Thanks for dropping by.

Cheers

Kez

In Which I Am Full Of Handy Hints!

Hatches, Matches and Dispatches is the theme for this month's cards. Having a baby card, wedding card and sympathy card in your stash can come in very handy.

My "Hatches" card uses the gorgeous Two by Two single stamp and I chose pool party as a gender-neutral colour for the background. Some faux stitching on the mat piece and lacy embossing with satin ribbon enhance the baby feel.

 Materials used:

• stamps - Two by Two
• card - pool party, whisper white, watercolour, in colour patterns dsp
• other - windows framelits, Big Shot, pool party ribbon (SAB), delicate designs E/F, large scallop edgelits, aquapainter, sponge dauber, dimensionals, white brads (non SU), pool party embossing powder, heat tool, square punch, piercing mat, piercing tool, white gel pen, festive paper piercing pack

Hint: you can make your own colour matching brads. Here's how: using a pair of craft pliers, hold the feet of the brad securely and press the head firmly onto a Versamark ink pad. Now dip the head into the coloured embossing powder, shake off the excess and heat in the usual way. Repeat this process so you have two coats of embossing powder, then allow to cool. 

For the "Matches" card I went with classic black and white, always elegant for a wedding. My sentiment panel is made completely on MDS using three different stamp brush sets. 

Materials used:

• stamps - Meant To Be, All Holidays, Delightful Dozen - all MDS
• card - whisper white, basic black, garden green
• other - itty bitty punches, embossing stylus, pearls, liquid glue, Big Shot, lacy brocade E/F (retired)
• non SU - Spellbinders flower dies, Nellie Snellen leaf punch and E/F, shaping mat, Nestabilities die, white linen card

Our "Dispatches" card has been kept simple and classy. The Stippled Blossoms set is a new addition to my craft room - I've been resisting it for some time but have seen so many gorgeous cards using it that I finally gave in. I'm so glad I did, it is just divine; here it is in pink pirouette and regal rose.

The chocolate chip layer on the leaves was stamped off beforehand to tone down the intensity of colour a little. After stamping the second step of the flowers (regal rose) I went back and re-stamped it using Versamark ink, then clear embossed it. It gives a subtle, shiny finish to the flower.

Materials used:

• stamps - Love and Sympathy, Stippled Blossoms
• card - Sahara sand, chocolate chip, whisper white
• inks - pink pirouette, regal rose, Sahara sand, chocolate chip, Versamark
• other - dimensionals, stamp-a-ma-jig, clear embossing powder, heat tool

Hint: buy two-step stamp sets in wood mount and that way you can create a permanent placement sheet on acetate to use with your stamp-a-ma-jig, without the hassle of making a new one each time if using acrylic blocks.

Thanks for calling in.

Cheers

Kez

Enjoy Autumn

While surfing around on the net I found a challenge blog called CAS - Colours and Sketches Blog and I just LOVE their colour combo for this week, so decided to play along.

The tangerine and saffron leaves really appealed and with it being Autumn here in Australia - my favourite time of year - it inspired the theme for my card. Here tis:

Materials used:

• stamps - Enjoy Every Moment (retired), Collage Curios
• card - midnight muse, tangerine tango, so saffron, whisper white
• inks - midnight muse, tangerine tango, so saffron
• other - leaves No. 2 die (retired), apothecary accents die, Big Shot, honeycomb E/F, dimensionals, sponge daubers, spider web E/F, leaf punch (non SU)

I ran the leaves through the spider web embossing folder to get that leaf vein look - an idea I saw on Pinterest - and also crumpled them up for extra authenticity. For the stamping inside the "o" of enjoy I punched a circle in a post it note with my 3/4" circle punch and created a mask around the "o", then stamped in so saffron using the writing stamp from Collage Curios.

Am still loving the vibrancy of these colours together, so must use them again. Thanks for the inspiration CAS!

And thanks to you for dropping by.

Cheers

Kez