Bird Ballad Mini Album

OH. MY. GOSH.

Is it OK to totally swoon (but never drool, lol) over your own creation? I sure hope so because I am completely in love with this little album showcasing the gorgeous Bird Ballad papers. Based on the Sailing Home mini album I made with Danielle Bennenk while I was in the Netherlands (see post HERE), it's full of adorable birds and beautiful flowers, with plenty of spaces to add photos and/or journaling.

Sigh.

I can so see this being something I never want to give away.

Dying to find out what all the fuss is about? Here we go:

The pieces in the middle with the three layers of DSP lift up for more photo space. 

The last section is a sideways twist and pop.

I'm hoping to load a short video of 'revealing' this mini album to my Facebook page, as static photos lose their wow factor somewhat. If I manage to do that, I'll come back here and put a link for you to follow.

Shall I tell you a little trick I did with the fussy cut flowers on the first and twist and pop sections? Once I'd cut them roughly from the DSP, I stuck them to removable adhesive paper then fussy cut around them. This means when I add photos to the white areas, I can peel off the flowers and stick them back over the photos if I want! I know, I'm a clever little Vegemite 😜.

Materials used:

• stamps - Hugs from Shelli
• card - pool party, whisper white, petal pink, calypso coral, Bird Ballad DSP
• other - Dimensionals, pool party ribbon, delicate lace edgelits, Big Shot, precision plate, removable adhesive paper (Avery), mini Dimensionals, stitched circle dies, woven threads sequin assortment

Do you love it? Never mind if you don't - I love it enough for all of us 😁 Thanks for dropping in.

Cheers

Kez

Crazy Plaids

Today's cards are a plethora of plaid combined with a candela of crazy! I've been playing with some Tim Holtz stamps and here's how that turned out:

Materials used:

• stamps - Perfect Plaids, Crazy Dogs (both Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz collection), Itty Bitty Birthdays
• card - delightful dijon, basic black, very vanilla
• other - Stamparatus, real red marker, Copics, Dimensionals, stitched rectangle dies, Big Shot, ruler

As soon as I saw this particular stamp it made me think of the classic Burberry plaid, so that's why I picked these colours. The fine red lines were added with a marker.

Here's a cat version:

Materials used:

• stamps - Perfect Plaids, Crazy Cats (both Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz collection), Itty Bitty Birthdays
• card - highland heather, purple posy, gorgeous grape, whisper white
• other - Stamparatus, Copics, Dimensionals, frosted frames dies, Big Shot

And I really couldn't resist a Christmas bird version too:

Materials used:

• stamps - Perfect Plaids, Crazy Birds (both Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz collection), Santa's Suit
• card - real red, whisper white, vellum
• other - Stamparatus, Stampin' Blends, stitched rectangle dies, Big Shot, rhinestones, glue, real red marker, ruler

I think the bird is my favourite but the dog is a close second - which is your fav?

(Btw, a candela is a measurement of luminosity - I thought this fitted nicely with those luminous crazy eyes! Lol.)

Thanks for dropping by.

Cheers

Kez

Do You Wanna Build a Snowman?

Welcome to another Stampers Anonymous team blog hop! This month - our tenth hop - we are featuring products from the new Holiday catalogue.

There are many gorgeous things to choose from but I decided to feature products from the Let It Snow suite. I don't usually do much in the way of snowy cards, but this year half of the family will be on the other side of the world experiencing a winter Christmas, so I decided to let my playful side have fun with this adorable range. I just love the colour combination used in the papers plus the fab fun bits and pieces - so let's get started!

Here I've used the Let It Snow specialty designer series paper (p20) as my feature, cutting out a second layer and shaping it over the top. The felt beanie and scarf come from the Let It Snow embellishment kit (p19).

For this one I went a little crazy with embellishments, lol! The snowman (Snowman Season stamp set p20) was stamped on vellum and again on whisper white card. I used snowflake sequins (p43) plus underneath the snowman is some shimmery crystal effects (p41) to which I added ice stampin' glitter (p41) for extra, extra sparkle! It's chunky as well as glittery, which looks great in real life but doesn't photograph well. A combination of markers and Blends were used to colour.

Next I decorated a mini pizza box and added some snowfall accents puff paint (p19) for my snowman to stand in. I'll probably add a bag of 'snowman poop' here for a laugh.

Last but not least, a twist and pop card. Embellishments from the kit were used again, as was the puff paint. I stamped my snowman directly onto glitter card then cut him out using the snowman builder punch (p19). Doesn't he look cosy in his warm beanie?

Materials used for all projects:

• stamps - Snowman Season
• card - coastal cabana, real red, whisper white, vellum, white glitter, blue bushel, call me clover, Let It Snow specialty DSP
• other - Let It Snow embellishment kit, snowman builder punch, stitched rectangle dies, Big Shot, Dimensionals, shimmery crystal effects, ice stampin' glitter, markers, Stampin' Blends, snowfall accents puff paint, Tombow glue, shaping mat and tool, scissors, tweezers, pretty label punch, Crop-o-dile, white bakers twine, mini pizza box

I had sooooo much fun making these and hope you've been inspired to get creative with your own supplies. Hit the buttons below to go forward or back on the blog hop until you complete the circle, and enjoy the projects my fellow team members have created.

Thanks for stopping by!

Cheers
Kez

Full list:

1. Nikki Stalker
2. Kerry Bunting (you are here)
3. Elizabeth Yager
4. Kristy Davy
5. Olivia Yiew
6. Melissa Gifford
7. Sharon Wilson
8. Marelle Taylor
9. Kylie Page

Filigree Fabulous

Browsing through Pinterest a week or so ago I came across a card by the extremely talented Kittie Caracciolo that set me thinking...fast forward to me borrowing a poinsettia die set from one of my lovely ladies...then after a very busy week I finally sat down and made the card I had envisioned.

Here tis, in all its vanilla and brushed gold glory:

Materials used:

• stamps - Star of Light
• card - very vanilla, brushed gold
• dies - Delicate Lace edgelits, Pretty Pines thinlits, Sue Wilson Festive Collection - Classic Poinsettia and Filigree Poinsettia
• other - embossing buddy, gold embossing powder, heat tool, Big Shot, Dimensionals, metallic pearls, shaping tool, shaping mat, precision plate

Love those delicate filigree petals. The brushed gold is very understated - it looks more like crumb cake in the photos!

And here's the card that inspired me. You can see they're similar yet very different - all it takes is that spark to set your creativity in motion. Whatever did we do before Pinterest? lol

Thanks for calling in.

Cheers

Kez

Rustic Charm Meets Elegant Simplicity

This month's stamp-a-stack Christmas cards both use the gorgeous Brightly Gleaming specialty designer series papers from the new holiday catalogue, but are very different in presentation.

Here's the one I call 'elegant simplicity' -

Materials used:

• stamps - Stylish Christmas
• card - night of navy, very vanilla, Brightly Gleaming DSP
• inks - pretty peacock, old olive, Versamark
• other - copper embossing powder, heat tool, embossing buddy, Stamparatus, metallic sequins, Dimensionals

And here, with just a few added touches to change the tone completely, is the 'rustic charm' - 

Materials used:

• stamps - Timeless Textures
• card - pretty peacock, very vanilla, crumb cake, Brightly Gleaming DSP
• other - Spritzer tool, stars thinlits, Big Shot, detailed deer thinlits, linen thread, sponge dauber, Dimensionals, precision plate, distressing tool, subtle embossing folder

The tiny speckles of colour on this have been made with a marker and spritzer tool - here's a pic in case you haven't encountered these before.

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kez

Floating Flowers

One of the techniques that hit the craft sphere while I was away is Jennifer McGuire's floating frame cards. I loved it, but with limited supplies and equipment with me on the boat, couldn't try it out for myself at the time. Yesterday I finally had the chance and here's my inaugural attempt.

Happily the technique itself was pretty simple - all the work was in the fussy cutting of the flowers and the sticking-on and unpeeling of the dimensionals! However, I'm happy with it for a first try. I coloured plain rhinestones using my Stampin' Blend marker to match my card - love how easy this is.

Here's a close up so you can see the 'floating' effect.

Materials used:

• stamps - Free as a Bird
• card - calypso coral, whisper white, Bird Ballad DSP
• other - stitched rectangle dies, Big Shot, Dimensionals and mini Dimensionals, Stamparatus, rhinestones, calypso coral dark Stampin Blend marker, Glad Press'n Seal

Keen to give it a try yourself? You can watch Jennifer's video tutorial HERE.

Thanks for calling in.

Cheers

Kez

Softness in Nature

Those who prefer bright, bold colours don't get a shoe-in this week as our nature-themed class cards are all about soft colours, and as I do love me some distressing and splodging, a couple of them also have a shabby chic look I simply adore.

Materials used:

• stamps - Beautiful Friendship, 
• card - seaside spray, whisper white, mint macaron
• other - subtle and script embossing folders, water spritzer, linen thread, Big Shot, Dimensionals, word window punch, white shimmer paint
• inspired by Teneale Williams

Materials used:

• stamps - Free as a Bird, Timeless Textures
• cad - balmy blue, whisper white, vellum, Bird Ballad DSP
• other - distressing tool, stitched season framelits, Big Shot, mini Dimensionals, linen thread
• inspired by Lauren Alarid

I deliberately left a sentiment off this one as I think it's suitable for many occasions.

Lastly I couldn't go past a touch of the gorgeous purple posy. I'm terribly impatient for the ink to arrive for this one, but at least we have the Blends pens to give us something to colour with. Stamping done with basic grey instead of black, again for a softer look.

Materials used:

• stamps - Butterfly Gala, Abstract Impressions
• card - purple posy, whisper white, soft sea foam
• other - tropical thinlits, Big Shot, lace dynamic embossing folder, water spritzer, metallic pearls, stitched rectangle frame lit, Stamparatus, butterfly duet punch, sponge dauber, Tombow glue, purple posy Stampin' Blends, mini Dimensionals, mounting tape

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kez

Watercolour Wonderland

Hey ho! Another Christmas card today and for this one I got a bit arty and had fun with some water and ink!

I began with spritzing my heavy watercolour paper then laid down a layer of diluted balmy blue for my sky, fading it as I went down the paper. After drying that off, I inked my tree stamp with old olive and spritzed it with water too before stamping the distant trees. The foreground trees got the same treatment with mossy meadow ink and I sponged along the bottom to 'ground' them. Once everything was dry I ran it through my Big Shot with the subtle embossing folder to give it even more texture - up close it seriously looks like a watercolour painting. Stamped my sentiment on vellum and as there are tiny specks of gold in the ivory powder, I added three small gold sequins.

Simple but gorgeous, in my humble opinion (lol)! And perfect for the summer Christmas here in Aus. Hope you like too.

Materials used:

• stamps - Wonderland
• card - heavy watercolour, vellum, thick very vanilla
• other - aged ivory embossing powder (Stampendous), heat tool, metallic sequins, mounting tape, subtle embossing folder, Big Shot, Tombow glue, tweezers, paint brush, water spritzer

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kez

Elegant in its Simplicity

Today's card came about because I was keen to do some more colouring on the Magnolia Lane papers (see here for my first attempt), plus I had a hankering to use purple posy cardstock. I haven't used it before - probably waiting, in my head, for the ink pad to become available. But as I've been making other pastel-shaded cards this week (no, you haven't missed them; I haven't put them up yet, as they're for next week's class) I guess I was still in a pastel frame of mind.

Anyhow, I began colouring the magnolia paper again using SU's blends, but unfortunately even the light purple posy marker was too dark for the effect I was after. Consequently, I got out my Copics and found some shades that gave much closer to what I had in mind. Here's how that went:

I didn't feel it needed anything else added to it but sent a sneak peek to my BFF to ask for her opinion, which I value as she's a much more experienced crafter. She agreed and in fact described the card as 'elegant in its simplicity' which was very flattering and why that's my post header. 

If you look closely you'll see that as well as the background panel being embossed with the extremely versatile Subtle embossing folder, the panel of designer paper was too. This gives it a look not dissimilar to a picture on canvas and is an effect I LOVE. So yep, I'd say there's a fair amount of certainty you'll be seeing more of that, lol.

Materials used:

• stamps - none
• card - purple posy, basic black, Magnolia Lane DSP
• other - Copic markers V0000, V000 and V01, subtle embossing folder, Big Shot, Dimensionals, water spritzer

That's it for today. Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kez

Child of Bethlehem

Every now and then I like to challenge myself by making a one layer card. It's not always easy - but then, challenges aren't meant to be - but something about this month's theme over at Less is More started my creative juices flowing big time. I thought about designs for a while before committing my idea to card today.

I began by making my own stencil for the buildings/trees silhouette by cutting the die from removable adhesive paper and using the 'negative' to mask off the area I didn't want to ink. Using distress oxide inks and a large sponge dauber, I inked the unmasked area and once that was dry, placed a second stencil over the top. This I inked with Versamark and then embossed with copper embossing powder. I would have preferred to use gold but my gold powder has disappeared somewhere! Next I added the star - again embossed in copper - and of course the sentiment at the top and some light sponging around the edges. It's very minimalistic, which is so not me! But I like it - how about you?

Materials used:

• stamps - Star of Light (SU)
• card - whisper white (thick)
• distress oxide inks - peacock feathers, faded jeans
• other - Bethlehem dies (SU), Big Shot, copper embossing powder, heat tool, Stamparatus, large sponge daubers (Universal Crafts), lattice stencil (Kaisercraft), removable multi-purpose labels (Avery)

Thanks for calling in.

Cheers

Kez

Yellow Magnolias

On today's card I had fun with some colouring and distressing. Here's a look at the finished product:

In this close up you can see the treatment I gave the background piece - I swiped the inside of the subtle embossing folder with white ink before running it through the Big Shot, giving this slightly 'aged' look which complements the distressing. 

And here is a comparison of the original paper with how it looked after colouring. You could do this with any colour at all, of course, so you can bet I'll be experimenting again!

Materials used:

• stamps - Thoughtful Branches
• card - basic black, daffodil delight, vellum, Magnolia Lane DSP
• other - stitched rectangle die, Big Shot, Stamparatus, metallic sequins, distressing tool, subtle embossing folder, black bakers twine, Dimensionals, water spritzer, mini glue dots, Stampin' Blends (daffodil delight)

Thanks for dropping by.

Cheers
Kez

When Even Therapy Doesn't Work

After about the last 50 hours with frustrations piling one on top of another, I decided I was in dire need of some DO therapy. That's distress oxides therapy, for those of you who haven't been coming here long enough to be familiar with that particular obsession. Not even able to gather enough grey matter to choose my own colour combo, I consulted my Pinterest board and found one suggested by Kristina Werner that appealed, and set to.

But even my DO's added to the s*** pile; I had to have two goes at the background because my stamping turned out a little crooked but the second one was no better - in fact it smudged a little. So you know what? I decided to go ahead and finish my card off anyway with the first, slightly crooked one, 'cause frankly, my dears, I just don't give a monkeys. You'll forgive me, right? You'll understand and sympathise with my plight and allow me this modicum of crafting leeway, just this once. Aww, ta.

So here it is, the therapy that didn't quite work. If you ignore the fact the writing's a bit skew-whiff, it ain't half bad I reckon.

Materials used:

• stamps - You Matter, You Matter Background (Simon Says Stamp)
• card - shimmer white, whisper white, pink pirouette
• distress oxide inks - spun sugar, picked raspberry, wilted violet, picket fence
• other - You Matter die (SSS), Big Shot, Stamparatus, popcorn box thinlits, mini Dimensionals, water spritzer, heat tool

Fingers crossed I get my DO mojo back soon! Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kez

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like...

...yep, Christmas.

I'm looking forward to getting back into classes with my lovely ladies and we're starting off with a Christmas stamp-a-stack. Luckily I could get some Holiday Catalogue pre-order goodies delivered so they were waiting for me when I got home. Here's our first, a simple yet elegant offering (imo) featuring a new stamp set along with some old favs.

Materials used:

• stamps - Toile Christmas, Stylish Christmas
• card - very vanilla, mossy meadow
• other - Christmas cardinal dies, pretty pines thinlits, Big Shot, Dimensionals, cherry cobbler and mango melody Stampin' Blends, pinewood planks embossing folder, stitched rectangle framelit, stitched framelit (non SU), black craft ink, clear embossing powder, embossing buddy, heat tool, Stamparatus

Isn't it a gorgeous image? Love this one.

Our other card is also a mix of old and new, along with a touch of non-SU (hehe that rhymes). Here tis:

Materials used:

• stamps - Holly Jolly Greetings
• paper - whisper white, night of navy, silver foil
• other - frosted frames dies, Big Shot, snow swept border die (Cottage Cutz), Dimensionals, precision base plate, silver embossing powder, heat tool, embossing buddy

So there you have it! Thanks for calling in.

Cheers

Kez

In the True Spirit of 'Better Late than Never'

My BFF snuck in a birthday while I was overseas - the sheer gall - and even though I rang her on the day, I didn't send a card. (Cos, you know, the whole 'only had nautical themed stamps with me' scenario.) Sooooooo, as we're getting together today and I have birthday goodies to bestow, I thought I'd best hop to and make a card as well. It would be Expected (yep, with a capital. Just sayin'.).

Now, she loves distress oxides (in fact I may be 98.99% responsible for enabling her own DO passion) so I knew I couldn't go wrong with a sponged background. As luck would have it, I had a few made up already, so grabbed one of those. The card is very simple but I love it and I hope she will too.

Materials used:

• stamps - Beautiful Friendship
• card - whisper white, basic black, Sahara sand
• distress oxide inks - don't know cos, like I said, I had it made up already from months ago - there's two greens and two blues, though, if that helps?
• other - Stamparatus, stitched rectangle framelits, Big Shot, Dimensionals, chipboard branch/birds embellishment (origin unknown, sorry), blender tools, subtle embossing folder, water spritzer, Tombow glue

If that's us sitting on the branch, we'd be taking turns being the bird with the open beak, lol. We do tend to have a good old chin-wag whenever we get together! That's what besties are for, right?

Thanks for calling in.

Cheers

Kez

Pop of Colour

Hi, I'm back! Came from a lovely warm climate to a cold blast from the Antarctic, it feels like, lol!

To welcome me back our team challenge this month is to add a pop of colour - whether that be background colour or simply colouring in line art stamps. Well, you know I love me some colouring but I also have been looking for an excuse to play with my pigment sprinkles (#inkyfingers), so I made a card with a combination of both.

These inks take a bit of getting used to and there are so many different effects you can make that you could spend weeks just playing and experimenting. This background piece was my third effort, so I count that as a win! 

Materials used:

• stamps - Butterfly Gala
• card - very vanilla, watercolour, basic black
• other - pigment sprinkles, water spritzer, paper towels, Stampin Blends highland heather and mango melody, greetings thinlits, Big Shot, stitched rectangle framelit, Dimensionals, basic black marker, heat tool

This one is a bit out of the box for me so I'll be interested to hear what you think.

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kez