Christmas In July

Tomorrow we begin our Christmas card stamp-a-stack classes, making 10 cards each month from July-October. I decided to begin with some soft pastel cards and our first uses pool party with crumb cake, very vanilla and a touch of soft suede.

Materials used:

• stamps - Snow Swirled (retired)
• card - pool party, crumb cake, very vanilla
• other - embossing folder, dimensionals, holiday framelits, Big Shot
• non SU - ribbon, hot glue gun

The baubles were embossed after inking the embossing folder with pool party ink to achieve this gorgeously elegant, vintage look. 

Our second design involves some watercolouring, so I limited it to four colours and kept the background very simple - when making 5 of these, we don't want it to be too time-consuming.

Materials used:

• stamps - House Mouse, SU Christmas greeting
• card - pistachio pudding, crumb cake, watercolour, whisper white, strawberry slush patterned paper
• other - aqua painter, dimensionals, markers, banner punch, stylish stripes embossing folder, Big Shot

I bought my first Christmas present last week, so I am certainly starting to gear up for the holiday already! LOL

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kez

Ah, Memories!

When I first began my teaching career (many moons ago), I taught typing on the old manual typewriters - today's youngsters probably don't even know what they are! But one of the new stamp sets in our 2014 catalogue sent me down Memory Lane and I just had to add it to my "must have" list.

This card was inspired by Allison Kamitsu. I have used new in colours blackberry bliss and hello honey along with Sahara sand and whisper white.

Materials used:

• stamps - Tap, Tap, Tap
• card - blackberry bliss, hello honey, Sahara sand, whisper white, Moonlight paper stack
• other - cute clips, stamp-a-ma-jig, clear embossing powder, white embossing powder, heat tool, pennant punch, owl punch, dimensionals, alphabet press embossing folder, Big Shot

The other card I have made is a real labour of love. I just adore the Girlfriends range of stamps from Art Impressions and as my SIL and I are both avid movie-goers, I simply couldn't resist getting At The Movies. Inspired by Sue Kment, this hybrid centre-step card was soooooo much fun to create.

Aren't they gorgeous? There are two layers on the 3D glasses and the seats and this card has the honour of being my best yet, according to my husband.

Materials used:

• stamps - That's the Ticket (SU), At the Movies (AI)
• card - basic black, watercolour, riding hood red, silver glitter, blue glitter
• other - digital images, dimensionals, aqua painter, small star punch (retired), mini star punch, markers, inks

Now, speaking of movies, I never got around to showing you the AMAZING item my afore-mentioned SIL made me at Christmas. As a family we always see a movie on Boxing Day and last Xmas our choice was The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. My SIL gave me some "movie cash" as a gift and made a small cinema-in-a-box to package it in! Check it out in the following photos - here's the view from the front with the box open to see the screen, curtains (real fabric) and row of seats:

Here you can see the detail for the seats - she even cut hand rests!

Is that incredible or what? I was totally blown away by it, I can tell you!

Well, that's all for today. Back soon with the first of this year's Christmas cards.
Thanks for calling in.

Cheers

Kez

The Lemon Is In Play

WARNING: this post is completely NON craft related; it's just me and my daughter being total geeks and having a ton of fun!

Much hilarity abounded in our household today, and beyond, but I must warn you that if you are not familiar with or a fan of (although the two usually go hand-in-hand) the BBC radio show "Cabin Pressure" by the 'brilliant' John Finnemore, then this post will mean absolutely nothing to you and you can continue to go about your usual business.

If, however, you - like DD22 and myself - are avid fans of this wonderful comedic show, then you will undoubtedly appreciate the tale I am about to unfold ...

So, background story - DD22 works in Melbourne with people with disabilities and today for their outing they went to Oz ComicCon. She rang me yesterday to ask for help in choosing a costume to wear as she had some limitations, to whit: a budget of not more than $40 and only 3 hours in which to prepare anything. After discussing a few options, she decided to go as Captain Martin Crieff from Cabin Pressure in the episode with the travelling lemon (S03e01 Qikiqtarjuaq). I looked up costume places in Melbourne that had pilot hats and she would go to Savers or similar for a navy jacket. The scene was set ...

This morning I get the following photo with a text:

She was having trouble attaching the lemon to the top of the hat! Eventually she managed to get some duct/gaffer tape from a local store which did the trick. Here's her final costume:

While she was on the train going to work we exchanged a series of text messages consisting mainly of quotes (or close to, anyway) from various episodes of the show that had me in fits of giggles (I was in my craft room but apparently laughing so loud I woke DD16!!!) Here are screen shots of our exchanges - again, you need to be a fan of the show to understand what we are rambling on about:

She reported afterwards that she had two people acknowledge they recognised her costume and a few more who saw it and smiled, which she took as meaning they were also fans but too shy to say so ...

Brilliant!

Well, that's enough geeking for now! I think I need to go listen to an episode of Cabin Pressure before I go to bed ...

Thanks for seeing it through to the end.

Cheers
Kez

Best Wishes Blendabilities

While I have been thoroughly enjoying a lazy first week of the holidays, I finally decided today it was time to get something done in my craft room! I had temporarily taken it over for studying, but as DD22 is coming to visit soon and I have craft classes to prepare for before that happens, it was desperately in need of my attention. Once that task was completed, of course I then had to reward myself by making a card - and more specifically, doing some of my favourite craft activity - colouring in.

I had a play with the new Blendabilities alcohol markers to colour a Magnolia stamp and am very happy with how it turned out.

Materials used:

• stamps - Short & Sweet (retired)
• card - rich razzleberry, whisper white, Polka Dot Parade dsp, regals patterned paper
• Blendabilities - light and medium rich razzleberry, light, medium and dark daffodil delight, skin tone assortment
• other - oval punch, scallop oval punch, oval framelits, Big Shot, daffodil delight seam binding, dimensionals, Sahara sand marker
• non SU - Magnolia stamp

I just love the Tilda images, she is such a cutie! The markers were lovely to work with, so I am really looking forward to more colours being available (to us lucky demos) later this month.

Thanks for dropping in.

Cheers

Kez

Disconnected

With one semester of being both teacher and student behind me, I am sooooooooo pleased to be on a break and have the chance to get back into my craft room to actually create. Mind you, finding some stamping mojo is proving to be no small task!

I had a class with my lovely ladies at the weekend and wanted to show them some of the goodies in store in our new catalogue, as well as making a bit of packaging for a change from just all cards. We used the tag a bag gift boxes with clear covers - I love these, they are so simple to put together and incredibly versatile in how you can choose to decorate them. The ladies loved them too, although they seemed to think I tricked them with how simple they are to assemble and then gave them hard work decorating them! I just don't know what they were complaining about - colouring in and fussy cutting? What's the problem? LOL

Materials used:

• stamps - You're Lovely (SAB), En Francais
• card - whisper white, crisp cantaloupe, pistachio pudding, in colour patterned paper
• other - paper doily, scalloped tag topper punch, tag a bag gift boxes, crisp cantaloupe thick bakers twine, white ribbon, deco label die, Big Shot, dimensionals, clear embossing powder, heat tool, Versamark ink, sponge dauber, blender pen

One of the new stamp sets from our upcoming catalogue that I bought on pre-order is great for masculine cards, always a useful addition. Here's a fairly simple layout using current in colour baked brown sugar teamed with new in colour lost lagoon.

Materials used:

• stamps - Traveller, That's the Ticket
• card - baked brown sugar, very vanilla, lost lagoon
• other - sponge dauber, dimensionals, arrow embossing folder, Big Shot, baked brown sugar thick bakers twine 

Our last project is the thing I am most asked for - a birthday card. Here we are using a new stamp set called In This Together along with an old favourite Happy Hour and some watercolouring.

Materials used:

• stamps - In This Together, Happy Hour
• card - pool party, calypso coral, watercolour, dsp
• other - dimensionals, aqua painter, markers, sponge dauber

That's it for now - hopefully I'll be back soon with some more crafty goodness!

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kez

Fancy A Spot Of New Colour?

With the arrival of the new 2014-2016 in colours at my house yesterday, I was determined to get into my craft room and have a play. So after a late rising (well, it is a long weekend, after all!) that is exactly what I did. Hubby came past just as I had gone in and asked if I was having fun. "Not yet", I replied, "but I'm about to!"

I had an urge to watercolour, so got out the beautiful Pleasant Poppies stamp and set to.

Here's the result - not quite as awesome as I was hoping, but not bad either. Hubby praised it, which is a big deal!

The card base is blackberry bliss, the poppies are hello honey with mossy meadow for the stems and a diluted lost lagoon for the sky. The other in colour I didn't use is tangelo twist. I coloured the edge of the lace to make it stand out more using the blackberry bliss marker.

Materials used:

• stamps - Pleasant Poppies, Petite Pairs
• card - blackberry bliss, hello honey, watercolour
• other - aqua painter, markers, lace ribbon, dimensionals

Has that whet your appetite for the new in colours? Hope so!

Thanks for calling in.

Cheers

Kez

Book Nerd

My "baby" DD turns 16 on Thursday and so the pressure was on today (my only day off in the week) to make a card. As part of her present is a gift card to her favourite book store, I decided to incorporate a gift card holder pocket into an easel card.

I am quite happy with how it turned out and can safely show it to you as she doesn't read my blog:

The images are coloured using Stampin' Up!'s new Blendabilities alcohol markers - which quite fortuitously arrived on my doorstep this morning! These are only available in select colours to demonstrators at the moment, but you won't have too long to wait! What I love about them is (a) they match card, ink, ribbon, etc (gotta LOVE that) and (b) they are formulated to work on whisper white card stock, so I don't have to buy special card for them, yay. I also coloured the three rhinestones with a blendabilities pen.

Materials used:

• card - old olive, whisper white, daffodil delight, retired old olive patterned paper
• other - oval framelits, Big Shot, dimensionals, rhinestones, sticky strip, sponge dauber
• blendabilities - skin tones, light and medium daffodil delight, light, medium and dark pumpkin pie, light and medium old olive, bronze
• non SU - stamps, gift card

Only two more weeks until the mid-semester break and I am looking forward to getting serious about some card making!

Thanks for dropping by.

Cheers

Kez

Pretty In Pink

The cards for this month's class feature SU's gorgeous range of pinks. Check them out:

This one was inspired by a Mary Fish creation and is not only a flip card but a gift card holder as well.

 Materials used:

• stamps - Simply Sketched
• card - pink pirouette, smoky slate, whisper white, subtles patterned paper
• punches - dotted scallop ribbon border,  2 1/2" circle
• other - rhinestones, circle framelits, silver trim 1/8" ribbon, delicate designs embossing folder, Big Shot, circle card thinlits 

Although I'm not usually into the brights range, the lovely colour combination and simple design of a card by Alisa Tilsner really appealed to me, so I have cased it for my next project.

Materials used:

• stamps - Simply Stars, Banner Blast, Four You
• card - melon mambo, whisper white
• punches - banner, large star
• other - white bakers twine, dimensionals, decorative dots embossing folder, Big Shot, sponge dauber, melon mambo embossing powder, heat tool

And lastly some simple brayering on a card that reminds us that we are losing a lot if we look only for perfection.

Materials used:

• Perfect Pennants, Mosaic Madness
• card - blushing bride, early espresso, whisper white
• punches - mosaic, itty bitty
• other - brayer, dimensionals, rhinestones, sponge dauber, stamp-a-ma-jig, Tombow glue

It felt really good to be crafting again and I was greatly relieved to get these three done in a day - as it's the only day I have free between now and the class! Lol. Teaching and studying are keeping me VERY busy and I usually only visit the craft room to do some homework these days!

I have a couple of weekends to look forward to though - this coming weekend DD15 and I are off to see Michael Buble in concert and the following weekend we are going to Melbourne to visit DD22 and see Wicked! Can't wait!

Thanks for calling in.

Cheers

Kez

Ben Does Stampin' Up!

Imagine my surprise this morning while cruising the www to find a Stampin' Up! card made and signed by my favourite actor, Benedict Cumberbatch.

A number of celebrities have made cards to be auctioned off for a children's charity in the UK - you can read all about it in the news article at this link.

And here is Benedict's card:

Way to go, Stampin' Up! (and the card-makers, of course!)

Coming soon - I actually get into my craft room and make something!!!!!!

Cheers
Kez

Aged to Perfection

For last month's card classes we had a vintage theme and these are the cards we made:

Materials used:

• stamps - Best of Butterflies
• card - crumb cake, very vanilla, Graphic 45 Secret Garden dsp
• other - pearls, Big Shot, dimensionals, sponge daubers
• non SU - Gesso, nestabilities dies, copics

The papers were a little bright for what I had in mind, so I brushed them with Gesso which tones down the colours and also adds a lovely canvas-type texture to the paper.

Next I tried out a vintage masculine card using SU's World Map and Open Sea stamps.

Materials used:

• stamps - Open Sea, World Map, Happiest Birthday Wishes, canvas background 
• card - crumb cake, basic black, very vanilla
• other - twine, dimenionals, sponges, 1 1/4" and 1 3/8" circle punches

For the last card we used the emboss resist technique over the dsp to age it a little more - it looks a lot like some old wallpaper my ladies thought! The rose was made with two toning colours of cardstock, one of which is core'dinations card and was sanded back for a distressed look. More crinkling of seam binding - this time always artichoke - similar to the card in my last post.

Materials used:

• stamps - Simply Sketched, Tres Chic
• card - raspberry ripple, very vanilla, always artichoke, primrose petals, Vintage something retired dsp (can't remember the name!)
• other - pearls, deco labels framelits, Big Shot, always artichoke seam binding, dimensionals, sanding set
• non SU - roses die, rose petals punch and embossing punch, hot glue gun

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kez

Who Are You?

I think that's what my craft room asked when I finally wandered in there this morning, lol!!! I am procraftinating again - there's a huge pile of marking waiting for me - but after an SU delivery I just could not resist sitting down and making a card.

I wanted to use the gorgeous spotty paper from the Fresh Prints dsp stack in the Occasions catalogue and as it has a slightly shabby look to it, I scrunched up my ribbon and chose one of my all-time fav SU watercolour pics to go with it. Loving this colour combination of coastal cabana, crumb cake and real red.

Materials used:

• stamps - Greeting Card Kids, Just Sayin'
• card - coastal cabana, crumb cake, watercolour, Fresh Prints dsp
• other - word bubbles framelits, Big Shot, aquapainter, markers, dimensionals, crumb cake seam binding

Cute! 

Hopefully I'll find some time again soon to return to my craft room, but till then 'Thanks for stopping by!'

Cheers

Kez

A Card At Last

Did you miss me? Did you miss me? Did you miss me?

(Yes, channelling some Moriarty there 'cos my girls have gotten me totally hooked on the BBC Sherlock series)

Sorry I haven't been crafting much lately - I have taken on some study as well as working more hours (temporarily, at least) and I'm so tired at the end of the day that there is no mojo or energy for crafting! But with all that left-brain logical stuff going on, the right-brain creative side of me has been CRAVING a bit of card making. I had a free day yesterday so finally sat down and made one - took me hours to decide on a design though, lol!

It's a simple little number that can be used for a variety of occasions and I absolutely love it - so it will definitely be going in to my "to be given only to special people" box!

Materials used:

• stamps - Perfect Pennants
• card - coastal cabana, basic black, whisper white
• other - non SU embossing folder, Big Shot, rhinestones, dimensionals, chalk talk framelits

The sentiment was stamped with black craft ink and clear embossed, which gives it a teeny tiny bit of dimension and shine to match all the bling. I hand cut the black matting behind it, so don't look too closely for the uneven bits!

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers
Kez

Autumn Splendour

It's not long now until March and here in Australia that heralds the arrival of Autumn, my favourite time of year. Here in the Blue Mountains the colours on the deciduous trees will be just stunning over the next few months - it always makes me wish I had some talent as a painter to capture that glory of nature. So I do the next best thing and stamp!

The projects for this month's classes feature Autumn colours and here they are:

Inspired by Patty Bennett, this one was a ton of fun with sponging and emboss resist.

Materials used:

• stamps - Magnificent Maple
• card - Sahara sand, whisper white, pumpkin pie
• inks - crushed curry, pumpkin pie, cajun craze, early espresso, Versamark
• other - sponges, brayer, clear embossing powder, heat tool, honeycomb embossing folder, Big Shot, dimensionals

The next card is more fun with sponges and ink, CASEing a glorious card by Tricia Traxler. I am especially pleased with how my leaf turned out! Take a lookie:

Materials used:

• stamps- Magnificent Maple, French Foliage, Best Yet
• card - cajun craze, very vanilla, naturals ivory
• inks - so saffron, crushed curry, calypso coral, cajun craze, tangerine tango, early espresso
• other - sponges and sponge daubers, embossing stylus and mat, dimensionals, non SU scalloped rectangle die

For our third card I borrowed the beautiful Simply Sketched hostess set from my SIL and went to town with watercolouring. Sanding the core'dinations card (in glorious cherry cobbler) made the perfect background.

Materials used:

• stamps - Simply Sketched
• card - cherry cobbler (plain and core'dinations), watercolour, more mustard
• inks - crushed curry, more mustard, cajun craze, old olive
• other - lace ribbon, aqua painter, dimensionals, mosaic embossing folder, ovals framelits, Big Shot, sanding block, sponge daubers

I love, love, love how this one turned out, the colours are so rich.

Have fun playing in the Autumn leaves and thanks for calling in!

Cheers

Kez

You Stole My Heart

I make a point of telling my two girls all the time how much I love them, so I don't usually join in the Valentine's Day hype - but this year I had an idea for a card so I ran with it. I also made them a gift bag of sweet treats.

As the card was very simple, I kept my gift bag simple also and just carried through the colours and motif. Here they are:

I printed the sentiment and stamp twice (created in MDS) and simply cut out the second heart with the matching die, layering it on top with dimensionals.

Materials used:

• stamps - Hearts a Flutter (MDS)
• card - pool party, real red, whisper white
• other - dimensionals, Big Shot, hearts a flutter dies, pool party seam binding, Sweetheart treat bags, computer and printer

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kez

80 Years Young

I was asked recently to make a card for a gentleman about to celebrate his 80th birthday. My brief was that his favourite colour is red and he really likes stripes - so naturally, the Nautical Expedition papers came immediately to mind. Assured that he does like boats, I went with that theme and paired it up with a great quote from the Daring Adventure set. It's an A4 sized card (ie four times the usual size) so that all the people at the celebration event can sign it.

The stamping part was done on MDS so I could increase the size enough to suit my large card. It also gave me the advantage of being able to really get the effect of that great ship graphic. I added a couple of retired brads and a chipboard anchor.

Materials used:

• stamps - The Open Sea, Daring Adventure (MDS)
• card - nautical expedition dsp, whisper white, midnight muse, purchased A3 navy card
• other - deco labels framelits, Big Shot, dimensionals, cherry cobbler bakers twine, brads, chipboard anchor

On the inside I put a message that continues the adventure theme:

When I took it around to my client I was given three excited hugs, so I'm assured that she likes it! Hopefully the birthday boy will too.

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kez