See, I WAS listening!

One of the things that has stuck in my mind since our Regional training day (there are more than one, I promise!) is one of our presenters saying that purple and yellow look great together. So today when I was looking for a colour combo for my faux silk sample (workshop on Saturday) I went with Elegant Eggplant and So Saffron, with a touch of Always Artichoke thrown in. And I LOVE IT!

Created by Kez. Stamped images © 1990-2009 Stampin' Up! ®

I also had another play with an easel card and guess what? Yup! Bella Rose papers again! Are you sick of these yet? This time I paired them with Dreams du Jour.

Created by Kez. Stamped images © 1990-2009 Stampin' Up! ®

OK, I'll give Bella Rose a rest for a while now! LOL!

Cheers

Kez

Those Special Cards

While most of the Christmas cards I send are "mass produced" for speed, I always make special one-of-a-kind cards for my nearest and dearest. Here are some of those - but warning! I have used a lot of non SU content on these ones. Not because I don't love SU stuff (which I do, I truly do) but because the people concerned have seen all my SU ones and I needed to do something different that they haven't seen!
Created by Kez.

This one uses a digital image for the fairy and also digital paper. I put some vellum over the holly paper to tone it down a bit and give me something to stamp the sentiment on, and added some glitter to her wings.

Created by Kez. Some stamped images copyright Stampin' Up!

Another digi stamp for this one and I added some puff paint for the falling snowflakes and snow in front of Kai. Isn't she adorable? The snowflake stamp on the background is from SU set Winter Post, which I embossed in white on bordering blue card.

The last one is similar to this post. I decided to give the red one to DD17 and made a green one similar for DD11.

Hope you like them! Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers
Kez

Summer Mini Blog Hop

Welcome to the Stampers Anonymous Summer Mini blog hop! I am number two on the tour, so if you want to start at the beginning, pop over to Marelle's blog and then come back, or you can start here and still make the complete circuit just by following the links at the end of each post. There are 14 stops along the way and we hope you will visit each one to see the GORJUS creations we have to show you!

We are featuring the beautiful new products in the Summer Mini, available to you from tomorrow, 1st December. Feel free to “share the love” and leave a comment! So sit back, relax and enjoy!

My first item is a gift for my SIL, who is a very keen gardener. How cute is this little watering can?!!! As soon as I saw it I knew it was perfect for my project. The stamps I have used are Hello Again and the matching wheel called Retro Remix.

Materials:

• stamps - Hello Again, Retro Remix wheel
• card & paper - certainly celery, whisper white

Next are two cards using a set called Razzle Dazzle. The first card uses a lot of direct to rubber technique and was inspired by a card by Melissa Aggie.

Materials for both cards:

• stamps - Razzle Dazzle, Best Yet, Polka Dot
• card & paper - Pacific point, whisper white, basic black, elegant eggplant, old olive, rose red patterns paper
• punches - eyelet border, large oval, scalloped oval
• ribbon - Pacific point, old olive
• other - SU markers and inks, dimensionals

My last offering today is a scrapbook layout that I knew I would do the instant I saw this set in the catalogue. As regular visitors know, DD11 has Type 1 Diabetes (that's the auto-immune type, not the lifestyle type) and part of her management plan is treating episodes of hypoglycaemia. To bring her blood sugar levels back on track she eats some jelly beans and always has them with her - hence the theme of this layout. The photo was taken the day she was diagnosed and admitted to The Children's Hospital and I have written some journalling and tucked it under the photo, with a punched tab for easy access.

Here's a close up of the gumball machine. I clear embossed it to give it that shiny, metal finish and used crystal effects on some of the jelly beans for dimension. They look good enough to eat!

Materials:

• stamps - Something Sweet
• card & paper - basic black textured card, Pink Flamingo DSP, whisper white card
• rub on - Bright Delight
• punch - round tab
• other - clear embossing powder, versarmark ink, crystal effects, lettering

The totally cute stamps are from a set called Something Sweet and you can also get a co-ordinating punch and some treat cups to use for real sweets or other goodies (they have literally a hundred uses!); I'm sure you will see some of these somewhere along the blog hop.

Thanks for coming by today; I hope these ideas may help inspire you and that you enjoy the rest of the tour. Now just click on her name to see what wonderful creations Noreen has for you.

Cheers

Kez

Tonight's the Night!

It's here at last! Tonight is our blog hop, or blog tour. You will be able to visit 14 blogs all showcasing the products in the brand new Summer Mini Catalogue and we hope they will delight and inspire you! Links will be set up so that you can move on to the next blog with just a click of your mouse!

So I look forward to your return at 8.00 pm Australian East Coast Daylight Savings Time tonight.

Cheers
Kez

Only 1 sleep to go!

Yes, that's right, there's only 1 more sleep to go now until the Stampers Anonymous first ever Blog Hop at 8.00 pm tomorrow (that's Aussie East Coast daylight savings time). I am very excited about it all! Make sure you get the family organised so you can sit uninterrupted and take the tour - there are 14 demos creating up a storm of wonderful creations to share with and inspire you. See you then!

Kez

Christmas Magnolia

Phew! I hope your week has not been as hectic as mine! I'm so glad it's the weekend! DD17 has been off enjoying Schoolies so I have had unlimited access to the computer, which has been nice! LOL! As I haven't done much watercolouring lately I really loved sitting and colouring last night, especially as my new Magnolia stamps arrived just in time for me to enter a challenge.

Not surprisingly, Christmas is the theme for the current Magnolia Down Under Challenge. This is Tilda Unwrapped, which I think goes perfectly with the "don't open till Dec 25th" stamp. Not much SU content in this one, so die-hard fans be warned!

Created by Kez.

Materials used:

• SU stamps - Winter Post
• SU punches - boho blossoms, designer label
• SU card - riding hood red, bordering blue, creamy caramel, watercolour paper
• SU inks, sponge daubers, dimensionals
• other - Magnolia stamp, pearls, pearl brad, papers from stash

Isn't she cute? I think she'll be just perfect for birthday cards too. Thanks for calling in today. Have a great weekend.

Cheers

Kez

I Wish

A while back I did a class with team mate Sue where we made a totally GORJUS mini scrapbook album using half of an "I Wish" Simply Scrappin' Kit. I have since made another one and put my own 'stamp' on it, as it were (I know, a poor pun!) and am running classes to make them, the first of which is tomorrow night. I have one spot left so if you are interested in coming along, please let me know. I am also happy to bring the class to your place if you and some friends would like me to, or maybe even making a kit you can buy by mail if there is a demand.
Stamped images © 1990-2009 Stampin' Up! ®

Ain't it cute?! The hard part is deciding which photos to put in there!

Thanks for dropping by today. Have a great week!

Cheers
Kez

Edited to add: the last spot has been filled. If you missed out just contact me for another class time.

Fun, Fun, Fun

Today I'm at the Stampin' Up! regional training day having a whole heap of fun with my fellow demos, so just a quick post to show you the swaps I made. I used the lovely Bella Rose papers (again!) and Enjoy Every Moment stamp set. The small rosebud in the "O" is cut from the designer paper and the two flowers on the bottom are stamped and cut.

Created by Kez. Stamped images © 1990-2009 Stampin' Up! ®

Hope your day is as great as mine!

Cheers

Kez

Acetate Attempt

After doing a class with the lovely Teneale recently, I was keen to have a go at making an acetate card. I managed to find one A4 sheet of acetate in my stash (although I think it's too heavy) so gave it a go - and my first attempt ended up in the rubbish. The second attempt came out OK, close to what I had imagined in my head, LOL!

Created by Kez. Stamped images © 1990-2009 Stampin' Up! ®

Materials used:

• stamps - Tres Chic, Baroque Motifs, Great Friend
• card - elegant eggplant, whisper white
• ink - elegant eggplant, vibrant violet StazOn
• punch - scallop border
• ribbon - elegant eggplant grosgrain, white organdy (from stash)
• other - dimensionals, adhesive rhinestones

Have a lovely day everyone!

Cheers

Kez

Delightful Snowflakes

The brief for Creatalicious Challenge No. 4 is to make something for Christmas and include snowflakes and lots of sparkle/glitter. As I'm still "in love" with my Delightful Decorations set and punch, I planned to use them for my card and I saw some sparkly snowflakes at my LSS that I just couldn't resist!

Created by Kez. Stamped images © 1990-2009 Stampin' Up! ®

For the background I used my brayer to add ink to the inside of my embossing folder, put my piece of card inside and then ran it through the machine. This put ink in the debossed areas and left the embossed areas to really stand out. If anyone knows how to get bling to photograph well, let me know!

Anyway, hope you like it! Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kez

Next Year I'll Be Wiser

The Christmas countdown tells me I am fast running out of time and I am still making my own Xmas cards. Next year I will be wiser and when my class are making them at Stamp-a-Stacks, I will be making them too! I have been having fun making more cards using Delightful Decorations and the matching Ornament Punch, both of which I totally ADORE (and they were a big hit at the team meeting on Monday!).

Lots of texture on this first one with ribbon and embossed shapes. I love this snowflake paper from the Ski Slope set.

A touch of bright with some Rich Razzleberry, Bermuda Bay and Melon Mambo. The small stamps that come in the set make a great background.

Love red and white together (not surprisingly, as red is my favourite colour!). Cased this one but don't know where from! Thanks for the inspiration, whoever you are.

Some Baja breeze and chocolate chip, cased from Jan Tink. Nice to shake it up with non traditional colours every once in a while!

And some gift tags too, which this stamp and punch combo are PERFECT for. So quick and easy - punched the base from cardstock that was folded to make a double shape. Stamp the two designs, punch them out then adhere to the card one. Punch a hole, add cord and presto! All finished. I think Santa might use a whole bunch of these this year!

Not to freak you out, but have you finished your Christmas shopping yet? Me neither - barely started, in fact! Aaaaarrrrrgggghhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Kez

When a Girl Becomes A Woman

There have been many occasions over the past few months when I have looked at my darling DD17 and seen the woman she is poised to become, never more so than today as she was ready to set off for her Year 12 Formal. In her beautiful gown she looks so grown up and so rock-your-socks-off gorgeous that I was hard pressed to keep the tears at bay, I can tell you. She is so warm, witty, intelligent, caring and creative and I am the luckiest mum in the world to have had the honour of watching her become who she is destined to be. Yes, there will be a scrapbook layout, but for now I am so proud I had to share some photos.

Thanks for stopping by. Have a great day!

Cheers

Kez

SU Colours My World

I don't think I am the only demo (at least, I sure HOPE I'm not!) who sees many colours by their Stampin' Up! name. For example, I have a couple of tops that are dead ringers for Cameo Coral and Tangerine Tango; I saw a cushion in a store I immediately thought of as Kiwi Kiss; and I once admired a skirt that to me was Chocolate Chip, Whisper White and Tempting Turquoise. DD11 and I have even nicknamed one of her teachers Mrs (Purely) Pomegranate!

Yesterday the girls and I were re-watching (for the umpteeth time!) an episode of The Vicar of Dibley, one of our fav comedies. It was the one where the Vic, Geraldine, falls in love with Harry the accountant, played by the totally cute Richard Armitage (so who could blame her?). Because of various disasters caused by the usual suspects, Geraldine ends up getting married wearing some pyjamas that are white background with large red roses, and my immediate thought was that they looked just like one of the papers from the Bella Rose DSP!!! Now, my mind could have been influenced by the fact that I have been using said papers to make my swaps for our Regional Training next weekend, but whatever the reason, this morning I rose extra early (couldn't sleep - too much caffeine yesterday, so serves me right!) and made a card using, yes, you guessed it, those papers from Bella Rose!

Here's my second Bella Rose easel card, this time teamed up with matching stamp set A Rose Is A Rose:

Created by Kez. Stamped images © 1990-2009 Stampin' Up! ®

Thanks for dropping in. Have a great day and watch out for those SU colours out there!

Cheers

Kez

Birthday Rounds Again

A few more family birthdays this month, so some quick cards needed. This first one is for my cousin, whose favourite colour is blue and who luckily has chickens, cos I just love these cute little gals! It's an old retired SU set called Best of Cluck.

Created by Kez. Stamped images © 1990-2009 Stampin' Up! ®

I wanted to use the Baja breeze corduroy buttons on this but I only had two really big ones and they just didn't gel, so grabbed some from my stash. I taped them on, then sewed them on too with some embroidery thread.

The next card is for my big brother and I just had to use this non SU set; BB loves golf and jokes, so I knew these images would be a real hit! (pardon the pun!) I love argyle patterns for golf things, and bloke cards in general, so the argyle socks were a perfect match for me! (oops, another pun!) These are retired SU papers from last year.

Making your own cards is so great when you know the recipient and can personalise it to their tastes! Don't you just LOVE this craft of ours? I know I do!

Well, thanks for taking a peek at my offerings today. Have a good Monday!

Cheers

Kez

I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas

One of my dreams in life is to go somewhere in the northern hemisphere and have a white Christmas. Not that I'm big into snow and cold, but I just love the whole "package" that seems to come with a wintery Christmas. This card was inspired by that ideal and the colouring I chose came from the beautiful ribbon I picked up at our local $2 shop.

I've used the pine tree from Lovely as a Tree and embossed it in silver. Then I added some puff paint to make snow sitting on the branches and at the base of the tree. I sponged the edges of the night of navy cardstock with whisper white ink and I love this effect! The white card behind the image was embossed with snowflake shapes and mounted on silver, and my sentiment comes from the wonderful hostess set, Best Yet.

Created by Kez. Stamped images © 1990-2009 Stampin' Up! ®

Hope you like it! Thanks for dropping in.

Cheers

Kez