Just Go For It

Over at Creatalicious they are looking for design team members so I have decided to "throw my hat in the ring". After all, I've got nothing to lose by trying, have I? Bec created a sketch for everyone to use for an "audition" card and I had a LOT of fun working with the design and decided to go for something a little different!

Here' s the sketch:

My card incorporates some of my favourite techniques; brayering, watercolouring and paper piecing, and I've also thrown in some of my new favourite SU papers, Parisian Breeze. Just Buzzin' By is the stamp set, which that hasn't made it to our shores yet but I love it, it's so cute! I wonder how many of you can guess what I used for the paper behind the beehive? You'll laugh when you realise/find out!!! LOL!

Here's my card:

Some bling on the wings is obligatory of course!

And a simple message on the inside:

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

Materials used:

• stamps - Just Buzzin' By, Inspired by Nature
• card and paper - Baja Breeze, Chocolate Chip, Whisper White, watercolouring paper, Parisian Breeze SDSP, Creamy Caramel
• inks - More Mustard, Chocolate Chip, Brown StazOn, Creamy Caramel, Baja Breeze
• other - scallop circle punch, large oval punch, dimensionals, aquapainter, brown brads, brayer, square punch, sponge daubers, crystal effects, KindyGlitz
  

Did you work out what the paper behind the hive is? It's the backing sheet from dimensionals!!! Perfect or what? LOL!

Cheers

Kez

New Kid in Town

Darn! Now I've got that song stuck in my head, you know the one, "everybody's talking 'bout the new kid in town"!

Anyways, what I actually mean is there is a new challenge site starting up next month, run by two incredibly talented stampers/card makers, Rebecca Bodini (Bec of Bizzy Becs) and Cheryl Joshua (My Cardmaking Haven). And to celebrate their new venture, the gals are giving away some blog candy, so if you feel like being in with a chance to win, pop on over and take a look. Challenges are great fun and an excellent way to try new things - whether it's new designs, new colour combos, new products, whatever!

The site is called Creatalicious Challenges, here's the link: http://creataliciouschallenges.blogspot.com/

Cheers
Kez

Just for Fun

With my July workshops over and the girls back at school, I decided to give myself a day of stamping just for fun.

Firstly as I absolutely LOVE the silhouette effect with a brayered background, I got to with the newest member of my stamp "family" (LOL!), Inspired by Nature. I've used More Mustard, Really Rust and a touch of Ruby Red.

Next just had to be a tri shutter card! These are so simple and such fun to make and I wanted to experiment with a bold one for boys as both of the cards I've made so far have been in soft, feminine colours. I'm not completely happy with it, but it will do; sometimes you just gotta lump it, eh?!

Lastly, this chicken card is for DD17, who has trial HSC exams coming up soon. It is very much tongue-in-cheek, as you may recall from this post that she is scared of our chickens. (We try not to tease her too much, but sometimes it's eggs-tra difficult not to!!!) She loves blue and brown, so I used the GORJUS new papers from the Spring Mini called Parisian Breeze. I decided to combine it with this week's Mojo Monday sketch, as I haven't done a MM for a while:

Hope she likes it, he he!!!

Well, thanks for dropping by. I hope you've had some fun in your day too.

Cheers

Kez

Back from the Land of the Long White Cloud

What a welcome Sydney put on for me when I got back from NZ on Tuesday night - a balmy 22 degrees!!! Lovely! And a beautifully warm day yesterday when I could shed all the winter layers and wear just a T-shirt! Although, I have to say, Christchurch did it's best for the middle of winter; the days were mostly sunny and the temperature even reached double figures on two days!!!! LOL!

As luck would have it, I was flying with Emirates, as their luggage allowance is 30 kg rather than 20 kg. My luggage weighed 25 kg going over with all the bits for the workshops (plus a few warm clothes) and 23 kg coming back. Well, you've got to pick up a few goodies while you're away, don't you?

I had a great time - the workshops were loads of fun, I caught up with lots of friends, visited some favourite spots and even managed to visit two stamping/scrapbooking shops. Shock, horror! Did I buy some new rubber? Silly question! One stamp I picked up is one by Rubbadubbado that I thought would go perfectly with the coffee cup from Pun Fun ... and I was right ... here's a card made with them. I call this card my "Monochromatic Macchiato"!!! LOL

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

I also purchased some Flower Soft and made a card with it using one of my favourite SU sets, now retired unfortunately, called Long Time Friend. I've combined it with some watercolouring and used textured cardstock for a change as the base.

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

Well, that's it for today. A big hello to all in Christchurch - hope you're all having fun practising those new techniques.

Cheers

Kez

The best laid plans ...

One of the projects I had originally planned to do here in Christchurch is a cupcake or muffin recipe book. For various reasons that project was scrapped, but as I had the papers already, I decided to use those for the tri shutter card which was requested by my hostess.

Here's the recipe book:

And here is the tri shutter card:

The cupcake on the last section was paper pieced and I added glossy accents to the cherry.

Supplies used:

• cupcake album - Kaiser woodcraft
• papers - Kaisercraft
• cardstock - Core'dinations and SU
• stamps - Tilda with cowberry muffin (Magnolia); Birthday Cupcake (Inkadinkado); Cupcakes (Maya Road)
• other - nestabilities, Big Shot, Cuttlebug embossing folder (Swiss Dots), SU inks and watercolour crayons, dimensionals

Well, tomorrow I'll be winging my way back across "the ditch"! Thanks for stopping by today.

Cheers

Kez

Low SU content warning

If you are an SU only person, you may want to skip today's post; there is not much SU here.

Today's cards are some more goodies we are making at a second workshop while I am here in Christchurch. The hostess specifically requested a Magnolia card, so I made two alternative samples. I can't decide if I like the pink or the blue best!

We are decorating the inside too (much to the delight of my DD17, who ALWAYS opens my cards to see what's inside!)

Thanks for dropping by. More goodies tomorrow if you care to come take a look!

Cheers

Kez

Farther Down Under

Good morning all! Today I'm in beautiful Christchurch and having loads of fun catching up with old friends and some new ones too. Finally I can show you the projects that I've been planning for weeks for these workshops!

Firstly a card purse and card set using the simply gorgeous Bella Bleu papers and the stunningly beautiful - and so very versatile - stamp set, Fifth Avenue Floral.

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

Here are the cards. I tried to keep them very simple in design and construction (as many of the calligraphy society members aren't stampers) and yet be elegant at the same time.

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

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

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

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

And of course stamped envelopes to match:

Tomorrow I'll show you some more goodies we are making here in the glorious Garden City. Till then, have a good one!

Cheers

Kez

Taking my own advice

It is a sign of great wisdom when you take the advice you so liberally dish out to others ... well, that's my story and I'm sticking to it!

Yesterday I was rabbiting on ... er, I mean waxing lyrical ... about gaining inspiration from surfing blog sites and looking at card samples, and today I have put my rubber where my mouth is! Ever since the new catty came out, I have been toying with getting the Inspired by Nature stamp set. Each time I see it used on other blogs and over at Splitcoast, I am more inclined to move it up my wish list. Well, finally in the past week two cards tipped me over the edge ...

... firstly a totally GOJUS faux silk card that you can see on Marelle's blog (and which I made in a class with her last week), and

... secondly a supremely FANTABULOSO card made by Teneale using the ghosting technique. Haven't tried that technique yet, but I will, oh yes, I will!

So I did it. I ordered the set. Hopefully tomorrow my new Aus Post man will bring that magic brown box and dump it ... I mean place it carefully ... on my front doorstep, ready for me to squeal with delight and open it right up to find that most glorious of phenomenons - new rubber! Meanwhile, I have borrowed a set from Marelle for an upcoming workshop, so I got to have a little play, yippee!

Supplies used (all SU):

• stamps - Inspired by Nature, Think Happy Thoughts, Weathered
• card - mellow moss, pumpkin pie, whisper white
• punches - 32 mm circle, 35 mm circle
• markers - mellow moss, pumpkin pie, apricot appeal
• other - filigree brad, apricot appeal brad, dimensionals, sponge daubers

Oh yes, I am going to have a LOT of fun with this one. I can see that I'll have to take my own advice a lot more often ... I obviously know what I'm talking about!!!!!

Cheers

Kez

Inspiration

The SU logo says "Inspire. Create. Share." I personally think it should be Create. Share. Inspire. cos that's what we demos (and bloggers) do - we create something, share it with you, and hope that it inspires you to try something new or look at something in a different way.

Today's card was such a one - a good cyberfriend of mine was inspired by my Tri Shutter card (see mine here) to create her own for her niece's birthday. I think she did a FANTASTIC job and as she doesn't have a blog of her own, I asked if I could show it to you here. Hopefully it will inspire you too - these cards are very easy and are at least a 9 on the WOW impact scale!

Card by Lynda S.

Lynda used Bella Rose DSP from SU, flowers from Kaiser and Hibiscus, brads from Renoir and Paper Fasteners, gold stickers from Upkit and Tilda stamp from Magnolia. She's thinking of doing a pirate one for another birthday; can't wait to see that one!

So, hopefully we have inspired you to have a go at a tri shutter card - or any adaptation that your creative imagination comes up with!

Thanks for stopping by. See ya!

Cheers
Kez

Flower Pot Frenzy

The lovely ladies at my watercolour class the other day had a lot of fun experimenting with the various techniques and of course LOVED the simple re-inking one. They made some beautiful flower pot cards which I want to show you, but unfortunately I had forgotten my camera - doh! I did manage to snap a few pics using my mobile phone, so please excuse the quality of the photos; the first one in particular is very out of focus!

This is the very first time the ladies have used watercolour crayons, so I am very proud of their efforts.

Didn't they do a great job?

School holidays begin today and I know my girls are soooooooooooooo looking forward to the break, DD17 especially (Year 12)! DD11 is off to a diabetes kids camp tomorrow for a few days and is so excited - her first camp away on her own, and things like rock climbing, abseiling and flying fox to try! If your kids are on holidays too, I hope they have a restful and enjoyable break.

Thanks for calling in. Have a good weekend!

Cheers

Kez

Poster Fun

Remember this poster that I "helped" DD17 with? She proudly announced today that it received a mark of 100%! Yay! Homework was never this much fun when I was at high school! (Yes, I can just hear DD11 thinking about dinosaur's roaming the school halls .....)

Cheers

Kez

Watercolour Technique Class

This week's class looks at different methods of watercolouring. Card one uses what I call the "spritz watercolour" method and has also been called foolproof watercolouring! It is lots of fun to experiment with and very easy to do. Using shimmer paper gives it a lovely sheen, but whisper white works too and watercolour paper would as well. I ALWAYS use waterproof black StazOn ink for watercolouring. We'll make a card similar to this one

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

For card two we will be using inks and watercolour paper. With this method I use markers for highlighting (I just LOVE how everything SU colour co-ordinates!).

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

Materials used:

• stamps - A Kind Word, Best Yet (level 1 hostess)
• cardstock - Baja Breeze, Sahara Sand, Apricot Appeal
• papers - Sweet Slumber Speciality DSP, watercolour paper
• other - Baja Breeze ribbon, dimensionals, aquapainter, nestabilities, Big Shot

Card three is a flower pot card; such fun to make and so pretty to give away! The roses have been stamped on Whisper White and coloured with watercolour crayons, then ink is used over the top of the crayons for highlighting. The pink has come up a bit light in the photo; it is slightly darker IRL.

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

Materials used:

• stamps - Fifth Avenue Floral, Best Yet, A Rose Is A Rose
• cardstock - Really Rust, Pretty in Pink, Whisper White
• other - Pretty in Pink ribbon, dotted ribbon from stash, Martha Stewart lace doily punch, Big Shot, Swiss Dots embossing folder

You've just gotta love Fifth Avenue Floral - looks great any which way you use it!

Our last technique is fun too - colour the stamp with markers then spray it with water before stamping. This method looks great with the new silhouette stamps.

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

Materials used:

• stamps - Upsy Daisy, Best Yet, Friendly Words jumbo wheel
• card - perfect plum, pale plum, old olive, watercolour, very vanilla
• other - markers (perfect plum, pale plum, old olive), 35 mm circle punch, 38 mm circle punch (non SU), dimensionals, old olive wide grosgrain ribbon, water spray bottle

Thanks for calling in. Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Cheers

Kez

Christmas with a Twist

The new challenge for this month over at Marelle's blog is Christmas with a Twist. The idea is to make a Christmas card using:

• non traditional colours, or
• non Christmas stamp sets, or
• both!

Now, as luck would have it, I have just finished making and mailing 12 such cards after taking part in a swap with other SU demos with the exact same theme, so this challenge is a piece of cake! Here is my entry:

I used the swirl from Baroque Motifs in Old Olive for the tree branches. Boho Backgrounds was used for the designs on the baubles, using Versamark ink and white embossing powder on Riding Hood Red cardstock. Circle punches of various sizes made the baubles and the small and large oval punches were used for the "hanging part". Gold cord was tied on and attached at the back. The sentiment is from that fantastic hostess set, Best Yet.

Here's another Christmas card, one that we are making in my Stamp-a-Stack at the end of this month. The design is inspired by a card by Karen Thomas and if you would like to learn how to make this gorgeous card, I have two spots left!

Thanks so much for stopping by.

Cheers

Kez