Saturday, November 30, 2019

Cheap and Cheerful

Everyone loves a card you can whip up in 5 minutes, right? Here's a fast, easy one that will brighten anyone's special day:


Materials used:

  • stamps - Stylised Birthday, Beauty Abounds
  • card - whisper white, pineapple punch
  • inks - coastal cabana, pineapple punch, gorgeous grape, Memento tuxedo black
  • other - stitched rectangle die, Big Shot, craft foam

This colour combo is so cheerful, I love it! 

Thanks for dropping by.

Cheers
Kez

Friday, November 29, 2019

Just Breathe

I was honoured recently to be picked as winner of the CAS on Friday challenge #167 - a one-layer card (this one) - and subsequently get to be guest designer for their new challenge. The theme this time around is to use black and/or white and one colour.

For my colour I picked the beautiful seaside spray - such a lovely soft warm blue.


Materials used:
  • stamps - Hugs from Shelli, Colourful Seasons
  • card - whisper white
  • other - Dimensionals, Mini Cloud Edges stencil (MFT), sponge dauber, Stamparatus, craft foam

I am so happy with how this card turned out and must admit, the more I make clean and simple cards, the more I'm drawn to them. Something about the clean lines and simplicity of design really resonates with me, so you can probably expect to see more in the future.

Pop on over to the CAS on Friday blog and be inspired by the design team's lovely creations - and hopefully you'll get the urge to join in the challenge!

Thanks for stopping by. 

Cheers
Kez

Friday, November 15, 2019

Missing You

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I was asked to be a guest designer for the CAS on Friday challenge blog after being picked as winner for challenge #166. The theme for this time around is to Use a Frame.

Now, sometimes it takes quite a while for my brain to come up with a design for a challenge, particularly for a CAS card as this is not my natural milieu, so to speak. However, I'd barely been told the theme half an hour before an idea sprang to mind and later that day I sat down to see if it unfolded as I hoped. Unusually for me with clean and simple, I forwent a white background in favour of the truly gorgeous soft sea foam.


Materials used:
  • stamps - Teeny Tiny Sentiments (SU), Hog Heaven (MFT)
  • card - soft sea foam, basic grey, whisper white
  • other - petal pink Stampin' Blends, stitched square dies, Big Shot, Dimensionals, craft foam, glue, Stamp-a-ma-jig

Everything looked a little bland and boring if I kept it straight, hence the tilt - I love how it gives that extra touch of whimsy. And is that little piggy just the cutest or what? 

If, like me, your cards are all about lots of layers and embellishments, you might like to push yourself to think outside the square and try a clean and simple card. Here's some definitions as a guide:

Clean & Simple - A design of card with clean lines, minimal embellishments, areas of white space and few or no embellishments.


White Space - An area of the card which has no image, layer, texture, pattern or embellishment. This can be any colour dependent upon the colour of the card blank.


I do hope you'll head over to the CAS on Friday blog to see what the design team came up with for this challenge and perhaps even give it a go yourself.

Thanks for dropping in.

Cheers
Kez

Thursday, November 14, 2019

Blog Hop #12

Welcome! It's time once again for our team blog hop and this month we were given some gorgeously vibrant colours to play with.


My first offer is a fun birthday card with some sponging. I made the striped edging piece myself using a ruler and the brush tip of the marker. You need a steady hand though, lol. 


Materials used:
  • stamps - Itty Bitty Birthdays
  • card - whisper white, night of navy
  • other - balloon bouquet punch, white gel pen, sponge daubers, ruler, night of navy marker, clear epoxy droplets, ornate frames die, Big Shot, Dimensionals, white embossing powder, heat tool, embossing buddy
  • inspired by Simonne Clay

I've always loved blue and green together and night of navy with granny apple green has to be one of my favourite combos. Here's a 'bloke' card that uses this pairing and is clean and simple. I purposefully left off any sentiment because I want it to be one of those cards you can pick up and use for almost any occasion - birthday, Father's Day, retirement, etc. There are three layers to the image, which give it depth and dimension in real life. 


Materials used:
  • stamps - A Good Man
  • card - granny apple green, night of navy, watercolour
  • other - aqua painter, markers, craft scalpel

And now for something quite different - whereas the previous cards had a lot of light space, the next one is a touch more dramatic in the use of the colours. I've done more sponging, this time in a Bokeh background effect. 


Materials used:
  • stamps - Perennial Birthday, Butterfly Gala
  • card - granny apple green, lovely lipstick, whisper white, night of navy, acetate
  • punches - 1/4" circle, 1/2" circle, 3/4" circle, 1" circle
  • other - Dimensionals, Well Written thinlits, Big Shot, Stampin' Blends, Stamparatus, clear embossing powder, heat tool, Stitched Seasons thinlits, Butterfly Beauty thinlits, sponge dauber

That's it from me! Click on the links below to move around the hop until you've completed the circle, and I hope you have a lot of fun being inspired to play.

Thanks for calling in.

Cheers
Kez


Wednesday, November 13, 2019

The Big Fat Man with the Long White Beard

'You'd better watch out,
You'd better not cry,
You'd better not pout,
I'm telling you why -
Santa Claus is coming to town.'

I'm back with the third and final Christmas-adapted fancy fold card, this time the centre-step one I previously did in black, gold, crumb cake and vanilla. Here's a memory refresher:



And here's how it looks once the Big Guy and some retired papers got involved:



Materials used:
  • stamps - Merry Cafe
  • card - cherry cobbler, grey granite, Festive Farmhouse DSP
  • other - pretty pine dies, Big Shot, Christmas cardinal dies, ornate frames dies, cherry cobbler seam binding, vintage Santa Image (internet)

And that wraps up my classes for this year and my Christmas cards! As usual, by the time we get to here and I've made so many, I am thoroughly sick of them, lol. Mind you, there are still a few craft things to make for the day itself, so I can't put everything Christmas-related away completely just yet. 

Come back tomorrow for our team blog hop - a colour challenge.

Thanks for calling in.

Cheers
Kez

Tuesday, November 12, 2019

I'll Have a Blue, Blue Christmas

'I'll have a blue Christmas
Without you,
I'll be so blue just thinking about you.
Decorations of red
On a green Christmas tree
Won't be the same dear
If you're not here with me.'


My second fancy fold one-off Christmas card is a pop-up front step. I've been wanting to do a blue cardinal since seeing one on Pinterest, so I dragged out some years-old papers from my stash and made my wish a reality.

Here's the original fancy fold:




And here it is Christmas-ified:




Materials used:
  • stamps - Toile Christmas
  • card - seaside spray, silver foil, whisper white, Kaisercraft 'Frosted' collection papers
  • other - Christmas cardinal dies, Big Shot, Dimensionals, scoring tool

I'm so glad I tried the cardinal in blue - I'm loving it. 

Thanks for calling in.

Cheers
Kez

Monday, November 11, 2019

It's Coming On Christmas

'It's coming on Christmas, they're cutting down trees, putting up reindeer, singing songs of joy and peace.'

Good golly Miss Molly, it's only 44 days until Christmas! I hope you've started your organising - I've got my menu planned, table decorations sorted and presents underway. Phew! With some of the family overseas for the big day this year, we'll be a smaller group than usual but we'll still try to keep up with a few of our family traditions.

And also coming up soon - very soon in fact - is my last card class for 2019. Over the past few years the theme for this has been special, one-off Christmas cards - those which take a bit more fiddling and effort and are too intricate or time-consuming to make in our usual stamp-a-stack classes. We'll be doing that, but I've also snuck in another theme to add to it - cos I'm tricky that way, lol. No, you see what happened was I had to cancel my previous class in which we were going to make three fancy fold cards so I thought, hey, why not re-make those same fancy folds but in line with the festive season? Once my muse struck with ideas, I got busy crafting!

Here's the first one. I took this double z-fold using petal promenade papers:



Changed the papers, chose some stamps and got busy sponging...and ended up with this:




Materials used:
  • stamps - Wonderland, Dashing Deer
  • card - coastal cabana, real red, whisper white, Let It Snow DSP
  • other - white embossing powder, heat tool, sponge, Stamparatus, hills & borders stencil, costal cabana marker, embossing buddy 

I love it! Hopefully my ladies will too. I'll be back over the next few days with the other fancy fold adaptations.

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers
Kez







Tuesday, November 5, 2019

It's a Sunshine-y Day


I am honoured to have recently won challenge #166 over at CAS on Friday (see the winning card here) and been given the opportunity to be guest designer for an upcoming challenge. More on that when it is imminent!

Meanwhile, the theme for their current challenge is a One Layer Card, which I've only ever done a couple of times before. I look at it as being similar to clearing the clutter in my craft room - I'm paring back to essentials - and this card is just stamps and ink plus a stencil. I decided I couldn't resist bringing out my distress oxides - you all know how much I luuuuuurrvve these.

Here's my card:


Materials used:
  • stamps - Full of Sunshine (My Favourite Things)
  • card - whisper white
  • distress oxide inks - squeezed lemonade, mustard seed, fossilised amber
  • other - Sun Ray stencil (MFT), Stamparatus (SU), clear embossing powder, heat tool, blender tools, clear epoxy dots

It was only fitting that I took this photo outside in the warmth of a sunny spring day and I'm thrilled at the dappled light on our grapefruit tree in the background there.

Thanks for calling in.

Cheers
Kez



Saturday, November 2, 2019

Another Fancy Fold

After making two fancy fold cards I thought I might as well make a third and they can be our class cards for next week. I was also conscious - as I'm in the middle of a big sorting out of my craft room - that I tend to hoard papers and should use some of them up (don't even get me started on how I'm even worse at hoarding ribbons!), so I dragged out the beautiful Petal Promenade DSP and made a double z-fold card.

I kept to neutral colours for my base and matting which, in an astonishing dash of Kismet, matched the reverse side of the paper I used! Such a clever little Vegemite, lol. Not much was needed to add to this, just a simple sentiment and then let the gorgeous papers take centre stage.


Materials used:
  • stamps - Perennial Birthday
  • card - smoky slate, basic grey, Petal Promenade DSP
  • other - Ornate Frames thinlits, Big Shot, Dimensionals

Thanks for calling in.

Cheers
Kez

Friday, November 1, 2019

In My Secret Garden

I've been playing with some more Graphic45 papers and while, admittedly, they're a few years old now, they're still perfect for making pretty cards.



It looks like the bird on the tag is talking to the one on the branch. What do you think it's saying? "I love that song you're singing," or "Stop that racket and come look after these eggs so I can get out of this nest!" LOL.

Materials used:
  • stamps - Itty Bitty Greetings
  • card - whisper white, early espresso, crisp cantaloupe, Graphic45 Secret Garden papers
  • other - Secret Garden chipboard elements, whisper white satin ribbon, hodgepodge hardware frame, pearls, Dimenionals, sponge dauber, baker's twine, small oval punch, mini glue dots, mounting tape

Here's another using the same collection.



There are four layers in the focus panel, so it stands out more than it might appear in the photo.

Materials used:

  • card - whisper white, crisp cantaloupe, Graphic45 Secret Garden papers
  • other - white ribbon, pearl pin, Dimensionals, sponge dauber


As it's spring here and there are plenty of birds chirping away in my back yard, I'm loving this collection all over again. Have you got goodies stashed away that haven't seen the light of day in a long time? Why don't you dust them off and have a play! You know you'll enjoy it.

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers
Kez