Sepia Roses

The challenge this week at Just Add Ink is to just add stamps - ie to use nothing but stamps and cardstock. No ribbon, no punches, no buttons, no DSP, no die cuts. NO RIBBON? What were they thinking? LOL.

Well, I decided I just had to take a stab at this challenge! I was inspired by a lovely scrapbook layout that I remembered seeing somewhere which had sepia toned roses in the background, so I got out my stamps and went to work.

Here is my first entry for the challenge. I am not completely happy with it ... my fingers are just itching to add things! Lace! Pearls!

Materials used:

• stamps - Baby Blossoms, A Rose Is A Rose (retired), Afterthoughts, En Francais, Polka Dot (retired)
• card - crumb cake, soft suede, very vanilla
• ink - crumb cake, soft suede

I think I just might be back with a second entry for this one - something more clean and simple so I can live without ribbon!

Thanks for dropping in.

Cheers

Kez

Rosey Flutterbies

It's time again for my lovely Lana ladies class and this week we will be focusing on roses and butterflies.

A few of them bought the beautiful set A Rose is a Rose when it was on special last month, so as my mojo is having a bit of a holiday, we will be caseing my lovely and talented team mate Liam. Click here to see Liam's card, and here is my adaptation:

My Lanas all love purple, so we are giving Pale Plum a last hurrah before it retires at the end of this month. It will be sorely missed; how beautiful does it look teamed with Perfect Plum, Old Olive and So Saffron? Love the use of the Manhattan Flower embossing folder too - thanks for such wonderful inspiration Liam!

Our next card is cased from Ilina Crouse. I've changed only the sentiment and the embossing from Ilina's original. Pumpkin Pie and Tempting Turquoise are not colours I would have thought to put together, but they are so vibrant and summery and I think they each bring out the best in the other.

Simple yet very effective; that's the kind of card I like!

Card number three uses the versatile Baroque Motifs with more lovely flutterbies in Cameo Coral, Ruby Red and Chocolate Chip.

And lastly they'll be making the card I did at stamp camp, which you've seen recently. Medallion and En Francais are my two favourite background stamps, but I think that position may be usurped after 1st Sept ...

Hope you've had a good weekend. Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kez

Stamp Camp Creations

Today's cards are some of the goodies I was lucky enough to make at our Stamp Camp last weekend. First up is my entry for the "Mystery Box Challenge" Marelle set us as part of a Mastercrafter competition! I've used the gorgeous medallion, En Francais and A Rose is A Rose:

It was great at camp to get the chance to use some stamp sets that I don't own. Firstly I had a play with A Sense of Time, a set from one of our minis that is coming back in the new catalogue. Here I've used Soft Suede and Baja Breeze.

Then I cased a card by Lisa Young and liked it so much I made another in different colours:

For those I substituted Pocket Silhouettes for the herb one Lisa used.

Lastly I had a go with Build-a-Roo and cased this card from the new US catty:

Hope you've enjoyed those. I'll be back again soon with more goodies from camp.

Thanks for stopping by.

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

Elegant Kiwi

No, not me! I am far from an elegant kiwi today; torn jeans and a scruffy T-shirt! LOL! No, I'm talking about the elegant eggplant/kiwi kiss combo that I mentioned the other day - the ladies at my class yesterday loved it too, so I thought I'd show you two cards made using the same colours. Warning though, one card contains non-SU stamps - beware!!!

This first card is the one that started it all: I was colouring the image (one of our Christmas stamp-a-stack cards this month, by special request) and decided to use purple for the king's robes. Then I thought I'd use it for the card base too, kind of a non traditional colour thing going on! I wasn't overly in love when I paired it with old olive (much as I lurve OO, you understand!) so tried Kiwi Kiss and ... ZING! Great combo!

Then I decided to see what else looked good in this combo and as one of my good friends LOVES purple, I had her in mind when I tried some purple roses.

Yup, I am really liking it! Are you sick of it yet? Maybe I can sneak in a few more .... LOL! So, why don't you try making a card with these colours and send me a photo - I'd love to see some of your creations. Go on, don't be shy, I don't bite! Honest!

Thanks for stopping by. Have a great day!

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

Bill and Ben, eat your hearts out!

If you are a card blog surfer like me, you will have seen some Flower Pot Cards around on a number of overseas sites, and wow! how darn stinkin' cute are they? I finally got around to trying them and I LOVE THEM!!!!! They are smaller than they look in the photos and so incredibly adorable! You can use so many different flowers and colours and patterns ... the list is endless. If you haven't tried one of these, I recommend you do (look for the tutorial here at splitcoaststampers) and you will find they are VERY ADDICTIVE!

Here are my trial ones:

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

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

Then I tried one with native flowers, but the proportions are all wrong and it doesn't work, unfortunately.

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

DD17 loved my first one and asked for one in her favourite SU colour, Ballet Blue. Here's her flowerpot:

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

I can see I might have to find a way to wangle these in to a workshop or two in the near future .....!!!

Thanks for stopping by. Incredibly cold here today, so I hope you are keeping warm, wherever you are.

Cheers

Kez

Colour of the year

So Saffron has got to be the colour of the year, I think. It goes so well with so many other colours in DSP combinations this year, and today I discovered that I love it with almost amethyst. When a parcel on my doorstep announced the arrival of two new goodies, I had to have a play - naturally - and decided to use some Tea Party papers and the ab fab Fifth Avenue Floral stamp set. I've only inked up the rose so far, so thought it time I gave the lily a go! Here's how it turned out (just excuse my crappy photography!):

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

My two new goodies? Nestabilities Labels Four and Martha Stewart doily lace edge punch. I love them already; I think that punch is already on its way up to join SU's eyelet border as my favs.

The verse is one I've always loved but couldn't understand why it came with a masculine set (For Father, retired) as it is so sentimental - something blokes usually try to avoid like the plague!!! LOL!

Thanks for stopping by. Till next time!

Cheers

Kez

Mojo Monday #83 Yellow Rose

I have had this card in my head for a few days but have only just had time to put it together. Hopefully I'm still in time for the Mojo Monday challenge - I'm counting on time zone differences! Here's the layout we had to use:

And here is my card: Created by Kez. Stamped images ©1990-2009 Stampin' Up! ®

Supplies used:

• stamps - A rose is a rose; Tres chic, Floral, Touch of nature
• papers - whisper white, old olive and so saffron cardstock; so saffron patterns DSP; vellum
• other - white embossing powder, heat gun, dimensionals, stamp-a-ma-jig, eyelet border punch

Have a nice day!

Cheers

Kez