Pride and Prejudice

It is a truth universally acknowledged that stampers love playing with new product. Am I right? Yes, I am.

With my visitors gone (sad face), the silver lining was that my craft room was my own once again, and that meant PLAY TIME! The goodies I'd pre-ordered from the Occasions Catalogue were taunting me from the shelves so it was time to settle down and get serious with ink.

And you know how I love to get inky. Oh yeah. The new Dragonfly Dreams bundle gave me just the opportunity to get messily creative - so yes, I am happy to admit, my fingers are all shades of grubby right now! But. I. Don't. Care.

As usual, I found some inspiration from Pinterest, and also - unusually - from the Occasions catty itself. Here's my first effort, some Bokeh effect with gold and purples. So rich and glamorous! A whispery trail of dragonfly sparkle ties the two gold elements together and gives the card movement.

Materials used:

• stamps - Butterfly Basics, Dragonfly Dreams
• card - whisper white, blackberry bliss, gold foil
• inks - rich razzleberry, blackberry bliss, whisper white, Versamark
• other - gold embossing powder, heat tool, dragonfly thinlits, cirlce punches and dies, sponges, Wink of Stella, dimensionals, Big Shot, die brush

The card in the Occasions catty I based my next sample on used some of the lovely new papers, but there's not enough of it in a pack for me to use with classes, so I had to improvise and create my own. 

I began with a piece of very vanilla and stamped En Francais using crumb cake ink, then sponged it unevenly (yes, on purpose) with so saffron. Next some Bermuda bay sponging of a diamond stencil - not SU, unfortunately, as they don't have this shape (yet) - and the 'dots' of hello honey. The edges were given a deep sponge with crumb cake, then a light edging with early espresso for more depth. The dragonfly (stamped in early espresso) has hints of saffron and Bermuda on its wings, which also glitter with Wink of Stella. The sentiment is stamped on vellum. Et voila! 

Materials used:

• stamps - Dragonfly Dreams, En Francais (retired)
• card - Bermuda bay, very vanilla, vellum
• inks - crumb cake, so saffron, Bermuda bay, hello honey, early espresso, StazOn timber brown
• other - sponges, Tim Holtz stencil, dragonfly thinlits, Wink of Stella, dimensionals, spray adhesive, Big Shot

Sometimes, of course, simple is best, as you can see in my next card, inspired by a creation from a UK demo called Kim that I found on Pinterest. To get my sentiment dark enough but still use the matching ink, I used my MISTI and stamped it three times.

Materials used:

• stamps - Thoughtful Branches, Canvas (retired)
• card - Sahara sand, dazzling diamonds glimmer, Falling in Love DSP
• inks - Sahara sand
• other - dragonfly thinlits, layering ovals framelits, Big Shot, MISTI, sponge dauber, dimensionals, die brush

Okay, time to go back for some more playing. Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kez

Sending Wishes

The colour combination at the Fab Friday Challenge really grabbed me this week.

They're very autumnal colours but here in Australia it's spring, so I didn't want to do an autumn card. I did think they might look good together brayered, so I sat down and had a go and sure enough, they blended together beautifully. Dramatic but evocative, in my opinion.

Once I'd done the brayering I then had to decide what to stamp over it! Lol. I went with a very simple design and layout for an almost-any-occasion type card. Here tis:

Materials used:

• stamps - World of Dreams, Butterfly Basics
• card - blackberry bliss, hello honey, whisper white
• inks - blackberry bliss, hello honey, cajun craze, Versamark
• other - crushed curry embossing powder, heat tool, embossing buddy, brayer, Dimensionals

There are plenty of birds around our place at this time of year and it's lovely to hear their singing and twittering - unless it's early in the morning of course! Then I'm not so happy!

I hope you're hearing plenty of birdsong at your place too. Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kez

Butterfly

This week I had another go at the tea light card, changing the design up a little so it's more straightforward to make.

For my butterfly I cut the base in crisp cantaloupe and the thinlit in early espresso, and then used crisp cantaloupe and calypso coral markers to add some shading to portions of the wings.

Pocket size was decreased on this version to better suit my tag, cut with the cute scalloped tag topper punch. Notice the gorgeous lace on the pocket too? Sahara sand lace to match my card base!

The box could also be used to contain other gifts, of course, rather than tea lights. Chocolates come to mind!

Materials used:

• stamps - Butterfly Basics
• card - Sahara sand, wild wasabi, crisp cantaloupe, early espresso, very vanilla
• punches and dies - butterfly thinlits, oval framelits, scalloped tag topper, corner rounder, deco labels framelits 
• other - rhinestones, dimensionals, Big Shot, Sahara sand lace, sponge dauber, wild wasabi ribbon
• non SU - Graphic 45 papers, acetate

I've used the butterfly die again for my second project, this time soft and ethereal in vellum and teamed with new stamp set Painted Petals. Sooooooo pretty! Design cased and adapted from a card by Mercedes Weber.

Materials used:

• Painted Petals, retired sentiment stamp
• card - white linen (non SU), vellum 
• inks - wisteria wonder, pear pizzazz, Versamark
• other - Apothecary Accents die, Big Shot, dimensionals, silver embossing powder, heat tool, butterfly thinlits die, rhinestones, silver paint pen (non SU)

I know my ladies are going to love making these in class this week!

Thanks for calling in.

Cheers

Kez

Tea Light Card

While browsing around the internet I came across a gorgeous little project by Marianne Skjelstad that I just couldn't wait to try. It's a card, gift and tag all in one and is quite easy to make.

Here's the front of my tea light card:

And the inside:

(Apart from the patterned papers I've used for this project, everything else is SU. Much as I love SU stuff (and I truly do) when it comes to pretty, feminine floral papers, they just don't do it for me. Sigh! I wish they would, I really, really do! Anyways, I've used some papers I had sitting around and you'll probably notice that I do tend to buy papers that match well with SU colours!)

On the original project, Marianne had tied some ribbon around the box on the inside (presumably to hold the tea lights in), but I attached a piece of acetate inside instead. I put the open flap of my box towards the spine of the card rather than the outside, as I find my flap is a bit loose and prone to come open and I didn't want all the candles falling out!

Materials used:

• stamps - Butterfly Basics
• card - crumb cake, whisper white, rose red, non SU patterned papers
• other - deco labels framelits, Big Shot, sticky strip, butterfly thinlits die, pearls, dimensionals, acetate, scallop trim border punch, sponge dauber, white organza ribbon, bone folder

My thanks to Marianne for sharing her project and the wonderful tutorial for making it. If you'd like to make one for yourself, follow the link HERE.

Thanks for dropping by.

Cheers

Kez

Triple Layer Butterfly

A nice big brown box arrived on my doorstep yesterday so this morning I was excited to sit and play. I was dying to try out the beautifully ethereal Butterfly Basics stamp set and matching dies from the Occasions catalogue and this is what I ended up with for my first effort.

My three layers of butterfly are in gradient shades; I used pool party, coastal cabana and Bermuda bay. As with all delicate dies, you need to use some wax paper between the card and the die and I also ran it back and forth a couple of times in my Big Shot to make sure I got a good cut. That made it super-easy to remove all the little bits.

Materials used:

• stamps - Butterfly Basics
• card - blackberry bliss, Sahara sand, pool party, coastal cabana, Bermuda bay
• ink - Sahara sand, blackberry bliss
• other - butterfly thinlits, Big Shot, rhinestones, dimensionals, wax paper, embossing stylus

Thanks for calling in.

Cheers

Kez