You're In My Thoughts

Sadly, my SIL's dear wee dog Max had to be put out of his pain yesterday. I know she will miss him terribly and I made a card to tell her we are thinking of her and sharing her loss as she mourns Maxie - such a sweet wee man.

I went with classic and simple, which she likes.

I did three layers on the rose but haven't used dimensionals in between layers, just adhered the centres so it has a little depth.

After I'd made my card I found that Just Add Ink's challenge this week is black and white, so I'm entering it in that.

Thanks for calling in.

Kez

A Blonde Moment ... Well, A Blonde Year Really!

So I was sitting in my lounge yesterday with DD11, waiting for a turn on the laptop and admiring today's first card, when a thought suddenly struck me. So Saffron has long been becoming one of my favourite SU colours and I finally realised why - it's the colour on my lounge room walls!!! Talk about taking a while for the penny to drop, LOL! I can only blame the abundance of grey hairs on my head that seem to have affected the brain cells as well :)

Anyways, the card uses the purple/yellow/green combo again, this time with So Saffron, Perfect Plum and a hint of Mellow Moss. I have used the crayon resist technique, which takes me back to the very first time I met my upline, Marelle, at a workshop! Mind you, I'm a bit out of practice so it took me three tries to get one I was happy with! And as I still seem to be in the Keep It Simple, Stamper mode, it is a very straightforward card - cos sometimes, simple is best.

Then the set Bloom Away beckoned me - might be something to do with the Australia Day card I showed you earlier in the week! So I coloured in some gorgeous gum blossoms and as I wanted to keep them the focus, the rest of the card is again very simple.

Created by Kez. Stamped images ©1990-2010 Stampin' Up! ®

Thanks for dropping in. Hope your brain cells are working better than mine!

Cheers

Kez

Creatalicious Challenge

The challenge this month at Creatalicious is to use pink or plum with burgundy and green, and also to incorporate some lace, ribbon or fibre. To me, these colours are very pretty and feminine, so I've tried to create a card that reflects that. I've used a real mixture of stamps, papers etc on this one:

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

Materials used:

• stamps - Oval All, Fifth Avenue Floral (SU); Sweetheart Tilda (Magnolia); Nature (Grant)
• card and paper - bravo burgundy, sage shadow, very vanilla cardstock, watercolour paper (SU); paper by daisyd's
• inks (all SU) - pink pirouette, pretty in pink, regal rose, sage shadow, blush blossom, creamy caramel, purely pomegranate, bravo burgundy
• other - lace from stash, dimensionals, large oval and scallop oval punches (SU), white gel pen, vintage architecture (Melissa Francis)

Hope you like it. Thanks for stopping by.

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

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

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

Cobwebs and pearls

As I mentioned yesterday, I am going to Christchurch soon for a visit. While I am there I will be teaching a workshop to my old friends at the Calligraphy Society and I have been working very hard on the projects we'll be doing. I don't want to spoil it for them and show you all the GORJUS goodies now, but here's a couple of sneak peeks at what I have in store for them ...

Dusted quite a few cobwebs off my calligraphy skills for this one ... it has been a while! I bet the clever ones among you can guess which Tilda I've used!

Some classic elegance in this lovely set, which come in a super GORJUS container!

Well, enough of a spoiler! I'm off to browse the new Spring mini catalogue ready for pre-ordering tomorrow - one of the many perks of being a demo, te he! Thanks for dropping by.

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

Everything's coming up roses

Alright, I give up! C'mon! It's not fair to have so many gorgeous samples on so many blogs and not expect me to cave and buy the set! I admit it, I am weak! You know I just HAD TO HAVE Fifth Avenue Floral - how could I resist any longer?!!!!!

So, in line with the NRR (that's New Rubber Rule), I had to play with it straight away! This first card is just a run of the mill watercolouring using watercolour crayons in pale plum and perfect plum. For the background I stamped the image repeatedly using Versamark ink.

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

The next card uses a watercolouring technique I saw on Patti Bennett's blog and was originally created by Crystal French. They used shimmer cardstock which SU here doesn't carry, so I've substituted regular whisper white. Also, the instructions say use whisper white ink and clear embossing powder, but I found (trial and error) that white embossing powder gives a nicer finish. It is a lot of fun and you can get spectacular colours, so what are you waiting for? Go on, pop over and watch the video tutorial, then give it a try!

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

And my third card uses inks on watercolour paper and this time I've stepped out of my square and used orange tones - pumpkin pie and tangerine tango.

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

Hope your day is coming up roses too!

Cheers

Kez