Autumn Splendour

It's not long now until March and here in Australia that heralds the arrival of Autumn, my favourite time of year. Here in the Blue Mountains the colours on the deciduous trees will be just stunning over the next few months - it always makes me wish I had some talent as a painter to capture that glory of nature. So I do the next best thing and stamp!

The projects for this month's classes feature Autumn colours and here they are:

Inspired by Patty Bennett, this one was a ton of fun with sponging and emboss resist.

Materials used:

• stamps - Magnificent Maple
• card - Sahara sand, whisper white, pumpkin pie
• inks - crushed curry, pumpkin pie, cajun craze, early espresso, Versamark
• other - sponges, brayer, clear embossing powder, heat tool, honeycomb embossing folder, Big Shot, dimensionals

The next card is more fun with sponges and ink, CASEing a glorious card by Tricia Traxler. I am especially pleased with how my leaf turned out! Take a lookie:

Materials used:

• stamps- Magnificent Maple, French Foliage, Best Yet
• card - cajun craze, very vanilla, naturals ivory
• inks - so saffron, crushed curry, calypso coral, cajun craze, tangerine tango, early espresso
• other - sponges and sponge daubers, embossing stylus and mat, dimensionals, non SU scalloped rectangle die

For our third card I borrowed the beautiful Simply Sketched hostess set from my SIL and went to town with watercolouring. Sanding the core'dinations card (in glorious cherry cobbler) made the perfect background.

Materials used:

• stamps - Simply Sketched
• card - cherry cobbler (plain and core'dinations), watercolour, more mustard
• inks - crushed curry, more mustard, cajun craze, old olive
• other - lace ribbon, aqua painter, dimensionals, mosaic embossing folder, ovals framelits, Big Shot, sanding block, sponge daubers

I love, love, love how this one turned out, the colours are so rich.

Have fun playing in the Autumn leaves and thanks for calling in!

Cheers

Kez

A Grateful Heart

So anyway, I was out clothes shopping yesterday and I was trying on an outfit in coral and white over the navy pants I was wearing - and looking in the mirror, I thought how gorgeous those colours looked together and what a great card they would make!

 I'm sure all of you think up cards while you're in the changing room, don't you???!!!

So, here is the card my outfit inspired:

Materials used:

• stamps - Pursuit of Happiness, French Foliage
• card - calypso coral, whisper white, night of navy
• other - honeycomb E/F, Big Shot, labels framelit, festive paper piercing pack, pearls, dimensionals, embossing stylus, piercing mat, piercing tool
• non SU - fabric rose

The fabric rose was one I had in my stash, but you could use re-inkers to colour SU's fabric roses to match whatever colour you need!

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kez

In Which I Use A Button

I love buttons.

I love them in all different colours, shapes and sizes.

I have quite a few buttons (I am assuming that, as similarly compulsive, obsessive crafters, you will know the real meaning of the phrase "quite a few".)

They are kept in cute little jars on my shelf, arranged in colours.

How often do I actually USE a button on my cards and/or projects?

Yeah, something about blue moons I think! :P

So today is a red-letter day 'cos I did actually use a button! Huzzah! 

The lucky recipient of said fastener is my DT card for this week's Color Me Beautiful challenge. Here are the inspiration photo and colour combo:

Aren't they gorgeous? For my card I was inspired by aspects of a number of cards I've seen around cyberspace blogdom and finally meshed them all into this:

Materials used:

• stamps - Pleasant Poppies, French Foliage
• card - perfect plum, river rock, soft suede, very vanilla, First Edition DSP
• other - Baja breeze seam binding, perfect plum button, string, blender pen, sponge dauber, finishing touches edgelits die, glue dot, Big Shot

We would love you to visit the challenge blog to see what the rest of the design team came up with this week - and of course to be inspired to take part in the challenge!

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kez

Technique Tuesday ... and Sunday

In classes this week we are having a play with techniques. Here are the cards I came up with for my lovely ladies:

Firstly cracked glass technique.

Materials used:

• stamps - French Foliage, Elements of Style
• card - bravo burgundy, old olive, very vanilla, gloss
• inks - bravo burgundy, old olive, always artichoke, crumb cake, Versamark
• other - old olive satin ribbon, designer frames E/F, markers, dimensionals, UTEE clear, square lattice E/F, Big Shot

Secondly some emboss resist with a layout inspired by Nikki Spencer/Kathy Tanner. How gorgeous is this colour combo? Yum!

Materials used:

• stamps - Fresh Vintage, Word Play
• card - island indigo, calypso coral, whisper white
• inks - island indigo, calypso coral, basic black, Versamark
• other - white embossing powder, heat tool, sponges, tissues, markers, dimensionals

And lastly some two-step stamping on a card inspired by Tui Nathan.

Materials used:

• stamps - Field Flowers
• card - rich razzleberry, wild wasabi, whisper white, RR patterns paper
• inks - rich razzleberry, wild wasabi
• other - rich razzleberry satin ribbon, dimensionals, pearls, MFT die

And a big THANK YOU to whomever sent us some sunshine - MUCH appreciated! Mind you, apparently we are forecast to have 21 days of rain out of the 29 days of this month :(   Now we've had 2 of our 8 sunny ones!

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kez

Dispatches

Sympathy cards are by their very nature the most difficult to make I think. We all have trouble knowing what to say to someone who has lost a loved one. From my experience, it's not the actual words that are said that helps, but the knowledge that someone cares.

I don't like anything too gushy, so keep the sentiments on my cards simple and hope the recipient knows they come from the heart. For design you can't go wrong with nature, whether your card is for a man or woman.

(cased from Christine Z)

Materials used:

• Stamps - Elements of Style, Thoughts and Prayers
• Card - Baja breeze, whisper white, basic black
• Other - non SU embossing folder, dimensionals, stamp-a-ma-jig

For this one I stamped the leaves on watercolour paper using the different coloured inks, then "smooshed" over them with a clean, wet aquapainter to add that little touch of watercoloured look to them. First time I've tried it and I like how it turned out, so I'll be sure to give that another go sometime.

Materials used:

• stamps - French Foliage, Thoughts and Prayers
• card - cajun craze, more mustard, early espresso, watercolour
• inks - more mustard, cajun craze, cherry cobbler, tangerine tango, early espresso
• other - dimensionals, aquapainter

Hope my Hatches, Matches and Dispatches have inspired you. Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kez

Antiquing Technique

Today's craft weekend project card is a bit of a misfit really. It's a combination of a number of techniques - I've used faux mother-of-pearl, sponging, distressing and vintage style - so I've decided to call it the antiquing technique! I was inspired by Sage Kimble's glorious distressed wallpaper technique. A couple of stamp sets have been amalgamated too - I've got French Foliage in there with Creative Elements and a non-SU crackle background. I also wanted to use light colours so picked perfect plum, Baja breeze and whisper white.

Here's a close up of the shimmer from the faux mother-of-pearl:

Thanks for dropping by and going antiquing with me! (LOL)

Cheers
Kez

Dear Friend

It was my good mate Rob's birthday recently and although I rang her on the day, I haven't had the chance to give her her birthday card until today. I've used a combination of things I know she loves - black, vanilla, cherry cobbler and my Fabulous Florets stamp set.

Here's the front:

And on the inside I have carried through the shape and the flower:

Materials used:

• stamps - Occasional Greetings, Fabulous Florets, Perfect Punches, Vintage Labels 18 (Waltzingmouse Stamps)
• card - cherry cobbler, basic black, very vanilla, old olive, Love Letters DSP, Regals patterns stack
• other - Versamark, cherry cobbler embossing powder, dimensionals, Big Shot, basic black satin ribbon

Back in a day or two with the gorgeous projects from our play day! Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kez

Thinking of You

This card was loads of fun to make, incorporating some of my favourite techniques - watercolouring, sponging and distressing.

The sentiment was stamped twice to make it a bit darker and the bird and two bullrushes were stamped on watercolour paper, cut out and stuck on over the very vanilla image for dimension. I also "shabbied" the lace by sponging over patches of it.

Materials used:

• stamps - Every Moment, French Foliage, Silhouette Sentiments
• card - crumb cake, very vanilla, marina mist, watercolour paper, Elegant Soiree DSP
• inks & markers - soft suede, pear pizzazz, crumb cake, Baja breeze, marina mist, so saffron, more mustard
• other - lace, dimensionals, nestabilities die, aquapainter

Hope you get the chance to play with some of your favs today! Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kez

Seasons Herald The Passing Of Time

Yesterday I got to thinking about how the seasons and the passage of time are intertwined and I found a great quote from Oliver Wendell Holmes that refers to this:


The foliage has been losing its freshness through the month of August, and here and there a yellow leaf shows itself like the first gray hair amidst the locks of a beauty who has seen one season too many.  


So I decided to make a card along this theme and picked the stamp sets French Foliage and A Sense of Time, which were just perfect for what I had in mind. Here's the card front:

And on the inside:

What do you think?

Materials used:

• stamps - French Foliage, Sense of Time
• card - very vanilla, early espresso, more mustard, cherry cobbler
• inks - early espresso, more mustard, cherry cobbler, tangerine tango, cajun craze
• other - sponge daubers, dimensionals

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kez