Butterflies in Flight

For the first time in ages, today I got to sit and make a card just for FUN! Not for DT work or classes or  for Christmas preparation - just for the pure enjoyment of creating - and I loved it!

I was inspired by an embossed and sponged panel I saw on a card, so I ran with that idea and ended up with some butterflies in flight - take a look:

Materials used:

• stamps - Creative Elements, All a Flutter, Kindness Matters
• card - midnight muse, whisper white, gold
• other - gold embossing powder, dimensionals, blender pen, sponge, gold pen

I embossed the gold swirls first, then sponged with tempting turquoise, island indigo and midnight muse. My "flutterbies" were coloured with perfect plum, calypso coral, tempting turquoise and lucky limeade. The most awkward part was sticking those little beauties on! We're talking TINY amounts of dimensional here! LOL!

Anyway, now I've got to get back to my To Do List - there's more Christmas cards to make and a graduation card for DD20 that won't create itself! Back with those next week!

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kez

Kraft Renaissance

Back before Kraft became Crumb Cake, I hardly ever touched it. Not sure why, just oversight I guess, but I find myself reaching for it more and more these days. I love how it goes with just about any other colour and I am especially loving the vintage look it gives when teamed with black and vanilla.

Here are a few cards I've made recently in that style.

The first one I had in my head ever since I saw A Little Treat in the December Frenzy and I'm quite pleased with how it all came together.

Next I have broken out my Elements of Style set. This is one I loved from the moment I saw it and was thrilled to see it in our new catalogue. The hint of colour is Baja breeze.

Lastly I've combined Elements of Style with Sense of Time. I have seen some really gorgeous cards using this combo in various forms, so I have no doubt I'll be trying out some more of these myself.

Tomorrow: my first UStamp project. Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers
Kez

Gimme A Break!

I've been making so many Christmas cards and projects that I just had to have a break from all that red, green and tinsel and make some "normal" cards! LOL! So here's a couple I came up with.

Firstly an old favourite gets an airing again, this time teamed up with some new loves.

 Materials used:

• stamps - Just Believe, All A Flutter
• card, paper - basic black, Newsprint DSP
• ink - black StazOn, crumb cake
• markers - pink pirouette, pretty in pink, crumb cake
• punch - scallop trim border
• other - Victoria crochet trim, pink pirouette brads, dimensionals

DD12 said it is 'gorgeous' and 'elegant', which is just what I was going for, so I'm happy!

Next I made a birthday card for my big bro over in EnZed. I cased this card from Andrea Walford and just added in a couple of touches of my own. Not sure if my brother is in to bright, cheerful cards, but DH loves it! (Gotta remember that for next year!)

inside the card:

Materials used:

• stamps - Word Play, Party This Way
• card, paper - pacific point, real red, whisper white, old olive, Celebrations DSP
• ink - pacific point, basic black
• other - dimensionals, pacific point brads, corner rounder punch

I'm off to Melbourne again for a few days to help DD18 pack up and move out of her uni lodgings, so I'll be back next week with more goodies! Have a great week and thanks for calling in.

Cheers
Kez

More Photos from Sunday

Here are a few more photos of my lovely helpers at the Cards for our Troops day on Sunday. (excuse the names being in odd places, I can't get this silly program to do what I want!)

 Robyn

 Lynda

 Jenny and Maureen

 Filomena

Rae

You can see I kept them all working hard! LOL! Actually, they worked soooooo hard that I gave them all an "early mark"! Yes, that's right, we had everything finished ahead of schedule! How's that for dedication?

In all of these photos you'll see a little white bag with handles. Each lady received a Thank You bag of goodies from me - I do have photos but am having real computer issues at the moment and can't upload them from my camera. I'll get them up asap.

It was a great day and I'm already looking forward to next year's event!

Cheers

Kez

Edited to add: Here's a photo of the goodies in the thank you bags - an owl giant paper clip bookmark, mini milk carton with ribbon samples, calendar fridge magnet and Smarties tube (kindly made for me by Robyn). This one seems to be empty - don't know how that happened!!!

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

JAI colour challenge

I love the colours in the Just Add Ink challenge this week, but after seeing in the "flesh" Liam's gorgeous card (you can see it here on her blog), I was rather intimidated and not inclined to enter! However, I was browsing through splitcoast and a card there gave me the germ of an idea, so I have made an entry after all. Here are the colours:

I've used two (retired) old favourites - Floral background stamp and Rose Red patterned paper - with two new favs - All A Flutter and the Tags die from the mini. Here's my card:

I doesn't look quite as good as I imagined it in my head, but it will do. I like the vintage-y look to it.

Thanks for calling in, have a great day.

Cheers
Kez

A Real Hum-Dinger

The colour challenge that Makeesha put up this week is a real hum-dinger! An excellent challenge cos it really gets you thinking about how to combine these colours successfully. Here are the colours:

I made a spiral card and guess what? Yup, it's that butterfly again! I hope you aren't totally sick of it by now - I'll give it a rest after this, I promise! Here's the front:

I thought that butterflies suited the sentiment so well; with their short life span, they have to make the most of what time they have. And here is the inside:

I used acetate for my spiral to try to make it as invisible as possible so that the butterflies would really look like they are fluttering around in mid air. Does it work? Would love to hear what you think!

All materials SU except border punch and acetate.

Thanks for calling in. Have a great weekend.

Cheers
Kez

Satin Wings

I couldn't help it.
I just had to do some more butterflies. There's something about flowers and butterflies, isn't there? So serene. Mother Nature is truly amazing.

First up I cased a lovely card by Kirsty Brown but changed the colours completely and added in All A Flutter. I wanted to use this colour combo before these colours are gone forever ... sniff! (It's OK. I'll be alright. Ta.) This is blush blossom, cameo coral and ruby red, with a touch of choc chip.

Then I just had to use Upsy Daisy to pair with AAF. In spite of all kinds of different ideas popping in my head, I fell back to my all time fav, brayering. Just love the effects you can make with this little rubber roller! Here I have used the colours from the JAI challenge a couple of weeks back, just for something a little different - taken with teal, elegant eggplant and melon mambo. Very vibrant..

There is a song about butterflies and love and I always think of it when I use this stamp, so I thought I'd try a wedding/engagement/anniversary card. I stuck with classic black and white and added kraft, soon to be renamed Cookie Crumb! and added the gorgeous medallion in the background.

Well, that's my butterfly obsession for today! Thanks for calling in.

 
Cheers
Kez

Hooked On That Butterfly

I couldn't resist making another card using the gorgeous butterfly from All A Flutter. This one is pretty much a case of Teneale's beautiful blue one we made at class a couple of weeks ago (see her post here) but I've used the Razzleberry/Orchid/Olive combo that is so popular.

I was in two minds about doing the inside, but then was pretty much forced to as I've got so many layers on the front (six layers!) that the card was very "front heavy" and inclined to fall over, LOL! So here's the inside of the card:

I left the middle area clear for the card to be written in. As you can see from the top photo, there are a number of layers to the butterflies. First I stamped them directly on to the white card (to get the antennae bit so I didn't have to cut them out!), then added a second layer that were coloured in and adhered flat, then a third layer (also coloured) which are just attached at the body so that the wings can sit up a little. It looks totally GORJUS in real life if I do say so myself!

I know my ladies will want to make this one as they dropped hints today about butterflies. Maybe next class if they are good, LOL!

Thanks for stopping by; hope you are having a great week and keeping warm.

Cheers

Kez

Inspired by Endings

I've been having a play with Inspired by Nature today and tried it in a couple of colour-ways.

Firstly I used Bordering Blue and Brocade Blue (both of which are being retired, sadly) with some Always Artichoke. I also felt compelled to add the gorgeous butterfly from All a Flutter - which I had resisted buying until I made some cards with it at Teneale's, and the rest, as they say, was history. Thanks Teneale! I used the plastic bag technique to add texture and I'm quite pleased with how it turned out.

I love this colour combo, it is so soft. I did, however, have to add an extra layer of Brocade Blue at the top of the flower as there wasn't enough contrast between the two shades.

Then I tried it in Bravo Burgundy (a colour I hardly ever use) with Regal Rose. I didn't do the texture on the leaves and stems, only on the flowers themselves.

The bottom layer of flowers - with just straight marker - didn't look too great, I must admit, and I wasn't very keen. But once the plastic bag texture was added to the top layer, it improved it no end, softening the colours and blending them together more, so I am happy with it in the end!

Sorry about dark photos - there's not much light left here now. Joys of winter.

Hope you have been inspired to create something today. Have a great weekend.

Cheers
Kez