New Meets Old

Here I am back from chilly Melbourne! I had a wonderful few days with DD21; we did a river cruise to Williamstown, browsed the Prahran markets, heard some live swing music and had lots of fun in each other's company. It was hard to come back home again but nice to be back with DD15 and in my own bed! Here's a snap taken on my iphone of DD at Southbank, waiting for our boat ride.

Anyway, on to cards! For this week's class I am introducing my ladies to the new in colours, combining them with existing stamp sets.

First up some Crisp Cantaloupe:

Materials used:

• stamps - Fabulous Florets, Field Flowers
• card - crisp cantaloupe, whisper white, basic grey
• inks - basic grey, crisp cantaloupe, pistachio pudding
• other - basic grey satin ribbon, dimensionals, sponge daubers

Next comes Pistachio Pudding:

Materials used:

• stamps - Doily, Elements of Style
• card - pistachio pudding, whisper white, crumb cake
• inks - crumb cake, pistachio pudding, crisp cantaloupe
• other - white embossing powder, heat tool, dimensionals, blender pen, sponge daubers, 1 1/4" square punch

And last but not least a touch of Strawberry Slush and Coastal Cabana (this one is the favourite of both my girls). I'm not too good at photographing white cards, so just trust me that it looks better in real life!

Materials used:

• stamps - Field Flowers, Gingham wheel
• card - white linen (non SU), whisper white, non SU polka dot dsp
• inks - strawberry slush, coastal cabana
• other - honeycomb E/F, Big Shot, window framelits, 1" square punch, dimensionals, designer frames E/F, sponge dauber

I didn't use the fifth in colour, Baked Brown Sugar, but I'm sure my ladies won't mind. 

Thanks for dropping by.

Cheers

Kez

Holiday Mode

It's the school holidays here in NSW and I did not much of anything for the first week! It seems I was more in need of just relaxing than I realised ...

But this week I have to get busy finalising things for the Artfest craft show coming up and also get sorted planning a few things for Stamp Camp - yeah, I know it's not until November, but you all know those months will just fly by and Nov will be here before we know it! As there's such a lot of planning to do, Rob and I are getting an early start.

I've also been asked to be a guest designer for the Inky Fingers Club in May, so there's a project to be created for that too. I think it's just as well I had a quiet week last week!

Anyway, here's a couple of cards I made over the weekend when I wasn't being completely lazy.

Sorry my photography skills just aren't up to scratch - this card is so much more gorgeous in real life!

Materials used:

• stamps - Field Flowers, Elements of Style, Afterthoughts (retired hostess)
• card - perfect plum, elegant eggplant, watercolour, very vanilla
• other - aqua painter, large oval punch, Big Shot, matchbox die
• non SU - nestabilities Fleur de Lis squares die

The second card was inspired by a few different cards I've seen around and is the first time this stamp set has seen ink. I really like it, though, so I'm going to have to find time to use it more.

Materials used:

• stamps - Million Dollar Moments (hostess), Field Flowers
• card - whisper white, primrose petals
• other - fancy fan E/F, Big Shot, ovals die
• non SU - white organza ribbon

If you are on holidays too, I hope you are having a fun time. Thanks for dropping by.

Cheers

Kez

Last Class

Well, it had to happen some time - the last class of the year. Here are the cards we made, firstly a simple masculine card:

Materials used:

• stamps - Best Dad Ever
• card - gumball green, midnight muse, whisper white, gumball green patterned paper
• other - rhinestone, buttons die, white gel pen, dimensionals, white bakers twine

Then I had to give my new Hello Doily stamp an airing - this has been on my wish list for a LONG time! I paired it with the beautiful Field Flowers and a sentiment from Blooming with Kindness:

Materials used:

• stamps - Hello Doily, Field Flowers, Blooming with Kindness
• card - crumb cake, rich razzleberry, very vanilla
• other - crumb cake seam binding, dimensionals, stamp-a-ma-jig

And of course I could not complete the year without some kerry cobbler, now could I? This one was inspired by a Melissa Davies card and I've used another new set, Everything Eleanor. Bit of fussy cutting with this one, but my ladies cheerfully fiddled with it!

Materials used:

• stamps - Everything Eleanor, Blooming with Kindness
• card - cherry cobbler, very vanilla
• other - apothecary accents die, pearls, cherry cobbler seam binding, large scallop edgelit, delicate designs embossing folder, stripes embossing folder, sponge dauber, dimensionals

It has been another wonderful year of classes with my lovely ladies and while I am looking forward to a break, I know I'll be raring to get back to it come January!

On Monday night we had our Christmas get together dinner and here is the Christmas card I made for everyone (cased from Steffi):

Plus there was a small gift in a lovely Fancy Favour gift box, which were made in different colour combinations:

Hope you're having fun at your Xmas "doos" too! Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers
Kez

Purple-licious!

I had to quickly make up a birthday card for a young lady recently and as my pre-order from the new Autumn/Winter mini arrived just the day before, it was the perfect opportunity to try out some new schtuff!

The birthday girl loves purple so I used one of my fav flower sets, Field Flowers, in wisteria wonder and concord crush.

As you can see I used the gorgeous Edgelits die and matching embossing folder up the top, plus the new Framelits die for my main panel. You are going to absolutely ADORE the new mini, it is chocca with gor-juss goodies!

Materials used:

• stamps - Field Flowers, Happiest Birthday Wishes (hostess)
• card - concord crush, whisper white, wisteria wonder patterns paper
• ink - wisteria wonder, concord crush, lucky limeade
• other - Labels Collection Framelits die (new mini), Adorning Accents Edgelits die (new mini), Adorning Accents TI Embossing folder (new mini), dimensionals, lucky limeade organza ribbon (SAB)

Thanks for dropping in.

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

Birthday Browns

Today my wonderful SIL is celebrating her birthday and naturally I had to make her a special card. I've used the new Spice Cake DSP from the Summer mini as I know the earthy tones and touch of blue will really appeal to her.

Materials used:

• stamps - Field Flowers, Tagtastic
• card - crumb cake, very vanilla, pool party, spice cake dsp
• inks - more mustard, early espresso, soft suede, cajun craze
• other - early espresso bakers twine, designer frames embossing folder, dimensionals

Hope you have a lovely NYE day and a wonderful celebration to welcome in 2012.

Thanks for calling in.

Cheers

Kez

Second Poppy

Can you believe this is only the second time I have used 2010-2011 in colour Poppy Parade? I wanted to try out the gorgeous new Everyday Enchantment papers from the upcoming Sale-a-bration catalogue and I must say, this colour is now growing on me.

I love that the papers have a bit of a shabby look to them, so I've torn, distressed and sponged my papers to accentuate that and threaded some of the matching 1/8" organdy ribbon (also in SAB catty) around my border. I love the long tails on the ribbon and can't bear to cut them shorter, so I'm sticking with that length cos I think it adds to the charm!

Here's my card:

The colours in these papers are lucky limeade, pool party, peach parfait, calypso coral, poppy parade, very vanilla and soft suede - so a veritable feast of in colours to play with! I'm sure you're going to love it.

Materials used:

• stamps - Field Flowers
• card - poppy parade, pool party, very vanilla, Everyday Enchantment DSP
• ink - calypso coral, poppy parade, lucky limeade, crumb cake
• other - calypso coral organdy ribbon, dimensionals, distressing tool, sponge dauber
• non SU - spellbinders lacey ovals die

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers
Kez

Floral Feast

Today is the last class for the year and my ladies chose a veritable feast of pretty, feminine flower cards to make. Here's the group:

You've seen these two before, which both use Parlour Prints in the background:

Fabulous Florets, coming soon in the Summer mini.

Field Flowers, a gorgeous 2-step set.

And this one is a re-working of this card, made to fit a standard size envelope.

With the sun back out at last after more than a week of grey skies and endless rain, the floral cards are just right to get us back into Spring mode!

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers
Kez

Field of Pink and Green

For my workshop today the ladies want to learn embossing, so that gave me the perfect excuse to use the beautiful Parlour Prints stamp again. I've added in some very simple masking and sponging and the gorgeous Field Flowers set - such a simple 2 step set to use. For colour I've gone with a pink and green combo - I love how fresh and pretty these look together.

Materials used:

• stamps - Field Flowers, Parlour Prints, Short and Sweet
• card - pretty in pink, certainly celery, whisper white
• inks - certainly celery, wild wasabi, basic black, pretty in pink, regal rose, Versamark
• other - white embossing powder, heat tool, dimensionals, sponge, Big Shot, non SU oval die

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kez

Weekend Wonderfuls

I'm sure you want to see more of the wonderful things we made away at our craft weekend, don't you? I just have to show you this gorgeous little box we made - I have already got a demand from DD13 that I make one for her, so I can see I might possibly be churning out a few of these! It was pretty straightforward to make - when I managed to stick it together the right way! - there were just lots of little bits and pieces, but we were under great tutelage.

Here it is all closed up:

And when you open it up, there's a "shelf" for goodies plus two little drawers.

It only measures 11 x 7.5 cm, so it's a real little cutie!

Another gorgeous project we made was a faux brick wall card. I hadn't tried this technique before and there are various methods of doing it, but I must say that it was nowhere near as difficult as I feared it might be. Once you got your first row of bricks down, it all fell into place quite easily. This is a really beautiful card, take a lookie:

Yes, each brick was individually cut and sponged! Not as bad as it sounds, and doesn't the embossing look stunning? The colours are river rock, pretty in pink and whisper white.

And lastly I'll leave you with a couple of cards I made using Field Flowers, a beautiful new set from the catalogue.

Here I've used First Edition DSP, new in colour Wisteria Wonder (teamed with Concord Crush) and the new Very Vanilla seam binding. I sprayed the seam binding with shimmer mist and scrunched it up to give a vintage look, then tied it in a double bow.

This one is in daffodil delight, basic black and whisper white. The DSP on the left is from Big Top Birthday and on the right is card embossed using the new stripes embossing folder. The sentiment is from Happiness Shared.

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers
Kez