Beannachtaí na Féile Pádraig

One of DD16's school besties is Irish and when I saw a St Patrick's Day card made by Mary Fish, I simply could not resist case-ing it to make for her - it was just tooooooooo cute not to!

So here's my take on Mary's card:

Materials used:

• stamps - Teeny Tiny Sentiments
• card - whisper white, garden green, basic black, gold (non SU), garden green patterned paper
• other - Big Shot, moustache die, bow builder punch, 1 3/4" circle punch, word window punch, banner framelits, Dimensionals

I've always felt an affinity with Ireland, though I'm not sure why; my ancestral connection with the country is tenuous, to say the least. But I've seen a fair bit of Ireland and loved it - and, hey! they've got a whole county named after me (County Kerry), so that's gotta be a good thing!!!!! LOL

Beannachtaí na Féile Pádraig (Happy St Patrick's Day)! "Tanks" for stopping by!

Cheers
Kez

Oh Happy Day

Excitement this morning when my pre-order from the new Occasions catalogue arrived at my door! Once I had unpacked my new stuff, I couldn't wait to sit and play to see if the ideas floating around in my head would work with real stamps and paper!

First up a bright and cheerful centre-step birthday card using lots of new goodies - stamps, designer series paper, framelits dies, punch and embossing folder. Here tis:

Materials used:

• stamps - Starburst Sayings, Teeny Tiny Sentiments
• card - so saffron, coastal cabana, very vanilla, Retro Fresh dsp
• other - starburst framelits, Big Shot, arrows embossing folder, pool party baker's twine, tangerine tango button (retired SAB), dimensionals, banner punch (SAB)
• non SU - balloon punch

Love the colour combination in this dsp.

I also like the new High Tide dsp but am not that keen on the co-ordinating stamp set, so I've used a delightful Mo Manning digital image with the papers to make this masculine card:

Materials used:

• non SU stamp - Captain Hugh (Mo Manning)
• card - soft sky, Pacific point, whisper white, summer starfruit, watercolour
• other - banner punch (SAB), computer and printer (sentiment)

It felt really good to be back in my craft room again so I think I'm going to have to do it again real soon!

Thanks for calling in.

Cheers
Kez

Pink Poppies

I had a lot of fun the other day playing around with watercolouring. Here's the result:

I used my crumb cake marker to ink up just a portion of the stamp and then watercoloured with an aquapainter and regal rose ink. Afterwards I added a layer of plain water and soaked it up with a tissue, so that the colour became muted and "washed out" a little. I think it gives a nice soft, watercolour painting kind of effect - don't you? The background has a very light wash of Sahara sand and the seam binding I dyed using water and re-inker.

Materials used:

• stamps - Pleasant Poppies, En Francais, Teeny Tiny Sentiments
• card - regal rose, very vanilla, watercolour, crumb cake
• other - honeycomb E/F, Big Shot, very vanilla seam binding, jewellery tag punch, vintage trinket, dimensionals, sponge dauber, regal rose re-inker, soft suede marker

It will be sad to see Regal Rose go with the colour renovation, I like it much better than Melon Mambo. Ah well, such is life - supermarkets stop selling my favourite things constantly!

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kez

Masked Mustard

We're having more fun with brayering at today's workshop and my ladies are keen to try out some masking. It's terribly addictive once you get going!

Inspired by this gorgeous card of Paula Dobson's, here is what I came up with:

I brayered with so saffron and more mustard at the top, then soft suede at the base. The trees were stamped in soft suede and early espresso and I added some espresso sponging around the base as well. The birds (from Up, Up and Away) are also stamped in espresso.

Just love these colours together so many thanks for the inspiration Paula.

Materials used:

• stamps - Lovely as a Tree, Teeny Tiny Sentiments, Up Up & Away
• card - more mustard, early espresso, whisper white
• other - post it notes, brayer, sponge daubers, stamp-a-ma-jig, 32 mm circle punch

And here is the sweet little gift box I made for my hostess:

Materials used:

• stamps - Growing Green, Because I Care
• card - pink pirouette, certainly celery, whisper white, pink pirouette patterns paper
• inks - wild wasabi, certainly celery, regal rose, pretty in pink
• other - scallop trim border punch, pennants die, Big Shot, two tags die, watercolour crayons, pearls, dimensionals, aquapainter

How about dusting off your brayer for some fun soon?

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kez

Anniversary Brayer

We're doing brayering at my workshop today and I couldn't possibly go wrong with choosing a Michelle Zindorf card for inspiration! I originally cased Michelle's card here but the colours for today's card were inspired by a gorgeous box that one of my Christmas gifts came in.

On my card's background I stamped the splodge stamp from French Foliage with both pool party and whisper white inks and sponged the edges.

Materials used:

• stamps - Inspired by Nature, French Foliage, Teeny Tiny Sentiments
• card - pool party, basic black, whisper white
• inks - pool party, basic black, whisper white
• other - bird punch, sponge daubers, dimensionals, stamp-a-ma-jig

My photo really doesn't do it justice, the colour is just gorgeous.

Thanks for dropping by. 

Cheers

Kez

For Jasmine

The little girl that DD13 babysits for is having a birthday and DD requested this card, which I have cased from Monica Gale. Monica embossed the skirt panels with the vintage wallpaper folder but DD requested NOT that one, so I've used a Cuttlebug one with tiny roses instead and am very pleased with how it turned out.

Such a pretty card - it's so fun to do a "little girl" project again! LOL. Unfortunately it's a cold, wet and miserable day here today so the light's not the best for the photo but you get the idea!

Thanks for dropping in.

Cheers
Kez

A Touch of New Colour

There was great excitement at my place yesterday morning as my pre-order goodies from the new 2011-2012 Idea Book and Catalogue arrived on my doorstep!

I managed to get the packs all opened and drool over them for a while before I had to head off to work (gotta do the grind to pay for all the new things, lol), but I couldn't wait to play once I got home. For my first card I've used two retiring stamp sets with three new in colours and kept it fairly simple.

LOVING Wisteria Wonder already! I know lots of my ladies are going to be thrilled with this gorgeous shade.

Materials used:

• stamps - Bella Toile, Friends 24/7
• card - Wisteria Wonder, Calypso Coral, Whisper White
• ink - black StazOn, wisteria wonder, calypso coral, lucky limeade
• punches - 32 mm circle, 35 mm circle, scallop trim border
• other - vintage wallpaper embossing folder, dimensionals, blender pen, sponge dauber

Of course I had to have another play and this time I was inspired by a card by Heather Telford. Heather does gorgeous one or two layer cards with sponging and masking and it was the colours and sponging on her card that inspired me. (You can visit her from the link on my blog list.)

Materials used:

• stamps - Inspired by Nature, Teeny Tiny Sentiments
• card - lucky limeade, whisper white, pool party
• other - stamp-a-ma-jig, dimensionals, sponges

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kez

Happy St Paddy's

Happy St Patrick's Day to all the Irish out there!

DD18 is rather fond of a Guinness and has a fav Irish pub near to uni, so as it's her first year where she's officially allowed to celebrate with a drink, I thought I'd make her a special little St Paddy's something.

So anyways, I made a milk carton treat - one of the big ones from Becky Roberts' tutorial - with my first Irish owl. He's a cute little chappie in his tall hat! Inside the milk carton are lollies - green ones, of course.

Thanks for stopping by and "Top o' the Morning To You"!

Cheers
Kez

Rollercoasters and Diggers

I have been riding such a rollercoaster of emotions since the earthquake in Christchurch last week. Some days life is normal; other days I feel so depressed and tears are never far beneath the surface. I can't read a newspaper article or see photos of Chch without crying. I found an article recently describing life post-quake in a suburban street - and was amazed to discover it was the street where we lived. It's here if you're interested in reading it. I simply can't imagine how the people who are living through this are coping emotionally and as for those who have lost loved ones ... well, I just don't know the words to adequately express my sorrow.

One thing that does help is the support and fellowship of friends, and I sincerely thank all of you who have left kind messages. Keeping busy is another help of course, and this week I have been finalising preparations for another Special Event for Australian troops serving in combat zones such as Afganistan, etc. You may remember that my wonderful customers and friends made over 350 Christmas cards for the troops last year; on Sunday we will be making Mother's Day cards to send so our Diggers can send them home.

Here are the cards I've prepared. They have been kept simple as we are making them like a Stamp-a-Stack and I'm hoping we'll get 200 completed. Most of the materials were generously donated by Stampin' Up!

I'm looking forward to a fun day for a very worthy cause.

I'll be back later today with the winners of the blog candy. Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers
Kez

JAI Challenge 57

(second post today; scroll down for vintage birthday cards)

The colours for this week's challenge over at Just Add Ink were picked by Danielle and apparently came from the colour coach. With Cherry Cobbler in the mix, there was no way I was going to miss this one! LOL. They certainly were a challenge for me, though - I had to think long and hard about how to combine these:

Much as I like Daffodil Delight, it is a real "in your face" kind of colour, so often needs to be used in small doses only! I originally had in mind ribbon, a bow, a pin ... but in the end that would have been WAY too busy, so I've gone for simplicity and I'm quite happy with how it turned out. Here's what I eventually came up with:

Materials used (all SU):

• stamps - Elements of Style, Baby Blossoms, Teeny Tiny Sentiments
• card - river rock, cherry cobbler, very vanilla, daffodil delight, river rock DSP
• punches - 2 step bird punch, scallop trim border punch, 35mm circle punch, scallop circle punch
• other - dimensionals, stamp-a-ma-jig

Thanks for dropping by.

Cheers

Kez

Vintage Birthdays

Birthday cards are of course the most commonly needed kind, so I've been building up my supply and playing with some goodies that arrived from the US earlier in the week.

I've used some retired Purely Pomegranate satin ribbon for this one. PP is very close to Rose Red (the colour in the papers) and you know how I love big satin bows! The small rose on the sentiment panel is made using the scallop circle punch, similar to the roses in this post.

The same layout was used on my second card but this time I added in a punched border and some gorgeous Baja breeze seam binding. This is so soft and pliable, just lovely to work with. This time my sentiment panel is only one layer, but I've used my marker to add some colour.

For my third card I've cracked open my new Garden Green ink pad - can you believe that I have never bought this before, having been a demo for over 2 years?! Now that I've got it, I love it and can't understand what took me so long. The embellishment on the corner has been in my stash for a very long time and is, I think, just gorgeous.

Non SU items: adhesive rhinestones (Kaiser), Martha Stewart border punch, Melissa Francis embellishment

My thanks to those of you who left kind messages about Christchurch, your thoughts are much appreciated.

Cheers
Kez

Plethora of Christmas

Here's a bunch of Christmas cards I've made lately:

This one was cased from Teneale and others, and I used the snowflakes from Snow Swirled to make my wreath. I added dazzling diamonds, which you can't see in the photo.

Another card using Delightful Decorations and the Ornament Punch. Trying to add some vintage glam!

This one is my favourite, so simple and so evocative. The wreath was made using a flower from the Boho Blossoms punch and the Vintage brad makes the perfect door knob!

This one uses a set I was lucky enough to get from the US called Bells and Boughs. I've used the Petals APlenty embossing folder, which matches the poinsettia so well!

Another Bells and Boughs with Petals APlenty, this time using the technique where you mask the embossing to create a gap for stamping on. I painted the poinsettia with Champagne shimmer paint, which you can see in the following close up: 

Gorgeous effect!

Well, I think that may be the last of my Christmas cards this year apart from a few special ones for special people. Still plenty of Christmas boxes, bags and tags to make yet, though!

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kez

Dusky Pink

I love it when you can make a Wow! card very easily and simply - well, who wouldn't? Today's card I especially love because I've used watercolouring (which you all know I just adore) and not much else!

Elements of Style is the stamp set used, which I don't have yet but a friend let me stamp some of hers to tide me over until I can call it my own! This is a great image for beginner watercolourers, I reckon, because the detail on the stamp is so good that the shading part is pretty much foolproof!

I have tried Blushing Bride for the first time and as I've always been partial to dusky pinks, this is one I can see me using quite a bit. I teamed it with Pear Pizzazz and Very Vanilla and of course the beautiful scallop trim border punch (love it!). The sentiment comes from Teeny Tiny Sentiments, a very versatile set.

Thanks for stopping by today. I'll be back at the weekend with the cards for my beginners class.

Cheers
Kez

Ink Wash

I wanted to try out a new technique that I found while surfing on SCS. It's called Ink Wash Faux Embossing (although personally I think Faux Bleaching is more accurate) and WOW! I love the effect!

For my first card I used the medallion stamp with Concord Crush, one of the new In Colours. Here's how it turned out (excuse my crappy photo; looks much nicer IRL!):

Next I tried it on Night of Navy and added touches of Sahara Sand. The sentiment feature is from Just Believe, rapidly becoming one of my new favs.

Of course, the medallion makes any card look great, but this is a really pretty effect. Like it? Here's how I did it:

• I began with a piece of whisper white card
• I applied my Concord Crush or Night of Navy ink pad directly to the white card, covering it entirely
• I inked my medallion stamp with Versamark ink
• then I sprayed Stampin' Mist liberally over the medallion stamp (you've got to be generous or it doesn't work as well)
• I stamped the medallion down on to the inked up card and pressed firmly
• I used my heat gun to speed up drying

Why don't you give it a go yourself? I think you will love experimenting with a variety of colours and seeing how different they all look.

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers
Kez

Beginners Embossing

Today's beginner class is having fun with embossing.

First up some dry embossing using SU's beautiful Manhattan Flower embossing folder, which looks so gorgeous in rich razzleberry. I've teamed it with very vanilla and some adhesive pearls:

Same card but this time using designer series paper for the embossing, then sanding over it to bring out the white core - this makes the embossed image really "pop"! I am looking forward to all the new embossing folders coming in the new catalogue - only 16 sleeps to go!

For our first "wet" embossing we're using one of my favourite sets, Inspired by Nature, and embossing it in white on DSP. A little touch of dry embossing at the bottom of the card adds more texture. I will miss kiwi kiss after this month, sigh!

And last but not least a simple yet beautiful effect which showcases the gorgeous medallion background stamp perfectly. Embossed with white, then sponged in pink pirouette and regal rose, plus a touch of close to cocoa for accent (another colour I will really miss).

Thanks for calling in; you can brighten my day if you leave a comment!

Cheers
Kez

Pleasant Pheasant

Today's card is one for the blokes using the totally gorgeous Autumn Days stamp set. It's one of those cards that ends up looking quite different to what you had in mind to start with and I think it's better than I first imagined, so that was a stroke of luck...ah, I mean genius!

What do you think of the stamping on the leaf shapes? Both my girls (yes, DD18 is home for the holidays, hooray!) like it, so I'm hopeful my vision wasn't just a freak of nature!!!

Anyways, thanks for dropping by. Have a good weekend and try to keep warm!

Cheers
Kez

Blue Moon

A very simple card today for that occasion we all wish didn't happen: a sympathy card.

I've used the wheat sheaf stamp from Autumn Days, stamped in black StazOn before I brayered and I used the "stamping off" method to add depth. My first layer of ink was Baja Breeze (I adore this colour and am so glad we are keeping it!) and after that I put on my mask for the moon, then added Blue Bayou (which goes so perfectly with Baja) and a touch of Night of Navy at the top. When it was dry I added some more wheat for a dark foreground look. The sentiment is from Teeny Tiny Sentiments; it's the only sympathy one I have and I hope it's not too small.

You could use this - with a different sentiment, obviously! LOL! - for a masculine card too.

Thanks for dropping by. Have a good Sunday.

Cheers
Kez

Haute Couture for Mums

Well, not quite Haute Couture, but the papercraft equivalent, LOL! For my Mother's Day craft class this year I couldn't resist making a gorgeous Haute Tote bag from "creations by AR". I used classic colours Not Quite Navy and Very Vanilla and papers from Bella Bleu for accent.

Here's the tote:

And of course there must be a card to go with it. As I'm loving Corie's puffy flowers, I wanted to incorporate one of those, so I cased the layout from one of Corie's own cards and just simplified it to match the clean lines of the tote.

Here's the card:

And here are the two together. Aren't they divine? When I showed samples to my ladies, I got such an amazing response! I haven't had so many people book in to one class in ages! There are going to be some very lucky mums out there this year, LOL!

The class is full already, but if you have a group of friends who would like to make this project, get in touch as I may be able to bring the class to you!

Cheers

Kez