Marching Onward

Christmas is over and life goes on and with two birthdays coming up later in the week that means cards need making! My SIL and one of my BFFs both celebrate their birthdays on Dec 31st and with the rain we are having (thank goodness!), I have perfect excuses to sit and "play" at my craft table, LOL!!!

Here's the card for my SIL. I was compelled to drag out Chef Henri, who you may remember from previous posts here, here and here. This time I watercoloured him and I think he looks rather spiffy! The colours and the simple design are perfect for my SIL, so I know she will like it.

Created by Kez. Stamped images copyright Stampin' Up!

The sentiment on the tray is from one of the Sale-a-Bration sets called Whimsical Words, available from Jan 25th, and I love how it pokes gentle fun at getting older. Not that I ever do such a thing of course .... ! :)

Materials used:

• stamps - Voila, Whimsical Words
• card, inks and markers - Soft Suede, Bermuda Bay, Crushed Curry, Blush Blossom, black StazOn
• other - dimensionals, adhesive pearls (Kaiser), photo corner punch

My BFF loves bright colours, so I immediately thought of the Kaleidoscope papers from the Summer mini for her. Only have scraps left, though, so the patchwork style background was the way to go. Now, you all know that I am definitely NOT a bold brights person, but these papers are growing on me, I have to admit! I stamped the daisies in Versamark and embossed in white first, then overstamped in tangerine tango slightly over to one side to get that shadowy effect. The family agree she will love it, so here is card number two:

Created by Kez. Stamped images copyright Stampin' Up!

Materials used (all SU):

• stamps - Upsy Daisy, Dreams du Jour
• card & paper - tempting turquoise, tangerine tango, whisper white, Kaleidoscope DSP
• inks - tempting turquoise, tangerine tango, Versamark
• punches - large oval, scallop oval
• other - white embossing powder, dimensionals

Hope you're not sick of easel cards yet! Thanks for stopping by; I hope you're having plenty of rain too!

Cheers

Kez

Seven Year Itch

Never mind the seven year itch, what about the seven day itch? It has been a whole week since I have made a card! MAJOR WITHDRAWAL SYMPTOMS! I have had some card designs whirling around in my head (and there's not alot of spare space up there, ya know!!! LOL) but have been busy with other things and too dog tired at night to sit and create.

And this morning I should have been marking assessments (not to mention laundry and housework) but that itch was simply irresistable! I just had to "scratch", I couldn't help it, I tell ya, honest!!! I tried and I tried to resist (alright, you got me, I didn't try too hard!) Anyways, the marking will get done later in the day, so my halo can sit tight (choke, choke!!!)

I thought you might be getting sick of tri shutter cards by now :) so I decided to try a side-step card instead. It's a similar concept of scores and cuts, but makes for an entirely different shape. Here's my first attempt:

I've left a blank space for a message to be written.

Materials used:

• stamps - Bloomin' with Beauty, Oval All
• card & paper - Rose Red and Kiwi Kiss card; watercolour paper; Raspberry Tart DSP
• other - large oval punch, scallop oval punch, dimensionals, rose red and cameo coral markers, nestabilities and Big Shot, crystal effects, Dazzling Diamonds
  

For my second try I thought I'd use my favourite Frenchman, otherwise known as Chef Henri the little fat chef. Just for something different. You know how it is. Don'tchya? I made the side panel a little wider to accommodate his girth (he he). Once I got going I had to decide what to put on the tray and as DH and I are having an anniversary next week, I went with that. I discovered to my horror that I don't own ANY stamps of ANY brand that say Happy Anniversary. Hmm, will have to do something about that ... so I die cut lettering instead.

Here's Henri:

Materials used:

• stamps - Voila, Voila a la carte, Wonderful Favourites
• card & paper - chocolate chip, baja breeze and whisper white card; Parisian Breeze SDSP
• other - adhesive pearls (Kaisercraft), Big Shot, Cuttlebug alphabet dies, dimensionals, stamp-a-ma-jig
  

All right! All right! I'll go and do that marking now. Boy, you sure are a hard taskmaster!

Cheers

Kez

May is for Male

Having just gotten over all the female friends and family having birthdays in April, now I'm faced with five male birthdays for early May! Yes, five!!! And all really close together! We all know how challenging it is to create male cards, so as you can imagine, I started off feeling a little daunted at the thought of five!

Had a good look through all the sets I have that could be used, browsed my stash of DSP for masculine colours, and came up with a bunch of cards that I'll choose from and keep the rest in stock. Here are the first three. You'll find the layout similar in some of them - I follow the Keep It Simple rule (just like blokes, LOL!!!).

I started with Chef Henri, the little fat chef:

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

Supplies used:

• stamps - Voila and Voila a la carte
• papers - Apple Cider DSP (retired), close to cocoa and whisper white cardstock
• other - dimensionals, Big Shot and nestabilities, wild wasabi double stitched ribbon, watercolour crayons, aquapainter

Next came some tools, a good bloke standby!

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

Supplies used:

• stamps - For Father (retired)
• paper & card - basic grey, baja breeze and whisper white cardstock, basic grey patterns DSP (hostess set)
• other - "screw" type brads (stash)

I had a play with a new set and some puff paint - fun, fun, fun! I also put crystal effects over all of the beer glass to make it shine like glass (but you can't tell that in the photo). I don't have a stamp reverser, so drew the reverse image by hand after cutting out the shape - hence the crooked lines!

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

Supplies used:

• stamps - Cheers to you
• card & paper - Windsor Knot DSP, sage shadow and whisper white cardstock
• other - dimensionals, chocolate chip grosgrain ribbon, crystal effects, puff paint

Hope they help if you are in need of inspiration for male cards too! I'll have some more tomorrow.

Cheers

Kez