My Gorgeous Graduate

DD20 finished her degree this week - well, her first degree, that is. She's planning a couple more!

It sure doesn't seem like three years have passed since she moved away, and then again it kinda feels a lot more! In a few weeks time we will all travel down to Melbourne for her graduation, but meanwhile here's a pic of my gorgeous graduate:

We are naturally all very proud of her and can't wait to celebrate with her - and, of course, to have her come home for Christmas.

Congratulations sweetie!

Cheers
Kez

Ornamental Greens

Just in case you're not feeling Christmassy enough, this week's colours for the Color Me Beautiful challenge are sure to get you in the mood!

I decided to use the emboss resist method again (as on this card) and the medallion stamp for my background pattern and then I added rhinestones for some blingaliciousness (is that a word? lol). Here tis:

If you click on the photo to enlarge it, you'll see the bling better!

Materials used:

• stamps - Lovely as a Tree, Many Merry Messages (retired), Medallion
• card - gloss white, lucky limeade, soft suede, Sahara sand 
• other - Versamark, clear embossing powder, heat tool, sponges, rhinestones, holiday ornaments dies, Big Shot, dimensionals, white embossing powder, lacy brocade embossing folder, non SU silver cord

I am sure loving me those ornament dies! And you may have noticed that on my background piece of soft suede I have shown the debossed side rather than the embossed side - I felt the raised side took a bit of attention away from the ornaments, so I turned it over to "tone it down a bit".

Thanks for calling in. Don't forget to pop over to the CMB challenge blog and see what the other DT members have made to inspire you.

Cheers

Kez

The New Paper Trimmer

As you can see, I have added above SU's video all about the new paper trimmer. This new product will be available to my lovely customers next month but I am hoping to get my hands on one in the next week or two - and I can't wait!

Having heard US demos rave about it, I wondered what all the fuss was about, but now that I've watched the video and seen it for myself I can't wait! It seems that SU has heard the complaints about the current trimmer and fixed them all! Yay!

And BTW ladies, don't worry - even though Brian talks about imperial measurements, ours WILL be in metric!

Stay tuned for my own review once I get it in my hot little hands! LOL!

Cheers
Kez

Snow Drift Tutorial

You asked for it and here it is! I have loaded a video tutorial on how I made the snow drift panel of this card:

And you can access that video right HERE. Thanks to all the people that expressed an interest and I hope you have a lot of fun trying this technique.

Cheers
Kez

Candy Cane Hues

I'm sure you've all keen to see what gorgeous colour combination we have for you to play with this week at Color Me Beautiful! Here they are:

Mmmmm, those candy canes sure look yum!

It's my week off and although I did attempt a project, it sadly didn't work out well AT ALL and no mojo arrived to help me at the last minute, so I'm sorry I don't have anything to show you this week. However, we would love you to pop over to the challenge blog and see what has been made for your inspiration - and of course, we would love it even more if you joined in the challenge! And do spread the word to all your crafting friends, we'd love to welcome more people.

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kez

Caffeine Tones

It's a coffee-lover's dream over at Color Me Beautiful, with these caffeine tones as our inspiration for this week's challenge! 

I decided to go with a sepia-toned Christmas card and managed to use four of the five colours.

Here's my card - if you click on the photo you can see the sparkle better:

I masked off my ground area for the snowdrifts before I stamped the trees in soft suede and Sahara sand. The sky was sponged with river rock and soft suede and I used suede again for the ground. When everything was dry I inked the whole area with Versamark and added iridescent ice embossing powder to give a winter sparkle! It looks totally GOR-JUSS in real life! And did you notice? I used a button again! LOL

Materials used:

• stamps - Lovely as a Tree, Many Merry Messages (retired)
• card - confetti cream, very vanilla, early espresso
• other - iridescent ice embossing powder, heat tool, satin ribbon, vintage faceted button, embroidery thread, sticky strip, mounting tape, markers

Click on the link to the challenge blog to see what the other design team members have come up with to inspire you (from 5 am Sth Carolina time or 7 pm AEDST), and while you're there we'd love you to join in the challenge and create a project using this week's colours.

Thanks for calling in.

Cheers

Kez

Edited to add: I have had a few requests both here and on other sites on how to do the snow on this card.  I will video the technique for you and add it here asap. Thanks so much for your interest!

Further edit: The video tutorial is now uploaded to Dropbox and you can get the link here.

Boo!

Happy Halloween all of you out there in cyberspaceland who may celebrate this particular day! It's a bit of fun in an otherwise hectic week and although I made today's projects some weeks ago, I've been saving them to share with you today.

This card uses SU's Spooky Bingo Bits set and the hilariously named Howlstooth and Scaringbone papers!

For this altered milk carton box I used cajun craze card and last year's Frightful Sight papers, together with a cute jumbo wheel I borrowed.

The Fancy Favor box is the base for this one, with the crinkly top cut off. The haunted house die cut was a present from a friend and SU's Wicked Cool stamp set was used for the "spooky" sentiment.

So I've bought some lollies and am just waiting to see if we get any Trick or Treaters - we had none last year, so I may be forced to eat the lollies myself - such a shame!

Thanks for popping in.

Cheers
Kez

Fallen Hues

Are you ready for another Color Me Beautiful challenge? This week is my week off having to design a project and as I have a busy week I wasn't going to push myself. However, we can't always control when the muse will strike us and when an idea for a card came into my head I just had to roll with it! (even though I should have been marking assignments!)

Here's the inspiration photo and colour picks:

Perfect colours for Autumn (Fall) which of course those in the Northern Hemisphere are experiencing. However, I had an idea to go a little rustic and here's where that lead me:

(click on the photo for a closer look)

Materials used:

• stamps - Layered Labels, Everything Eleanor
• card - crumb cake, chocolate chip, raspberry ripple, perfect plum, whisper white, summer starfruit patterns paper
• other - apothecary accents die, raspberry ripple ribbon, crumb cake tulle, champagne shimmer mist, dimensionals, sponge dauber, large oval punch, non SU rose leaf punch and embossing folder, glue gun, distressing tool, 2 1/2" circle punch

For my flowers I punched 2 1/2" circles then sprayed them with shimmer mist and crumpled them up. Once uncrumpled I separated the two layers of card and dried them off before cutting them into a spiral and rolling up. The little twist of tulle was an inspired thought at the last minute - what do you think? SU's tulle is so soft and easy to work with, I love it!

Now pop on over to the challenge blog and see what the others have done with these colours!

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kez

Christmas In The Tropics

We had our last Christmas stamp-a-stack class recently which means we're on the downhill run to Christmas now! Bit scary isn't it?

Anyway, it means I am firmly in holiday season mode so when I saw the Fab Friday challenge colours I thought of a tropical Christmas theme to match our hot summer Christmases here Down Under.

Here's the challenge combo:

And here is my Christmas in the Tropics card:

I began with a piece of whisper white card that I embossed with silver then sponged with the three colours of the challenge. Next I die cut my bauble shapes and spritzed them with shimmer mist before hanging them with silver ribbon. I wanted a sentiment that was as bright and cheery as the baubles and this one ties in with the music too! (I know, I'm a clever little vegemite! LOL) The whole main panel is raised with mounting tape onto the island indigo card base.

Materials used:

• stamps - music notes by Kaiser, sentiment from Verve
• card - SU midnight muse, Summer starfruit, island indigo, whisper white
• other - SU holiday ornaments dies, silver embossing powder, heat tool, dimensionals, silver ribbon from stash, sponges, bow tying machine

I rather like it and hope you do too! Thanks for calling in. 

Cheers

Kez

Edited to add: My card was picked among the Fab Favs this week! Thanks ladies.

That Ornament!

You've probably seen quite a few samples around blogland of the gorgeous Christmas ornament that features on the front cover of SU's Holiday Catalogue. Having bought the dies for this I was keen to give it a go using designer paper rather than stamped images and as a couple of my ladies were also keen to make one, we had a fun morning together today creating and laughing.

Here's my effort:

I used papers from Be of Good Cheer together with cherry cobbler tulle and some gold cord I had in my stash. The new vintage faceted buttons are gorgeous and add the perfect touch on top.

I had also earlier tried another ornament shape that features on page 4 of the catalogue and here is my take on that one:

This one uses 6 petals rather than the 5 of the larger ornament and for this one I used some retired dsp and the snow flurry die made in silver glitter card and held together with an antique brad.

Here are the other ornaments made today, firstly Maureen's:

Love the large green petals - they really make the cherry cobbler stand out! LOL! And the next one is Patsy's, done in softer shades which I think look just beautiful:

We had such a lot of fun making these and now that I've done one I can see myself making more, they are so addictive! Have you tried one yet?

Thanks for dropping by.

Cheers
Kez

The Hardest Kind of Card

Sadly, one of my ladies recently lost her canine companion of ten years or more and as the animal lovers among you will know, it is just like losing a family member. Sympathy cards are the hardest kind to make and send, I find, and I tend to keep them simple and uncluttered.

Materials used:

• stamps - So Sorry, Blooming with Kindness
• card - primrose petals, whisper white, basic grey patterns paper
• other - primrose petals ribbon, labels collection framelits die, dimensionals, finishing touches edgelits die, Big Shot

Thanks for calling in.

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

Boating Blues

This week's Color Me Beautiful challenge is a great one for masculine cards with the evocative title of Boating Blues. Here are the inspiration photo and colour combo:

I had an idea in my head and decided to give it a try - and was very pleased when it actually worked as I had imagined! That doesn't always happen, lol! I used all of the colours except Sahara sand.

Materials used:

• stamps - Up, Up and Away
• card - river rock, whisper white, Pacific point
• punches - 32mm circle, 35mm circle, scallop circle
• other - sponges, dimensionals, scrap paper, mounting tape

I approached this in a similar way to doing triple-layer stamping; I lay my second smaller panel on top of the bottom layer while I sponged the clouds and grass, then raised the panel on mounting tape and lined up the pattern. It was great fun and I'm quite happy with how it turned out so might just have to use that method again sometime.

BTW, don't be fooled by the sunshine in the background of my photo; this was taken earlier in the week and not during today's wild and woolly weather - heavy snow and black ice just up the road in Katoomba! And it's the middle of October, for Pete's sake! What will happen next I wonder?

Please pop on over to the Challenge Blog to see what the rest of the design team have for you and I hope you are inspired to take part in the challenge this week.

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kez

Pumpkin Trio

Yesterday I was browsing around our LSS and found some great Halloween papers which inspired me to sit and try some punch art, something I haven't done in a while. I am rather enjoying making some fun Halloween craft and have more to show you when I get the time to photograph them all. (Mind you, the price of the card compared to SU prices rather horrified me!)

Materials used:

• stamps - Wacky Wishes (hostess)
• card - basic black, old olive, pumpkin pie
• punches - wide oval, large oval, 35 mm circle, boho blossoms
• other - Versamark ink, white embossing powder, heat tool, dimensionals, white gel pen, sponge daubers, two way glue pen
• non SU - Pumpkin Faces stamps by Peachy Keen, Leaf Flourish die from Bosskut, Graphic 45 Happy Haunting designer paper

The card is a bit larger than the norm as my pumpkins took up a fair bit of space, but they are so cute I couldn't bear to not include all three! I love the tendrils too - they make me think of Disney's Cinderella movie when the fairy godmother turns the pumpkin into a coach.

I am entering this in the Hand Stamped Sentiments challenge this week, which is pumpkins.

Well, I'd better get back to work. We have our annual Cards for Aussie Troops event this weekend so I am in the final stages of preparation for that and will have plenty of goodies to show you later in the week.

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers
Kez

Spring Petals

Another Friday already and that of course means it's time for another Color Me Beautiful challenge, so without further ado here are the inspiration pics:

I tried to fit as many of the colours in as I could but had to abandon the basic grey and just go with the other four. Here's my card:

Materials used:

• stamps - Layered Labels, Creative Elements
• card - always artichoke, certainly celery, whisper white
• other - apothecary accents die, itty bitty punch, pearls, sponge daubers, large scallop die, delicate designs embossing folder, always artichoke seam binding, dimensionals

It certainly does fit in well with the gorgeous Spring weather we are having at the moment and all the lovely flowers that are abundant in my garden.

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kez