Sisters

The colour combination for the Fab Friday challenge really appealed this week:

But before you see my project, you'd better strap in, buckle up or just hang on tight because I've only gone and made a scrapbook page! Shock!!! Yes, there may well be thunderbolts, lol.

I've tried for an antique/shabby chic kind of look. I stamped on my background card and sponged around the edges, then also stamped and sponged on the pink pirouette striped paper. The lace, doily, heart embellishment and pool party embossing powder are all from the Seasonal catty.

The flowers are fabric, the leaves die cut or punched card.

The "sisters" is a chipboard die cut which I embossed with aged ivory embossing enamel - doesn't it look amazing? You'd swear it was worn metal or something.

I adore this shot of my two gorgeous girls and I hope this layout has done it justice.

Materials used:

• stamps - En Francais, Everything Eleanor, Delicate Doilies, Tiny Tags
• card - crumb cake, very vanilla, pink pirouette patterned paper, cherry cobbler
• other - paper doily, pool party embossing powder, heat tool, sponges, artisan embellishment kit
• non SU - fabric flowers, wooden word, leaf die, leaf punch, aged ivory embossing enamel, rhinestone embellishments, hot glue gun, mounting tape

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers
Kez

My Own Little Nerds

Wikipedia tells me that:

A nerd (adjective: nerdy) is a person, typically described as being overly intellectual, obsessive, or socially impaired. They may spend inordinate amounts of time on unpopular, obscure, or non-mainstream activities, which are generally either highly technical or relating to topics of fiction or fantasy, to the exclusion of more mainstream activities. "Nerd" is a derogatory, stereotypical term, but as with other pejoratives, it has been reclaimed and redefined by some as a term of pride and group identity.

Both of my girls proudly claim to be nerds and they do fit some of the definition for sure:

• both very intelligent
• both love Sci Fi such as Dr Who, Serenity, Dune, Dollhouse
• both love classics such as Shakespeare, Austen, Bronte and Wilde (definitely non-mainstream)
• both love fantasy such as Harry Potter, Game of Thrones, Song of the Lioness
• both loving learning Auslan (Australian Sign Language)
• both wear dark rimmed glasses

So when I saw a stamp set released that celebrates nerds, I just HAD to get it! The images are gorgeous and the sentiments that go with it hilariously appropriate!

This one was cased from Jenny Peterson and is for DD14:

Materials used:

• stamps - Smarty Pants by There She Goes clear stamps
• card - summer starfruit, soft suede, midnight muse, watercolour, Comfort Cafe dsp, very vanilla, summer starfruit patterned paper
• other - ticket corner punch, spiral punch, midnight muse ribbon, dimensionals, aqua painter, markers

And DD20's card uses the Halloween papers that to me look very similar to Burberry's classic check:

Materials used:

• stamps - Smarty Pants by There She Goes clear stamps
• card - basic black, very vanilla, tangerine tango, watercolour, Howlstooth and Scaringbone dsp
• other - aqua painter, markers, dimensionals

I hope if you have nerds in your house that they celebrate their uniqueness too!

Thanks for calling in.

Cheers

Kez

A Grateful Heart

So anyway, I was out clothes shopping yesterday and I was trying on an outfit in coral and white over the navy pants I was wearing - and looking in the mirror, I thought how gorgeous those colours looked together and what a great card they would make!

 I'm sure all of you think up cards while you're in the changing room, don't you???!!!

So, here is the card my outfit inspired:

Materials used:

• stamps - Pursuit of Happiness, French Foliage
• card - calypso coral, whisper white, night of navy
• other - honeycomb E/F, Big Shot, labels framelit, festive paper piercing pack, pearls, dimensionals, embossing stylus, piercing mat, piercing tool
• non SU - fabric rose

The fabric rose was one I had in my stash, but you could use re-inkers to colour SU's fabric roses to match whatever colour you need!

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kez

Bee My Honey(comb)

I am simply LOVING the honeycomb embossing folder - just one of the many gorgeous new goodies coming in the Seasonal Catalogue next month - and have been making a few cards to show its versatility.

First up a literal use (ie) using it actually as a honeycomb!

 Materials used:

• stamps - Just Buzzing By (retired)
• card - pool party, whisper white, daffodil delight and calypso coral patterned papers, pool party core'dinations card
• other - windows framelit, Big Shot, dimensionals, honeycomb E/F, sanding block, pool party button (SAB), calypso coral ribbon (last year's SAB), paper doily, blender pen, markers

Next a more general use as a background for a simple but sweet birthday card.

Materials used:

• stamps - Perfect Punches
• card - island indigo, whisper white, Sycamore St dsp (SAB), tangerine tango, Summer starfruit
• other - honeycomb E/F, Big Shot, square punch, wide oval punch, decorative label punch, itty bitty punch, pearl, dimensionals

And lastly a patchwork-style card.

Materials used:

• Word Play
• card - pink pirouette, whisper white, riding hood red, Twitterpated dsp
• other - triple heart punch, button, bakers twine, dimensionals, Baja breeze pleated ribbon (retired), sponge dauber
• non SU - nestabilities die

Now you can see why I love this folder so much! Thanks for calling in - and I hope you are coping with the heat, if you're here in Aus.

Cheers

Kez

Time And Relative Dimension In Space

If you ever watched television growing up - no matter how young or old you are - you probably know that Time And Relative Dimension In Space is the full title of the time machine/spacecraft that Dr Who travels around in - the TARDIS.

Jon Pertwee and Patrick Troughton were the Doctors during my formative years and the Daleks were the main enemy. Now the Doctor has a whole new following and my two daughters are among them; DD14 initiated her elder sister just before Christmas and now she is hooked as well!

So of course when I saw that one of the new Sale-a-bration sets this year included a phone box which can be easily made to look like a police call box, naturally Dr Who's TARDIS came immediately to mind! And I'm not the only one - a few of my fellow demos had the same idea and there are some TARDIS cards around already.

One of these I have cased for my first card as DD and I both loved it. Joan Robertson used ribbons for her "Union Jack" stripes but I used card for mine, and as we didn't get the wonderful Keep Calm stamp set here in Australia (thanks SU) I typed my sentiment on the computer. Here tis:

Materials used:

• stamps - Feeling Sentimental (SAB)
• card - basic black, Pacific point, real red, whisper white, watercolour
• other - aqua painter, dimensionals, computer and printer

The sentiment was requested by DD14 - "humany-wumany" is a phrase that Matt Smith's Dr Who uses occasionally, so she tells me!

My second TARDIS card uses another SAB set as well called Vintage Verses and I think this particular sentiment suited the card perfectly. I like the simplicity of this one and think it would make a perfect masculine card:

Materials used:

• stamps - Feeling Sentimental (SAB), Vintage Verses (SAB)
• card - watercolour, confetti cream
• other - aqua painter, dimensionals, sponge dauber

You can get your hands on the TARDIS stamp set for your own Dr Who fans from the 21st of this month - one free item for every $100 of product you order (before shipping). And if you don't already have your own demo, my contact details are over on the right!

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kez

Welcome 2013

Welcome to 2013 everyone. Here's hoping it's a safe, happy and prosperous one for you all.

Cheers
Kez

Dec 25

Wishing you all the blessings and joy of this festive season.

Cheers
Kez

The Man Himself

Didn't expect to get time to get another post in before Christmas, but here I am!

Each year we think up a theme for our Christmas decorating, food, etc - and this year we chose the man himself, Santa Claus. So our Christmas dinner menu is food that is full, robust and heartwarming and we have plenty of red and white items around.

The other day I found a garden light at my local $2 shop which I couldn't resist buying and yesterday I glanced upon a large glass vase I have - and the two items clicked together in my head as an idea for our Christmas table centrepiece. Luckily, when I tried it out, my idea came together first time (hooray!) and produced our very own North Pole:

And yes, you do recognise those snowflakes I am sure - from the Snow Swirled set which I have stamped on with whisper white craft ink (rotate pressure on the stamp a little as you press the ink on to the rounded surface of the vase).

I also saw a very simple idea on Pinterest that I have used to dress up the dining chairs a little - here's a photo of one of those:

And our Christmas dinner menu is inside this little holder made with the two tags die and stocking punch:

Materials used:

• card - midnight muse, crumb cake, real red, basic black, glitter card
• other - two tags die, Big Shot, stocking punch, dimensionals
• non SU - brick wall embossing folder, corner rounder punch

Just little things to make our day even more fun. Hope you are enjoying preparing for Santa too!

Thanks for popping in.

Cheers
Kez

Gingerbread Wreath

I am sure you are all like me and frantically trying to squeeze more hours into the day with so much organising still to do for the "Big Red Day"! All this planning and preparation for something that is over so fast, but we keep doing it every year! LOL

As always, it will be a pleasure just to have our small family all together to celebrate and keep up many of the family traditions that have been established over the years.

Meanwhile, for this year I created a new wreath for my front door. It is one of those projects that ended up looking completely different to what I originally had in mind, but I am finding it very difficult to get my head into craft mode, what with all the other distractions, so in the end it was very much a "that will do" kind of approach! It's just a bit of fun:

Materials used:

• stamps - Scentsational Season
• card - whisper white
• other - holiday collection framelits, Big Shot, polka dot ribbon (retired)
• non SU - red satin ribbons, wreath, hot glue gun, red rhinestones, jingle bells, Noel embellishment, gold cord

I wish you and yours a wonderful festive season filled with much joy, love and laughter. If you are travelling, stay safe. Many thanks for visiting over the past year, I hope you will come back in 2013.

Merry Christmas everyone.

Cheers

Kez

The Tassel Was Worth The Hassle

Today we are in Melbourne attending DD20's graduation ceremony where she is receiving her Bachelor of Arts degree. Naturally, we are the proudest family in the world and I'm so happy we can all be together to celebrate her wonderful achievement.

Later on tonight we are going out for a special celebratory dinner, but for now of course there are handmade cards and graduation gifts to be given!

Here is the card I made and it is a perfect example of why I don't get rid of retired product! I've used a retired colour (ballet blue - DD20's favourite and a good match for her skirt and the BA hood) and retired Timeless Type alphabet die as well as retired stamp set, Great Grads. The main image is a non SU stamp but perfect for the occasion, don't you think?

Materials used:

• stamps - Great Grads (retired)
• card - ballet blue (retired), basic black, whisper white, watercolour
• other - Timeless Type alphabet dies (retired), crystal effects, stamp-a-ma-jig, dimensionals
• non SU - Tessa Tassel by Kraftin' Kimmie

This post was scheduled, but if I manage to get internet access this afternoon I will add a photo of DD in her regalia - otherwise it will be in a few days when we get home.

Thanks for calling in.

Cheers
Kez

Edited to add: here are some photos of the great day

It's Just Not Fair

It's just not fair when the AusPost man brings a box of SU goodies to your doorstep at 8 am on a morning when you have plenty of chores to get done.

The new rubbah (or dsp or tools) sits there and stares at you, taunting and teasing. "Open me!" it says, "Play with me, you know you want to!"

Of course I want to, who wouldn't? But those chores ... We're heading off to Melbourne on Thursday and then DD20 will be coming back with us - and my craft room is nowhere near ready to be invaded inhabited "for the duration"! LOL.

So the new things will have to wait (sob, sob!) but I did make a card the other day, playing with the technique where you have a gap in your embossing to stamp in (I don't know if it has a shorter name!) - yes, I am already thinking of techniques to teach my ladies in next year's classes! Not a total success, but there's plenty of time to practise that one a bit more!

Materials used:

• stamps - Pleasant Poppies
• card - whisper white, certainly celery
• other - windows labels framelits, Big Shot, pretty in pink ribbon, dimensionals, fancy fan E/F, blender pen

Well, better get back to those chores - time's a'running out! Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kez

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

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

Holiday Tints

My three month term on the Color Me Beautiful design team has come to an end with this lovely soft colour combination

I managed to use all the colours on my card along with my neutral of very vanilla. Here's my offering:

Materials used:

• stamps - More Merry Messages
• card - crumb cake, rose red, primrose petals, Baja breeze, very vanilla
• inks - very vanilla, rose red
• other - Sahara sand marker, chevron embossing folder, Big Shot, crumb cake seam binding, dimensionals, merry minis punch, irridescent ice embossing powder, crystal effects, pearls

Before embossing my background piece with the chevron design, I ran my vanilla inkpad over the folder to give a slightly tinted look to the pattern and also sponged the edges of the card with vanilla. My tiny baubles were embossed with irridescent ice and then coated in crystal effects for sparkle and dimension.

It has been such fun working with the other designers and the gorgeous colour combos that Carole and AnnMarie have come up with each week. Sadly, they have decided to discontinue running the challenge blog, so this is your last chance to play along and join in the fun. Why not pop on over to the blog here and see what the others have to inspire you?

Thanks for calling in.

Cheers

Kez

Christmas Boxes and Tags

Last week's Christmas class focused on gift boxes and tags and I was busy for days beforehand creating samples to inspire my ladies. Here are the boxes we made in class:

This star box is a template from Lauren Meader and is very simple to put together. I decorated by stamping in crumb cake ink using Bells and Boughs and added a tulle bow and poinsettia with pearls.

Our next treat was a hexagon box made from the mini milk carton die - you've seen plenty of these before. As I used some "bauble" papers (Snow Festival dsp), I added a bauble shaped tag to match.

And lastly a simple fancy favour box, stamped with snowflakes and decorated with tulle, chunky glitter, snowflake (snow flurry die) and sentiment from More Merry Messages.

Other boxes I had for display:

Fancy Favour box again, doubled this time, plus a box made from four scallop envelopes.

SU's kraft gift boxes. The gingerbread paper is non SU but so adorable I couldn't resist!

Some simple candy wrappers.

A petal cone hanging decoration plus elongated candy wrapper.

I had also prepared a smattering of tags to give my ladies some ideas and then I gave them free run with dies, papers, ribbon, stamps, punches and more! It was bedlam there for a while, lol!!!

It has been fun doing Christmas things - homemade items always add that extra special personal touch!

Thanks for calling in.

Cheers
Kez