Anniversary Candy

This month marks my 5 year anniversary as a Stampin' Up! demonstrator so I thought I'd celebrate by giving away some blog candy.

Leave a comment on this post telling me which ONE of my cards and projects from the last 5 years is your all time favourite - and why - and you will be in the running to win! Make sure you leave a name and your email address too so I can contact you if you should be the lucky winner.

Here are my top picks from each of the past 5 years:

2009 - gel card using Fishy Friends that I made for my daughter's birthday

2010 - my doctor and nurse owls with clipboard still tickle my funny bone

2011 - you know how much I love black and vanilla, so this one will be no surprise

2012 - gorgeous sponged card still takes my breath away

2013 - a scrapbook layout of my two gorgeous daughters wins this year's prize easily

So remember, you have to pick JUST ONE project from the past 5 years (not just one of the five I've shown you!) and tell me WHY you picked it. You have until midnight ADST on Sunday 13th October to enter. Good luck!

And, as always,

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers
Kez

'For All The Men We've Loved Before'

Masculine cards are our focus in class this month and I've shamelessly cased cards from other talented crafters - no point in trying to improve on perfection, now is there?

Firstly a fun suit card made from Jackie Topa's great tutorial (click HERE for the link):

Materials used:

• stamps - none
• card - marina mist, basic black, marina mist patterned paper
• other - marina mist satin ribbon, sticky dots
• non SU - 25mm black satin ribbon, black buttons

The gorgeous set Wetlands is used for our second card, this one cased from LeeAnn Greff.

Materials used:

• stamps - Wetlands
• card - gumball green, midnight muse, whisper white, watercolour, basic black
• other - dimensionals, sponge daubers

And last but by no means least a case of a Teneale Williams card that I have long admired.

Materials used:

• stamps - The Open Sea, Word Play, MDS
• card - crumb cake, very vanilla, cherry cobbler, midnight muse, early espresso
• other - sponge daubers, dimensionals, square dies, Big Shot

Hopefully that will keep my lovely ladies stocked up on masculine cards for a while!

Thanks for dropping by.

Cheers

Kez

Creative Crew October Challenge - Scrapbook and More

CCREW1013SF -- Scrapbook focus: October is Self-Promotion Month. Show us how awesome you are on a scrapbook page, mixed media project or with This and That!


This one had me waaaaaay out of my comfort zone - promoting myself is certainly not something I feel comfortable doing. I thought it would take me a long time to come up with an idea for this, but my SIL gave me a hint and it all fell into place very quickly after that. Here it is, created in MDS:

Well, that's it for our challenges this month. I do hope you will visit the challenge gallery to see what the other design team members have come up with - such a range of inspiring ideas - and maybe even be inspired enough to make a project or two of your own. The link is HERE.

Thanks for visiting.

Cheers

Kez

Creative Crew October Challenges - Holiday Focus

CCREW1013HF - Holiday focus: Wear Something Gaudy Day is on 17th Oct. Use your gaudiest colours to create a gift card holder. 

I thought it would be fun to make a clothing shaped gift card holder to coordinate with the "wear something gaudy" theme and a vest shaped card was ideal. Why? Well, you'd have to know my DH and the story of the Magnum shirt and wild gecko shorts to completely understand!!! Suffice to say he (a) loves vests and (b) is not great at putting colours and patterns together, lol!

Here's my "homage" to DH:

Materials used:

• stamps - none
• card - retired SU papers, lucky limeade
• other - pennant die (to get the V neck), adorning accents edgelits (to shape the armholes), dimensionals, corner rounder punch

When I showed this to DD15 she instantly agreed it reminds her of her father - so I have definitely hit the mark there, roflol!

Come back again tomorrow for the last of this month's four challenges - a Self Promotion scrapbook layout! Meanwhile, visit the CC challenge gallery for tons of other great ideas - the link is HERE.

Thanks for dropping by.

Cheers
Kez

Creative Crew October Challenges - Creative Focus

Welcome back! Today's project is CCREW1013CF - Creative focus: Celebrate Sweetest Day (19th Oct) by creating a card for your Sweetest using products from the Etcetera Suite found on p96-109 of the Annual Catalogue.

For this challenge I began with picking two stamp sets from the Etcetera Suite and deciding what technique to use to combine them. I stamped En Francais and the swirl from Creative Elements on to a piece of daffodil delight cardstock using Versamark ink and clear embossed. Then I swiped my whisper white ink pad over the whole piece and wiped off the excess ink using a tissue - this has the effect of muting the brightness of the daffodil and making the embossed stamps stand out.

Choosing an oval to compliment the rectangular shape of the card, I stamped the swirl again with my sentiment and added some butterflies. These were first stamped using the butterfly stamp from Creative Elements so I got the lovely delicate pattern, then punched smaller with the itty bitty butterfly punch and beautiful wings embossing die. Add a touch of bling, some ribbon and a button and there you have it!

Materials used:

• stamps - En Francais, Creative Elements
• card - marina mist, whisper white, daffodil delight
• other - ovals framelits, Big Shot, dimensionals, marina mist satin ribbon, subtles button, white bakers twine, itty bitty butterfly punch, Beautiful Wings embossing die, rhinestones

Tomorrow I'll show you the Holiday Focus project. Meanwhile, pop over to the CC gallery and look at all the other fabulous inspiration. The link is HERE.

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kez

Creative Crew October Challenge - DSP Focus

Another month has rolled by already and it's time for the October challenges from the Creative Crew over at Splitcoaststampers. I must admit that I was so excited when we were given this month's brief that I started on my first project on the second of September!!! LOL! It has been terrible having to wait this long to share it with you!

CCREW1013DF - DSP/Colour focus: Celebrate Halloween by making a project using Witches' Brew dsp from p21 of the Holiday catalogue, or use the colour combo Basic Black, Basic Grey, Pumpkin Pie, Summer Starfruit and Very Vanilla.

I may have gotten a little carried away with this challenge! I love the playful aspects of Halloween and had so many ideas teeming in my brain that limiting myself to just one project was simply impossible!

I began with a candy box made from the fancy favour die and filled it with a bag of snakes - I even stamped on the cellophane bag!

 

Then I was really looking for an excuse to use this wonderful stamp from Halloween Bash, so I made a card to go with the box:

And then I made this BOO plaque using wooden letters covered in dsp. I found a cheap wooden plaque at the Reject Shop and painted over the picture, then went to town stamping and sponging to give it the look I was after. If you click on the photos to enlarge them you'll get a better view of the background stamping. I had so much fun making this it was scary!

Materials used:

• stamps - Halloween Bash (MDS), Wicked Cool, Out on a Limb, Spooky Bingo Bits, Toil & Trouble
• card - pumpkin pie, Witches' Brew dsp, very vanilla, basic black
• other - fancy favour box die, decorative label punch, large oval punch, scallop oval punch, summer starfruit ribbon, dimensionals, sticky strip, sponge dauber, rhinestones, heat tool, dazzling diamonds
• non SU - wooden letters, Tim Holtz medium rosette die, hot glue gun, Cuttlebug spider/bat die and matching embossing folder, black rhinestones, Versamark marker, wooden plaque, black paint

I'll be back tomorrow with the Creative Focus challenge. Meanwhile, why not pop over to the challenge gallery and take a look?

Thanks for calling in.

Cheers
Kez

Treat Boxes

Here's some cute little treat boxes that are quick and easy to make and can be decorated to any theme at all. They are roughly the size of a petite purse.

I first made one with a frosty Christmas theme and lots of bling and sparkle:

Materials used:

• stamps - Merry Little Christmas
• card - coastal cabana, whisper white, island indigo, silver glitter, Winter Frost dsp
• other - chalk talk framelit, Big Shot, magnetic platform, snow flurry die, 3/4" circle punch, frosted finishes embellishment, sticky strip, small oval punch, silver 1/8" ribbon

Next a blokey nautical theme:

Materials used:

• card - midnight muse, cherry cobbler, whisper white
• other - white bakers twine, word window punch, 1 1/4" circle punch, 1 3/8" circle punch, dimensionals
• non SU - digital images

And lastly a bit of Halloween fun:

Materials used:

• stamps - Halloween Bash (MDS)
• card - basic black, whisper white, pumpkin pie, Witches Brew dsp
• other - decorative label punch, large oval punch, scallop oval punch, pumpkin pie satin ribbon, dimensionals, small oval punch

Many thanks to Dawn Olchefske for sharing the template and an instructional video - you can see them on her blog HERE.

Thanks for calling in.

Cheers
Kez

Oh What Fun!

Our September Christmas stamp-a-stack cards showcase my fav new Xmas sentiment set, Christmas Messages. And just for my dear SIL, who loves Greeting Card Kids, we will be using that for our first card which also features some of the new Winter Frost dsp from the Holiday catalogue. I'm really pleased with how this one turned out - the soft colours really appeal to me.

Materials used:

• stamps - Greeting Card Kids (retired), Christmas Messages
• card - pool party, smoky slate, whisper white, Winter Frost dsp
• inks - coastal cabana, smoky slate, blush blossom, so saffron, pear pizzazz, Bermuda bay
• other - dimensionals, blender pen, Big Shot, Sahara sand marker
• non SU - corner rounder punch, snowflake embossing folder, circle and scallop circle dies

When I first saw the papers we are using for the next card I was immediately struck by two things: (1) the holly pattern would fit perfectly with this sentiment stamp, and (2) the colours in the paper match SU colours always artichoke and bravo burgundy absolutely perfectly. Given that, I couldn't possibly resist using it, now could I? Here's our second SAS card for this month:

And as my wonderful new magnetic platform and the envelope liner dies arrived the day I was cutting up, I just HAD to make matching envelopes!

Materials used:

• stamps - Christmas Messages, Bells and Boughs
• card - always artichoke, whisper white, bravo burgundy
• other - chalk talk dies, Big Shot, dimensionals, sponge daubers, envelope liner die
• non SU - Farmhouse Paper Co dsp Norland, burgundy pearl brads, holly punch 

Thanks for dropping by.

Cheers

Kez

Adore

Here's a card I made a while back, trying for a shabby chic kind of look. I love these soft colours together. 

Materials used:

• stamps - Tres Chic (MDS), Collage Curios, Lovely Little Labels, En Francais
• card - Sahara sand, soft sky, blushing bride, whisper white, patterned paper collections
• other - apothecary accents dies, Big Shot, clear embossing powder, heat tool, pearls, lace from artisan embellishment kit, paper doily, bottletop, square punch, sponge dauber, hexagon embossing folder, dimensionals, blushing bride and Sahara sand markers

Thanks for calling in.

Cheers

Kez

Tea Party Extras

As I mentioned in this post, I arranged a tea party theme for this month's classes (you can see the cards we made by following the link). I had also made up some extra little treats for all my lovely ladies. Here are the goodies I had in store for them:

A gift card which I put to use as a placecard, a tea baggie and a couple of little Hershey's mini chocolates - all decorated with gorgeous Gina Jane Roses digital kit.

And I had asked the ladies to wear a hat or fascinator suitable for a garden party - here is a photo of them hamming it up for the camera. Unfortunately we had a lot of sickness this week - get well wishes speeding to Molly, Patsy and Jean - so there were only four of my lovely ladies there.

And here are some shots of the wonderful repast we had for our tea party. I doubt there was much cooking going on in everyone's homes after this feast!

Petite cucumber sandwiches

Mini custard tarts with strawberries

Smoked salmon and philly on bagel toasts

Cheese and dip with rice crackers

Vanilla cupcakes with rosewater buttercream icing

And a lovely tea set to use

It was a great afternoon and the ladies all agreed it had been fun to have a theme - so we'll have to do it again some time!

Meanwhile, my other class is coming up this weekend - watch out ladies, you've got a lot to live up to! lol

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kez

Crafty Mum Rides Again

You may remember a while back I was making all kinds of gift bows (this post here). When she saw them, DD15 asked if I could make one from ribbon or fabric to put on a headband. Out of polka dot something, naturally (you know my girls' obsession with polka dots by now!).

Anyways, I happened to have some red polka dot felt on hand so I gave it a try and here is the result:

Materials used:

• gift bow die, Tombow glue
• non SU - hairband, hot glue gun

I can see I may have opened a Pandora's box with this one - now I'm requested to make a green one too. And I'm sure that won't be the end of it! lol

Thanks for calling in.

Cheers
Kez

PUH-LEASE!!!

DD15 had a birthday party to attend today and she was rather disappointed that the gift she had bought came in a plain white bag. Needed to buy something nicer, she said.

PUH-LEASE!

Crafty mum can fix that, says I! (or words to that effect)

As the birthday girl apparently likes pastels and not bolds or brights (thank goodness for some sanity in the world), I got out some totally gorgeous paper from Graphic 45 and along with my trusty stamps, punches and dies from SU, gave that nasty ol' white bag a makeover!

Take a lookie:

Much prettier! I could have done more but as this operation took place at 6.00 am, I was pleased with what I got accomplished! lol

Materials used:

• stamps - Happiest Birthday Greetings (retired)
• card - very vanilla
• other - gift bow tie, two tags die, scallop circle punch, 1 3/8" circle punch, 1" circle punch, marina mist ribbon, calypso coral bakers twine, dimensionals, sticky strip
• non SU - Secret Garden dsp by Graphic 45

Yay! Crafty mum saves the day!

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kez

Tea Party Time!

With the advent of Spring (yay!) I thought it would be fun to have a Tea Party theme for our projects this month.

First on our menu is this card using the Tea Party stamp set, cased from Lee Conrey with only a couple of minor changes.

Materials used:

• stamps - Tea Party
• card - basic black, very vanilla, Modern Medley dsp
• other - oval dies, Big Shot, strawberry slush ruffled ribbon, beautifully baroque embossing folder, dimensionals, pearls. blender pen

Also on our tea party menu is a cupcake shop awning card. I love the gelato-shades of our new in colours - they go so well with this type of card!

Materials used:

• stamps - none
• card - pistachio pudding, crisp cantaloupe, strawberry slush, whisper white, Sahara sand
• other - word window punch, scallop border punch, dimensionals, Sahara sand marker, sponge dauber, scallop oval punch, large oval punch, Big Shot
• non SU - Cottage Cutz tiered cupcake die, brick wall embossing folder

And we'll be making this cute coffee card which was inspired by Linda Aarhus.

Materials used:

• stamps - Perfect Blend
• card - baked brown sugar, whisper white, in colours patterned paper, soft suede
• other - finishing touches edgelit, Big Shot, dimensionals, champagne glass glitter, Tombow multi glue, ticket duo punch, sponge dauber, soft suede marker, owl punch, champagne glitter card, ruler

I have some surprises in store for my ladies when they arrive in class and I asked them to wear something special, so I'll be back soon with photos of those.

Thanks for dropping by.

Cheers

Kez

Creative Crew September Challenges

It's time for my very first challenges as a member of the SU Creative Crew over at Splitcoaststampers. I have had TONS of fun creating my projects and truly hope many of you will find some inspiration to take part in a challenge or two (or four!) yourselves.

September is Self Improvement Month

"The best thing you can do is get good at being you." - Dennis the Menace

"My past has not defined me, destroyed me, deterred me, or defeated me; it has only strengthened me." - Steve Maraboli

CCREW0913DF - DSP/Color Focus: Our journey of self improvement begins with Eastern Elegance designer papers or the colors crushed curry, coastal cabana, smoky slate and whisper white. Make a project using these colors for someone you admire. Tell us why this person is significant to you.

I wanted to incorporate as many of the colours as I could but didn't want to overwhelm my project with too many busy patterns. The ideal answer was a small amount of each! So out came my mosaic ensemble and here is the result:

Materials used:

• stamps - Really Good Greetings (MDS)
• card - whisper white, smoky slate, Eastern Elegance dsp (MDS)
• other - mosaic embossing folder, Big Shot, mosaic punch, dimensionals, rhinestones

This was made with both of my girls in mind. I admire them both so much for working so diligently towards their dreams and goals in life.

CCREW0913CF - Catalog Focus: use any of the stampsets on pages 111-119 in the annual catalog. Make a project in a new way to you by using a technique you've never tried or a special fold never used by you before. Continue to use at least two of the colors from the color focus, crushed curry, coastal cabana, smoky slate or whisper white. 

This one was a real challenge and my first three or so attempts at a new technique ended up in the bin! So I changed focus and tried a different tack and was finally happy with the result. The technique new to me is collage stamping; my stamp set from p111-119 is My Friend; and I've used all four of the challenge colours. My sentiment stamp was picked to carry on the Self Improvement theme - to live optimistically and not focussing on the dark parts of life. Here's my project:

Materials used:

• stamps - My Friend, Collage Curios, Lovely Little Labels, Pursuit of Happiness, Medallion, En Francais
• card - coastal cabana, whisper white, basic black
• other - dimensionals, cloudy day embossing folder, Big Shot, 3/4" circle punch, 1" circle punch, 1 1/4" scallop circle punch, clear embossing powder, heat tool

You can check the Splitcoaststampers Resources forum for ideas for new techniques at this link: http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/resources/C88/

CCREW0913HF - Holiday Focus: 911 Remembrance. It's not a holiday, but it's a day that has been imprinted on our minds. Make a project with the Big Shot that allows you to remember a day from your past. If you wish to share the significance of this day, we'd love to read about it.

Well, this one posed so many possibilities - there's no shortage of significant days to remember. Then I read Steve Maraboli's quote (above) again and knew immediately that my project would be about DD15, who was diagnosed with Type 1 (insulin dependent) diabetes 7 1/2 years ago.  She most certainly lives up to that quote, refusing to let the disease define her or rule her life - she is determined to live life on her terms and her diabetes has to fit in with that, not the other way around. 

If you've been a regular reader over the years you may remember a jelly bean card I made for DD a while back (see here). Jelly beans are what she takes when she is having a hypo (hypoglycaemia) to bring her blood glucose levels back up to a safe number. So for this project I used my Big Shot to make her a little purse full of jelly beans!

I used clear window sheet so the lovely colours of the jelly beans would show through and embossed it with the fancy fan E/F for a bit of texture. The "jelly bean " brad at the front features tiny love hearts to show my love and support for her every step of the way.

Materials used:

• stamps - none
• card - window sheet
• other - petite purse die, Big Shot, jelly bean brads (retired), subtles brads (retired), fancy fan embossing folder, sticky strip

CCREW0913SF - Scrapbook and More Focus: Make a gift for a good neighbor as you celebrate National Good Neighbor Day (September 28th).

Although we don't have NGND here in Australia, I love the idea of it. We have a young neighbour who feeds our cats for us while we are away and so this was the perfect opportunity to make an extra special thank you for her. My project isn't so much the gift as the gift wrapping - hope that meets the challenge criteria!

This bag is made from one piece of 12"x12" designer paper plus a couple of pieces of cardstock. Very simple and quick. The instructions were from a U Stamp with Dawn and Friends project (Year End Blow Out 2010) and were designed by Danielle Daws.

Materials used:

• stamps - Chalk Talk
• card - pumpkin pie, very vanilla, basic black, Modern Medley dsp, Polka Dot  Parade dsp
• other - chalk talk framelits, Big Shot, gift bow die, pumpkin pie and basic black 1/8" taffeta ribbon, 1 1/4" circle punch, 1 3/8" circle punch, crop-o-dile, sticky strip, bone folder, corner rounder punch, dimensionals
• non SU - black button

If you do make a project for any of the challenges, use the Blue codes when you post your project on your blog or on SCS.

Phew! That was a post and a half, wasn't it?! Thanks for sticking with me to the end and do please visit SCS and take a look at the other projects made by my fellow design team members for your inspiration (click HERE). And check back there regularly during September to see what everyone who is taking part in the challenges comes up with! 

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kez