Who Turned Up The Heat?

Seriously.

It's only the beginning of Spring and temps today and yesterday have been 33 degrees C. Gimme a break! Hottest Spring days in umpteen years apparently.

Anyways, it was good to have an excuse to stay out of the hot air because I have been busy crafting on behalf of DD22, who finishes up her year-long school placement next week and wanted a little something to give to all her Year 3/4 kiddies. She forgot, however, to give me sufficient warning of the deadline coming up, so I've only had 36 hours to get them all made and in the post down to Melbourne!

So, over the last day and a half and with the very invaluable assistance of DD16, I made up 54 bookmarks with some punch art characters.

Here they is:

The TMNT ones are for the boys (yeah, you probably figured that out already, right?) and the yellow M and M ones are for the girls.

As she was helping me with the M and Ms, DD16 gave firm instructions that there is to be NO punch art next time! I think she was gaining a meaningful appreciation of how many fiddly little steps are involved!!! LOL. Apparently if it hadn't been so cute, she would have told me to make them all on my own!

With that important job out of the way and all my stamp camp projects finished, I now have a few days in hand to do some card making just for fun - and with new stamps that arrived yesterday just begging to be inked up, I think I may just do that!

Punches used:
TMNT - 38mm circle (non SU), large oval, itty bitty circle, 1/4" circle
Yellow - 1 3/4" circle, 1/2" circle, itty bitty circle, small oval, boho blossom, horizontal slot and Timeless Type alphabet die

Thanks for calling in.

Cheers
Kez

Elegant Christmas

For this month's Christmas stamp-a-stack cards I have tried for simple and elegant. Both cards were inspired by the two gorgeous embossing folders I picked up at a craft market last week.

Materials used:

• stamps - Merry Little Christmas
• card - night of navy, whisper white
• other - white embossing powder, heat tool, rhinestones, Big Shot, dimensionals, chalk talk framelits
• non SU - snowflake embossing folder

Materials used:

• stamps - Good Greetings, Christmas Bauble
• card - crumb cake, cherry cobbler, very vanilla, watercolour
• other - aqua painter, markers, dimensionals, pennant punch, pearls, white gel pen
• non SU - holly embossing folder

A bit more work in the second card with the colouring and cutting, but worth it I think for that gorgeous bauble.

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kez

Birthday Text

I am absolutely LOVING being on holiday. I have finally had time to sit and read a book I bought in June - and finished it's 814 pages yesterday - and have loved being back in my craft room making cards. My tally so far is 4 shoebox cards for Stamp Camp, 2 Christmas cards for this week's stamp-a-stack, another shoebox card for my class next month (that is super organised for me!) plus today's offering.

This was was originally intended as a shoebox card for Stamp Camp, but I realised as I was making it that it is WAY too fiddly for a shoebox card! So it's going in to my general pile of cards on hand to give away as the occasion arises. Being a birthday card, that won't take long.

Here tis:

Materials used:

• stamps - So Social
• card - basic black, pink pirouette, whisper white
• other - large polka dot embossing folder, Big Shot, rhinestone, basic black ribbon
• non SU - mobile phone die set

Would it surprise you to hear this was inspired by a card on Pinterest? No? I wonder why! lol - back soon with this month's Christmas cards.

Thanks for dropping in.

Cheers

Kez

Can't Resist You

This month's class cards use emboss resist techniques and I must admit my fingers were very inky after I had finished playing! Such a lot of fun and a wonderful stress release ....

So, here are the cards we are making. This first one was inspired by a card I saw on Pinterest (I seem to say that a lot lately!) made by Melanie Muenchinger.

Materials used:

• stamps - Summer Silhouettes, Best Yet (retired)
• card - basic black, very vanilla, calypso coral patterned paper
• other - clear embossing powder, heat tool, dimensionals, sponges

Ingrid Kristina's creation (also on Pinterest) inspired my second card, this time in tones of blue and brown with a homespun/distressed feel.

Materials used:

• stamps - Summer Silhouettes, Good Greetings (hostess), En Francais (retired)
• card - crumb cake, watercolour
• other - clear embossing powder, heat tool, sponge dauber, aqua painter, button, pennant punch, burlap ribbon

And the last of our cards is a bright and cheerful offering that is NOT inspired by anything on Pinterest, lol! I used ink refills for added intensity of colour in my background.

Materials used:

• stamps - Fabulous Florets
• card - rich razzleberry, whisper white, watercolour
• other - clear embossing powder, white embossing powder, heat tool, re-inkers, dimensionals, water spritzer

Only one more week of work until the holidays, and I am soooooooo looking forward to much more time in my craft room. I have projects for our upcoming Stamp Camp to prepare and am running out of time to do it!

See you again soon, I hope. Thanks for calling in.

Cheers

Kez

Silver, Silver Everywhere

Last week my DH and I celebrated our 25th (Silver) wedding anniversary.

We commemorated the occasion with a family dinner and also going away for the weekend to Melbourne, so we got to catch up with DD22 as well. As Sunday was Father's Day, it made it specially nice. Melbourne turned on the warmth and sunshine for us and we had a really lovely weekend - such a shame to have to fly back to reality again!

On the handcrafted side, we received a beautiful star book made by my lovely SIL with photos from our wedding, the arrival of our two gorgeous daughters and some family shots over the years. A very special gift for us to enjoy and treasure.

We also received a gorgeous card-in-a-box from DD22, who knows how much I love cherry cobbler.

As a crafter it is so much more special to receive handmade items, as I appreciate how much thought and effort goes into the creating of them, so we are really grateful to all involved in the making of our "silver" treasures.

You may have guessed from my long absences here on my blog that I am absolutely snowed under with work - and you would be right. But I have a card class coming up this weekend, so I will finally get to sit down and CREATE! and how wonderful that will be. So pop back later in the week for a sneakie at our class cards which will feature the emboss resist technique.

Thanks for dropping by.

Cheers
Kez

Well, Colour Me Surprised!

It's Christmas stamp-a-stack time again and I don't think it will come as much of a surprise to my ladies that this month's cards involve colouring! They know I love it - I just hope it doesn't make for too much work for them!

Firstly a card using the gorgeous Beautiful Season set from last year's mini. This is such a wonderful image and here I have coloured it using a blender pen. Outlining the image with Sahara sand marker makes it pop off the page and gives a dimensional look.

Materials used:

• stamps - Beautiful Season
• card - crumb cake, mossy meadow, whisper white
• other - blender pen, markers, apothecary accents die, Big Shot, dimensionals, ticket corner punch

Our second card uses a new set from the upcoming Holiday catalogue called Holiday Home. It's a photopolymer set, so you can see exactly where you are stamping. There's a matching die set too, to make cutting out easy.

Materials used:

• stamps - Holiday Home
• card - cherry cobbler, very vanilla, old olive, retired dsp, watercolour
• other - pennant punch, dimensionals, cloud embossing folder, Big Shot, aqua painter

Making Christmas cards certainly makes the holiday season seem awfully close and there is sooooooooooo much to be done before that happens, it's rather scary! Lol.

Thanks for dropping by.

Cheers

Kez

Let Your Dreams Set Sail

Today's offering is the nautical-themed card in a box I mentioned in yesterday's post. This is for my DH's birthday tomorrow - luckily, he doesn't look at my blog so he won't get a sneak preview!

I used a Nitwit Collection kit (Coastal lil bits and Coastal too) for all the digital elements and papers, with SU card for the rest.

Materials used:

• card - real red, whisper white, night of navy
• other - dimensionals, MDS
• non SU - Nitwit digital elements and papers, acetate, computer and printer

Here's the back view for writing the birthday message:

I don't think my photos do it justice really, as I'm not good at photographing in bright sunlight. Ah well.

We'll be making a card in a box in class this month, so I hope my ladies enjoy creating them as much as I do.

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kez

Oh, Happy Day

They've been around on the "interweb" for a while and I've had them pending in my "Gunnado" file, and now I have finally dedicated a few hours to making one!

A card-in-a-box, that is.

I have seen so many great samples that I had a hard time deciding what theme to use for my first one. Eventually I figured that I couldn't go wrong with birthday as that is the thing my ladies ask for the most. If you're familiar with my work you will know that I don't go in for very busy things, so this was a real challenge for me - to get that fine balance between not having too many empty spaces and having far too much of a good thing!

Here tis:

Materials used:

• stamps - Just Sayin', Happy Hour, Starburst Sayings, Tag Talk, Circle of Friendship (retired)
• card - Pacific point, pumpkin pie, daffodil delight, whisper white, brights patterned papers, Polka Dots dsp
• other - pennant punch, starburst framelits, Big Shot, window sheets, dimensionals, label bracket punch, 1" circle punch, word bubbles framelits

And here's the back view where you would write your birthday message:

It's definitely a bit minimalist, isn't it? I'm thinking now I might need to add a few more bits ....

So, of course, having finally made one, I just had to make another with a different theme. I saw a gorgeous sample on Pinterest (which I think was made by Linda Gray) that I love and had the tools for, so I have used that as inspiration. The gorgeous new in colour Hello Honey was the perfect choice, as you'll see:

 

Materials used:

• stamps - Just Buzzin' By (retired)
• card - hello honey, basic black, whisper white, in colour patterned paper
• other - daisy die (retired), owl punch, 3/4" circle punch, 1/2" circle punch, window sheets, Big Shot, dimensionals, hexagon embossing folder, Blendabilities, pennant punch, sponge dauber
• non SU - Magnolia stamp, Carl daisy punches

On DD16's advice I have left the side panels as they are, as the card is so busy already - though I was tempted to put a honey pot on there.  I'm working on a nautical themed one now, as it's DH's birthday on Tuesday - so back soon with that one!

Thanks for calling in.

Cheers

Kez

Christmas In July

Tomorrow we begin our Christmas card stamp-a-stack classes, making 10 cards each month from July-October. I decided to begin with some soft pastel cards and our first uses pool party with crumb cake, very vanilla and a touch of soft suede.

Materials used:

• stamps - Snow Swirled (retired)
• card - pool party, crumb cake, very vanilla
• other - embossing folder, dimensionals, holiday framelits, Big Shot
• non SU - ribbon, hot glue gun

The baubles were embossed after inking the embossing folder with pool party ink to achieve this gorgeously elegant, vintage look. 

Our second design involves some watercolouring, so I limited it to four colours and kept the background very simple - when making 5 of these, we don't want it to be too time-consuming.

Materials used:

• stamps - House Mouse, SU Christmas greeting
• card - pistachio pudding, crumb cake, watercolour, whisper white, strawberry slush patterned paper
• other - aqua painter, dimensionals, markers, banner punch, stylish stripes embossing folder, Big Shot

I bought my first Christmas present last week, so I am certainly starting to gear up for the holiday already! LOL

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kez

Ah, Memories!

When I first began my teaching career (many moons ago), I taught typing on the old manual typewriters - today's youngsters probably don't even know what they are! But one of the new stamp sets in our 2014 catalogue sent me down Memory Lane and I just had to add it to my "must have" list.

This card was inspired by Allison Kamitsu. I have used new in colours blackberry bliss and hello honey along with Sahara sand and whisper white.

Materials used:

• stamps - Tap, Tap, Tap
• card - blackberry bliss, hello honey, Sahara sand, whisper white, Moonlight paper stack
• other - cute clips, stamp-a-ma-jig, clear embossing powder, white embossing powder, heat tool, pennant punch, owl punch, dimensionals, alphabet press embossing folder, Big Shot

The other card I have made is a real labour of love. I just adore the Girlfriends range of stamps from Art Impressions and as my SIL and I are both avid movie-goers, I simply couldn't resist getting At The Movies. Inspired by Sue Kment, this hybrid centre-step card was soooooo much fun to create.

Aren't they gorgeous? There are two layers on the 3D glasses and the seats and this card has the honour of being my best yet, according to my husband.

Materials used:

• stamps - That's the Ticket (SU), At the Movies (AI)
• card - basic black, watercolour, riding hood red, silver glitter, blue glitter
• other - digital images, dimensionals, aqua painter, small star punch (retired), mini star punch, markers, inks

Now, speaking of movies, I never got around to showing you the AMAZING item my afore-mentioned SIL made me at Christmas. As a family we always see a movie on Boxing Day and last Xmas our choice was The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. My SIL gave me some "movie cash" as a gift and made a small cinema-in-a-box to package it in! Check it out in the following photos - here's the view from the front with the box open to see the screen, curtains (real fabric) and row of seats:

Here you can see the detail for the seats - she even cut hand rests!

Is that incredible or what? I was totally blown away by it, I can tell you!

Well, that's all for today. Back soon with the first of this year's Christmas cards.
Thanks for calling in.

Cheers

Kez

The Lemon Is In Play

WARNING: this post is completely NON craft related; it's just me and my daughter being total geeks and having a ton of fun!

Much hilarity abounded in our household today, and beyond, but I must warn you that if you are not familiar with or a fan of (although the two usually go hand-in-hand) the BBC radio show "Cabin Pressure" by the 'brilliant' John Finnemore, then this post will mean absolutely nothing to you and you can continue to go about your usual business.

If, however, you - like DD22 and myself - are avid fans of this wonderful comedic show, then you will undoubtedly appreciate the tale I am about to unfold ...

So, background story - DD22 works in Melbourne with people with disabilities and today for their outing they went to Oz ComicCon. She rang me yesterday to ask for help in choosing a costume to wear as she had some limitations, to whit: a budget of not more than $40 and only 3 hours in which to prepare anything. After discussing a few options, she decided to go as Captain Martin Crieff from Cabin Pressure in the episode with the travelling lemon (S03e01 Qikiqtarjuaq). I looked up costume places in Melbourne that had pilot hats and she would go to Savers or similar for a navy jacket. The scene was set ...

This morning I get the following photo with a text:

She was having trouble attaching the lemon to the top of the hat! Eventually she managed to get some duct/gaffer tape from a local store which did the trick. Here's her final costume:

While she was on the train going to work we exchanged a series of text messages consisting mainly of quotes (or close to, anyway) from various episodes of the show that had me in fits of giggles (I was in my craft room but apparently laughing so loud I woke DD16!!!) Here are screen shots of our exchanges - again, you need to be a fan of the show to understand what we are rambling on about:

She reported afterwards that she had two people acknowledge they recognised her costume and a few more who saw it and smiled, which she took as meaning they were also fans but too shy to say so ...

Brilliant!

Well, that's enough geeking for now! I think I need to go listen to an episode of Cabin Pressure before I go to bed ...

Thanks for seeing it through to the end.

Cheers
Kez

Best Wishes Blendabilities

While I have been thoroughly enjoying a lazy first week of the holidays, I finally decided today it was time to get something done in my craft room! I had temporarily taken it over for studying, but as DD22 is coming to visit soon and I have craft classes to prepare for before that happens, it was desperately in need of my attention. Once that task was completed, of course I then had to reward myself by making a card - and more specifically, doing some of my favourite craft activity - colouring in.

I had a play with the new Blendabilities alcohol markers to colour a Magnolia stamp and am very happy with how it turned out.

Materials used:

• stamps - Short & Sweet (retired)
• card - rich razzleberry, whisper white, Polka Dot Parade dsp, regals patterned paper
• Blendabilities - light and medium rich razzleberry, light, medium and dark daffodil delight, skin tone assortment
• other - oval punch, scallop oval punch, oval framelits, Big Shot, daffodil delight seam binding, dimensionals, Sahara sand marker
• non SU - Magnolia stamp

I just love the Tilda images, she is such a cutie! The markers were lovely to work with, so I am really looking forward to more colours being available (to us lucky demos) later this month.

Thanks for dropping in.

Cheers

Kez

Disconnected

With one semester of being both teacher and student behind me, I am sooooooooo pleased to be on a break and have the chance to get back into my craft room to actually create. Mind you, finding some stamping mojo is proving to be no small task!

I had a class with my lovely ladies at the weekend and wanted to show them some of the goodies in store in our new catalogue, as well as making a bit of packaging for a change from just all cards. We used the tag a bag gift boxes with clear covers - I love these, they are so simple to put together and incredibly versatile in how you can choose to decorate them. The ladies loved them too, although they seemed to think I tricked them with how simple they are to assemble and then gave them hard work decorating them! I just don't know what they were complaining about - colouring in and fussy cutting? What's the problem? LOL

Materials used:

• stamps - You're Lovely (SAB), En Francais
• card - whisper white, crisp cantaloupe, pistachio pudding, in colour patterned paper
• other - paper doily, scalloped tag topper punch, tag a bag gift boxes, crisp cantaloupe thick bakers twine, white ribbon, deco label die, Big Shot, dimensionals, clear embossing powder, heat tool, Versamark ink, sponge dauber, blender pen

One of the new stamp sets from our upcoming catalogue that I bought on pre-order is great for masculine cards, always a useful addition. Here's a fairly simple layout using current in colour baked brown sugar teamed with new in colour lost lagoon.

Materials used:

• stamps - Traveller, That's the Ticket
• card - baked brown sugar, very vanilla, lost lagoon
• other - sponge dauber, dimensionals, arrow embossing folder, Big Shot, baked brown sugar thick bakers twine 

Our last project is the thing I am most asked for - a birthday card. Here we are using a new stamp set called In This Together along with an old favourite Happy Hour and some watercolouring.

Materials used:

• stamps - In This Together, Happy Hour
• card - pool party, calypso coral, watercolour, dsp
• other - dimensionals, aqua painter, markers, sponge dauber

That's it for now - hopefully I'll be back soon with some more crafty goodness!

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kez

Fancy A Spot Of New Colour?

With the arrival of the new 2014-2016 in colours at my house yesterday, I was determined to get into my craft room and have a play. So after a late rising (well, it is a long weekend, after all!) that is exactly what I did. Hubby came past just as I had gone in and asked if I was having fun. "Not yet", I replied, "but I'm about to!"

I had an urge to watercolour, so got out the beautiful Pleasant Poppies stamp and set to.

Here's the result - not quite as awesome as I was hoping, but not bad either. Hubby praised it, which is a big deal!

The card base is blackberry bliss, the poppies are hello honey with mossy meadow for the stems and a diluted lost lagoon for the sky. The other in colour I didn't use is tangelo twist. I coloured the edge of the lace to make it stand out more using the blackberry bliss marker.

Materials used:

• stamps - Pleasant Poppies, Petite Pairs
• card - blackberry bliss, hello honey, watercolour
• other - aqua painter, markers, lace ribbon, dimensionals

Has that whet your appetite for the new in colours? Hope so!

Thanks for calling in.

Cheers

Kez

Book Nerd

My "baby" DD turns 16 on Thursday and so the pressure was on today (my only day off in the week) to make a card. As part of her present is a gift card to her favourite book store, I decided to incorporate a gift card holder pocket into an easel card.

I am quite happy with how it turned out and can safely show it to you as she doesn't read my blog:

The images are coloured using Stampin' Up!'s new Blendabilities alcohol markers - which quite fortuitously arrived on my doorstep this morning! These are only available in select colours to demonstrators at the moment, but you won't have too long to wait! What I love about them is (a) they match card, ink, ribbon, etc (gotta LOVE that) and (b) they are formulated to work on whisper white card stock, so I don't have to buy special card for them, yay. I also coloured the three rhinestones with a blendabilities pen.

Materials used:

• card - old olive, whisper white, daffodil delight, retired old olive patterned paper
• other - oval framelits, Big Shot, dimensionals, rhinestones, sticky strip, sponge dauber
• blendabilities - skin tones, light and medium daffodil delight, light, medium and dark pumpkin pie, light and medium old olive, bronze
• non SU - stamps, gift card

Only two more weeks until the mid-semester break and I am looking forward to getting serious about some card making!

Thanks for dropping by.

Cheers

Kez