Huzzah!

I have been sorely missing watercolouring since discovering I'd been silly enough to leave StazOn ink and my aqua painter behind in Australia. The ink was easy to replace from a SU demo here in the Netherlands and that arrived late last week, but the aqua painter not so much - because let me tell you, not all water brushes are created equal. Now, much as I love SU products, I have to be honest and say (and I don't know which manufacturer they get them from) that their water brushes (aqua painter) are not very good. Every single one of my ladies who bought them had trouble with water flooding from the reservoir to the brush tip and ended up very frustrated. Eventually I had to recommend they purchase the brand that I had been using successfully for many years, since even before I became a demonstrator.

For this reason, plus what I consider to be a horrendous price (21 euros for a pair), I didn't buy the SU ones and today finally managed to get to a craft shop in the nearby town of Hellevoetsluis and found they had my favourite brand. Huzzah! I bought two (fine and medium tips - just over 8 euros for both) and couldn't wait to get back to the boat to try them out.

So without further ado, here's my first watercoloured card in a month!

Materials used:

• stamps - Sailing Home (SU), Ocean Wisdom (Stampendous)
• card - seaside spray, watercolour
• inks - seaside spray, night of navy, Sahara sand, rococo rose, terracotta tile
• other - stitched rectangle framelit, Big Shot, retired embossing folder, water brush, mini MISTI, white gel pen, soft suede marker

You can bet there will be more watercolouring cropping up here in the future. Until then, thanks for sailing by.

Cheers
Kez

Life's At Ease

Life certainly is at ease for me at the moment, living on board our floating home. I wake to the creaking of mooring ropes, the gentle bump of fenders against the pontoon and the flap-flap-flap of rigging and flags as the breeze whips them. It's addictive, I assure you.

Here's the card I made which gave me my post title today:

Materials used:

• stamps - Ocean Wisdom (Stampendous)
• card - night of navy, whisper white, real red, crumb cake, Come Sail Away DSP
• other - marina sailboats dies (Poppycrafts), Big Shot, Dimensionals, stitched circle die, fine tip glue

I hope your life gives you some ease today. Thanks for sailing by.

Cheers
Kez

Come Sail Away

My offerings today both use elements from the Come Sail Away suite of products. I resisted getting the Memories & More card pack for a while until I began seeing samples on blogs that I really liked. First up a very simple card that uses no stamps whatsoever, instead designer series paper and a trimmed-down card from the M&M pack.

Materials used:

• card - crumb cake, seaside spray, Come Sail Away DSP
• other - Come Sail Away Memories & More card pack, Dimensionals, night of navy marker

Another card from the M&M pack stands as the background on my second card and I have to say that the whisper white/balmy blue combo is stealing my heart. So gorgeous. Anyway, the 'rope' element is also from the pack, while I've added some DSP plus stamps and dies from the suite as well. This is still a very straightforward card to put together though, easily suitable for beginner stampers.

Materials used:

• stamps - Sailing Home
• card - balmy blue, whisper white, Come Sail Away DSP
• other - Come Sail Away Memories & More card pack, Dimensionals, Smooth Sailing Dies, Big Shot

Thanks for sailing by.

Cheers
Kez

Best Laid Plans...

With a thunderstorm raining down on us this morning it was an excellent excuse opportunity to do some more crafting, so I scoured my Pinterest boards, took out my meagre supplies and got to work.

Materials used:

• stamps - Sailing Home (SU), Ocean Wisdom (Stampendous)
• card - whisper white, crushed curry, cherry cobbler, retired DSP
• other - stitched circle framelit, Big Shot, Marina Sailboats die (Poppystamps), Flying Gulls dies (Frantic Stamper), Dimensionals, mini MISTI, Sahara sand marker

Now that it's finished I've remembered thinking I should use a neutral coloured base so the sails and gulls stand out more. Hmmm, maybe I need to make another one...

Thanks for sailing by.

Cheers
Kez

You Spin My Wheel

Ahoy! I feel perhaps I should warn you that all the cards you'll see from me over the next few months will have a sailing/marine/nautical theme, as those are the only stamps and dies etc I brought with me. My last post showed the first card I made onboard our yacht, SV Aurora Leigh, where I am ensconced with limited craft supplies until the end of August, so if those themes don't float your boat (hehe) then I'm sorry but that's what'll be happening.

As I wait for my order of StazOn ink and aqua brush to arrive so I can watercolour (see previous post for an explanation of that disaster), I've coloured again using pencils and blender pen. You may recognise the designer series papers I've used from - oh gosh, maybe a couple of years ago? Can't remember, but I do recall that I bought up a few packs before they retired because I loved them for masculine cards. Well, they feature Kerry cherry cobbler, after all, so what's not to love?

Materials used:

• stamps - Sailing Home
• card - whisper white, night of navy, retired DSP
• other - stitched rectangle framelits, Big Shot, watercolour pencils, blender pen, soft sky marker, Sail Away trinkets, Dimensionals

Don't you love how a new product (the trinket) matches perfectly with an old product (the paper)? Me too.

Whelp, thanks for sailing by.

cheers
Kez

Like A Pirate

Ahoy there! Greetings from on board SV Aurora Leigh nestled snugly in the Netherlands. I've been on the boat for two weeks now and am settling in nicely. We've had our very first ever visitors - DD27 and her partner - and just after they left my craft goodies arrived. That is to say, the limited supply of crafting gear I sent over in a shipping container. Here they are in a nook in the saloon:

So, having gotten a few important tasks out of the way, I decided to do some creating. Unfortunately I discovered I had left two very essential items at home in Australia - my aqua brush/pen and my StazOn ink. Darn it! I can order more from SU over here, of course, but that's more waiting around for things to be delivered, ho hum. Serves me right. Luckily I'm reasonably good at adapting (nothing to do with a lifetime of making errors, why would you think that? Puh-lease; it's like you don't know me at all).

This week's challenge over at the CAS on Sunday blog is People and the only people stamps I have with me are mermaids and pirates, so aaaaaarrrrggghhh matey, pirates it is. Here's my clean and simple card (excuse the quality of the photo; I'll have to get used to the light on board for snapping shots):

Materials used:

• stamps - MFT Party Like a Pirate
• card - whisper white, granny apple green
• other - stitched rectangle framelits (Scrap Dragon), Big Shot, blender pen, ocean sequins (Clear Scraps), watercolour pencils, markers - Sahara sand, soft sky

I coloured with SU's watercolour pencils then used a blender pen rather than aqua painter. It gives a slightly different look but I don't mind it at all. I tried to give his face a sort of grubby/sunburnt effect which I'm not sure quite worked. And as I had to use Memento ink (because of the whole forgetting my StazOn fiasco), the solvent in the blender pen doesn't make the ink run like water would. Then, naturally - and just to add a cherry to the top of my forget pile - I found I'd also forgotten to bring glue with which to adhere the sequins. I think I should maybe walk the plank.

Thanks for sailing by.

Cheers
Kez

Happy 21st Lozzy!

Our younger daughter turns 21 today, so of course deserves a special card. She gave me the challenge of making it eco-friendly - ie using only offcuts and scraps of card, papers etc and nothing new. Here's the result:

I thought a black and white base, with bright colours to liven it, was a sure-fire way to go as I had tons of scraps of those. Luckily I also had on hand some glitter card colours that are a close enough match to SU's melon mambo and tempting turquoise. Watercolour card had been cut recently for some backgrounds I'm making, likewise I had an A5 piece of black cut already that made the box base, the stamp I used had been used before - the only thing I had to compromise on and use from new was some acetate to hold the balloons, as I had run out of stock. She said that's ok though, so I'm happy my card is as eco-friendly as I could make it.

Thanks for calling in.

cheers
Kez