Wednesday, July 29, 2020

Seaweed Cake

Ever wondered what fish eat on their birthday? OK, if we're being honest, I haven't either, lol, but today's card shows a possible delectable treat.

The theme for the Global Design Project this week is aquatic, which gave me an excuse to pull out some stamps that hadn't seen ink yet. 


Materials used:
  • stamps - Big Bite (Gerda Steiner), Picture It Ocean (Clearly Besotted)
  • card - whisper white (SU), capri (Kaisercraft)
  • other - Copic markers, post-it notes, stitched square framelits, Big Shot, craft foam, Stamparatus

Cute! Wonder how that cake tastes, lol. 

I stamped the cake and shark first then masked them and stamped the background before colouring everything with Copic markers. It was lovely sitting in my craft room colouring on a cold, wet and gloomy day.  That's something that makes social distancing no hardship at all 😀😉

Thanks for stopping by. Stay safe.

Cheers
Kez

Tuesday, July 28, 2020

Meant To Be

OMGosh, talk about 'serendipitous'! The ladies at Just Add Ink are having mixed media cards as their challenge this week, so what could I do but play in my craft room and get inky! 

Here's my entry:


The background was made with ink 'smooshing' (very technical term), then I stamped over it with the music stamp in ripe persimmon and sponged through the trellis stencil with seedless preserves. Vibrancy of colour was preserved by using micro glaze - gotta love this stuff. The last steps were to sponge the edges then paint it with crackle paint and wait for the magic to happen!

And that's when things started to go wrong...

My first coat of crackle paint wasn't thick enough and even after drying overnight, no cracks appeared. Naturally, I added a second, thicker coat and after drying a while, sure enough thousands of tiny cracks appeared and gave it a gorgeous distressed look. Unfortunately...as it dried more, it actually started to peel off, and - what's even worse - took the top layer of vibrantly coloured ink with it! Aaargh! But we crafters are nothing if not resourceful, aren't we? So I scraped it all off (though you can still see bits around the edges) and added some die cut pieces that are a sort of reverse of the stencilling, and just went with the flow. Sigh! 

I cut the frame from three layers of white card, stuck them together then 'aged' them using inks and paints. This technique is a LOT of fun, lol. As luck would have it, my bestie and I had made a bunch of these wildflowers when she came to visit over the weekend, so I had them on hand already. More serendipity! Once all the elements were prepped it was simply a matter of assembling them on my card front. 

Materials used:
  • stamps - Sheet Music (SU), Attic Treasures (Tim Holtz)
  • card - watercolour, very vanilla, white, crumb cake
  • distress oxide inks - spiced marmalade, ripe persimmon, seedless preserves, vintage photo, bundled sage, lucky clover, scattered straw, carved pumpkin
  • other Tim Holtz products - trellis stencil, Wildflowers #1 dies, water spritzer,  distress micro glaze, antiqued bronze distress paint, tarnished brass distress spray stain, collage medium matte, clear rock candy crackle paint, archival inks in vintage photo, ground espresso and black soot, Splat box
  • other - heat tool, scalloped rectangle die, Big Shot, paint brush, linen thread, Dimensionals, ink spritzer tool, trellis die

So all in all, not the card I had originally envisaged but I'm happy with how it turned out. 

Thanks for calling in. Stay safe.

Cheers
Kez


Friday, July 24, 2020

Summer Lovin' - CAS on Friday Challenge #185

Hi and welcome! It's time for another CAS on Friday challenge.

This is challenge #185 and the theme is SUMMER.

Though I had quite a few ideas for this theme, in the end I had to go with a stamp set that just made me giggle. Take a look:


See what I mean? Who doesn't have memories from their childhood (or even grownup-hood) of ants appearing uninvited at your summer picnic? And of sinking your teeth into watermelon when the juice would run down your chin and fingers? My very adult daughters still can't wait for that first melon of the season, cutting it up into slices and gorging on its summery goodness. Mm mmm.

Materials used:
  • stamps - Happy Summer (Lawn Fawn)
  • card - whisper white, watermelon wonder
  • Copic markers - R20, R22, R24, G00, G05, G09
  • other - Dimensionals, craft foam

We'd love to have you visit the CAS on Friday blog and see the wonderful creations my fellow design team members have made for you. And, of course, we'd love it even more if you give it a go and join our summer challenge!

Thanks for calling in and stay safe.

Cheers
Kez

Sunday, July 12, 2020

It's Beginning to Look Alot Like...

Christmas! 

Well, on this blog anyway, because this week I made my first Christmas card for the year. It was very much an experimentation with some new bits and pieces and I was more than happy with how it turned out.


Materials used:
  • stamps - none
  • card - crumb cake, cherry cobbler, basic black, very vanilla, whisper white, early espresso
  • distress oxide inks - frayed burlap, spiced marmalade, festive berries, candied apple, hickory smoke
  • Tim Holtz products - Holly collage paper, Timekeeper Bigz die, Feathered Friends dies, tarnished brass distress paint, distress collage medium, picket fence distress ink, black soot archive ink
  • other - big Shot, sponge dauber, blending brushes, black rhinestone, branch die, large numbers dies, dimensionals

I did two layers of card for the numbers to give them more dimension and the branch is three layers, while the bird is raised. The collage paper is very thin, like tissue, so is glued to some whisper white to provide body. I cut the three layers for the bird from very vanilla then used inks and brushes to colour them. I'm really loving this little bird, so I think it's safe to say there'll be more showing up on cards again soon.

Usually I'd be starting Christmas card stamp-a-stack classes this month, so it feels rather strange not to be designing straightforward samples for my ladies. Mind you, some of them have already started on their holiday cards too - and one, in fact, has made her 30 already! That's what quarantine will do for you!

Thanks for stopping by. Stay safe.

Cheers
Kez


Friday, July 10, 2020

Yikes! - CAS on Friday Challenge #184

Here I am again with another CAS on Friday challenge for you!

This is challenge #184 and the theme is ANYTHING BUT WHITE. In other words, white (or cream/ivory etc) should not be the predominant colour on your card, though it can be present in small amounts.

I've gone with a very simple card. After pencilling some guidelines, I punched my windows with a square punch, stamped and coloured two of each dog, then fussy cut around one for a second layer. The whole thing is mounted up and I used my punch again to cut the sentiment just the right size.


Materials used:
  • stamps - Crazy Dogs (Tim Holtz)
  • card - tempting turquoise, whisper white
  • other - 1 1/4" square punch, mounting strips, mini Dimensionals, Copic markers, scissors, computer and printer, pencil and ruler

I just love the crazy eyes all of Tim's 'Crazy' range have - they look so adorably comical. I'd love to have a dog with this character, wouldn't you? Or maybe you do already!

Thanks for dropping in. Do be sure to pop over to the CASOF blog to see what the rest of the team have for you, leave some comment love along the way, and hopefully think about joining in our challenge.

Cheers
Kez

Monday, July 6, 2020

Adulting is Hard

SU's stamp set 'Nothing's Better Than' was one of those I instantly knew I'd buy when I first saw the 2020-2021 annual catalogue. Well, that's probably not a shock to you considering it features all the most fun things in life - which coincidentally all begin with 'C'. Case in point: chocolate, cocktails, coffee and cookies! I mean, seriously. Actually, for me, not so much the coffee - can't stand the stuff. Even refuse to kiss my family when they have 'coffee breath' lol. But I do appreciate me a nice chai latte!

Anyways, I had fun over the last few days playing with various colours and designs before these cards were born.


Materials used:
  • stamps - Nothing's Better Than
  • card - whisper white, magenta madness, that bee DSP (lol)
  • other - stitched rectangle die; Love You More Than dies; Big Shot; Stampin' Blends - Bermuda bay, daffodil delight, pumpkin pie, granny apple green, lovely lipstick; Stampin' Write markers - Sahara sand, gorgeous grape, magenta madness, Bermuda bay; Dimensionals; craft foam.

You'll notice I did the cocktails and chocolate ones first, because...come on...priorities. 😉


Materials used:
  • stamps - Nothing's Better Than
  • card - whisper white, just jade, that bee DSP (lol)
  • other - stitched rectangle die; Love You More Than dies; Big Shot; Dimensionals; craft foam, Copic markers E15 and E39, in colour markers

For this one I used my just jade marker to ink up 'ummm...' from part of one stamp and 'y' from another to give me 'yummm...'

And lastly my coffee version (haven't done a cookies one). I don't particularly like the coffee cup image in the set so I dug out a mini coffee cup die set I have in my stash and used that instead.


Materials used:
  • stamps - Nothing's Better Than
  • card - whisper white, misty moonlight, that bee DSP (lol)
  • other - stitched rectangle die; coffee cup dies; Big Shot; Dimensionals; craft foam, in colour markers; Love You More Than dies

This week's challenge with my ladies is to use something new, so I've certainly got that covered with this set, lol! Thanks for stopping by and stay safe.

Cheers
Kez