December Creative Crew Scrapbook and More Focus

It's hard to believe this is my last challenge for the Creative Crew design team - the past four months have just flown by and I've really enjoyed all the challenges the ladies have come up with.

For this project we were to make a calendar, to do list, booklet or journal for a friend to use in 2014. I decided to make something for DD21 to use at uni and on teaching placement - a Post-It Note Desk Box. I found a great tutorial by Jill Hilliard (click here) and just made some adjustments to the box measurements as I wanted to use a big cube of post-its - I know DD uses A LOT of them!

I couldn't go past her favourite red and white polka dots and dressed it up with some black accents and cute little bows and one of my all-time favourite stamped images, just so she doesn't forget how much I love her (as if I would let her!).

Here's my project:

Materials used:

• stamps - Greeting Card Kids
• card - basic black, real red, whisper white, retired Xmas dsp
• other - scallop envelope die, Big Shot, dimensionals, 1 3/8" circle punch, pennants die
• non SU - Bella ribbon bows

I hope you have enjoyed my creative journey being on the design team. Be sure to visit the Creative Crew Challenges Gallery over at SCS to see what my fellow team members came up with for their final challenges.

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kez

December Creative Crew Challenge - Holiday Focus

This month's Holiday Focus is National Chocolate Day on Dec 24th - seems to be tailor-made for me! I particularly love the wording of this challenge - "While eating the best chocolate you can find, make a card using chocolate chip on it. If you CASEd someone fabulous, give credit to this wonderful stamper."

I took those instructions very seriously and while I was gobbling down chocolate creating, channelled the creative genius of not one, but two wonderful crafters. I loved on sight Jackie Topa's little Lindor elf and wanted immediately to combine it with the brilliant idea of Michelle Surette to make a slight alteration to one of my favourite Christmas greetings.

So here's my project, which uses both chocolate and chocolate chip!

Materials used:

• stamps and dsp - Merry Little Christmas designer kit (MDS)
• card - chocolate chip, whisper white, real red, blush blossom
• punches - pennant, Itty Bitty Punch Pack, Merry Minis Ornament, Owl Builder, Word Window, Small Oval, Small Scallop Circle
• other - chalk talk framelits, bitty banners framelits, Big Shot, stylish stripes embossing folder, sponge dauber, dimensionals

Here's a closer look - first little Alfie:

Punches used: word window, small scallop circle, small oval, pennant, itty bitty, owl, merry minis.

And the card:

Please note that no Lindor chocolates were harmed during the making of this project (I made sure they didn't feel any pain!!!!!)

Thanks for calling in today - why not visit the Creative Crew Challenge Gallery at SCS and see what other chocolate delights await you!

Cheers

Kez

December Creative Crew Challenge - DSP Focus

"Art begins in imitation and ends in innovation" (Mason Cooley).

This month's DSP focus is the totally gorgeous Modern Medley papers but as I've used those for a few other crew projects, I chose our other option of using basic black and very vanilla.

We are also to CASE someone we admire. I picked a fellow Australian demo whose projects I have found particularly inspiring lately, Mel Sharp from Melbourne. Mel has a clean, crisp style and makes fantastic use of white space on her work. I chose to CASE a stunningly elegant Christmas card she made recently in navy and white. Here's Mel's card:

And here is my CASE. I changed it to black and vanilla and for a bit of fun, made my window shape a Christmas ornament instead of a circle:

Materials used:

• stamps - Four the Holidays, Christmas Collectibles
• card - basic black, very vanilla
• other - holiday ornaments framelits, pearls, Big Shot, dimensionals, stamp-a-ma-jig, embroidery thread (non SU)

To make the frame I traced around the outside of the ornament shape before cutting it on the Big Shot (the magnetic platform holds it in place) and then cut the larger shape by hand.

Thanks for such great inspiration Mel, I had a lot of fun making this card. 

Pop on over to Splitcoaststampers and check out the other crew members' projects. You can even look at Mel's gallery too!

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kez

December Creative Crew Challenge - Catalogue Focus

This month's catalogue focus is candy dots. I have to admit, I hadn't gotten around to getting any yet, so had to hot foot place an order for some! With imitation being our theme for December, the challenge is to copy someone's artwork that loves brads or candy dots and to use candy dots generously on our project.

I drew my inspiration from this lovely card I found on Pinterest that comes from Riddersholm Design blog. 

In keeping with the modern graphic look of the Winter Frost paper, I kept my card simpler and more streamlined. I sprinkled both candy dots and rhinestones liberally to add zing to the soft, subtle colours. 

Materials used:

• stamps - Snow Swirled, Snow Burst (MDS), A Cardinal Christmas (MDS)
• card - pool party, whisper white, smoky slate, Winter Frost dsp
• other - two tags die, snow flurry die, Big Shot, frosted finishes embellishment, dimensionals, pool party seam binding, dotted scallop ribbon border punch, subtles candy dots, rhinestones 
• non SU - white glitter card

Do visit the December challenge gallery and check out what inspired my fellow design team members over at SCS.

Thanks for calling in.

Cheers

Kez

Creative Crew November Challenge - Scrapbook Focus

This month we are to journey down Memory Lane and create a scrapbook page or 3D item showcasing a favourite childhood memory.

Growing up on air force bases in New Zealand, one of the things I really loved doing was attending the base cinema for a Saturday afternoon matinee. Many Saturdays would see my brothers and I watching old war movies, Disney classics or whatever else they were running. (I think my mum really enjoyed the break!) In those days we had to stand before the movie started while they played 'God Save the Queen' - if you're old enough to remember that, you've probably got as many grey hairs as me!

It used to cost us 10c for a ticket and we would have 5c to spend at the Candy Bar - and 5c bought a lot of lollies in those days! Sherbet bags with licorice straws were one of my favourites, especially the lemon flavour.

Ah memories! Anyway, here is the layout I created in MDS. I Googled movie posters to use and the movie reel and ticket images are non SU.

Materials used:

• stamps - Schoolbook Serif Alphabet (MDS)
• punches - star (MDS)
• card - Sahara sand (MDS)

I hope you've enjoyed my trip down memory lane and my challenge projects for this month. Do visit Splitcoaststampers to see what the other design team members came up with and of course, we would love you to take part in a challenge or two along with us.

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kez

Creative Crew November Challenges - Holiday Focus

For our holiday focus this month it's National Cake Day and we were given some photos to use as inspiration for our projects. I picked the one shown below because you know how much I love black and white/black and vanilla!

This made me think of weddings obviously, but also the scene from My Fair Lady when they are at the races and all the ladies are wearing black and white outfits and ginormous hats - here's some pics:

So I decided to make a hat box using black and vanilla papers, ribbons and embellishments. I kept it simple and elegant - here's how it turned out:

The Modern Medley papers are black and white, so I sponged them with very vanilla ink so that they matched the striped paper. I loved using the wide striped ribbon on the lid as it looks so much like the ribbon on Eliza's dress (above)!

Materials used:

• stamps - None
• card - basic black, Modern Medley dsp, (retired) Halloween dsp
• other - very vanilla ink, sponge, gift bow die, very vintage designer buttons, (retired) striped grosgrain ribbon, sticky strip, (retired) black satin ribbon
• non SU - hot glue gun, Mod Podge, paint brush, papier mache hat box from Spotlight

I had so much fun making this project and YOU can have just as much fun joining in the challenge and creating something for National Cake Day too! Why not pop over to the challenge gallery at Splitcoast and see what everyone else has made to inspire you? 

Thanks for calling in.

Cheers

Kez

Creative Crew November Challenge - Creative Focus

CCREW1113CF - Creative Focus: show us something with the Pretty Packages line on pages 158 and 159 of the main catty or any of the kits or packages in the mini catty.

The packaging kits in the catalogue caught my eye very early on, so it was great to have an excuse to have to get some! I bought the gift boxes and tags bundle, which give you such a great head start that you need only worry about stamping and a couple of other embellishments.

As it is Spring here and we are heading into a hot Summer, I went with a bright and cheerful colour combo - crushed curry and rich razzleberry. Here's my package:

I used the crushed curry flag and ticket shapes from the set and added another layer with a razzleberry chalk talk die shape. The curry bakers twine is also from the set and I used some razzleberry wide striped ribbon and a very old glitter brad to hold it into a bow. Sentiment from Chalk Talk and lots of dimensionals to make layers. They all set off the cheerful polka dot dsp perfectly! 

Materials used:

• stamps - Chalk Talk
• card - crushed curry, rich razzleberry, whisper white, Polka Dot dsp
• other - rich razzleberry wide striped ribbon, brad, Big Shot, chalk talk dies, Tag a Box Bundle p159 AC

If you've been on the fence about any of the packaging products, I can now heartily recommend them - your gift packaging will easily become something really special.

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kez

Creative Crew November Challenges - DSP Focus

With the northern hemisphere firmly in Fall/Autumn and cooler weather, the DSP focus this month is Sweater Weather. The colours are chocolate chip, crushed curry, soft sky, Sahara sand and tangerine tango and we are to show them "getting happy together".

For my project I chose to make a hybrid 8" x 8" scrapbook layout using a family photo taken last year in the cooler weather. I changed the colour photo to sepia tones to better fit with the colour focus and so it wouldn't compete with the other elements on my page. Here tis:

Materials used:

• stamps - Fantabulous You (MDS)
• card - Sweater Weather dsp (MDS), chocolate chip, very vanilla, soft sky
• other - timeless type alphabet dies, Big Shot, hexagon punch, dimensionals, two-way glue pen

Tips:

1. The sentiment from Fantabulous You actually read 'I love you to infinity and beyond' so I coloured the 'I' in soft sky so it wouldn't show on the background paper of the same colour.
2. I chose 8" x 8" for my layout size as it fits on an A4 sheet of paper, meaning I could print it out myself. Once I had created the layout in MDS, I exported it as a jpeg file and printed it onto SU's very vanilla paper using "best" quality print.

Why not visit the Creative Crew Challenges gallery over at SCS and see what the rest of the design team came up with to inspire you? 

Thanks for calling in.

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

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