Getting an Early Start

Over the past few years I've come to love orange and hot pink together, so when I saw the Just Us Girls challenge had this combo, I was highly motivated to play along. 

For some reason my first thought was Halloween and although I tried thinking of other themes, that thought persisted - so of course, eventually I gave in, lol. Here's what I ended up with.

Materials used:

• stamps - Unraveled (Tim Holtz), Gorgeous Grunge (Stampin' Up)
• dies - Trick or Treat colorize, Mischevious (both Tim Holtz)
• distress and distress oxide inks - spiced marmalade, picked raspberry, carved pumpkin
• other - Sidekick, MISTI, Dimensionals, blending brushes

I know it's early for Halloween craft but I am sooooooo in the mood for it this year! This is also being entered in the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge, which is Anything Goes.

Thanks for dropping by.

Cheers

Kerry

Hexagons - CAS on Friday Challenge #223

Welcome to CAS on Friday challenge #223 where our theme is HEXAGONS.

There are so many ways to use this versatile shape! For my card I used them to add colour and texture as a compliment to my die-cut flower. 

The mosaic pieces are ones I made some time ago with a stencil, crackle texture paste and a number of SU embossing powders, so I merely cut them with hexagon dies. I used some of the colours from those patterns for my flower. Some ink speckles for the background, a simple sentiment and touch of sparkle, and my card was good to go!

Materials used:

• stamps - Tiny Words Birthday (SSS), Gorgeous Grunge (SU)
• card - watercolour, soft sea foam
• distress oxide inks - mustard seed, fossilized amber, mowed lawn, rustic wilderness, pumice stone, barn door
• other Tim Holtz products - stacked hexagon dies, wildflower stems 3 die, mosaic stencil, distress crackle texture paste, picket fence distress paint
• other - various embossing powders (SU), heat tool, Dimensionals, blending brushes, stitched rectangle die, Big Shot Switch, paint brush, clear sequins, craft foam, peeled paint archival ink, Memento tuxedo black ink

We'd love you to create your own clean and simple card featuring hexagons and load it in our gallery. If you'd like further inspiration, follow the link to the CAS on Friday blog to see my team mates' cards.

Thanks for calling in.

Cheers

Kerry

Vintage Butterfly Hello

Our team's challenge this month is a fancy fold card and I immediately got it stuck in my head that I wanted to do a centre-step card. I had no idea what design to use until I was inspired by a card I saw ... guess where? Yes, you know me well. Pinterest, of course! Gosh, I remember the days I'd spend a small fortune on craft magazines for ideas, now all I have to do is sit in front of my computer for hours a short time.

Anywho, here's the card I made. I'm very happy with it (except for a small snaffoo drawing the antennae which hopefully nobody will notice lol) and suspect it may end up in my 'too nice to give away' pile.

A few speckles of gold in the background tie in with the gold embossing on the base piece, as does the sentiment panel.

I did three layers on my butterfly: the initial stamp on the background piece then two more coloured and cut and adhered with black mini dimensionals to give the wings some 'lift'.

Materials used:

• stamps - Butterfly Gala, Climbing Roses, Gorgeous Grunge, Timeless Textures, Itty Bitty Greetings
• card - crumb cake, very vanilla, basic black
• other - gold embossing powder, heat tool, black Dimensionals, sponge dauber, black marker, butterfly punch, embossing buddy, post it note

Be sure to leave some comment love if this one turns your crank! Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kez

Playing with my DOs

I was inspired this morning to play with my distress oxides and just for something completely different from my usual style, tried the 'splotchy' background look. This is waaaaaaay outside the box for me and I'm not entirely sure I'm happy with it, but there you go. You've got to start somewhere, right?

As I applied my inks I dried between layers with my heat tool, then I stamped parts of the sheet music stamp using a contrast colour, stencilled the lattice design with a darker ink, then stamped with Versamark and gold embossed small splatters. Once everything was finished I applied a light coat of distress glaze, which seals and intensifies the colours. It was a thoroughly enjoyable process and I know realistically I'm just feeling uncomfortable about it because it's so far beyond my wheelhouse. Ho hum. More practise, methinks. I'll be very interested to read your comments.

Materials used:

• stamps - Gorgeous Grunge, Sheet Music, Picture Perfect Birthday
• card - Bermuda bay, gold foil, shimmer white
• distress oxide inks - picked raspberry, peacock feathers, wilted violet, spiced marmalade, mermaid lagoon
• other - stitched rectangle framelits, Big Shot, mounting tape, Versmark ink and marker, gold embossing powder, heat tool, water spritzer, embossing buddy, distress micro glaze

If you're into this look please do let me know how I've done and I'd appreciate any hints you may have for my next attempt!

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kez

Serene Snow

How often do you make a one layer card? If your answer is 'practically never', then I say 'join the club' because I am usually all about the layers. So I was kinda surprised when the challenge over at Less is More caught my eye the other night and set my creative mind whirring.

It didn't take long for an idea to come to mind so I thought about it for a while before I went to bed. Then I thought about it some more once I was in bed (yeah, it's real conducive to sleep *she says sarcastically*) and again the next day. Eventually I sat at my craft desk to see if the idea would come together and I think it did. I'm quite happy with my result, anyway, and for me to be happy with only ONE layer is pretty much unprecedented, so yeah...break out the Toblerone (or Cadburys or Lindt...) 

And that's my second winter-themed Christmas card in two posts - looks like the drought is well and truly broken, lol.

Materials used:

• stamps - Dashing Deer, Gorgeous Grunge, Stylish Christmas
• card - very vanilla thick 
• inks - soft suede, pool party, cherry cobbler, Versamark
• other - clear embossing powder, white embossing powder, heat tool, embossing buddy, Stamparatus, Drifts and Hills stencil (MFT), sponge, sponge dauber, marker

I began with stamping the deer using my Stamparatus and soft suede ink, then overstamped with Versamark and clear embossed (this was so sponged ink wouldn't change their colour later). Then I stamped the snowfall in Versamark and white embossed, having masked my ground area with the stencil. Next came the sponging in pool party ink for the sky, then moving my stencil and sponging more snow drifts. Excess ink was wiped off all the embossed pieces with a tissue. Shadows were added with a marker and my sentiment was stamped last in cherry cobbler.

Have you challenged yourself lately to try something completely different to your usual style? 

Thanks for calling in.

Cheers

Kez

Double Front Dashing Deer

While I've been studiously avoiding a winter theme on purpose for my Christmas cards this year (the festive season falls smack-dab in the hottest months here in Australia), a snowy card was hard to pass up when I saw the inspiration challenge for this week over at Just Add Ink.

So here's what I came up with, a double front style card (design idea gleaned from Lisa Curcio).

Front 1:

Front 2:

Inside:

Navy and white always look so elegant together, I love them, and here with soft suede they're perfect.

Materials used:

• stamps - Wonderland, Gorgeous Grunge, Dashing Deer
• card - night of navy, whisper white, soft suede
• inks - night of navy, soft suede, Versamark
• other - Detailed Deer thinlits, Big Shot, white embossing powder, embossing buddy, heat tool, Sahara sand marker, stitched rectangle dies (Poppystamps), stitched hills dies (Poppystamps), Stamparatus

I'm toying with the idea of doing a video on how I made this card, so if that's something you'd like to see please leave a comment to that effect and if there's enough interest I'll do it.

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kez

Edited to add: Thrilled to have been picked for the challenge! Video made and uploaded at THIS LINK.