Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

It's DD's birthday today - a grand old 23 - and if you follow my blog you will know that her card had to involve some red and white spotty somewhere!

I used a Stamping Bella stamp and SU everything else.

Materials used:

• stamps - Uptown Girls Victoria and Juliette's night out (Stamping Bella)
• card - cherry cobbler, whisper white, soft sky, retired Xmas DSP
• Blendabilities - skin tones, cherry cobbler, daffodil delight, soft sky, smoky slate, wild wasabi, pink pirouette
• other - Dimensionals, Sahara sand marker, two-way glue pen, basic grey marker

I am rather pleased with my first effort at shading folds in the red dress - bet I won't be able to do that as well next time I try! And you may be able to tell that I did actually fussy-cut the stamped image out - I wasn't quite sure what I was going to do for my main panel - but in the end I just stuck it back on some more white! Duh! Never mind, it does give it a tiny wee bit of dimension! (that's my story and I'm sticking to it!) It's still wet and grey here, so once again my photo is a bit darker than I would like - gotta get me a light source for photography!

Thanks for dropping in.

Cheers

Kez

Love Letter

Being in the mood for colouring yesterday, I dug out my Magnolia stamps and came across this gorgeous image. My card is rather an indulgence of girly-girly pink, ribbon and flowers - but I have to admit it is fun to do every now and then!

Materials used:

• stamps - En Francais (SU), Tilda with love letter (Magnolia)
• card - pink pirouette, basic grey, whisper white
• inks - smoky slate, Memento Tuxedo Black
• Blendabilities - pink pirouette, skin tones, smoky slate, soft sky
• Copics - Y11, Y21, Y32, E50, E33, E55, R85
• other - Spritzer tool; markers - so saffron, pink pirouette, soft sky, Sahara sand; Big Shot; ovals framelits; distressing tool; sponge dauber; dimensionals; 1 3/8" square punch, owl punch, bird punch, pretty in pink satin ribbon
• non SU - paper flowers, hot glue gun

Thanks for calling in.

Cheers

Kez

Happy New Year!

Well, here we are in 2015 already - can you believe it? Me neither.

My lovely ladies are impatient to start classes again, so this weekend we are playing with new goodies from the Occasions and Sale-a-bration catalogues.

Firstly a cheerful birthday card using the oh-so-cute balloon framelits and co-ordinating stamp set, Celebrate Today, which are in the Occasions catty. There is also some dsp to match - that's one of the things I love most about Stampin' Up!

Materials used:

• stamps - Celebrate Today
• card - Bermuda bay, crushed curry, calypso coral, whisper white, Birthday Bash dsp
• inks - crushed curry, mossy meadow, Versamark
• other - Big Shot, balloon framelits, white bakers twine, dimensionals, clear embossing powder, heat tool

Lotus Blossom is a very popular set from the Sale-a-bration catalogue - and with good reason! It's a three-step photopolymer set and I could not resist trying it out. I wanted the gorgeous flowers to take centre stage, so my card is a clean and simple one which shows off those lotus blossoms to perfection.

Materials used:

• stamps - Lotus Blossom, unknown retired sentiment
• card - blushing bride, strawberry slush, whisper white
• inks - blushing bride, strawberry slush, pistachio pudding, basic grey

Our third card is a fun little number using the On Film framelits paired with the Snapshot single stamp. 

Materials used:

• stamps - Snapshot
• card - crisp cantaloupe, basic black, soft sky, whisper white, retired dsp
• inks - Memento Tuxedo black
• other - on film framelits, label card thinlits, Big Shot, triple heart punch, 35 mm circle punch, dimensionals, Blendabilities (soft sky and smoky slate), rhinestone, 2-way glue pen
• non SU - wax paper

I'll be back in a few days with some news and a sneak peek.

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kez

Birthdays Are Like Zombies

Another Sweet Pea card for you today, this one using a totally gorgeous set called Undying Love. It has two sweet zombies (male and female) and some very punny sentiments!

Here's my card:

I just LOVE that saying! ROFLOL!

Materials used:

• stamps - Undying Love 
• card - wisteria wonder, basic black, whisper white, digital dsp, retired Halloween dsp
• other - Blendabilities, Copics, dimensionals, oval framelits, Big Shot

With the school holidays nearly over (sigh!), my playing time in the craft room is almost at an end - so I'd better make the most of it over the next few days! Back soon!

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kez

Hola!

I bought some Sugar Pea Designs stamps recently and today got the chance to ink up one set called Let's Fiesta. This guy is so cheerful he's adorable and DD16 is already a firm fan!

I bought some Mexican design digital papers for the background and coloured the images using SU's Blendabilities. Not my finest job of blending, but I am out of practice - that will obviously need to be remedied!

Muchas gracias for calling in.

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

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

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