Dear Friend

It was my good mate Rob's birthday recently and although I rang her on the day, I haven't had the chance to give her her birthday card until today. I've used a combination of things I know she loves - black, vanilla, cherry cobbler and my Fabulous Florets stamp set.

Here's the front:

And on the inside I have carried through the shape and the flower:

Materials used:

• stamps - Occasional Greetings, Fabulous Florets, Perfect Punches, Vintage Labels 18 (Waltzingmouse Stamps)
• card - cherry cobbler, basic black, very vanilla, old olive, Love Letters DSP, Regals patterns stack
• other - Versamark, cherry cobbler embossing powder, dimensionals, Big Shot, basic black satin ribbon

Back in a day or two with the gorgeous projects from our play day! Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kez

Rollercoasters and Diggers

I have been riding such a rollercoaster of emotions since the earthquake in Christchurch last week. Some days life is normal; other days I feel so depressed and tears are never far beneath the surface. I can't read a newspaper article or see photos of Chch without crying. I found an article recently describing life post-quake in a suburban street - and was amazed to discover it was the street where we lived. It's here if you're interested in reading it. I simply can't imagine how the people who are living through this are coping emotionally and as for those who have lost loved ones ... well, I just don't know the words to adequately express my sorrow.

One thing that does help is the support and fellowship of friends, and I sincerely thank all of you who have left kind messages. Keeping busy is another help of course, and this week I have been finalising preparations for another Special Event for Australian troops serving in combat zones such as Afganistan, etc. You may remember that my wonderful customers and friends made over 350 Christmas cards for the troops last year; on Sunday we will be making Mother's Day cards to send so our Diggers can send them home.

Here are the cards I've prepared. They have been kept simple as we are making them like a Stamp-a-Stack and I'm hoping we'll get 200 completed. Most of the materials were generously donated by Stampin' Up!

I'm looking forward to a fun day for a very worthy cause.

I'll be back later today with the winners of the blog candy. Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers
Kez

Plethora of Christmas

Here's a bunch of Christmas cards I've made lately:

This one was cased from Teneale and others, and I used the snowflakes from Snow Swirled to make my wreath. I added dazzling diamonds, which you can't see in the photo.

Another card using Delightful Decorations and the Ornament Punch. Trying to add some vintage glam!

This one is my favourite, so simple and so evocative. The wreath was made using a flower from the Boho Blossoms punch and the Vintage brad makes the perfect door knob!

This one uses a set I was lucky enough to get from the US called Bells and Boughs. I've used the Petals APlenty embossing folder, which matches the poinsettia so well!

Another Bells and Boughs with Petals APlenty, this time using the technique where you mask the embossing to create a gap for stamping on. I painted the poinsettia with Champagne shimmer paint, which you can see in the following close up: 

Gorgeous effect!

Well, I think that may be the last of my Christmas cards this year apart from a few special ones for special people. Still plenty of Christmas boxes, bags and tags to make yet, though!

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kez

Cards For Our Troops

It's only 4 sleeps now until my very special event making Christmas cards for Aussie troops serving overseas in combat zones to send home to their families and loved ones. All stations are GO! (as Thunderbirds would say!) and I've a few things still to organise, so will be MIA for a few days here on the blog.

These are the card designs for everyone to make; I kept them as simple and straightforward as I could without being too plain (IYKWIM):

We have some fantastic raffle prizes and lucky door prizes to give away, thanks to the generosity of Stampin' Up!, my upline Marelle Taylor and fellow demos Juliette Chapman, Nikki Stalker and Robyn Irving. So I am looking forward to a fun day for a wonderful cause and I'll be back next week.

Have a good one!

Cheers
Kez

Stampers Anonymous Blog Hop

Welcome to the Stampers Anonymous SU Blog Hop! Tonight we are delighted to show you projects using products that were available to us in our demo sneak peek from the 2010-2011 Idea Book and Catalogue.

You may have just come from Juliette's blog, but if you are starting here, don’t worry … you can make the complete tour just by following the links at the end of each post. There are 14 stops along the way and we hope you will visit each one to see the wonderful creations we have to show you! Please feel free to leave some comment love along the way …
At the end of each post there will be a link to take you to the next stop on the tour.
So grab a cuppa, sit back and enjoy!


Bonsoir, mes amis! I have had tons of fun with a new stamp set called Artistic Etchings. 

Firstly, a scrapbook layout featuring some photos I took from the Eiffel Tower which were just perfect for this set.

The background design is a patchwork of four papers - two from the Newsprint DSP set and two I created myself with stamps, En Francais and Artisitic Etchings.

Then I got to thinking about how Paris is supposed to be the most romantic city in the world and how the Eiffel Tower would look in the sunset ... and that's how my next project evolved.

I used so saffron, tangerine tango and riding hood red in my brayering and ran a gathering thread down the middle of my taffeta ribbon to get this effect. Tres chic! Makes me think of the flouncy petticoats of the Folies Bergere!

For my next card I thought more laterally and looked at the monument as a unique and amazing piece of architecture, then acknowledged that AMAZING and UNIQUE are words we like to use to describe the special people in our lives too. So that's the theme of my card and the reason for the sentiment, which comes from Life Definitions. The layout and colours were inspired by a card by Jan Tink.

Next is a masculine birthday card I've dubbed "King for a day", LOL! Again, I have used some of the Newsprint DSP but also used the stamps in Artistic Etchings to create my own background paper. This time I've teamed them up with a stamp from Perfect Punches, a new set that has 6 stamps which all fit SU punches. Pacific Point, Very Vanilla and Basic Black are the colours used.

Now a much more Clean and Simple style and I've used Rich Razzleberry with So Saffron and Whisper White. The sentiment comes from the Friendly Words jumbo wheel and the embossed background is the new Vintage Wallpaper embossing folder - isn't it divine? It suits this vintage style set really well.

And last but not least, I was inspired by an idea from "stamperdog" at SCS to use the background stamps to become Christmas baubles. The top part (that pesky metal part that always breaks on our baubles!) is created from the crown stamp! I've used Elegant Eggplant and Certainly Celery with gold embossing and must offer my apologies for using a retiring stamp (weathered background), but nothing else suited the card so well! The sentiment is from Occasional Greetings.

Well, that's all from me. Thanks for stopping by, I hope you have enjoyed my offerings this evening. Now you are off to see the creative delights of Kirrily, so click here and enjoy the rest of the tour.

Au revoir!
Kez

Blog Hop Links:

If you happen to lose your way here’s a list of all participants.

1. Fiona Harvey http://fionastamps.blogspot.com/

2. Juliette Chapman http://juleskraftikrafts.blogspot.com/

3. Kerry Bunting (me)

4. Kirrily Matthews http://kirrilymatthews.blogspot.com/

5. Lorna Casha http://www.lornacasha.blogspot.com/

6. Marelle Taylor http://www.marelletaylor.com/

7. Meighan Wheller http://meighanwheller.blogspot.com/

8. Melissa Gillis  http://www.stampinup.net/esuite/home/wishflowerstudios/blog

9. Michelle Marchant http://michellemarch.blogspot.com/

10. Nikki Stalker http://www.nicolestalker.com.au/blog

11. Sally Williams http://www.sallycancraft.com/

12. Sam Coppack http://samcoppack.blogspot.com/

13. Sandy Quail http://www.scrappyhabits.com/

14. Sharon Wilson http://shaz.argyle.com.au/blog/index.php

Wonderful

In this week's class we are making tri shutter cards, one for a girl and one for a guy.

For the female one I've used the beautiful Tea Party papers again, this time taking Almost Amethyst as my main colour, which is teamed with Pretty in Pink, So Saffron and Certainly Celery - so pretty and so feminine! - with one of my favourite SU sets this year, A Kind Word.

Created by Kez. Stamped images ©1990-2009 Stampin' Up! ®

As Father's Day is not too far away I have used that for my theme on the "bloke" card, with basic black, basic grey and riding hood red. Unfortunately I don't have the sanded background stamp, as I think that would have been just perfect, but it is now on my list I assure you! (and I'll try to borrow it for the class) So I've used weathered instead, and the tool set comes from For Father, which is retired but I can't bear to get rid of it.

Created by Kez. Stamped images ©1990-2009 Stampin' Up! ®

Hope you like them. Thanks for calling in!

Cheers

Kez