Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Possession

DD17 had to make a poster for a school assignment and asked for my help with the decoration. She wanted it to look "antique" and fit the era of the related texts she had to quote. Well! I had a ball sponging and antiquing and stamping! I even got DD17 sponging and she is not usually into craft AT ALL, but said that she did enjoy that particular project!

Here are some photos of the poster:






I used tim Holtz antique linen distress ink to "age" papers and DD17 used a tea bag for the poster page. Colours used in accents were creamy caramel, really rust, close to cocoa and bordering blue and I used the damask stamp from Friends 24-7 with En Francais background stamp.

I hope she has another poster to do soon - I had fun with her homework!!!!

Cheers

Kez

Cobwebs and pearls

As I mentioned yesterday, I am going to Christchurch soon for a visit. While I am there I will be teaching a workshop to my old friends at the Calligraphy Society and I have been working very hard on the projects we'll be doing. I don't want to spoil it for them and show you all the GORJUS goodies now, but here's a couple of sneak peeks at what I have in store for them ...

Dusted quite a few cobwebs off my calligraphy skills for this one ... it has been a while! I bet the clever ones among you can guess which Tilda I've used!

Some classic elegance in this lovely set, which come in a super GORJUS container!

Well, enough of a spoiler! I'm off to browse the new Spring mini catalogue ready for pre-ordering tomorrow - one of the many perks of being a demo, te he! Thanks for dropping by.

Cheers
Kez

Monday, June 29, 2009

Heart and Home

I have lived in Australia for 12 years now and I think I am definitely acclimatised to the weather. The first winter we were here, I wore a t-shirt the whole time, occasionally putting on a jumper on really cold nights. No hats, scarves, gloves, etc. Everyone around me was running around in layers of clothing saying "Isn't it cold?" and my reply was pretty much "No, it's not. You guys don't know what cold is!"

Now, I am not saying that Aus doesn't get cold. Heck, I can drive just 30 mins up the hill to Katoomba or Leura and there is snow and coldness aplenty. But we are pretty lucky here in our little neck of the woods and I think I can safely say that in those 12 years, we have had a frost on our back lawn less than half a dozen times. For a girl who came over from Christchurch, that is still an amazing thing!

What's my point? Well, you see, in just over a couple of weeks now, I am going back to Christchurch for a visit, and I have to truthfully admit that I am a little worried about how darn cold it is going to be! Yes, I am concerned at going from a place where 7 degrees is the lowest temperature of the day to a place where 7 degrees can be the highest temperature of the day!!! Christchurch in the middle of winter; what was I thinking????

Still, I wouldn't miss it for the world. I have lived in Christchurch on three separate occasions so far in my nomadic existence, and to me it's a very special place. So today's craft offering is a scrapbook layout I made some years back about this beautiful Garden City.



Created by Kez.

And although of course, when you talk about heart and home it is always where your loved ones are, if we are talking about a place - just one place that is more special than any other - then my journalling says it for me, for Christchurch will always be 'the place my heart calls home'.

Cheers
Kez

Monday, June 22, 2009

Playing Truant

I should have been working this morning (housework, that is - yuk!) but I was up early and began making a Tri-Fold Shutter card that I've seen on so many blogs ... and then I was hooked! You know what it's like .......!

So here are a few views. Closed up, this is the front (fits in a standard C6 envelope):

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

I don't have the stamp set that goes with this paper (although I feel a "yet" coming on!) so I cut the flower from the paper and used a punch for the little ones. Here it is opened up so you can see all the folds:

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

Laying flat (well, flat-ish):

It didn't start out as a Magnolia card, the little girl image was actually the last thing I added, but this little Sweetheart Tilda was just the perfect shape for that space, you have to agree!

Well, I guess I'd better go and get that housework done now! Thanks for calling in today.

Cheers

Kez

Sunday, June 21, 2009

Baseball's a Summer sport, right?

I was going to make an Edwin card for the Magnolia Down Under 'all about a boy' theme this past week, but didn't get the time. I still wanted to make the boy card, so I've used it for the Just Magnolia challenge instead, which this week has a summer theme. Baseball's a summer sport, right? I happened upon these great baseball buttons and wanted to pair them with Edwin in Baseball Cap, which so far is my only boy Magnolia stamp.

SU's Washington Apple papers made a good background, especially with shapes that could become 'baseball diamonds' and stitching reminiscent of the stitching on the ball ... well, that's the theory anyway! Excuse the quality of the photo - I took it in the last dying stages of daylight!

Hope you've all had a restful Sunday and have had the chance to "play" too!

Cheers

Kez

Thinking Outside The Square

Hooray! I have finally had a go at making a card that is NOT square or rectangular! I have a heap of cards and projects to make and prepare for upcoming workshops, but I decided today would be just for fun.

I used nestabilities and my Big Shot to make the scallop circle card and the circles, putting a vellum circle over the rose paper (Bella Rose DSP) so that it wasn't too overpowering. Tilda was coloured using inks, crayons, markers and my aquapainter. I have been watching videos on YouTube on colouring techniques, so let me know if you think I've improved any!

My trusty Bow Tying Machine was used for the bow at the top, which really is supposed to disguise the flat bit where the fold is, but a bigger bow got in the way of Tilda's face, so I messed up there! The sentiment was stamped direct to the vellum using StazOn ink and the faux stitching was done with a white gel pen. I did actually try stamping Tilda on vellum and colouring it, but discovered that although crayons work on vellum, the moisture buckles it and makes a big mess!
Created by Kez. Some stamped images ©1990-2009 Stampin' Up! ®
Hopefully I will manage to be back later with more fun things, but just in case I don't make it, have a great day and remember - today is the middle of the year; Christmas is just around the corner! LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cheers
Kez

Friday, June 19, 2009

Waiting My Turn

DD11 got an SU gift voucher for her recent birthday and the set she picked to order was Pun Fun (that sock monkey came in a close second though!). Of course she threw my own rules regarding new rubber in my face and wouldn't let me use her new set to make a card until she had made one herself! I had to WAIT MY TURN!!!!!! I just don't know what the children of today are coming to .... LOL!!!

So here are our very first Pun Fun cards. DD11's is first, with a cute little alien peeking out over the top of the planet, take a lookie:
Then I was graciously allowed a turn; I was dying to use this fab paper I had found the other day and thought was PERFECT. I just made a very simple card:
My second card (although I got in a little trouble for using Love you a latte before DD11 did!) makes my girls laugh, as I HATE coffee! Hate the smell, hate the taste, hate kissing anyone with "coffee breath"! Both my girls drink coffee and tease me about it constantly! Luckily I love hot chocolate, so I can enjoy a visit to our local Gloria Jeans just as much as they do!
The alien paper is by Crate paper; rockets by Moxxie; coffee paper is by Flair Designs - I don't even remember buying it or why I would have bought coffee paper, but there you go! The brown stripe is an old SU paper from the Recollections pack and I've used my beloved nestabilities.

Hope you all have a lovely weekend. Thanks for stopping by.
Cheers
Kez

Thursday, June 18, 2009

A Note for Lara from the US

Thanks for your message; the stick figures on the cards are made by a stamp set called All in the Family by Stampin' Up! and are available from your nearest SU demonstrator. The sentiments are a complimentary stamp set called Family Phrases.

While we are on the subject, if you have a specific question or query about a product I have used that you would like me to answer, please email me direct rather than through comments, as I don't get your email address to reply to if you leave a comment only.

Thanks!
Kez

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Wild About Challenges

It seems like a while since I had a go at a challenge, so I've done a double-up and combined Kristina Werner's colour challenge

with the Mojo Monday sketch for this weekThe colours are bright and cheerful, so I picked a fun stamp set to use them with; Wild About You. I've used Baja Breeze as my sky blue, as Soft Sky is too pale for the effect I wanted. Luckily I found some flowers and brads among my stash that matched the colours reasonably well too! Here tis:
Unfortunately, by the time I got this done Kristina's challenge had closed! Ah well, there's always next week. Thanks for dropping by. See ya!

Cheers
Kez

Monday, June 15, 2009

Magic

Yay! Teneale has put her secret message sliding thingy card on her blog, so pop on over and take a look; it is just magical! Here's the link: http://www.tenealewilliams.com.au/wp02/2009/06/14/honey-i-am-home

Busy weekend and busy today, so maybe tomorrow I might get the chance to play.

Have a good one!

Cheers
Kez

Saturday, June 13, 2009

Sneak peek

Here's a sneaky peeky at the lovely cards we made at Teneale's class last night. Can't reveal the ingenious secret message sliding thingy just yet, but it will be worth the wait!

I had to get Teneale to tie my bows for me of course - well, you all know how bow tying challenged I am! If I'd known there were bows involved, I would have taken my trusty bow tying machine along! I see there is a bow magic available in the craft stores now - my trusty machine is ahead of its time, LOL!!!!
Thanks for dropping by!
Cheers
Kez

Friday, June 12, 2009

What a night!

I have had the most amazing night tonight!

Firstly, I went to a class with Teneale Williams, who has just returned from a triumphant sojourn at the papercraft festival in Brisbane. We made the most amazing cards with a secret message sliding thingy - impossible to describe but fantastically ingenious when you see it. I forgot to ask if I'm allowed to show it to you before she puts it on her own blog, so will check with her. They are so creative and we used one of my favourite SU sets, A Kind Word.

Then when I got home and quickly cruised my usual sites and blogs, I found that my card for Magnolia Down Under Challenge 14 - see it here - was picked in the Top 3 entries. I was absolutely flabbergasted - just as well I was sitting down! I am so chuffed, the card was a lot of work but I was so pleased with how it turned out and it is such a great feeling to hear that others like it too! Sigh! I'm a happy little vegemite!!! So soon I will be proudly displaying a Top 3 blinkie badge! Yay! I encourage all of you Magnolia fans out there to have a go at the MDU challenges, they are lots of fun and stretch your imagination and creativity.

Back soon hopefully with something to show you, I am just struggling at the moment to get my project to work like I want it to.

Have a great weekend everyone.

Cheers
Kez

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Bill and Ben, eat your hearts out!

If you are a card blog surfer like me, you will have seen some Flower Pot Cards around on a number of overseas sites, and wow! how darn stinkin' cute are they? I finally got around to trying them and I LOVE THEM!!!!! They are smaller than they look in the photos and so incredibly adorable! You can use so many different flowers and colours and patterns ... the list is endless. If you haven't tried one of these, I recommend you do (look for the tutorial here at splitcoaststampers) and you will find they are VERY ADDICTIVE!

Here are my trial ones:
Created by Kez. Stamped images ©1990-2009 Stampin' Up! ®
Created by Kez. Stamped images ©1990-2009 Stampin' Up! ®
Then I tried one with native flowers, but the proportions are all wrong and it doesn't work, unfortunately.

Created by Kez. Stamped images ©1990-2009 Stampin' Up! ®
DD17 loved my first one and asked for one in her favourite SU colour, Ballet Blue. Here's her flowerpot:

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

I can see I might have to find a way to wangle these in to a workshop or two in the near future .....!!!

Thanks for stopping by. Incredibly cold here today, so I hope you are keeping warm, wherever you are.

Cheers
Kez

Sunday, June 7, 2009

All in the Family

I have no artistic talent whatsoever for drawing. None. At all. Seriously. When I taught high school, I occasionally drew stick figures to illustrate a topic, but would always get a hard time from my students about my drawing. My attempts at drawing sheep were legend! Now I have had a play with a stamp set that solves all my stick figure issues!

One of my hostesses this month has the set All in the Family and wanted some ideas for cards, so I searched splitcoaststampers to find some inspiration. These little characters are rather cute - and five hundred percent better than mine were - but I did find them a lot fiddlier than I expected, even using my wonderful stamp-a-ma-jig!

This was one of the easiest bodies to use, as the hands and feet came attached already! The design is simple and can easily be changed for a boy.

Created by Kez; inspred by Louy and Stamp My Day. Stamped images ©1990-2009 Stampin' Up! ®
My hostess loves bold, bright colours, so this next one will be a hit with her, I'm sure.

Created by Kez; inspired by Kid_Curry1. Stamped images ©1990-2009 Stampin' Up! ®
And lastly my favourite, cos those baby faces are just so darn cute! Unfortunately the colours didn't photograph well - my bad.

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

If you are similarly afflicted with Stick Figure Syndrome, here's the perfect set for you! LOL! Thanks for dropping by.

Cheers
Kez

Thursday, June 4, 2009

Birthday fishes

Ever since we made one at stamp camp, I've been wanting to do a "gel card" using my favourite water buddies, the now retired Fishy Friends. I've been waiting for the arrival of a sea floor background stamp I ordered and it finally came on Tuesday, just in time! DD-turns-11-tomorrow dropped a few hints about wanting a "gel card" for her birthday, so yesterday I got busy. I brayered the ocean background first on one piece of whisper white, stamped the sea floor on another piece and added it over the top. Then the two little fish were raised with dimensionals. Here tis:

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

I had some trouble with the gel bag, though, as the first one I used burst on me and I had a wet, sticky mess everywhere! Luckily it didn't affect the picture, or I would have had to start all over again! I kinda like this one, I gotta say, so I'm glad it's staying in the family!!! LOL!

Thanks for swimming by! Have a good one!

Cheers
Kez

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Up at the crack of dawn

'Moving to the country' is this week's theme at the Magnolia Down Under Challenge, so I've used three Magnolia stamps plus one little Stampin' Up! one and had fun with my brayer and sponges. Very simple, but I hope it conveys a country feel.

I tried out some Michelle Zindorf-style techniques for this card. I stamped the stile and signpost first, coloured them (watercolour crayons and markers) and then clear embossed them (using a Versamark pen). Then the brayer background went in (sunrise colours to signify getting up at the crack of dawn!) with the grass area being masked, then rubbed off the ink from the embossed images. Tilda with puppy was stamped on another piece then cut out and "sat" upon her seat and a bit more green grass sponged in around the base.

Hope ya like it. Ya'all come back now, ya hear!

Cheers
Kez

Monday, June 1, 2009

Colour of the year

So Saffron has got to be the colour of the year, I think. It goes so well with so many other colours in DSP combinations this year, and today I discovered that I love it with almost amethyst. When a parcel on my doorstep announced the arrival of two new goodies, I had to have a play - naturally - and decided to use some Tea Party papers and the ab fab Fifth Avenue Floral stamp set. I've only inked up the rose so far, so thought it time I gave the lily a go! Here's how it turned out (just excuse my crappy photography!):

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

My two new goodies? Nestabilities Labels Four and Martha Stewart doily lace edge punch. I love them already; I think that punch is already on its way up to join SU's eyelet border as my favs.
The verse is one I've always loved but couldn't understand why it came with a masculine set (For Father, retired) as it is so sentimental - something blokes usually try to avoid like the plague!!! LOL!
Thanks for stopping by. Till next time!
Cheers
Kez