Sunday, February 28, 2010

Bandaid Project

No folks, I'm not about to have a rock concert for charity nor have I scraped a knee or elbow and need a sticky plaster - the bandaid relates to today's project.

I saw this little bandaid tin at my LSS and thought it was the cutest thing I'd seen in a while, so of course it had to end up in my bag of goodies and find its way to my craft table. Mini cards is what I had in mind and that is exactly what I have done with it. I've covered it with designer paper and made 6 gift cards to pop inside. It is not very big; the cards are only 8.5 cm high by 6.5 cm wide, and the tin is only a fraction bigger than that, so don't let the photos fool you!

Here's the tin:
And here are the cards, all using the same design and sentiment:



Ain't they stinkin' cute???!!!

Materials used (all SU):

  • papers - Tea Party
  • cardstock - certainly celery, pretty in pink, almost amethyst
  • stamps - Vintage Labels (Sale-a-bration set)
  • ribbon - so saffron, pretty in pink, certainly celery
  • punches - scallop circle, wide oval
  • inks - almost amethyst, certainly celery, regal rose

Thanks for stopping by. Hope you're having a nice relaxing Sunday.

Cheers

Kez

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Bittersweet Day

Today is DD17's last day at home; tomorrow we're off to Melbourne to move her in to her new digs and in a week's time she begins her university life. She's excited, of course, and nervous too.

She asked me to make her a mini album like the I Wish Christmas mini album (see post here) in her favourite colours of blue and brown, as she loved the way it opens up with so many parts, so I have made her an album of family photos to take with her. I stocked up on Parisian Breeze papers before the spring mini expired just for this project, and I've had DD shut out of my craft area while "secret business" was afoot!

I decided to use ALWAYS as my theme and luckily there are a number of SU sets that fitted perfectly. To avoid too much bulk, I've kept things pretty simple. Here it is:







Created by Kez. Stamped images ©1990-2010 Stampin' Up! ®

I'll give it to her tonight at our Farewell Family Dinner and I am betting there are going to be a few tears ... preparation for when we say goodbye on Saturday ... pass me the tissues please.

Kez

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

We're All A-Buzz!!!

There is great excitement in the SU demo world at the moment as many of us received our sneak peek copies of the new Autumn-Winter mini catalogue. I was one of the lucky ones and I have to say that I LOVE IT and can't wait to pre-order and get my hands on some of the gorgeous new goodies!

Spoiler alert! Don't read on if you want the contents of the new mini to be a complete surprise!

One of the new items in the mini is the introduction of three new In Colours - yes, that's right! we are getting three of the current US colours; Melon Mambo, Rich Razzleberry and Soft Suede. They will be available in A4 cardstock, ink pads, ink refills and polka dot ribbon. Many of my customers and friends love the gorgeous rich tones of razzleberry, so I know they will be thrilled to hear it's coming! The suede is a wonderfully neutral tone that goes with almost any other colour and will also be great for blokes, and the melon will delight pink lovers of all ages!

So today (as I am a lucky girl and have some of these colours already!) I would like to show you some simple cards made in the three new colours. The first one features Melon Mambo and I've broken open my new Happy Heart set. The colour is more vibrant IRL, the photo doesn't really do it justice.

Created by Kez. Stamped images ©1990-2010 Stampin' Up! ®

Next is Soft Suede with a few touches of Melon Mambo. I don't have the ink pads, only the markers, so it was a real challenge to colour the Forever Flowers wheel with just a marker! Just as well it's not a jumbo wheel LOL!!!

Created by Kez. Stamped images ©1990-2010 Stampin' Up! ®
And last but not least Upsy Daisy looking beautiful in Rich Razzleberry with a tiny touch of Soft Suede.

Created by Kez. Stamped images ©1990-2010 Stampin' Up! ®

Hope you've enjoyed this little taste of the delights to come! Roll on 1st April!!!

Cheers
Kez

Monday, February 15, 2010

M is for Male

Like many of you, I often have trouble making male cards. It doesn't help that my own DH is not in to standard "male" colours - ie most of the Earth Elements colour family. He prefers bold colours so asking him for an opinion on a male card I've made is pretty much a waste of time! Basically I ignore him and keep going with my own instinct - sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't!

This first card is one that for me, falls into the category of "it doesn't". I was inspired by a card made using the US in colours and adapted it to be more "male", but I'm not that happy with the result; it just doesn't "pop" IMHO. It'll probably end up in the box of cards the girls are allowed to give away!

Now this second card works for me and even has the added benefit of having an unintentional mistake turn into something good! Can't ask for better than that, LOL!

I used gloss card and discovered that StazOn ink slides around, creating the shadow effect I've got here. My first thought was "Oh oh!" but then I decided I kinda liked it and it may even look like I've made that effect on purpose, LOL! Ssshhhhh! Don't tell! (I dunno what's happened in my photo, though, it's made all the lines look jagged; they're not, honest!)

Created by Kez. Stamped images ©1990-2010 Stampin' Up! ®

I'll be back later in the week with a very special project I am working on, so stay tuned!

Cheers
Kez

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Welcome to the Neighbourhood

I've had lots of fun today playing with one of the SAB sets, Good Neighbour. How cute are those little houses?! Seriously! I love the mix and match aspect to the houses and roofs, plus of course the clouds are pretty adorable too!

Anyhoooo, here is my first card which uses the pink, brown and red combo from the Candy Lane designer papers. Can you spot the boo-boo that has been cleverly disguised as a creative opportunity?! I used a portion of the "welcome baby" stamp from Short & Sweet for my sentiment.

Created by Kez. Stamped images ©1990-2010 Stampin' Up! ®

My second card is completely different to the first and uses plenty of white space, with the very capable aid of my stamp-a-ma-jig. The sentiment is a rub on that I got from my Secret Santa for Xmas 2008, so it's well and truly time I used it! I know there is a stamp set with that sentiment though ... might have to add it to my wish list!

Created by Kez. Stamped images ©1990-2010 Stampin' Up! ®

Look forward to hearing what you think about these two! Thanks for dropping by.

Cheers
Kez

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Yay Lana

Here are the items we made in class today - but a warning! Rampant use of BOLD BRIGHTS! LOL!

I've long wanted to do an Ipod card so I was looking forward to this one and I even checked with DD17 which colour is the most popular. I have to say I am not really very happy with this card though; it's lacking Zing in my opinion, but the girls say it's great and I had no time to change it anyway ... the ladies used red or yellow instead of green and it looked better, I think.

Another cup card, which are great fun to do, this time with limes and a strawberry. The layout was inspired in part by a card by Carrie Rhoades. I nearly had to abandon this one as I was having ONE OF THOSE DAYS yesterday when I was preparing. You know what it's like: ideas don't pan out, nothing goes right, things are crooked, you can't find your Dazzling Diamonds! Grrrrrrrrrrr! Still, finally it all came together and I love the card, so all's well! LOL!

And last but not least a darling little watering can. When I showed the first one I made (see post here) everyone said they thought it was really big, but it's only 9 cm (less than 3 1/2 inches) high! Sooooo cute! This time I stamped with my Forever Flowers wheel and used flowers from Together Forever to decorate. I was feeling girly, so added lace, ribbon and pearls to pretty it up (excuse the messy desk tho, LOL!).

Created by Kez. Stamped images ©1990-2010 Stampin' Up! ®

And to make the day even better - not only a day spent crafting with my besties, but DD17 passed her P plates! Yay! Hope you've had a great day too.

Cheers!

Kez

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

A Blonde Moment ... Well, A Blonde Year Really!

So I was sitting in my lounge yesterday with DD11, waiting for a turn on the laptop and admiring today's first card, when a thought suddenly struck me. So Saffron has long been becoming one of my favourite SU colours and I finally realised why - it's the colour on my lounge room walls!!! Talk about taking a while for the penny to drop, LOL! I can only blame the abundance of grey hairs on my head that seem to have affected the brain cells as well :)

Anyways, the card uses the purple/yellow/green combo again, this time with So Saffron, Perfect Plum and a hint of Mellow Moss. I have used the crayon resist technique, which takes me back to the very first time I met my upline, Marelle, at a workshop! Mind you, I'm a bit out of practice so it took me three tries to get one I was happy with! And as I still seem to be in the Keep It Simple, Stamper mode, it is a very straightforward card - cos sometimes, simple is best.
Then the set Bloom Away beckoned me - might be something to do with the Australia Day card I showed you earlier in the week! So I coloured in some gorgeous gum blossoms and as I wanted to keep them the focus, the rest of the card is again very simple.

Created by Kez. Stamped images ©1990-2010 Stampin' Up! ®

Thanks for dropping in. Hope your brain cells are working better than mine!

Cheers

Kez

Blog Award!

My dear cyber friend Lynda was kind enough to share this Happy 101 award with me today! Thank you so much Lynda, what a sweetie! Go check out her blog and lovely creations here, as well as her great sense of humour!

I'm supposed to list 10 things I like but I really don't know how I'm going to limit it to only 10! Oh well, here goes - and these are in no particular order:
  1. stamping and card making (well, that one was a given, really)
  2. teaching (been teaching for 20 years and love it)
  3. movies (I have frequent flyer points at Hoyts, LOL)
  4. spending time with my two wonderful daughters
  5. crafting, or eating, or wining, or anything at all with my best buddies (which usually involves heaps of laughter too!)
  6. travelling (don't do much of it these days, but really enjoy it)
  7. sharing my passion for craft with others of like mind ... whether in person or via cyberspace
  8. a roast dinner (especially if someone else has made it!)
  9. laughter (can't imagine life without it)
  10. reading a good book (anything by Diana Gabaldon especially)

Phew! Made it! So now to pass on the award to 3 others, I'd like to forward this to:

  1. Robyn I
  2. Bec
  3. Juliette

Hope you enjoy your award ladies. Thanks for dropping in today, have a good one.

Cheers

Kez