Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Dec 25


Wishing you all the blessings and joy of this festive season.

Cheers
Kez

Sunday, December 23, 2012

The Man Himself

Didn't expect to get time to get another post in before Christmas, but here I am!

Each year we think up a theme for our Christmas decorating, food, etc - and this year we chose the man himself, Santa Claus. So our Christmas dinner menu is food that is full, robust and heartwarming and we have plenty of red and white items around.

The other day I found a garden light at my local $2 shop which I couldn't resist buying and yesterday I glanced upon a large glass vase I have - and the two items clicked together in my head as an idea for our Christmas table centrepiece. Luckily, when I tried it out, my idea came together first time (hooray!) and produced our very own North Pole:


And yes, you do recognise those snowflakes I am sure - from the Snow Swirled set which I have stamped on with whisper white craft ink (rotate pressure on the stamp a little as you press the ink on to the rounded surface of the vase).

I also saw a very simple idea on Pinterest that I have used to dress up the dining chairs a little - here's a photo of one of those:


And our Christmas dinner menu is inside this little holder made with the two tags die and stocking punch:


Materials used:
  • card - midnight muse, crumb cake, real red, basic black, glitter card
  • other - two tags die, Big Shot, stocking punch, dimensionals
  • non SU - brick wall embossing folder, corner rounder punch

Just little things to make our day even more fun. Hope you are enjoying preparing for Santa too!

Thanks for popping in.

Cheers
Kez

Friday, December 21, 2012

Gingerbread Wreath

I am sure you are all like me and frantically trying to squeeze more hours into the day with so much organising still to do for the "Big Red Day"! All this planning and preparation for something that is over so fast, but we keep doing it every year! LOL

As always, it will be a pleasure just to have our small family all together to celebrate and keep up many of the family traditions that have been established over the years.

Meanwhile, for this year I created a new wreath for my front door. It is one of those projects that ended up looking completely different to what I originally had in mind, but I am finding it very difficult to get my head into craft mode, what with all the other distractions, so in the end it was very much a "that will do" kind of approach! It's just a bit of fun:


Materials used:

  • stamps - Scentsational Season
  • card - whisper white
  • other - holiday collection framelits, Big Shot, polka dot ribbon (retired)
  • non SU - red satin ribbons, wreath, hot glue gun, red rhinestones, jingle bells, Noel embellishment, gold cord

I wish you and yours a wonderful festive season filled with much joy, love and laughter. If you are travelling, stay safe. Many thanks for visiting over the past year, I hope you will come back in 2013.

Merry Christmas everyone.

Cheers
Kez

Friday, December 14, 2012

The Tassel Was Worth The Hassle

Today we are in Melbourne attending DD20's graduation ceremony where she is receiving her Bachelor of Arts degree. Naturally, we are the proudest family in the world and I'm so happy we can all be together to celebrate her wonderful achievement.

Later on tonight we are going out for a special celebratory dinner, but for now of course there are handmade cards and graduation gifts to be given!

Here is the card I made and it is a perfect example of why I don't get rid of retired product! I've used a retired colour (ballet blue - DD20's favourite and a good match for her skirt and the BA hood) and retired Timeless Type alphabet die as well as retired stamp set, Great Grads. The main image is a non SU stamp but perfect for the occasion, don't you think?


Materials used:
  • stamps - Great Grads (retired)
  • card - ballet blue (retired), basic black, whisper white, watercolour
  • other - Timeless Type alphabet dies (retired), crystal effects, stamp-a-ma-jig, dimensionals
  • non SU - Tessa Tassel by Kraftin' Kimmie

This post was scheduled, but if I manage to get internet access this afternoon I will add a photo of DD in her regalia - otherwise it will be in a few days when we get home.

Thanks for calling in.

Cheers
Kez

Edited to add: here are some photos of the great day








Tuesday, December 11, 2012

It's Just Not Fair

It's just not fair when the AusPost man brings a box of SU goodies to your doorstep at 8 am on a morning when you have plenty of chores to get done.

The new rubbah (or dsp or tools) sits there and stares at you, taunting and teasing. "Open me!" it says, "Play with me, you know you want to!"

Of course I want to, who wouldn't? But those chores ... We're heading off to Melbourne on Thursday and then DD20 will be coming back with us - and my craft room is nowhere near ready to be invaded inhabited "for the duration"! LOL.

So the new things will have to wait (sob, sob!) but I did make a card the other day, playing with the technique where you have a gap in your embossing to stamp in (I don't know if it has a shorter name!) - yes, I am already thinking of techniques to teach my ladies in next year's classes! Not a total success, but there's plenty of time to practise that one a bit more!




Materials used:

  • stamps - Pleasant Poppies
  • card - whisper white, certainly celery
  • other - windows labels framelits, Big Shot, pretty in pink ribbon, dimensionals, fancy fan E/F, blender pen

Well, better get back to those chores - time's a'running out! Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers
Kez

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Butterflies in Flight

For the first time in ages, today I got to sit and make a card just for FUN! Not for DT work or classes or  for Christmas preparation - just for the pure enjoyment of creating - and I loved it!

I was inspired by an embossed and sponged panel I saw on a card, so I ran with that idea and ended up with some butterflies in flight - take a look:




Materials used:
  • stamps - Creative Elements, All a Flutter, Kindness Matters
  • card - midnight muse, whisper white, gold
  • other - gold embossing powder, dimensionals, blender pen, sponge, gold pen

I embossed the gold swirls first, then sponged with tempting turquoise, island indigo and midnight muse. My "flutterbies" were coloured with perfect plum, calypso coral, tempting turquoise and lucky limeade. The most awkward part was sticking those little beauties on! We're talking TINY amounts of dimensional here! LOL!

Anyway, now I've got to get back to my To Do List - there's more Christmas cards to make and a graduation card for DD20 that won't create itself! Back with those next week!

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers
Kez



Last Class

Well, it had to happen some time - the last class of the year. Here are the cards we made, firstly a simple masculine card:


Materials used:
  • stamps - Best Dad Ever
  • card - gumball green, midnight muse, whisper white, gumball green patterned paper
  • other - rhinestone, buttons die, white gel pen, dimensionals, white bakers twine

Then I had to give my new Hello Doily stamp an airing - this has been on my wish list for a LONG time! I paired it with the beautiful Field Flowers and a sentiment from Blooming with Kindness:


Materials used:
  • stamps - Hello Doily, Field Flowers, Blooming with Kindness
  • card - crumb cake, rich razzleberry, very vanilla
  • other - crumb cake seam binding, dimensionals, stamp-a-ma-jig

And of course I could not complete the year without some kerry cobbler, now could I? This one was inspired by a Melissa Davies card and I've used another new set, Everything Eleanor. Bit of fussy cutting with this one, but my ladies cheerfully fiddled with it!


Materials used:
  • stamps - Everything Eleanor, Blooming with Kindness
  • card - cherry cobbler, very vanilla
  • other - apothecary accents die, pearls, cherry cobbler seam binding, large scallop edgelit, delicate designs embossing folder, stripes embossing folder, sponge dauber, dimensionals

It has been another wonderful year of classes with my lovely ladies and while I am looking forward to a break, I know I'll be raring to get back to it come January!

On Monday night we had our Christmas get together dinner and here is the Christmas card I made for everyone (cased from Steffi):


Plus there was a small gift in a lovely Fancy Favour gift box, which were made in different colour combinations:


Hope you're having fun at your Xmas "doos" too! Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers
Kez


Friday, November 30, 2012

Holiday Tints

My three month term on the Color Me Beautiful design team has come to an end with this lovely soft colour combination

I managed to use all the colours on my card along with my neutral of very vanilla. Here's my offering:



Materials used:
  • stamps - More Merry Messages
  • card - crumb cake, rose red, primrose petals, Baja breeze, very vanilla
  • inks - very vanilla, rose red
  • other - Sahara sand marker, chevron embossing folder, Big Shot, crumb cake seam binding, dimensionals, merry minis punch, irridescent ice embossing powder, crystal effects, pearls

Before embossing my background piece with the chevron design, I ran my vanilla inkpad over the folder to give a slightly tinted look to the pattern and also sponged the edges of the card with vanilla. My tiny baubles were embossed with irridescent ice and then coated in crystal effects for sparkle and dimension.

It has been such fun working with the other designers and the gorgeous colour combos that Carole and AnnMarie have come up with each week. Sadly, they have decided to discontinue running the challenge blog, so this is your last chance to play along and join in the fun. Why not pop on over to the blog here and see what the others have to inspire you?

Thanks for calling in.

Cheers
Kez



Friday, November 23, 2012

Christmas Boxes and Tags

Last week's Christmas class focused on gift boxes and tags and I was busy for days beforehand creating samples to inspire my ladies. Here are the boxes we made in class:


This star box is a template from Lauren Meader and is very simple to put together. I decorated by stamping in crumb cake ink using Bells and Boughs and added a tulle bow and poinsettia with pearls.

Our next treat was a hexagon box made from the mini milk carton die - you've seen plenty of these before. As I used some "bauble" papers (Snow Festival dsp), I added a bauble shaped tag to match.


And lastly a simple fancy favour box, stamped with snowflakes and decorated with tulle, chunky glitter, snowflake (snow flurry die) and sentiment from More Merry Messages.


Other boxes I had for display:


Fancy Favour box again, doubled this time, plus a box made from four scallop envelopes.


SU's kraft gift boxes. The gingerbread paper is non SU but so adorable I couldn't resist!


Some simple candy wrappers.


A petal cone hanging decoration plus elongated candy wrapper.

I had also prepared a smattering of tags to give my ladies some ideas and then I gave them free run with dies, papers, ribbon, stamps, punches and more! It was bedlam there for a while, lol!!!





It has been fun doing Christmas things - homemade items always add that extra special personal touch!

Thanks for calling in.

Cheers
Kez

Sunday, November 18, 2012

My Gorgeous Graduate

DD20 finished her degree this week - well, her first degree, that is. She's planning a couple more!

It sure doesn't seem like three years have passed since she moved away, and then again it kinda feels a lot more! In a few weeks time we will all travel down to Melbourne for her graduation, but meanwhile here's a pic of my gorgeous graduate:


We are naturally all very proud of her and can't wait to celebrate with her - and, of course, to have her come home for Christmas.

Congratulations sweetie!

Cheers
Kez

Friday, November 16, 2012

Ornamental Greens

Just in case you're not feeling Christmassy enough, this week's colours for the Color Me Beautiful challenge are sure to get you in the mood!


I decided to use the emboss resist method again (as on this card) and the medallion stamp for my background pattern and then I added rhinestones for some blingaliciousness (is that a word? lol). Here tis:


If you click on the photo to enlarge it, you'll see the bling better!

Materials used:
  • stamps - Lovely as a Tree, Many Merry Messages (retired), Medallion
  • card - gloss white, lucky limeade, soft suede, Sahara sand 
  • other - Versamark, clear embossing powder, heat tool, sponges, rhinestones, holiday ornaments dies, Big Shot, dimensionals, white embossing powder, lacy brocade embossing folder, non SU silver cord

I am sure loving me those ornament dies! And you may have noticed that on my background piece of soft suede I have shown the debossed side rather than the embossed side - I felt the raised side took a bit of attention away from the ornaments, so I turned it over to "tone it down a bit".

Thanks for calling in. Don't forget to pop over to the CMB challenge blog and see what the other DT members have made to inspire you.

Cheers
Kez

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

The New Paper Trimmer

As you can see, I have added above SU's video all about the new paper trimmer. This new product will be available to my lovely customers next month but I am hoping to get my hands on one in the next week or two - and I can't wait!

Having heard US demos rave about it, I wondered what all the fuss was about, but now that I've watched the video and seen it for myself I can't wait! It seems that SU has heard the complaints about the current trimmer and fixed them all! Yay!

And BTW ladies, don't worry - even though Brian talks about imperial measurements, ours WILL be in metric!

Stay tuned for my own review once I get it in my hot little hands! LOL!

Cheers
Kez

Monday, November 12, 2012

Snow Drift Tutorial

You asked for it and here it is! I have loaded a video tutorial on how I made the snow drift panel of this card:


And you can access that video right HERE. Thanks to all the people that expressed an interest and I hope you have a lot of fun trying this technique.

Cheers
Kez

Saturday, November 10, 2012

Candy Cane Hues

I'm sure you've all keen to see what gorgeous colour combination we have for you to play with this week at Color Me Beautiful! Here they are:

Mmmmm, those candy canes sure look yum!

It's my week off and although I did attempt a project, it sadly didn't work out well AT ALL and no mojo arrived to help me at the last minute, so I'm sorry I don't have anything to show you this week. However, we would love you to pop over to the challenge blog and see what has been made for your inspiration - and of course, we would love it even more if you joined in the challenge! And do spread the word to all your crafting friends, we'd love to welcome more people.

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers
Kez



Friday, November 2, 2012

Caffeine Tones


It's a coffee-lover's dream over at Color Me Beautiful, with these caffeine tones as our inspiration for this week's challenge! 

I decided to go with a sepia-toned Christmas card and managed to use four of the five colours.

Here's my card - if you click on the photo you can see the sparkle better:




I masked off my ground area for the snowdrifts before I stamped the trees in soft suede and Sahara sand. The sky was sponged with river rock and soft suede and I used suede again for the ground. When everything was dry I inked the whole area with Versamark and added iridescent ice embossing powder to give a winter sparkle! It looks totally GOR-JUSS in real life! And did you notice? I used a button again! LOL

Materials used:
  • stamps - Lovely as a Tree, Many Merry Messages (retired)
  • card - confetti cream, very vanilla, early espresso
  • other - iridescent ice embossing powder, heat tool, satin ribbon, vintage faceted button, embroidery thread, sticky strip, mounting tape, markers

Click on the link to the challenge blog to see what the other design team members have come up with to inspire you (from 5 am Sth Carolina time or 7 pm AEDST), and while you're there we'd love you to join in the challenge and create a project using this week's colours.

Thanks for calling in.

Cheers
Kez

Edited to add: I have had a few requests both here and on other sites on how to do the snow on this card.  I will video the technique for you and add it here asap. Thanks so much for your interest!

Further edit: The video tutorial is now uploaded to Dropbox and you can get the link here.


Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Boo!

Happy Halloween all of you out there in cyberspaceland who may celebrate this particular day! It's a bit of fun in an otherwise hectic week and although I made today's projects some weeks ago, I've been saving them to share with you today.


This card uses SU's Spooky Bingo Bits set and the hilariously named Howlstooth and Scaringbone papers!


For this altered milk carton box I used cajun craze card and last year's Frightful Sight papers, together with a cute jumbo wheel I borrowed.


The Fancy Favor box is the base for this one, with the crinkly top cut off. The haunted house die cut was a present from a friend and SU's Wicked Cool stamp set was used for the "spooky" sentiment.

So I've bought some lollies and am just waiting to see if we get any Trick or Treaters - we had none last year, so I may be forced to eat the lollies myself - such a shame!

Thanks for popping in.

Cheers
Kez