Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Stars

I held my Star Book class at the weekend and the ladies loved making these amazing books. Most did the nautical one you can see here which is perfect for relatives who sail or for a heritage album, but my SIL made a funky floral one for a friend while I made one for DD13.

Here's the floral one using Berry Blossoms dsp and cardstock in black, coral and wisteria:




Isn't it funkalicious? And here is the one I made with Sweet Shop dsp and pool party, white and coral cardstock:




My daughter is thrilled with her one, which I am very pleased about. I think I'll be making one for DD20 next - as soon as I can find some red polka dot paper for her! LOL

Also, two very kind people have recently passed me the Liebster Award so I would like to express my sincere thanks to Susan Joyce and Sally Williams. As I only recently passed this award on, I will just encourage you to visit their blogs as well as all the blogs on my favourites list as they really are some talented people. I visit very often and am always inspired. Thanks again ladies for your kind thoughts.

Thanks for calling in today.

Cheers
Kez






Saturday, April 21, 2012

Out On The Prowl

A recent card by the queen of brayering, Michelle Zindorf, inspired today's creation. Here is Michelle's card:


It made me laugh and then it made me think of our cats and in particular DD13's cat Missy, who just LOVES to sit up on top of our pool fence so she can survey her surroundings. It cracks us up every time she slips and has to scramble back up again and she is often in the most uncomfortable looking positions. Here's one:


She had a hip operation a couple of years back so that can't be good for her!

Anyway, I just had to sit and make a card of a cat on a fence. One of my ladies yesterday was talking about how to make a crescent moon so that inspired me too (thanks Pat!). Here's my Out On The Prowl card:


Materials used:
  • stamps - Out On A Limb, Starring You
  • card - whisper white, basic black, pacific point 
  • ink - tempting turquoise, pacific point, night of navy, basic black, Versamark
  • other - 1" circle punch, brayers, white embossing powder, heat tool
  • non SU - post it note, MS trellis punch

Hope it gives you a chuckle. Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers
Kez


Friday, April 20, 2012

Just A Little Bit Vintage

Today I have to teach my grandmother how to suck eggs.

Well, not literally, you understand, because
  1. it's just an expression; and
  2. both my grandmothers passed away when I was very young.
But figuratively I do. Here's the lowdown - for my workshop today with the lovely PMT ladies, we are going a little bit vintage and I couldn't resist the beautiful Twitterpated papers and gorgeous bustier from Rue des Fleurs. Here's my card so you'll understand when I explain about the whole egg sucking thing.





See those rolled roses? Well, I am a complete amateur when it comes to those (no false modesty, I really am) and I'm showing this card to at least TWO expert quillers! Not only expert but award winning as well - Meg and Pauline won first and second prizes respectively for their quilled cards in the Folded Card category at the Royal Easter Show this year. OMG! Talk about pressure! Never mind, at least I'll be with the right people to get tips on how to improve my technique!

Not quite sure if I've got much vintage in this card really, but it's pretty and I like it, so hopefully my ladies will too!

Thanks for calling in.

Cheers
Kez


Thursday, April 19, 2012

Pamper Yourself

The stamps on today's card appealed to me as soon as I saw them - the vision of a tub filled with bubbles just makes you want to hop right in and pamper yourself a little, doesn't it? We don't have a bath tub at home so for my baths I have to go up to my SIL's place - she lights candles all around the bathroom and there's plenty of nice smelly things to make bubbles with. She even provides a Baileys on ice to sip while I'm luxuriating - what more could a girl ask for?

So here's my pamper yourself card:



Materials used:
  • stamps - Circle of Friends (retired)
  • paper - daffodil delight, whisper white, marina mist and watercolour 
  • other - dimensionals, 1" circle punch, 32 mm circle punch, 35 mm circle punch
  • non SU - Magnolia Tilda in Bath Cap and Bath Tub stamps, digital papers Bath Time from Digi Scraps Delight, Kindy Glitz, computer and printer

Hope you get some pampering today. Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers
Kez

Friday, April 13, 2012

Oh So Tweet

With DD20 inhabiting my craft room while she's home I haven't had much chance to create, but withdrawal finally got to me yesterday and I just HAD to get in there and make a card!

I was in the mood for a little watercolouring, so picked this sweet digital image that is perfect for a wedding, anniversary or Valentines.


I used watercolour crayons to colour my image and I love how great they are to work with.

Materials used:
  • stamps - digital image from Wee Stamps
  • card - soft sky (retired), pacific point, papers from The Girls Paperie
  • other - rose red seam binding, dimensionals, watercolour crayons, markers, aquapainter

Hope you get the chance to create today too. Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers
Kez

Mug Shots

One of my birthday presents recently was to get some family photos done and I thought I'd share a couple of my favourites with you.

Here's my favourite shot of the four of us:


And here's our two gorgeous DDs:


We were very lucky to get the perfect weather for the shoot and also to use my SILs beautiful back yard as the setting. Here's a great one of all of us:


Thanks for calling in - a card for you coming soon!

Cheers
Kez

Sunday, April 8, 2012

Hello

"Holy crap, that is so cool!" were DD13's words when I showed her the main image panel of today's card. It was a very satisfactory reaction to my first time trying this technique since my friend Heather showed it to me some time ago.

Here's my card:


I used the baby wipe technique on the floral image but tweaked it a bit by inking with Versamark first - I wanted to be able to sponge over the image without losing the colour integrity. After stamping and clear embossing, I also stamped the sentiment with Versamark and clear embossed that too, then sponged in my background colour. As I had used island indigo, cherry cobbler and so saffron re-inkers for the baby wipe "palette", I sponged with so saffron, daffodil delight and cherry cobbler.

I think next time I would use white embossing powder on the sentiment rather than clear, as the clear hasn't cleaned up as well as I wanted.  But I love the colours and the effect I got, so I'm looking forward to trying this technique again. Might have to put some more re-inkers on my next order though .... lol.

Materials used:

  • stamps - My Friend
  • card - island indigo, so saffron, cherry cobbler, whisper white
  • other - Versamark, clear embossing powder, heat tool, baby wipe, re-inkers, sponges, tissues

Thanks for stopping by and thanks too for the birthday wishes you left on Wednesday.

Cheers
Kez

Friday, April 6, 2012

Goodbye Teens

My elder daughter turns 20 today and leaves her childhood and teen years behind her. She's not too happy about it either! Gosh, I'm sure I was pleased to no longer be classified as a kid when I turned 20 - but then, I'm a dinosaur!

So here she is, embarking on adulthood and she is a kind, intelligent, witty, warm and wonderful person and naturally DH and I are the proudest of parents. She's in her third year of her English & Theatre degree and thinks she wants to be a dramaturg - I'll leave you to look that one up on Wikipedia! (It's always good to learn new things!)

Of course there was a card to be made! She's totally enamoured of red spotty things at the moment, so you can imagine how difficult it was for me to include some cherry cobbler polka dot paper on her card! (Did I see you just roll your eyes? LOL!) Other than that I kept it pretty simple as I wanted the wording to take centre stage.

Here tis:


I added some bling between the letters and a charm and hat pin to the ribbon knot, just for an extra touch of class! The letters are done with cherry cobbler embossing powder and the rest of the sentiment was done on the computer.

Materials used:
  • stamps - Letter It
  • card - cherry cobbler, very vanilla, Jolly Holly dsp (retired)
  • other - very vanilla seam binding, dimensionals, rhinestones
  • non SU - heart charm, hat pin, computer and printer, cherry cobbler embossing powder, heat tool

And of course it's Good Friday today too, so for those of you celebrating the holiday, Happy Easter.

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers
Kez

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Birthday Surprise

DD13 has been making lots of delicious cupcakes lately and selling them at school to fundraise for a school trip. They are incredibly yummy (a Donna Hay recipe) and she pipes on the icing and they look sooooooo cute! Here's a photo of some she made last week:


GOR-JUSS! She has serious talent as a cupcake maker and I think I'll have to commission some for my next class so my ladies can try these. Mmmm, mmmm, mmmm, mmmm, mmmm!

So, anyways, as it's my birthday today (another year younger!) I asked her to make me some. She was just about to begin baking when we were interrupted by the arrival of a lovely birthday surprise - DD19! She was due to come home tomorrow - or so I thought - but didn't want to miss my birthday and arranged a secret arrival. It was the loveliest surprise a mum can get and I'm more than happy to miss out on my cupcakes to have her here.

Hope all you mums out there are having lovely times with your children too.

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers
Kez