Tuesday, February 28, 2012

One O or Two

This post is completely non craft related but read on if you have a sweet tooth!

Last year my DD19  - who you may recall goes to uni in Melbourne - began raving about something called Macarons. Never having heard of macarons, I assumed she meant Macaroons and was a bit surprised as she doesn't like dessicated coconut. On a visit she took me to buy and try said macarons and so I received an education about these "new" type of sweet delight.

Here's a photo of the two, macaroon to the left and macaron on the right:


The two taste vastly different. Research tells me that this French confection has been traced back to Catherine de' Medici when she married Henry II of France in 1533! 

In Melbourne we buy from a gorgeous little shop called La Belle Miette and their macarons are to die for! Here's their display:


You can buy them individually or in a box and the box is almost as wonderful as the biscuits  so I can't see how you could resist! Here's the little gem that was brought back for us yesterday after returning DD to her studies:




The flavours are Raspberry, Pink Grapefruit and Lemon.

Now I have tasted a macaron from a certain coffee franchise with the initials GJ and let me tell you their macarons are SAWDUST compared to those from La Belle Miette, so if you are in the Melbourne area or will be visiting Melbourne any time soon, make sure you go to LBM and try these out - I promise you, you will not be sorry.

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers
Kez

PS No commission was earned from this blog entry (LOL).

Monday, February 27, 2012

Fishy Birthdays

Fishy Friends is one of my favourite sets and even though it has retired I was happy to drag it out to make some kids cards for an upcoming craft show. The characters are so darned cute that you can't fail to smile!

I think the cards are pretty self-explanatory so I'll just show them and if you have any queries don't hesitate to email me and ask. The last one is an adaptation of a card by Marelle Taylor.


 


Materials used:
  • stamps - Fishy Friends (retired), Curly Cute, Think Happy Thoughts (retired)
  • card - real red, tempting turquoise, whisper white, pool party, island indigo, wisteria wonder, poppy parade, so saffron, very vanilla, watercolour paper, BigTop Birthday dsp
  • other - 1 1/4" circle punch, 1 3/8" circle punch, 3/4" circle punch, dimensionals, rick rack (stash), poppy parade ribbon, island indigo ruffled ribbon, aquapainter, inks and markers, sponge daubers, non SU embossing folders

DD13 just loves the first one, so I am going to have to watch it doesn't end up in her room instead of for the craft show! I must admit it is my favourite of the three too.

Thanks for calling in.

Cheers
Kez

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Tissu Et Des Fleurs

I need a new ironing board cover.

Whoop-di-doo you might say, what has that got to do with papercraft? Well, you see, it all happened like this ...

At our Regionals last year Sophie had made some lovely boxes covered in fabric and I've been meaning to give it a go, so out came my (sadly neglected) fabric and fabric adhesive roll. So far so good.

I cut the fabric the right size for my box and cut a piece of adhesive roll, read the instructions for which side up to place the adhesive onto the fabric and went out to the ironing board ...

... Yes, you've guessed it I am sure. I ironed the wrong side. Doh! Now I have adhesive roll stuck to my ironing board cover! And no, it does not come off completely.

Hmmmm, a bit of a senior moment! 

Attempt number two worked well, I am pleased to report, and the fabric covered box feels soooooooo lovely and decadent!

Here's the end result with my first ever ribbon flower:



Materials used:
  • card - rose red, pear pizzazz
  • other - Springtime Vintage fabric, Big Shot, Box #2 die, fabric adhesive roll, very vanilla seam binding, antique brad, pearl embellishment from LSS, leaf punch by Carl, needle and thread, embossing stylus, sticky strip

I think it is rather scrumptious. DD13 loves it and has demanded one for herself - with a bigger box if you please! There's just no pleasing teenagers is there?!

Anyways, of course I had to have another go, this time with a fat quarter I had sitting around (non SU) and the fancy favour die.




Gorjamalicious! I think I can see more fabric purchases in my future ....


Materials used:
  • card - night of navy
  • other - Fancy Favour die, Big Shot, white organza ribbon, fabric adhesive roll, sticky strip

Thanks for calling in.

Cheers
Kez

Sunday, February 19, 2012

Wisteria Overload

Some friends are coming to play next week and they asked to make my Easter milk carton treat box from this post last year. I decided to update it with some fresh colours and I really like how it turned out. Have a look to see who's nestled in amongst the grass:


Materials used:
  • stamps - A Good Egg (retired)
  • card - wisteria wonder, certainly celery, so saffron, pool party patterns dsp
  • other - mini milk carton die, grass punch (MS), certainly celery grosgrain ribbon, peach parfait marker, dimensionals, Big Shot, Crop-o-dile, sponge daubers, basic black marker

So cute! Might just have to add this one to my Easter Baskets class next month.

If you haven't made one of these great boxes yet I have a tutorial here - just omit the legs part.

The sun is shining again today, hooray! And that makes me think of flowers and nature so you can see that influence in my card, which is pretty self-explanatory; take a lookie:


Materials used:
  • stamps - Letter It
  • card - wisteria wonder, basic black, whisper white, calypso coral, Berry Blossoms dsp
  • ink - wisteria wonder, calypso coral
  • other - pearls, boho blossoms punch, dimensionals, sponge daubers

Very retro! Takes me back to my teens ... ah, memories! 

Hope the sun is shining at your place too. Thanks for dropping in.

Cheers
Kez



Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Big School

The challenge at Just Add Ink this week is Back to School. I used to have tons of fun making a little treat for the girls when they were starting a new year of primary school, so I thought it would be a great challenge to think of something for DD13 returning to high school.

I used the matchbox die and made a little "faux notebook" for her. Here's the outside, with the "bookmark" tucked under the image panel to keep the notebook closed.


The covers open up to a notebook looking page inside, complete with margin ruled and I even deliberately kept the SU logo print on there to look like the ones the stationery people have on theirs!


I ruled lines on the edges of the box to look like pages:


And inside the box will be some jelly beans. As a type 1 diabetic, DD has these with her at all times in case she goes into a hypo. (She rather likes that she is the only kid who is allowed to eat in class or on the bus!)


It was sooooo much fun making up this little project - thanks to the JAI team for a great challenge!

Materials used:
  • stamps - Greeting Card Kids
  • card - crumb cake, soft sky (retired), retired dsp (sorry, forgotten the name), watercolour
  • other - matchbox die, petal cone die, dimensionals, aquapainter, nestabilities dies, Big Shot

Thanks for dropping in.

Cheers
Kez

Missing You

Something completely different for you today - I decided it would really challenge me to have a go at the Less is More challenge this week: a one layer card featuring stripes. One layer! Not an easy task for me at all and initially all my ideas involved striped paper - duh! that's a second layer Kerry!

In the end I think my card is pretty cute and I'm quite happy with how clean and simple it is. Definitely a step outside the box for me.



I used gloss cardstock so it would have a bit of strength to stand up on its own, plus gloss takes really well to embossing.

DD19 will be able to use this when she goes back to Melbourne for uni and leaves the boyfriend behind!

Materials used:

  • stamps - Aviary, Three Little Words
  • card - white gloss
  • ink - black StazOn, real red
  • other - stripes embossing folder, ruler, permanent marker, stamp-a-ma-jig


Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers
Kez

Monday, February 13, 2012

A Taste of Bridget Jones

Warning: non craft related content may disturb some people.


DD19 was making vegetable soup for dinner earlier this evening when she suddenly announced that we might have a "bit of a Bridget Jones moment here mum". I searched my brain to work out what part of the movie she was referring to - were there going to be two men coming over and fighting for her hand? Would we be serving mini gherkins? Was she afraid of dying and alsatians eating her body? There were far too many golden BJ moments to choose from!

No, it turned out she was referring to the blue soup incident, except in our case it was purple soup. Upon asking what had turned the soup purple, I was told it was the carrot. Carrot? I was having serious concerns over her mental wellbeing when she informed a very startled - and very sceptical - DD13 and I that carrots used to be purple but had been bred to be orange.

Now, much as I love my daughter, and even though I had some evidence before me in the case of what certainly appeared to be a purple carrot top - and indeed, purple soup - I just had to hotfoot it to my trusty computer and consult the expertise of my friend Google. And sure enough, it transpires that yes, carrots used to be purple! I know! I was poleaxed too!

Here's a photo of some purple carrots and our purple soup - which was delicious, of course!



The only disappointing thing about our purple soup adventure is that we didn't get to have Colin Firth come over for dinner. Now that's yum!


Thanks for dropping by.

Cheers
Kez

Sunday, February 12, 2012

Fresh Vintage

Nearly every one of my customers who have been eligible for some free Sale-A-Bration goodies so far have ordered the Fresh Vintage stamp set! And it's not surprising, it is a very versatile set and the detail on the main flower image is fabulous.

Here's some cards I made trying to show different looks you can achieve with it, including one you've seen earlier.

Firstly one using matching papers Everyday Enchantment:


 Next a case of a lovely monochromatic card by Dawn Olchefske:


Here's the one you've seen earlier - emboss resist style:


The next one has been the most popular with all my ladies - kerry cobbler with always artichoke and a trinket key. The jewelled pin I found at my LSS and how perfectly does it match kerry cobbler?! Heaven!


And the last one - well, its a bit of a disaster - I have to admit that my close vision is just not what it used to be and I unfortunately went rather crooked on a couple of letters as I coloured them in. So, this is at least an example of what not to do! I think I might have to get myself a much younger assistant for delicate jobs like this in future ... lol! At any rate, I was trying to show that you can use the stamp for backgrounds to make your own "dsp" kind of. You get the idea, huh?


Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers
Kez

Saturday, February 11, 2012

Mocha Favour

I love how quick and easy it is to make a gift box using the Fancy Favour die.


Here I've used early espresso for the lower box and have stamped the gorgeous swirl from Creative Elements with gold ink. Subtle but elegant IMO.


The upper box was made using Mocha Morning DSP and I decorated the top with a paper rosette and vintage brad. A small butterfly made with more dsp and some black pearls adds the finishing touch.


This was a hostess gift at my workshop yesterday and all made in less than 30 minutes with some dies and my Big Shot. Love it!

Thanks for calling in.

Cheers
Kez

Friday, February 10, 2012

Anniversary Brayer

We're doing brayering at my workshop today and I couldn't possibly go wrong with choosing a Michelle Zindorf card for inspiration! I originally cased Michelle's card here but the colours for today's card were inspired by a gorgeous box that one of my Christmas gifts came in.


On my card's background I stamped the splodge stamp from French Foliage with both pool party and whisper white inks and sponged the edges.

Materials used:
  • stamps - Inspired by Nature, French Foliage, Teeny Tiny Sentiments
  • card - pool party, basic black, whisper white
  • inks - pool party, basic black, whisper white
  • other - bird punch, sponge daubers, dimensionals, stamp-a-ma-jig

My photo really doesn't do it justice, the colour is just gorgeous.

Thanks for dropping by. 

Cheers
Kez

Thursday, February 9, 2012

Bright and Cheery

It's been wet and gloomy day all week so far, so thank goodness we managed to enjoy a couple of days of sunshine over the weekend. I made sure I got out and soaked up some Vitamin D. So much for summer! Sigh!

In a brief patch of slightly lighter sky this morning I rushed out to take photos - and managed to drop this card onto the wet grass - face down, of course! So please excuse a couple of wet patches!

On Monday I found some gingham ribbon that I was sure would be a perfect match for island indigo and I was right! So I set to and made a bright and cheery birthday card to chase away the gloomies. I gotta say that even though this card is a departure from my usual style (not necessarily a bad thing, lol!) I absolutely LOVE it!


I could, of course, just have used SU's indigo ruffled ribbon but I thought the gingham was stinkin' cute!

Materials used:
  • stamps - Best of Everything, Up Up and Away
  • card - island indigo, whisper white
  • inks - island indigo, calypso coral, lucky limeade, pool party
  • other - calypso coral brad, non SU gingham ribbon (Spotlight), dimensionals

I'm still loving the indigo/coral combination and would you believe I did not use the stamp-a-ma-jig to place the birdie on the branch? Just eyeballed it - gotta love clear mount stamps!

Thanks for dropping in. 

Cheers
Kez

Sunday, February 5, 2012

Technique Tuesday ... and Sunday

In classes this week we are having a play with techniques. Here are the cards I came up with for my lovely ladies:

Firstly cracked glass technique.



Materials used:
  • stamps - French Foliage, Elements of Style
  • card - bravo burgundy, old olive, very vanilla, gloss
  • inks - bravo burgundy, old olive, always artichoke, crumb cake, Versamark
  • other - old olive satin ribbon, designer frames E/F, markers, dimensionals, UTEE clear, square lattice E/F, Big Shot

Secondly some emboss resist with a layout inspired by Nikki Spencer/Kathy Tanner. How gorgeous is this colour combo? Yum!


Materials used:
  • stamps - Fresh Vintage, Word Play
  • card - island indigo, calypso coral, whisper white
  • inks - island indigo, calypso coral, basic black, Versamark
  • other - white embossing powder, heat tool, sponges, tissues, markers, dimensionals

And lastly some two-step stamping on a card inspired by Tui Nathan.


Materials used:
  • stamps - Field Flowers
  • card - rich razzleberry, wild wasabi, whisper white, RR patterns paper
  • inks - rich razzleberry, wild wasabi
  • other - rich razzleberry satin ribbon, dimensionals, pearls, MFT die

And a big THANK YOU to whomever sent us some sunshine - MUCH appreciated! Mind you, apparently we are forecast to have 21 days of rain out of the 29 days of this month :(   Now we've had 2 of our 8 sunny ones!

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers
Kez

Friday, February 3, 2012

Enchanting Valentine

I am totally loving the Everyday Enchantment papers in the SAB catty, aren't you? The muted colours and combos are just gorgeous - not to mention the beautiful matching organza ribbons - so using these on today's project was a bit of a no-brainer really.

I've made a card and gift box set for Valentines Day:




These little hearts are the bits that are cut out when you use the pinking hearts border punch. Yup, damn fiddly to glue on!


Inside the box are these gorgeous sweet treats that my DH brought back from a recent business trip to the US. They are mini pretzels covered in white chocolate and sprinkles. Delicious? You betcha! I was lucky to grab some for my project before they all disappeared!

Materials used:
  • stamps - Greeting Card Kids, Well Scripted
  • card - poppy parade, watercolour, lucky limeade, Everyday Enchantment dsp
  • other - pinking hearts border punch, Everyday Enchantment ribbon pack, Fancy Favour die, Big Shot, dimensionals, aquapainter, ink pads, Sahara sand marker
  • non SU - nestabilities oval dies

Thanks for dropping by today. Please send sunshine.

Cheers
Kez

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Case-ing Kathy

The challenge at Just Add Ink this week is to case a card by DT member Kathy Tanner. There were quite a few of Kathy's cards I would be happy to case (and probably will some time!) but many of them had already been picked, so I went with this one:


I love the whimsy of it and the gorgeous colours - the green and turquoise look so stunning against the black and grey. So that's what I used as inspiration for my card. I flipped the sketch but used very similar features on my card. It's ANOTHER wet and gloomy day today so not much natural light and my photo doesn't do the colours justice, but there you go, hope you enjoy it anyway.


Watercolour crayons and ink pads were used to colour my image. I added Kindy Glitz for the rain drops to give them some sparkle and it looks just gor-juss in real life!


If you read yesterday's post you'll appreciate the irony of this card!

Thanks for stopping by. Please send sunshine.

Cheers
Kez