Kristina's Colour Inspiration #22

Another Kristina Werner CI challenge for you today. This one was surprisingly easy for me....not something I usually say about these challenges!!! Usually I put out CS in all the colours and sit there staring at it for ages before I decide what to do...but with this one as soon as I saw the picture I knew what I wanted to do. Here's the inspiration piece:

And here's my card:

I've used the flowers from the level 3 Hostess set, "Time Well Spent" and stamped them in VersaMark on the Rose Red, Soft Sky, Regal Rose and Bravo Burgundy CS, then embossed them with white embossing powder. Then I spent ages sitting there cutting them all out...LOL! I used Burgundy for the card base, just because I find Whisper White is a little too flimsy to hold up when you stick a lot of stuff on it, and then layered on the White. I stuck all of the flowers on with either snail, Dimensionals, or Pop-up glue dots, depending on how high I wanted them to sit. I sponged the edges with a little Sky and stamped the "love you" sentiment from "Short and Sweet" in Sky ink as well.

This card will be going in the post today to my Grandma, who's not feeling very well at the moment...hence the sentiment. She's one of my favourite people in the world, and no-one can make me laugh like she does. According to Mama we have the same *twisted* sense of humour :)

OK, that's it for now. Hope you all have a marvelous day,

Kristie

PS: Who can believe I made a card with NO embellishments???? Not me!!

Another birthday

No, not mine! That would be a bit much having 2 birthday's in one year....though the presents and cake would be nice :)

It's my housemate's birthday tomorrow and I've made her a couple of things...nothing too elaborate, but I wanted to show you anyway...cause I've just been working on that and have nothing else. I will do Kristina's CI challenge tonight and I'll have that up either later with a dodgy pic or first thing tomorrow. Anyway, on to the show...

I picked up this photo frame (& a black one just like it) at a discount variety store a few weeks ago when they were having a 20% off sale. It only cost me like $2.50!! I just added some Cherished rub ons in the corners and a photo I took of Alka and her boyfriend a few months back when they were all dressed up to go out. I altered the pic to black and white to go with the theme and viola, it was done.

This is the sentiment bit in the bottom right corner. As she adores her boyfriend I thought it was apt.

I also made her some Christmas cards to send to her friends and family who are overseas. I probably would have made more, but I ran out of time....

They all use a retired SU set called Holiday Spirit, that I just LOVE and bought from Madonna. The Wasabi panel on the cards on the left is stamped in silver and says Joy (thought I'd put that in because you can't see it very well). I've also used Silver, Artichoke and Pomegranate cardstock, the Holiday Harmony DSP, as well as some Pomegranate and Wasabi striped ribbons. Oh yeah, there's Artichoke brads as well and I used the scallop punch on the trees.

This is the birthday card I made her. I used a Vanilla base, and Mellow Moss and Apricot Appeal card stock, Apricot ribbon, a chipboard flower covered in Apricot punched with the five petal flower punch and lots of glitter on the centre. The background is from Baroque Motifs and the sentiment from Happy Everything.

I also got her a packet of Chai Latte...she loves that like I love my coffee. I'm going to wrap it all up in brown paper rolled with the So Swirly wheel in Moss ink and tie it up with some satin ribbon. I love brown paper for wrapping....reminds me of the Sound of Music :) Then there's the chocolate fudge cake...I promise to take a photo before it's eaten....just to make you totally jealous. I hope she likes it all. I didn't want to spend a lot of money, so I hope the thoughtfulness of the gift makes up for that.

The reason I didn't want to spend $ on her gift is I need all my money to support my new addiction.....yes my friends, it's sad but true, I'm addicted. I was wandering around online Sunday a week and a half ago and I found myself at Hanna stamps. I've been wanting to try out Copic markers for a while and the price of them here in Australia has put me off. At Hanna stamps I discovered that they have Ciao markers for $3.33 each....hello!!!! So I got a few. While I was there I had to buy some Hanna stamps as well. They were just too cute!!! I got a couple of different ones....and the sentiment stamps that have the "put your big girl panties on and deal with it" stamp. Madonna and I say that all the time, so I just could resist!! That's what I will be doing tonight, instead of making more Christmas cards for Alka, I will be stamping and colouring with my new toys. I did have a little test drive of the Copics before I had a nap, and let me just say they are soooooooo amazing! I know understand why they have been so popular. Also, Hanna stamps service was impeccable. They must have had my order packed and in the post so fast for it to get to me today...oh, and the stamps were all wrapped up in the most delicious tissue paper with butterflies on it, just like a wonderful present!!! I couldn't be happier with the service, so I suggest that if you are looking to try out some Copics, then you should go check them out. And if you are in Australia, their OS shipping charge is SUPER cheap compared to most other companies in the US!!

OK, enough enabling (like you all need more encouragement to buy stampin stuff!). I'm off to wrap these pressies and tidy up the enormous mess I've got in this room, so I can relax and play with my new toys tonight!

Hope your day is filled with sunshine and unexpected surprises....just like mine :)

Kristie

The direction of your dreams

I made this card in about ten minutes the other night, using the new stamp set I got at Regionals....well the sentiment from it anyway. I wanted to make that the focus of the card, so I left the rest of it kind of simple. It's just a Vanilla card base, layered with some Soft Sky and a piece of DSP from the Notebook pack that I punched with the spiral punch along the edge. The sentiment is stamped in Blue Bayou on Kraft cardstock and sponged around the edges with Sky ink...oh and the Sky CS is also sponged with the same ink on the very edge of it. The ribbon is some Sky double stitched.

The tiny primas were a little gift when I ordered a few bits and pieces from Anna's Craft Cupboard ages ago. The 3 of them were stapled in a little bag to the receipt. I was looking for something to add to the card...you all know my fetish for embellishments...and I thought of them. I stuck them on with some mini glue dots but I thought they looked a bit naked....they were too small to put brad through the centres of and then I had a great idea! Well, not so much that it was MY idea, but I remembered something I saw on another blog (sorry, but I can't remember whose it was)...home made dew drops. They're made with Crystal effects. I don't have any re-inkers like the lady who invented them used so I just put little dabs of CE and then sprinkled them with glitter....here's a close up:

And another one:

They look really pretty IRL. Tonight I'm going to be working on a birthday gift for my housemate....it's her birthday on Friday and she's going to be 22....so young!!!! I am not sure what I'll make exactly, but I'm thinking of an altered photo frame with a picture of her and her boyfriend in it. I have some pics I took of them one night when they were all dressed up to go out, so I thought that might be nice. And maybe a little box of cards that she can send to her family in Kenya....I don't want to go spending a lot of money on a gift and lets face it, when you live with a *crafty* type person you should expect home made gifts...right? I'm also going to make her my *famous* Chocolate Fudge Cake...I'll try and remember to take a photo before it gets devoured...LOL!

Have a great day, wherever you are.

Kristie

Swaps and a new Stamp Set

Lots to show you today, so I'll keep the blather to a minimum :)

I got a whole pile of swaps at Regionals on Saturday and it was so hard to choose *favourites*, so I'll probably end up showing you others on days when I don't have anything of my own to show....sneaky I know. But I did choose three cards that really jumped out at me....my favourites for today!

This first card is from a demo called Jenny Wilcockson. I've never met Jenny before and I don't know if she has a blog, but I got 2 cards from her and they're both stunning. The one I've chosen to show you today is just gorgeous IRL...the tree must have taken her ages (or maybe I'm just projecting my own rate of colouring onto her!)

Seriously gorgeous, right?

This next one is from a lady called Kylie Johnson & I don't know if she has a blog either! But I totally adore what she's done with the butterfly from Garden Whimsy...I hope you can see how pretty and sparkly it is...

The final one I'll show today is from my lovely friend Cass King. We only met IRL for the first time, and very briefly at that, on Saturday, but she is so sweet and talented...and she leaves very nice comments on this blog, which is always endearing :)

Nice, huh??? I love a Christmas card that's not traditional...IYKWIM?

Finally, I wanted to show you a card I whipped up last night for my Mama using the new stamp set we got at Regionals, Live Your Dream. At first I wasn't overly thrilled with it, but I've changed my mind and now I think it's great...really versatile and the little butterfly is just too cute! Mama loves butterflies!

Basic ingredients: Regal Rose, Very Vanilla & Always Artichoke cardstock, Rose Red, Regal Rose & Artichoke markers, (Rose Red inkpad for the butterflies), Artichoke ribbon. Hope she likes it! There's no sentiment because I couldn't decide where to put one, so I've just written on the inside. Sometimes I really like a card with no sentiment, just to say hi & I'm thinking of you.

Ok, better go get ready for my weekly acupuncture torture session....I really need it :) Have an awesome day,

Kristie

Sorry I'm late....

...but Regionals on Saturday completely wore me out. It wasn't so much all the stamping and laughing and fun that I had, but the weather. For those of you not in Sydney, both Friday and Saturday the weather was DREADFUL!! It poured rain for the whole two days...which always makes my poor back ache! Poor, poor, pitiful me :(   LOL!! On Saturday I got up really early to catch the train into the city...to allow for unexpected delays (regular occurrences on CityRail) and also time for getting lost! I am a country girl, and every single time I go into the city I get lost! Really, sometimes I get very, very lost! However, on Saturday I didn't really get lost, I just went the long way round, which I realised after I walked back to the train station in the afternoon with a couple of the other girls who attended and it took about a quarter of the time it took me to get there! Anyway, I got out of Central station, went to put up my umbrella and it literally exploded!! So, there I am, walking around, getting wet as anything, when I step into a puddle that I just didn't see....my poor left foot was soaking wet all day and I made funny squishing noises when I walked!

Other than those small disasters, Regionals were awesome! I saw some great presentations of Workshop WOWs, heard excellent business tips that I'm filing away for one day in the future (when I might actually have time to make this whole stamping thing a business), and had a blast swapping and chatting with so many lovely SU! ladies. We also got some good goss on upcoming promos, a brand new stamp set not yet available in Australia and got to have a play with the awesome long scallop and square scallop punches with our make and takes. Even with the whole getting drenched thing, it was an amazing day and I'd thoroughly recommend it to any demos out there...or even those of you who could go as a guest. Fantastic.

I haven't yet taken any pics of the fabulous swaps I got...tomorrow maybe??? But I thought I'd show you the card I sent to my fabulous sister to congratulate her on her new home. I didn't post it with the cards I made for the kids (which they loved btw) because she does actually read the blog and I wanted it to be a surprise!

Those of you who know Mad would know that she's a bit obsessed with Old Olive and Choc Chip, unlike me with my fetish for brights and pastels. So that was the colour combo I chose for this card, along with some So Saffron to lighten it up a bit. The Olive DSP is from Fall Flowers and I mounted it on some distressed Saffron and then onto a Choc card base. The Happiness sentiment (which I thought was apt for her finally getting into her new house) is from Wonderful Words and stamped in Choc Chip on Saffron. It was punched out with the large oval and mounted on  Choc Chip that was punched out with the Designer Label punch...I really like how that looks. The Olive flowers and circles are from the mini catty Die Cut Blooms and the Choc flowers (yes, I know they look black in this pic!) are Primas. I stuck a green rhinestone brad in the centre and popped them up on Dimensionals. It was finished off with some delish Choc Chip satin ribbon. She SAID she loved it, but the most important thing is that I loved it....LOL!!!!

OK, I'd better go do some work. I'll sort through the swaps I received tonight and post some pics of my favourites for you tomorrow...there's no way I can post them all. Also, later in the week I'll have some photos of the cute Christmas ATC's I made and the swaps I received...there was only 4 of us in this one, but they're really cute and have given me some great ideas for Christmas cards.

Have a great day,

Kristie

Mission Accomplished

Yes, I have FINALLY finished making my swaps for the Regional event tomorrow. I ended up with 39...an odd number to be sure, but there is a rational explanation for it, honest! I ran out of Old Olive CS for the owl card...which you will see below...and so I only made 3 :( It makes me a bit sad, cause he's so cute! I suppose I could have changed my colours and substituted Artichoke or something, but by now I'm just over it...mass production is so not my style! Perhaps if I'd have made them a little less complicated it probably wouldn't have been so bad, but I plan on swapping with some awesome card makers and I didn't want them to think mine were yucky...or whatever. Plus you know it's impossible for me to go without embellishments, even when making almost 40 card fronts...they NEEDED to have ribbon, brads, colouring and layers....really, otherwise they would have been boring!!! Enough blather, onto the cards:

Poor little Christmas card...all on his own...well, I just couldn't make it fit otherwise. So, details....the images, with their accompanying sentiments are from Celebrate Everyday, in the current Mini catty. They were all stamped in the appropriate colour (with VersaMark first) onto watercolour paper and clear embossed. Then I coloured them in and matted them onto coordinating CS. The base card is either Very Vanilla or Whisper White, matted with coloured CS and then DSP. There's matching ribbon and then I added a little embellishment of a flower type thingy with a brad in the centre on the bottom left.

The layout (and therefore the dimensions) is the same for all of the designs. I just changed the DSP and colour combo to suit the image. I made 6 of each design, except for the owl. Oh, and the candles on the birthday cake one have Crystal Effects and Dazzling Diamonds glitter. It's a bit hard to see in the pics, but in real life it looks really cute. If you want any info on what colours or DSP or whatever that I've used, just email me and I'll let you know.

Now I just have to hope that I can find 39 people who are willing to swap with me!!! LOL. Anyway, I shall be gone all day tomorrow having fun, meeting people IRL that I only know from online, and making lots of fun things, so there'll be no post. But I will be back on Sunday to let you know if I swapped all my cards and to tell you about all the fun I had.

Hope your day is sunny and bright (unlike rainy old Sydney),

Kristie

Kristina's Colour Inspiration #21

Kristina has posted a quickie CI challenge today with the cutest shoes....I have a bit of a shoe fetish so I NEEDED to do this challenge, as opposed to working on my swaps for Regionals :) Here's the inspiration piece:

I was inspired by the cute little flower thingy on the toe part of the shoes. It reminded me straight away of the big chipboard flower in the On Board Blossoms and Basics, so that's what I went with:

The petals are covered in Tempting Turquoise and the centre is Regal Rose. The card base is Rose Red and the leaves and sentiment are from A Perfect Day rub-ons on Old Olive. I rounded the corners on the base and the Olive panel and also used the Flitting By butterfly wheel in VersaMark, cause butterflies and flowers go together, right? I finished it off with a bit of White grosgrain ribbon.

I think it's cute and I'm going to pop it in the mail to my Mama, she loves butterflies and she's really sweet too!

Hope you all have a fabulous day. I'll be back tomorrow with some sneak peaks of the swaps I've been working on.

Kristie

RAK from Nikki

As promised here is the gorgeous card I received from the beautiful Nikki, when she sent me the US catty:

How beautiful is this? You can't really see too well, because of my dodgy photography and the fact that it's a bit overcast here today, but the fruit is all sparkly!!! Nothing like a bit of glitter to brighten up your day, right???

The inside is just as lovely too:

There's this cute scalloped piece right across the bottom and the fruit is stamped all over. I love it when the inside of a card is just as gorgeous as the outside.

I have been drooling over the catty again, in between making swaps. I'm a bit slow, as I'm used to making one card at a time. But I've got the dimensions of all the bits worked out now and I've got the production line thing happening, so I'm getting faster. I'm not really sure how many people will be at Regionals, but I aim to make about 30 swaps. I figure that's about all I can handle this week. As for the catty; well, I am desperately in love with the cupcake stamps in there, including that wheel....YUM!! Hope we get those at some stage :)

Right, better get back to it,

Kristie

Swamped by swaps

I am currently inundated with making as many swaps as possible for the SU Regionals on Saturday. I will share what I've created with you all next week, but until then I think I'll keep them a secret....just in case anyone who will be attending actually reads this blog and decides to avoid me so they don't have to swap with me :) I can't believe how messy my desk is at the moment. Those who know me well know that I am a bit of a neat freak. I hate disorder, but I figure it's fairly pointless it putting everything away when I'll just have to pull it all out again to continue with the swap making...so it will probably stay that way until Friday, or whenever I finish!! It's driving me nuts though!!

However, on a much happier note, I've received my copy of the glorious US catty from my super wonderful blogging friend Nikki (Military Wife...over there on the right). I have spent more time than I should going through said catty and drooling...though not onto the precious catty!! I have informed *the elite* that I will bring it to Regionals on Saturday....I have had many offers to have lunch with me...LOL! I think it will be very interesting to see who gets to see it first!! Nikki also sent me a completely gorgeous card along with the catty, but I forgot to take a picture of it today before the sun went down, so I'll do so tomorrow and post it here for you all to see....it is stunning!!

So, as I have nothing craft related to show you, I thought I'd share another one of my favourite quotes with you. Wittgenstein was an Austrian philosopher of the early 20th century who was very influential in the philosophy of language and metaphysics. I love this quote, but the reasons why would take ages to explain and bore you all silly :)

Philosophy is a battle against the bewitchment of our intelligence by means of language.
  - Ludwig Wittgenstein

Hope you are all having a fabulous day, wherever you are,

Kristie

Happy, happy mail

Today was a very happy mail day at my house (hence the 2 happys in the title). I got a lovely thank you card from the uber talented Miss Treez for the t-shirts I sent her...you know the cool dragonfly ones.

Isn't it just gorgeous? It's even nicer IRL. I totally adore it and it will be going on the *shelf*. I was also lucky enough to get a card from my wonderful sister Madonna too. She also sent me some of those cello bags for putting my swaps in...she's the bestest sister in the WHOLE universe, really and truly!!!

It was doubly awesome to get these fabulous cards today, because I've been working on swaps for regionals and I can't show them here or some of the girls I'd like to swap with might see them and the *surprise* be ruined. I've never gone to an SU event before and I am a bit nervous that my swaps will be up to par...I mean I've heard terrible stories from US blogs about *swap snobs*...what if someone rejects me...how will I ever cope????

Right, hope you enjoyed the eye candy from my talented friend and sister. I'm off to have a nap...these meds are making me insanely tired and I can't cope without my afternoon Nana nap!

Kristie

Woohoo, I actually made stuff!!!

I have been so bad about posting creations the last week or so, mostly because there have been no creations to post! So today, finally, I have something to show you all.

Friday was a dreadful day...I had a conference to go to, where PhD students (mostly second year) gave papers on their subjects. It wasn't that the papers were dreadful, some of them were actually really fascinating...it was the seating that was completely hideous. Now, I fully understand that you wouldn't want the chairs to be so comfy that everyone would be falling asleep...but do they have to be so atrocious? Seriously, 6 hours of sitting in one of those chairs and even the most hardened terrorist would be willing to give up all their secrets!! Consequently, I spent most of Saturday in bed, slathered in smelly liniment, lying on the electric blanket and taking lots of painkillers. Finally I got sick of that, took some more painkillers and sat down to create.

This first card is for my SU *sister* Tanya, whose mother passed away suddenly yesterday morning. Although I've never actually met Tanya, or her mum, I have to admit I cried....a lot! You see, Tanya's mum just turned 60 a few months ago and my beloved Mama will be turning 60 in January. The thought that I could loose her so suddenly did my head in, and I felt for poor Tanya so much. So this card will be off to her first thing Monday morning.

I don't have any sympathy stamps...I guess I hoped that I would never need them, so I thought that the "Thinking of You" sentiment from the "For a Friend" hostess set would be appropriate. The paper is from the gorgeous Fall Flowers DSP and it's mounted on a craft base. The sentiment panel is Sahara Sand and the panel under the Sky scalloped bit is Old Olive. The flower is from the Pretties kit and coloured Soft Sky with the ink pad and a sponge dauber. The ribbon is also sky and the button is a vanilla one from the neutrals pack and threaded with lined thread. I found it really hard to make this as I've never made a sympathy card before, and I can only hope that it brings her some small comfort in this awful time.

The second card I have to show you is for my lovely nephew Tom...you know, the talented 4 yr old photographer!! This should have been made and sent already, but it's done now and hopefully if I pop them in the post box today they should have happy mail at their new house in a few days.

I know we all find it hard to make *boy* cards, it's especially hard for me with NO RIBBON! LOL. But I had these images sitting there from the image swap we did ages ago and as I got some of the "Wanted" DSP I thought I'd do a *cowboy* style card for Tommy...he's certainly a "genuine one & only* so I thought it would be suitable! The card base is Really Rust, The panel at the bottom is mounted on Choc Chip and Sage Shadow and the star brads are from the Styled Silver Hodgepodge.

Seeing as I haven't done a Completely Random Sunday post today, I thought I would leave you with a tiny bit of randomness by way of a quote:

The average person thinks he isn't.
  - Father Larry Lorenzoni

Think about it....LOL!!

Kristie

Kristina's CI #20

Told you I'd have something crafty to show you today! Kristina's challenge this week is inspired by these really cool chairs from Pottery Barn Kids...very nice!

I really love that vanilla, chocolate and pink one! As you can see, the colours were Choc Chip, Regal Rose, Pink Pirouette (for which I substituted Pretty in Pink as we don't have it here yet), Certainly Celery and Very Vanilla. Here's my card:

I've used a bunch of different stuff here so I'll keep it short and sweet by listing the ingredients in a second. The only thing to note is that the leaves on the Choc panel were stamped in VersaMark and then clear embossed. They look really nice in real life.

Ingredients:

Stamps: Natural Beauty (the butterfly), Bodacious Bouquet (the BG leaf) Bloomin' with Beauty (flower)

Ink: Pretty in Pink, Regal Rose and Certainly Celery, Chocolate Chip and VersaMark.

Card Stock: Very Vanilla, Chocolate Chip, Certainly Celery, and Watercolour Paper.

Other: A Perfect Day rub-ons, Pretty in Pink Taffeta ribbon, Clear embossing powder, heat gun, Dimensionals, Sponge Daubers.

Ok, that's it for now. Hope you have a great day,

Kristie

Bad, bad blogger

For once it's not *Blogger* that I can blame for my lack of posting, but it's really my own slack self! Well, I'm not really that slack, I have actually been busy with *real life*...I had my six month torture session review for my PhD yesterday. Imagine being locked in a room with two professors who grill you about *exactly* what you've been doing and how you've been doing it, and then what you plan to be doing for the next six months and you'll have a pretty good idea what my afternoon was like. But as if that wasn't enough, I went afterward and got poked with lots of needles. This is normally a rather pleasant experience, contrary to what one might expect. Except for yesterday. Yesterday my doctor found a few *tender* spots in unusual places and decided that I needed about twice as many needles as usual....some of them hurt...yes I am a whiner!! But they really did hurt.

Then I practically ran {well, walked rather fast for a person that just been poked with 60 gajillion needles} over to the Mac centre in order to get to the bank before it closed....4.02pm...those slacker bank workers wouldn't let me in....seriously, what kind of a business opens at 9.30am and closes at 4pm...that's just not convenient for anyone! A further attempt to get people to deal with computers and automated phone banking instead of paying real people to serve you! Yes I know that it's always been like that but it still won't stop me complaining about it!

So, please forgive me for not posting any craft related eye candy....I know I'm not as cute as the kitteh above but I promise that tomorrow I will have something to show you....Kristina Werner has posted a new colour challenge today and I AM going to do it....no, really. As soon as the pizza gets here and I gorge myself on meaty pizza and garlic bread goodness!

As a further apology for my badness, I will give you the link to the funniest site since I found Lolcats....Cake Wrecks....go, see for yourself...laugh...do not consume food or beverages while perusing this site....really.

Kristie

Cards for my girls

Finally I have some new eye candy to show you! Yesterday I sat down and made these two cards for Madonna's girls, Katelin and Alexandra. They moved house over the weekend and I wanted to make them something to say congratulations and so that they would have mail at their new home. I love making cards for the girls, because I can be all 'girly' and extravagant! However, with my back the way it is, I didn't get too carried away with these ones.

This one's for Katie. I've used the Spring Fling DSP and the coordinating CS colours of Pretty in Pink, So Saffron and Mellow Moss. The flowers are from the On Board Blossoms and Basics and covered with CS punched out with the five petal flower punch...which happens to match perfectly...I love that about SU! The Pretty in Pink centres are punched out with the 1/2" circle and covered with Crystal Effects. The 'Wonderful' sentiment is from Warm Words and is in an oval Antique Brass frame with the same hodgepodge brads. The ribbon is Pink Taffeta.

This one's for Miss Lexi. The card base is Certainly Celery, the flower is from the Blossoms and Basics and the sentiment is a rubon from A Perfect Day. The ribbon is my very last piece of Pretty in Pink narrow grosgrain....see how much I love my niece when I use up the last bit of one of my favourite ribbons. Of course it does give me the excuse of buying a whole roll of it, as that was part of my ribbon share from a few months back! I've also used some more of the Spring Fling DSP, the polka dot pink is the reverse of the stripe, and some So Saffron CS stamped with little Saffron flowers from "Always".

They're both really simple cards, but rather pretty I think and I hope my favourite girls like them!

I also wanted to say a big thank you for all the lovely comments left on my card for Kristina's challenge. I'm thrilled to be in her 10 Random selections!! It really made my day.

So, I hope you all have as wonderful a day as I am having,

Kristie

Absolutely Nothing Important

I don't have anything craft related to show, yet again. I did manage to create a couple of things this evening, but by the time I was finished it was too dark to take a picture of them...and Dr Who was about to start. Now, I'm just sitting around waiting for Dexter. I'm not entirely sure what my taste in TV says about me....but I should probably add in that I'm really glad that the Olympics are over today and this week my favourite shows come back: Criminal Minds and Bones. So basically you now know that I like scary, bloody, and murderous....oh, and I'm looking forward to Supernatural coming back soon, so add in completely unrealistic to that mix. However, between all of these shows and my fetish for Agatha Christie and Sherlock Holmes I could probably get away with murder...LOL!!!!

Right, so I thought that I would share some more of my favourite quotes with you, just to make up for the lack of eye candy. Today's quotes are from the great Albert Einstein...not such a long way from Terry Pratchett really, just a different way of trying to work out how the world works....honest!

The bigotry of the nonbeliever is for me nearly as funny as the bigotry of the believer.

If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales.

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

It is harder to crack a prejudice than an atom.

Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former. {Doesn't this sound just like something TP would say???}

The important thing is not to stop questioning.

On that note I'll leave you to question why on earth you keep coming back here when there's nothing pretty to see...

LOL!

Have a great day

Kristie

Random Saturday

Sorry I have no crafty things to show you today. I'm afraid that the weather here has been cold and wet and yesterday was the coldest day in Sydney for 12 years, which is the perfect combination for sending my back into rebellion. I just haven't been able to sit at the craft table long enough to make anything, and therefore had to resort to laying down on my toasty electric blanket and watching TV. I have lots of ideas for things to make, just not the ability to make them.

I did find the time however to visit the delightful Miss Lauren this morning (via her blog of course...it's a long way from Sydney to NJ) and she had a very cute blog thing.

The Recipe For Kristie

3 parts Intuition 2 parts Craftiness 1 part Courage Splash of Delight Sip slowly on the beach

What's the Recipe for Your Personality?

The beach sounds pretty good right about now!

Anyway, I thought that this week we would have a random Saturday and with a little luck I will have something in the craft department to show you tomorrow. Madonna is moving house this weekend and I intend to make the kids some cards and get them posted asap, so that they get mail at their new place. They love getting mail....but then so do I, as long as it's HAPPY mail and not bills!!!

Hope you all have a great weekend

Kristie

Kristina's Colour Inspiration #19

Even though poor Kristina has a very sore back (a problem I can definitely relate to!) she has put up another colour inspiration challenge today. As soon as I saw it there, I went and whipped out a very quick card. I might find time to play with this again later, but for now here's the inspiration:

 

 

 

 

And here's my first attempt:

For my touch of colour I went with Pink Passion, which I think looks awesome with the black, gray and white.

I've used the 'Office Accoutrements' stamps, some little black buttons threaded with little slivers of pink CS, Pink ink (of course), a bit of scalloping with the slit punch and some piercing around the Gray panel.

The only thing that was unusual about this card was that when I cut the black base to A5 I didn't just fold it in half, but scored it at 9.5cm and added the scalloped piece to the short side. Oh, I guess the other unusual thing is that I didn't use any ribbon...LOL!!

I might have to send this one to Mad, she's definitely an original...and it's all because of her that I got this stamp set in the first place!!

OK, this is the third post for the day, so you're probably all sick to death of me by now! I'm going to go lie down and watch some Olympic action...it doesn't matter what, my brain needs a rest as well as my back.

See ya,

Kristie

Channeling the Elite

Last night I sat down to make a card using a colour combination suggested by Madonna: Old Olive, So Saffron and Taken with Teal. I wanted to do some colouring (a la Alisa) and I was a bit inspired by some of the lovely vintage-y things that Angela has been doing lately, as well as her use of the awesome wide Saffron ribbon yesterday. So this is what I came up with:

I am not entirely sure that it was a complete success, and on further consideration I should probably not try to do too many things at once...LOL!! I've used the flower from "Bloomin' with Beauty" stamped on watercolour paper and coloured with Teal and Olive, the retired French Script background stamp in Teal on the Saffron CS, and the sentiment from "Spring Solitude" punched out with the Word Window Punch. The flowers up top are from the Pretties Kit and coloured with Saffron and Teal Markers, with a Saffron brad in the centre. The ribbons are from the Sherbet and Theatre ribbon originals. There's lots of distressing and sponging too.

It actually looks ok IRL, but I'm not sure that it's going to be a favourite. It make have to go into the dodgy card box to be given to someone with no appreciation for what a good card looks like....pmsl!!!

I best be off now and try to get some work done, instead of messing around with this techno stuff.

Have a wonderful day,

Kristie

Testing

As mentioned before on this blog, I am rather technologically inept. I have not been entirely happy with Blogger, but don't want to go to all the trouble of changing to another blog...yes I'm probably a bit lazy too! So I'm testing out Windows Live Writer which will apparently allow me to have cooler looking posts without going to all the trouble of learning html code or whatever.

It's all a bit confusing really, but I'll get there eventually...I hope!!!

So, this is my test run. If this works out I will be back soon with a craft post.

Kristie

Card of the Week

Here's the next instalment in my Card of the Week feature for Alisa's team forum for August featuring items from the Mini catty...a Christmas card! One done...a bajillion to go!I haven't been feeling too great the last week or so and I wanted to keep this pretty simple and easy...the thing that took the longest was tying the bow...and it's still not perfect! Oh well, practice makes perfect right? I wouldn't want to be mailing this one with that ginormous bow on it, but it's pretty!! I don't like making a whole bunch of cards that are exactly the same anyway, but this colour combo is rather nice for Christmas I think...not your traditional red and green, but I'm not a big fan of that anyway. I'll probably make some more similar to this...just without the hardware and big bow!!! But I've also got a few other ideas for Chrissy cards that involve much less traditional colours...like PINK & PURPLE...LOL!!

Right, enough blather, I have heaps to do today and really need to get to it. Here's the ingredients:
Stamps: Short and Sweet
Ink: Always Artichoke, Purely Pomegranate
Card stock: River Rock, Always Artichoke, Purely Pomegranate
Other: Holiday Harmony DSP, Styled Silver Hodgepodge frame and brads, Purely Pomegranate Satin Ribbon, Designer Label punch, sponge daubers, pop-up glue dots.

Hope you all have a fantastic day
Kristie