A Blog Award and something different...

Firstly, I want to say a great big thanks to the wonderful Miss June, who gave me this blog award this week.

"This award is given to a blog that invests and believes in PROXIMITY - nearness in space, time and relationships! These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind of bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers!"

The rule of the award is to now pass it on to another 8 people who demonstrate this spirit. You all know that I'm hopeless when it comes to passing it on, and June has already given the award to some of those people that I would have given it to....so I'm just going to say that the absolute BEST thing about this adventure in blogging is the wonderful and amazingly talented friends that I have made. You can find most of them over there in the list on the right....there are some seriously fantastic ladies on that list - fantastically talented as well as super NICE....go check them out :)

Right, on to the crafty stuff. As I STILL haven't finished organising my craft space this is another one that I made before I went away. I'm sure that most of you are familiar with the amazing things that Michelle Zindorf does with a brayer....I am definitely not in her league...LOL!!!! But I've wanted to try out the techniques that she uses for a while, and as a regular reader of her blog I figured that I had read enough of her fantastic tutorials to finally give it a go.

As you can see....not even close to being in her league!!! But for a first attempt I was ok with it. I figure it's good to show you stuff that I'm not 100% happy with...shows that you can't be fabulous all the time, right?????

This card uses one of the new sets from the Summer Mini called Ocean Commotion....and it's an Australia/New Zealand only one!!!! It's nice that we've got something the rest of the world doesn't for a change...lol. All of the images were stamped with VersaMark and ink and clear embossed before I took to what was a sheet of Whisper White CS with the brayer and sponges. How cute is that seahorse??? I just love him and you'll be seeing him again for sure :)

Supplies:
CS: Whisper White, Blue Bayou, Not Quite Navy, Purely Pomegranate
Ink: VersaMark, Wild Wasabi, Purely Pomegranate, Blue Bayou, River Rock
Stamps: Ocean Commotion
Other: Scallop Punch, Brayer, Sponges

It has been insanely HOT, HOT, HOT here this week....as I write this I'm sitting in front of my brand new air-cooler, filled with ICE water and as long as I don't move it should be ok. It seems so weird to be reading blogs where people are complaining about the cold....right now I'd be happy with some snow....LOL!

So, hope you all have a day of NON-EXTREME weather, wherever you are,
Kristie

A bright & happy birthday

Before I get on to the crafty stuff I just want to say a big thank you for all of your lovely comments about my darlin' Grandma.....my blog friends are just wonderful ♥

We've got lots of December babies in our family, so I had quite a few birthday cards to make. I did make a few before I left and I'll be showing you those, but I forgot to take any photos of the ones I made while I was away....duh!!!! Anyways, this is one I made for my cousin Zoe, who has her birthday just after Christmas. It makes me so glad to have my birthday in the middle of the year, cause these December babies often miss out in the frenzy of Christmas. So I made sure that I had Zoe's card done and ready to take away with me so that I could give it to her when I saw her at Christmas. Actually, we spent heaps of time together as we visited with Gran and it was so nice to catch up. Mama has gotten her into card making too and I can't wait to see some of her work.

Anyway, here's the card:
Supplies:
CS: Orchid Opulence, Pixie Pink
Ink: Orchid Opulence, VersaMark
Stamps: Eastern Blooms
Other: Hidden Garden Rub-ons (sentiment), white embossing powder.

Now, can you believe that there's no ribbon or bling on this card???? I actually thought that the bright colours and cut out flowers made a bold enough statement alone without adding to it....I know...I can hardly believe myself....LOL.

In other news.... yesterday I moved into a bigger room in the house that I live in....yep, another housemate has moved out and we're looking for a new one!!!! The new room is waaaaay bigger than my old one....and you know what that means? More room for craft supplies....YAY!!!!! Now I just have to get it all organised again!!! But I shall take photos once I'm finished and show you. I can't wait to get it done so I can get back to creating....I haven't made anything for a couple of weeks now and I am having some serious withdrawal symptoms :)

Hope you're having a fantastic day,
Kristie

I'm back....

Hi all! Firstly, my apologies for such a long time between posts. I really should have posted before now, but things have been a little crazy and rather difficult. My beloved Grandma passed away last Saturday after a few weeks in the hospital and I spent a lot of time with her in those last days....both a blessing and a burden.

So, here I am....back in Sydney and ready to get back to *normal life*....LOL!!!

Back before I went away I hosted another swap for Alisa's team, for cards made with new stamps from the Summer Mini Catalogue. For mine I chose Eastern Blooms. I really love this branch image, and although there's heaps of other great flower images in the set, I thought that this branch would look great embossed in white on Rose Red CS....I think I was right :)
Supplies:
CS: Tempting Turquoise, Whisper White, Rose Red
Ink: VersaMark
Stamps: Eastern Blooms, In the Spotlight
Other: Rose Red 1" double stitched ribbon, 3/4" & 1" Circle Punches, Boho Blossom Punch, White embossing powder


I promise to get back into the swing of things and post regularly again :)

Hope you're having a great day,
Kristie

A Princess Birthday

Firstly I have to apologize for my longer than anticipated absence. I've been busy hanging out with friends and family and shopping with my Mummy....just lots of relaxing, fun things really. Also, I haven't quite mastered the art of the scheduled post...but they are all saved and I'll just have to remember to post manually. I definitely need some tuition on this blogging thing :)

Anyway...here's the post that I promised....better late than never, right?

My best friend's daughter is turning 8 and she's a total girlie girl. She loves pink and purple and pretending that she's a princess...so the girl from SU's *Pretty Princess* was perfect for her card.
Supplies:
CS: Whisper White, Pixie Pink, Pink Passion, Orchid Opulence
Ink: Stazon, Pink Passion
Stamps: Happy Everything, Pretty Princess
Other: Copic Markers, Orchid Opulence ribbon (unfortunately retired), Prima flowers, Pink brads

Happy birthday Miss Holly,
Kristie

A thank you

I really love the set *For Father* in the Summer mini. You saw yesterday how I did a comparison of the different ways of colouring the box of apples on watercolour paper, now here's a finished version that was coloured with Copics:Supplies:
CS: Green textured Bazzil, Ruby Red (SU) Neenah Solar White
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, VersMark, Ruby Red
Stamps: For Father, Say it with Scallops
Other: Square Scallop Punch, Ruby Red buttons, Cosmo Cricket velvet ribbon, Copic markers

There will be no posts for a few days, while I live it up with my best friend (YAY) and catch up with my Mama....I can't wait to see her. But I will be back with some cards showing off more of the stamps in the new Summer mini early next week :)
Kristie

A little comparison & an award

There was a discussion on the Elite Stampers forum this week about the best way to colour the stamps from *For Father*, so last night I did a little comparison between 3 methods to show that what method you choose depends on the kind of result you want. The first picture shows the three different methods side by side: from left to right - markers, ink and watercolour crayons.
Here's a close up view of each one, in the same order. This first one uses markers from the Earth Elements family, direct to the watercolour paper and then blended with the aquapainter.
This is ink from the lids of the inkpads, both Earth Elements and Soft Subltes applied directly with the aquapainter.
These are the Bold Brights watercolour crayons, applied by taking the colour from the crayon with the aquapainter and applied to the paper.
As you can see, the watercolour crayons give a softer, more watercoloured look, while the markers direct to the paper give the most vibrant look, with the ink in between the two.

I hope that you find this even a little bit useful. My colouring skills aren't brilliant, but practice makes perfect, right?

Finally, the delightful Kristy Young gave me this awesome award:
How awesome is that???? Now I'm supposed to nominate 8 blogs that I think deserve this award....but you all know I hate picking just a few from the hundreds of talented ladies out there. If you want some great blogs to visit, check out the sidebar. If you think you deserve this award, just go on and take it :)

OK, gotta go set up some scheduled posts for while I'm away...only 2 sleeps til I leave and see my best friend who I haven't seen since January!!! And only 4 sleeps til I see my Mama....woohooo!!!

Have a great night (or day)
Kristie

Doubling up

When I'm short on time and inspiration I find that it's often very useful to combine a couple of challenges to come up with a quick and easy card....this is one of those times :) This card combines Jen's SFYTT for this week, as well as the Elite Colour Challenge. The colour challenge for this month is called Bali Breeze, and is based on the colours in the Bali Breeze DSP: Old Olive, Taken with Teal, Rose Red and the dreaded Pumpkin Pie....but I did it!!!!I used some of the Bali Breeze DSP, Eastern Blooms stamp set, as well as Wonderful Words. There's some Old Olive brads and the main flower image was embossed with clear embossing powder. All in all a very quick and easy card, though a little on the bright side!

OK, got tons to do today, but just a quick note to my American readers....Leslie commented on my use of the *In Colours* yesterday and I just wanted to tell you that we only get ONE SU! big catty per year and it comes out in April....so we won't get the new In Colours until next April. Also, our paper comes in a different size, A4 rather than letter, so even though it sold out in the States ours is a different size....though we still get the 12x12 the same as you guys. Hope that explains why we are still using the old In Colours over here....this is Australia and we're behind the rest of the world....LOL!!!! Personally, I'm looking forward to those new In Colours...they look awesome :)

Have a great day,
Kristie

TECC #44

Hello there! Sorry for the lack of posting yesterday. I had a marathon stamping day, preparing a whole lot of cards for scheduled posts while I'm away. They won't be everyday, but there will be 2 or 3 per week :) Mum only has DIAL UP!!!!! so I probably won't be posting from home...but I might be able to sneak in a couple of extras....maybe show you some pics of my lovely home town (the quiet and sleepy little place that DOESN'T have 1.4 million people!)

Anyway, enough of the blather...here's the card that I made for Taylor's CC #44...but no cupcakes today :)

I've used that lovely "Embrace Life" set again for this one and the matching Ginger Blossom DSP. I used the CS that co-ordinates with the paper; River Rock, Groovy Guava, Ruby Red and Cameo Coral (yes Mad I used Cameo Coral of my own volition...how about that????). Not much else to mention here, some Ruby Red brads & Groovy Guava double stitched ribbon. I stamped the big flower with Guava ink onto Guava CS and cut it out before popping it up on dimensionals on the Ruby circle (which I cut out using the Fiskars cutty thingy that I can't remember the name of). Pretty simple really. Though of course the photo doesn't really do justice to the colours...they're quite pretty really.

OK, better get back to work....I have a ton of things to do before I leave on Friday and sitting here's not getting them done. Really I need an assistant to do all the boring chores, so I can just concentrate on the important things :)

Hope you all have a lovely Monday,
Kristie

Midnight Madness #5

Paula is running another Midnight Madness challenge this week and it's an inspiration challenge.I had lots of ideas for this one, but just couldn't seem to make them come together! So after lots of fussing, stamping and discarding of bits that didn't work, this is what I came up with:
I've used one of the new sets that's in the Summer mini starting Monday, called (appropriately enough) *Embrace Life*, as well as some of the Flower Fusion felt flowers & Rose Red double stitched ribbon, both in the new mini too.

The colours are Rose Red & Taken with Teal, the branch is stamped in Chocolate Chip and the white brads came from Anna's Craft cupboard...but I don't know the manufacturer as I threw the packaging away...ooops! I've also used the large oval and designer label punches.

Thanks for the responses to yesterday's post about why we craft. It was all very thought provoking :) I've been thinking about it a bit and for me it's really pretty simple....all day long I have to think logically and intellectually and it's a nice change to use the other side of my brain and be creative. I think for many of us the creative outlet is the most important thing. We all have to be so practical in our day to day lives that it's nice to be able to *play* with arty things...in a way it's a bit like letting our inner child out. Also, from a lot of the posts I've read over the past few days talking about things that people are thankful for, one of the things that jumped out at me is that it gives us time for ourselves....quiet time to indulge in a passion, to escape from our daily responsibilities, and time to recharge through an almost meditative experience. But I shall continue to think about it....I definitely think there's more to it and it deserves some attention.

Hope you all have a fantastic weekend,
Kristie

All glittered up! (and a little philosophy)

So, Madonna got her rather large and glittery Christmas card yesterday, and now I can show it to you.
The tag reads: Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful - Norman Vincent Peale.

Supplies:
Cardstock: SU! Old Olive & Ruby Red, Bazill yellow textured CS
Other stuff: House from Creative Imaginations mini book, various buttons, LIME glitter, Dazzling Diamonds glitter, RW Laser Cuts tree, Crystal Effects, DP & tag Fancy Pants 8x8 Happy Holidays, Cosmo Cricket Mr Campy velvet ribbon, hemp twine, Ruby Red brad, Scallop circle punch, 1 1/4" circle punch, Small Star punch.

I liked how it looked....though Mad was apparently not expecting what she got :) It is a little out of the ordinary...but that's probably why I liked it so much.

Now, a warning....I'm going to get a little philosophical on you all....so feel free to continue on to something else :)
Yesterday I was reading a rather long and involved article on the social construction of gender...and it got me thinking about papercrafts (don't ask me how my brain works....it's a genuine mystery of the universe!). What got me thinking was the feminist theory that ideas about gender, that is the way we think about ourselves as masculine or feminine, are NOT reliant on our biology, but rather are social constructions...we think of ourselves as women because we are taught to. The way we dress, the way we walk & talk and interact with others is all a construct of the society in which we are raised. OK, enough of the theory...what I started thinking about (rather than my thesis) was the world of papercrafts and papercraft blogging. This is a world that is dominated by women. Very few men either participate in the activity or blog about it...though there are a few exceptions. So I started wondering why....why is it that so many women are involved in papercrafts and why don't men generally get involved? Obviously not ALL women are interested....I for one have friends that think my obsession with paper/ink/stamps/ribbon/glitter is completely incomprehensible! No, really!!! So, what is it about what we do that is so appealing to women and not to men? What is it that attracts us to these activities? Is it the 21st century equivalent of the Victorian obsession with decoupage, or my grandmother's generation's practice of embroidery? What is it about these activities that we find so compulsively appealing? I mean, it's not just stay at home mums who do this stuff....there are working women, women with degrees and women who have demanding full time careers....but we all feel the same way about what we do.

OK, enough of the philosophising....leave me a comment and let me know what you think. Why do YOU love it so much and invest so much time and money in doing it? And maybe tomorrow I might have worked out what it is that I love so much about it all :)

Have a great Friday,
Kristie

Kristina's CI #32

Wow, I can't believe it's up to number 32!!! It's pretty impressive that Kristina has been able to find so many gorgeous things to inspire us to create and this week is no different. This gorgeous Christmas display is making me wish for a beautiful tree with lots of lovely presents underneath....guess I'm just going to have to wait for that!!!I really liked this combination of colours and ended up making two cards for the challenge. The first one is, of course, a Christmas card. I didn't actually need anymore Christmas cards, so I might have to send a card to someone that I normally wouldn't....LOL! As we don't have Riding Hood Red here I went with Real Red instead, and I was mainly inspired by that gorgeous hanging ornament.
It's hard to see in the photo, but the Red BG has snowflakes stamped in Versamark, and that chunky glitter is very pretty IRL.

The next card is NOT Christmasy...but it does use one of the new stamps in the Summer mini, which I thought would look cute coloured in Red and Silver....
So there you have it. Things are still super crazy round here and I'm doing the countdown til I leave for holidays....ONE WEEK AND ONE DAY TO GO!!! Woohooo!!!!!!

Supplies:
Warmest Holiday Wishes
CS: Real Red, Brushed Silver, Whisper White & Very Vanilla
Stamps: Holiday Wishes, Very Merry
Ink: Versamark, Real Red
Other: Real Red brads, Clear Embossing powder, Silver Embossing powder, Crystal Iris chunky glitter, Tombow glue, Dimensionals

Time For You
CS: Real Red, Brushed Silver, Whisper White & Very Vanilla
Stamps: Time For You
Ink: Versamark, Memento Tuxedo Black, Silver
Other: Real Red brads, White brads, Silver Embossing powder, Real Red Ribbon, Slot punch

Hope you all have a lovely Thursday....and for my American friends, Happy Thanksgiving :)
Kristie

A Sneak Peak

It's only 5 days til the start of the new Summer Mini catalogue and since I got some lovely goodies yesterday I couldn't help but give you a sneak peak of one of the sets in the catty.This set has this lovely sentiment and three gorgeous line drawn images, perfect for colouring. So this afternoon, after my brain had just about exploded from reading Paul Ricoeur (French philosopher....tres scary!), I sat down and coloured this cute little image with my Copic markers. Isn't that puppy just adorable?
The main reason that I got this set is that the images are perfect for masculine cards....which this was meant to be...do you think it's too girly with the flower? It just needed a little something and when it comes to my Primas I just can't help myself :)

Supplies:
CS: Close to Cocoa, Chocolate Chip, Old Olive, Neenah Solar White.
Stamps: For Father
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Chocolate Chip
Other: Stampin' Pastels (the green background), Copic markers, Prima flowers, Old Olive button & Hemp twine, Cutter kit, & Double-stitched Choc Chip ribbon (also in the new mini)

Anyway, I hope to finish my little mini book tonight....though no promises....lol. I spent the evening making swap cards yesterday...so for the swap girls you'll be happy to know that they're done and ready to go as soon as I get the rest of them in. I also finished up my Secret Santa stuff....which I obviously can't show you cause it's SECRET!!!! And Madonna's fabbo sparkly Christmas card is on it's way to her house, so I can maybe show you that by the end of the week....I can't wait for you all to see it's glittery wonderfulness....pmsl!!!!

Hope you're all having a fantastic Tuesday,
Kristie

The most beautiful things

Nah, not my card....the quote stamp I used for it:
I got this stamp (by Kaiser) at a little shop up the road...you know, one of those stores that has a bit of everything. Anyway, I thought this quote was lovely and I finally inked it up to use on this card. The base is some Bazzil that came in a Lime Tart kit, along with that gorgeous Basic Grey Urban Prairie DP...I love that line of DP and I'm in the middle of making a little mini book with it :) The green lace paper is the same one from the last LT kit, the flowers are Prima, the button American Crafts and the ribbon is SU Pretty in Pink. The quote was stamped in Ruby Red on Pretty in Pink {yes Lauren I am LOVING that colour combo right now} and layered onto some lime-ish Bazzil.

Right now I'm waiting for the parcel man to deliver my pre-order from the Summer mini, so that I can stay up late tonight and get all my swap cards finished....oh yeah, I have to actually design them first!!!!

Finally, thanks for all the sympathy and suggestions re: the annoying phone junkie housemate. Part of the problem is that I have a cordless phone in my room so that SHE can't use it and wreck the battery like she did on the last one I had! SHE was supposed to get her own cordless....for the last 3 months she's been putting it off...because clearly it's more important to buy dresses that cost $100 rather than a $40 cordless phone! So, there's not really a whole lot I can do at the moment. Luckily I shall be leaving for Queensland in 2 weeks and I won't have to put up with it for a whole month! And thankfully she started a new job today, so at least during the day I'm back to some peace and quiet to work in....and speaking of which I better get back to it :)

Have a great Monday {if that's possible???},
Kristie

WSC67

After a busy day working {on a SATURDAY no less} I got some time last night to have a play with Beate's weekend sketch challenge. I don't know what it is about TV stations that think it's acceptable to put rubbish on weekend nights, but at least it gave me time to play :)

Anyway, I wanted to use the "Live Your Dream" set that I got at Regionals and that will be in the new Summer mini that starts on 1st December. This is what I came up with:
I had lots of fun making this one. I just played around with stamps and ink and sponges and punches...all the fun stuff, even the distressing tool on the cutter kit came out. I was rather happy with how it turned out, but I'm not sure what I'll do with it. Seriously, I have so many cards just sitting there that I don't know what to do with. I'm going to have to find some way of reducing the pile....start an etsy store maybe?

Now, for a whinge....what is it with people who phone up at inappropriate times? I don't mean telemarketers, though I've hung up on a few of those this week. I have a housemate who is addicted to the phone. Seriously, when she is home she is on the phone almost the whole time, she literally never shuts up! If it's not her mobile then it's the house phone. This morning one of her friends rang at 8.30am....seriously people, it's Sunday!!!!!! Then she proceeded to talk on the phone for 2 hours! And the phone is in the living room, right outside my bedroom door and all I could hear for 2 whole hours was blah, blah, blah!!!! I am so not a morning person and I was ready to go out there and rip the phone out of the wall and beat her senseless with it. Violent??? Me??? If only you knew. This is the same girl who thinks it's ok to call at 10pm at night too. I am going to have words with my housemate and some of them will not be pretty!!!!

OK, if you've made it this far then you deserve a prize :) Better just give you the supply list and go do some work, right?

Supplies:
CS: Very Vanilla, So Saffron, Old Olive
Stamps: Live Your Dream
Ink: Old Olive, So Saffron
Other Stuff: DSP from 'Fall Flowers', Die Cut Blooms, Rhinestone and Old Olive brads, Corner rounder, Scallop circle punch, Five Petal Flower punch, Sponge dauber, Old Olive wide grosgrain ribbon

Hoping you have a peaceful Sunday,
Kristie

A Daily Affirmation

This is something a bit different from my usual. I took an old frame that used to have a bunch of pictures in it and had some fun with paint. White, then purple and finally gold. Then I took to it with a sanding block. It doesn't look as cool in the picture as it does in real life though :(

The affirmation was printed out on Very Vanilla CS and I added a few embellishments. Now it's sitting above my desk where I can see it all the time.

The affirmation is from the Dalai Lama and if you can't read it in this post let me know and I can send it to you.
Just something a little different from all the Christmas cards :) I will be so glad to have those all done and into the mail next week!!!!

Not much to say today, too tired from working so hard {poor me} so that I can get everything done before I head off to sunny Queensland for a nice long holiday with my family....including getting in some baby Lara hugs and kisses...can't wait!

Hope you all have a great weekend,
Kristie

November Cyberstamp

Before I get onto today's post I just want to address a couple of comments from yesterday's Kristina CI....I know that I have been rather vocal about my dislike of Pumpkin Pie in the past and have boycotted a few of Kristina's challenges due to the fact that they contained PP. However, I decided that the frequency with which she uses this colour in her challenges means that I'm going to miss a lot of challenges if I continue to do so....therefore, I bit the bullet and just did it! I am still not enamoured of the colour, but I was actually quite happy with the way that yesterday's card turned out. Secondly, yes Leslie I did cut out all those tiny leaves and berries by hand....and the answer to your unasked question is....yes, I am completely insane :)

Last night Alisa ran another team cyberstamp and the first challenge was to use a STAR on your card or layout. This is what I came up with:Seeing as I was still in need of a couple of Christmas cards I thought this would be a good one. The chipboard star (On Board Accents) is inked up with Ruby Red and then smothered in VersaMark and Heat & stick powder....then madly glittered. The picture doesn't really do it justice, as it's very, very sparkly IRL. I've used some Ruby Red and Old Olive CS, the Gifts Galore wheel in Ruby Red ink, and Happy Everything for the sentiment, which is embossed in white embossing powder.

The second challenge was to make a Pull treat holder, but as the only chocolate at my house is half eaten I have to wait to buy another block before I can make it...maybe two blocks so I don't eat my project before it's finished :)

The third challenge was this gorgeous inspiration piece:
How yummy is that bed....makes you want to just crawl on in with a good book (and maybe some chocolate). Anyway, here's the card I made for it:
I've used Purely Pomegranate, Creamy Caramel and Choc Chip CS, Baroque Motifs stamp set embossed with white, some Cocoa ribbon (Theatre Ribbon Originals), and a couple of flowers from the Pretties kit (one coloured Choc Chip) and a Cocoa button tied with linen thread to finish it. It's kind of hard to be super creative that late at night :)

I also made a couple of other things yesterday....it's one of the most creative days I've had in ages! I made the most glittery, ginormous, amazing Christmas card....but I can't show you yet, because it's for Madonna! I might even just get it in the mail to her later today (all wrapped in bubble wrap to protect it's amazingness) so that I can show you all next week....I am so in love with it, I'm almost tempted to keep it for myself ;)

OK, better go do some more work....I SO can't wait for the holidays! My poor brain is just tired :)

Have a great Thursday,
Kristie

Kristina's CI #31

I know...nothing for two days, then two posts in one day!! I had a minute to make something for Kristina's latest Colour Inspiration Challenge so I did. This is the inspiration piece, a wreath that she made:

And here's the card I made:Supplies:
Cardstock: So Saffron, Close to Cocoa, Pumpkin Pie, Elegant Eggplant & Whisper White.
Ink: So Saffron, Close to Cocoa, Pumpkin Pie & Elegant Eggplant.
Stamps: Spring Solitude (leaves) & Oh, So Lovely (berries).
Other: Scallop & 1 1/4" circle punches, Elegant Eggplant grosgrain ribbon, American Crafts Puffy 'chit chat' Thickers.

OK, short and sweet...gotta go make more stuff :)

Kristie

For my Gran

My poor Gran is in the hospital at the moment so I made her this card last night. I used 'Bloomin' with Beauty' from the Spring mini that's about to finish at the end of the month. I watercoloured the flowers with inks from the lids, using Perfect Plum, Pale Plum, Mellow Moss & Bashful Blue, then cut it out and popped it up with Dimensionals. The base is Very Vanilla and the other CS is Bashful Blue and Pale Plum. The spiral clips are Antique Brass and tied with some Bashful Blue grosgrain....a la Jessie Rone. There's also some gorgeous Purple rhinestone brads in the corners of the Plum CS...my last 4 to be exact...see how much I love my Gran :)

ETA: Almost forgot to add that this card was based on Beate's WSC66. I had to flip the sketch to get the image in and then I didn't have room at the bottom to add a sentiment...so it had to go without!

OK, that's it for now....things are crazy around here....not helped by the fact that I decided to tidy my desk before the books and papers on it fell on top of me and killed me. So I needed somewhere to put them, which led to me moving stuff around, packing up novels to store in the garage, foolishly carrying boxes of books around, and inevitably a sore back. BTW, my desk is still not properly tidy!!!!! Anyway, I'd better go attempt some real work.

Have a great Wednesday,
Kristie

The Sweetest Things

This is the scrapbook page I finished this week. You would never think that so simple a page would have taken so long! But I love this photo of my nephew and nieces and I wanted it to be perfect....unfortunately, I had a little rub-on mishap...so don't look too closely at the bottom right corner :)

I wanted the main focus to be the photo and so I ended up keeping it pretty simple, but I'm happy with the way it turned out. All supplies for this one are SU!, except for the black brads, which came from my stash and I can't remember the manufacturer. The rub-ons are Urban West, the stars were made with the small star punch, the scallop is the Scallop circle punch, and the ric rac is from the 'Beachfront' ribbon originals.

I'm going to try and get some creating done today...I want to make just a couple more Christmas cards for the kids....I like the idea of sending them each a card, rather than just one to the whole family, so that's on my to do list for today.

Hope you're all having a nice weekend,
Kristie

More Purple Christmas Cards

As I mentioned earlier in the week, I made a couple of other purple Christmas Cards when I made the one for the challenge. This first one uses Hanna Stamps 'Tis The Season' and coloured with Copics. Lots of glitter on this one....and I love the sentiment...it's a little hard to see in this picture, but it reads "Tis the season to be pretty"! I think I'll send this one to my niece Katelin....she loves purple too and she sure is pretty!This one uses the snowflake stamps from 'Tis The Season' for the background....they were stamped with Versamark, sprinkled with Heat and Stick and then glittered up. It's really pretty IRL. The little tree is from Celebrate Everyday (SU!) and coloured with Copics. I'm really loving this colour combo of Lavender Lace and Sage Shadow....mmmm purple and green! The ribbon is white taffeta and the brads are silver.
I even got a new scrapbook page finished....I don't know why but they seem to take me hours before I'm happy with them....so I'll show you that one tomorrow.

Kristie